So, I took a few days off before classes started to go around and see the cherry blossoms. For some reason, I had it in my head that I needed to go to Nara, so I went. The park is very lovely, but you definitely have to watch where you step. I also learned that you shouldn't buy deer crackers if you're by yourself, unless you want a herd of deer to swarm out of nowhere and have their way with you.

Todaiji is amazing though, and definitely worth the trip. Buddha is totally chill, and the guardians at the gate are amazing. Hard to believe they were carved 700+ years ago. Nara was also my first time seeing true hanami. Three salarymen, a camp stove, and a 24-pack of beer. Rock. But instead of boring you with words, I'll bore enthrall you with pictures.

( Nara )

The next day, I decided to stick around Kyoto. I caught the last of the plum blossoms at Kitano Tenmangu, had yakisoba and Ramune under the cherry blossoms at Hirano Jinja, and checked out the zen garden at Ryoanji. I wanted to go to Ninnaji too, but thanks to getting sick in the middle of the night, I got a late start and got there just after they closed.

( Kyoto )

Friday, I went to Hana no Tera in Oharano. Even though it's well-known for its cherry blossoms, Oharano doesn't get many tourists. So it was very quiet and peaceful there. Actually, the only other gaijin that I saw there happened to be the guy I sat next to on the plane from Boston, who teaches in Okinawa. o.O Everyone I met in Oharano was super-friendly, and the other temple, Shohoji, had beautiful gardens, and you could actually go inside the halls. So I had a great day. ^_^ Then I took the train back to Kyoto and went to the Gion light-up and to see the huge cherry tree in Maruyama Koen.

( Oharano )

Saturday was the big Sakura Matsuri at Himeji Castle, and like a crazy person, I went. It was sooooo beautiful though, and definitely worth fighting the crowds.

( Himeji )

On Sunday, I went to Kameoka for a hanami picnic with Paulette and Sue. We had alcohol and a tarp, so it was genuine hanami!

( Kameoka )

Monday it rained, and I was exhausted, so even though I had the day off, I just stayed home and had awesome RP with kanaliya. Unfortunately, it continued to rain heavily for several days, so that was pretty much the end of sakura season. :(

As always, there are more photos here.

Next update: Tokyo and pr0n version!

Hard to believe it's already been one year. To celebrate, there was an earthquake this morning. \o/

Ever find yourself at 1:30 in the morning wondering, "What the hell am I doing climbing a volcano in the middle of the night?"

... Yeah.

The unthinkable -- dare I say, the unspeakable -- has happened.

Japan is in the middle of a butter shortage. ToT

I was able to skip out of work today and go to the Gion Matsuri parade, which was awesome, but I only took one picture before my camera decided that all my batteries were dead. >.> And I have lots of work to do to get ready for Fuji tonight so I can go to the baseball game tomorrow. It's the prefectural quarter-finals or something like that.

This spastic and discombobulated post is brought to you by the letter stress.

I just got home from an eight course dinner. All eight courses were tofu. x_x

FMA.

Post-movie.

CROSSOVER WITH INDIANA JONES OMG YOU KNOW IT WOULD BE AWESOME.


And now, for another rousing edition of "Look At All the Crap Emily Bought!" I ended up NOT going to Comic City today after all, because there's a bigger one in August, and it's a lot of time and money and hassle just for some mediocre porn that I already have too much of anyway. Plus, the group that was going wanted to see Juno afterwards, which was all hell no. But I promised rkold that I'd send her package today, and hey, I was already dressed, so I went down to Kyoto Station. In case you're wondering, Kyoto Station is where the central post office is, which is open all day on Sunday, and there's also a big craft store there, and I needed to buy some snaps for my h.Naoto skirt. (That's right, bitches, I said h.Naoto.) And the easiest way to get from the subway to the post office to the craft store without getting soaked because yay, rainy season, is to use the underground mall. And I was weak. But most of it was stuff I really did need. I got some socks and a couple calculators and a necklace stand at the 3 coin shop, where everything is ¥300. Of course, that's not including tax, so it's actually impossible to buy anything with 3 coins, but whatever. Then I went looking for the shoe store I had seen earlier, because they had Toppers, and I really REALLY needed a new pair of sneakers. But I was distracted on the way by a really cute blouse. >.> It was a little expensive, and I probably shouldn't have bought it, but it actually fit, and it's SO Japanese. So it can be my token Japanese girly shirt. I just need to find the right thing to layer it with. Then I found the shoe store, and they were cute and fit well and were actually not that expensive considering what shoes in Japan usually go for, and considering how hard it is to find shoes here that you can actually wear all day without wanting to shoot yourself, so I got them. And then I thought I was done, but a display of folding fans caught my eye. Of course the one I liked was the ¥3000 one in a display of ¥1000 ones, but it was really nice, and I really needed one, so I got it anyway. I was also tempted to get the Disney's Belle perfume that store had, but I didn't. XD The End. Until next week, when the sale at Black Peace Now starts. >_>;;
This shopping trip was brought to you by the numbers 7 and 11, which is the only place I can get cash on weekends. *fang*

