Sexy pins
- I received 4 pins from USA.
Sexy pins
I had been waiting for Atlantic City Film Girl XXX, and I am very satisfied with this. This looks much better than the scan on Pin Catalog.
Halloween from NYC looks cool.
New York Halloween 2004
HRC New York actually released 2 kinds of Halloween 2004. One is US Clone, and the another is this original Halloween only from NYC. I am not saying that the idea of clone pin are crazy, but I prefer to get the original one. That is worth to get for my collection.
-There are some humors about new HRC this year.
Gothenburg, Kuwait, and Caracas ?
Getting pins from these cities sound hard, right? I hope my friends could help to get pins from these locations when they come.
Poland
- One of the best memory through my life is that I had stayed in Poland. After I graduated from college in USA, my Polish friend, who was a classmate at English Language School, asked me to come to her country for 2 months. At first, I was confused, because I have never thought I would visit Poland. But it would be the only chance to go to Poland in my life, so I decided to visit Poland.
- I left Chicago for
Poznan where my friend lives.
Poznan in 1999
When I arrived there, I was surprised that nobody but my friend could speak English, so I had hard time to communicate with her family !! Only I could do was to learn some Polish language. As a result, I remember some Polish words, and number, so I could buy what I wanted at the store. My friend was so surprised at my quick learning. You have to know that most people don't understand English at all in my friend's hometown, so they speak only Polish to anyone. It doesn't matter if you don't understand what they say. If you go to Warsaw, many people can understand English.
- The most interesting memory was that I was like Hollywood Star. In Poznan, there was no Asian people in the town, and they hardly see Asian people in their lives, so when I was walking on the street, everyone, I say Everyone!! stared at me. I am not kidding now. For example, when I went into restaurant, all waiters & waitress stop working, and stared me!! I don't say it was racism. They just don't know Asian people, and were surprised that they just saw Asian people. Funny, right??
- While I was there for 2 months, my friend took me to many places around Poland. My favorite place was
Marbork Castle that was a very huge castle in the northern area. I was really surprised how big the castle was, and had good time there.
Marbolk
- My favorite town was
Gdansk . At night, the city became very beautiful even though it was beautiful enough during the day.
Gdansk
-
Krakow was also good. I enjoyed the hisrotrical town known as the world heritage with my friends.
Krakow with my friends
- I really got many of good memories for 2 months, so next year, I visited Poland again for 4 days before going to Athens.
In a variety of ways
- For me, the meaning of travel is to expand my experience. I am always excited to visit the city where I have never visit. Through my travel, all of those cities had something that attracted me. I have traveled in a variety of ways. Of course, I live in Japan, so I have to get on the plane.
Gare du Nord, Paris
- I usually like to use a rental car in USA. For me who had driver's license in Illinois, it is not hard to drive in USA even though many rules are different from Japan. For example, I went to USA in 2002, and rent a car at LA airport for 5 days, I did a long drive from LA - Las Vegas - Death Valley - San Diego - LA. The best thing was that I could see the view like ↓ that I could never seen in Japan.
The view from my car in USA
- Another way I like through my travel is to get on train. In May, 2004, I went to Europe, and used train to visit some cities like Cologne and Munich from Paris. At that time, I got on French TGV, German ICE, and Belgium Thally. All of them were great, and I could enjoy my time in that.
German ICE
Thalys
- The hardest travel in my life was the bus between Athens - Istanbul. I got on a bus for about 22 hours !! It was so hard, and there were only local people in the bus with local music, so only I could do in the bus was to sleep, or to see outside. As you can guess, I could get many experiences from all travels, and had good time.
HRC met USJ.
- Pin Trading Osaka was held at Hard Rock Cafe Osaka today.
Pin Trading Osaka at HRC Osaka
This pin event is for all of pin collectors who collect pins from USJ(Universal Studio Japan), Olympic, World Cup soccer, and of course HRC, so there were many collectors whom I have never met. They brought so many kinds of pins, and let me see their great collections. The best thing was that I could talk to many collectors whom I hardly met at HRC pin event.
- Of course, I really enjoyed seeing many pins, and in fact, some of them really attracted me!!
For example, I could get this pin which really looked cute!!
Babe pin from USJ
- I also liked this T2-3D pin that my friend gave me as a present !!
T2 pin from USJ
- I always think I don't want to be in narrow circle that would make me bored!, so it was really fun to be with collectors who collect pins from other category.
I had a great day !
Q-3 in Oct.2004
- Today, I put 3 questions here, and answer it by myself. I call it as Q-3, OK?
- (1) Which HRC would I love to visit again ?
If I can choose only one, my answer is Hard Rock Cafe Chicago.
