So I am in Michigan right now. I never really enjoy my trips here except for the days when I go shopping. Before I get into the shopping in Michigan, let me tell you about my adventures in New York. I found a store named Angelic Dreamz that stocks dolls, more importantly they stock pullips. I made my first ever in store purchase of a pullip. Their prices were a bit on the high side but the owner cut 20% off my total which made their prices competitive with pullipstyle (my normal NRFB dealer).

Now unto Michigan- Their used to be two stores that sold anime paraphernalia in downtown Ann Arbor unfortunately times have changed. The one store wizzywigs was a good sized store that sold nothing by anime and kawaii (sanrio, etc) now they have moved out of Ann Arbor and are only open on the weekends and the store is basically a hole in the wall. I haven’t actually gone in wizzywigs yet as they are only open on the weekend so I hope to go there on Friday. Then there is vault of midnight which has also moved into a new location only there is much larger. There used to be an intimate appeal to it when it was a much smaller store now it is almost too mainstream.

I was unsatisfied so I decided to run a search and I discovered a couple of stores in Toledo, Ohio which was only about forty minutes away from us. Strictly Anime was just that strictly anime, they were a fairly small store but they actually had a pretty diverse selection. I ended up getting the Alter Louise as well as some Puffy Ami Yumi toys.

More interesting was Ani Games which again was a fairly small store but it was jampacked with a ton of stuff both really old and new. They actually had the Cardcaptor Sakura board game which is over eight years old. I also bought an Evangelion wall scroll, a Digi Charat clock as well as a plush key chain.

Here’s all the anime-ish stuff I have picked up so far on the trip..

Click the link for details because I am lazy- http://www.flickr.com/photos/pullip_junk/3154726373/
I also bought four Barbies to strip- 1 My Scene, Princesses of the World: Spain, France and this year’s Holiday Barbie.

A seriously depressing thought once I actually get back from Michigan, basically from here on out I am not going to be able to debox anything as I am going to be moving somewhat soon. It would be easier to just leave things in the package than to take them apart for my purposes right now. In retrospect buying everything online kind of sucks because of the rare occasions when I do go to IRL anime stores I already have everything.