Today I and Kagamin went off to her old stomping ground in Washinomiya. The trip was a little long mostly due to the fax that someone's body decided to cause mayhem on the tracks and it took them an hour to clear it all up so the trains can run normally again without affecting the psychological health of any of the students commuting.

We finally arrived in Washinomiya at about noon and the rain kept turning on and off as if it could not decide if it wanted to water the plants today or not.

I took a shot of Kagami in the train station and went out. Basically the rain meant that I did not want to keep her outside much, and I had an umbrella too which made shooting pictures of her really painful so I decided to go without that today.

Much like my first visit to Japan, the place did not change much. The Cosmos fureai-road still is there and so was the fire hydrant sign.

The banners that hung off the lamp posts have faded since five years ago, and seem now simply a remnant of what used to be a very very popular series.

The shop just outside of the station is still there too and still kicking. Basically selling what are now lucky star groceries and books from past events.

One sad thing that seems to be the case is now most of the lucky star stuff has been stashed and the town seems to have reverted to its old quiet self again. A large number of stores down the road are now unoccupied and the real estate agent is looking for tenants.

There were shops that had all sorts of dishes named with lucky star characters on them now, basically taking full advantage of the merchandise.

The event is fairly low-key and there were a few people around the area doing a little treasure hunt that was running since 10am in the morning.

A black board outside announced a mail address to send mail for this event to Fukuhara Kaori (Tsukasa's voice actor).

After the treasure hunt event was over, we proceeded to the local government trade office to see Fukuhara Kaori, the guest of honor today. The trade office itself had quite a collection of lucky star stuff and other miscellaneous things.

Also old posters from back in the day. I bet no one remembers any of these cosplays. We weren't allowed to take photos inside as the entire thing was exclusively photographed and broadcasted by Niconico, so you can view what happened on Nico.

After the talk show with Kaori, we had our cake cutting event that the organizers were clearly reluctant to do under the intermittent rain. But they did it anyway, and lots were drawn from the results of the treasure hunt to see who could eat the cake.

There were a few itashas around but only one was really a lucky star itasha with any decent decals on it

Most of them had the good sense to put the cars out on display in the rain for all to see.

And show of their collection of plushies.

As well as Tsukasa doing the icing thing.

They also sent Kaori a nice present of sunflowers.

Soon after the cake cutting ceremony, the two "sisters" went to the shrine to pray.

Basically the kigurumi Kagamin appeared from nowhere during the talk show as an unexpected guest.

After they came down from the shrine and met with the fans, it quickly devolved into a handshaking event with the kigurumi Kagamin. Kaori was of course, ushered away as fans were not allowed near her.

With Tsukasa out of the way, the fans started escorting Kagami out of the shrine ala royalty.

And then the inevitable happens.

Oops.

written by astrobunny \\ birthday, cosmos, fukuhara, fureai, hiiragi, itasha, kagami, kaori, kigurumi, konata, miko, pilgrimage, road, shrine, trap, tsukasa, washinomiya