Memories Drift In And Out Of My Mind~

And the little people get left behind~
So whateverrrrrrr~

That may or may not be one of my favourite Adventure Time quotes ever. I have my reasons ok. Anyway it's only marginally relevant to this post, in the way of I have forgotten pretty much everything that I have done between now and my last post. Which, was over a month ago huhuhu forever a useless blogger. That being said, I probably haven't even done that much, so I guess it's no huge loss. I feel like my posts are just getting really repetitive. Me not remembering if I did anything of interest, and just rambling about music things or anime things, because that's pretty much all my life consists of.

Other than going to work on Sundays and Mondays, I don't really get out that much. If I do go out it's usually just to go to the supermarket or the library or something. I don't mind it. I prefer staying home. This past month I only really made an effort and got dressed up to go out once. It was nice, I do like making an effort. I just don't see the point in going to all the trouble if I know I'm only going to be out for like, an hour. And I'm actually really lazy and it takes me ages to get ready and sometimes you know, it's just not worth it. This one time I was actually out for the whole day though, so I tried.

Yes hello this is my face and I actually kind of liked how it looked that day ok.

Top notch editing I know try to not be too overwhelmed. (She was pulling a huge derp face and would probably de-friend me if I posted the normal picture).

I didn't get a chance to take a full outfit picture this day, so this will have to do. I was wearing tattoo tights with scissors on them with thigh-high ripped socks over top, and my white Doc Martins. The shirt is Super Lovers and the cardigan is Listen Flavor. 

Other than that, and working, I didn't go out much. Just stayed home watching anime. No regrets. 

I received my copy of GOTCHAROCKA's Crisis~ No Toya card again this time, but I was pretty happy to receive the card with all of them! I would like to review the album, but I feel I've left it too late, and honestly I think I need to listen through it a few more times before I'd be able to review it properly. By properly, I mean more than just mindless fangirling about how fucking fantastic it is because it is fUCKING FANTASTIC OMFG. 

Actually, something that you may have noticed that's been happening with me is the move away from music being my dominant interest, back to anime and manga. I say 'back', because before I was obsessed with jrock and visual kei, I was already obsessed with anime and manga. So this is all nothing new to me. It's hard to explain really, but basically I have a very one-track mind, and I can't really be obsessed with more than one thing at a time. You know. Like, I'll still love my other interests, but I can only handle one dominant interest at a time. I know, it's kind of pathetic huh... But it's just the way my mind works, I can't help it. Because when I'm interested in something, I throw my whole being into liking it. It's hard to keep up with myself sometimes. In a way though, I've realized, that's why I've stopped being so interested in music. Well, that's not right. I still love music, and I still listen to music all the time. I guess I should be more specific, and say that's why I've stopped being so interested in visual kei. Why I've stopped trying to immerse myself in it. It's too hard to keep up with the whole scene, sometimes. There's always something being released, from countless artists, be it a single, and album, a DVD, magazines. Bands are breaking up and forming left right and center. It's actually exhausting trying to keep up with it all, and there came a point for me where it was no longer fun to try. It wasn't something I enjoyed doing. Trying to be up to date on all the artists I listen to, trying to hunt down entire discographies before I felt I had the right to call myself a fan, knowing who is releasing what and when, and deciding which releases I would be able to buy. I found myself no longer being able to justify spending $35 on a single, or $50 on a mini album. Keeping up with interviews and live streams and blogs and twitters... honestly, it just became too much. I feel like there's so much pressure, if you're a fan of visual kei, for you to be and act a certain way. I don't really feel like getting into all that right now though, so I'll just leave it at that. And actually, I feel happier now because of this. I just listen to whatever I feel like, whatever makes me happy. I do still listen to the visual artists that I like, of course, my favourite bands are visual. But I've stopped forcing myself to try to keep up, and I'm branching out my musical tastes a bit. It's refreshing, you know. 

Anywaaaay. Speaking of anime (we weren't really speaking about it but humor me ok), instead of spending all my earnings on CDs and the like, I've been buying more anime and manga related goods. I regret nothing.

Two issues of Pash! magazine (June issue with Karneval on the cover, and August issue with SNK on the cover yehyeh). The Karneval Illustration Book, which is really beautiful by the way. If you're a fan of the series this book is a must. Volumes 10+11 of the Karneval manga, a another Karneval book. I'm not sure what it is exactly, it's more manga and I guess stories that aren't related to the main storyline? Idk, but it was super cheap, so I got it. Nice order, huh. It cost me an arm and a leg in shipping, but it was so worth it. 

Then I received this order just yesterday. Pash! September issue with Free! on the cover (hnnn babies), Karneval Animation Guide, and Karneval volume 1 on Blu-ray. While the Blu-rays are substantially more expensive than the DVDs, they do have English subtitles and are compatible with my PS3, so I didn't really have choice. It's very pretty though huhuhu. I've also ordered some SNK phone straps, some useless Karneval merch, the first SNK Illustration book and the second Karneval Blu-ray. I'm also waiting until it's a little closer to the release date to order the Free! animation guide book. I'm pumped, yo.

