August 2004 Archives

It's past 7:30am, and I've been awake for over an hour.
Despite my best efforts to stay up until 12am playing Mario Party with Malima, Rydia, and Snow (which I did succeed at, by the way), I am still defeated by this jet lag thing. *heave sigh*

At the very least I am glad that I am up and awake on time for work week, though hell knows how long that will be lasting. I am currently in the Front-3, which I will be moving into with Destra when she arrives in a couple days, but unfortunately the room is still very much occupied by Margaret, and there is very little room for me and my stuff right now. *sad* ;_; I am literally living out of my suitcase. Trevor's holding up the 2-4 which Margaret has to move into, so as soon as Trevor starts moving, Margaret can start moving, and then Destra and I can finally start moving in.

The downside to the Front-3 is that it has no closet, which means no storage space. Poo poo. Not sure what to do about that. -_-;; I guess Destra and I will figure it out. At the very least, if Daniel doesn't move back in this term, maybe we can switch with Gleb for the 4-4. It's not my top choice of living there, but at least it has a closet and room for sticking stuff places. ...and I have a whole shitload of stuff.

Anyways, so more on my trip home.
As it turns out, I did manage to get my laptop working in Narita, because I stole a multiplug 2-prong thing from the vending machines in the hallway, and despite the fact my third grounding plug was sticking out in the air, I managed to get everything working ship shape and finish watching my wu-xia and even write a little couple of lines for the girlfriend.

The flight back was mostly uneventful. The time passed fairly quickly between watching Shrek 2 a ridiculous number of times (don't be surprised if I can memorize it) in English and Japanese, writing some Naruto fanfic (I managed to snag the recent Shounen Jump issue and it made me fangirly over NaruSasu love), sleeping, and talking with the girl sitting next to me, who goes to Babson College.

So I made it home, did about half an hour of work week (which involved scraping paint of the pillars in the front because we want to repaint it), and well, the rest is history. *sigh* I wish I was all nice and moved and settled in, but that comfort will have to wait a couple of days, I suppose.

In the meantime, time to start shopping for textbooks, hard drives, RAM, and cell phones. Whee, more money spending!

Got back about 5 hours ago, and seriously fighting jet lag.
Got my computer all set up before I realized I actually had a laptop and didn't need the computer. =_=;; Oh someone tell me why I am such a dork.

Work week started today, so it looks like I'll be exhausted from here to when school starts. :/ *big sigh*

More when I'm not fighting jet lag.

So here I am in a hotel/hostel near Narita Airport, lameting the fact that my thus-far awesome luck seems to have completely run out. So my hotel/hostel tonight is nice and cheap (about $50, including breakfast) and I have full broadband internet capability in my room. Doesn't sound too shabby, right? Right, except for the fact that Japan usually operates on two-prong outlets (higher class hotels usually regularly employ three-prong outlets) and my laptop is three-prong.

I've asked the receptionist at the desk and they don't have a converter. So basically...I'm totally fucked. No internet, not even happy laptop-ness, which is what hurts the most. *falls over* how am I going to amuse myself for the rest of the night without even a computer to play around on?

The computer I'm on now is the one in the lobby. Old and slow as hell. I was IMing Roni earlier through AIM Express and it was giving me 5-30 second lags on the sentences I was typing. How sad is that? The stupid piece of shit is still running Win98.

Oh well, so here I am, on this old as hell computer with one more hour of internet left (I purchased internet for my room, which is exactly the price of 2 hours of internet on this poor about-to-croak thing), still fuming over my horribly shitty luck and seriously wanting to beat the hell out of something. *cry*

Not to mention the fact that just talking to my girlfriend over the phone and over horribly laggy IM makes me sad and lonely. *so much sigh* If I at least had a PS2 I could amuse myself all night with TokiMemo. But I don't even have that option. I suppose it's time to finish reading Ringworld (which is a shitty book, by the way, but the only one I have at the moment) and maybe handwrite some fanfiction. It would be more helpful if I could see what I have already...but whatever. *sigh*

