While out today I saw some colorful Setsubun decorations being prepared at a temple near my house, I took a quick picture which you can see below.

On the left you can see an "Oni" or demon with a message on him that would be directly translated as "Dismissal of evil spirits". On the right is one of the lucky gods (not exactly sure which...Ebisu?) arriving with what looks like a bag emblazoned with the words "Welcome to good luck". The translations are always a little funny but the meaning is "Out with the bad and in with the good". I thought it was interesting how even the Oni look kind of cute and would not be out of place if found in a manga.

Staff member Jimmy is on his way to Mexico and is very actively updating the Japanese blog, I'll try to keep you up to date with whats happening. It turns out Jimmy is not Mr. Iwanaga as I had guessed but is another staff member who I do not know. It has been 13 years since he has been to Mexico and below is a shot of his transfer flight in Los Angeles.

Jimmy has just arrived at the event location and commented on the great number of booths that are being set up and prepared for the next day. This is the 14th consecutive year that the TNT is being held and they are expecting 10,000 people on the first day alone! On the opening day the cosplay event started with a tape cutting ceremony and there were 17 groups participating in the 1st round of the competition. Here is a shot of the moment:

Jimmy is updating the blog from his cell phone very regularly, you can see the pictures he has uploaded here.

He spent the last hours of the first day of the event doing some sightseeing in central Mexico City. The second day of competitions were even more packed than the day before and the preliminary performances were equally if not more impressive. It looks like the performers were divided into Mexico City entries on one day and other parts of Mexico on the other day. He adds that Yuko Ishida did a live TV appearance and Francesca Dani attended a fan signing session.

Jimmy's final entry shows a picture of the stage that will be used for the final event and he comments that Yuko Ishida's live stage event is taking place right at the moment that he was writing the blog entry. 2 days of pre-competitions are over and tomorrow there will be 15 groups vying for the grand prize.

On the final day of TNT GT2 Jimmy started things off with a little sightseeing and then headed to the event hall where the Mexico finals were to be held. You can see pictures here of the crowds in front of the stage before the performances got started and he said there was an electricity in the air. Linaloe and Alejandra, the representatives from Mexico at WCS 2007 last year and the winners of the Brother Award were present. They did a rendition of their Sailor Moon performance and then took part as judges for the finalists. The winners were Tersa and Ingrid with their presentation of Dejimon, you can see a picture of them below!

I wish I had more information on how things went, you can expect a complete report in coming weeks. A video of their performance may pop up on YouTube, if anyone does happen to see one please let me know!

The first sizable snowfall hit Central Japan a couple days ago, just when some friends and I were planning a snowboarding trip near Mt. Fuji. I got a great shot of the mountain yesterday morning when we were heading towards the hill from our hotel near Yamanaka-ko on the north east side of Mt. Fuji. There is a fresh layer of snow on the mountain and the silhouette is different from the usual view you get from the south side when you take the bullet train or Tomei Expressway.

I stopped to get some gas and asked the station attendant what it was like to wake up every morning to see such a fantastic sight. He said that you get used to it pretty quick and it is just another part of the scenery like anything else. He added that there is not as much snow on it as in other years. He was obviously quite aware of how the mountain should look in winter...