181. totoro hunting

Yesterday Laura and I went hunting for Totoro Cream Puffs in the rain.  We met up at Shindaita Station and let goolge maps guide us. It didn't take too long to find the bakery, it was only a 5 minute walk from the station. The only thing was that you'd have to be observant and keep a look out for a small Totoro sign. The bakery is located at a really secluded area of a residential area, at the corner of the street. Luckily, I could see the sign peeking out of the corner so we didn't have to get more lost (and wet) in the rain.

The place is actually a two-storey house turned into a bakery on the first floor and cafe on the second. It had a warm welcoming feeling, the kind that you would get when you visit your grandma because of all the wood interior. The entrance of the house also was decorated with a ton of cute Totoro things and frames of Shiro Hige's mascot on the walls. Couldn't resist taking photos. 

The lady at the bakery told us we could eat our cream puffs at the cafe since we reserved them a couple of days earlier. So, the both of us climbed up the stairs to the cafe and decided to have lunch at there because the pasta smelled so good. The cafe was pretty crowded for a place that is so hidden. We both ordered the same pasta, I'm not sure what exactly it's called now but it was really yummy and it came with a drink on the side, I got hot tea.

They served us our cream puffs after we were done with our main course. The brown leaf ones are maron flavour, and the green leaf one is custard. The maron one is an autumn special and was so good, there were bits of chestnuts in them and they were generous with the filling. I felt a little bad to slice open the cute little Totoro but had no choice, haha. How else would I eat it? The custard one had a very strong vanilla flavour which I really loved, I was so full by the end of our meal. We just stayed at the cafe for a little bit since it was still pouring outside.

The rain wasn't lightening up anytime soon, so we just decided to leave at about 4 and went down to the bakery to check out other flavours they had and also, take some more photos.

There were Chocolate Cream and Raspberry & Cream Cheese (in photo) flavours as well. I didn't manage to get good photos of the framed drawings on the wall. Some of the drawings were signed and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki himself, and there was a really cute Catbus clock hanging as well. They sold cookies too but it was all sold out by the time we got there. 

We spent some time taking a ton of photos and left when we were done. The rain was unforgiving as we walked to Shimokitazawa station. Initially, we planned to hang out around Shimokita but since it was more of an outdoor kind of thing, we decided to go to Tower Records in Shibuya to hide from the rain (also because I needed to charge my phone lol). We didn't do much for the rest of the day but check out some shops along Harajuku and migrated from place to place, talking too much.

We had dinner at the Madosh! Cafe because the last time I went I couldn't read the menu, was happy this time with all the avocado. I was so hungry yesterday because it's that time of the month and it was really cold. We shared an onsen egg and I had a tuna rice bowl, after that we moved to Starbucks (because me and my matcha tea latte) where I ate more, haha. Seriously.

We stayed out till 11pm and the rain finally stopped when we were going on home. -__- I'm really happy when I find new places to go, cafe hunting as I call it have been fun in Japan so far.

180. a suspenseful tale, tim burton

I finally went to The World of Tim Burton exhibition yesterday, it was everything I thought it would be except for the lack of displays for The Nightmare Before Christmas and of course, no photos were allowed. But other than that, I really enjoyed it.

It was quite crowded but it didn't take too long to get in, the first exhibition room held sketches and drawings by Tim Burton himself, on notepads, napkins and such. You could see he was playing with ideas in these sketches. I enjoyed the napkin sketches a lot and was standing in front of that exhibit for quite a bit. 

The second room held different series of drawings with different themes. There was a number, carnival (this one was one of my favorites), Trick or Treat, clown and some random drawings mixed up in there. I really liked Little Dead Riding Hood because I love the little note he wrote under it A Suspenseful Tale of Torment and Demon Possession. He wrote little notes alongside half of the drawings he makes which I thought was smart, to let the viewer understand what he was trying to portray. Also, some of them had poems which I had fun reading, wonder how many of the Japanese actually read them? This one guy next to me was so cute because he would look at the english words and try to find it in the dictionary on his phone. I wish my Japanese was better, so I could have helped him, haha. 

I really enjoyed his Unrealized Projects and thought they were one of the best drawings. Maybe because I haven't seen them before so there was a sense of "Ooohh!" in that.

The next room had all the film characters, this part I was the happiest at! The first thing you would see are the Frankenweenie models used in the film. I really love his claymation works a ton so I was really happy to see the figures in real life. The walls would be lined with drawings of the particular film. They also showcased Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Beetlejuice, Mars Attack, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands... basically all the films he made. There were even some drawings of his short films like Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Vincent, Stain Boy and Oyster Boy. (Yes, I remember all this because I took notes and used to be a really really big Tim Burton fan when I was a teenager.)

The was some sculptures as well, they had Oogie Boogie and Lock, Shock & Barrel (my favorite characters ever!) from The Nightmare Before Christmas, a character from his short story, Robot Boy (it could actually move, gave me a shock), Oompa Loompas from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, some characters from Corpse Bride and Beetlejuice in his skeleton form. 

In between his Film Characters rooms, they were also showing some videos he directed or made. Such as Hansel and Gretel (a weird short film), The Killers music videos and Stain Boy. I didn't bother watching The Killers and Stain Boy because you can find them easily on youtube.