I've been really lucky so far this summer in terms of catching the right trains, making my flights barely on time, having people take me to the station/airport, having friends who have a 3 to 2 prong converter, but I guess I'm totally outta luck today. Guess the fact there's a typhoon passing by today just goes to show. *so much sigh*

Anyways, I'll be home Aug. 30 in Boston arriving in the afternoon, and I don't even know whether or not I have a room or a bed or even room to dump my computer until moving weekend. Hell knows when that is. I think it's the weekend right before class starts. I guess that means I'll be roomless Fenway bum for a week or so after I get back.

...
or something like that.

Yeah, I'm so gloomy today.
Can't help the gloomy moods when they come on. -_-;; And I had such grand plans to stay up most of the night answering all the e-mails I've been tardy on and watching the rest of Chu Liu Xiang Lan Hua Chuan Qi...

;______;

Well, I'll be home soon without a cell phone for a couple of days...so uh...just drop me e-mails, I guess.

Stupid Kei scared the hell out of me this morning.
So I had him to blushing, which is the "suki" level, and he didn't confess to me the first two times I went to the church!

Needless to say I had something of a 8O look on my face because I just couldn't believe it.
I put so much emotional investment into Kei too! And he was blushing! And he didn't confess! *shakes angry fist*

...and then I realized, that I probably need to spend the last day of class with him, as I'd spent the last day of class either sleeping or hanging out with my other friends.

Wonder of wonders, it worked. O_O
I spent my last day of class with Kei, and when graduation came, behold! The door of the church was open and Kei came in, gave me a ring, and confessed his love for me.

^___________^

I suppose the downside is that I am now a Midorikawa Hikaru fan. =_=

The upside is Kei's Christmas scene was amazingly sexay (I'll scan that part of the artbook for you...he is seriously beautiful) and he is just all around hot and soooooo cute when he blushes. *more squee*

I suppose that ends my TokiMemo-ness for the Asia trip this summer. ^_^ Hey, snagging Sakuya and Kei ain't so bad. Gotta work on the other guys now.

I can't believe I'm addicted to a dating sim. :D Oh well, keeps me from being sad and lonely. I can be all moony over Kei. ^_^ *love*

You Know You're Addicted to TokiMemo When...

1. Hazuki Kei shows up in your dreams, and you're cuddling him in the park, sleeping in his arms, and spending three hours in the grass making out with him.

2. You're saving the world with Hazuki Kei as your sidekick.

3. You wake up, walk into the parents' room, turn on your PS2, and go on a date with Kei.

...

...

Okay, I am hopelessly addicted to TokiMemo Girls Side. I never thought a dating sim could be this rewarding, but I swear it is. Maybe it's just because I'm a seiyuu whore and I just absolutely adore hearing their voices. I'm not really a Midorikawa Hikaru fan, but I will admit he's got a great voice. A real sexy one. Especially when he says, "suki da yo, ore." I can pretend he's saying that about me, and not my character's clothes. XD

And it's so cute when Kei's fans are stalking him in the park, and he ducks into the grass with you. *so much squee*

And yes, I did dream of making out, cuddling, and saving the day with Hazuki Kei last night. O_O;;

If he doesn't confess his love for me (OMG, he's only smiling! Not grinning or blushing at me yet! And I've only got half a year left! *goes into date overdrive*) this time round, I swear I'm going to break down and cry. ._. *sniffu*

And there's also the fact that I'VE MET EVERYBODY. *bangs head against wall* So I've got to juggle the other guys so they don't bomb me, while I'm going after Kei. Worst case scenario here, buddies. O_O I am so scrod.

On the good news, I hit the Forbidden City today and it was really pretty and lots of fun. Dunno where I'm gonna go next, but I guarantee a lot of pictures when I pry myself away from my TokiMemo (Hahaha, like I can do it without other people dragging me away physically).

