Walking down Otome Road...
HEY HEY HEY~ IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!
Time for the Lillay Japan 2008 REPORT PART THREE!
Okay, I have like... 20 minutes or something so I better crank out these two days pretty quick. OKAY? OKAY.
SO. Yesterday, got up early, went to classes. :D I won't get into that, because, well, they're classes. We watched Mark Schultz Ink a Dinosaur. 8D AWESOME. I wore a brown outfit, which people COMPLETELY DIDN'T RECOGNIZE ME OUTSIDE OF LOLITA. LOL. Even Mark looked completely over my head and said, "Hey, where's Lilly?" I was RIGHT in front of him, rofl. Goto didn't recognize me either. I suppose this is a good thing? 8D
ANYWAY. So, yesterday AFTER CLASS...
WAS.
THE.
GHIBLI MUSEUM.
*FANGASM GOES HERE*
Now, as many of you know, I can't take pictures in there. Sadface. BUT, I honestly understood why; Ghibli doesn't want their designs taken, and, the whole experience would be ruined if people were taking pictures every few feet. Ghibli said that they wanted going through the musuem to be like being the main character in a story, and that you had to discover everything for yourself. As such, there were no maps or "you are here"s, and you literally stumbled upon exhibits and special rooms.
First of all, getting there was a beautiful walk. The museum is nestled into a gorgeous park (which, when I have time after classes and events, I'm going to go back to), and the leaves are all changing, and the light was just right... I took photos, but it doesn't really capture how pretty and mild it was. And Ghibli was like this... magical house snuggled in a grove of tall gingko trees. I took as many pictures as I could while I was still able to.
We were greeted by a huge Totoro in the ticket booth(8D) and went inside to cheerful smiles and pretty music. We went immediately into the first room we saw, and were completely and utterly awed by these tiny, detailed... I guess one would call them dioramas, but they could be a number of things- I'd just call it a painted world in a box.
And. The Zoetrope.
Now, you all know what a zoetrope is; it's a wheel painted with animation frames inside, and when spun, if you look through the little slots, the images appear to be moving. Now, there were macquettes (small models) of two dozen Ghibli characters. They were mounted on something sort of like a carosel, and when it spun, a strobelight went on inside the tube that held the carosel. It made the macquettes appear to move and dance in a circle. Doesn't sound too exciting written out that way, but we all stared, AGAPE and could've been there aaaalll day, ROFL.
Up on the roof through a winding spiral staircase encased in a wrought iron spire, we found one of the robots from Laputa. I snagged a photo with it, and we had a mini group-shot there. It was so pretty and serene.
OH. BUT ON THE WAY TO THAT, THERE WAS A GIANT. LIFESIZE. PLUSH. CATBUS.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
Unfortunately, it was child-sized. It was a playpen for the kidlets; there were little plush sootballs there too that the kiddies were chucking at each other. I was about ready to kick reason to the curb and leap in the catbus too, because it looked SO FUN. FFF.
My favorite exhibit, though, was a recreation of Ghibli Studios. With the wall. Papered. In. Miyazaki Drawings. They were just tacked there! TACKED! I don't think you could pull that off in America; those suckers would be GONE. But they were his little doodles, concept art; what inspired him; as I said, a recreation of his studio to almost every detail. (There were pictures to prove it.) I wish I could climb inside his head for an hour just to see what goes on in there. And, books of original storyboards to thumb through (SCAD kids tackled it, LOL).
The shop was uh. INTENSE. Not in the merchandise, no- honestly, there was more Ghibli Goodies at Kiddyland than here; the things at the museum were of finer caliber- BUT. IT WAS PACKED. PACKED PACKED PACKED. I barely managed to get my gifts for Mom and Matt without getting mowed over.
There was also a fun little exhibit called "Petit Louvre," that was... just as it sounds, a tiny version of the Louvre! It's really cute and fun if you've been to the louvre before.