Next to the Film Characters room, the showcase of drawings continued. He uses ballpoint pen, ink, acrylic, watercolour, oil paint, colour pencils and markers on most of the drawings. There were also another three sculptures called Three Creatures (series) that I have never seen before and instantly fell in love with these creepy all-black monsters. They had sharp teeth, weirdly proportioned with long tails and more than a pair of eyes. 

My favorite part of the exhibition was actually the Polariods section. He would make oversized  Polaroids out of photos he took with themes from his film. I loved the lighting in the room and how macabre some photos were. Seriously thought it was well done.

The final room had more drawings and by this time I was a little tired of looking at so many drawings that I just glanced through them because I wanted to go to the shop! The shop sold Willy Wonka Chocolate Bars and specials for the exhibition. In the end, I bought 2 postcards, 1 washi tape (it had the number series drawings on them) and a set of stickers of the characters from The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories.

I was really happy to go to the exhibition because I'm running low on inspiration again, always. I want to paint but my mind can't seem to focus. Hopefully going to the exhibition helped. Can't believe it's already December next week. Oh, how time really flies.

179. fall

It's already fall in Japan and I can't be any happier. There's something magical about fall to me, everything seems dreamier, and don't even let me get started on winter. It's my favorite season of all.

Got up earlier than usual to meet up with Laura because she wanted to go to Moominvalley in Saitama after reading about it on my blog. We met up at Ikebukuro Station and got on the Seibu Ikebukuro line to Motokaji Station, it took about an hour.

Once we arrived, I was happy because the weather was so nice, cool but sunny. Some of the trees are turning red and I can't help but to feel like this is the best time of the year. It was much easier to get to Moominvalley this time since I've already been there before, so we just slowly made our way there.

The first thing we did when we got there was explore the house, I was happy that she got all excited about how cute the house was! I could actually slowly look at things this time because there weren't much people. It's cuter than I remember it to be. We climbed all the floors, exited through the little door and entered into another littler door to get back inside and explored some more. We didn't take much time in the house, once we were done, we went to walk around the pond. 

Taking photos and just enjoying the weather. The trial led us to the Moomin library, so we just went in to look at some of the exhibits, there wasn't much but it was still cute. After that, we just slowly went around and got a got view of the whole place and took more photos. We walked around the pond another time to get a good photo of the blue house and was on our way back to the station, at this time, it was closing in the 3 in the afternoon when we got on the train to Shibuya.

We both were hungry, so we had an early dinner at that cheap sushi place. Went to Tower Records right after and had dessert at Silkream and talked for hours. I'm glad that she liked the parfaits at Silkream too, everyone I bring there automatically fall in love with them. Since it was still quite early to head back, we walked to Harajuku and went to Starbucks at Tokyu Plaza, there was already a winter illumination installation set up outside, and heaters nicely placed to keep customers warm. 

I ordered a small cup of matcha latte and we continued talking.

We parted ways at about 11pm and plan to hang out again soon. I had fun with her so I'm looking forward to see her again.

I can't help but to think back to around this time last year, this time last year I was so happy in Nagoya with my best friend. We were talking about silly things and we experienced so many firsts on that trip. I miss her so much. It's strange, life. I feel like a lot has happened for me this year and I'm not sure if I want it to end just yet.

178. maggots, knotfest

15th November was the first day of knotfest, I couldn't really get much sleep the night before so I was worried about how I was going to last the entire day. Slowly made my way to Makuhari Messe in Chiba, it took about 2 hours but still didn't manage to get any sleep on the train.

rare selfie, on top of it in the morning.

I was so excited for today because I finally got to have a girl to talk to! I was meeting up with Laura, who found me on blogspot and I've been following her tumblr for a while. I met up with her while waiting to get into Messe. We were talking so much right away about music, I guess because she's from Australia too, so it made it easier.

We went to look at the merch first because I wanted to get something but the line was insane, it looked like there were more than a hundred people in line. So we just passed up on that and went into the venue. The first band I got to see for the day was Crystal Lake. I was excited to see them since I've (finally) started listening to them. They only played stuff from their latest album, CUBES. They played Ups & Downs, Rollin', Beloved and The Fire Inside. They were really good live and I actually want to see them again because I had fun singing along to their songs (even if their songs aren't really singable?).

After Crystal Lake, we got to the other stage for coldrain, this time I didn't enjoy their set that much. They played No Escape, Six Feet Under, Aware and Awake, The War Is On, The Revelation and some other songs I can't really remember now. I wished they played Stuck again, like at summersonic because I really enjoyed that.  We went back to the other stage after coldrain ended. It was a continuous cycle of going back and forth stages because we both wanted to see almost the entire line up.

Next up was Miss May I, I was pretty impressed with how good they sound live because I don't really listen to them but had fun watching them. I only know they closed to Hey Mister and played Relentless Chaos since they announced it. The backing vocals were really good live, I wished he sang more. I was trying to take photos of the stages throughout the day but the stages were so smoky most the time that my photos all came out blur. (so much for wanting photos in this post.)