People might wonder what I'm doing in China playing the PS2. Hey, I'm addicted to TokiMemoGirls, I just can't help it. =_=;; Tried to get Himuro-sensei, but that failed and I ended up with nobody. *sob*

Trying to get Kei now, but that's proving to be pretty tough since Madoka really likes me. I'm really tempted to stick with either Kazuma or Madoka and screw Kei.

Dammit, why does my prince have to Midorikawa Hikaru?
Can't my prince be like... uh...
Seki Toshihiko+Osaka-ben or something?
(*coughKansai!Legatocough*)

I'll stop blabbing and watch my wu-xia now. Yay, 1980's Tian Long Ba Bu.

(And yes, I'm actually traveling during the day. My mom doesn't like me out and about at night, so I'm forced to stay at home and amuse myself. Puchi Sol is very unhappy that I'm passing over Guilty Gear for TokiMemo...but no choice there. ^^;; I'm addicted to TokiMemo. How sad and embarassing is that?

...
don't answer that.)

Whoa, this must be my longest soujourn away from the internet EVAR. Six days, whoa hold on Skuld, or you might wean yourself off this addiction!

(PuchiLegato: Not a chance.)

Got a lot of things to tell, mostly weirdass dreams, stupid PS2 entries (I lost at TokiMemoGirls *sniffles*), and head-banging about my cousin who looks like that I guy I wanted to make out with at Rock Bar Mother. Dammit Japan, stop making me think incest is okay, because it really isn't! (Twincest however...heh heh heh...)

Anyways, lots of pics, lots of stories and stupid dream entries (I love having/being Legato in my dreams. So much funness. ^_^) which will probably never get done until I get back to the States, if I'm not too loaded down with work.

Just dropping a line to let you guys know I'm still alive and having fun as much fun as I can have with my mother hanging around all the time. ^_^

Bai bai!

Just been notified that my good friend Liang has put up his pictures he took at Comiket. He only went on Friday, so no pictures of the Saturday cosplayers.

Either way, gawk at the costumes, gasp at the pure amount of people AT Comiket, and enjoy yourselves.

Liang's Comiket pics

My last day in Tokyo was a blast. ...okay, my last night in Tokyo was a blast. But I shall tell you of my day first.

So I woke up, found the hot water heater not working (I had no idea that in Japan you have to manually turn them on), and decided to save my shower for later while I headed down to the post office to ship home all my Comiket swag.

That's a real ouch in the wallet right there. There went 9000 yen shipping my artbooks and my doujinshi home. O_o;; And I still have doujinshi with me in my huge-ass luggage. I think there's about 20-30 books there. I sent about 50-60 home from Comiket, and about that home from earlier in my stay.

Yeah, that's a lot of doujinshi. :x

Anyways, so after I poured more money down the sink I went back to my hostel, discovered the hot water heater and its on button, showered and went walking around. I hit Ginza first, Tokyo's swanky district. Man, was it swanky as hell. Full of fancy stores of clothing, furniture, and watches I couldn't afford and would never want to buy anyway. I didn't spend much time there, as after that I went to Asakusa, which is famous for its huge temple devoted to Kannon.

It was kind of fun there, I bummed around, took pictures, bought myself a belt to hold my pants up (yeah, I finally got around to losing weight in Japan XD), and headed over to Harajuku.

So Harajuku is one of the many fashion districts of Tokyo. This one is particularly populated by gothic people and clothing shops, but those are on the side streets and are hard to find unless you know where to look. Being the lazy type and also the type to avoid goths, I didn't look too hard. I did go to the Meiji Shrine though (yes, the Meiji Emperor of Restoration fame), which had absolutely beautiful gardens. Okay, it wasn't a garden. It was a fucking forest. Right in the middle of Tokyo. I was impressed more by that than by anything else.

After Harajuku I was kind of tired and I made it home to the hostel where I bummed around with the rest of the people at the hostel, my newfound friends Martin (from the Netherlands), Lars (from Germany), and Caitlin (from Texas). We watched the Matrix: Reloaded (squee, twins) and some home-cooked videos that Lars and his buddies made, and then Martin, Caitlin and I headed down to hands down the best bar in Tokyo.

