DAY SIX: ULTRAMANLAND REDUX (KUMAMOTO > FUKUOKA)
State of mind: nostalgic
Current soundtrack: 4-5 stars - Ouran High Host Club - Itsumo Soba ni (Kirii Daisuke)
Five minutes after this picture was taken, Mebius did something that took my breath right away. But first...
Went for breakfast (wtf, nabemono for breakfast? Nowai.) and set off for UMLand once more. Dad had a golf appointment with his old uni mate Hajime, so I was free as a bird! I girded my loins for battle set off for UMLand, singing ‘Radiance’ loudly for much of the way. This time, I actually made it to the East Gate proper. Boy, was it worthwhile. Lookit the ROAD!
I bought my ticket (aaaand another GUYS pin) and was just in time to take pictures with Gaia: the first session of the day! It was great that the guy bothered to put his arm round my shoulder (yeee!) but…you can sort of tell I’m going to fall over, right? *didn’t know where to put big Malaysian feet*
The day proceeded much like the preceding one, except that I, er, documented the place a bit more, and there were a few other events of note:
I ate Ultraman. Ultra-man, rather.
I specifically aimed to come in winter so I could try these: Ultra-man, or Ultra pau! Too bad that yesterday, they hadn’t any! The staff lady promised to make some today, so y’all can guess what I had for lunch. :)
Ultraman: Everybody’s Ally! Too bad the first character in ‘ally’ is the same as ‘taste’. This makes for groanworthy puns.
Ultraman all the way down, it is—and then you tear it open.
Gaaaaah. So meh. Mind you, I’m used to char siew pau, and char siew pau this was most definitely NOT. There were mushrooms and…turnip?...and mystery meat (probably pork), so it was edible but not the most enjoyable of foods.
But come on, admit it. How COOL is it to admit that you’ve eaten an Ultra-man? BNF N (from yesterday) told me that she once went up to the counter and asked for ‘Urutora-man wo kudasai’ (Please give me Ultra-man). The girl’s surprise was, apparently, very evident. Pfuh. If the real Ultraman was that cheap, damn, I’d buy one and take him home! Heck, I’d buy several! ;)
Apparently the counter girl thought I was from China. Nope, sorry miss, three generations too late.
Shihan and Sensei—I mean Dyna and ‘Man showed up.
So I’m eating my average Ultraman with orange juice when, suddenly, from the main building, I hear a very familiar battle cry. Packing the pau with a paucity of pauses, I pattered promptly podiumwards, proceeding to powerfully...nearly spit my lunch out. Dyna and the original Ultraman!!! Together! Apparently this meet-and-greet or fureai time wasn’t on the list. For an Ultra Ninja Manual fan, this was near-brilliance. A pic op followed, so I grabbed my travel log and a big black marker, scribbled down something and went for piccies.
This proves two things; One, my insanity to all and sundry, and two, it really IS possible to resemble the ‘:3’ emoticon. The text, naturally, is a UNM reference.
And then I got them to sign one of the cards I got yesterday, so I had a lovely UNM assembly: Dyna-shihan, Gaia-kyoushu and Man-sensei!
Cosmos stageshow: Kimi wo Omou Chikara
Oh God. Oh, GODS. Best. Sodding. Moe. Show. Ever. How good? Fanfic-inspiring good. It did NOT help that I saw this so close to leaving UMLand, at the end of yet another tumultuous year.
I must have missed the memo that post-Cosmos, Justice and Chaos Header (CHAOS HEADER?! HED-DAH? Okaaay…) were now under Derashion fighting for ‘absolute justice’ (zettai seigi). Derashion? Hon? Take that gods-damned [white noise] ‘absolute justice’ and STUFF IT. It doesn’t exist, not in my mindset. Your justice is not tempered in the slightest by compassion or mercy. What good is your justice when it slays the pure with the wicked? What good is it when it pits Cosmos against Justice and Chaos Header, AGAIN?! I ask you, what good comes of killing Cosmos, AND Justice AND Header? WHAT GOOD WHEN YOU DARN NEAR KILL THE MC LADY? EEEEEEEEEEHHHHHH?!?
*cough* Sorry. Getting ahead of myself. I’m better now.
So yes, Derashion wishes to hammer Earth because it is STILL being stupid and selfish and martial. This is underlined by the MC’s encounter with a disillusioned Hook Seijin (I think) who is reading the papers and getting ready to quit the Earth. (The MC didn’t know the name of the current US Pres, by the way. Despite someone yelling ‘George W. Bush! GEORGE DABLYU BUSH!’ from the back. Heh.) Justice and Header (in the form of Chaos UM Calamity) encounter a blissfully unaware Cosmos, and give the poor man an earful. Two earfuls. “What have you been doing? We left the Earth in your hands!” A battle ensues (horribly brutal, yet damn good). Cosmos still does not want to hurt his friends, despite getting turned into pizza by the other two, and he fires Justice this verbal salvo:
“But (if you wish to destroy me)…Why is there no weight to your fists?”
