222. grey skies, foxes and guns

I'm so glad it is rainy season in Japan. The heat was getting unbearable for me but the weather now is nice and chill again. Though it might be kind of annoying that it'll rain so much for the next month, but I'd chose rain any day over heat.

It was really cloudy today but there would be sunshine every once in a while. I met up with Mo today in Kichijoji in the afternoon and we went to reserve places at the Cat Cafe then walked to the park. Recently, I have been talking to Mo a lot and we get along really well so I'm kind of bummed he is going back in about two weeks from now. I will have one less friend to hang out with.

First, we went to the Inoshikara Park Zoo, it was just a small one and the entrance fee was cheap so we decided to check it out, it was only 320 yen per person. The only reason why I wanted to go was also because I really like Fennec Foxes and I haven't seen any in real life. Since it was a small zoo, there were not many "exotic" animals. Mostly local and finally saw tanuki (raccoon dog) up close. They also had several barn owls (I love), monkeys, wild cats and penguins. The squirrel enclosure was pretty nice, there were squirrels running around, climbing trees and eating nuts, so it was really nice to see that.

(There were a ton of Fennec Foxes, just that this was my best photo)

Also... this squirrel was really hilarious for some reason.

It didn't take too long to finish walking around the zoo. We didn't get  to go to the Aquatic Life Zoo which had some aquatic animals and local birds. By the time we got there (our ticket covered both zoos), it was already closed. So we just decided to walk by the pond. The weather today was perfect to go to the park actually and there were people rowing boats. My last boat rowing experience was funny though. 

We roamed around some little streets near the park, did some shopping and went to EA shooting bar. We had to reserve slots, so we chose the 9pm slot and went for dinner. After dinner, we went back to the Cat Cafe. Luckily, we went back after 7pm so we paid half the actual price. Being back at the Cat Cafe reminded me of Gerald, I haven't spoken much to him since he left Japan last October. I do miss hanging out with him. It's strange, all the guys I really liked hanging out with are only here for a short while, which honestly makes me kinda sad. Though I still love my girl friends more but it's nice to have a mix.

This time, most of the cats were sleeping. The staff were nice enough to carry some of the cats to other parts of the cafe, so everyone could get a chance to interact with them. These two cats were the funniest of the day :

I didn't notice this last time I was here, but there is a small door on one of the main entrance doors and cute paw prints. In love. I love cats too much.

It was raining once we were out of the Cat Cafe, we slowly made our way down to the shooting bar since it was close to 9pm. They had a bar but we chose to have a table instead. They handed us menus for the guns we would like to use, drink and food. There was a huge range of guns to choose from and there was even a pink one called "Femme Fatale". There were pistols, handguns, machine guns, magnums and riffles. It made me feel like I was actually playing Resident Evil minus the zombies. Mo suggested for a beginner I should choose a handgun. 

So we ordered drinks and waited for it to be our turn. The bar was decorated with tons of guns of course. None of them are real by the way. 

Spot the pink gun!

Once we stepped into the shooting range, we had to wear protective eyewear and the staff would instruct us on how to use the gun. It was really fun and I enjoyed it. Mo was having too much fun with the machine gun, haha. After we finished, we just chilled there until 11ish. I was sending photos to my sister while we were there and I can't wait till she visits. We went home after that. 

Today was really fun and honestly, if it wasn't for some of my classmates I wouldn't have found other cooler and more interesting things to do in Tokyo. As if I was even bored with Tokyo to begin with. 

221. high tide, low tide

When Marnie Was There (2014)

Lately I've been feeling really worn out, I guess it's because I'm out almost everyday going to class, hanging out after class and on the weekends I make plans to do more. I've been going in and out of episodes of not wanting to talk to anyone at all and that's completely normal. I feel exhausted being around people and I just want a peace of mind. Little sis sent me this article about introverts the other day and it's 10000% me. We're both the same, so she understands how I feel. 

There was an earthquake on Saturday when I was out with the guys and we got stuck in Shibuya for the entire night because the trains stopped entirely, only a couple of train lines were working but none that goes to my place. I was so tired from the weekend, I overslept today and missed class. But it's a good thing because I really felt like I wanted to be alone and I managed to paint again, so I'm happy.

