EVACOMICS BLOG

2013 had been an eventful year for me. First I graduated from Waseda Business School in Tokyo, then I was selected for a fully sponsored trip to CoFesta Japan. On 25th Dec, I finally got to move to an empty room so I could setup my own home studio. I must thank all my loyal fans who had supported me throughout these years when I was just drawing unpopular short comic strips about my daily life till I changed them to comparisons between Japan and Singapore (and sometimes US) in April 2012. Thank you all for your awesome support by liking and sharing my comics, and especially fans who had bought my merchandise online and specially came down to visit me at Marina Barrage, Singapore. After 3.5 years of fun, study, close shave with death from earthquakes and radiation worries in Japan, it is finally time to pay back in Singapore XD My wish for 2014 is to publish my first book and to develop Evacomics brand. And of course, to gain more wonderful fans like you. Wishing everyone a f...

With calendar: 320×480 , 768×1024 , 1024×768 , 1280×800 , 1280×1024 , 1440×900 , 1920×1080 , 2560×1440 Without calendar: 320×480 , 768×1024 , 1024×768 , 1280×800 , 1280×1024 , 1440×900 , 1920×1080 , 2560×1440 Apologies everyone for the late update! I had been terribly busy moving house, buying new furniture and appliances, and catching up with lots of family gatherings. I made a tweak to the colours so this one is different from the ones at Smashing Magazine (if they choose my work again ^^;;). This design is based on Japanese 初詣Hatsumoude on the midnight of new year. Hatsumoude can also mean first visit to the temple or shrine during the first few days. You can read more about how Japanese celebrate their new year from my previous comic strip post. Hope you enjoy my new calendar! Happy New Year! Update: My wallpaper is selected by Smashing Magazine again! Check out the page for more great wallpapers! http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/12/31/desktop-wallpaper-calendar...

Although we celebrate new year with a loud countdown and elaborate fireworks, Japanese celebrate(?) it quietly by visiting their nearby shrine or temple. Towards midnight, the bells at those shrines and temples would ring and people would make their wishes for the new year, usually for health and happiness. I had never been to one when I was in Japan because it was always too cold~ XD But hey, I heard the bells! You can read more about how Japanese celebrate the new year at the Japan National Tourism Board webpage .

Although Christmas is not a public holiday in Japan, it is well celebrated by retail shops there...

For prints such as calendars and postcards. Prices are in USD. Ships from Singapore, directly from me :) If you live in Singapore, you can also pay via local bank transfer to POSB savings 042-26859-3 or Citibank checking 0803296006. A4 Calendar =SG$10 Postcard (one pc)=SG$4 Postcard set (3 pcs)=SG$10 Calendar+postcard set= SG$18 Delivery is SG$2.80 for the calendar, including the plastic hard sleeve for protection. Postage for postcards is SG$0.80. To order, please send me an email at: *Please indicate if you would like to have it autographed (front or back) or not. For merchandise such as mugs, shirts and printed canvases. Ships from US through a fulfilment service company (like an agent). Items are only produced after you place an order so shipping takes a longer time. You should receive the products within 3 weeks if you live outside of US, but longer depending on your country's customs. Thank you for yo...

Actually we don't really care XD

This was my first time putting up my own artwork for sale!

Special thanks to Diayaku for offering to share their table space with me! I will be selling my A4 Calendar prints (limited to 100 pcs) and 3 postcard designs (only 40 sets available for EOY ). This is my first time selling my prints at a convention so please support! See you there at Marina Barrage this Sunday! ;P

Tochigi is famous for their strawberries but this place called  Ichigo no Sato  (meaning Strawberry's homeland) had other fruits for people to enjoy during other seasons. I would have picked Nagano prefecture, famous for their grapes, but the Sunflower day tour that I had signed up for on 6th Sep brought us here instead.

Feels cold in Singapore too with air con blasting everywhere! Well, at least it's not winter temperature!

My family trip on 3rd Sep continued with a one day tour to Mt Fuji, except that it was a Japanese tour  :P The tour was special because they bring people to an "experience" farm called Makai no Farm". Basically it is not the actual farm that harvests milk for the mass market, but one that was designed to allow kids and family to spend time with farm animals.

I think Singaporeans give up their seats more than Japanese. Perhaps salarymen in Japan are too tired and just want to sleep or look at their smartphones...

With calendar: 320×480 ,  768×1024 ,  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 Without calendar:  320×480 ,  768×1024 ,  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 I added a bigger portrait size wallpaper for tablets now :) Hope you like December's desktop too, happy holidays! Update 1 Dec: My design was selected in Smashing Magazine again!

>>> FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING!  <<< Ends 2 Dec  (Cyber Monday)!!!   What is Society6? Society6 is a fulfilment service company that helps artists to setup their online shop and take care of everything from collection of payment, production of goods, all the way to shipping of a product. Items are only produced after an order is made so the shipping time is a bit longer. All items are shipped from US and listed in USD. The only thing artists need to take care of is to create and upload the designs. I had chosen Society6 because of its easy to use interface and recommendation by a few fellow artist friends. Unfortunately, there is no such service in Asia yet.    What happens after I purchase from Society6? Items are only produced after you place an order. If you live in US, items will typically arrive around a week or so. Overseas customers would have to wait 2-3 weeks (or more, depending on customs). And of course, I get a de...

It's very difficult to tell what meat you're eating when you eat Japanese food~

I went to Tsukiji several times with friends (both Japanese and foreigners) so I brought my family down for some fresh sushi on their first day in Tokyo. However this post will be a compilation of ALL my trips down to Tsukiji so you can have a better idea of what to expect.

