322. autumn breeze

After Osaka, I headed to Kyoto to meet up with some friends.

November 22nd, Tuesday :

I met up with Yoshi for lunch at about 1pm near Shijo station, we went to a vegan cafe and it was surprisingly good.  I haven't seen Yoshi for more than a year, the last time I saw him was in Singapore last year when he was still a part of PALM. It was much easier to talk to him now because I can speak pretty decent Japanese, haha. 

After lunch, we headed to the Bengal Cat Cafe that was just 5 minutes away. It was pretty small but I was pleasantly surprised that the cats were so friendly. I've been to a couple of cat cafes in Japan but the cats are never friendly. I'm pretty sure they get sick of people wanting to pet them all day, so I don't blame them. But at the Bengal cat cafe, several cats came to me as soon as I sat down. 

Two of them actually climbed onto me and there were a couple more cats sitting around me. Happy. The cats at this cafe had cute names as well, they're named after the horoscopes. I thought it was a cute idea.

This is Orion, the most popular cat at the cafe.

We didn't spend too long at the cafe, only about half an hour and decided to go for some sightseeing. Even though Kyoto has a lot to offer, it's always so crowded with tourists. Yoshi wanted to go to a temple but the number of tourists really turned us off. So we only made it to one and I checked into my Airbnb apartment after that. Luckily Yoshi was with me because I had some problems with checking in.

It'll be nice to have a photoshoot at this bridge if it weren't for the people.

Yoshi and I chilled at Starbucks until 7-ish in the evening and I met up with another friend, Yamako at 8. He was starving because he had exams for the entire day so we just went to eat. Most of the restaurants were full that evening since the day after was a public holiday. In the end, Yamako and I went to an Okonomiyaki place that he really likes. We still had to wait for a while before getting a table.

To be honest, I have never had Okonomiyaki in my 3 years in Japan. I'm not a big fan of it but after going with Yamako, I changed my mind. The food was really good and we were just drinking and eating non-stop till 11-ish. It was fun talking to him since we both like music and travelling. I've always admired his devotion to bands because he travels so frequently (and far) to go to shows. 

In the past, I used to think that I was crazy because I would be the only one out of all my friends to travel to attend shows. I felt really alone, but ever since coming to Japan, I've met so many people who are even more devoted than me. It feels nice to have people not call you crazy or tell you you're wasting your money on something that you really love. Music is still a huge part of my life, without it, I wouldn't have met so many amazing people that I can now call my friends. 

November 23rd, Wednesday :

The next day, I headed to Nagoya and arrived at lunch time. KH was waiting for me at Nagoya station and we went for lunch before heading to his band's rehearsal. It was nice being back in Nagoya after two years. I waited for him to finish up and we went for dinner at close to 8. We had miso katsu for dinner. The good thing about meeting all my Japanese friends is that I get to try so much food, haha.

It was our first time hanging out alone, so it was pretty awkward in the beginning. Whenever I see KH, there would always be a lot of people around. In the past, I used to think we wouldn't even be friends but I was wrong, we got along really well. I like how straightforward and honest he is. We ended up talking about so many things, not only about work but music, our personal lives and everything in between.  

It was nice to finally spend time with him after knowing him for so long. I got back to Tokyo the next day and was greeted by the heavy snow. It was freezing when I got back and the roads were all covered in snow. I'm surprised I didn't fall sick because of the difference in weather in Kansai, Nagoya and Tokyo. 

These couple of days were so fun because I was able to hang out with my friends who I haven't seen in a long time. It made me think about a lot of things. My life in Japan is so different from my life in Singapore. Even though there is a language barrier, I do enjoy my life here way more. I like my friends here more. Singapore has never made me happy and I wish people there would stop telling me Singapore is my home because it is not. 

* Lately I have been both lazy and busy to blog, but I hope to finish up all the entries for this year because so many amazing and exciting things happened just in one month. I can't believe there's only 11 days left for 2016. 

321. the pros of con

I was in Osaka during the last week of November for a photo shoot. I have been to Osaka so many times this year that I've lost count and honestly, I'm bored of the city. I didn't bother taking photos but I did explore on my own for a bit.

