Europe Part One
So it has been a really long while since I posted to LJ. I’ve been busy since I came back from Europe, and I was busy IN Europe. So this will likely be a really long entry.
Went to Tokyo back in December to see Kate and go to the 2011 JUMP Festa (Oh JUMP, why is it the 2011 JUMP Festa?) It was great to see her before I left the country, I might actually attempt to make that a tradition-before I leave Japan, I will see Kate. She is, however, one of my oldest friends here in Japan. <3
I’m not sure if I talked about the 2011 JUMP Festa back in December when I went. I went with Cele-chan and my former rp buddy H, who is totally awesome. 8D Also it is pretty cool to have another Aussie friend who I can totally crash their home in Aussiland should I ever get the chance to return, PLEASE GOD PLEASE because American accents are boring. We went to Gyoza Staduim, which was having a Kuroshitsuji and BLEACH event with the foods. I seriously ate a 40cm long gyoza. I have pictures that are proof of this. I also ate a gyoza that was in the shape of Ichigo’s sword, which was even tastier. My friends got other fun themed gyoza, I think that was it on me, I wanted the regular flavors. Like cheese and miso butter.
The JUMP Festa itself was pretty swanky, and was in a way better location then Comiket ever is. XD Mind you, Makuhari Messe is a lot smaller than Tokyo Big Site, so Comiket could not fit there. Which is sad because Makuhari Messe is a pretty cool name to say. Ahem. Anyway, we got to play the new Capcom vs. Marvel (with Ammy from Okami! I CAN PLAY A WOLF ALONG WITH SPIDERMAN, it’s almost too tempting to resist!), the new Naruto Wii game that has Killer Bee (Cele-chan and I played as Killer Bee and Raikage, respectively. It was badass. Cele-chan wanted to be Naruto and Sasuke, but I rolled my eyes because why would you play as characters that have been in EVERY game when you can play as new ones? I have little desire to play as Kakashi or Tobi despite my absolute love for them. This was about the NEW STUFF.
We also got a flier for the new Miles Edgeworth game, which made me SUPER excited because I did not know that a second was coming out! I am kind of meh on the Miles Edgeworth games and I miss Phoenix SO MUCH, even if he is a hobo now. So here is hoping that Phoenix shows up again. After we walked around forever, marveling at the INSANE lines for merchandise that you can mostly get at Animate or the JUMP shop, the incredibly overpriced foods (but no Ichiraku Ramen! Sadness), and marveling at the huge balloons of super deformed JUMP characters, we tried to go and see Kishimoto talk, only to discover that you had to send in some sort of postcard MONTHS ago to hear him talk. Stupid lottery system! So I did not get to see Kishimoto speak. I hope to GOD that next year, we get in to see him, either through secret means or legitimate ones. Okay the secret means are legit too, but they are secret~!
After that disappointment, we saw the Square Enix booth, and watched trailers for some pretty awesome looking PSP games that are coming out. The only one I saw that remotely had anything to do with JUMP was the new Dragon Quest, and that only because Toriyama-sensei (Dragon Ball) does the art for it.
I did a nice write up of JUMP Festa with pictures at http://ani.me. It’s no longer on the front page, but it’s findable. I’ll try and post a direct link to it later.
We eventually got out of there, had lunch and headed home.
I had a super crappy Monday that involved climbing a mountain and a fence to get to an Elementary school that was truly in the middle of no where, thanks to a crappy map. Because of this, I was late and now have received a written warning of “stop showing up late, sheesh” from my company. This is aggravating because 1) I was extremely late because of faulty directions, 2) When I tried to CALL to report that I was late, the POC NEVER picked up, 3) I had to climb a mountain to get to the school because google maps LIES, 4) My company simply did not care that they had sent me to an unfamiliar place with very little help.
Despite all that, on December 22nd, I was on a plane and OUT OF JAPAN THANK GOD. I needed to get away so badly, none of you have any idea. I think my roommate did, though.