It was called Rock Bar Mother, and is seriously the awesomest bar I've ever been to. It was tiny, fits only about 10 or so people maximum. It was darkly lit, but it had these pair of amazing speakers, which were blaring hard rock, punk, and metal. You'd get a drink menu (they had the best Bloody Marys I've ever had), and then after that you'd get a music menu so you can choose the songs you listened to. They had a really nice collection of rock, including a lot of really obscure, small bands, which my friends really appreciated.

So I spent about four or five hours with good music blaring in my ears, drinking and talking with my friends in the dark, and fraternizing with a couple of hot Japanese metalheads, Masahiro and Kousuke.

It was an awesome fucking end to my stay in Japan and in Tokyo. I wish there were bars like that in the US. Everybody was relaxed, just having fun and chilling out. The most relaxed night I've ever had, and I hope to keep in touch with Caitlin. ^_^ She is definitely one of the nicest and coolest people I've met.

So here I am...
In Beijing, China, at my uncle's place.

Beijing sure has changed a lot since the 9 years ago I was last here. O_O;; It's amazingly modern now. China actually looks wealthy, and everything is shiny and new. ^_^ Yaay! (Even the wu-xia, I was watching two totally different Yi Tian Tu Long Ji series on TV today! At the same time! w00, it was wu-xia heaven!)

My suitcase is still heavy as hell, but oh well. Maybe room for Chu Liu Xiang and Tian Long Ba Bu left. ^_^ Huzzah! I am one happy kitty right now, despite having slept absolutely zero from the late night at the bar. ^_^

Love to my peeps, and love to my girlfriend.

It's my last day in Japan...
why am I here at a computer instead of bumming around the city?! I suppose laziness wins after all. *grin*

Anyways, list of things to hit today is ridiculously short.

Hitting Harajuku (that section of Tokyo where all the goths gather) and Asakusa-Senso-ji, and then I have to stop off at Tokyo-eki where my luggage is stored and dump money in there so they don't throw my shit out...

and then later tonight I might be hitting a bar with Martin (an awesome Dutch guy I've met at the hostel here, which is pretty cool, btw) and celebrating both our last nights in Japan.

Just sent my doujinshi off too, there goes another $90 down the drain.
Yeah, ridiculous, isn't it? I still have some doujinshi wrapped up in my suitcase too. I would say I think I've easily spent over $500 on doujinshi this trip. O_o No, you don't need to remind how absolutely ludicrous that is. I have SO MUCH doujinshi it's absolutely disgusting. *rolls around in doujin*

And the sad thing is...I still haven't finished collecting all the Toshimi Nigoshi I want, and there's still some CRUSHERs/SakuraAnnin I don't have yet. There's definitely doujinshi I wanted to buy for my friends (oh my god, I have the most gorgeous Last Exile LucciolaxDio ever in existence, and I wish I had more copies), and I didn't find my favorite SolxKy circle at Comiket, so there's more doujinshi I want that I don't own.

Yes, it's absolutely terrible. -_-

Oh well, off to enjoy my last day here in Japan before I head off to China and hang with the parents. Bleh, parents. The only thing I can look forward to is buying and watching egregious amounts of wu-xia. Which now that I look at it, ain't so bad. I miss wu-xia. They better have the later Chu Liu Xiang mini series or I am really going to cry.

I want to go on a rant about how much I dislike HagaRen, but I don't think I will. I somehow managed to miss the brunt of it at Comiket (made a bee-line for everything I want to get on Saturday, and still managed to not to have time for Get Backers, much to the relief of my wallet), which makes me happy...but ugh.

