Author Archive for Sleet

Sake Factory Tour

Published on August 14, 2010 in Out & About. By Sleet

Did you know that Australia has a sake brewery? And did you know that its located in Penrith? And did you also know that they offer guided tours around the factory? Well we did. And we decided to take that tour.

Penriff Station

Go Shu Sake Factory

So you probably knew that sake is made using rice, right? (Hence why its sometimes called rice wine.) Well did you know that they use polished rice in sake? Rice has several layers to it, and the most purest sake is made from the core of the rice. To get to that core, the rice undergoes a polishing process that strips away layer upon layer of each rice grain. The remaining rice is used to make sake, whilst the debris created during polishing is used for skin care products (as they are rich in vitamins).

Special sake making machines

They had tons of rice! Literally!

The Go-Shu Sake Brewery is only a few decades old, which is relatively young compared to the sake factories of Japan, some of which are centuries old. But being the only local sake brewery in Australia, their products are sold in over 100 Japanese restaurants and establishments throughout Sydney alone.

Listening attentively.

Lots of sake in those silos.

The Go-Shu Brewery is also very environmentally friendly. Most of their waste products are either turned into skin care products, used to water the plum trees outside or driven down the road to feed cows. Apparently alcohol and sake helps build appetite, so those are some hungry hungry cows.

Bottling machine.

If you’d like to learn more about sake and the sake brewery process, or just looking for an interesting day out, we highly suggest taking the tour. Otherwise, they have a visitor center where you can buy sake and skin care products for cheap! And why wouldn’t you? Sake is good for the skin, good for the appetite and best served with good company!

Sake!

For more info, check out their website.

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6 Things About SMASH!

Published on August 10, 2010 in Out & About. By Sleet

Long lines are long.

1. More than 2500 people like anime and want to go to a convention it seems. Unfortunately, Town Hall doesn’t let you have more than that, so lots of people ended up getting turned away at the door. Pretty bad oversight and there were alot of angry and disappointed people who couldn’t get in. Inside the convention there were still problems, particularly during the cosplay comp, where the main hall ended up reaching  capacity and you couldn’t enter unless you were either a) In cosplay or b) a Vendor. Not really a problem for us, but people were getting very annoyed.

With that said, Town Hall was much more welcoming than it has been in the past. Air conditioning was a god-send for the whole venue which is a change from the one huge fan that was used in the olden day. Despite that though, I’m kind of glad we’re moving away from Town Hall and going onto somewhere else.

2. 15 years on, Evangelion is still popular. Who would’ve thought? SMASH’s international guests were pretty awesome this year and probably the highlight of the convention. Everyone seemed to love Yuko Miyamura, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Tiffany Grant and Matt Greenfield. I watched Evangelion in dub as a child, and for me, that’s the best way to watch it. It’ll be interesting to see if SMASH can better their guest list next year.

Bad signs are bad.

3. Wtf is up with the Free <insert action here> stuff? Geez. I thought that went out years ago.

4. The Maid Cafe was weird. Sausage rolls and pies? Not exactly the stuff I’d expect from a Maid Cafe. And there was also a lack of food/drinks vendors with massive lines. That was largely due to Town Hall’s restrictions, which is probably even better reason to leave that place behind.

5. If you weren’t interested in the cosplay or you weren’t an artist, you could get bored real quick. You could do your shopping and see everything you needed to see within an hour or two. There wasn’t anything I’d consider new to SMASH this year, and if you’ve been to as many conventions as we have, that’s a bad thing. Even pictochat sucked.

Bros just sittin' around.

6. But hey, at least the club stall looked nice.

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SMASH! Survival Guide Pt. 1

Published on July 26, 2010 in Features. By Sleet

(Or how to have a smashing time at SMASH!)

Its that time of year again. We’re in convention season and coming up quickly is SMASH!, which is less than two weeks away. SMASH! has always been our favourite convention and this year it looks to be just as good, especially with the sleuth of Evangelion guests. This year SMASH! has changed venue for the first time, leaving the round Roundhouse and migrating to the halls of Town Hall, giving it a bigger venue at a convenient location in the city (it was always a pain to go to the Roundhouse). Having been to many, many conventions in the past, we decided to offer our advice on how to make the most of this year’s SMASH!:

  • Dress appropriately

Tight pants are bad.

