Tokyo, I just keep coming back to you...
Hey hey hey, everybody!
I'm ALIVE and I made it to Tokyo! :D
So, here's your first of many updates. :D
I'll split this into two cuts to spare your friendslist.
Now, as my third trip across this particular pond, I wasn't too aprensive about the flight. However, this was the very first time that I had ever taken such a long flight completely alone. SCAd tried to book us in pairs so that we wouldn't be too concerned about getting lost, but they said, "Huh, who's that person with that flight through Portland?" I slowly raised my hand, "Yeaaah, you were the odd one out, we couldn't get anyone on your flight. HAVE FUN. 8D"
...D8
BUT THANKFULLY, I've been through international flights enough times I wasn't completely mystified. The first flight was short and fine, but I was sitting next to a very fidgetty old man, who was nervous enough it made ME nervous. Second flight I sat next to a nice older couple, but I slept that whole flight, so it was ALL GOOD.
Third flight, the 10:55 hour one, I had NO ONE sitting next to me. 8D GLEE! I was able to stretch out my legs and be cozy, use the other tray for my art supplies, and otherwise be comfortable. Now, I WAS surrounded by babies; all of which who cried 80% of the time. But, I drowned them out with my headphones and it was alright, so. :D
Since I had room, I painted using my niji pens (pens that load up with water) and watercolors. I drew a lotlot of Haro-tan and figured out how I'm going to sew her. Some Madam Red. Some LoTiKo. Buncha Lolis. STRANGE ABSENSE OF OCs. AND YOITE. I NEED TO CHRISTEN THIS SKETCHBOOK WITH A YOITE AND AN ELF. THEN IT WILL BE AN OFFICIAL LILLY SKETCHBOOK.
During the last hour or so, I slithered Adelais and Lirael, my stowaways, out of the bag and took some cute shots with them, peering out the window and being otherwise cute. I kept looking all around to see if a stewardess was coming, LOL.
ANYHOW. SO.
We get here, just within an hour of each other, which worked out perfectly. We hopped on the bus, and all rode here together. Woo! It's really neat to see everyone's reactions to their first time in Japan. One thing I noticed strongly was that coming back to Japan weirdly felt like coming home. Not in a weeaboo "I'M HOME" way- more like visiting an old friend; one I learn new things about each time I visit them.
I unwittingly hung out with our visiting artists (who are awesome and like... really famous and stuff in the comics world. NO PRESSURE LALALALALA.
On the drive in, we stopped in front of a luxury hotel at a stoplight, and out burst from the lobby doors inside a beautiful bride and her husband, literally fresh from the altar, and they were so sweet and happy and bright. It was really beautiful and amazing. I love seeing things like that; I snapped a picture, but it was far away. ;w;
Anyway, my roommate is Dawn, who is adorable, so everything's good there. We spent a bit of time laughing at Japanese TV and then went to sleep relatively early.
NOW FOR TODAY. :D
Now for today...
In case you weren't aware, this trip is mostly about classes (LOL sorta). I'm getting 10 class credits by coming here, and taking two full-scale classes that cram a semester into one week. LOL.
So, in the mornings we had our little intro classes. AWESOME. Assignments are gonna be intense, but that's okay. :D LOL I will be working on like... seven comics at once during this break. And cosplay. LOL. I AM GONNA DIE. ...AGAIN.
I woke up obscenely early and so I just went ahead and got ready; curled my hair and such, watched some Japanese morning TV. 8D Always fun. There was a show about teaching English. Annay, the word of the day was ROPE. They kept saying "ROPE" over and over and all I could think of was Sensei. ROFL. And then a program in which an older-brother figure was trying to slither along the ground with his little sister lying with her back to his back and trying to stay on. ...I don't know either, but it was cute. :D
SO ANYHOW.