This was Justice's cue to break down and grab Cosmos about the shoulders. “Of course!” he replies. “How can I fight my friend?” (This was M.Y.’s cue to take pictures and preserve the moment, muahaha.) Chaos echoes this sentiment. AW CRAP WHY ARE YOU TWO SO ADORABLE I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE Y'ALL THAT MUCH!
Decidedly cheesed off, Derashion sends the robotic resetter Gloaker Pawn to kick everybody’s tushies. Having been kicked up and down the stage—errrr, streets, Cosmos is no match for the metal lunk and literally dies on his feet. Justice and Header plead for his life like crazy mad. DO WANT. Gloaker knocks them both off, and…'Justice’ MAY have missed a position cue, because he falls and gets stabbed—in the BUTT (Yes, an Ultra was just kancho-ed to death. Hurrah.). The robot then pushes Cosmos over, but the MC blocks his fall (eee!) and stands in front of him, against the advancing chunk of junk. (EEEE!)
Right at the end everyone revives, and Derashion is persuaded to give this stupid blue planet one more chance, and there is a very Gary-Sueish ending…although I would have preferred much more audience participation. I mean, screw this Derashion, if you’re going to kill me I demand a chance to speak! I believe in the general good of man; that is the hope you left us with 4 years ago. (5 years, at actual time of completion of this post...)
Speaking of Justice? His, er, her, er, hir voice is surprisingly feminine. It could be construed as androgynous, but it strikes me as deaaaad feminine.
And here’s the thing. I sort of like Cosmos. Not the show, which was kinda meh, and not even the movies, which Filem Karya Nusa has ruined for me FOREVER (“MusHashi! MusHashi!”). Just the music, because Project DMM was still a novelty then, and Cosmos as a character. And as you can see, I was full of adoration and squee. I think (no, I’m pretty sure) I clocked him on the jaw when I hugged him. (._.;;;;) Yes, I hugged him, finally continuing the tradition from the FIRST time. *cough*
Between squeeing and glomping and pau-eating, I made one trip to the Ultra de Restaurant but just had a Dyna Calpis, I mean a soda. Wasn't half bad. Got to chill out and watch people go buy, finish logging some things and listen to lots of Ultra music in general.
I also made several trips to the UM M78 World shop, performing reconnaissance and finally completing as much of my Ultra shopping list as I could (yet somehow completely forgetting to buy that lovely costume mask…*headthwack*). How beautiful, that so much Ultra can be squashed into that amount of space. From clothes to DVDs to squishies to postcards to figures (of course), if you can conceive it it's likely to be here. Ironic, then, that I couldn't find the Hikari Saga DVD TT_TT. I even managed to impress(?) two junior high-schoolers with my 1337 1337 sk33l5. (Yes, boy, I KNOW ALL THE ULTRA NAMES BOOHAHAHA. Run scared nao kthx.)
One also got to meet Seven (who signed the travel log), Leo, and Agul. Yes, Agul again. Not only does he seem to be a frequent 'attraction', he’s also sod-damnedly friendly. I saw him giving a little girl a ride on his shoulder! AGULLLL! Has romance cooked your brains? What would Reiko say, heck, what would Gamu and Gaia say?! XD
The final Ultra of the day was Mebius Burning Brave (…appropriately enough…). Filled with equal parts reluctance to leave, courage from N’s Agul display yesterday and female hormones from the Cosmos show, I glomped him as hard as I dared. And as I stepped away, the man very cheerfully patted me on the head.
…Ohsnapz. Mebius patted me on the head.
MEBIUS.
MEBIUS THE ULTRAPUPPY *PATTED ME ON THE HEAD*.
Gentle reader, I damn nearly cried. ありがとう、メビウス。ほんの少しの勇気付けてくれて、ありがとう。
With much reluctance, I finalized all my purchases, talked to a few staff members (oh N~I know your given na~me no~w ;)), and set back off to the hotel. If anyone tells you they heard an anguished string of Japanese being yelled at a certain building in Arao on Boxing Day evening, um…they’re lying?
The rest of the travel log for that day was filled with wobbly, wooby Ultra observations one’s readers might do better without here. Except for this one, because it's important in a fangirlical fashion:
Hajime: We'd like to go here...
Taxi driver: Aw, that place? It's all price and no taste. How about I take you to Nagahama instead?
…Brilliant. Mild-mannered taxi driver is actually RAMENMAN. ;) But his suggestion paid off, as we ended up in a little street store/yatai, sheltered from the elements with plastic sheets. Inside its tiny but cosy exterior, the good stuff. The smell of the soup was GLORIOUS (...meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat), and it was thick to the point of whiteness. We ended with a little bit of sushi at a different place (…is squid even SUPPOSED to go *squish squish squish* like that?!) but sad to say, I sort of prefer Sushi Zanmai’s. (M.Y. is a noob. She knows.)