One of the last things we did was go to a little film that's exclusive to the museum. A short film from the Totoro story, involving a little catbus kitten and the younger girl (whose name escapes me. The "Oh BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYY" girl) And finding big catbusses, cattrains, and a cat ocean liner. IT WAS EPIC. But watching it reminded me how much I love Ghibli films, there's this kind of rush and soar that you don't have with other movies lately. Even though I didn't speak Japanese, the movie made complete sense, and the story was told mainly throgh body language and facial expressions combined with music. I felt all gushy and warm and sniffly at the end and wanted to watch it again. ;w;
But just...the architecture and the peering through little narrow hallways was magical. The whole building felt charged with an old, charming magic. Like friendly spirits and little creatures might pour from the next door I open, or I would look out the windows and find dragons and catbusses darting through the clouds. It was... well, Magical!
Then we walked back through the park. I frolicked, which Goto told me I was NOT ALLOWED TO DO. So I did it anyway. 8D The park was so beautiful, I uh, sorta lost a chunk of the group. I knew where I was going, so I wasn't worried, and it was nice to wind through the park and the surrounding neighborhoods anyhow. Ginza and Downtown Tokyo is so glitzy and posh that it was really nice to see where people really lived. I took a few shots of the market and the streets.
It was around this time that I looked back and saw a group of SCAD kids looking rather lost and terrified. Among them was Mark Schultz and his wife, so I lead them out to take the right train to Nakano!
Unfortunately, since we got there later than the rest of the group, Nakano Broadway had a sorta rocky, weird start since I didn't get what the hubbub was about. It felt very much like a cramped, dirty version of where we had just come from. But we went inside, and after enough poking and prodding around, I found my way. While I was lost, though, I experienced what a real Tokyo shopping experience was like, and got some pictures of the basement groceries and little shops that seemed very, very perplexed to have tourists there.
BUT, anyhow. Once I got to the second floor, I found what I was looking for. Okay, think Akihabara, but used. Now now, don't get too huffy. Alright, think of it more like searching "anime goods," "manga," and "doujinshi" on Ebay, and stuffing all of the listings into a store. There you go!
I hunted along through the little stalls, and here was how my conversation usually went.
Me: Sumimasen!
Clerk: *alarmed at the white girl in his store* Uh, hai?
Me: Gundam Dable-Oh, Haro o sagashite!
Clerk: Oh, hai! ne, ne... *searchsearchsearchsearch* Gomen-nasai, sord outu!
Sad sad sad. But it was funny, since I slipped at one point and called her "Haro-chan." And the clerk just laughed and said, "Haro-chan! I will search for you!"
Unfortunately, no luck (as I said last entry) but what I DID find, was Mandarake's WHOLE STORE DEDICATED TO... "Women's Doujinshi." Basically, Not Porn, except for Yaoi. 8D So I leapt in there like a frog out of a French frier and immediately found the 00 section- which was also sorted into pairings. 8D While I was digging through, a girl about my age came up, grinning from EAR TO EAR, and started yanking out HUGE HUNKS of doujin, squealing and chattering and shrieking in glee. Her mother walks over, and I expected her to let her have it (this girl was grabbin the dirty stuff, omai,omai), but her mom handed her a basket and started to help her look! ROFL.
After asking about Nabari no Ou and Kuroshitsuji (WHICH I APPARENTLY FAIL AT PRONOUNCING FFF), the Kuroshitsuji selection was limited (but, the clerk really really likes Kuroshitsuji and was telling me all about that... "Sebaschan daisuki! Gurerru!!") And the Nabari... APPARENTLY IT DOESN'T EXIST. FFF. BUT... they had a generous selection of FFXII, which never ever comes to cons, so I grabbed a stack. Dude, it was like.... $3-$5. At cons, if they're THERE, it's like... $14 or somesuch.
It was really neat to just peoplewatch, though; I got some shots of people just browsing. :D
Seeing the vintage books and toys was fun (Awww, Authentic Sailor Moon goods; inexpensive, too. I almost picked one up for sheer nostalgia. Still might. And walking along, I saw.