Also, I'm not sure if you've noticed the difference in the quality of my photos between the last one and all the rest. It's because the last photo was taken on my new iPhone 5 whaaaaat uuuuuup~ I'm sorry, I'm just really stoked to have it. I've already had it a week but I'm still buzzing over it. Ah, I can feel my Apple snob status has been elevated 50%.  

And that's all I've got this time, really. This post was super all over the place, so I'm sorry about that. How do blog. Idk. Haven't figured it out yet sorrrrrrry. 

I'm planning on making my next post another anime post, but this time mostly centered around the on-going series that I'm watching right now (with the exception of SNK cause I've already written about it). I'm actually really excited to write it and I'll probably get started on it within the next few days, so please look forward to it! It'll probably be 100% more interesting than this lame post (and all my other lame posts about my life for that matter). 

No now playing today because I'm not listening to anything. I'm blogging and watching Must Love Cats at the same time. 

Ohohoho~

Look who's trying really hard to not be a useless blogger~

Which, now that I'm thinking about it, is probably a bad idea, because I honestly have no plan of what I'm going to write about here. At least if I put of writing for like a month, I have at least one or two things to say. But right now I'm just like /blank. Pretty much my life. I know, the life I lead is so exciting. Please note the sarcasm. Really, other than spending my days obsessing and crying over bandmen, expensive merch, shojo/yaoi manga and all of my ships, I honestly don't do much else. Sometimes I'll play video games, mostly the Dynasty Warriors games because I'm useless at every other game. Or I'll play The Sims, but obviously never for very long because without fail SOMETHING will go wrong and my game will crash. Of course I listen to music. All the time. Although, I don't listen to as much music as I would like to. There are lots of bands that I want to listen to, but I just don't. Sometimes it's because I can't find valid download links wait what I don't download music what do you mean. I'd say it's mostly because I'm lazy. I just like to listen to my favourite songs over and over again, you know, so I don't listen to much else for a while. My play count for Samurai Dreeeeeam Breaker by GOTCHAROCKA is insane. I'm getting round to it slowly, though. I've got lists of bands to listen to, so I'll just keep working through it at my own pace I guess. No hurry. Oh wait this is the world of visual kei. Bands here drop like flies. Better hurry if you want to catch a band while they're still actually together... Sigh. I can't count the number of times where I've just found out about a band or just started to really get into a band and then the dreaded disbandment announcement rears it's ugly head. It's tough huh. I hate visual, but I love visual. I can't be bothered with it but I never want to let it go. So bittersweet. =_=;;

For a while the Japanese Yen was doing really, really shit (no offense), so I took the opportunity to exchange what money I had saved. It isn't nearly enough, but it's some. Oh yeah I guess I haven't mentioned this yet, but in December/January, I'M GOING TO JAPAN! Wow I can't believe I forgot to write about it, it was all organized like a month or two ago. It's going to be a family holiday, but with plenty of opportunities for me to go and explore on my own. Which is fine by me. Originally it wasn't going to be a family trip, i.e. my parents weren't going to come. That was how I'd always imagined it. But when I started the planning for it, I started to get really anxious. I've never been out of the country on my own before, so flying 12 hours away to a place where I can't speak the language and am unfamiliar with it's culture was kind of scary. Yeah, it was scary for me alright. Judge all you want. My parents weren't too thrilled at the idea either, and neither of them have been to Japan and wanted to go, so it was decided that we would all be going. On the condition that I would be able to go and do things on my own, like shopping in Harajuku. OHMYGOD I GET TO GO SHOPPING IN HARAJUKU. It still hasn't really sunk in yet, that it's finally happening. After all these years, my dream is coming true. I have lots of friends that I'm hoping to visit, so many stores that I want to spend my soul in, and of course immerse myself in the culture. We're only going for 16 days, which isn't enough time to see everything I want to see, but our budgets really can't stretch for any more. So we're spending half the time in Tokyo and the other half in Osaka, using these places as bases to visit other places from. We'll be getting the JR pass, so we'll be able to get the shinkansen to almost anywhere. Our flights and hotels are already booked, so now we just need to wait until a few months before our trip to book things like the JR pass and Ghibli Museum tickets. And hopefully get some tickets for lives! That's one of the things I'm most excited about, really. Going to CD stores and hopefully attending lives! There are so many bands that I would love to see, I can't possibly name them all. And I know I'm not going to get to see them all. But still, I'm going to try to see as many bands live as possible! Even if I have to go without food for a couple days lol what I'm not poor... I'm still really anxious about the language barrier, and sometimes I find myself thinking of all the things that could possibly go wrong, but I really am excited. I just have to push those things out of my mind. Because this is something I've wanted for so, so long. And I'm really going to make the most of it.

