Finally a Japanese post!
So, we start my "OH HAY TOKYO" post with your typical mirror shot in a bathroom of consistence. What in Japan do I mean by that? I mean this, where the soap, water, and hand-drier is automatic and not only that, but all in one spot. I've been looking for something so consistent ever since yuka02 burned it in my mind two years ago in Vancouver. So, it was our first full day in Tokyo and I had found the Holy Grail of bathrooms. From then on I knew this trip was going to be spesharu.
It doesn't help, at all, that tsunayoshi and I are near perfect travel companions. From the moment we dorked in the airport trying to find the train to our station, to the moment we climbed up the steps out of the subway followed by my "Oh god, they drive on the wrong side of the road in Japan. Dammmmmit.", to the moment we walked into Ace Inn Shinjuku and Kelly's credit card didn't work, and even to the moment we had to wrestle our way onto a very small elevator full of Australians; I knew Kelly and I were meant to do this trip.
It was 50 degrees out the Monday night we landed in Tokyo. This was a giant change from the negatives in Wisconsin, and we actually walked around without our coats on. We explored the area, very residential and cozy. Something the both of us were okay with. And, just around the corner was The Tempura Place, serving the best tempura I had ever tasted. Who would have thought that we would be eating 80% of our meals there?
We returned back to our floor, surrounded by a dozen wooden capsules. I took the bottom one, Kelly claimed the top, and we head-desked when we realized Japanese plugs were not three-pronged but two. So, we were there with little charge in our laptops and nothing we could do about it. Our first mission in Tokyo. Not only that, but I managed to break my beautiful Skull Candy headphones on the long plane-ride there, so new headphones were also on the list. (In the end, I ended up not getting headphones until the end, which was fine with me.)
So, the second day, we got up early and went to Shinjuku, mission in mind. We ended up going to an eight-story mall filled with woman's clothing and accessories. And by woman's clothing I mean half the mall was expensive lolita brand stores. Kelly's heaven. She's a cute Asian and can do that, though ♥ On the top floor was a punk shop dedicated to having shirts and jackets with ridiculous Engrish that was trying to be poetic, we think, but made next to no sense. In the store, I bought my new favorite white knit hat with a yellow pin that says "FUCK IT!" and a black pin with...a cute skull thing on it, I think. ;; I walked around with the pin for days before an Aussie in our hostel told me he thought it was offensive. He was also drunk, though, so he barely counts. Oh Japan, stop selling profane things to people who can't speak English. I wonder if there's a Japanese girl walking around with the same pin. Hm.
Following that, we took a train to Harajuku, the very energetic street packed with Asians and foreigners alike. It was a little humbling knowing I look like a halfsie and not full blond hair-blue eyed white chick, so I blended 'ok' in the busy street. Kelly had her eyes peeled for lolita stores, but I...I had my own mission. I needed a coat. I had my black, wool, Navy jacket (as I call it) but it was large and not fitting and frankly, quite embarrassing compared to all the feminine coats all the fashionable Tokyo civilians were wearing. So, we stopped at stores and I tried on girly jackets with fur and fitted waistbands and what have you, but there was one thing standing in my way. I was not a Japanese girl. I was, in fact, a Caucasian woman. So the sleeves were too short and the armpits a little awkward, a complete downer. Then, we found a male jacket store. And, I have to say, them Japanese boys be stylish. All of their coats were great, sexy, and way more feminine that mens coats in the states. So, we traveled to the second floor and I found it. The green coat. It was long enough to cover the fat part of my thighs, zip up/button up, hoody, sleeves the perfect length...my coat. So, with a lame excuse that it was for my boyfriend who is the same size as me, (winkwink) I bought it happily.
Then, we wandered until it got dark, went to H&M and didn't even try to go into Forever 21. It was time to head back, but not before grabbing a Japanese crepe. Why Japanese? Why not French? These weren't French. It was your typical "I think I know what a crepe is :/" crepe. Cold, round, with fruit and chocolate and icecream inside. It was tasty, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't flat, warm, slightly crunchy and delicious like in Paris PICKY. I joked about it to Kelly, explaining to her how Japanese these were, and we sat on a blocked off set of stairs in an ally, joking about France vs. Japan and, of course, the constant in our trip, Supernatural.