November 20th

I took the shinkansen down to Osaka, dumped my stuff in my Airbnb apartment and made my way to Hokage. PALM was playing that night alongside some other bands. I actually didn't care much about other bands except for Runner (Kenta's side band) and PALM. Even though I don't listen to PALM, they never fail to put on a good live show. Their energy on stage is just something else and I feel like even young bands today can't achieve that level of "raw power".

20 NOV 2016 at OSAKA HOKAGE #PALMJAPAN #PALMJP

A video posted by PALM (@palmjapan) on Nov 22, 2016 at 3:35am PST

I met up with Kyoko who Laura introduced through text. I was alone most of the time but it was okay. I think I got so used to being on my own now, it doesn't bother me that much when I travel. My photoshoot ended up being really late, thankfully Toshi owns Hokage so I could take photos without having to worry that I'll be chased out of the venue, haha.

After taking a couple of photos of Kyoko, we went to the afterparty at the Hokage's bar. Most of the bands were already eating and it was only us girls left feeling hungry. It's always fun meeting new people even though I am such an introvert.

PALM's photoshoot dragged on till about 2-ish am. Toshi was half drunk doing the shoot, haha. Still had fun with them, though. No matter how old men get, they still act like little boys.

a very drunk Toshi. 

and a very tired Kenta.

*I'm still in the process of editing photos but some of them are already on @sanatoriiiium! 

I only got back to the apartment at 3 in the morning. It was a fun but tiring day for me. I passed out immediately after taking a long shower. 

Even though I do enjoy doing my photo shoots and meeting up with friends, I'm a very private person so I don't really like to post photos of people I know on my social media and even on this blog. I guess my clothing line is going to "show" everyone who my friends are. I still have mixed feelings about it. 

Other than that, my life right now is pretty messed up and complicated. I can't wait for next month cos I'll be back in Melbourne just for two days to watch letlive. and Every Time I Die. I'm more excited about letlive., I have been listening to them a lot lately and it's been a while since I really liked any other band so much.

I have quite a number of things planned out until the year ends. I'm going to get yet another tattoo, hopefully have a nice Christmas and travel some more. In some way, I don't really want 2016 to end just yet but everyone gets like that every year right?

318. double bass

On Monday, I met up with Laura and Mako in the evening for a photoshoot in Shimokitazawa. Shimokita is one of the many interesting neighborhoods in Tokyo, sometimes I get so sick of going to Shibuya and Harajuku because of all the tourists.

I thought Mako suit my label really well, so I asked Laura to contact her. I've met Mako a couple of times at Cyclamen's shows since she's their merch girl, I've always liked her chill vibe and style. Picking out girls who I want to represent my clothing line has been more difficult than choosing guys. It's very important to me that the people I choose are not pretentious and fake.

So, I'm not much of a photographer, it was a little nerve wrecking taking photos of the both of them. I'm really thankful to the both of them for being so patient and even helped me out with some of the settings on my camera. I'm still learning and I'm trying my best to not let anyone who has been supportive of me down.

Polaroids are always fun, I actually enjoy them more than using an actual professional camera. We went to get dinner at a soup curry restaurant after taking some polaroids. It was my first time ever having soup curry. It really made me change my mind about curry once again, curry in Japan at least.

On the way there, we passed by an interesting bar and Mako said it was more Avantgarde, which I actually want to try next time.

I didn't take photos of my food as usual, haha. We spent some time at the restaurant just talking before doing the second photoshoot on my dslr. I'm not going to post any photos from the shoot here, so if you like, please check out my clothing line @sanatoriium on Instagram.

I've always loved the murals on the shutters in Shimokita, but the guys holding fishes has definitely got to be my favorite one. I had lots of fun hanging out with Laura and Mako. Mako actually lives just a few train stops away from me, so I was talking to her on our way home. I finally got to practice my Japanese again after almost 4 months of not using it. I'm happy to know that it hasn't completely gone out the window, haha. Also, very happy to know that she loves Marceline The Vampire Queen (Adventure Time) as much as I do.