Now that I'd cleared everything from CoFesta, I'm going to travel further back in time about my family trip to Tokyo in September!

I tried to pour sake (rice wine) for myself but was often stopped by my Japanese friend because it is a custom for others to pour for you. Oops!

You are never alone in Japan :P *PS. Monkeys don't drink and you can only find them at Nagano's onsen (hot spring).

I am finally getting into the finale of our whole trip: a grand treat at Ginza Sushikoh , located above Tokyo station on the 35th floor, worth 20,000+++yen! (SGD250/ USD200) My Japanese friend told me that it is a very famous sushi restaurant and is difficult to get a reservation there.

After our techie morning at the Digital Contents Expo, we took a cab to Ikebukuro, where we stayed for hours at the world's largest anime goods store: animate. Of course, we didn't go there just for shopping…

Ok, this is going to be a very techie post. We started day three with an early morning tour of Digital Contents Expo held at National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation （日本科学未来館）, which is located in Odaiba area on 24th Oct. We got to enter before it was open to public and the first exhibit was this virtual reality flight experience:

While fruits in Tokyo are ridiculously expensive, fruits in Singapore are usually squeezed by many people…even though it's obvious that the fruit isn't ripe yet...

We attended TIMM Showcase Live event (23 Oct) from 4.30pm till 9+pm, a solid 5 hours of live Japanese music!!! This concert was organised for international buyers so the artistes were chosen by their record labels to promote to overseas market. Each artiste/group were allowed to invite a limited number of their own fans to the event. We were invited to sit at the second floor so we won't tweet about how tired our legs were from standing :P

Back to Cofesta report, we were at the NHK Studio Park on 23rd Oct morning with an exclusive tour of the studio and some presentations :)

With calendar:  320×480 ,  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 Without calendar:  320×480 ,  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 Needless to explain about this month's theme: Red Leaves One of my unfulfilled wishes is to see red leaves at Kyoto… You can find my wallpaper now at Smashing Magazine !

Kids don't go door to door in Asia, but we certainly have lots of candies!

The first event we attended was International Drama Festival in Tokyo, held at Tokyo Prince Hotel.

I miss Singapore very much, but when I'm back home, I start to miss Tokyo too~ But hey, now I'm back in Tokyo for 5 days! But I had a long day so I will continue tomorrow!

I am going to Tokyo again, but this time as a CoFesta Ambassador because of my activities related to Japanese content. So yes, I will be saying "Hello Tokyo" again tomorrow! ;D So what is CoFesta ? It is a Contents Festival that brings Japanese contents like games, animation, manga, characters, broadcast, music and film to international audience and vice versa. Examples of events underneath CoFesta include; Tokyo Game Show, Tokyo International Music Market, Tokyo International Film Festival, and Tokyo International Anime Festival. The festival is part of Cool Japan Project, which is funded by Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Japan. I thank them very much for sponsoring my air flight and hotel accommodation during this period. In return, I will be blogging and updating about my experience. Don't miss out anything, so please like or follow Evacomics on various social media platforms now!

My family came to visit me in Tokyo from 1-5th September but I got very ill soon after... But I managed to recollect memories for this overdue post! What I learned: Baby stroller is called "baby car" in Japan. Meiji Shrine is difficult for elderly and baby strollers because of the long walk through the park and pebbles on the path. Elevators in train stations are very small. Gap between the train and platform can be very big. What my family learned: Toilets are always conveniently located inside the train station after entering the ticketing gates. Toilets are very clean and have bidets and water sounds to play with. No soap in many train station toilets. You can buy food inside train stations. People do not give up seats to elderly and toddlers in trains. Most train stations are not wheelchair friendly. Free newspapers everywhere. Beautiful wrapping. Many people were using plastic umbrellas and left them outside the shop. Nobody steals them. Safe to l...

There's always a lot to eat after each school vacation!

Terminating services and dying to pay them is never easy in Japan... but if you must leave, here is a detailed account of my experience: 1) Cancelling utilities (water, gas and electricity) They can come on your last day (only weekdays and half a Saturday) to tell you how much you owe them and pay cash on the spot. Otherwise you can also request them to deduct from your bank account if you had already setup automatic payment deduction. Gas will be stopped immediately but water and electricity will continue to run. ★Call 1-2 weeks ahead of time. 2) Selling off furniture Bulky trash, called "soudai gomi", is always troublesome to get rid off because you have to pay for their disposal. This includes bulky furniture and large futon. My friend's tip is to cut them up  or dismantle them into smaller pieces to reduce cost or free if you can squeeze into smaller bags. Alternatively, you can contact recycle shops like what I did to see if they can remove everything ...

That's why I offended people when I first came to Japan  (lll ￣∀￣)  

Maybe because of the uniform and the company's effort to enhance their cleaners' image.

With calendar:  320×480 ,  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 Without calendar:  320×480 ,  1024×768 ,  1280×800 ,  1280×1024 ,  1440×900 ,  1920×1080 ,  2560×1440 October's theme is "Sports Day in Japan". Sports day is held every October in Japan for kids in kindergarten to high school. And btw, I'm on Smashing Magazine again!

Some things are international, even though it's dangerous. This is called 「あるきスマホ」in Japan, which means "walking smartphone". How about your country? これは世界的な共通点かなあ？

I learned that anything can become a fashion in Japan with neat hairstyle and makeup! (Sorry no more Chinese/Japanese versions)