Oh man, Europe. While there was quite a bit of plane fail thanks to the WORST AIRLINE EVER, Lufthansa, I still had an incredibly amazing time. I got into Spain so very, very late because Lufthansa lies (the plane was supposed to leave at 8, I think it left closer to 8:30 or 9, and got in around midnight or 12:30, when they said we’d get in at 11. THIS. NEVER. CHANGED.), and ended up taking a taxi back to my friend A’s apartment. I was SO happy to see a real bed and her roommates have the most crazy and lovable mongrel in the world. His name is Bob, and he is a kind of shepard mix. He loved eating the little tuft of fur I have on my coat. We went out that night for dinner at a nearby bar, and it was lovely. God Bless Spain and it’s idea of dinner doesn’t start til 9pm at the earliest. However that sometimes sucked as well.
I do not remember the details of how everything went down, but while in Spain we wandered around Madrid, seeing mimes and amazing food and all sorts of things. We visited the Prado, which is an AMAZING museum filled with SO many painting that our heads went dizzy after the first two hours, and there was still more to see. I was able to see several Rubens, Velázquez’s famous paintings of the Spanish Royal family, Goya and his Royal paintings, and about a billion others that I can’t remember but they were all so fabulous. A and I were lamenting over the Romans appropriating the Greek Gods and changing their names (Venus might be easier to pronounce than Aphrodite, but Aries will always be a much more fabulous name than Mars. Also, according to Xena and Hercules, Aries is WAY hot. But I will assume my bias comes from my Greek heritage and not the fact that I watched hilariously bad tv shows in my youth).
Around this time I also discovered the joys of the Harry Potter audiobooks. For whatever reason, I was rather jittery and anxious for the first few days in Spain, which lead to good convos with my friend, who has experienced the same problems. Listening to Harry Potter was keeping me calm as it was distracting and enjoyable. This is not to say that I did not enjoy myself in Madrid, I loved it. But when I wasn’t out and about seeing things, it was weird. I think it was culture shock. It was strange beyond words, being in a country where I knew nothing of the language. I kept thinking of ways to converse, but they were all in Japanese. I am actually quite fluent in my head, apparently.
I took loads of pictures, which you can see on my flickr. I will take another post to talk about going to the Rene Sofia and seeing modern art, specifically Piccasso (my first art love), and Dali, who is just an AMAZING artist and so crazy and wild. Ahh, so, SO amazing.
I also saw the Spanish Royal Palace, which was utterly amazing and gorgeous. Probably the most amazing castle I have ever seen. We didn’t take a tour because there wasn’t much time to, and you couldn’t take pictures inside. Maybe if I get the chance to go again, I will.
Went to Tokyo back in December to see Kate and go to the 2011 JUMP Festa (Oh JUMP, why is it the 2011 JUMP Festa?) It was great to see her before I left the country, I might actually attempt to make that a tradition-before I leave Japan, I will see Kate. She is, however, one of my oldest friends here in Japan. <3
I’m not sure if I talked about the 2011 JUMP Festa back in December when I went. I went with Cele-chan and my former rp buddy H, who is totally awesome. 8D Also it is pretty cool to have another Aussie friend who I can totally crash their home in Aussiland should I ever get the chance to return, PLEASE GOD PLEASE because American accents are boring. We went to Gyoza Staduim, which was having a Kuroshitsuji and BLEACH event with the foods. I seriously ate a 40cm long gyoza. I have pictures that are proof of this. I also ate a gyoza that was in the shape of Ichigo’s sword, which was even tastier. My friends got other fun themed gyoza, I think that was it on me, I wanted the regular flavors. Like cheese and miso butter.
The JUMP Festa itself was pretty swanky, and was in a way better location then Comiket ever is. XD Mind you, Makuhari Messe is a lot smaller than Tokyo Big Site, so Comiket could not fit there. Which is sad because Makuhari Messe is a pretty cool name to say. Ahem. Anyway, we got to play the new Capcom vs. Marvel (with Ammy from Okami! I CAN PLAY A WOLF ALONG WITH SPIDERMAN, it’s almost too tempting to resist!), the new Naruto Wii game that has Killer Bee (Cele-chan and I played as Killer Bee and Raikage, respectively. It was badass. Cele-chan wanted to be Naruto and Sasuke, but I rolled my eyes because why would you play as characters that have been in EVERY game when you can play as new ones? I have little desire to play as Kakashi or Tobi despite my absolute love for them. This was about the NEW STUFF.