Even though it was a fun night, I somehow dropped my keys somewhere in Shimokita and got locked out of my house until the next day. It was really painful waiting for my housing agent to arrive. I finally got home at 2pm the next day and crashed not long after changing out. The last time I got locked out of my house was last Halloween. 

On a side note, since I just bought a new camera and am using it for work, I also hope to take more photos of my life here in Japan. Since I came back, some of my friends have complained that I don't take enough photos - with them or my life here. They even forced me to take photos with them because really, I'm not the type of person to take out my phone and go "let's take a selfie!!!11!!" I swear I am the last person on earth who will say something like that. So I plan to take lots of photos from now on because I feel very lucky to have a chance to live here and have met so many amazing people who I now call my friends.

I'll continue to work hard to achieve my goals and dreams. Thanks to everyone who have been so supportive since day 1. Sometimes, it makes me feel like all the shit I have dealt with in the past was worth it because I wouldn't be as happy as I am now.

316. beetlejuice beetlejuice beetlejuice

Yuri and I decided to dress up for Halloween back when I was still in Singapore, she saw my tweet about wanting to be Lydia Deetz so she decided to be my Beetlejuice! We both bought our costumes before I got back to Japan.

Unfortunately, Halloween this year falls on a Monday, so we had to dress up on Saturday night. I met up with her in Tachikawa and we had late lunch. We still went to get some stuff for our costumes before going back to my apartment to dress up. It was so fun dressing up, we were watching The Crow on Netflix, listening to music and drinking bottles of beer.

We took longer than expected to dress up because of Beetlejuice's makeup and Lydia's hair. I suck at doing any "dressing up", so Yuri actually styled my hair. I would have put makeup but I have very sensitive skin, so if I get cheap makeup, I would definitely get an allergy (trust me, I have tried and even with expensive makeup I get rashes). We got to Shibuya pretty late and the first thing we did was take purikura!

After purikura, we went to get supper. It was already midnight when we were eating. There were still a lot of people walking around Shibuya. Honestly, the costumes were not as interesting as last year. Last year's crowd in Shibuya was more fun. I feel like this year I had more fun dressing up with Yuri. We wanted to go to Harajuku to take some photos of our costumes but it started to rain, so we had not choice but to stay indoors. By the time we finished our meal, it was already 1am so we decided to go to the bar for some more drinks.

We stayed up till 5am just talking like we usually do, we figured, even if we were home we wouldn't go to bed till about that time so there was no difference with staying out. We finally got home at 6am. I really enjoy Yuri visiting, it just sucks that she lives so far away from Tokyo. Better than being on the other side of the world, though.

We took this at my place before heading out.

The next time I see her will be for her birthday and I'm excited because we're going to watch Fantastic Beasts together!

My November will be very busy but I'm happy. I have so many things to look forward to.

292. more than words

Last Sunday, I woke up early and went out to pick up Steph at Tachikawa station. She was in Tokyo for almost two weeks and planned to stay with me on the last two days of her trip. Unfortunately, something came up and she only stayed a day with me but I was still happy to see her after more than 2 years.

We came back to my apartment to put her luggage down and went off to Kichijoji for lunch. I brought her to Il cafe and we chilled there for a little bit before walking around Kichijoji. After lunch, we just wandered around Kichijoji, we somehow stumbled upon a pet shop that sold hedgehogs, sugar gliders, ferrets, geckos, spiders... not the usual everyday pet that you'll see at a pet store. I was pretty amazed since it's my first time seeing some these animals.

We didn't spend too long in Kichijoji, so after that, we made our way to Shibuya. I brought her to Midori sushi as well, we got a numbered ticket and went to walk around Shibuya for an hour before coming back to the restaurant. I was still kinda stuffed from lunch so we didn't order that much. We shopped around Shibuya after sushi and went to Silkream for dessert!

It was so nice to catch up with Steph after such a long time. I feel like a lot has changed in both our lives, so there was a lot of stories to tell. Since I have known Steph since I was 14, she could tell how happy I am here and honestly, sometimes she knows me better than myself because there are so many things from the past that I can't remember anymore but she still does. It's good to look back at the past sometimes and to remind yourself how far you've come. It's gladdening to know that the life I always wanted is what I have in Japan right now and it's still changing.