Actually, speaking of Japan, something I have been doing is starting to learn some Japanese. I'm starting out by self-teaching, but my goal is only to self-teach hiragana and katakana. Once I have a sort of handle on those, I'm going to ask someone to give me proper lessons. I can't explain why exactly I wanted to do it this way. I just feel like it will take some of the pressure off myself, if I learn the basics first. I'm a really slow learner, and I get super stressed when I have to keep up with others, you know? I like to learn at my own pace and my own way. I thought about taking a course for Japanese, but the fact that it was a set course as in - this week you will learn and master this, next week you will learn and master that, there will be a test at the end of this course and by the end of this course you will be proficient enough to go to Japan, open a restaurant, marry a native and become the prime minister. Ok so that's exaggerated, clearly, but you get what I mean. I hate it when they put "By the end of this course you will be able to..." Not everyone has the same way of learning, and not everyone can keep up with a structured course like that. Some may be too fast for it, and some, like me, may be too slow for it. And that's ok. It just means that I have to find someone who can give me private lessons in a casual environment. I'm actually pretty lucky, because I may know someone who would be perfect for it. But I'm gonna see how my self-teaching the kana goes first. I only started recently, so I don't know very much at all. But I'm really enjoying it! It's really fun! I'm sure my handwriting is awful, but seeing as my main goals for learning Japanese are reading and listening, the written part doesn't worry me so much. Once I get to complicated things like grammar and kanji (oh god kill me now) I'm sure I'll take back what I said about it being really fun, but I'm going to stick with it. I've never been good at languages, but I won't let that stop me. I'll just have to try harder, yeah!

Oh yeah, I was supposed to write about my new wig in this post... my bad. Well, I had intended to make it a review of sorts, but I actually can't be bothered. Ahhh sorry. I'll sum it up, I guess.
So the wig I got is from the very well-known Rhapsody collection from Gothic Lolita Wigs. The colour I chose is rose, so it's the darker pink coloured one. From what I'd seen, this colour wasn't as popular as some of the others (the the light pink or mint colours), but I really can't understand why. It's such a gorgeous colour, with this perfect gradient. It's not just one flat colour, either. It's hard to explain, but it's got lots of different colours mixed into it. It's a really stunning, well made wig, and I believe it can suit any style and any skin tone. The only problem I have is the fringe (or as everyone else in the world seems to say, the 'bangs'), which comes pre-styled. It's not the style I have a problem with, I really like side-swept styles. It's just that it's too thick! There's too much of it! I have to use three bobby pins to keep it out of my eye. I know I could just cut it, but I've never cut hair before, so I wouldn't know what to do. I don't want to do it myself because as you know, the rhapsody wigs aren't cheap, and I'd never forgive myself if I fucked it up. I'm planning on taking it to a hair-dresser, as I took my white wig to one and he did a really good job, but honestly, the fringe isn't thaaaat much of a problem. Once you have it under control, it actually looks pretty cool as a side fringe. So I'm gonna leave it for a while. That's about it. Like I said, it's a really, really stunning wig. The quality is mind blowing. It's so comfortable and surprisingly light, I almost forget that it's not actually permanently attached to my head like real hair. The texture was also surprising, it's so soft and fluffy, and feels so real. It really doesn't tangle that easily at all despite the waviness of it. I haven't had to brush it yet, I just run my fingers through it a couple of times and then fluff it up and it's good to go. Also, buying through GLW was a real pleasure. It was really easy and straightforward, their customer service is top notch, and the packaging/shipping was really good. Very highly recommended. I don't really want to buy wigs from anywhere else in the future.

I guess I'd better post some photos of it, huh! I apologize for the crappy quality and awful lighting. It really doesn't do the wig any justice... OTL

Sorry for the derp face too lol. This was the day after I got it, I just wanted to go out as an excuse to wear it. 

Then I tried it out with my Gachapin kigu. I like the way the colours (don't) go together ok.

Went out again the other day. Same place, as usual. I was feeling lazy that day, but this actually turned out to be one of my favourite outfits so far. It's so comfy and casual but I like it a lot. 

And that's about it! I haven't really done anything else or had anything else happen to me! This post was kind of word-dumping, huh. Sorry about that. I still haven't gotten the hang of writing coherently. I  feel like I sort of just rambled my way through this. Oh well, I'll keep trying. See you~

Now Playing - TASTE OF LIFE by DIV

The Romance Is Dead~

Hey whaddup~
So this post is a little overdue. By what, like a month? Sorry about that, but then again it shouldn't come as a surprise. We all know how horrible I am at this blogging thing. Anyway I think this post is going to be a little random. I don't want it to end up too long, but then I'm awful at being brief so it'll probably end up as one big ramble.

