Culture Japan / Danny Choo @ Anime Festival Asia 2011
Culture Japan had the distinction of being the only booth in Anime Festival Asia (www.animefestival.asia) to have a vehicle on display! But if course it is not all about the Beemer - tis also about the myriad of product-lines from the creation of MIRAI - manifesting unto coolness such as Figma figurines (which was my first toy-purchase of the day - they were sold out of stock before the Con ended too) and classmates (*panic*) and even wrist-supports (take a wild guess which one of the images shows it).
And all these are from Danny Choo - an otaku-blogger in Japan, who is a walking shiny example of a blogger turning his ideas to fruition - from character development, to making a toy and products, to now an anime featuring the character. "Culture Japan" is a television-show Danny hosts as well, and Danny is back here at AFA in 2011 as he is invited to host the events on the main stage. Can't get anymore better than that!
Having interviewed Danny in 2009, I reintroduced myself to him, and he took the time and trouble to stand still for a moment, and asked about my Stroke-recovery. Now that is a sense of humility you cannot "buy", IMHO.
Check out more images of the Culture Japan booth at AFA on my Facebook-album HERE - and read about Danny's adventures for AFA on his website: www.dannychoo.com.