We went to take Purikura after dessert, it was kind of nostalgic for us because we used to take them all the time back in Singapore on the weekends. I still have a bunch of them somewhere in my house back there. Steph was so amazed of how advanced Purikura machines now, back then, we used to called these machines "Neoprint".

We went back to Tachikawa not long after that. We also went to Donki Quote on the way home, Steph loves it as much as my sister does it's funny. We bought some food and drinks and went back to the apartment and continued talking till it was 5 in the morning.

We were talking about all those nights we stayed up late outside for stupid reasons (I'm not going to mention because it is embarrassing, haha), went for karaoke till sunrise, staying over at her old place and also, our group slumber parties with a couple of friends that we don't talk to anymore. I'm so glad Steph and I somehow managed to keep our relationship even though we are in different parts of the world now. I was pretty bummed out she had to leave the next morning already.

I sent her to the bus stop the next morning and it was bittersweet. I hope she comes back to visit in summer! Seeing her again actually made me realized how much I've missed her. I don't miss any of my Singaporean friends except her. 

Recently a lot of people and things from the past have been coming back to me, all the good things. It's almost like my life is a full circle now. I can't be any more contented.

PS. Also, Steph, if you're reading this, please figure out where the title of this blog post is from, haha.

276. januari

It's already the last day of the first month of 2016. It feels strange as I'm slowing getting back into the pace of things. It was a good and very busy month. Last week I was so busy, almost heading somewhere after class. One of my friends, David, left back to England. It made me quite sad since he and I would talk about hardcore music a lot in class. Mostly Parkway Drive and Thy Art is Murder, haha.

But anyways, some snippets from January :

It snowed heavily on the 18th, my first time seeing so much snow.

H decided to build a snowman on the same night, haha. 

The next day was spent with Laura at a nice cafe in Harajuku with her film camera.

The same week, I went to cut and color my hair! I'm going to attempt (again) on keeping it long because I love this color so much, I want more of it. Watch me fail miserably and cut it once my hair touches my shoulders.

Last Sunday,  was pastel day with Laura. I met up with her in the early afternoon (a first for us) in Nakano Broadway to go to her favorite artist, Kira Imai's, exhibition. Not really my style but I like the color she uses in her work. In the end, I bought some merchandise.

favorite pieces from the exhibit

Laura recommended I try this soft cream at the basement of Nakano Broadway. This is the medium size, the Large size comes with 8 flavors! I'm in love with the colors of the soft cream, I had coffee, grape, caramel and fizz flavor. It was pretty good.

I always love seeing all the vintage manga in Broadway.

After that, we decided to go to Koenji since it's just a stop away from Nakano. It was my first time there as well. I'm always too lazy to explore new places on my own nowadays. Koenji has a lot of cute second-hand and vintage shops. Again, not really my style but I enjoyed going in and out of the shops and seeing Laura is distress deciding whether to get this checked shirt, that red dress or that cute apple printed skirt. Sorry, Laura! It was funny.

In the end, she bought the cute apple printed skirt.

This store was cute too, but not my style again :

My sis said I look like a black blob hahaha.

We walked around some more and it was getting cold so we went to Hattifnatt Cafe to hide from the cold. It was a cute little cafe with a small door and with a very Moomin feel to it since it got it's inspiration from The Moomins. The cafe is named after The Hattifatteners (the white socks looking thing).

There were also lofts in the cafe where you felt like you were in a tree house which I thought was cute until WE HAD TO CLIMB THE STEEP LADDER TO GET TO OUR TABLE.

Other than that, the taco rice and matcha latte were good.

We stayed there till it was 9 pm chatting away and went home not long after.

I have a lot things I want to write about, some films I discovered, a music post that is meant for H but I've been keeping it in my drafts section for the last couple of months. There's too many things going on in my life right now for me to sit at home and pen everything down. Hopefully once my life calms down a little, I will post those up.

January was a nice month for me and February is going to be even more busy. I have a lot of things to look forward to in February. I can't for it to be here!

267. behind the doors

Last weekend was spent hanging out with Laura and seeing friends. It was such an eventful week for the both of us, we were dealing with post-emotions. I don't know a better word for it.