A MACOTO ARTBOOK.
HEAD ASPLODE.
Unfortunately it was like, $106. I just couldn't do it. ;O; But, I wish NICE BIG scans of his work were more readily available; I'll hunt around online first before I go and drop that kinda money...*sobsob*MACOTO...
ANYHOWS, then I made it home by myself. (Are you proud? Are you are you?) And promptly collapsed on my bed with my...hugepileofDoujinshithatisnowthickerthanaBible. LOL.
Then I proceeded to flip through my sketchbook. I was NOT pleased with it as of last night and ranted a bit to Dawn about how I was worried I was disappointing Dove (Since he was the one who really pushed to the others for me to let me go, even as a Sophomore. She was really sweet. The artists here really intimidate me; but they see potential, which blesses my socks off. Flipping through my Doujinshi really inspired me, too.
There's a LoTie one in particular that the artwork is so very beautiful; and I just adore everything about it. (It's called Sleep Mode. And Anna, Sofi, it's near DEAD UP like one of our RP logs. Lockon wakes up to find Tieria sleeping in his bed because he finds it hard to sleep alone.)
Drawing faith renewed, I went to bed, and DREW LIKE A MACHINE TODAY. Yaaaay for Doujin and manga inspiring me! :D
Alright, now today, which will have to be sorta written in warp speed, but that's alright!
This morning, I woke up, and did NOT go to class right away, because I was HERDED OFF TO THE FISH MARKET AT 4AM. 8D
Now, I was excited about the fish market. NOT excited about waking up at 4am to go out in the cold and look at dead fish. It was freezing out, but it was neat to see Tokyo just on the verge of waking up.
The Market. Was. DEADLY.
Seriously, we were warned ahead of time that it was the most dangerous place we would go on the trip. Because it's a working market and the product is so perishable, huge fish are carted on the back of hand-carts and forklifts and they WILL NOT STOP and say excuse me- some of them will actually push you out of the way, and the little trucks will actually bump you to get youu to move. It was as if for a moment, all of Japan's polite barriers were lifted out of necessity.
So, I was dodging people moving with huge knives and carts going at mach fish speed, but it was INCREDIBLE. It was NOT for the squeamish; fish heads and bloody eels abound, but for macabre photo reference, it was GOLD. (Mark Schultz was a kid in a candy store.) And there was a weird kind of beauty about the fish; I started picturing the octopuses as odd hats or buttons; interesting scale patterns as fabric... A mermaid's closet and jewelrybox all right there!
But as I said, it was uh, sorta gross. Lots of blood from freshly-carved fish, lots and lots of things still twitching and squirming. Which was sorta morbidly neat. ...wtf, seriously. BUT as gross as it sounds, it was really, really awesome and intense!
We went back to bed for an hour, and then went back to class.... It was class! Love it! Kinda hard to write about; but Mark Schults drew a radioactive stegosaurus burning Tokyo with a deathray from its mouth, so it had to be pretty epic. And I'm doing character turnarounds of Cupid, which is useful.
SO. Then after thaaaat, we all took off to Asakusa! I have always meant to go, since the guidebooks rave about it. Now I see why; it's crawling with tourists of the foreign and domestic variety; and much of it is a tourist trap. (I started labeling the shops JapanCrap- you know what I mean; cheap silk "kimonos" and little hello kitty keychains. Things to bring home to the people at work and stuff, I guess? But the temple itself was absolutely beautiful. Lots of pictures, of course. But I mostly sat and drew/painted it and the surrounding trees; mostly ginkgos, which were either a brilliant gold, or green fading off into yellow. The locals were rather amused at the hoards of us plonking down and drawing.
We were to be left there for the rest of the day, so I decided to use the best of my time and drew; I tried to focus on the feel and emotion of the drawing instead of the accuracy and painstaking detail; I've been really pleased with the results of that approach.
