During the weekend, we (me, Joel, Mary, Julie, Aaron, and Rachel) went down to Los Angeles as a continuation of our supposedly yearly trip. You could say this year was a bit more crowded (with the addition of Julie and Aaron joining us) and stressful. The night before, Julie and Aaron decided to drop by a couple of hours before we were to take off. It didn't leave us enough time to get rested, and we ended up sleeping for most of the ride down to LA.
When we finally arrived at the LA convention center for Anime Expo, we didn't expect the pre-registered line to be extremely long. There were regular attendees and then there were cosplayers in the line too. Julie decided to use this time to 'get ready'. Since Julie and Aaron didn't pre-register and were too broke to buy their own tickets, we decided to do a switch-off to bring them into the dealer's room. For most of the convention, we like to stay in the dealer's room since it has a lot of cute figurines and merchandise. It does seem silly to pay $35 each just to go buy stuff.
For Joel, his enjoyment of Anime Expo was the large numbers of cosplayers. With his nice camera, he took a lot of pictures of different cosplayers. Of course, most pictures focused on Sailor Moon and her Sailor Scouts. I have mixed feelings towards cosplayers but I am still a fan of really well-made outfits. I wonder if the cosplayers ever feel tired and annoyed from posing all day.
After Anime Expo, we GPS'd our way towards our 'hotel' in Chinatown. When we checked out our rooms, we were slightly disappointed to see a very crowded room and bathroom, and hardwood floors. And since there were no carpets, it was the least bit likely for anyone to sleep on the floor. Each bed ended up with three occupants that left some of us unhappy.
After we settled in, we decided to head towards Japantown and maybe find some good food to eat for dinner. We browsed some shops and bought some snacks but we were still trying to decide on a good restaurant. In the end, we settled for a restaurant that had expensive food which most of us ended up disliking. Joel and Mary decided to go to the nearby supermarket and bought something else to eat for dinner. When everyone was done, we retreated back to our hotel room and tried to sleep through the hot summer night.
The next morning, Rachel and Mary woke up and went out to get everyone breakfast buns. After breakfast, everyone got ready and headed out to sight-see and browse the many stores in Chinatown. It was a nice day and everyone got a nice walking workout. I ended up buying a tiny bonsai tree because I forgot to buy one the last time I was there. It was a pretty fun day. The girls and I ended our tour by buying some pretty cakes from a cute cake shop. Too bad me and Mary's cakes were left behind underneath the table trash in our hotel room. It was just very disappointing since I didn't even get to taste mines!
Monday was our last day. Everyone had to wake up especially early so that we could go back to the Bay in time to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After a long drive, we arrived at our destination. I was surprised to see so many people also going to the Aquarium. I thought they would be chilling at home or maybe at work. It was even more crowded when we entered the Aquarium. There were so many kids, I just knew my patience would be tested. But overall, I had a very fun experience at the Aquarium. I especially like the seahorses and jellyfishes.
I wish I can say our trip back was fun also. However, the traffic was so bad on a winding road that it proved very stressful for our driver. We didn't get back home until nightfall. I guess everyone else was also going home from an eventful Independence weekend, hence the traffic. Even with the negative emotions, I still had fun because I made some good memories with my friends and sisters. Maybe we'll do this next year too.. or maybe not. :)
After we settled in, we decided to head towards Japantown and maybe find some good food to eat for dinner. We browsed some shops and bought some snacks but we were still trying to decide on a good restaurant. In the end, we settled for a restaurant that had expensive food which most of us ended up disliking. Joel and Mary decided to go to the nearby supermarket and bought something else to eat for dinner. When everyone was done, we retreated back to our hotel room and tried to sleep through the hot summer night.
Monday was our last day. Everyone had to wake up especially early so that we could go back to the Bay in time to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After a long drive, we arrived at our destination. I was surprised to see so many people also going to the Aquarium. I thought they would be chilling at home or maybe at work. It was even more crowded when we entered the Aquarium. There were so many kids, I just knew my patience would be tested. But overall, I had a very fun experience at the Aquarium. I especially like the seahorses and jellyfishes. 
"Tokoname has been associated with ceramics production since at least the Heian period, and Tokoname-yaki works from this period have been found from Aomori Prefecture in the north of Japan to Kagoshima prefecture in the south. By the Kamakura period, over 3000 kilns were active. During the Sengoku period, the area came under the control of the Isshiki clan, and later came under the rule of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
There are a lot of other nuances of Japanese culture that can be observed in the workplace. Like once a person gets a job, it's usually hard for the person to get fired. The company usually tries pretty hard to retain the employee. There are also downsides to Japanese companies as well, but I don't care to go much into detail about this aspect of Japanese business.