I don't really remember if it was that night or the next, but we did locate a plug for our room, which is important to my story eventually. I also don't remember if it was this night or not, but returning home we got lost. It was probably even the day after Comiket, but I'll tell it now because I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE. Basically, we were lost somewhere in Shinjuku, which was classy of us but it didn't bring us down for a second. We managed to waltz our way into a bookstore, looking for a map to get back to the hostel. And what was in that honya? An old Reborn poster with all the TYL!Guardians saying some classy things. ...that is...
We're not really sure what Ryohei is saying. Which we derped HARD thinking about Ryohei using complicated kanji. Typical. Worth getting lost over~
And, on our way back, and I know it was this night, we were walking through Shinjuku and admiring the blue lights for Christmas and New Years, the beautiful lights of the town...it will be burned into my head forever.
The lights.
Ruining the moment with my dick face.
Breathtaking.
And, my pedo peaking out. We were in some random park before---before we got LOST, this WAS the night hahahahaha;;;; But yeah, we were sitting, admiring the lights, and I turned to take an innocent photo of where we were, and this adorable kid jumps up all smiles and starts walking along the brick ledge where we were sitting. So, of course I took a photo. And I love this photo. It's not all pro or anything, but to capture such genuine innocent joy...it was worth the night.
The following day was Comiket and Rebocon3. We threw on our outfits for Ranpou and G. and made our way to the largest comic festival in Japan (I'm assuming. Holy. Shit.) I didn't take a picture of the place but I should have. It was packed. You couldn't really comfortably stand anywhere. If anyone would be making a profit, it would be there. And, after some searching, we located kurot's table and I bought everything she had to offer. She's my sister after all x( ♥ And, to my great surprise, midnightbanshee was there too, very calm and stoic and slightly intimidating. Very pretty and the two of them together was great. So, after hugging my sis over and over and dropping some of my shit off at her table, we continued throughout the con. tsunayoshi bought a million different doujins for the world and I found a few for myself. The convention, other than seeing kurot, midnightbansee and their very nice friends, was kind of a disappointment otherwise. I was expecting amazing cosplayers everywhere and what have you, but Japanese cosplays suck. Everything is bought in stores there and bleh. So, it was a boost to my spirits to know I'm not a complete fail;; Although. Although. I saw a really great Ryohei cosplayer. I've seen her photos online and she was super pretty irl too. Not extreme personality wise so I still have that going for me, but wow. I wish I said hi, maybe.
Then, we picked up our stuff from kurot and decided to meet up with her later at Rebocon. Which we didn't end up meeting up at all. Which was insanely sad and we felt awful, but really, was a big place and we didn't have each other's numbers or anything. D8 So, again, sorry sis, I'll make it up to you! ♥ So. Rebocon. I wasn't suuuuper excited for the concert, mostly because we were so tired out and derping a lot. But, then we saw Japanese!Sam Winchester and everything got a lot better. After wandering the center for awhile, we finally found where we needed to be and...we were some of the first people in the actual line. The everyone starting getting the hint and...wow.
Wow.
So, because we were loud and dick Americans, we decided to bitch a lot about random shit and then took dick pictures of each other. Like dicks.
Me doing my Jared Padalecki mocking Jensen Ackles' model face.
Kelly being a diiiick which I told her about every 5 minutes when she was G. I mean, what a dick tattoo.
Being a dick too.
More dickage.
And because we shooooould have a nice photo. There's one more that I want to post and that's the photo midnightbanshee took of Kelly, kurot and me. It's derp, a photo from the convention of us actually posing and in character and in our outfits without jacket or hat. 8[ Will nab from sis.
And, as for Rebocon itself, you can find a very detailed report on tsunayoshi's journal here! My two bits are useless because the concert was amazing and hilarious and I-pin and Lambo's song was adorable beyond anything and Ryohei was a pimp the whole time and Squalo was only two feet away from me at one point and hfkdhsf. Seriously. I am so happy I didn't miss this. Lost my voice after it was over in the sexiest of ways and I spoke Japanese and sounded like Lambo and Kelly and I laughed for hours about it. Seriously. It doesn't get better than that.