EVERYBODY and their mother is into HagaRen. I just don't get it. I've seen the first five episodes, and at least three or four aside from those, and I just don't understand the draw of it. The premise is kind of weak, I find the characters not particularly special (Ed is just like every other shounen hero out there) and the horror factor they try to work in the show is Are You Afraid of the Dark level. Oh well, I'll stop bitching about it, despite the fact that a whole shitload of my favorite circles have started doing HagaRen and not the much cooler shit they used to do.

No bitterness here, friends. ::cough::

Anyways, been reading the JamesxSeverus I bought. O_o Angiest doujinshi I own by far, and I own some pretty sad and angsty SolxKy and SephirothxCloud. Damn, I am so tempted to go and worm my way into the JamesxSeverus fandom now. ...Does it even exist, I wonder.

Hit Ikebukuro today, which in hindsight was a ridiculously shitty idea, considering that it's natsu-yasumi (summer vacation) and a Sunday. It was so crowded I couldn't get a good look at anything. I hit the string of animate/K-books/Character Queen right across from Sunshine City/60 and bought presents for people who'd given me money. I put more money in the locker for my 70 pound luggage, and now I'm back here feeling so sad and angsty and needing a three-prong plug for my fanfiction. ::wants to write like a fanatic::

Gonna try to hit the Going Merry Go tomorrow, as well as Shibuya, Ueno Park, and Akihabara. Man, I am going to be so fucking poor.

Eating at Yoshinoya for the rest of the week, I swear.

Oh my god, I just can't even describe how the past three days have been. Incredibly hectic, and I don't even have a clue what's been happening and how the time has passed. Whoa. I'm almost going to leave Japan,　and I totally feel like I just haven't had enough time here.

So much material to cover. The Shinkansen, Comiket, meeting up with Janet, Erin, and some random American fans I met at Azabu-Juban station, more Comiket swag (I have so much swag, it's going to cost me a small fortune to send it all　back), and just basically everything. w00t. So this is going to be a long entry, ikou!! ^_^

The Shinkasen
The Shinkansen is Tokyo bullet train. Traverses about 400 or so miles in one and a half hours. Not the smoothest ride in the world (I did get a bit of motion sickness trying to finish up chapter 4 of "Miles"), but it was incredibly comfortable. There was actually leg room, and the train as a whole was incredibly roomy. Definitely the most comfortable train ride I had in my life.

So the part that made Thursday a real downer was the fact that my huge-ass luggage, less than half full when I got here, is now totally full　of swag. I have no clothes in there aside from my yukata. I have no clue what I have in there, but it's not my clothes. It's my video games, my GGXX arcade stick, my plushies, my manga,　my doujinshi...and apparently that makes for a full bag that weighs something more than I can carry comfortably.

I was seriously in trouble going to the station, but the wonderful people who take　care of me at Machikaneyama Kaikan gave me a ride to Shin-Osaka were I caught an earlier Shinkansen and had time to Tokyo Tower before meeting up with AkaiSakura. Tokyo Tower is unfortunately very unimpressive. Even near the top the view isn't all that great, and Tokyo is so smoggy you can't see very far. Oh well.

So Thursday night, aside from checking into my hostel, I met Akai for dinner, and before that, I met some girls in the subway who were American fangirls (I could tell because Kitarin had an I Love Yaoi messenger bag) who ended up staying at Akai's hostel, which is run by the same people as mine.

Had a hard time finding the Comiket guide, but thankfully the Akihabara K-Books had it, though only the phone-book version which is ridiculously heavy. Got home pretty late that night, but well, no can do when the next day is...

COMIKET

Comiket totally owns. I have never quite seen anything like Comiket. Unlike a US con where kids go to cosplay, watch Masquerades, go to panels, watch the latest shows and bum around the dealer's room, Comiket serves only one purpose: the sale of doujinshi. Comiket is just what its longer name is: Comic Market. You go there and you buy doujinshi, and that's basically just the point of going. And let me tell you...there is so much doujinshi to be had.

