Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Sashimi at Shibucho in Orange County is an amazing ride. Take a look at the quality. First off it’s far. Costa Mesa from LA isn’t a laughing matter to eat dinner. The spot isn’t in the most remarkable place. It’s next to a cell phone shop that’s open late, and a liquor store. But what they serve is top notch. I’m not going to say, this place is better than that, but this one ranks high. The difference regardless? It’s cheaper. The red in the upper left corner is Sujiko. It’s Ikura (fish egg still in the membrane sac) and soaked in soy sauce. Nikogori is fish jelly! Totally good and a tiny snack. Shiokara is a salty squid. Uni Kasu Zuke Kazunoko Kombu! The few things listed above, are what you may get when you have a good relationship with the chefs. They start bringing out their home brew. It helps to drink a ton, because if you’re drinking a soda, they won’t bring this stuff out. It’s reserved for sake drinkers since these small snacks exists to taste with sake. Ayako F. samples a sake. Abalone Geso sushi. How often do you even see this? Shibucho is no nonsense. If you look confused, the main chef will say, “No California Roll, no spicy tuna roll. This is sushi.” It may seem condescending and plenty of people write bad reviews on the place, and it’s not because of the quality, it’s because there’s no “Avocado covered rainbow, mixed with shrimp tempura upside down with Sushi paper roll”. It’s serious and how you might find sushi in Japan. Tamago sushi – notice the rice, barely under this brick of egg?
Continue reading
Aki Goodsmile takes aim. Definitely militia. The glasses is definitely a giveaway that he’s hiding something grim. Glasses in the day, militia at night. Below is Black Rock Shooter Huke who’s definitely dangerous. When it came time to shoot the assault weapon, he started laughing like a mad man. In Japan, it’s only co2 cartridges so shooting something real is the way to go. You’ll be seeing Huke art on the cover of Giant Robot 64. It’s a little different than what you may expect, but that’s what we wanted to do. Estevan Oriol is a nice practical guy. He doesn’t look like it, but I swear he is. Yeah I botched the focus on the shot below, but it’s ok. He shot at the target point blank with an elephant gun type of thing and it made a huge rip. That’s how dumb we all look. Estevan is the only one to worry about.
Continue reading
Exhibition “Gadget OK! Artworks and Gadgets from Japan” includes the whole series of gadgets by Maywa Denki, including YUREX that visitors can try. A wide variety of latest Japanese gadgets are also shown. The exhibition is until Feb. 24 on the ground floor of Broad Art Center, UCLA. This link has plenty of other photos of near objects. But get there, it’s ending soon! Exhibition “D|MA2 – Device | Machine Arts X Design | Media Arts” features works by young UCLA artists in “Device Art” style. The exhibition is a part of Gadget OK! and is open until March 4, at CNSI (California Nano Science Institute), UCLA.
Continue reading
Tosa Novmichi From Maywa Denki demo’s his Otamatone. It was fun and exciting to see the creator of this toy instrument give a fun demo to the folks at GR2. We’ve been carrying the other products like Knockman, Coron, and the rest of their products practically since we opened and then here he was in the flesh rockin’ out. I took him to drink beer and eat a burger afterwards. I’ll see him in Japan probably soon.
Continue reading
I didn’t get to know the Crepe Nazi too well, but his shop on Sawtelle is tiny and recently, it closed down. He’s a character, and known to be harsh, not care about customers, but for some reason, people loved the crepes. These are just some of the signs from his shop. Imagine the guy behind these signs. Ok, I won’t! I guess that’s me. Now we cater!? Only if they bring these signs!
Continue reading