288. a story of yonosuke

This spring break has been filled with nostalgia. I spent my last week mostly at home, painting away. I'm not too inspired by my girls now, so I'm having fun painting whatever I want and just experimenting. I hope to post up some new ideas soon.

Like I have mentioned in a recent post of finding my old music again, I watched a couple of new films and re-watched some. I finally re-watched A Story of Yonosuke and I really like how light-hearted and bittersweet this film is.

: When I die, I wonder if they'll cry for me as they remember me...

: When they think about you, they'll all laugh instead.

: What? Why?

: I don't know, just a guess.

gifs by noctu4.tumblr.com

I first watched this film when I was on the plane to Manila, 3 years ago. I remember almost immediately liking Yonosuke's character because of his carefree, optimistic and naive spirit. The story, like the title suggests, follows Yonosuke's life experience during his college years. I really like how the film flows from a flashback to a moment of his life, then to the people who he have met, years later, talking and remembering him.

It made me think if the people I used to know or even the people I have in my life now, will they still remember me maybe 10, 20 years later? Also, what kind of impact did I leave on them or even... when they talk about me, which memory of us would they share? If they think about me, which experience in the course of knowing each other will they remember most?

This film is definitely about life. Life is so strange, friends and lovers becoming strangers again.

I also really like that there are almost no sad moments in this film, which makes it heartwarming as well. I think it's one of those films that I could probably watch over and over again and not get tired of.

Kengo Kora is a gem. I've only watched him in Snakes and Earrings, and his character in that film is entirely different from Yonosuke. I really enjoyed his performance in both films. I like how he's smiling so much in this film. I wish there were more films like this.

PS. His samba dancing is awkwardly adorable.

287. spiny mammals and reptiles

Last Friday, I met up with Laura in Roppongi to check out a hedgehog cafe. Laura loves hedgehogs so she was pretty excited. We went to get burritos for lunch/dinner first before getting cinnabons and then off to the cafe.

The cafe wasn't too difficult to locate, there was also a rabbit cafe on another floor of the building. I was surprised they had geckos as well! I think I was more interested in the geckos than the hedgehogs, haha. There were about 20 hedgehogs or more and over 10 geckos and an iguana. You could choose which hedgehog or gecko you want to hang out with.

I thought it was worth the money since you actually can pick them up and play with them, unlike at Cat Cafes where you just patiently wait for the cats to come to you. Also, cats are more temperamental, so they're hard to handle.

The two hedgehogs I chose were crazy. The first one kept jumping when I touched it, I think it was scared. The second one was sooooo active, it kept trying to come out of the box, it succeeded and ran across the table. I really liked the white hedgehogs but I gave up and chose to hang out with the gecko instead. The hedgehog Laura chose was really cute and fat, and easy to deal with.

look at how happy this girl is.

Obviously, she took this photo.

I think I prefer cold-blooded animals because they're so chill, maybe too chill but that's my style. I painted this leopard gecko a couple of years ago, so it was nice to see it up close in person. I checked online that the one I actually chose is a baby, that's why it has no spots yet. I love the gecko's shade of pink.

Also, for some reason, this gecko kept climbing up my sleeve. I was a little freaked out honestly. I was scared to pick it up at first but after awhile, I enjoyed hanging out with this little guy.

I also love that it has a rested judging face, haha. I thought it will be cool to keep one as a pet but after finding out what I have to feed it, I think I'll just stick to having a cat. These geckos eat live bugs so that means I'll have to keep live bugs in my house? No thanks. Even though I think it would be fine, but I will constantly have this thought of it breeding and bugs infesting my apartment. No.

We spent an hour at the hedgehog cafe before deciding to go to Tsutaya to chill for a bit more before heading home. I realized that lately, I have been going to a lot of animal themed cafes and even a farm. I love animals so I'm happy. I'll still like to go to a snake cafe, though.

April looks like it's going to be a busy busy month for me. I have Yuri coming back and then H will be back from tour and he already planned some dates, Steph will be visiting me for a couple of days too. I will most probably go to see Bullet For My Valentine and by the end of the month, I'll be heading back to Singapore for a week. Once I get back to Tokyo in May, I'll be going to lynch.'s tour final. 

Not complaining but I'll like to spend most of my time on my own painting. I'm excited to see Yuri and Steph again, both I haven't seen for two years. Dates with H should be fun because they always are. I hope I just don't fall sick again like I did right after little sis left. I lost my voice and was down with a bad cold and fever. This time, I'll try to rest more. 

It's already Spring... I can't believe it. 

286. follow and feel

On Friday, I met up with Laura at Roppongi to go to a hedgehog cafe (see next post) and as usual, we ended up talking about music until almost the last train home. A few bands that I listened to when I was a teenager have recently reunited or in Aaron Gilespie's words (Underoath's drummer / The Almost vocals) words, rebirthed.

useless fact : Aaron Gilespie has the same birthday as me, I just wiki-ed. O_O (kinda fangirled because he used to be my favorite drummer)

Most of the bands that I loved while finding myself have disbanded, that's why I moved onto listening to Japanese bands. But with bands like Underoath and Saosin reuniting, it made me track back to my roots and I started listening to these bands again. I didn't expect to feel so much while listening to my old music again.