I got my fortune told by shaking up the sticks and getting the little slip of paper; I got a baaaad fortune. Basically, nothing will work for me and I should go kill myself now, ROFL. I tied it around the little metal sticks to go get burnt so that it -won't- happen, ROFL.
Then I found my way to a smaller little shrine alongside the larger one, and sat and drew for a long time. Around this time, I noticed there were a ton of...kitties! Running about everywhere! I was told that they're taken care of by the monks, so they stay close and help ward off fires. One was sitting by the altar, and it had been a while since I had kitty time, so I went to pet her. When I crouched down, she put her paws right on my leg and climbed right on my lap. I scootched out of the way of the altar and sat on the steps, but the cat sat on my lap and purred and made herself quite at home for an hour. Maybe more, I lost track of time. It was so nice just sitting in the quiet with a temple cat on my lap, smelling the inscense and hearing occasional gongs. Kitty-zen, maybe?
While I was sitting there, several people came up and smiled and patted the cat, too. A few people took my picture. (A photographer who was very sweet took several- I managed to get him to take a few with my camera.) When I knew I needed to move along, I tried moving kitty, but she cried and whined. ._. I eventually did move, and she sat with indignation back by the altar. I'm sorry, kitty!!
I got some shots of Adelais while I was there; Really nice shots of him. :D he does well with environments like these.
Then I bustled off to Ikebukuro to hunt! I was checking to see if I could find Swallowtail so when I get my reservation, I won't get lost and make mysel late. after a lot of fanangling and wandering, I finally found it! And the rest of Otome road for that matter. It was fun to squeal over the same things with women who speak a completely different language than I do. ("Yoite daisuki! Sugooooi~!")
I did some shopping and such there, but I can't go into great detail (And I doubt you care...) but I got some goodies to decorate my cellphone, Nabari v. 9 (ALL of my favorite chapters), the Nabari fanbook (8D) and KOBATO PENCILBOARDS. 8D They're rare, so I'm glad I found them.
ANYHOW!
Lots to do tomorrow. So, I better let these people on before I get SKINNED!
XOXOXOXOX
~Lilly
Time for the Lillay Japan 2008 REPORT PART THREE!
Okay, I have like... 20 minutes or something so I better crank out these two days pretty quick. OKAY? OKAY.
SO. Yesterday, got up early, went to classes. :D I won't get into that, because, well, they're classes. We watched Mark Schultz Ink a Dinosaur. 8D AWESOME. I wore a brown outfit, which people COMPLETELY DIDN'T RECOGNIZE ME OUTSIDE OF LOLITA. LOL. Even Mark looked completely over my head and said, "Hey, where's Lilly?" I was RIGHT in front of him, rofl. Goto didn't recognize me either. I suppose this is a good thing? 8D
ANYWAY. So, yesterday AFTER CLASS...
WAS.
THE.
GHIBLI MUSEUM.
*FANGASM GOES HERE*
Now, as many of you know, I can't take pictures in there. Sadface. BUT, I honestly understood why; Ghibli doesn't want their designs taken, and, the whole experience would be ruined if people were taking pictures every few feet. Ghibli said that they wanted going through the musuem to be like being the main character in a story, and that you had to discover everything for yourself. As such, there were no maps or "you are here"s, and you literally stumbled upon exhibits and special rooms.
First of all, getting there was a beautiful walk. The museum is nestled into a gorgeous park (which, when I have time after classes and events, I'm going to go back to), and the leaves are all changing, and the light was just right... I took photos, but it doesn't really capture how pretty and mild it was. And Ghibli was like this... magical house snuggled in a grove of tall gingko trees. I took as many pictures as I could while I was still able to.
We were greeted by a huge Totoro in the ticket booth(8D) and went inside to cheerful smiles and pretty music. We went immediately into the first room we saw, and were completely and utterly awed by these tiny, detailed... I guess one would call them dioramas, but they could be a number of things- I'd just call it a painted world in a box.
And. The Zoetrope.