Also, I finally watched Studio Ghibli's last film, When Marnie Was There. I really enjoyed it because I could relate to the main character Anna and sometimes, I wonder what it's like to really move away from the city and live by the country side just for a little bit. Even though I am such a city girl, recently I've been having this urge to move away to somewhere more peaceful and quiet. Even being away from the things I love would be okay just for a little bit.

I actually liked the idea of the story, whether or not (*spoiler*) Marnie was actually a ghost or really just something Anna made up entirely from her memories. This film actually helped me get on track again with painting because it really helped me relax my mind. 

I can't believe it's already June. Which means it' summer. I hate it and am counting down to winter already. So much has happened in the first half of the year but I have a feeling the later half of the year is going to be more crazy. I can't wait to get my visa and start buying more things for this lovely apartment.

思い出のマーニー (2014)

220. gnossienne

On Saturday, I met up with my classmates, Mo and Otchiko, in Shibuya because all of us wanted to go to Kawasaki to check out an arcade, its called Anata no Warehouse and it's known to mimick the slums of Hong Kong. The original one is in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was pretty cool and we had fun playing darts, pool, some shooting games and some other retarded games we could find. (I would probably post photos and write in more details in another post because it is not going to suit later half of this post)

We spent about 3 hours there and plan to go back again some time this week. Mo and I headed to Roppongi after that because we wanted to check out different exhibitions but it was at the same place. He went to the Star Wars exhibition are Mori Art Museum while I went to A/D Gallery just next to it.

I've been wanting to go to Aquirax Uno's DEUX LIVRES exhibition since I discovered it was going on. The exhibition is over now and I'm glad I went to it. There were a lot of new work by him and I fell in love with a couple of them. The gallery was quite small but it was okay since you don't have to pay to view his work. I would say there were about 20 pieces and a couple of sculptures as well.

Upon arriving, you'll see this display of some oddities before entering the gallery.

The gallery itself was just painted plain white with all his work in frames hung on the wall. I thought it was a little too plain for my taste and wished he would have painted on the walls as well but most artists don't do that because its too much work. But I always thought if I had my own exhibition I would want to decorate the whole space nicely, so you'll really feel like you are in my world.

I really did enjoy some paintings like the one just below, I actually like that there's a fish tail and arm sticking out of the wall. The second piece is actually the print I have on my bag I purchased at another exhibition in Shibuya. One of the things I really liked about some pieces were the little drawings he cut out and pasted on. Those were actually my favorite, I would stare at those drawings for a little while before moving onto the next piece. 

Also, what I really thought was interesting was he used correction fluid on some works. He uses mainly ballpoint pen, so I guess some of them had mistakes and he would cover it up with correction fluid. For me, I would just start over because it looks messy, but somehow, it works for his pieces.

The next two are my absolute favorites from this exhibition. It's always got to be girls sleeping... I draw most of my inspiration from dreams and that place where dreams can only take you so I really enjoy paintings that are of girls sleeping. To me, she could be having a really lovely dream or a nightmare and you'll never know. Funny enough, I haven't drawn any girls asleep because I love drawing the eyes too much, I've always loved drawing them the most out of everything since I was a kid. 

I was surprised there were sculptures at the exhibition as well because I haven't seen him make any of them, but his sculptures actually remind me and have the "feel" of a song called Romance by Buck Tick. I guess that's also why he did the art for their 17th album, Razzle Dazzle. He also did some album art for Shiina Ringo a couple of years ago.

I wish they sold prints of the sleeping girls. The original isn't that expensive, 183,000 yen per piece but I'm a poor student so I can't afford it. If I had the money, I would have bought it instantly. Hopefully in the near future, he would release this series of work into a book. I really enjoyed this exhibition and I'm glad I could take photos of it because I can't stop staring at the sleeping girls. Here's Buck Tick's Romance, I think it suits his work really well.

After I was done with the exhibition, I went to HARBS to get some cake while waiting for Mo. We met up again at about 8 and went to Shibuya for sushi and met up with Otchiko again for Shisha. This time we tried white peach and mojito mint, which were really good. It's nice to chill with them every now and then, but they are already leaving next month so I try to go out with them when I don't feel too tired or if it's not for drinking. I really don't enjoy drinking that much honestly.