After classes, we had a tiny break to go dump our stuff and then venture back out to the Meji-Jingu. Sort of silly for me, since it's my third time going there, BUT! We caught a wedding there! Now, I saw a wedding there before, but I was shy and didn't take any pictures. It turns out that it's COMPLETELY acceptable to take pictures of the happy couple; locals crowded REALLY close and got shots; not the family either, just wandering visitors; so I actually took some shots. They were very beautiful and very gracious and bowed to whoever took their picture. Then, Dove and Goto (two of my professors), made noises about going to an old dojo and watching the archers.
Amber and Grace, my two partners in crime (We're the only sophomores on the trip, LOLz), followed him because that seemed really neat; and we were tagging along with the visiting artists, too. We couldn't speak as we came to the bleachers, and everything was so quiet and methodical. Each archer approached the platform across from the targets as if they were on a train track. Their little tabi-feet barely left the ground as they slid the arrows into HUGE bows that were almost twice what the archers were tall, and slowly, slowly pulled back, and fired. Most of the archers were women, but they were so powerful, and so strong, even in their stances. I drew really quick figure drawings of them to use for Maerea later, since she's an archer.
After they were done, we slipped away, and we were set loose from chaperones:
IN HARAJUKU.
Lillyface: 8DDDD
I was wearing a mostly-BABY coordinate, complete with huge shoes, and since I knew were things were in Harajuku, Grace and Amber went with me to explore. :D
I knew I was back when I walked down Takeshita Doori; it's so surreal being back so soon. I knew where things were, and sometimes even the shops were laid out the same. Snoopytown moved (we found it later, don't worry!). We wandered down the shops and stuck our heads in lots of little shops.
I must say it was an amazing, very different experience to be in Harajuku with girls my age that I could DRESS. XD And that could dart up and down stairs with me, or take time to just aimlessly wander. It was a BLAST and we did a ton, so I'll give you the highlights. :D
We stopped at Wawamelon first, to giggle over the silly shirts, and then made a bee-line to Paris Kids. In which, I COMPLETELY FILLED MY LITTLE TRAY. Which has never happened before. ROFL. But half of it was on the 105 yen booth, and who could pass that up?! And since now I'm full-tilt Sweet Lolita (I wasn't before, really), I was able to find a lot of cute sweets jewelry without paying through the nose on EGL. :D YAY.
We moved along and Grace and I went into Wonder Rocket. BEAUTIFUL STORE FFF I WANTED TO BUY EVERYTHING. It's sort of a rebirth of natural kei; and I got a bunch of pictures inside and sneaked some of the shopgirls, since they were so cute. Inexpensive, too! When we have more time, I'll go back and see if I can try some things on and see if things suit me. :D
Moving down the street, we hopped in the various little shops, and then were feeling pretty peckish, so we went down to where the Meji-dori runs into Omotesando. We ate at a place called Tabasa; a pasta place in the basement. It was tasty, but it had been sitting out a while, we think... Ah, well, s'ok. ANYHOOT. SO. After we ate, we peddled right to La Foret, and skittered to the basement, where all of the Lolita shops were.
MUCH FUN ENSUED. Besides me running around going 8DDDDDD, I managed to stick Amber into some really pretty Lolita (OMG SHE WOULD BE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CLASSIC LOLI EVER FFFF I WANT TO BE HER LOLI PATRON). I found out that Grace's mom is a seamstress and sews Lolita, and is trying to start a brand up. Maybe I can help her somehow? GLB maybe? I also found out she's Loli at home. And sitting outside Kiddyland, I found out we both love FF12 and have a severe Larsa adoration; though Baschface comes first. Oh, Baschface. :D Still, spiffyneattimes. It's fun to get to know SCAD people outside of SCAD and see what they do and are up to at play instead of work.
ANYHOW.
After nearly dying with squee over the Angelic Pretty shop, I got the Wonder Party pinkxblue skirt and two pairs of socks. I wish the OP was there, but it was sold out. The shopgirls were really cute and friendly. :D They were of course, perfectly coordinated, and were so cheerful and chatty.
OH AND. THE SOUNDTRACK IN THE STORE? PERFUME.