Now, you all know what a zoetrope is; it's a wheel painted with animation frames inside, and when spun, if you look through the little slots, the images appear to be moving. Now, there were macquettes (small models) of two dozen Ghibli characters. They were mounted on something sort of like a carosel, and when it spun, a strobelight went on inside the tube that held the carosel. It made the macquettes appear to move and dance in a circle. Doesn't sound too exciting written out that way, but we all stared, AGAPE and could've been there aaaalll day, ROFL.
Up on the roof through a winding spiral staircase encased in a wrought iron spire, we found one of the robots from Laputa. I snagged a photo with it, and we had a mini group-shot there. It was so pretty and serene.
OH. BUT ON THE WAY TO THAT, THERE WAS A GIANT. LIFESIZE. PLUSH. CATBUS.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
Unfortunately, it was child-sized. It was a playpen for the kidlets; there were little plush sootballs there too that the kiddies were chucking at each other. I was about ready to kick reason to the curb and leap in the catbus too, because it looked SO FUN. FFF.
My favorite exhibit, though, was a recreation of Ghibli Studios. With the wall. Papered. In. Miyazaki Drawings. They were just tacked there! TACKED! I don't think you could pull that off in America; those suckers would be GONE. But they were his little doodles, concept art; what inspired him; as I said, a recreation of his studio to almost every detail. (There were pictures to prove it.) I wish I could climb inside his head for an hour just to see what goes on in there. And, books of original storyboards to thumb through (SCAD kids tackled it, LOL).
The shop was uh. INTENSE. Not in the merchandise, no- honestly, there was more Ghibli Goodies at Kiddyland than here; the things at the museum were of finer caliber- BUT. IT WAS PACKED. PACKED PACKED PACKED. I barely managed to get my gifts for Mom and Matt without getting mowed over.
There was also a fun little exhibit called "Petit Louvre," that was... just as it sounds, a tiny version of the Louvre! It's really cute and fun if you've been to the louvre before.
One of the last things we did was go to a little film that's exclusive to the museum. A short film from the Totoro story, involving a little catbus kitten and the younger girl (whose name escapes me. The "Oh BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYY" girl) And finding big catbusses, cattrains, and a cat ocean liner. IT WAS EPIC. But watching it reminded me how much I love Ghibli films, there's this kind of rush and soar that you don't have with other movies lately. Even though I didn't speak Japanese, the movie made complete sense, and the story was told mainly throgh body language and facial expressions combined with music. I felt all gushy and warm and sniffly at the end and wanted to watch it again. ;w;
But just...the architecture and the peering through little narrow hallways was magical. The whole building felt charged with an old, charming magic. Like friendly spirits and little creatures might pour from the next door I open, or I would look out the windows and find dragons and catbusses darting through the clouds. It was... well, Magical!
Then we walked back through the park. I frolicked, which Goto told me I was NOT ALLOWED TO DO. So I did it anyway. 8D The park was so beautiful, I uh, sorta lost a chunk of the group. I knew where I was going, so I wasn't worried, and it was nice to wind through the park and the surrounding neighborhoods anyhow. Ginza and Downtown Tokyo is so glitzy and posh that it was really nice to see where people really lived. I took a few shots of the market and the streets.
It was around this time that I looked back and saw a group of SCAD kids looking rather lost and terrified. Among them was Mark Schultz and his wife, so I lead them out to take the right train to Nakano!
Unfortunately, since we got there later than the rest of the group, Nakano Broadway had a sorta rocky, weird start since I didn't get what the hubbub was about. It felt very much like a cramped, dirty version of where we had just come from. But we went inside, and after enough poking and prodding around, I found my way. While I was lost, though, I experienced what a real Tokyo shopping experience was like, and got some pictures of the basement groceries and little shops that seemed very, very perplexed to have tourists there.
BUT, anyhow. Once I got to the second floor, I found what I was looking for. Okay, think Akihabara, but used. Now now, don't get too huffy. Alright, think of it more like searching "anime goods," "manga," and "doujinshi" on Ebay, and stuffing all of the listings into a store. There you go!
