The Introductions Thread

[Evan]

Hello everyone! Here it is, the oh-so-thrilling "introductions" thread! I guess I'll go first:

Name: Evan
Current City: Los Angeles, where the weather is generally nice
Originally from: Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the weather is generally deadly
Hobbies: Cooking, Traveling, cycling, reading manga, Karaoke, acting silly... leading tours XD
Favorite Anime or Manga: Urusei Yatsura, Planetes
Coffee or Tea?: COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE
Part of the tour you are looking forward to most: Meeting everyone who's coming along! ^-^

This will be my first time leading a PJT tour, and I'm really looking forward to it. See you all in Japan!

[Xaosblade]

Name: Mike
Current City: Rockaway, NJ (northern NJ sort of near NYC)
Originally from: Albany, NY(ish)
Hobbies: Photography, computers, anime and manga, gaming, and I dabble in a whole lot of other things.
Favorite Anime or Manga: Hellsing, Yotsuba&, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and any of a lot of other options depending on my mood.
Coffee or Tea?: Tea, but only if I can get good tea, if not, coffee.
Part of the tour you are looking forward to most: Seeing the sights, and the Ghibli Museum.

[prinnydood]

My name Is Ryan and my wife Erissa and I are going on the TAF tour!

We have used PopJapanTravel before on the Winter 2004 tour and are very happy to be back!

We can't wait to meet you all and have been waiting to go to Japan again since last Oct. when we signed up for the Cold Steel tour. We were sad it fell through but this tour looks like it will be even better and it cost less too.

We are from Colorado Springs, CO and Erissa is trying to open her own anime store as Colorado Springs does not have one at all. We do not have a storefront yet but you can visit the website at http://rainydayanime.com.

Originally from: I'm originally from Texas but Erissa has been in Colorado Springs for practically her whole life but she was born in Iowa
Hobbies: We like anime and manga of course, we also love video games, movies, board games, roleplaying and Erissa is a big crafter.
Favorite Anime or Manga: Lain, Monster, Death Note, anything Ghibli, and way too many more to list
Coffee or Tea?: neither, we enjoy getting our caffeine from soda especially real sugar soda like Mountain Dew Throwbacks
Part of the tour you are looking forward to most: Everything, even the stuff we got to do last time!

[Zalagar]

Hello

Name: Chris
Current City: Colorado Springs CO It apears Colorado is invading Japan
Originally from: Denver CO
Hobbies: Anime, Games and grneral troublemaking
Favorite Anime or Manga: Kinda depends on my mood but like most anything
Coffee or Tea?: niether but good tea is ok sometimes
Part of the tour you are looking forward to most: I don't know too much good stuff to choose

[azalie]

Hey everyone! I'll be coming on this tour with my boyfriend John, I'm looking forward to meeting all of you! I've been to Japan once before back in 2001, but I'm more than ready to go back again ^^

Name: Kristen
Current City: Tiburon, CA
Originally from: Redwood City, CA
Hobbies: Video games, watching anime, reading manga, theater (both acting in and watching)
Favorite Anime or Manga: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, old school Pokemon, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni
Coffee or Tea?: I like the iced versions of both XD
Part of the tour you are looking forward to most: Making new friends, shopping at anime stores, and seeing an anime con in Japan

Can't wait to go on this tour ^^

[Hinode]

Hi! This will be my first time coming to Japan and I will be coming on this tour with my girlfriend, Kristen. I cannot wait to go and to meet you all.

Name: John
Current City: Kentfield, CA
Originally from: Monterey Park, CA
Hobbies: Anime!, video/computer games, sculptures, and going to anime cons.
Favorite Anime or Manga: Bleach, Naruto, Omamori Himari, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and many more.
Coffee or Tea?: Mostly tea, but sometimes I like iced coffee.
Part of the tour you are looking forward to most: Seeing the Tokyo Anime Fair and the shrines.

[Evan]

It apears Colorado is invading Japan

I used to live in the Denver area as well, so I guess I could be lumped into that group
Sounds like a lot of you are excited for TAF; I'm pretty excited as well, although I hope the weather cooperates - the weather in Tokyo during March is really unpredictable! We'll double check forecasts before the tour, of course.

Anything people want to seek out in terms of food?

[prinnydood]

Well food wise we are trying to get something special setup. I have Pop Japan Travel looking into getting Erissa and I reservations at an Iron Chef restaurant. If anyone else is interested I'm sure if you contacted PJT they could try and work with other people to get a reservation with us although they haven't finalized anything so it may or may not happen. We just gave PJT a list of Iron Chef Restaurants in order of our preference of Iron Chef and price.

[Carina]

Hi everyone! Sorry I am a little late in my intro. This will be my second time in Japan since 1988. I will be traveling alone since my daughter will be on her Spring Break and would rather have fun with her grandparents, aunt, and cousins up in Washington state. My husband will need to stay behind here in CA since my trip to Tokyo will come before my daughter's trip to WA. I'm looking forward to meeting you all on our trip!

Name: Carina
Current City: Sunnyvale, CA (home base of Yahoo!)
Originally from: California girl most of my life (1st grade onwards)
Hobbies: Anime cel collecting, shopping, gardening, SF Giants baseball, whitewater river rafting
Favorite Anime or Manga: Inuyasha, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghibli films (Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, etc.)
Coffee or Tea?: love them both (prefer coffee in the morning though)
Part of the tour you are looking forward to most: TAF, Studio Ghibli and Studio Pierrot, shopping, sightseeing, and eating authentic Japanese food

[Gigi]

Hi Everyone,

I'll be your other guide on the tour - Gigi!

A little about me - I've lived sunny so. cal all my life. I was lucky enough to get a job at Digital Manga out of high school after going on a PJT tour myself when I was 18. ^_^ I worked in different divisions during summer vacation until getting into PJT last year. I studied Studio Art, Japanese, and Digital Art during my college years, and I've always been very social and love to show people a good time.

Hobbies: Reading manga, watching anime, watching J-doramas, eating good food, some sports, shopping
All-time Favorite Anime/Manga: One Piece, Yotsuba&
Coffee or Tea: I love tea. I can only drink coffee in the form of a white mocha latte or dolce latte.

See you soon! =D