200. matrix, crystal lake

Having a heavy heart today because it's my last day in my apartment. I've really grown to love this little space and it's neighbourhood, I'm definitely going to miss this place so much all over again and I can feel the sadness and loneliness already creeping in. At least, I have some plans for my final day in Tokyo. 

I can't believe how much I've grown by just living here in such a short time, all the people I got to meet, the person I fell in love with, all the places I've discovered, everything in between. All the fuck ups, all the best parts of the last 9 months cramped into a short summary and I can't remember most of it anymore but the good definitely did outweigh the bad. Going back is making me depressed but I have new plans to discuss with my family about the future and I hope things go well.

This video and song makes me feel a little better though, ironically. It's not lynch. anymore. I feel like this year would be a good year but things might spiral out of control somehow, in a good way. I have a feeling I will see lynch. a lot less this year also but more of Crystal Lake. With that saying, it feels strange because my life used to only revolve around one band so much but I'm glad I'm slowly changing.

Lately I can't pick up the pen again, I sit at my desk staring at the paper and no ideas are there. My mind used to be crowded of ideas and now I can't even draw a line. To take my mind off things, I've been reading Sputnik Sweetheart and I can't help but to relate so much to the main character, Sumire. 

I have this strange feeling that I'm not myself anymore. It's hard to put into words, but I guess it's like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.

199. for the first time in forever

there'll be magic

there'll be fun

Last Wednesday was little sis's and mom's last day in Tokyo. We decided to go to Disneyland because it was Frozen themed, Anna and Elsa's Frozen Fantasy. For the first time, I got to visit Disneyland during the day, I always go at night because of the after 6 passport. It's half the price but since mom hasn't been to the one in Tokyo, we decided to go in the day.

We couldn't get up early because we were so tired from exploring Enoshima the day before. We only got there at 12 noon, and the first thing you can see is everything decked out in Frozen. Even the front of shops had Frozen mannequins - Elsa, Anna and Olaf! The first ride of the day was Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek, little sis and I have not got on it yet, despite going to Disneyland twice already. It took about an hour to get on the ride and for the first time in forever, I saw mom actually having fun and being happy. Definitely made me happy that she was enjoying herself. The game itself was really fun.

After that, we went to walk around and take some photos. We really didn't do much because it was really really crowded that day, probably because it was just the second day of the Frozen Fantasy opening.

We walked behind the castle, to where some of the other rides were and the smell of popcorn made us hungry. So, we hunted for the nearest popcorn stand, they were selling chocolate flavoured popcorn. Since mom hasn't tried any other "weird" flavours of popcorn, we just bought one to share. I was pretty bummed that the Nightmare Before Christmas ride at Haunted Mansion was closed. That's little sis's and my favorite ride at Disneyland. So... we just walked around some more until we arrived at Big Thunder Mountain. 

Me being stupid because I sat this Dumbo ride when I was a kid in Disneyworld in U.S. when I was 4.

We got in line for Thunder Mountain and it took over an hour to get on. The ride wasn't scary at all, just a lot of turns and dark tunnels but was still fun. Also a first for me and little sis because whenever we go, it's always closed. After the ride, we were hungry so we ordered 3 giant turkey legs from a stand nearby. 

Even the flags had Frozen characters on it, and the menu for some food stands were Frozen themed as well. Nothing special, so I didn't bother ordering anything, it isn't instagram worthy photos. We just continued walking around and stumbled upon my favorite curry popcorn stand and I had to had it! Mom and sis was in love with it as well, haha. We just continued walking and stayed till it was time for the Electrical Dreamlights Parade. 

Little sis and I couldn't be bothered with it but since mom hasn't seen it, we just stuck around and accompanied her. She was really amazed. Once the light show ended, there was another one at Cinderella's Castle called Once Upon A Time. It's a projection light show on the castle, I was really amazed by how well it was done, also happy because they included so many of my favorite Disney princesses and movies! They had short snips of Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Pinocchio and Aladdin. The longer shows were Alice in Wonderland, Tangled, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and of course, Frozen. 

There were fireworks and laser shows as well. I was the most happy for Tangled because it's my favorite Disney soundtrack and they played I See The Light (in english!!!!!), I was squealing like a little girl! Also, they played Frozen's For The First Time In Forever and Let It Go. The best show was actually Beauty and the Beast and Alice in Wonderland. I would go to Disneyland again to watch this, I'm so hopeless when it comes to Disney songs, I think almost all girls are. It warms my cold, black heart.

The show lasted for about 20 minutes. We were all pretty bummed Disneyland closed early, it closed at 7pm, right after the Once Upon A Time show. So we just slowly made our way out of the park and took the train back to Tokyo Station where mom and little sis did some last minute shopping for people back home. We decided to have dinner near my apartment and once I got home, I completed knocked out and slept till the next morning.

The whole week little sis was here, I was completely drained out from going out everyday. I still wouldn't trade anything in the world for the 2 months she stayed with me in summer, it was so fun having her around. Can't believe it has been 4 months since then... 