I hunted along through the little stalls, and here was how my conversation usually went.
Me: Sumimasen!
Clerk: *alarmed at the white girl in his store* Uh, hai?
Me: Gundam Dable-Oh, Haro o sagashite!
Clerk: Oh, hai! ne, ne... *searchsearchsearchsearch* Gomen-nasai, sord outu!
Sad sad sad. But it was funny, since I slipped at one point and called her "Haro-chan." And the clerk just laughed and said, "Haro-chan! I will search for you!"
Unfortunately, no luck (as I said last entry) but what I DID find, was Mandarake's WHOLE STORE DEDICATED TO... "Women's Doujinshi." Basically, Not Porn, except for Yaoi. 8D So I leapt in there like a frog out of a French frier and immediately found the 00 section- which was also sorted into pairings. 8D While I was digging through, a girl about my age came up, grinning from EAR TO EAR, and started yanking out HUGE HUNKS of doujin, squealing and chattering and shrieking in glee. Her mother walks over, and I expected her to let her have it (this girl was grabbin the dirty stuff, omai,omai), but her mom handed her a basket and started to help her look! ROFL.
After asking about Nabari no Ou and Kuroshitsuji (WHICH I APPARENTLY FAIL AT PRONOUNCING FFF), the Kuroshitsuji selection was limited (but, the clerk really really likes Kuroshitsuji and was telling me all about that... "Sebaschan daisuki! Gurerru!!") And the Nabari... APPARENTLY IT DOESN'T EXIST. FFF. BUT... they had a generous selection of FFXII, which never ever comes to cons, so I grabbed a stack. Dude, it was like.... $3-$5. At cons, if they're THERE, it's like... $14 or somesuch.
It was really neat to just peoplewatch, though; I got some shots of people just browsing. :D
Seeing the vintage books and toys was fun (Awww, Authentic Sailor Moon goods; inexpensive, too. I almost picked one up for sheer nostalgia. Still might. And walking along, I saw.
A MACOTO ARTBOOK.
HEAD ASPLODE.
Unfortunately it was like, $106. I just couldn't do it. ;O; But, I wish NICE BIG scans of his work were more readily available; I'll hunt around online first before I go and drop that kinda money...*sobsob*MACOTO...
ANYHOWS, then I made it home by myself. (Are you proud? Are you are you?) And promptly collapsed on my bed with my...hugepileofDoujinshithatisnowthickerthanaBible. LOL.
Then I proceeded to flip through my sketchbook. I was NOT pleased with it as of last night and ranted a bit to Dawn about how I was worried I was disappointing Dove (Since he was the one who really pushed to the others for me to let me go, even as a Sophomore. She was really sweet. The artists here really intimidate me; but they see potential, which blesses my socks off. Flipping through my Doujinshi really inspired me, too.
There's a LoTie one in particular that the artwork is so very beautiful; and I just adore everything about it. (It's called Sleep Mode. And Anna, Sofi, it's near DEAD UP like one of our RP logs. Lockon wakes up to find Tieria sleeping in his bed because he finds it hard to sleep alone.)
Drawing faith renewed, I went to bed, and DREW LIKE A MACHINE TODAY. Yaaaay for Doujin and manga inspiring me! :D
Alright, now today, which will have to be sorta written in warp speed, but that's alright!
This morning, I woke up, and did NOT go to class right away, because I was HERDED OFF TO THE FISH MARKET AT 4AM. 8D
Now, I was excited about the fish market. NOT excited about waking up at 4am to go out in the cold and look at dead fish. It was freezing out, but it was neat to see Tokyo just on the verge of waking up.
The Market. Was. DEADLY.
Seriously, we were warned ahead of time that it was the most dangerous place we would go on the trip. Because it's a working market and the product is so perishable, huge fish are carted on the back of hand-carts and forklifts and they WILL NOT STOP and say excuse me- some of them will actually push you out of the way, and the little trucks will actually bump you to get youu to move. It was as if for a moment, all of Japan's polite barriers were lifted out of necessity.