I started doing the Perfect Style, Perfect Star dance when it came on, and the girls giggled and did it, too. It was so cute to peck out what we meant, since I spoke hardly any Japanese, and she hardly any English. Amber was highly entertained by both of our hand motions to explain what we meant. (apparently my "is there a matching headbow?" hand motion looks a lot like Mickey Mouse.) But I held up different socks and things to make a coordinate, and fussed and it was so cute. Y'know, AP fit me a lot better than I thought it might; the skirt fit me without any fussings or sucking in air. Good to remember, since BABY is kind of tight on me at times.
There was a bookstore on the same floor, and I scooped up the latest GLB, Kerasnap, and KeraManiax. As I am wont to do. And they gave me two free posters! SWEET! AND, I noticed they had the takubons of Black butler sitting there. I near squealed for a thousand years; I dunno, there's just something really cool about looking down and seeing your fandom so current and alive. 8D SWEET.
I went into Meta to look at their swan series. Really pretty print, but the fabric... the fabric felt cheap. It wasn't shiny like on the site for whatever reason, and the detacheable tulle hem was cool; but the fabric felt simply too... cheap. It was just as much as a skirt from AP, so I decided against it because. :| Seriously, wtf.
ANYWAY. I saw a Swimmer. 8D but couldn't spend much time there. We went on though to KIDDYLAND~~~. Which was great fun; THAT was where Snoopytown moved! Neat! Went to the cute characters and got some hairpins. Teehee. Then I shot upstairs to the Anime floor and hunted for Haro. Sorry, sweeties, no luck. I saw a bunch of Gundam figures; the Virtue was really small, and Dynames was HUGE. They also had small figures of the Gundam 00 girls. Pfft, screw that, I want ones of the meisters. ffft.
There was also Moyoshimon(Sp? Tales of Agriculture, AKA the Microbe one) figures. Super-cute. And Chi's Sweet home! FFFF MY TEETH ROT OUT.
Then we backtracked and went to Body Line. Amber was discouranged because Brands are so pricey; and going to BL really made them both smile. I got a nice petti there (a GOOD one, not the cheap one this time.) And danced to the Para Para Disney music. (skfmlkdsfm if I had that kind of music to work on my comics to, I'd be like... done in a day, it's so energizing and happy. 8D)
Then Amber spotted a neat bag with comics patterned on it, and we went in to see how much it was. The guy spoke perfect English, and we found out we were to barter in this shop. I did pretty well; but it was still a bit too much, but the conversation was so LOL. But it's sorta hard to write down; you sort of had to be there. He was calling be baby and sweetheart, and then when I started agressively bartering, he saw I meant business and we near attacked each other with our calculators, ROFL.
We didn't get to Closet Child, but I'll go there on my own, because I think I drug poor Amber and Grace through enough Loli stores. ROFL. I think I'll find Haro at Animate. I was a TOTAL NERD and printed out a list of my fandoms, so I can just point 8D
So I haul back home, exhausted but awake, and a bit hungry (McD's soon. First Japanese McDonalds experience, GET) And my roommate is...dead asleep. at 8pm. I kind of O_o and tiptoe around in the dark, change into Jeans and a t-shirt, count my reciepts, and then scramble down here.
So yay! There you have it. My first two days in Tokyo!
Tomorrow we've got classes, and then going to Akihabara in the evening. So, Gamers then and Animate, and LOLz Purikura with Grace and Amber I hope.
It's really, really awesome to be experiencing Tokyo semi-on-my-own. Though I adore my family, sometimes my Tokyo excitement made it hard for them to catch up, or I felt the need to entertain everyone. Here, if someone decides this isn't their bag, they just split and I don't need to fuss after them. :D
As funny as it sounds, I've been doing great with money. (ROFL, it sounds like I spent a fortune, I swear I didn't), Praying this good-with-money keeps up the whole trip, lulz.
Weather hasn't been too bad. Yet. We shall see, LOL.
Still need to wrangle a time at Swallowtail... ANYHOW.
HUNGRY TIMES. FOOD NOW.
I love you guys, I really, really miss you all, especially my darling Sushigirls; I wish you were here with me!
