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?

285. dizzy, osaka ii

March 11th. Our last day in Osaka. One of the main reasons why we even decided to come to Osaka was to go to Universal Studios Japan again. We got up early, checked out, put our luggage in a locker (I never knew how useful lockers actually are until I live in Japan), and were on our way to the theme park.

One thing I really like (and prefer) about Universal Studios here is that it's not too far from the city, unlike Disneyland and Disneysea. We got our tickets in less than 15 minutes despite the long line, both of us decided to get the fast pass because we wanted to complete all the rides this time.

Even though we had a fast pass, we still have to wait about 2 hours to get into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At least, the timing was much better than the last time we were here. We decided to kill some time by lining up for Shingeki No Kyojin 4D. Two of the reasons for coming to Universal Studios were - Hogwarts and Attack on Titan. We waited for almost 2 hours for this 4D ride but it wasn't really that worth it really.

So, you'll sit in a theater with movable seats and you follow Sasha (potato girl), off to kill some titans. Also, I thought they were smart to do fan service because she was mostly talking to Levi. I was happy to see Mikasa. So basically, you're swinging through the town trying to kill Annie and you can also watch Annie VS Eren. It wasn't that exciting, to be honest, but I recommend not to bother lining up for it if you're not a Shingeki No Kyojin fan.

After the ride, little sis and I went to search for the Titan statues! I was pretty impressed with the amount of detail and effort put into them. There was the titan in the wall and the titan that ate Eren's mother, still gives me nightmares.

Excuse my horrid acting.

After we were done with the titans, we went to get lunch and continued with The Amazing SpiderMan ride. We didn't have to line up for this one since we had the fast pass, it seriously saved us so much time. The waiting time was 210 minutes. After the ride, we walked around some more before heading into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

Yes, we were still excited when we were there. We decided to take our time exploring everything since we rushed last time. So, we slowly checked out all the shops, walked through Hogwarts castle, got some butterbeer and chilled before going on The Forbidden Journey ride. The waiting time was also over 200 minutes, so I was really relieved we bought the fast pass. Still one of the best rides. Ever.

Three Broomsticks!

Hogsmeade!

Honeydukes!

Dumbledore's office.

In The Dark Arts Classroom.

I was happy we got to get into The Wizarding World early in the day because I could take better photos this time. We went to get some food at The Three Broomsticks after the ride. The food was pretty meh. I wish theme parks would actually put in more effort into making better food but if you can rip people off, why not right? :/

This time, we also managed to go to Ollivander's! It wasn't anything special, it was just a re-act of when Harry got his wand, really. We went to Honeydukes, Zonko's, the Owlery.... I think we had more than enough time to explore all the shops. I didn't buy anything except for some Droobles and some "special" chocolate at Honeydukes.

There was a real barn owl present!

We left Hogsmeade not too long after getting some stuff. Little sis and I decided to get on the Terminator ride because we thought we didn't have to wait that long but we ended up wasting more than an hour there. The ride was shit too, it was so boring I fell asleep on the ride. Literally. I fell asleep.

There was a new addition to the theme park which was some Minion themed shops. My mom would be very happy here, haha. It was cute because they played the Despicable Me Soundtrack throughout that area. I could only imagine my mom trying hard not to laugh if I brought her here.

After leaving the Minion area, we went for our last ride, Hollywood Dreams. It was freezing when we were waiting in line. It was our turn in less than 30 minutes and little sis was pretty bummed out because this marked the end of her adventure but I told her "Hey, at least, you end it on a high note". Hollywood Dreams was fun but I wished it wasn't so cold. I think it was only 5 degrees when we got on the rollercoaster. My face froze and once we got off the ride, my eyes could not stop tearing. It was just too cold, but very fun nonetheless.

We left Universal Studios at about 7:30pm. We went to get our luggage and made our way to Shin-Osaka Station to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. It was a nice way to end little sis's trip here. Both of us were so tired, we passed out on the train.

I miss little sis already but I'll be seeing her next month back in Singapore, so I'm alright. I always love traveling with her because it's easy. I still miss our 2014 trip a lot and wish we can do something so crazy like that again. Hopefully soon...but somewhere far far away from here.