Its winter and it can get a tad chilly in the city, particularly in the morning or if there’s a bit of a breeze. So if you’re going to be waking up and braving the lines at the start of the convention, be sure to dress to keep warm. With that said, conventions at Town Hall have a habit of getting real hot and stuffy real quick (and that’s not the good kind of hot and stuffy). Its also a good idea to wear your comfy shoes rather than your fancy shoes, because you’ll be walking around and standing much of the day.

If you’re a cosplayer, it might be an idea to bring another set of normal clothes to change into, especially if your costume is a bit revealing or a uncomfortable. We suggest you bring loose clothing too. And also so you don’t look like weird walking around the city.

  • Plan Ahead

Town Hall in all its glory.

Town Hall can be a bit of a maze to those who haven’t been before, so its best to take a look at the map before hand. Similarly, time tends to warp and distort while in a convention, so it pays to know when the panels/events you want to go to are on. The map and the schedule are now both available at the SMASH! website, so you’ll have no excuse for not knowing that the Shoujo/BL Panel is in the Panel Room (which is out back on the main floor) at 4pm…not that I’m planning on going to that…

  • Expect lines and crowds

The lines.

The crowds.

Expect them.

  • There will be Yaoi

Just don’t expect it to be between guys.

Yaoi without guys is...wha?

  • Take a break

Seats are always nice.

In the hustle and bustle of a convention, with all the running down hallways, avoiding screaming fangirls and fighting back the hordes to get to a stall to buy that kawaii or moe figurine, you can sometimes forget to slow down for a little and take it all in. So when you have a few minutes to spare, grab a seat, take a look at what stuff you’ve bought or the pictures you taken or just take in that wonderful atmosphere of a convention.

  • Visit the Anime Clubs!

We're friendly!

We do like it when people say hi. We’re not all bad people. Really.

We also get bored.

When the convention starts to die down (like during cosplay comp or toward the end of the day), the anime clubs are always around chatting away. And sometimes we get really bored. And that’s when the weird stuff happens. Really weird stuff, even for an anime convention.

Check back later for the next installment!

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Naruto #500

Published on July 10, 2010 in Opinion. By Sleet

Naruto’s upto its 500th chapter. Geez…that’s a long time. So before I get all nostalgic about Naruto and how far its come in the last 10 or so years, I’d like to take a look at chapter 500 and why it was good.

This chapter, like the last few previous to it, is set within Naruto’s inner self. For some reason, Naruto’s inner self is just a blank white area, which isn’t very visually appealing. Similarly, the chapter is very discourse heavy and unfortunately doesn’t give the art enough room to really show off. This means that the art is very dependent on Kishimoto’s composition of frames and he does this by focusing on Naruto and Kushina’s faces.

I particularly like the way he draws Kushina’s face, showing a range of emotion throughout this chapter. He makes you care about a character that’s only been around for 3 chapters and you get a real sense of her personality in this chapter.

But why is Naruto good again? Because its getting back to characters we care about. The characters of Naruto have always been its strength. Over the last few arcs, the series has introduced too many new characters and ignoring the plethora of characters that we grew to love pre-time skip. Even though we’ve know very little about Kushina and Minato, they’re so ingrained into what Naruto is and it just works. And now Kishimoto’s taking it back to the start, back to the Nine-Tails and hopefully answering more questions than he raises.

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Music Monday

Published on June 21, 2010 in Features. By Sleet

Today’s Music Monday is a two-for-one!

Initial D is one of the best shounen manga/anime that has ever been created, and I strongly suggest that everyone go watch it. Even if you don’t understand cars, its still enjoyable. It has all the elements of a good shounen anime: interesting characters, epic battles and a predictable storyline. Not watching Initial D is depriving yourself of one of the best series out there.

One of the reasons the series was memorable is because of its soundtrack. The OPs and EDs were largely done by Move, a Japanese rap/dance band and the in show background music was formed by a bunch of Eurobeat songs. Listening and trying to understand the lyrics tends to get you nowhere, but there’s something about the heavy use of synths that gets you going. The two songs we have here were chosen by both yappa and me. The first one, Running in the 90s, was from Initial D First Stage and is one of my favourite Eurobeat songs ever, especially with that intro. The second one is Forever Young, chosen by yappa, its played during what is probably the greatest moment in an anime battle ever. EVER.

But the problem with Initial D has always been its distribution and release schedule. Or rather, its lack thereof. As far as I know, Initial D DVDs aren’t being sold in Australia anymore. On top of that, there was the whole controversy over the Tricked Out version, which makes it alot more boy racer. Similarly, there’s no word of if we’re getting a 5th Stage anime, which makes everyone sad. :(

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