Packed again and bumbled around and generally got on each other’s nerves before finally bedding down. Tomorrow we were going home, but I feared my heart would stay behind.
Current soundtrack: 4-5 stars - Ouran High Host Club - Itsumo Soba ni (Kirii Daisuke)
I ate Ultraman. Ultra-man, rather.
I specifically aimed to come in winter so I could try these: Ultra-man, or Ultra pau! Too bad that yesterday, they hadn’t any! The staff lady promised to make some today, so y’all can guess what I had for lunch. :)
But come on, admit it. How COOL is it to admit that you’ve eaten an Ultra-man? BNF N (from yesterday) told me that she once went up to the counter and asked for ‘Urutora-man wo kudasai’ (Please give me Ultra-man). The girl’s surprise was, apparently, very evident. Pfuh. If the real Ultraman was that cheap, damn, I’d buy one and take him home! Heck, I’d buy several! ;)
Apparently the counter girl thought I was from China. Nope, sorry miss, three generations too late.
Shihan and Sensei—I mean Dyna and ‘Man showed up.
So I’m eating my average Ultraman with orange juice when, suddenly, from the main building, I hear a very familiar battle cry. Packing the pau with a paucity of pauses, I pattered promptly podiumwards, proceeding to powerfully...nearly spit my lunch out. Dyna and the original Ultraman!!! Together! Apparently this meet-and-greet or fureai time wasn’t on the list. For an Ultra Ninja Manual fan, this was near-brilliance. A pic op followed, so I grabbed my travel log and a big black marker, scribbled down something and went for piccies.
Cosmos stageshow: Kimi wo Omou Chikara
Oh God. Oh, GODS. Best. Sodding. Moe. Show. Ever. How good? Fanfic-inspiring good. It did NOT help that I saw this so close to leaving UMLand, at the end of yet another tumultuous year.
*cough* Sorry. Getting ahead of myself. I’m better now.
“But (if you wish to destroy me)…Why is there no weight to your fists?”
Right at the end everyone revives, and Derashion is persuaded to give this stupid blue planet one more chance, and there is a very Gary-Sueish ending…although I would have preferred much more audience participation. I mean, screw this Derashion, if you’re going to kill me I demand a chance to speak! I believe in the general good of man; that is the hope you left us with 4 years ago. (5 years, at actual time of completion of this post...)
Speaking of Justice? His, er, her, er, hir voice is surprisingly feminine. It could be construed as androgynous, but it strikes me as deaaaad feminine.
…Ohsnapz. Mebius patted me on the head.
MEBIUS.
MEBIUS THE ULTRAPUPPY *PATTED ME ON THE HEAD*.
Gentle reader, I damn nearly cried. ありがとう、メビウス。ほんの少しの勇気付けてくれて、ありがとう。
With much reluctance, I finalized all my purchases, talked to a few staff members (oh N~I know your given na~me no~w ;)), and set back off to the hotel. If anyone tells you they heard an anguished string of Japanese being yelled at a certain building in Arao on Boxing Day evening, um…they’re lying?
The rest of the travel log for that day was filled with wobbly, wooby Ultra observations one’s readers might do better without here. Except for this one, because it's important in a fangirlical fashion:
Got back to the lobby to find that Dad and Hajime had finished up early. Whoops. Sorry fellas! Took a train to Hakata, and then a taxi to the hotel, which had such lovely soft beds! We all wanted to go eat some Geniune Kumamoto Ramen, so Hajime said ‘oh let’s try this place’ and we flagged down a taxi. The driver, however, didn’t seem to approve.It's probably different for the girls. Ask the boys what UM is to them. You get "Strength." "Beams." "Hissatsu waza/Surekill techniques." "Nutrition" (I don't get that one either.) Or the older ones might be too embarassed to answer. Now ask the girls what UM is to them and they say, "Protection." "Mercy." "Sense of justice." "Someone cherished." When it comes down to it, I think girls even cheer louder than the boys for their heroes.
I have a T-shirt with Ultra Mother looking out over the sea and some Engrish pondering her motives. I think I know. Koyumi is waiting for Ikio's return...the girls, fragile and tenuous, hold out for their heroes.
Hajime: We'd like to go here...
Taxi driver: Aw, that place? It's all price and no taste. How about I take you to Nagahama instead?
…Brilliant. Mild-mannered taxi driver is actually RAMENMAN. ;) But his suggestion paid off, as we ended up in a little street store/yatai, sheltered from the elements with plastic sheets. Inside its tiny but cosy exterior, the good stuff. The smell of the soup was GLORIOUS (...meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat), and it was thick to the point of whiteness. We ended with a little bit of sushi at a different place (…is squid even SUPPOSED to go *squish squish squish* like that?!) but sad to say, I sort of prefer Sushi Zanmai’s. (M.Y. is a noob. She knows.)
Packed again and bumbled around and generally got on each other’s nerves before finally bedding down. Tomorrow we were going home, but I feared my heart would stay behind.
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