Actually, this first thing I want to talk about I do want to keep brief. Because I don't really know how to explain it, even to myself. As you may have guessed from the title, I just want to mention the breakup of one of the most influential bands in my life - My Chemical Romance. Wow, was that announcement sudden or what? Well, that's what I'd like to think. But when I really think about it, I feel like I kind of saw it coming a little while ago. It sounds like they did too. But they pushed on for the sake of the fans. Which is both admirable and annoying. Basically, I first heard MCR nine years ago, and I loved them instantly. They were my favourite band for a long time, and even when I was trying out new things and trying to find out who I was, they were always there, even if it was just in the background. Admittedly, I haven't really been keeping up with them as much in the last couple of years (i.e. the years that I've been into visual kei), but that doesn't mean I loved them any less. They have been there for me through countless occasions, and I'll always be grateful to them for that. I honestly think that without them I wouldn't be the me I am right now. I probably wouldn't have found visual kei. I know that the two aren't really linked, but just trust me on that one. So naturally when I saw the news pop up on Twitter late Saturday night, I was stunned. Shocked. I sort of just sat there for a couple of minutes with my mouth wide open. I felt sadness, yes. But strangely, I was able to accept it. In my heart and my head, I was okay with it. At first I didn't know why. I always thought I would be distraught by this kind of announcement, but I was okay. Well, regardless of how I felt and feel about it, they produced some really, really amazing music in their twelve years together. Those twelve years must have gone by so quickly. It was an abrupt ending that must have left so many fans feeling hurt and betrayed. But I think we, as the fans, have to understand their position in all this. I think reading Gerard's post on Twitter is a good start to achieving that understanding. I was speechless when I read it. It's not only a bloody brilliant piece of writing, it provides this amazingly comforting form of closure on the whole matter. I think rather than trying to explain it myself, and not do it any justice, it would be better if you read it for yourself. All I knew was that I agreed with him completely. And honestly, now is probably a good time for this to happen. Twelve years and four albums is a lot. It was a good, no, an AMAZING run for them, but nothing lasts forever. If they had kept going, there's a chance that they would lose their heart for it all, lose their soul. The music may have ended up being all the same. The band and the fans would get tired of it. It's better to go out with a bang on a positive note, don't you think? Well, this is just my feeling. And I really don't know what else to say about it. I could probably go on forever, but I don't want to. All that's really left to say is thank you. Thank you to My Chemical Romance and everyone who was ever a part of it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you have done for me and countless others. This may be the end, but it's not goodbye.

It actually took me a little while to understand why exactly I was so okay with all of this. I was sitting in bed, still sort of shocked by the news. I looked around my room, at the posters on my wall and the CDs on my shelves. I looked at my laptop screen, which was paused on the Kiseki no Tsubasa PV off-shot DVD that came with FEST VAINQUEUR's GENERATION. And it hit me. I was okay, because of visual kei. No rhyme intended. I know that sounds cheesy as hell, but it's just how it is. Visual kei is my security, my safety blanket. Rather than just cushioning the blow, it lifted me completely. Of course, that's not to say that MCR can be so easily replaced, because they can't. But for the past two years, visual kei has held it's own, stood next to MCR. And now in my heart it's shining brighter than before.

Okay okay, sorry about all that. I just really needed to get that off my chest. I feel good now. Actually, I feel really good, because I just got an email from CDJapan telling me that my copy of ACE's Shiroi Akuma has been shipped! Oh, that reminds me! I was gonna post about some music in my next blog! Well, technically this has been a music post but ok.

BURU2 (finally!) and Called≠Plan L and R! I got the singles a week or so after their release. I didn't care though, all I knew was that I had to get my hands on them. They'd been building up to these for a while, so I knew they would be something special. And they are. Also, I was really hoping that I would get one Yuuto card and one Minoru card. And guess what. That's exactly what I got! I actually flipped my shit. And maybe cried a little. Shhh~

Kameleo's Sandwich LOVE and Royz's Tears! I love Kameleo so much, they're such a great bunch of guys. Royz too, they've really come a long way huh! I got Takeshi for the Kameleo artist photo (HELL YES~) and Tomoya and Kazuki trading cards with Tears! So I was pretty stoked with that. Oh, also, how good is the Koi Hanabi remake?! I was so worried that they would totally butcher one of my favorite songs of theirs, but it's so damn awesome I shouldn't have worried! Sometimes bands can totally kill their good songs by remaking them -cough-SuG's Vi-Vi-Vi remake-cough-

And these are my most recent additions to the family. GOTCHAROCKA's Poisonous berry and SuG Best 2010~2012. Damn... GR are so amazing. They never, ever disappoint  Poisonous berry is just... ugh fantastic. And the PV is nothing to complain about either ;D As for SuG's best, well... I just felt like I had to have it. For sentimental reasons, you know? With the hiatus and all. 