283. green eggs & ham, osaka

Last Wednesday, March 9th, Little sis and I headed to Osaka. I just wanted to get out of Tokyo and she wanted to go to Universal Studios. It was raining quite heavily on the day we arrived, so we didn't get to do much.

I booked an apartment by Airbnb again, and our apartment was in a really convenient location. Just a 5 minute walk to Shinsaibashi. I stayed near Shin-Osaka Station the last time (because everywhere else was fully booked) and it was pretty inconvenient. So, the first thing we did was locate our apartment, dumped our luggage there and went straight off to Umeda Station.

Little sis wanted to go to the Pokemon Centre and I wanted to go the Gudetama Cafe at HEP Five. We went to the Pokemon Centre at Daimaru first and slowly walked to HEP Five because it was raining, I didn't take many photos on that day. HEP Five reminded me a lot of Odaiba but smaller. The shopping mall had a Ferris Wheel and Joypolis. We went to the cafe first because we thought there was going to be a long line but to our surprise, there wasn't any line. The cafe was only half full.

The cafe was really cute with videos of Gudetama playing on the tiny television screens. Some of the chairs were actually egg-shaped and there were stuffed toy Gudetamas placed almost at every table. Little sis ordered the carbonara pasta and I ordered the white curry rice and a chocolate latte.

Honestly, the food was inedible, the standard was as bad as the pop-up Pokemon cafe at Parco Shibuya last year minus the 6 hour waiting time. I probably would NEVER go again but hey, at least, I got a nice photo of my food right? right? right? (if you can't pick up my sarcasm, we're not friends)

Also, thank heavens the food wasn't overpriced. We spent quite a while chilling at the cafe just because we paid for shit food.

I obviously don't fit in.

We walked around the mall after our questionable dinner and decided to go to Joypolis. We played at the arcade and I was amazed there was a whole floor dedicated to Purikura (I don't even know why I'm amazed actually). We didn't bother taking Purikura that day since we both looked like shit from the rain. We spent some time at HEP Five before heading back to Shinsaibashi to meet up with PALM. 

We met up with Kenta at the same building Hokage was. They were recording their new album, so little sis and I just chilled there talking to Kenta, waiting for the rest to finish up before I could go in and say hi. We didn't stay too long because they were busy, so we left before 12. Little sis was more amazed because it was her first time seeing a band record their album. I was glad she was able to be more talkative this time because she's usually quiet. 

We fell asleep not too long after a hot shower. 

Thursday, 10th March :

Today was little sis's last concert in Japan. She was pretty bummed out but I tried to cheer her up by taking her to get good coffee. We walked around Amerikamura and I showed her some new places I discovered on my own when I was there last September. I was so amazed to find old AFI albums at King Kong Records, I obviously bought them because they were all less than 1000yen. 

We also took Purikura today! I forced my little sis to take it, so we kind of did a lot of stupid poses because we fail at acting cute. I can't at least, it makes me vomit. Also, the stamps for this machine were so cute because it was mostly food stamps, hahaha.

I brought her to Giracha Coffee after reading a lot of reviews online. Giracha was quite difficult to locate because it is not in Shinsaibashi or Amerikamura, it's in the hipster, quieter area past Amerikamura located in Tachibana Tori. I thought the concept of it was pretty cool because it's both a coffee and bicycle store. 

The staff was friendly and nice, so we spent quite some time there. There isn't any seating but just a couple of stools and benches, so I would say it is more like an expresso bar. The Little sis ordered a cafe latte while I ordered a mocha. Little sis said that the taste of the coffee here is more "mouthful" than the usual she has had in Japan. It was pretty good in my opinion but the best mocha is still from Frankie Melbourne in Shimokita. 

The shop itself sells bicycles, bicycle gear and some clothes. There was even a bicycle studio at the back, so you can see someone making bicycles which I thought was interesting. After coffee, we decided to explore the area because I haven't been to this part of Osaka either.

There were some pretty cool shops around and they reminded me of Taipei.

I particularly like how this store placed the globes at the window.

We roamed around here for a little bit before heading back to Shinsaibashi. We went back to our apartment to put down our stuff before heading out again for the lynch. show (next post). We were really hungry after the show obviously, so we went to get dinner and takoyaki that my friend recommended and sat next to the Dontonburi Canal slowly eating. We slowly made our way back to the apartment again and it was 1am when we got back. 