I have never seen so many people in one place. I thought Otakon was big, no, Otakon is NOTHING compared to the size of Comiket. NOTHING the size of comiket. I wish I had pictures of the sea of heads just lining up and walking around the building, it was absolutely ridiculous. You haven't seen crowded until you've seen the complete mass of people that is Comiket. I don't have pictures, but one of my friends got some pics, so hopefully he will be posting them soon and I can direct you there.

Either way, I probably got about 30 or so doujins on Friday, most of it from video games. Comiket days run in themes,　so Friday was Jump and Game day. I can't even begin to list the amount of swag I got, but mostly it was game related, with some anime-stuff scattered here and there. The highlights of the day were definitely getting two sukebu (sukebu is short for sketchbook) from two circles, one of Chibi-Sephiroth/Cloud and one of Chibi-Jecht/Auron. You have no idea how happy that made me, despite the fact that my favorite GG circle, Serenade, was not present.

I unfortunately lost everybody but the MIT crew on Friday, so we hung out afterwards in Odaiba where I found out that I actually need advance tickets to ride the Going Merry Go because it's always sold out. So we bummed around on the Odaiba beach where I made a lot of fun of Sam and took a lot of pictures of Rainbow Bridge. We went to dinner in Ueno (nope, didn't meet up with Seishirou) and then Mel and I headed home after making a small stop in Tokyo Station.

So Saturday, has all been about Comiket too. Saturday was the anime, game, novel, music　group, and misc. other stuff day. Needless to say, the highlights of the day were finding Red Dwarf, Monty Python, and the A-Team. Yes, you read that right. A-TEAM doujinshi. So much rock. XD

I actually found people who are Legolas/Gimli　fans like me, so needless to say I was incredibly happy at finding gorgeous LegoGimu stuff. :D I am the world's happiest fangirl. I also snagged some Javert doujinshi (not slashed with Valjean, unfortunately), the most angsty James x Severus I have ever seen (it is so amazing, I am a total JamesxSeverus nut now, thanks to Mel), two gorgeous HP sukebu (one of Chibi-Snape and the other of cute HarryxDraco-ness), a whole bunch of HP doujinshi (mostly HariDora, but I did snag a SnapexHarry lemon for Asphodel), some LotR stuff, some Matrix stuff (twins goodness, OMFG), and managed to avoid most of the HagaRen for the day. Huzzah!

So I hung out with Akai all day whence we went to Shinjuku after Comiket was over at 3-ish pm (it says its supposed to end at 4pm, but some people even start packing up at 2:30) and karaoked for two hours. Akai has the most amazing voice EVAR. I wish I had a voice like hers, I am so jealous. Her voice is so beautiful, and it was amazing singing songs like Strawberry Kiss Kiss and Super Drive with her. She is definitely t3h rock.

After that we had a really fucking cheap but good dinner at Yoshinoya (Japanese chain restaurant specializing in donburi), and then we decided that I really needed to see Shinjuku's Ni-chome, the gay center of Tokyo. It was surprisingly low key, but there were some cute little stores selling pr0n and interesting novelty toys. We were bumming around joking about whether or not Seishirou lived in Ni-chome　when Akai looked up and noticed that there was a bar called "Subaru." Yes, it was even that correct kanji for "Subaru."

We braved the embarassment factor and went in, but it was full of old (gay) men, and they didn't let us in because we were women. They directed us across the stairs to a bar called Willy Willy. It was a nice little dark place, we had awesome conversation with the obviously flaming bartender, and it was overall just plain awesome. Another couple walked in after us, and apparently the "woman" of the couple that came in after was actually a guy. Akai and I were so amazed, because he didn't even have makeup and was totally passable as a woman. I got some little Bridget vibes from him and I wanted to hug him, but oh well, didn't happen because soon after Akai had to leave to Ueno to catch her train, and I am now home here.

So that's my day. Maybe update with complete list of swag later, if I can get it written up before I go to the post office on Monday to send it off.

Swag. So much fucking awesomeness. I have so much doujinshi.　　Oh, the love. I have presentses for Cocoa, Asphodel, and my darling girlfriend unit, as well as swag for the people who have already paid me...so you'll be getting those　after I get home to the States.