On Saturday, I made my way down to Ikebukuro KINGSX to check out SikTh and met Yuuri in the live house. She was nice and introduced me to a bunch of her friends and a girl named Chie who could speak English really well after living abroad for a couple of years. The opening band was Harvest, who I've never heard of and I was just watching them on the small screen in the drinking area while talking to Yuuri's friends.

Once Harvest was finished with their set, we went into the stage area. It was so packed and hot, there were too many people. I found Laura before SikTh started their set and I tried watching a couple of songs. Since KINGSX has a low ceiling, I could barely see the band play. They sounded good, but I wish I could have seen the stage. Yuuri came out to perform with them halfway and I actually like the song she sang with them.

I left after a while since it was getting hard to breathe. Got myself a beer and waited for Laura. The show was over in about 45 minutes after Laura came out of the stage area, saying it was too hot and stuffy in there. We hung around the live house for a little bit, talked to the band and went to find Yuuri backstage before heading out.

The next day, I met up with Laura again in Shinjuku because she was going to leave Japan for 2 weeks. We just decided to chill and talk and catch up on everything that happened in the last week. We went to Shinjuku Anti-knock close to midnight to say hi to a couple of friends since they were having a show that day. They were all packing up their equipment by the time we got there. Didn't hang around for too long since I didn't want to miss my last train home. 

I also realised I hardly take photos... I should actually take more. It's not a habit of mine to take photos with friends unless they ask. 

I can't believe it's already Christmas. Soon, 2015 will end and I'm more than happy to welcome 2016 with open arms. Nothing exciting happened in 2015 for me other than learning Japanese and meeting and making a lot of new friends. It's safe to say I'm happy with my life here. 

2016 already looks promising. In two weeks, I'll be heading to Taiwan for a family vacation. In late February, my sister will be visiting me for two weeks! In Late March, Yuri will be back in Japan. In April, Steph will be visiting me. I also can't wait to go to shows next year, so far I've planned to see Crystal Lake and lynch. with baby sis, Between The Buried & Me because PALM is opening for them, Bullet For My Valentine and Blessthefall! Anything will be better than 2015 for me. 

265. divine i

So much have happened over last week that my brain still can't process everything. A chapter of my life has come to a close, while another one is just beginning. Last week was made up of going to shows and friends and it was bittersweet. To think about it all and to sum it all in one post wouldn't be enough.

The beginning of last week was nothing but tiring, I had my final exams and I was so tired every day since I stay up late to study. It was my last paper on Tuesday thankfully, because In Hearts Wake's first headliner in Japan was happening that night. I celebrated with my friends that our semester was finally over for a little while before heading to the show in Shinjuku.

I walked in as FOAD was playing and met up with Laura and talked to the band for a little bit. Sailing Before The Wind was next and I enjoyed their set. I always see Bitoku around at all the shows so it nice to finally see his band play. I didn't bother much about the next band so I walked out to take a smoke. Bumped into Hayato, whom I haven't seen since August, on the way out, and he introduced me to his friend that just came back from Melbourne. Also was talking to Ryo while waiting for Victim of Deception to play. This guy is too popular, there was a small line of people waiting to take photos with him. =_=

I didn't really like Victim of Deception's set because they're a deathcore band, so I chilled outside again before heading back in. Once back in, I was just talking to Laura and Goodsound while waiting for In Hearts Wake to start. They opened to Earthwalker and immediately got me pumped. I have been listening to them for a while now (thanks to Laura), and really like their music so I was pretty excited to see them. I was really glad they played Healer and Survival, those are my favorites by them.

They're good live and have great energy on stage. Jake's vocals are stronger live than on the album, I really like Kyle's cleans. It's just the right about of whiny for me and I think his voice has this "soul grabbing" feel to it. Wildflower and Departures were probably the best of the night. Ryo (Crystal Lake vocalist), came out to perform Skydancer with In Hearts Wake. Ryo was right about In Hearts Wake, they are やばいすぎ.