So, I was dodging people moving with huge knives and carts going at mach fish speed, but it was INCREDIBLE. It was NOT for the squeamish; fish heads and bloody eels abound, but for macabre photo reference, it was GOLD. (Mark Schultz was a kid in a candy store.) And there was a weird kind of beauty about the fish; I started picturing the octopuses as odd hats or buttons; interesting scale patterns as fabric... A mermaid's closet and jewelrybox all right there!
But as I said, it was uh, sorta gross. Lots of blood from freshly-carved fish, lots and lots of things still twitching and squirming. Which was sorta morbidly neat. ...wtf, seriously. BUT as gross as it sounds, it was really, really awesome and intense!
We went back to bed for an hour, and then went back to class.... It was class! Love it! Kinda hard to write about; but Mark Schults drew a radioactive stegosaurus burning Tokyo with a deathray from its mouth, so it had to be pretty epic. And I'm doing character turnarounds of Cupid, which is useful.
SO. Then after thaaaat, we all took off to Asakusa! I have always meant to go, since the guidebooks rave about it. Now I see why; it's crawling with tourists of the foreign and domestic variety; and much of it is a tourist trap. (I started labeling the shops JapanCrap- you know what I mean; cheap silk "kimonos" and little hello kitty keychains. Things to bring home to the people at work and stuff, I guess? But the temple itself was absolutely beautiful. Lots of pictures, of course. But I mostly sat and drew/painted it and the surrounding trees; mostly ginkgos, which were either a brilliant gold, or green fading off into yellow. The locals were rather amused at the hoards of us plonking down and drawing.
We were to be left there for the rest of the day, so I decided to use the best of my time and drew; I tried to focus on the feel and emotion of the drawing instead of the accuracy and painstaking detail; I've been really pleased with the results of that approach.
I got my fortune told by shaking up the sticks and getting the little slip of paper; I got a baaaad fortune. Basically, nothing will work for me and I should go kill myself now, ROFL. I tied it around the little metal sticks to go get burnt so that it -won't- happen, ROFL.
Then I found my way to a smaller little shrine alongside the larger one, and sat and drew for a long time. Around this time, I noticed there were a ton of...kitties! Running about everywhere! I was told that they're taken care of by the monks, so they stay close and help ward off fires. One was sitting by the altar, and it had been a while since I had kitty time, so I went to pet her. When I crouched down, she put her paws right on my leg and climbed right on my lap. I scootched out of the way of the altar and sat on the steps, but the cat sat on my lap and purred and made herself quite at home for an hour. Maybe more, I lost track of time. It was so nice just sitting in the quiet with a temple cat on my lap, smelling the inscense and hearing occasional gongs. Kitty-zen, maybe?
While I was sitting there, several people came up and smiled and patted the cat, too. A few people took my picture. (A photographer who was very sweet took several- I managed to get him to take a few with my camera.) When I knew I needed to move along, I tried moving kitty, but she cried and whined. ._. I eventually did move, and she sat with indignation back by the altar. I'm sorry, kitty!!
I got some shots of Adelais while I was there; Really nice shots of him. :D he does well with environments like these.
Then I bustled off to Ikebukuro to hunt! I was checking to see if I could find Swallowtail so when I get my reservation, I won't get lost and make mysel late. after a lot of fanangling and wandering, I finally found it! And the rest of Otome road for that matter. It was fun to squeal over the same things with women who speak a completely different language than I do. ("Yoite daisuki! Sugooooi~!")
I did some shopping and such there, but I can't go into great detail (And I doubt you care...) but I got some goodies to decorate my cellphone, Nabari v. 9 (ALL of my favorite chapters), the Nabari fanbook (8D) and KOBATO PENCILBOARDS. 8D They're rare, so I'm glad I found them.
ANYHOW!
Lots to do tomorrow. So, I better let these people on before I get SKINNED!
XOXOXOXOX
~Lilly