We did some packing and went to straight to bed since we wanted to get up early the next day for Universal Studios.

243. see beyond, osaka

Last weekend was spent in Osaka . Apart from attending shows, I got to see some friends again and explore Osaka on my own. This trip to Osaka was really good, the most fun I've had in a long time even though I was on my own most of the time. I didn't take much photos again as usual, so this post is going to be more wordy.

September 19th, 2015

The start of Silver Week. I made my way to Tokyo Station in the late morning and it was wayyy more crowded than I expected it to be. There were long lines to get on the Shinkansen, the shops were packed, it was almost impossible to get anything but somehow I managed to squeeze through the crowd to get my lunch and got on the train before 1pm. 

I arrived in Osaka at half past 3. I quickly made my way to the apartment to put down my stuff and rushed off to Pangea. I didn't take too long to get to Pangea since it was in Shinsaibashi, and it was easy to find. Once I got to the venue, Tiger (?) was playing on stage. I've never seen them before but I thought they were pretty good. The next band up was Does It Escape Again and the vocals were really weak so I left the venue for a little bit to walk around instead of staying in the venue and suffering.

I went to Starbucks to chill and spent a little over an hour there. I timed it nicely to get back in time for PALM. The timetable was pushed back a little bit, so they took the stage a little later than supposed to. They put on a good set, I haven't seen them properly since April. Next up was Crystal Lake, they opened to Twitsted Fate (YAY not Matrix!), and to my surprise, they played The Burden next. After that, it was their usual, Rollin' Beloved and The Fire Inside. After Crystal Lake's set was Hundredth. I was kind of excited to see Hunredth since I have been listening to their music lately but somehow, I didn't enjoy their set that much. They are pretty good live but I felt like there was something missing in their performance. They had a rather long set, and played songs mostly from their new album, Free. I was pretty bummed they didn't play Beggar because it's my favourite track on that album.

After their set, I decided to move somewhere "safer". The mosh pit in Osaka is way more brutal than the ones in Tokyo. I fell down a couple of times during these 3 bands' set, but people were really nice and helped me up each time. Since I moved to the other side of the venue, I bumped into more people. I was talking to Kenta while waiting for Loyal To The Grave's set but ended up talking to Goodsound (Crystal Lake's staff) as well. And in the end, I completely missed LTTG's set because I was outside talking to Akira and someone from Hundredth. Some random people also came up talking to me as well and told me to check out the next band.

Edge of Spirit took the stage about 9-ish, and their mosh pit was the most brutal for the night. They were exactly what some guys described earlier. Even though it was my first time seeing them, I really enjoyed their set. The final band for the night was First Blood. I'm not a big fan of their music but decided to stay to catch their set anyways since Kenta suggested it. I left to smoke before their set ended because I was getting a headache. (I was a little hungover from the night before because it was Remi's farewell party) I ended up talking to Ryo until the show was over. I hung around for a little while before deciding to head back to the apartment. It was a really fun night and Osaka's atmosphere is much better than Tokyo I would say. I'm glad I decided to go to shows  in Osaka for a change.

The people are friendlier, the mosh pits are way more brutal and I feel more at ease talking to people comparing to Tokyo. There were way less girls at this show as well, which makes it a little intimidating but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

September 20th, 2015

I woke up really late and took my time to get out of the house. I headed straight to Shinsaibashi to get some coffee and just explored the area. This time, I spent more than 4 hours exploring Amerikamura, I went to Village Vanguard, a couple of bookstores, vintage toy shops, a record store called King Kong Records which to my surprise sold a ton of Black metal CDs. I spent too much time there looking through some albums. I managed to squeeze in some time to do some souvenir shopping for my family as well.

Even though I have been to Osaka so many times, I have never taken any photos of the famous Glico Running Man in Dotonbori. I strolled through this street and realised it was getting close to 6pm so I made my way to Zepp Namba for Crossfaith's show.