After the show ended, I hung around to talk to the band and some friends before heading home. It was a nice way to end my finals, I choose to go to a show anytime over drinking. It always so nice and refreshing to watch a foreign band. Like I already said, as much as I love the local music scene here, in Japan, sometimes, I get sick of it too. It's a good thing there are many foreign acts always flying into Japan, so there will be breaks in between.

I thought I liked In Hearts Wake but after seeing them live, I like them way more. I was so glad this was not my only time seeing them, I still had Crystal Lake's tour final to watch them again which will be in the next post.

256. parallels

Yesterday I met up with Jaz at Nakano because we both wanted to go to James Jean's Zugzwang exhibition curated by Takashi Murakami. There was actually a book signing at 4pm but we were both busy so we went for the opening reception instead. I've never been to an opening reception so it was a good experience.

So, we made our way to Nakano Broadway, and there was a crowd outside Hidari Zingaro as we went in. It was really crowded and there were cameras around. The exhibition was really amazing, I have been a big fan of James Jean's work for years so I was really happy to see his work for the first time in person. Jaz said she has seen his work several times since she went to the same art university as him. It was funny because she was telling me how everyone in her school wanted to be like him (I mean, actually I would too. The guy is mad talented.) and used the pens he used. She told me that the quality of the tools he uses are really A* or maybe even S for Super.

Listening to her talking about the art in the U.S. makes me feel as if there are so much more opportunities there, it was nice to know though because I know no one in the art scene there.

This piece is actually painted on 12 copper panels and is the biggest piece at the show. The first piece on the right is actually Yayoi Kusama inspired, because there's dots and the furry things she makes all the time. Actually I didn't notice it, Jaz pointed it out and the piece was even named after her, "Yayu". I love the attention to details in James Jean's pieces and I especially love the lines in them, I really wish I can draw like that. 

Since it was so crowded at the gallery, I couldn't get photos of all his work. I would probably go back and look at his work another time before it ends so I can absorb everything and get inspiration from there. 

After the exhibition, Jaz and I decided to go around Nakano Broadway because she hasn't been there before. I'm starting to fall in love with Nakano Broadway honestly. I love how there are so many interesting shops, and it's not only because of the design of them but also the things they sell. All the obscure art that I really love and reblog on tumblr are mostly sold there and I can even find old merchandise from Ghibli and a lot of 80's anime which I really love. 

I really love the 80's to early 90's Japanese anime and art, there's a certain feel to it that I can't seem to get enough of. We went around all stories of the building and it was fun because I got to discover new shops.

if you zoom in on the UFO catchers, it's actually NSFW toys and figurines.

All the Mandarake shops are nicely themed and the design and decor, just love. I especially love this one :

The lighting in this shop is really good for photographs and selfies, perhaps? I love how the entrance looks like Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto. They even sell old signs, like Osaka's famous Gilico man from the 80's (I think, could be older) is going for 60,000 yen. I don't know why, but whenever I get to see vintage toys I immediately feel happy. 

After we were done exploring Nakano Broadway, we went to get sushi at O1O1 nearby, we didn't do anything much but just sit and talk till it was about 11pm. It was nice talking to someone about art again since none of my friends here are into it. Liking it and actually doing art are two completely different things. A mind of an artist works very differently, I don't know how to explain it. I have never felt lonely in Tokyo but I am very lonely when it comes to art if I make sense? 

I don't have anyone to talk to about it or even understand the terms of it. So, I'm really glad to have Jaz around. She said she feels the same too and she hasn't been doing anything art-related till yesterday. Talking to her makes me miss my college days to some extent, it was so easy to explain to her what our projects or critiques were like. It was also nice to hear stories from her college days. We're also planning to go to Takashi Murakami's exhibition at Mori Art Museum because she really likes his work. I look forward to that.

It was a nice break from music also, I always want to talk about the bands I listen to or just going to shows in general. You can never have too much of a good thing. Especially for me, if I have too much of it, I'll grow to hate it.

Another thing I am happy about is that Nakano is less than an hour away from my apartment and it's on my way home from class everyday so I can drop by anytime if I feel like I just want to roam around. I'm starting to really explore more of this side Tokyo and I can't wait till my sister comes in February so I can show her all the little gems I have found.