I was offered the chance to go the Comic Market Tour to Tokyo this year. This was a tour jointly organized by Trips International Pte Ltd and 77 Star Pte Ltd.

On the first day, we took the new A380 Air Bus by Singapore Airlines and arrived at Narita Airport in the early morning. We were warmly greeted by the tour guide, Ms Natsuki. There was some unexpected delay in schedule as one of the members of the tour had left his mobile phone on the plane. Fortunately, Ms Natsuki was calm and composed in dealing with the situation. She was able to communicate very fluently in both Japanese and English.

Very soon, we were making our way to the first destination - Suginami Animation Museum.

At Suginami Animation Museum, we were welcomed by a museum guide who brought us around some parts of the museum and explained to us about the rich history behind the popular Japanese animation of today. We were also given an insight into how animators work.

Following that, we were given a tour by Ms Natsuki of the area around our hotel - Tokyo Dome. She told us where all the restaurants, shops and subway stations were within the vicinity, which came in useful as we had plenty of free time to roam around Tokyo Dome by ourselves in the following days to come. After that, we checked into the Tokyo Green Korakuen Hotel for the day. A much awaited rest after the long day.

The second day was the day of the much anticipated Comic Market. We left the hotel and arrived at Tokyo Big Sight in the early afternoon, hoping to avoid the long queues and big crowds. However, the Comic Market proved to be too big an event. The area was swarmed with people even till closing time. Fortunately, we did not have to wait in line to enter. Ms Natsuki pointed out to us the two different exhibition areas - the official and non-official exhibition areas.

My friend and I visited the non-official exhibition area first. The space was so huge. It was like an ocean of little booths, all selling their own fan arts and doujins (comics). We walked around the area for a little while, and soon, we were itching for the official merchandises.

The official area was flooded with people queuing up for limited edition merchandises of their favorite animation characters. My friend and I joined in on some of the shorter queues and managed to get away with some rare animation products. The exhibition area was hyped up with cosplayers (fans dressed as anime characters), photographers, otaku (anime fans) as well as other visitors from overseas, like us.

The following two days were free days. My friend and I spent it by visiting Asakusa Temple, Akihabara and Harajuku. We managed to figure our way through the Japan subway system with much thanks to subway map that we picked up at one of the stations. We bought many things and had an unforgettable two days.

On the last day, we headed for Yoyogi Animation School before heading for Narita Airport. This makes a nice conclusion for our Comic Market Tour. At Yoyogi, we were given a talk on the detailed process of animation making. The person-in-charged even patiently answered our questions regarding the animation industry in Japan. We had a fruitful time learning about the path to becoming an animator.

Overall, the trip was a great eye-opener to me. Although I have been somewhat of an anime fan for a while, I was only able to feel first hand the kind of fandom and the magnitude of the animation industry in Japan through this trip. Thank you Trips International and 77 Star for making this tour possible.