Hard Rock Cafe Chicago in 1998
Let me explain the reason. While I was in Chicago as a college student, I was not a big fan of HRC. I had collected just city guitar for the memory of my travel. Of course, I sometimes visited HRC Chicago, but I hardly checked new pins then. I think I went to Michael Jordan restaurant much more than Hard Rock Cafe Chicago then. So I really don't have any memories at HRC Chicago. I will absolutely visit Chicago again someday, and then I will spend a lot of time at HRC Chicago.
MJ restautant
- (2)Which pin did I buy the most by myself ?
I guess it would be Osaka reopen GO.
one of Osaka Re-GO in 2001
In Sep.2001, I got up earlier, and went to the new location of HRC Osaka around 8 AM, but I found about 20 people on the line before me. HRC Osaka released 3 kinds of GO, and we could buy 25 pins each once, and I remember that I went to the line again after I got 25 pins, so I think I bought so many pins at that time.
- (3)Which HRC would I visit if I got enough time ?
HRC Rio is my answer even though HRC Rio has not released many pins, because I am always interested in going to Brazil as well as some countries in South America, but going to South America, I have to spend a lot of time(about 2 days for round trip) on the plane from Japan, so I can not take enough holidays for it. I mean I want to spend many days in South America if I would visit the area someday, so I will wait until the chance come.
The 1st Q-3 is over now. I will sometimes do this. Maybe, one a month ?
New & Old
- Some pins arrived today.
New pins
All pins look good, and some of these are the pin that I wanted to get if I had any chances. I usually get only new pins, but sometimes I miss the opportunity to get what I want when it was released. I am glad that I could get Rome 5th that was released in 2003, because this pin looked cute on net, and I had looked for this since I saw the scan of this. Thanks, P.
- By the way, HRC Japan will release 2 kinds of new pin in Nov.1st.
One is Mermaid pins.
Fukuoka Mermaid
I really think Mermaid pins will be hot among collectors, because all of these pins really look cute, and the Mermaid has been kind of trend in HRC world this year. I have seen many pins with the design of Mermaid. I think HRC Japan did good job on the design of this pins.
- And they will also release Psychedelic flower guitar pins at the same time.
UCW Psychedelic Flower
Psychedelic, what ??
Anyway, These pins actually look beautiful on net, but I don't know how this would look like when I get this pin on my hand. Both pins look nice, but I have to save my money for Xmas pins that will come soon because HRC Japan usually release 2 or 3 kinds of Xmas pins from each location, and most of them always look cute !
Only to make profits
- Since ?, HRC Japan have released new pins twice a month(1st & 15th). Even though it has helped collectors a lot to buy new pins easily, it has made collectors think of stopping to collect all pins from Japan. I mean it is very hard for collectors to collect all pins now. They release new pins twice a month from 7 locations, so that means we have to buy 14 pins every month, and it is too much for people who have a normal job. In addition, HRC Japan sometimes release 2 kinds of pins for a event like Halloween. For example, all locations but Fukuoka released 2 kinds of Halloween pins this year. I really think most collectors think 1 pin is enough for each event !
Osaka Halloween 2004 #1
Osaka Halloween 2004 #2
- Of course, I am not stupid. Since I noticed HRC Japan were going to do it, I have collected only what I need, or what my friends need.
- But I am really worried that this situation might make some collectors quit HRC pin collectors in Japan, because HRC Japan seem to gather all money from Japanese collectors right now. They have released pins twice a month, and have released Teddy & beanie almost once a month. In addition, those price are recently getting more expensive.
Wedding Bear set (7980 yen!!)
- What do you think? Do you think HRC Japan want to spread HRC pin collection around Japan ? The answer is too easy, right??
Halloween is coming !!
- Malta Halloween 2004 arrived here today.
Malta Halloween 2004
- If you check
my Halloween collection, you would notice that I had been a big fan of Halloween. Since I met Taipei Halloween 2000 girl set, I started to collect Halloween pins from any locations. Halloween pins have a wide variety of design, and some of them really look cool.
Check this out. This is Halloween 1999 from HRC Surfer's Paradise. What a cool pin !! It was very hard for me to get this pin, and I remember that I was so happy when I received this pin from my friend !!
Surfer Halloween 1999
- Makati Halloween 2000 also looks great.
Makati Halloween 2000
The impact of this pin really attracted me then, and this is still one of my favorite pins.
- Yes, I used to like Halloween pins, but now I can't say that I like Halloween pins, because recently I hardly find Halloween pins that I really like. Maybe, I have been waiting for the Halloween pin like Taipei 2000 set that could make me become Halloween fan again.
When will it come??
Taipei Halloween 2000 set