As I said, I'm getting ACE's new single soon, hopefully within the next week. I really can't wait, it sounds like such a beautiful song. As all their songs are~

Ah, what else... I haven't really been out much lately. So just have some random pictures.

Idk. This outfit was kind of weird. But I liked it. So whatever.

I don't remember what we did this day. Derpderp.

This outfit was kind of boring, but it was waaaay too hot to bother with anything else. 

And that's all. Sorry this post is so fucking random and long. Maybe next time I'll have more structure LOL WHAT NO WAY. Oh, actually, I ordered a wig from Gothic Lolita Wigs, so I guess I'll post about that once it gets here! I'm so excited omfg. Ok. I'm really done now. See ya~

(I've never been good at selfies ok shut up)

Now Playing - Poisonous berry by GOTCHAROCKA

I'm Just A Dirty Pervert~

Whooo, after my post with the GENERATION download, my page views have gone up considerably... Oh well, back to my normal, boring, hardly viewed posts now~ ^^;;

So what's up with me lately... give me a second to think about that. Uhh... really, not much has happened. Surprised? I'm not. I don't tend to lead the most exciting of lives. I guess, the most note-worthy thing that has happened recently is how I finished high school last week. Wednesday was my last ever day at high school. Yeah, it hasn't really hit me yet. I don't think it will, to be honest. I feel like that part of my life will just blur into the distance. I don't feel particularly happy or sad about it. I guess my feeling is indifference. I'm not really bothered by it too much. Of course, I have people that I will really miss seeing every day, namely my Japanese friends who will be returning to Japan very soon. I'm actually getting kinda depressed just writing about them... But it's not like I'm depressed about leaving my school. Honestly, I really didn't enjoy my time at high school. This past year in particular has been a real drag. I'm not going to miss going at all, and I certainly won't miss having to put up with judgemental, ignorant and just straight-up irritating fuck-wits everyday. There are by far more people that I couldn't stand at my school compared to those that I actually liked. Hopefully I never have to see/deal with them again though, and this thought makes me rather happy. I can't be bothered writing more about how I feel about it right now though, I haven't really figured out my feelings myself yet. Maybe there'll be more to come on the subject later.

Err... so, me and my friend went for a picnic of sorts on Saturday. I suppose that's something interesting that happened? Interesting by my standards, anyway... //foreversocialvegetable
We just got drinks from a tea place called Hulu Cat, although ironically neither of us got tea... we both chose slushies, because it was really hot that day. Then we got bakery food and went up to the park. Even though there were quite a few people there, it was still really quiet and relaxing.

My friend had strawberry with grape jelly, I had mango with green apple jelly~

It was a good day ^^

And of course, the mandatory photo in the bathroom mirror. It's like a requirement of being female, or something. 

Ehehe, excuse the derp emanating from us both. 

Then at night we went with my brother to another tea house called Momo Tea, to meet up with her sister + sister's boyfriend + our friend Yumika. And again, ironically neither of us got tea! It had a taro milkshake with pearls, and she had grape natta. Yeah, she likes grape. I didn't get any photos of that though. After that, we went to this thing called Art in the Dark. It was in some park and there were all these light effects and weird things going on. Honestly though, I wouldn't call it art. It was more like technology in the dark. Shining a light in a tree and making it change colour isn't art. Hanging some nice smelling lanterns in trees isn't art. Projecting things onto a building isn't art. It was just a whole bunch of technology. So it was kind of disappointing, but hey, it was something to do. And that's all~

So I suppose I'd better get around to talking about what inspired the title of this post, as so far it hasn't been explained, and I've already rambled a lot. I have been spending WAY too much time on Mangago.com reading err, inappropriate materials -cough-yaoi-cough-... Seriously though, I'll start with a oneshot, and once I finish it will suggest a whole bunch of similar stories for me to read, and most of them are oneshots or really short, like two volume series. So I just end up reading random stories for ages, it's a never ending cycle. I like to chose the ones with the 'smut' tag... BECAUSE I'M A DIRTY GOOD FOR NOTHING PERVERT, OKAY. I'll admit it. Reading smutty yaoi is now one of my most time consuming hobbies. I was supposed to dedicate today to studying, but I decided that I'd just read one or two stories, and then bam! I'd spent four hours reading yaoi and the only reason I stopped was because I hadn't eaten anything at all today and my insides were crying. Just like my brain. My brain is soiled, and now all I can think about is yaoi. Okay, that's an exaggeration. It's more like, my brain is a pendulum, that swings between fangirling over bands and feeling ashamed but somehow regretting nothing about my perverted desire to read shit loads of yaoi. Although, I do also think about shopping a lot, online of course, but I never get very far with that because there always comes the point where I realise that I have no money. So yeah. To fill my void, I read yaoi. Good to know... 