But yes, I saw Indiana Jones yesterday! *fangirl* It was far from perfect; ( spoilers )

Back on the topic of doujinshi, last weekend I went with Ilona and nightflight to a Phoenix Wright doujin and cosplay event. It was small, but fun. There were lots of good cosplayers, including a cute-as-a-button Apollo, a freaking amazing 6-years-ago Mia, a perfect Judge, and a Jean Armstrong, lololol. There was also a raffle, and Ilona won a pair of Gavinners or whatever the Japanese name of the band is guitar picks, which she gave to me. And if your birthday was in June, you got a bag of Godot's special blend coffee. As for doujinshi, there wasn't much for pairings that I like, but I got two Gavincest, one when they were younger, which I can fully endorse, and one just because it's a whole lot of really well-drawn cat-ear porn. Ironically enough, after explaining to my cohorts how Klavier and Apollo just didn't have that "spark" in the game, they sparked in my own mind, so I think I'm an official fan of the pairing now. ^^

Long sentences are long. Also rainy season sucks, even though it looks like we got off easy this year. Also, I want to punch American Guy in the face, but that's an entry for another time.

Oh, and I uploaded my old Yami no Matsuei music video to youtube. Validate me, plz.

It’s a special kind of person who can roll halfway down a mountain strapped to a pair of skis and be fine, but needs to go to the hospital for x-rays because they messed up putting on their shoes. >.> And yes, that person would be me.

I haven’t updated in, um, forever, because A) there’s been a ton of stuff going on, B) I’m lazy, and C) I hadn’t been taking my medicine regularly because I was running out, but I got some more, so I’m starting to feel better now that I’m taking it every day again. I do wish that the world could just stop for a bit and let me catch up, though.

( super boring update: skiing version! )

( super boring update: doll and bodily injury version! )

( super boring update: art snob version! )

Okay, I’m ending things here, because I know that anything more would be just TOO MUCH AWESOMENESS for you to handle at once. But stay tuned for more zomg amazing updates featuring exciting topics such as: Flowers! Being attacked for food by crazy animals! Flowers! Bitching about the Japanese system of school administration! Porn! And moar flowers!! And as always, check out my flickr page for more photos.

So, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I decided that I wanted to go to Chion-in to see them ring the bell for New Year's. It's the biggest bell in Japan, and weighs about 80 tons. It takes 17 monks to swing the ramrod hard enough to ring the bell. So obviously, the New Year's ringing is a pretty big deal. ^^

I left my place around 9:00, and I was surprised that the subway was so empty. There weren't many people on the way to the temple, either, but once I got there, it was packed. There were lots of foreigners there as well, so I didn't feel so out-of-place. This creepy American/Canadian guy tried to play tour guide for me though, coming up out of nowhere all like, "This is called Chion-in Temple," and not even pronouncing it right. And I'm like, yeah, I don't make it a habit of wandering around the city at midnight, so I know where I am, thanks. There was of course a huge line winding around the temple grounds to see the bell. I didn't know what was going to happen, so I just stood there with everyone else. Then, when the bell started ringing, everyone shoved forward, and the line slowly filed up to the belfry and past the bell. It was really cool; the monks had this special chant, and when the bell rung, you could feel it through your whole body. There were also monks praying right underneath the bell. >.o I think they must be deaf now.

After I saw the bell, it wasn't midnight yet, and I didn't feel like going home, so I went to Yasaka-jinja for hatsu-mode. I didn't realize it at the time, but that's the most popular shrine in Kyoto to go to for hatsu-mode, and once it opens, there is a LOT of shoving. As in, your only choices are keep up with the crowd or get trampled. It was kind of scary. But once we got to the main hall, it let up a bit. I stayed away from the main shrine and instead found a nice Inari shrine that was quiet and all lit up. After that, I got some hamu-katsu from one of the million food stands/tiny shops/shooting galleries all around the shrine, and enjoyed my walk along the willow-lined river back to the subway station.

My flickr page is all updated now, for anyone who wants to see more photos. ^^ I waited two weeks to be able to upload again, and then they were all like, "Oh, we can't actually SHOW your pictures to anyone unless you give us monies." So I ended up buying a paid account anyway. >.>

I can see I'm going to have to set a limit on one Rilakkuma purchase per visit to Kiddyland. This time, it was a case for my DS. Next time, lunchbox? (Of course, this limit will not apply to the special Rilakkuma event in January.) I'm going to have serious cute crap withdrawal when I leave Japan. (Not that that will be any time soon.) On the other hand, I bought 4 cds today; one was a mini-album and the rest were 25% off, and it still came to almost $70. But at least Japan has cds I want.

Oh yeah, I finished uploading my road trip photos to my flickr page, so check it out.

( I can has blatherings about Asian Kung-fu Generation? )

I’m hoping that this string of good things, particularly situations which seem bad but turn out well, applies to the JLPT, too. I did really badly on the first two sections, but much better than I expected on the last section, which is worth half the test. So there is a very slight possibility that I may have passed, but I won’t find out until March or so. :x

This post has been brought to you by the letters A, K, and G, and the fact that I have no classes today. \o/

*sigh* The internet is full of fail today. Perhaps some of those underwater intartubes were damaged in the earthquake?

