Made in Asia 3
Visited the third edition of Made in Asia which took place this weekend and focuses mainly on Japanese anime, manga and culture.
The Brussels Expo was a good venue, everything was neatly organized into different sections. The section nicknamed ‘Shinjuku’ was comprised of various shops, ‘Ikebukuro’ had clubs and artists, ‘Akihabara’ housed everything related to games while ‘Harajuku’ featured Asian fashion and accessories shops.
Had to snap a photo of these two cute girls cosplaying Vocaloid’s Hatsune Miku and Shizuma from “Strawberry Panic”.
The center of the convention floor, dubbed the ‘Japanese village’, featured a large stage where we saw a taiko demonstration. On a nearby tatami different clubs showcased their martial art, such as aikido or kendo.
Surrounding the stage were booths for other traditional Japanese cultural activities such as flower arrangement, calligraphy, go, shogi, bonsai and many more.
Would recommend for the next edition they expand the room in front of the stage and near the tatami as it was far too packed with onlookers once the various demonstrations started.
It was quite an interesting event to visit as it combines several interesting aspects of Japanese culture and is not like the FACTS convention where you can mainly see shops that sell a few anime goods.
A theater section projected several movies during the weekend such as the “Evangelion 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance” and “Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa”.
There were several interesting shops, including Archonia or Manga Café but ultimately decided against making any purchases as would rather invest in some original Japanese manga instead of translated volumes for Japanese reading practice.
Archonia’s display of manga, DVD and figures was rather limited to what their vast online store offers by comparison. Dybex was there with many titles like “Samurai Champloo” and “Fullmetal Alchemist” on DVD, didn’t spot any BluRay though and their release of “Highschool of the Dead” wasn’t out yet.
Having recently splurged on Dollfie goods, did deplete my current hobby funds so am relieved I didn’t spend much.
Although the official site had advertised a Pullip Shop and other Asian bjd activities, only spotted one stand from a bjd fanclub which had a few dolls with them but no Dollfie Dream. As such, didn’t regret having decided not to bring along Yoko or Shizuko.
Didn’t take many photos as it got rather crowded and lighting wasn’t really terrific. Nonetheless, couldn’t pass up taking a quick shot of this girl cosplaying as Yoshika from “Strike Witches”.
Sure, the weapon may be incorrect and her Striker unit a bit quirky but the sole fact it’s a “Strike Witches” cosplay scores in my book!
After the visiting the Made In Asia event we headed over to ramen restaurant Nanaban to enjoy some delicious traditional Japanese ramen. おいしい~
Tail :3