Ehh this post has been a weird mix of things huh. I'll finish here. Okay. See you~

Now Playing - A Blueberry Night by LM.C 

Armageddon Expo~!

Ahhh, damn. It's been a while since I blogged. I don't even have a decent excuse this time. In short, the reason is laziness. I'm not sure why, but recently I've been feeling extremely lethargic, even more so than usual. Everything just takes so much effort, it's so tiring. I come home from school completely exhausted every day. I wake up in the morning not feeling any better. I guess it's because it's almost the end of an extremely busy year, and my final exams are coming up, and it all seems a bit much at the moment. Not that I'm actually stressing about anything, weirdly, I'm the complete opposite. I feel so chill. I think that comes with the laziness, haha. I should actually be stressing right now, though, because my first exam is in just under three weeks, and I've done minimal, if not zero, study. At least if I were stressed, I'd be putting more pressure on myself to study. Then I'd do it. Right now though, I'm just like whatever maaaan. Ehehe... Alright, alright, I'll get serious about studying... in the weekend.

So a lot has happened since my last post. Well, as much that could happen to a social recluse/vegetable like myself. It's mostly all stuff that is personal to me, though, that didn't require the need to leave the comfort of my home. Oh well! I guess the biggest thing that happened was Armageddon Expo 2012, so I'm dedicating  the rest of this post to it.

It was fantastic! Armageddon, like I've said, is about the closest my country gets to a convention. It's got gaming, comics, anime and pretty much everything geek. So I feel right at home there. It's on for three days, and usually I just go for one, but this year I decided to go for two. I think next year I'm gonna get the full three day pass, it's that wonderful. I got to wear my Gachapin kigurumi!

(Please ignore my derp XD)

My friend wore her Totoro kigurumi! (Again, ignore the derp)

It was really fun to wear, and I got asked for lots of pictures with people! At first I was a little shocked, cause I've never had someone ask me for a photo before. That's probably because I've only ever been in my normal clothes. So that was a really interesting experience! I also asked  people for photos, cause while there weren't many, there were some really cool cosplays there! My favourite person who I got a photo with was this Japanese guy. I'm not sure how old he was or what he was cosplaying, but he was so sweet and adorable I just had to have a photo with him!

Isn't he sweet? (Yet again, I am incapable of taking photos without looking horrendously derp)

This was my other favourite. ISN'T. SHE. PRECIOUS? She was the cutest cosplayer/girl I've ever seen! She was really shy, so she didn't want to look at me when I took the photo. XD

This is my friend (the Totoro girl) on the second day, with the Ice King! It was a pretty good cosplay! There were heeeeaps of Finn + Fionas, but there was also a really good Flame Princess which unfortunately I didn't get a photo of. ><

There were two giant Rilakkumas!(?)

We got photos with them later, they were dancing to Gangnam Style when we found them XD

I spent lots of money in those two days... I bought 12 volumes of manga, and three anime DVDs. But it was so worth it! I also ate too much McDonalds... it was only a 15minute walk from the venue, and all the food at the venue was way overpriced! I did do lots of walking though, so that makes up for it right? Both days were early starts, and we spent the entire day there (we were there both days until 5pm!) I had such a great time though, so I don't even care about that. There were so many people, it was so packed and noisy and crazy. Usually I'd hate that kind of thing, but I really loved it. I love being there. I feel like it's the one place where I actually belong, where I fit in. It's a place where it's okay to be myself. 

So of course, now I'm left with that depressed feeling, and the thought that it's going to be a whole year until I can go again. I'm already thinking of what I want to go as next year. At first I was thinking I would just wear my kigu again, with a different coloured wig, but then I started thinking... I really want to do a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu cosplay for Fashion Monster. I probably won't be able to manage it in the end, and there's no way I could really pull it off, I mean, apart from Kyary herself, who could? I would probably look silly... but it's just a thought! Who knows, it could turn out okay, right?

And that brings me to the end of my Armageddon blog post. It was fun! Next time I'll talk about the other things that have happened in the past two weeks, but really, they all just pale in comparison to the wonder that was Armageddon.

Now Playing - Demo Demo Mada Mada by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Tenso Shopping Service~!

Ok, so I know I said last time, that the next review would be of SID's M&W, but since then (as in Tuesday morning) my order that I placed using Tenso arrived! Eeeeeeeep! So now, I'm going to do a run-down of how it worked out. It's not really going to be a review exactly, but anyways. Also, this has ended up pretty damn long, I'm really sorry. ^^;; Here we go.