XOXOXOXOXO
~Lilly
I'm ALIVE and I made it to Tokyo! :D
So, here's your first of many updates. :D
I'll split this into two cuts to spare your friendslist.
Now, as my third trip across this particular pond, I wasn't too aprensive about the flight. However, this was the very first time that I had ever taken such a long flight completely alone. SCAd tried to book us in pairs so that we wouldn't be too concerned about getting lost, but they said, "Huh, who's that person with that flight through Portland?" I slowly raised my hand, "Yeaaah, you were the odd one out, we couldn't get anyone on your flight. HAVE FUN. 8D"
...D8
BUT THANKFULLY, I've been through international flights enough times I wasn't completely mystified. The first flight was short and fine, but I was sitting next to a very fidgetty old man, who was nervous enough it made ME nervous. Second flight I sat next to a nice older couple, but I slept that whole flight, so it was ALL GOOD.
Third flight, the 10:55 hour one, I had NO ONE sitting next to me. 8D GLEE! I was able to stretch out my legs and be cozy, use the other tray for my art supplies, and otherwise be comfortable. Now, I WAS surrounded by babies; all of which who cried 80% of the time. But, I drowned them out with my headphones and it was alright, so. :D
Since I had room, I painted using my niji pens (pens that load up with water) and watercolors. I drew a lotlot of Haro-tan and figured out how I'm going to sew her. Some Madam Red. Some LoTiKo. Buncha Lolis. STRANGE ABSENSE OF OCs. AND YOITE. I NEED TO CHRISTEN THIS SKETCHBOOK WITH A YOITE AND AN ELF. THEN IT WILL BE AN OFFICIAL LILLY SKETCHBOOK.
During the last hour or so, I slithered Adelais and Lirael, my stowaways, out of the bag and took some cute shots with them, peering out the window and being otherwise cute. I kept looking all around to see if a stewardess was coming, LOL.
ANYHOW. SO.
We get here, just within an hour of each other, which worked out perfectly. We hopped on the bus, and all rode here together. Woo! It's really neat to see everyone's reactions to their first time in Japan. One thing I noticed strongly was that coming back to Japan weirdly felt like coming home. Not in a weeaboo "I'M HOME" way- more like visiting an old friend; one I learn new things about each time I visit them.
I unwittingly hung out with our visiting artists (who are awesome and like... really famous and stuff in the comics world. NO PRESSURE LALALALALA.
On the drive in, we stopped in front of a luxury hotel at a stoplight, and out burst from the lobby doors inside a beautiful bride and her husband, literally fresh from the altar, and they were so sweet and happy and bright. It was really beautiful and amazing. I love seeing things like that; I snapped a picture, but it was far away. ;w;
Anyway, my roommate is Dawn, who is adorable, so everything's good there. We spent a bit of time laughing at Japanese TV and then went to sleep relatively early.
NOW FOR TODAY. :D
Now for today...
In case you weren't aware, this trip is mostly about classes (LOL sorta). I'm getting 10 class credits by coming here, and taking two full-scale classes that cram a semester into one week. LOL.
So, in the mornings we had our little intro classes. AWESOME. Assignments are gonna be intense, but that's okay. :D LOL I will be working on like... seven comics at once during this break. And cosplay. LOL. I AM GONNA DIE. ...AGAIN.
I woke up obscenely early and so I just went ahead and got ready; curled my hair and such, watched some Japanese morning TV. 8D Always fun. There was a show about teaching English. Annay, the word of the day was ROPE. They kept saying "ROPE" over and over and all I could think of was Sensei. ROFL. And then a program in which an older-brother figure was trying to slither along the ground with his little sister lying with her back to his back and trying to stay on. ...I don't know either, but it was cute. :D
SO ANYHOW.
After classes, we had a tiny break to go dump our stuff and then venture back out to the Meji-Jingu. Sort of silly for me, since it's my third time going there, BUT! We caught a wedding there! Now, I saw a wedding there before, but I was shy and didn't take any pictures. It turns out that it's COMPLETELY acceptable to take pictures of the happy couple; locals crowded REALLY close and got shots; not the family either, just wandering visitors; so I actually took some shots. They were very beautiful and very gracious and bowed to whoever took their picture. Then, Dove and Goto (two of my professors), made noises about going to an old dojo and watching the archers.