Skipping ahead to New Years Eve. We decided to go to Shibuya for the night, just for fun. There we got some cakes at Starbucks and then decided the best possible dinner to end 2009 would be at McDonalds. Naturally. It was basically too big of meet for the buns and Burger King fries in, and get this Americans, a Smoking room. Yeah. Everyone in there was smoking. It was insane to me! I don't think they even do that in Paris anymore. So, it was a really really really funny experience and left us with a stomach ache. It worth it leaving though, coming out onto the street to see a huge Hummer with "NUTS" on it and some spiel about it being "AN AMERICAN WEDDING"! I don't know. I took a picture of it on my phone since I didn't have my camera on me, but my phone is dead so I can't show you. It was hilarious though. And, at that moment, some Americans were passing by and burst out laughing going "What the fuck? What the fuck does that even mean?! Hahahaha!" It was...kind of nice seeing American English speakers instead of just Australian and such. It was very rare. ♥
Then, we skipped on over to some convenience store and bought us some alcohol. Not a lot, at all, which was actually a little sadface, but that's okay because the following night we decided to buy some more and make up for it. Less classy the second time but still awesome. In any case, we bought our booze, went back to the hostel, and started our Supernatural drinking game!
There really. Really is no better way to start 2010 than watching Supernatural and drinking whenever someone says "Sam" or "Dean". You guys should know about this though, because it definitely involved some drunk posting from yours truly!
Classy drunk picture, I know this. It also involved e-mailing my mum drunk. She thought it was hilarious idk XD ♥ I would do this game every night if I had the choice. Oh wait. No I wouldn't. Because I'm not a drunk. XD That being said, I would play this game with my mum. I should pull out some wine from downstairs and challenge her, the lush ♥ ♥
Anyway, then we spent our days more relaxing and trying to find things for people. We found a lot of doujin stores and bought a lot of doujin, but it was kind of unsatisfying merch wise. We really. Really didn't find a lot of the stuff I was looking for. Including no monokuro boo merch, any decent D.Gray-man merch for guuuu. We did find a store FULL of Reborn shit though, but gosh, we didn't need any of it. That was, however, the day I decided I was going to cosplay Doctor "Bad Touch" Mukuro. This is big news guys, and it will involve it's own separate post because seriously. It's huge.
One of the days, I believe the day before Kelly got sick, we found ourselves....The Pokemon Center. We were such little kids, skipping up to it with shit-eating grins on our faces. The store was a lot smaller than I imagined, and I was doubly disappointed when they were out of Umbreon/Blackie plushies, which was my goal there. That was fine though because I bought my mum a Pikachu tin and myself and without_reason a Golden Magikarp plushy. At this point, I was extremely low on cash and was assuming I would be SOL money wise so, I didn't get anything else for you without_reason. However, with Kelly and I getting sick and not going out that much after that, I really could have gotten you everything on your list. ;A; So I'm sorry for that!
It ended up being 1080yen, which is $11.55USD~ I'll e-mail you more info later ♥ ♥
Then, the day Kelly got sick, we decided to go to the temple in Harajuku. It was a few days after New Years, so we assumed it wouldn't be too crowded...but we were so wrong. We managed to get in about half way before putting our tail between our legs and leaving. There had to have been at least a two hour wait to get in there. It was like...Holocaust crowded. D| Yeah, awkward.
Yeah.
But, despite the crowds, the place really was beautiful, hidden within a forest area. It was beautiful and, even though we didn't make it to the actual temple, it was not a waste of time.
When we got back to the hostel, having ended our day after that because Kelly really wasn't feeling well, we had to deal with Kelly's sudden wave of sickness. We spent the rest of the day and night relaxing. I had to listen to her constant whining lmfao but that was fine. We had accomplished so much the past few days, relaxing was necessary. Or, at least that's what I thought until the following day, or last full day in Tokyo, when I got sick. Very sick. I ended up spending more time in bed than Kelly had the previous day and almost didn't go out at all until I forced myself up and out. And, I'm happy we did. We made our way to Shinjuku again and I found a gift for ryouga_elliot the fucking love of my life, and...low and behold...the purikura. Finally. Kelly was just starting to feel better and I was definitely in a feverish "Fuck my life" stage of the sickness and yet it all seemed to numb out with the sudden happiness that we had found purikura!! So, in we went, to four different machines, raping them alive. And damn, we looked so good for a couple of ill people. Seriously.
How. About. That. XDDD We look so bitchin' it hurts a little. I wonder how good we would have looked had we been healthy?? ♥ Seriously though, we were a couple of sweaty heaps of sick. You can see my hair curling a bit because I was so hot. Ah well ♥ I can't stop pulling these out of my wallet and just staring at them. Win. Win. Win.
And before I forget: Do you know how Kelly and I knew were going in the right direction in our station? Because when we got to our area, we were greeted by a dozen advertisements for Kingdom Hearts.