Anyway. After the cheezless cheezburger incident, the next time I went to McDonald's, I got a regular cheeseburger and scraped everything off. It tasted okay, but it just wasn't that good old trashy plain cheesburger taste that I'm used to, which is really the only point of going to McDonald's. So tonight, emboldened by hours of playing Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-kun on the DS, I decided to try again. I walked in, and with no sign of nervousness, recited my line: 『ダブルチーズバーガーバリューセットおねがいします、でもバーガーとチーズだけ、なんでもないもう。』 The cashier and I seemed to have an understanding, and I thought I was golden....

But.

When I got my cheeseburger, there was still ketchup and mustard on it. D: I'm thinking that maybe the desire to eat something without any sauce on it is a difficult concept for the Japanese mindset to grasp.

But anyway, it's fall, so everyone that makes any kind of food product has a special "fall flavor" they're putting out now. Trips to the conbini are exciting, indeed. *sips on a Mystery Fruits Fanta*

OR: How many women can fit in a train car?

OR: Good God, I don’t even collect doujinshi; why on earth did I spend this much money??


x_x I never knew it was possible for so much doujinshi to exist. My arm will never recover.

But! That’s okay, because not only have I made my pilgrimage to one of Japan’s largest fandom events, as every fangirl should, but I made some awesome finds. Like the BEST ATOZUKA DOUJIN EVER, SRSLY.

AND SUPERNATURAL DOUJINSHI LOL WUT.

And.


Wait for it.





SUOH X NOKORU DOUJINSHI YES I AM SERIOUS MY ENTIRE LIFE IS VALIDATED NOW. >o< Yes, I am going to become one of “those” people and stalk this circle to every event they go to, because omg, Suoh x Nokoru doujinshi. This makes me so happy.

Kansai Super Comic City total haul:

Code Geass
3 Lelouch x Suzaku (2 for rkold, 1 which I bought on a whim to resell for huge profit)
1 some other guy x Suzaku (for rkold)

CCD
4 Suoh x Nokoru (i.e. everything they had)

Supernatural
5 Sam x Dean (but why no Dean x Sam? T_T I thought the Japanese got over the height rule already!)

original BL
2 Nekota Yonezou (Yamada D) original stories

Prince of Tennis
1 St. Rudolph gag book (sadly, the only Fujicest to be found was in novel form)
3 AtoZuka

Fullmetal Alchemist
1 Roy x Ed / Al x Ed / other!Al x Ed anthology
1 Elric brothers fan

There was so much awesome art everywhere~ I wanted to buy more (there was one 4-komi in an Ichigo x Ishida doujin that was so >o<!) but I had to watch my money, and there was also the thing about not being physically able to carry it all. Next time, I’ll be smart like the J-fen and bring an empty suitcase with me. And hopefully my plan to spend hundreds of dollars on doujinshi and then sell them for twice what I paid when I’m done reading them will work. XD;

And now, it is time to break in my new scanner. :3

I just had the most awesome dream last night, and I have to write it down before I forget. It started out as Phoenix Wright, with the role of Phoenix being played by my dad. (And no, it was NOT a slash dream, so don't ask. :P) We were trying to solve this big murder/conspiracy thing, so we were running around gathering evidence, and not always in the most legal of ways. Breaking into an office building to steal files and driving on the wrong side of the road were both involved. (People still drive on the right side in my dreams.) The victim had also left behind a bunch of random posters, news clippings, assorted objects, etc., and we were sure they meant something, but we couldn't figure out what. I don't quite remember the first method I tried to use to decipher them, but it ended up not working, and our three days of trial were running out, but then I realized that each item corresponded with a song, like the song would be "Cruel Cruel Summer", and one of the news articles would have the word "cruel" in it, so "cruel" would be the keyword, and you had to find all the keywords and arrange them to make the message left by the victim. Then the dream morphed into Harry Potter, ( and I guess I should cut this in case of spoilers )

ALL IN ALL A MUCH BETTER BOOK 6, DON'T YOU THINK?

Kyoto is very awesome and also very hot. My area of town is pretty modern, so I don't have all the old shrines and stuff that the main part of the city has, but it also means my apartment's a bit nicer (and has air conditioning!) There's a Book Off right across the street, but I'm going to be good and not buy anything there until I get my first paycheck. (What is the Prince of Tennis OVA "Invitation" DVD, anyway?) There's an ice cream shop a few blocks away, but ironically, it's too hot to go there. I feel very sure that I'll horribly offend everyone I come in contact with and do a terrible job at school, but I think a lot of that is me being thrown for a loop by my uncle's death. :/ Today I need to figure out the washing machine, and then repack so I can go to Gifu for Obon.

This evening I will attempt to brave the Tokyo subway system and go to Ikebukuro. Then I have an outing with my prefecture which will probably involve drinking and karaoke. \o/

My hotel room is directly across the street from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which is a big LOL for all you X peeps out there. The flight was pretty uneventful. It didn't seem 13 hours long, so I guess I slept a lot, but I'm still exhausted. I think I'll change my money and then sleep till forever.