198. dragons & cliffs, enoshima

January 13th, 2015

*photo heavy*

Little sis, mom and I got up early to explore Enoshima, it took almost 2 hours to get there, changing trains several times. The last one was at Ofuna, where we had to change to the Shonan monorail. The view from the monorail was pretty though, you could see Mount Fuji clearly in the distance.

Once we got off the station, we had to walk on foot to Enoshima island. It only took 15 minutes so we took our time. The beach area and the roads just before the connecting bridge to the island really reminded me of St.Kildas back home, mom and sis also agreed and we were all suddenly craving for godpa's food (he owns a restaurant by the beach in St.Kildas). The view of Mount Fuji from the beach was really clear at noon. So we had to stop and take obligatory shots.

197. wall of tokyo

January 12th, 2015

I've always loved Shingeki No Kyojin ever since discovering it on my 2013 summer trip to Japan. I remember watching it late at night in the hotel room and it was one of the most exciting anime I have ever seen and that cliff-hanger left me only wanting more.

I have been wanting to go to the exhibition for a while now and I'm glad I waited for little sis because we always have more fun together. We got our tickets the day before at a Lawson conbini, and on the day itself, we went straight to The Ueno Royal Musuem to stand in line for about half an hour before getting in.

There was a change in atmosphere once you get into the building and you could hear the video playing in the next room while you are waiting. The sounds coming for the next room scared me a bit. Once we were allowed into the next room, there was a huge projection screen and a voice actor would be telling you what to do. The video was pretty intense, basically - you are hiding in a building from titans behind some torn curtains, a titan will pace up and down and you can see it's silhouette. It will stop suddenly and peek through the creeks of the curtain with just an eye, that's actually really freaky. It discovers that you're hiding, and pulls the curtains and another titan (looks like the one that ate Eren's mother) will be holding up a person into it's mouth and bites the person in half and disappears. Suddenly even more titans appear and they are running at you and The Survey Corps will appear slaying off these titans - the simulation ends and you are led into the next room where the exhibition begins.

The exhibition rooms looked really grim and dark - definitely captured the manga/anime well.  There were original drawings by Hajime Isayama, I actually enjoyed how they placed his work and the way they decorated the exhibits with blown up sizes of the manga to fit the wall. Hajime Isayama has said a lot of times in interviews that his drawings aren't that good but there is definitely improvement in his work over the years, I think he isn't giving himself enough credit. 

The red light does bring out more character for this exhibition, definitely does add an intense air to the room. There was also a room where they showcased his inspiration, some videos of him drawing a slot for the manga, and showed his original pitch for the manga. Rooms after that were more original drawings.

I especially enjoyed one of the last exhibition rooms where they displayed Annie's arc. The projection they did on one of the walls was really thought out, the light and explosions used to highlight certain parts of the manga are spot on. I actually wonder how long they took and how much experimenting they did to get it right. Another room I really enjoyed was the 4D-ish animation show where there was a bench and you had to sit infront of this projection screen. It literally felt like you were in their world, following The Survery Corps swinging around in their maneuver gear killing off titans. It is placed during Annie's arc, where they are in the forest. I wish it was a ride at a theme park like Universal Studios, that would have been really awesome but scary at the same time.

The exhibit for Annie's arc was probably the best, placement of manga strips wise. I really liked how they placed Eren vs Annie's fight manga strips on the ceiling. After the exhibition of drawings were done, you will be led to the 1st Floor again. There were showcases of some props, though I really wouldn't name it props used in the anime?  But they have made a life size table where the Survey Corps would dine at during their training camp. Little sis and I laughed when we saw Sasha's potato (its only funny if you actually watch the anime).

The final room was the most mind-blowing. There was an actual sculpture of the 50ft. Colossal Titan. It gave me the chills, just standing next to it and imagining how I would actually die in the hand of this titan freaked me out a little. I am barely the size of it's finger. The face itself was really creepy, I couldn't stare at it for too long. Little sis was actually prompting me to leave because she was freaked out as well, haha.

After exiting the exhibition, there were some more showcases of art but fan made. I thought it was pretty cool that they made a section for it since some fan art are really well done. The hall also had posters of all the characters for the live action movie which is coming out this summer, I am actually not looking forward to it because it looks like it's gonna be a flop plus I hate that Kiko Mizuhara is playing my favorite SNK character, Mikasa Ackerman. Though I think her looks does suit Mikasa perfectly, her acting is something I'm not a fan of.

The was also a television playing the series which made me want to watch it all over again. AND, there IS going to be a SNK attraction starting January 23rd at Universal Studios Japan. It's a showcase of Eren vs Annie fight, they actually made the huge titans. No. fucking. way. I'm so bummed I'm going to miss it. How awesome would it be to see titans fighting and later on, going off to Hogwarts? Oh well, you can't have everything.

I didn't get any merchandise in the end because I usually throw my anime merch aside after a few months of purchasing them. I always don't use them or don't know what to do with them, so I didn't want to repeat my mistake again.

Overall, I rate this exhibition 9/10. The only thing that was missing was, HOW COULD YOU NOT PLAY THE FUCKING THEME SONG AT THE EXHIBITON?! Linked Horizon's Guren No Yamiya is probably one of the best anime theme songs of all time. What the hell is wrong with you?! 