Crossfaith took the stage at 6.20ish pm. I haven't been to their shows in almost a year, so it was nice to see them again. I'm still not a big fan of their music but they are really good live so I don't mind going even though I hardly knew any songs. They played mostly from their new album, Xeno. The lasers were stellar as usual and they welcomed Kazu (guitar) back to the band halfway through the set before playing Monolith. For the encore, Hiro and Tatsu took out some inflatable boats to crowdsurf but Hiro fell while trying to balance on the crowd. I couldn't stop laughing. I was happy they played Omen during encore since I also like Prodigy. The show ended at about 8pm and I hung around the venue since I was waiting for my friend to finish work.

I met my friend at about 11-ish in Shinsaibashi and we went for dinner. It was a nice night out, we walked around Dotoburi and just talked. He said he was glad to show me around his hometown since he is from Osaka. I finally got back to the apartment at 2-ish am but couldn't sleep till about 6am, blame it on too much Oolong tea. Shinsaibashi is so different at night with all the shops closed but I really enjoyed myself because of him.

September 21st, 2015

I got up at about 9am since I couldn't stop tossing and turning. I kept waking up in between 6 - 9am, so I just gave up on sleeping and decided to pack my luggage and explore Osaka before going to the airport.

I decided to head to Abeno Harukas since there was a Moomin exhibition going on. Abeno Harukas is at Tennoji Station, and it's somewhere I have never been to. It really reminded me of Tokyo Skytree. It is apparently the tallest skyscraper in Japan.  

It was really difficult, actually I would say impossible to get a locker that day because it was Silver week. I had to drag my gigantic luggage everywhere which was a pain in the ass honestly. I finally was able to store it somewhere after purchasing my ticket to the exhibition. The staff at the exhibition hall said they could keep it for me (for free), until closing time. So in short, my love for The Moomins saved my life.

The exhibition was on the 16th floor of Abeno Harukas and had an open air garden. This part of the building reminded me of Mori Building and Mori Art Museum. I actually think this is better. I decided to go to the exhibition first and check out the view later. I got into the exhibition at close to 1pm.

As usual, you can't take photos again in the hall itself, so I could only take photos of these before entering the exhibition. The exhibition was a really good one because it was all original drawings by Tove Jasson, the creator of The Moomins. Aside from creating The Moomins, Tove Jasson was also a cartoonist and illustrator and to my surprise, a political one. There were several drawings of Adolf Hitler at this exhibition. She was also a classical impressionism painter, which was also surprising because of style of The Moomins is so different from her paintings. 

There were also several sculptures, videos and even a reading corner at the exhibition. There was also a little house near the end of the exhibition, it is actually mock up of her studio. Next to the house a video of Tove Jasson was played and it showed her studio and the location for her studio really looked like something out of Moominvalley. In the video, her studio is located near the lake with nothing but greens and barren lands of nature. It looked really dreamy. I'm glad such a place exists or existed.

Just before the end of the exhibition, there were two little televisions playing the anime version and also a puppet (1959) video of The Moomins. I was really amazed at the puppet video beccause it looked really tedious to do. I'm a big fan of stop-motion films so I do appreciate the amount of work put into things like that.

At the end of the exhibition, you could dress up as a Moomin character and take photo with a cardboard cut of of The Moomins. I thought it was really cute because so many parents dressed their kids up and there were so many people exclaiming "可愛い" in the room. I did too, haha.

Of course, there was a shop at the end of the exhibition. There were a couple of rare finds like the dvd for the stop-motion animation, Moomins and the Comet Chase and I finally found the Moominvalley map I have been searching for months, so I'm really happy. I didn't buy much other than those stuff since I have too much Moomin stuff already.

After exiting the store, I went to the Observation Garden. It was crowded but tolerable. The view was okay, probably better at night. I personally don't really care about views of the city. Never understood why people would wait in line for such a long time just to get to the highest floor so they can look at the city view. 

After I was done, I just spent some time going around Abeno Harukas. Window shopping and had lunch. Once I got bored, I went to get my luggage and made my way to KIX airport. There wasn't much to do at the airport so I was on the phone most of the time. Surprisingly there's a small Pokemon shop at the airport. 

My flight was at 11.30pm, so I just did some souvenir shopping and chilled before getting onto the plane. I didn't get much sleep on the plane despite being so tired. In the end, I just watched a couple of movies till I arrived in Singapore. 

I can't believe this happened a week ago. It feels like it just happened yesterday, and in two days I'll be heading back to Tokyo again.