Now, this was my first time using a shopping service. I'm always extremely, probably unnecessarily, suspicious of buying anything online, especially when I've never ordered from a site before. I'd say the only website I feel 100% comfortable using is CDJapan. So deciding to use a shopping service was a pretty big deal for me. And plus, let's be honest here, most shopping services are really fucking expensive. Yes, maybe their own service fee isn't too unreasonable, but when you add on the cost of your original items, plus the shipping within Japan, plus the international shipping fee (almost all services use EMS)... you're looking at a pretty big number.
I've already briefly explained the reason why I ended up using the service, but I'll explain again quickly.
There were a couple of things listed on CDJapan from SUPER LOVERS that I'd been really wanting. I was just browsing the internet, and I decided to go to the official SL web store, to see the new seasons items, out of curiosity. It turns out that SL are having a huge sale right now (30~70% off!), to make way for the new stock. I checked out the sale, which is a really fantastic sale and if there are any of last seasons items that you were wanting, buy them now from the web store (http://www.rakuten.co.jp/superlovers/)! Even though CDJapan does have some SL things on sale, they have nowhere near as much as the actual web store. It turns out that quite a lot of the things I wanted were included in the sale, but I was able to narrow it down to two things that I wanted the most. Both were around 50% off. And neither of the two were on sale at CDJapan.

SUPER LOVERS uses Rakuten as their shopping platform, but unfortunately they do not ship internationally. So this is where I was like, dude, I need a shopping service. Now. I wasn't going to let this chance slip through my fingers. Obviously I had seen Tenso through Rakuten, and I had read many a good review of it around the internet. So I looked into it a little more, and I was pleasantly surprised. Their service fee is definitely the cheapest, and most reasonable. Yes, they do use EMS shipping, but they actually stick to the EMS rates! I'm going to go off on a slight tangent here. CDJapan MARK UP THE SHIPPING. A LOT. It's actually extremely obvious if you check the EMS Japan rates table, and then compare it to what CDJapan charge (http://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/charge/list/ems_all_en.html). I always thought their shipping was quite reasonable, but the heavier your order gets, the more they mark up the shipping. Back on track now, and long story short, I found that even with using Tenso shopping service, it was half the price of what it would have cost for the exact same order from CDJapan. I had to do it, I would have been stupid not to.

Registration with Tenso is free, and upon registering they'll send you and a Japanese address. That address will have your ID number in it, and you MUST make sure that you include that number when entering the shipping address info. You register with your own address, i.e. the address that you want Tenso to ship your package to once they receive it.
I'm not going to tell you exactly how to use Tenso because it's really quite straightforward, their way of breaking it down and explaining how it works is very clear (here's their guide, http://www.tenso.com/en/guide/flow/index.html). Anything you need to know can be found on their site. The breakdown of costs is also simple. It's just:

• Price of your items (from wherever you order from) + shipping fee (from wherever your order from to Tenso warehouse) + handling fee + international shipping fee (from Tenso to your door)

Essentially, the 'handling fee' is the service fee, and it's a very small fee. Their lowest fee is 490 JPY, and that's with orders up to 1kg. You're gonna need to figure out *roughly* what your order will weigh if you want to calculate the total Tenso charge before ordering, using their Calculation Tool, which is down the bottom of the page. But hopefully that won't be too difficult.

The bit that confused me the most was how to enter the Japanese address, because I can't read Japanese, so I didn't know which part of the address went where. Fortunately, I have a Japanese student who helped me out, and she had to rearrange to address in order for it to make more sense. [UPDATE] So Tenso actually have a page where they show you how to enter your address when shopping on Japanese websites, here is the link -> http://www.tenso.com/en/guide/buy/address.html
Their examples are actually still in Japanese, but if you play around with Google translate and just try to work it out as logically as possible, it should be fairly simple (as told by a friend of mine who recently ordered using Tenso). If you're still have trouble, then I recommend emailing Tenso with your query. They're really friendly and should be able to help you out.

So, go about ordering from the webstore the way you would any other site. When you go to check out, you'll need to use all your own details, like your own name, and payment details (like credit card, PayPal etc). Also, use your own email address. It's just when you get to the shipping address that you put the Tenso address you were given, not forgetting your number. That's all, all other information you enter should be your own. PLEASE NOTE, you pay for this order separately to the Tenso fee, i.e. you pay the price of your items plus shipping to Tenso when you order from the web store. Your payement to Tenso, for handling and international shipping fee, comes later, once Tenso actually receive your package (they will notify you via email once they do). Then proceed to checkout, and proceed to freak out, if you're like me. I joke, I joke, don't freak out. I only did because I'd never used a shopping service before.

You'll get the automatic confirmation email from the web store you ordered from, use Google Translate if you want to double check things. And then you wait! Because the store that I ordered from only accepted credit card or cash payment, not PayPal, I had to wait a while for my payment to go through. But when it did, I got an email from the store that said, with the help of Translate, that my payment had gone through and my order had been posted to my Tenso address. Then, when Tenso receives your package, they'll email you with their fee (handling + international shipping) and you follow the instructions to pay for all that. Don't worry, I know this description is vague, but it will be very easy to follow if you use the service - they'll give you links and everything in their emails to you. Oh, Tenso allows PayPal. Once they've got your payment, they'll email you saying so and that your package is being processed, and then a final email saying that it's been shipped to you. Because they use EMS, you should get your shizz within 3-5 days! And that's it!