I'm pretty bummed season 2 is not going to be out for a while. I know I should just read the manga but I get bored reading manga, haven't touched reading them since I was 15. Though I hear some spoilers from Little sis here and there, she's trying her best to keep the suspense for me. Hopefully season 2 would come out faster, so I don't have to watch season 1 for the millionth time.

This exhibition was probably one of the best ones I've seen in a long time. It's amazing how much work and detail goes into this. I think Shingeki no Kyojin is going to be the last anime that I will enjoy this much since I've lost interest in anime in general. Obviously, the manga has already sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and named "once-in-a-decade-hit", and I couldn't agree more.

196. ruby & sapphire

January 10th, 2015

On Saturday, little sis and I met up with Laura because the both of them wanted to go to the Omega Ruby & Sapphire Pokemon Cafe. Little sis is a huge Pokemon fan and she got lucky because this Pokemon Cafe is opened for a limited time only. We ended up waiting for over 6 hours to get into this cafe. At least, they gave us a ticket number so we could just walk around and come back later.

We went to Harajuku, had dinner at Madosh! Cafe and Tower Records before finally getting a table at this cafe. By the time we got in, it was already almost 11pm (we got there at 4pm). I wasn't as excited as the two of them, I was actually sleepy but since Ruby & Sapphire is their favorite generation of Pokemon, they were really hyped up.

The cafe was really cute, decorated with of course - Pokemon. Pokemon stuffed toys behind your table, Pikachu posters, and even the televisions in the cafe were showing the Pokemon games and series. It is definitely worth it if you're a big Pokemon fan.

Little sis and Laura were busy taking photos of the cafe and after that, took the first three starter Pokemon for ourselves. Laura took Treecko (actually matched her hair), little sis took Torchic and I took Mudkip because Mudkip is my favorite pokemon. It was fun since everything was so cute, and how could you stay sleepy when the Pokemon theme songs for the game were playing? Definitely made me feel nostalgic because I would play this game on little sis's Nintendo Game Boy Advance when it was first released.

All of us ordered something different. After serving us our drinks, our food took a while to arrive. 

Left : Gingerale with Crackling Candy (Pop rocks?) and the Pikachu ice is mango flavoured. A wild Torchic appears. Right: Ice Cafe Latte, the top coating of Pikachu is also mango cream. Laura put the masked Pikachu behind for cuteness bonus points, haha.

Top : Laura's pancakes and a wild Treecko. Little sis's crepe definitely made heads turned when it was served, it was actually covered in a giant pokeball with smoke coming out of it (smoke coming from dry ice), and the waiter would uncover it. Dun dun dun! Definitely made us all go "WOOOW". On top of that, she was given a chocolate syringe to draw on her crepe and she drew a slightly mutated Totoro, haha. Mine wasn't that photo worthy, so I'll skip posting the photo of it. 

We didn't take too long finishing up our food because we wanted to catch the last train home. We took about an hour, and was rushing off to get on the last train.

The food was pretty meh but it was definitely cute and not something I would have waited 6 hours for honestly. But I'm glad all of us had fun and my sis got to meet Laura because she really wanted to. I'm thinking about writing about my next entry and it seems everything I've been posting is very character themed. The next one will be too, but at least, nothing to do with food. 

Little sis was really happy on the way home, so I can't complain about going to this cafe. At least one of us was very happy.

195. totoro hunting ii

Little sis arrived in Tokyo on the 7th, two days ago, and our first morning was spent going to Shirohige Cream puff Shop because the last time I brought mom on her birthday, they were completely sold out of cream puffs. To make sure, we went to the shop really early at 11am.

We had a salad to share and the three of us had red bream fish with mentaiko pasta. I love that the pasta here is homemade, definitely has a unique taste. Since the there was the three of us, we ordered one each of all the flavours of the cream puffs that were available that day. The last time I came with Laura, they had maron and raspberry & cream cheese flavour for autumn but now they have changed it to their winter special, banana caramel and strawberry. We ordered those, along with chocolate and custard cream.

The chocolate one was nothing special but still really yummy. The banana caramel had bits of banana in it, I think the banana overpowered the caramel a little but overall still good, my favourite one was strawberry! It tasted like Haagen-Dazs strawberry ice-cream, and that's coming from a person that doesn't enjoy strawberry flavoured things. By the end of our meal, we were so stuffed. We slowly made our way to Shimokitazawa by foot hoping to digest some of the food.

We spent some time at Coffea Exlibris, and roamed around Shimokita for a bit before heading to Shibuya. The whole day was spent walking from place to place, from Setagaya to Shimokita, Shibuya to Harajuku to Aoyama. We had dinner at A to Z and still walked back to Tower Records because it was still too early to head home.

In the end, we got home at 9pm and it's already 4am as I'm writing this. I'm definitely worn out. The last couple of weeks has been kind of hectic celebrating Christmas, going to 2 shows on the same weekend, then ushering in the new year. The next week is gonna be really chaotic again and I'm pretty sure by the time little sis and mom heads back home, I would be at least sleeping and staying in for a day.