This week was nice because I went to two exhibitions and feel like myself again. In other good news, my visa is approved and I get to stay another two years here. I was waiting for the green light to go buy an easel and other furniture, and since it looks good now, I'll head to the art supply store to pick up an easel. So happy. :)

219. escape route

I met up with Laura on Thursday after class in Daikanyama because both of us wanted to check out qta3's Intellect of ignorance exhibition at Aquvii Gallery. Q-TA is a collage artist based in Tokyo, I don't know his real name, but I have been following him on instagram for over a year now and have always enjoyed his work. I loved to do collages when I was still in college but haven't ever since, it would be nice to start again.

Aquvii is both a shop and gallery, the shop is located on the first floor and the second floor holds a really small gallery space, you can easily see the short flight of stairs connecting to the second floor once you walk in. I didn't expect to like Aquvii as I do now, it kind of reminds me of my favorite shop in Odaiba, Strange Love.

I arrived slightly earlier than Laura, but I waited for her to arrive to view the exhibition. I took individual photos of pieces I really liked. Also, I love how they decorated this shop. Look at all the teddy bears on the steps!

I really loved his works that had the human anatomy in them, most of his work looks like he collected a ton of vintage magazines or newspaper just for it. We spent quite some time viewing his work, and after we were done, we spent even more time in the shop just to look at other stuff. They were also displaying some other artists' work, and they even had tobird's (THE NOVEMBERS album cover artist) merchandise.

Honestly, it felt so nice to be looking at some art or at least things I like again. Lately, I have been spending so much time doing what other people want and it's tiring. After we were done, we walked around Daikanyama for a little bit before going for dinner. Initially, we wanted to go to Camden's Blue Star Donuts also in Daikanyama just because they had a creme brulee flavoured donut, but when we got there all the donuts were already sold out. It's located on Daikanyama's new Log Road Mall, which really reminded me of Australia. They had several breweries and cafes as well. We stumbled upon a Blythe Doll shop on the way.

This pink castle mansion just next to Log Road really resembles The Grand Budapest Hotel! Laura and I were really excited about it, we were taking tons of photos. We walked around quite a bit and was hopping around cafes before settling for one nearer to the station. I had green curry with rice and she had pho.

While we were having dinner, I spotted a tanuki on the wire. I don't know the right word to use? Climbing on it, running on it? It looked more like running to me. Laura got excited and decided to take a video. My neighbour told me that he has lived in Japan for 10 years and he's only seen a tanuki twice. So I guess we got lucky? After dinner, we walked to Harajuku because I needed to get coffee to stay up (result of writing this entry at 5 in the morning) to study for my test later. We ended up, as usual talking too much and only left Shibuya at about 11pm. 

Classes and people have been wearing me out lately. I need more time to let my mind rest and stay in or at least if I don't stay in, do things that I like. All I want to listen to nowadays is classical music, as strange as it sounds. Like I said in my last entry, it has been the most calming thing that I've been doing lately.

218. the curious case of benjamin button

Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Last week I skipped a day of class just to stay in (see previous post), and I watched a couple of films. I've owned The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on DVD for several years now but I haven't seen it in a long time, thats why I decided to bring it back with me to Japan. Sometimes this film makes me emotional because of the characters and how I can relate to some of them. Weirdly enough even though I hate a ton of romantic things, I really loved this scene :

Whenever I watch this part, the same thought always comes into my head "how nice it must be to love someone that much and always have him/her there". Though I don't really believe in love, fate and all that jazz, sometimes I do think about how I used to believe in it so much and how lovely it must be to believe in it again. Feelings are so complicated nowadays. I wish it was easier.

There's also so many parts and quotes of this film I love so much, I could go on forever and this post will never end. After watching this again that day, I felt so much better and I've watched a couple more films over the weekend. I also watched The Help, Little Miss Sunshine, Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides. I hope to find more good films when I have the time again soon.

I really miss the night time, because I have all the time to myself to do my own things while everyone is asleep. I always love how quiet it is, how no one would bother me and how my mind would wander off. Lately, life has been so hectic because I'm out everyday and around people. I really use the weekends to stay in and have them to myself. Sometimes it's hard to say no to friends who ask to hang out because those two days are the only time when we're completely free. I'm working on my time management. 

I really miss painting and want to paint again soon but there's hardly any inspiration nowadays. Not painting makes me sad. My mind hasn't had the time and energy to drift off... I really miss that.

P.S. listening to Erik Satie has been one of calming things I have done lately.