Amber and Grace, my two partners in crime (We're the only sophomores on the trip, LOLz), followed him because that seemed really neat; and we were tagging along with the visiting artists, too. We couldn't speak as we came to the bleachers, and everything was so quiet and methodical. Each archer approached the platform across from the targets as if they were on a train track. Their little tabi-feet barely left the ground as they slid the arrows into HUGE bows that were almost twice what the archers were tall, and slowly, slowly pulled back, and fired. Most of the archers were women, but they were so powerful, and so strong, even in their stances. I drew really quick figure drawings of them to use for Maerea later, since she's an archer.
After they were done, we slipped away, and we were set loose from chaperones:
IN HARAJUKU.
Lillyface: 8DDDD
I was wearing a mostly-BABY coordinate, complete with huge shoes, and since I knew were things were in Harajuku, Grace and Amber went with me to explore. :D
I knew I was back when I walked down Takeshita Doori; it's so surreal being back so soon. I knew where things were, and sometimes even the shops were laid out the same. Snoopytown moved (we found it later, don't worry!). We wandered down the shops and stuck our heads in lots of little shops.
I must say it was an amazing, very different experience to be in Harajuku with girls my age that I could DRESS. XD And that could dart up and down stairs with me, or take time to just aimlessly wander. It was a BLAST and we did a ton, so I'll give you the highlights. :D
We stopped at Wawamelon first, to giggle over the silly shirts, and then made a bee-line to Paris Kids. In which, I COMPLETELY FILLED MY LITTLE TRAY. Which has never happened before. ROFL. But half of it was on the 105 yen booth, and who could pass that up?! And since now I'm full-tilt Sweet Lolita (I wasn't before, really), I was able to find a lot of cute sweets jewelry without paying through the nose on EGL. :D YAY.
We moved along and Grace and I went into Wonder Rocket. BEAUTIFUL STORE FFF I WANTED TO BUY EVERYTHING. It's sort of a rebirth of natural kei; and I got a bunch of pictures inside and sneaked some of the shopgirls, since they were so cute. Inexpensive, too! When we have more time, I'll go back and see if I can try some things on and see if things suit me. :D
Moving down the street, we hopped in the various little shops, and then were feeling pretty peckish, so we went down to where the Meji-dori runs into Omotesando. We ate at a place called Tabasa; a pasta place in the basement. It was tasty, but it had been sitting out a while, we think... Ah, well, s'ok. ANYHOOT. SO. After we ate, we peddled right to La Foret, and skittered to the basement, where all of the Lolita shops were.
MUCH FUN ENSUED. Besides me running around going 8DDDDDD, I managed to stick Amber into some really pretty Lolita (OMG SHE WOULD BE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CLASSIC LOLI EVER FFFF I WANT TO BE HER LOLI PATRON). I found out that Grace's mom is a seamstress and sews Lolita, and is trying to start a brand up. Maybe I can help her somehow? GLB maybe? I also found out she's Loli at home. And sitting outside Kiddyland, I found out we both love FF12 and have a severe Larsa adoration; though Baschface comes first. Oh, Baschface. :D Still, spiffyneattimes. It's fun to get to know SCAD people outside of SCAD and see what they do and are up to at play instead of work.
ANYHOW.
After nearly dying with squee over the Angelic Pretty shop, I got the Wonder Party pinkxblue skirt and two pairs of socks. I wish the OP was there, but it was sold out. The shopgirls were really cute and friendly. :D They were of course, perfectly coordinated, and were so cheerful and chatty.
OH AND. THE SOUNDTRACK IN THE STORE? PERFUME.