I remember back then I used to question people who are much older than me "Why don't you listen to new bands?" I never understood why they preferred old bands, but now, at this age, I think I finally understand.

It's not that we're not open-minded, I still listen to new bands but the music I grew up with hold a much stronger sense of belonging and there's emotional attachment. When I listen to these bands, I remember all those nights I stayed up crying, laughing and finding myself. Being a teenager was probably the most difficult time of my life thus far.

Without music, I wouldn't have met a lot of important people in my life now. Music has given me a better life, I would say. Also, a boyfriend or two. I'm glad I found my music back then, even though I was outcasted in the last few years of high school. "She's weird, she's satanic," they said.

We also attach memories with the music we listen to, so I am sure that when I leave Japan (if I ever do), lynch. would be that band who will make me feel a lot. Also, now I finally understand why I always love lynch. alone. lynch. fans or should I say visual fans? are completely different from people who listened to post-hardcore, metalcore etc. Since I don't practice visual rituals, it's hard for me to make friends with someone else who likes lynch. Also, I tried but they don't understand what I'm talking about most of the time. If you know me well enough, I hate shallow conversations.

I'm actually happier loving lynch. alone. People still question why I love them, here's one of the many reasons : I respect them as a band for leaving their first record label and doing everything on their own because they wanted to have their own sound. In the 11+ years of them being a band, I think they have transitioned a lot and they, too, tried to "find themselves" as musicians.

I leave you with Saosin's latest, I hope I get the chance to see them live now.

...and I put together 10 songs that helped me pull through those days :

1. Tired & Uninspired - My American Heart
2. Collapse - Saosin
3. A Boy Brushed Red Living In Black and White - Underoath
4. The Words "Best Friend" Becomes Redefined - Chiodos
5.  Let's Get Fucked Up and Die - Motion City Soundtrack
6. Mailbox Arson - Alexisonfire
7. Say This Sooner - The Almost
8. Never Take Friendship Personal - Anberlin
9. Number Five With A Bullet - Taking Back Sunday
10. The Kids Are All Fucked Up - Cobra Starship

This post was a nice break from writing about my life honestly. It has been forever since I stayed up just to listen to music, I miss that feeling.

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.

284. my name is evil ii, lynch.

March 10th was little sis's last show in Japan. After a whole day of shopping, we both headed back to the apartment to put down our stuff and freshen up before heading off to Osaka Muse for lynch.'s show. Osaka Muse is only 1/3 of Liquidroom, so I was pretty happy that I get to see lynch. in a small venue again.

Little sis and I were debating if they were going to play the same setlist as Tokyo. We were pretty certain they were but to our surprise, they opened to MAD. Yet, another song I haven't seen them play in a long time. Both of our necks were still sore from the last show (just two days ago), so we both didn't bother  headbanging that much.

Lucky for us, though, most of the songs played during this show were not really our favorites or headbang-able (for us at least). I was actually happier to just watch them instead of moving around too much. The setlist was entirely different from Tokyo's so the both of us were happy. I was happiest when they played above the skin and THE MORNING GLOW.  Both of the songs were a first for me. Very happy they played NEW PSYCHO PARALYZE and much much happier they played INFERIORITY COMPLEX.

Also, very happy they decided to play the new version of DOZE. I love Hazuki's vocals on the new version and he nailed the song without going out of tune.

I've only seen them played INFERIORITY COMPLEX once, which was the first time I saw them 3 years ago. You could say, I always hoped they would play INEFIORITY COMPLEX but I kept hoping till I gave up, haha. So, I was happily singing along~ I'm always happy when they play IN GLEAM IN EYE. Their MC was really long today, little sis was annoyed. This time, Hazuki was eating tako yaki on stage while the others were talking.

SET LIST :

1. MAD
2. ASHES
3. BULLET
4. THE TRUTH INSIDE
5. dizzy
6. MARROW
7. lizard
8. above the skin
9. THE MORNING GLOW
10. quarter life
11. the universe
12. SHADOWS
13. NEW PSYCHO PARALYZE
14. DOZE (re-recorded ver.)
15. INFERIORITY COMPLEX
16. discord number
17. A GLEAM IN EYE
18. CULTIC MY EXECUTION

ENCORE 1 :

1. VANISH
2. ALL THIS I'LL GIVE YOU
3. pulse_
4. EVOKE

ENCORE 2 :

1. I BELIEVE IN ME

Little sis and I only headbanged to all the encore songs. To be honest, I was pretty bummed she didn't get to see them play any new songs. She didn't really bother much though. She told me she enjoyed Crystal Lake more just because their MC was funnier and she could actually understand what they were talking because half of it was in English.

I was talking to their manager after the show and little sis and I hung around the venue before going to dinner. The next time I see them will be in May for their tour final. Osaka's crowd was much better than Tokyo again. Tokyo's crowd is boring nowadays. I hope they will have a good set list for their tour final, I don't mind if they play more new songs now but there are some songs I would love to see live again.

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.