After they ended, we took a short break since we both don't listen to MEANING. The crowd was mostly made out of people decked out in black (surprise surprise) and I would say three quarter of the population today were male. Some were wearing Slipknot jumpsuits with the masks which honestly, sometimes when I'm walking too fast, freaked me out a bit because I was tired and would think I just walked pass a zombie, haha.

We both tried to get good spots for Bring Me The Horizon because I've been wanting to see them for so long and have missed them so many times already. They played mostly stuff from Sempiternal, opening to Shadow Moses it was fun singing " This is Sempiternal!",  the mosh for BMTH was pretty chaotic and I got almost pulled in a couple of times, also got pushed to the side which actually offered a better view of Oli Sykes, haha.

They continued with Go To Hell For Heaven's Sake, The House of Wolves, Sleepwalking, Alligator Blood, Chelsea Smile, Can You Feel My Heart and closed to Antivisit. I had fun singing along to all the songs and was happy they played Alligator Blood! Wished they played Fuck and Anthem though. After Bring Me The Horizon was Crossfaith.

I don't listen to Crossfaith at all and I only like Evolution but I know they are really good live, so I wanted to see them and because the bassist is really cute, haha. Laura also went to the mosh for them so I just stood at the left side of the stage to see them. I enjoyed their set but I don't really fancy their new single, Madness, that much. Too much of the DJ sounding thing. The mosh for Crossfaith was pretty chaotic too, I almost kept getting pulled in.

After they ended, the both of us met up at the side of the stage and went to see Lamb of God. They sounded good but I had a hard time enjoying them because I was texting away. I shouldn't be so interested on what's on my phone but I couldn't help it.  I texted throughout the entire set, bet people must be thinking I'm stupid to do that, lol.

It was SiM next. I listen to a couple of their songs but I'm not a big fan of them. The only reason why I wanted to see them is actually an inside joke, lol. They opened to Killing Me and continued with Who's Next. They were pretty good live and had good energy on stage but the singer's japrish was really hard to listen to. I couldn't make out what he was singing half the time, also I got annoyed when it went to the auto-tune bit. That was when both me and Laura decided to walkaway.

We went outside for a bit to get some air, and chilled outside while talking about a ton of stuff. We went over to the stage where One Ok Rock was going to perform while Papa Roach was still playing. They were playing Last Resort and I couldn't help but to laugh a little because people used to make fun of that song when it was just released years ago.

One Ok Rock took the stage at 6 and opened to Deeper Deeper and it was the only song I really enjoyed it. Taka's voice is really good live and never missed a note. After that I got bored because I've never been a fan of One Ok Rock, I only like Deeper Deeper and Liar. I was bummed that they didn't play Liar. One Ok Rock's crowd was pretty much a huge dancing/jumping party. They played a couple of songs which I obviously don't know any of them except Mighty Long Fall, Clock Strikes and  The Beginning.

Next up was Limp Bizit and I was never a fan of nu-metal, so the both of us just sat somewhere at the back, resting. I was so sleepy by this time. I tried to nap for a little bit but failed miserably. Luckily Limp Bizit played for about an hour so there was enough time to rest up for Slipknot.

The final act of the day and the main reason why everyone came to this festival anyway, Slipknot, took the stage at exactly 8pm and opened to their new song from The Gray Chapter, Sarcastrophe. The stage setup was so pretty, everyone kept saying やばい. I was also saying suppperr やばい lol There was a giant devil head in the middle of the stage which had blinking lights, as well as fire blowing out every now and then following to the beat of the songs. I wish I could have taken a photo but I took videos instead.

The second song was The Heretic Anthem and honestly even though it is my favorite song from them, I was pretty bored. I preferred the time that they performed in Australia for Soundwave 2 years ago. There was more anticipation to it because before the song would even begin, Corey would get the crowd excited by whispering "If you're 555, then I'm..." first before continuing to perform. Or maybe it was too early that they played that song?

I didn't really know most of the songs they played since I only listened to the new album once but The Devil in I and Psychosocial was fun to sing to~ The later part of their show was more fun since they played older stuff. Everyone went crazy when they played Duality. I had the most fun at Before I Forget, Duality and Spit It Out. Corey also was talking and thanking people for coming out and apparently there were 24,800 people at the festival. O___O

For their encore, I had fun singing to People = Shit! Didn't get the chance to see them play that the last time and they closed to Surfacing. I was pretty bummed they didn't play The Blister Exists. I had fun at the festival but can't help to feel that there was something missing. It wasn't the same feelings I got after Soundwave or Summersonic.

Laura and I decided to get supper in Shibuya since she got locked out of her place, so we went to Wired Cafe in Tsutaya and had Taco Rice! I haven't had it in forever. We were just talking about a ton of things and she actually reminded me of myself back when I was 20 and touring with my boyfriend's band at the time. The things I wanted back then. I was surprised she had the same piercings as me on the right ear, that was pretty funny. Since Wired Cafe closed at 2, we migrated to the bar and stayed there till the first train.

It was nice hanging out with her because we have a lot of things to talk about, Australia, being Southeast Asian, music and the like. I'm glad I got to meet her and can't wait to hang out with her again.