We also got a flier for the new Miles Edgeworth game, which made me SUPER excited because I did not know that a second was coming out! I am kind of meh on the Miles Edgeworth games and I miss Phoenix SO MUCH, even if he is a hobo now. So here is hoping that Phoenix shows up again. After we walked around forever, marveling at the INSANE lines for merchandise that you can mostly get at Animate or the JUMP shop, the incredibly overpriced foods (but no Ichiraku Ramen! Sadness), and marveling at the huge balloons of super deformed JUMP characters, we tried to go and see Kishimoto talk, only to discover that you had to send in some sort of postcard MONTHS ago to hear him talk. Stupid lottery system! So I did not get to see Kishimoto speak. I hope to GOD that next year, we get in to see him, either through secret means or legitimate ones. Okay the secret means are legit too, but they are secret~!
After that disappointment, we saw the Square Enix booth, and watched trailers for some pretty awesome looking PSP games that are coming out. The only one I saw that remotely had anything to do with JUMP was the new Dragon Quest, and that only because Toriyama-sensei (Dragon Ball) does the art for it.
I did a nice write up of JUMP Festa with pictures at http://ani.me. It’s no longer on the front page, but it’s findable. I’ll try and post a direct link to it later.
We eventually got out of there, had lunch and headed home.
I had a super crappy Monday that involved climbing a mountain and a fence to get to an Elementary school that was truly in the middle of no where, thanks to a crappy map. Because of this, I was late and now have received a written warning of “stop showing up late, sheesh” from my company. This is aggravating because 1) I was extremely late because of faulty directions, 2) When I tried to CALL to report that I was late, the POC NEVER picked up, 3) I had to climb a mountain to get to the school because google maps LIES, 4) My company simply did not care that they had sent me to an unfamiliar place with very little help.
Despite all that, on December 22nd, I was on a plane and OUT OF JAPAN THANK GOD. I needed to get away so badly, none of you have any idea. I think my roommate did, though.
Oh man, Europe. While there was quite a bit of plane fail thanks to the WORST AIRLINE EVER, Lufthansa, I still had an incredibly amazing time. I got into Spain so very, very late because Lufthansa lies (the plane was supposed to leave at 8, I think it left closer to 8:30 or 9, and got in around midnight or 12:30, when they said we’d get in at 11. THIS. NEVER. CHANGED.), and ended up taking a taxi back to my friend A’s apartment. I was SO happy to see a real bed and her roommates have the most crazy and lovable mongrel in the world. His name is Bob, and he is a kind of shepard mix. He loved eating the little tuft of fur I have on my coat. We went out that night for dinner at a nearby bar, and it was lovely. God Bless Spain and it’s idea of dinner doesn’t start til 9pm at the earliest. However that sometimes sucked as well.
I do not remember the details of how everything went down, but while in Spain we wandered around Madrid, seeing mimes and amazing food and all sorts of things. We visited the Prado, which is an AMAZING museum filled with SO many painting that our heads went dizzy after the first two hours, and there was still more to see. I was able to see several Rubens, Velázquez’s famous paintings of the Spanish Royal family, Goya and his Royal paintings, and about a billion others that I can’t remember but they were all so fabulous. A and I were lamenting over the Romans appropriating the Greek Gods and changing their names (Venus might be easier to pronounce than Aphrodite, but Aries will always be a much more fabulous name than Mars. Also, according to Xena and Hercules, Aries is WAY hot. But I will assume my bias comes from my Greek heritage and not the fact that I watched hilariously bad tv shows in my youth).
Around this time I also discovered the joys of the Harry Potter audiobooks. For whatever reason, I was rather jittery and anxious for the first few days in Spain, which lead to good convos with my friend, who has experienced the same problems. Listening to Harry Potter was keeping me calm as it was distracting and enjoyable. This is not to say that I did not enjoy myself in Madrid, I loved it. But when I wasn’t out and about seeing things, it was weird. I think it was culture shock. It was strange beyond words, being in a country where I knew nothing of the language. I kept thinking of ways to converse, but they were all in Japanese. I am actually quite fluent in my head, apparently.
I took loads of pictures, which you can see on my flickr. I will take another post to talk about going to the Rene Sofia and seeing modern art, specifically Piccasso (my first art love), and Dali, who is just an AMAZING artist and so crazy and wild. Ahh, so, SO amazing.
I also saw the Spanish Royal Palace, which was utterly amazing and gorgeous. Probably the most amazing castle I have ever seen. We didn’t take a tour because there wasn’t much time to, and you couldn’t take pictures inside. Maybe if I get the chance to go again, I will.