Then, the following day we took the train to the airport. It was a goofy train ride involving me being sicker than the day before and just wanting to go home and sleep in a real bed. We got there and my tickets didn't have seat numbers. My head was pounding. My body aching. Kelly was somewhere on the same level as I was and we gave each other a sick, pained hug goodbye and went our separate ways. I managed to score myself a window seat after a bit of groveling to the agent. I was felt up on the way in, the US looking for bombs and shit on me. And then they searched through my carry-ons. With all the flights I've been on, I've never had to go through this. It might have been the fact I was leaving Japan and flying in to New York, but wow. It wasn't a big deal though, just interesting. The plane was really nice with leather seats and TVs in the back of seats. I've only had this twice before so it was nice to have this back as my flight to Tokyo wasn't nearly as nice. The food sucked on this flight, unfortunately, but I was so sick I didn't really have an appetite to begin with. Then, after what felt like 3 hours instead of 12 and a half, we landed in New York. This is when I wanted to punch myself in the face over and over again. I had to go through security again leaving the plane. I had to get my luggage and recheck it in, which, usually on connecting flights they just do that for you. Then I had to get to Terminal 3 on the AirTrain. This was my plan. I was on a mission. I talked to the agent by the AirTrain exit and he tells me I'm in Terminal 3. Impossible. I should be in Terminal 4. So, this bastard tells me to go outside and around to ask them where my gate is. They say it's indeed in Terminal 3 and that I needed to get back in line to go through security. I told them I was just connecting and had been through security twice already. They bitched at me about how I had went outside and now I had to go through security again. So. I managed to skip ahead a bit since my flight was coming up soon, and had to go through security a third time. I was sick and crying a bit at this point because omg what a waste of time and I still didn't even know where my gate was in Terminal 3. So, I leave the security check and...I look up. And in Gate 1, the gate directly beside the path I took to go outside, is my flight.
So, I managed to get on and fly window home to Chicago. It was supposed to be a three hour flight but it turned into an hour and a half. It felt like 5 minutes, which startled me beyond words. Aaaand my mum knew it was going to be early and I managed to walk out of Chicago with no problems at all and get home and sleeeep. So, it was painless except for the bullshit in New York. ♥
And, since I've been back I've...slept. A lot. And have been coughing up a storm. I kind of want to go to the fabric store next week and pick up fabric for my cosplaaays that I should be working on. And what have you. But gosh, I'm so winded I doubt I'll go anywhere haha;;
Oh, also, here are the doujins I purchased~
1. 8033
2. 33Ipin ♥
3. 8033
4/5/6/7. 3318
1. Um...Primo/Third? Xanxus/Tsuna?? Idk, beautiful artwork, super deep.
2. No pairing? XDD
3/4. D18
5. Byakuran/Shouichi
6. Jecht/Tidus (FFX lmfao)
kurot's doujins!
1. 2759 yesssss
2. 8059 (If I remember right;;;)
3. 80/59/Gokudera's mom
4. 1827
5. 69/27 (Collab with midnightbanshee!)
asterisque, you're welcome to chose 4 or 5 for youself ♥ I want to keep the first one for myself and the other ones aren't Tsuna pairings, but if you're interested in those too you can have what you want x) I mean, you'll have to buy it from me but hfkds hahaha XD They're $4 each ♥ If I'm not mistaken. It was 2000yen for all 5, that's how I figure~ ♥ ♥
Whoooooo, this post is definitely not for dial-up users. But there you go! A lot of you guys have been bugging me up a wall to tell you about Japan, and I've been too foggy in the head to say anything. But I'm feeling a bit better so here you go XD This took a couple of hours to write nnn but I'm happy it's done with now XD ♥ Don't take any of my photos, I don't want my bandwidth to exceed because you want this shit XD
Also, I'm not pissed off, but discographic, that's what's going on in my moodtheme. Not as cool as Dean punching Sam in the face, gotta say. XDDD
And, last night I had a beautiful time speaking with sugar_and_synth. She's seriously amazing and I can't wait to see more of her and Liz. ♥ It's really not everyday I can have a fullblown conversation about driving, rainbows, and lakes. That's the sign of a lasting relationship. ♥
♥
Also...twitter. I have one. douchehole@twitter. Follow me. I...I realized doing small posts is essential to life. I'm not going to be a big tweeter crazy person lmfao but I can't deny it anymore. So yeah, gogogo, welcome me into your arms.