Some things about myself:

I am seventeen years old and reside in the Netherlands, I really like Anime and the Japanese culture. Though, I’m not really an avid manga reader, only own a few but it’s not a notable amount. Not aiming to be an Otaku though, though maybe I might already be one, without me knowing it .

I’m from Chinese decent but I’m not great in Chinese, I can speak it a little but I can’t write nor read ( attending Chinese school for that ).

Fluent at Dutch whatsoever and the main reason for doing blog posts is because I want to sharpen my English and also write to a broad public with the same interests, which is Anime of course =D. In contrary with YoU ( the starter of this site ) I don’t travel a lot, but when I do I’ll be sure to give everyone a heads up.

This is my first time doing a post on a blog, ever, so bear with me. Figuring out what each and every button does, so it’ll take some time.

All with all, glad to be here and I hope to meet new friends =)

PS: I hope everything worked out fine, tried to follow the rules as carefully as I could.

Greeting to all the friends. It’s new year! Guess is snowing heavily in Ohio but I am right now at Las Vegas watching all kinds of splendid shows and fancy hotels and casinos. Guess gambling is all about picking the right machine and clicking with your lucky finger. Did the gamble the first time and won $20 with only $1. You will never know what will happen when you had put $100 into that machine and that’s why I don’t like gambling a lot.

Back to the topic. TheAkiba has been running smoothly for about 15 months since late September last year and thanks for all the folks supporting my work and keep on visiting the site. Changed from several hosting, from Bluehost to Lunarpages and finally came to WPWebHost and guess this time it will be a little bit longer. Opened, closed, reopened and reclosed of the gallery, the traffic boosted from 100 to 1500 daily during the past 15 months and back to around 500 recently. Guess I was just lazy.

TheAkiba is still mainly focusing on personal preference and may not satisfy all the visitors in this case. Planning to set up a community around the site and will sure to make any improvement possible.

Once again, happy new year! Hope we can do better in the new year!

Pic by Takuya Fujima (藤真拓哉, Circle: ESSENTIA).

Best event the week, of course, Halloween! The first time I enjoy the holiday in U.S., and also the first time that I saw so many “people” poking around the streets. It was a cold night yet some people running naked or half-naked on the streets. Surprised by the passion of the American people.

It was a nice night. Will have a chance to see the Leonid meteor shower this month around 17th. Don’t miss it!

It’s a special week. We went to Chicago and stayed there for a week. Transportation in United States are mainly cars, and almost everybody has a car. But we don’t and that’s why we took the Megabus and spent six hours to go to Chicago. It was the coldest day of the week when we got off the bus. The sky was covered with black shadow and the wind was strong. But the following day was good, the weather is great for traveling.

The famous spot for Chicago, The Millennium Park. The huge face on the left are animated.

The river is green and clean, quite the opposite in my country. Most cities in U.S., as far as I concern, are quite clean and lots of natural environments are reserved. Quite a nice trip on the first day but we had to spent the next few days to visit all kinds of firms which I didn’t interested in. And what’s more, I will need to upgrade my skill on photographing.

Really a nice week. Apart from taking two exams, everything is fine. The more I took the courses, the more that I found I am not good at it. Let’s just leave the sorrow part alone and come to the better part of life. Some friends and I were invited by a nice host and spent a great afternoon in her house, taking photos all around some beautiful places. Fall (winter?) is coming, the mountain is covered with yellow leaves and green water. Too much a strike to me who have never been to such a beautiful place. Though partly due to the less pollution in United States, the landscape is incredibly a beauty.

Will leave for Chicago today and spend the next week there. Will sure to have a good time.

Cannot believe I have already been in the United States for 10 weeks. Still remember the first day I arrived at the airport waiting for two hours for friends to pick me up to the campus. Really a nice experience and sometimes cannot help look back to the past and to escape from the present Guess I am doing terrible on my courses and kind of frustrated. Will work harder, or simply I am good at it. Will have to figure out what I am good at and try not waste time.

Got my new lens for a few days and have tried several shots. Still not very good at it but find it interesting to adjust the perimeters and make better effect. Work!

Great news. I finally got my Canon 500D. The first time I have my own SLR, kind feeling like trembling when shooting photos. Kind of traditional Chinese food that my friends cooked during the birthday of one of them. Pretty good meal indeed, probably the best since I have been to the U.S. My head hurts from time to time and I just don’t know why. Seeing pictures flow by my head and feeling pretty much disgust and will take a while to recover. But whatsoever, I will keep up the good work on the picture thing and become more professional on taking photos. At least won’t tremble a lot.

Another thing to mention is the traditional Chinese festival named Mid-Autumn Day which was held on Saturday last week. Lots of Chinese students around the area came, as well as people from different countries. The first time attending a festival in foreign country is a kind of good experience to me, as well as other students.

Last but not least, take care of yourselves, that’s the most important thing.

What is this. Learning, studying and working! Kind of like the schedule of my life right now. But admittedly I am a lazy lad and these words seem have nothing to do with me. But actually I was learning, but not that hard, while writing what it supposed to have finished last week (this article). I have received my Canon 500D DSLR this week and was amazed by the performance on the LCD of the camera, but not with my Mac’s screen. Even with the image stabilizer, the images seem trembling all the way. Guess I need practices, as well as my study. Will show more about the SLR in the next post of the series. Cheers.

Seventh week in US, feeling quite normal and tired. Autumn is coming, kinda hoping that the freezing winter coming. Not only because of the October Anime release, but I have never seen the snow before, never been to a place that goes under 0 degree. God, I think I am mad Pretty looking forward to get my SLR, can’t wait.

And about the pic. I bought it not because I want to taste it, but because it reminded me of one of my favorite Anime Kara no Kyoukai where Shiki eats it in the first episode of the movie.

Classes, classes and classes. Really tired of all these, especially mathematics which I learned four years ago and have forgotten ever since then. I have to revisit them all again. Kinda feeling like I’m falling way behind the courses. Other things to mention, I mean, really, October is coming, as well as the new season of Anime. Would really want to pick some of them to watch if I have time. The site will keep updating but less frequently. Try to keep up the work as time goes and as my making progress on my courses. Good luck to all of you, no matter what position you are in or what difficulties you are facing.

Last but not the least, a very nice site for recommendation. 5 by Five, a simple site for you to find album covers for you itunes albums! Have ordered my Canon 500D, cannot wait to get it!

Pic taken at Beachwood, Cleverland.