I started doing the Perfect Style, Perfect Star dance when it came on, and the girls giggled and did it, too. It was so cute to peck out what we meant, since I spoke hardly any Japanese, and she hardly any English. Amber was highly entertained by both of our hand motions to explain what we meant. (apparently my "is there a matching headbow?" hand motion looks a lot like Mickey Mouse.) But I held up different socks and things to make a coordinate, and fussed and it was so cute. Y'know, AP fit me a lot better than I thought it might; the skirt fit me without any fussings or sucking in air. Good to remember, since BABY is kind of tight on me at times.
There was a bookstore on the same floor, and I scooped up the latest GLB, Kerasnap, and KeraManiax. As I am wont to do. And they gave me two free posters! SWEET! AND, I noticed they had the takubons of Black butler sitting there. I near squealed for a thousand years; I dunno, there's just something really cool about looking down and seeing your fandom so current and alive. 8D SWEET.
I went into Meta to look at their swan series. Really pretty print, but the fabric... the fabric felt cheap. It wasn't shiny like on the site for whatever reason, and the detacheable tulle hem was cool; but the fabric felt simply too... cheap. It was just as much as a skirt from AP, so I decided against it because. :| Seriously, wtf.
ANYWAY. I saw a Swimmer. 8D but couldn't spend much time there. We went on though to KIDDYLAND~~~. Which was great fun; THAT was where Snoopytown moved! Neat! Went to the cute characters and got some hairpins. Teehee. Then I shot upstairs to the Anime floor and hunted for Haro. Sorry, sweeties, no luck. I saw a bunch of Gundam figures; the Virtue was really small, and Dynames was HUGE. They also had small figures of the Gundam 00 girls. Pfft, screw that, I want ones of the meisters. ffft.
There was also Moyoshimon(Sp? Tales of Agriculture, AKA the Microbe one) figures. Super-cute. And Chi's Sweet home! FFFF MY TEETH ROT OUT.
Then we backtracked and went to Body Line. Amber was discouranged because Brands are so pricey; and going to BL really made them both smile. I got a nice petti there (a GOOD one, not the cheap one this time.) And danced to the Para Para Disney music. (skfmlkdsfm if I had that kind of music to work on my comics to, I'd be like... done in a day, it's so energizing and happy. 8D)
Then Amber spotted a neat bag with comics patterned on it, and we went in to see how much it was. The guy spoke perfect English, and we found out we were to barter in this shop. I did pretty well; but it was still a bit too much, but the conversation was so LOL. But it's sorta hard to write down; you sort of had to be there. He was calling be baby and sweetheart, and then when I started agressively bartering, he saw I meant business and we near attacked each other with our calculators, ROFL.
We didn't get to Closet Child, but I'll go there on my own, because I think I drug poor Amber and Grace through enough Loli stores. ROFL. I think I'll find Haro at Animate. I was a TOTAL NERD and printed out a list of my fandoms, so I can just point 8D
So I haul back home, exhausted but awake, and a bit hungry (McD's soon. First Japanese McDonalds experience, GET) And my roommate is...dead asleep. at 8pm. I kind of O_o and tiptoe around in the dark, change into Jeans and a t-shirt, count my reciepts, and then scramble down here.
So yay! There you have it. My first two days in Tokyo!
Tomorrow we've got classes, and then going to Akihabara in the evening. So, Gamers then and Animate, and LOLz Purikura with Grace and Amber I hope.
It's really, really awesome to be experiencing Tokyo semi-on-my-own. Though I adore my family, sometimes my Tokyo excitement made it hard for them to catch up, or I felt the need to entertain everyone. Here, if someone decides this isn't their bag, they just split and I don't need to fuss after them. :D
As funny as it sounds, I've been doing great with money. (ROFL, it sounds like I spent a fortune, I swear I didn't), Praying this good-with-money keeps up the whole trip, lulz.
Weather hasn't been too bad. Yet. We shall see, LOL.
Still need to wrangle a time at Swallowtail... ANYHOW.
HUNGRY TIMES. FOOD NOW.
I love you guys, I really, really miss you all, especially my darling Sushigirls; I wish you were here with me!
XOXOXOXOXO
~Lilly