I'd like to hear (and see photos of) more international meet ups between OTCA members! I had so much unbelievable fun at the Osaka Meet, not just because of all the toys that I saw and bought, but really because of the people I met up with... Australian ex-pat and local Japanese fans. Sitting around and chatting about all things Transformers (and other nerdy stuff )... hearing about things from a Japanese perspective and vice versa; it was like a geeky cultural exchange! We saw a lot of traditional stuff like temples, shrines, castle etc., but one of my definite highlights was the Osaka meet and just socialising with fellow fans. I guess when it comes to meets, whether it be in Parramatta or Osaka, the big highlight for me is enjoying the company of fellow collectors. Yes, getting new toys is great too... but I really enjoy catching up with people with similar interests.
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How awesome would it be if a group of OTCAers all managed to go to Japan at the same time and do a big "tour of duty" there? Yeah, I know logistically it'd be really hard because we're not all available to travel at the same time (especially for those of us with families). But similar to how we've had small contingents of OTCAers travel to BotCon together, maybe it'd be possible to do small groups to Japan together? Although I suppose without an event like BotCon happening, there's little incentive for people to want to travel together... unless people wanna go attend a Japanese toy convention or other TF related event at the same time.
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