Archive for December, 2010

Japanese market

This is Christmas time, or better, it is gift time! Here in Roma there are a lot of Christmas markets without soul, always the same stuff, all is equal on every counter.
There is a traditional market in Piazza Navona too, also knew abroad, but every year I ask to myself why it is so boring. Apart from the Christmas decorations, the other things are poor toys and sad caravan games from amusement parks. And the atmosphere is tired. The only fun element is when someone sells, undisturbed under police eyes, prohibited articles as illegal firecrackers or danger toys.
Since a couple of years there is a Japanese market in Rome too.

This market runs for only a day every three months. It was started by two brothers from Japan who have opened a shop. It collects young vendors with the passion of Japan and obviously some of them are from Japan. You can find Japanese items as bento or gashapoon, but there are even things made here with a Japan feel in them. Italians love Japan and its culture, as Japanese love Italy and its culture.

There is second hand stuff or articles privately bought by mail in Japan.

You can find articles to decorate your room, and handcrafted stuff at most. Even handcrafted jewels for girls.

A joy are these items decorated like cakes, with chocolate and whipped cream. I had hungry after I saw them. Fortunately there was a stand with some Japanese food. I ate a sweet with beans cream as in Doreamon animes.

There were cosplayers too. Every occasion is good to be dressed like a manga! And there was stuff for Gothic Lolitas too. Apparently not so Japanese, but you have to remember that this culture is from Japan.

I bought some gifts for my female friends. I think I return here the next market.

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Happy model

Always in Seraphicum istitute, the place where these conventions about rail transport modelling are setted. This one is Happy Model and the other one is Interscambio, but I cannot see the difference, there are the same vendors in the same places! This time I’m with Paolo, while Renato’s car is out of order so he remained at home.

I bought a railway crane and a car for a project of mine in 28mm. Paolo bought a camion in N gauge for his Meka. There were a lot of things, but train collectors are used to high prices and we are not. Even the scale is against us, you cannot find some of useful for 28 or 15mm. In the future I will write a post about scales…

For the joy of your eyes I took some pictures of a large train circuit. I let one’s eye dwell upon the diorama scenes around the tracks: camps, bridges, river. Think about this stuff on your game terrain…

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A dice & a helm

After the heavy rain, now the hot and a clear sky. Here you cannot see the sky but you can taste the atmosphere. We are near the Exposition Palace, in the Umbertine (last years of ‘800) part of the city. Almost all the pics you can see in this blog are took with my new camera, a camera bounded with my new smartphone. This picture was took with free hand, I only press the button. In other times I couldn’t do these things!

In the last weeks I didn’t go for a walk because of bad weather. This afternoon (and evening) instead I met one friend of mine. She is pretty, isn’t she? We went around even in the bookstore of the palace. She gifted me two funny things: one big soft dice (I think we use it for dice fighting in a future game reunion of my mates at my home) and a pencil with a metal Traex helm (there is a griffon on the crest, so the traex has got a sica supina as sword) on the top. Thank you!

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+ libri + liberi + veganriot

+ libri + liberi

+ Libri + Liberi (more books more freedom) is a manifestation about books from small publishers. They are almost 6-7 years that this manifestation is holding in Rome. It is an occasion to know publishers out of their regional borders (there is always a interesting Sardinian presence, but they aren’t the only ones) and buy a pile of book that you cannot easily find in bookshops. And for publishers an occasion to meet readers and know the tendency of the market. This is the first time with a section on ebooks. The world is changing…

+ libri + liberi

I spent half of the day with my friend Franci (she is pretty, isn’t she?) along the shelves. I bought a book with photos of Gladiator relieves and one about an Italian medieval treatise on sword fighting. I even added two small books on the underground Pitagoric temple in Rome and on Costantine’s arch.

+ libri + liberi

This building was intended for the universal exposition of Rome in 1942 (EUR1942). Wrong year to organise something. It maintains the architectural style of Fascism together with the later ’50 style.

veganriot

In the evening there was another presentation (with buffet) of a book on vegan recipes written by two friends of mine: Paolo e Alessandra, just married a year ago!

veganriot

Some food before hungry devastated all! All you can eat for only 10 euros. And the evening went on chatting with friends.

veganriot

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Sixtyone sixtyfive

sixtyone sixtyfive

Sergio Laliscia’s new rule set is out. It is about American Civil War but with some modifications it is utilizable even for Napoleonic period. This Summer we tried the rules with Sergio and we had fun with our English vs French. What I can say? Well, it seems to me like a SDS game with less pieces that move free around and more compact formations that fire and react together. So, it is a skirmish game but with the feel of a larger scale game. Try it!

sixtyone sixtyfive

sixtyone sixtyfive

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