So, here's how the pricing, of my order at least, went:

• Item (1) - 3938 JPY 
• Item (2) - 2888 JPY
• Shipping (to Tenso) - I forgot, but it wasn't a huge amount. Maybe like 800 JPY?

The total of this is what you pay for first, with your own credit card or whatever. You pay it to the actual store you order from.

Then:

• Tenso handling fee - 490 JPY
• International shipping fee - 1000 JPY. I ordered when they were having a promotion, all international shipping was 1000 JPY, or something.

The total of THIS is the price you pay to Tenso.
So you make two seperate payments.

This is how they packaged my order. (Sorry, the second and third photos are the wrong way round. I'm learning~! Also, sorry for the crap quality... they were taken with my iPod camera x.x;;)

As you can see, there was a small rip on the back of the bag, but luckily it had an internal lining, and no damage was done to my stuff. 

My stuuuuff~ It's cute that they sent me the original bag, too.

Alright, I think that's everything covered. Reading back through this, I've realised that some things may not make much sense. I'm really sorry if that's the case, I just can't think of how else to explain/word it. Please, if you have a question, feel free to ask me! I'd be more than happy to help in any way I can. I have only used the service once, so I may not be the most knowledgeable, but I can try to advise and guide you, based on my own experience. ^^

I hope all this is useful to at least one person. If just one person gains something or benefits from this, then I'll be very happy. And I hope this has erased any doubts that you have about using Tenso. Believe me, I understand that you may be wary and that you can never be too careful. Tenso is a reliable and easy to use shopping service, their customer service is brilliant, and I would recommend them to anyone. Seriously. I'll never worry about ordering from Japanese web stores again. I can't say the same for other services, as I've never used any others, but from what I've found, Tenso is your best choice anyway. 10/10 all round. So get out there and get shopping, children!

NP - Recipe by vistlip

Pin All The Things!

I'm almost done with a mad spam of pins on Pinterest. I hadn't really pinned anything in a while, and I lost a lot of followers for some of my boards! One of my boards used to have 100+ followers, now it's down to about 40~ So sad! If I ever see pictures and things that I like when I'm derping around on the internet, that I think could be pin-worthy, I save them into a folder. That folder had gotten pretty full, so I decided to clean it up a bit! If you're interested in checking out mah thangs, here's the link - http://pinterest.com/wonderholic/
It's mostly just fangirling, but I do pin clothes and stuff that I like, and sometimes just random images that bring me giggles. Feel free to browse and enjoy~

The other day, a package arrived for me. I wasn't expecting it to arrive so soon, so I was stoked! It was my albums, Tales for the Abyss from ACE, and 2PIKO from Piko! Both came with posters! Eeeeeeep! I'm so happy, both albums are fantastic! I particularly recommend Tales for the Abyss. Liek srsly. I probably won't bother doing one of my crappy reviews on it, mostly because I honestly can't find the words to describe it, but also because I am a lazy fuck. All I can say is that it is really, really amazing, and highly worth giving it a good listen. The best listening conditions would be when you're alone, or in a quiet space, and with enough time to listen to it solidly right the way through with no interruptions. I'd highly recommend that you listen to it at least once this way. It gives the best flow/feeling of the album, and then after you can go through and listen to your favourites. As for my favourites, Night of the Knights for sure, but also Abyss (Piano Version) is really stunningly beautiful, Shangri-La is super fun, and Haiiro no Tenshi and NU WORLD are great too. But really, I'm pretty much equal with my feelings on the songs, I think they're all incredible. ACE are such a unique and creative group of guys. They're the kind of guys that I'd just really want to sit down and talk to for hours and hang out with. Please do check them out!


So I've had this blog for two years now, and I am yet to figure out how to put photos or images or videos in my posts. It doesn't help that I'm already technologically impaired and I can't figure out any internet shit to begin with. I really don't understand coding, HTML or any of that. How is it that I'm taking a web design class at school lol? Damn. I'll need to try and find a simple English explanation for how to do it. Laaaaaaa.

I have school tomorrow, so I gotta get ready for sleeeeeeeep. I also need to decide what to wear tomorrow! The weather here is being really whack. It's not particularly cold, it is a little cold, but not hugely. But it's super fucking windy! And it's going to be heavy rain tomorrow! So it'll be humid. Humidity kills straightened hair! I always straighten my hair, otherwise it looks weird as hell. So tomorrow is not going to be a fun day. Oh well, only 8 more days before our two week break. Keep pushing through!

NP -  Yoake no Anthem by ACE