Love to my peeps, and extra for Roni. I'll hopefully be blogging a little later.

Went to Comiket 66 yesterday,　and holy shit, I have so much fucking swag. So much fucking swag. My favorite Guilty Gear circle was unfortunately not there (Serenade...sniffle), but I did get a whole shitload of other stuff (about 30 doujins), including two sukebu (Chibi SephirothxCloud and Chibi JechtxAuron).

I just have to say Comiket is the most amazing place I have ever been to. Hitting it again today. More when I am coherent and uh...not tired as hell, I suppose.

Off to Tokyo early in the morning. ^_^ Dunno when I'll be able to blog next, so until next time...

Love and Peace to my peeps. ^_^v

Went to Osaka-jo yesterday, the castle in Osaka that Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the guy who united Japan) built. The actual castle was burned down several times in the Tokugawa and Meiji eras, so what you see now actually dates back to the 1930's. The place is also incredibly scarily modern inside. I mean, it's completely remodeled to look like a fucking museum.

So the inside of Osaka-jo isn't actually anything special, it's just there for tourists and history buffs. -_-; Oh well, no can do I suppose. At least I can say I've been there and I've learned a bit of history of the characters I've seen in Sengoku Musou. (Yeah, learning history from videogames. So much bad.)

So after the Osaka-jo trip, which left me feeling hot, sweaty, stanky, and disgruntled, I decided to go and try to scout out the Comiket guide again, but there wasn't anything. I think the Comiket guides are a Tokyo-only thing, I'll have to pick one up sometime tomorrow. In the midst of scouting out Comiket guides, I picked up some loot. Not much, but I actually did hit the payload:

LOOT (all from Mandarake)
2 One Piece ZoroxLuffy doujinshi (one of which has lemon! Yaaay!)
1 FF7 SephirothxCloud by Maverix (so pretty)
1 Habataki Patch (for TokiMemo Girls Side cosplay purposes)

I looked in the costume section and really wanted either to buy the Habataki girls uniform (but then I'd have to cosplay Shiho, and uh...I'm not as emo as she is) or the pink Bridget costume, but due to monetary reasons, refrained. Go me.

Oh yeah, and Mandarake always kind of weirds me out in the sense that the staff is mostly female, and most of them are cosplayers. It's just so...odd walking into Mandarake, and right at the door is Uchiha Sasuke who smiles and says, "Irasshaimase." o_O Dude, Sasuke doesn't say "Irasshaimase." Sasuke just kicks your ass. >_> And then I go to the cosplay section, ask for the Habataki TokiMemo patch, and Athrun Zara (from Gundam SEED) asks me to "Sho sho omachi kudasai."

Man, if I ever was in my Sol costume and had to say nice things like that, I think my head would explode from the inconsistency. It's just...weird. O_O;;

Anyways, this is my last day in lab, and I think I'm going to spend the day finishing up volume 30 of One Piece, which I really honestly should have done about 8 weeks ago. Dammit, now I'm going to have to buy the rest of One Piece in order to be fully caught up with what's going. I also really really really really want to buy Bleach too. Somebody should stop me from doing that, though it really might actually be too late. *sobs*

Hitting Tokyo tomorrow via the Shinkansen (bullet train), which should be cool. Gonna meet up with AkaiSakura in the evening (hopefully after I've visited Tokyo Tower and wandered around Roppongi for a bit), and then hit Comiket early Friday morning with Mel and Akai and Jumaane and the rest of the band.

Man, I am so excited. *squee*

Here's my list of things to do and places to hit in Tokyo:

- Clubbing (maybe in Roppongi)
- Karaoke with the Tokyo crew
- Ride the Going Merry Go
- Bum around Ikebukuro and the Sunshine 60 building
- Visit Ueno Park
- Check out Tokyo Tower
- Ride the Odaiba Ferris Wheel
- Walk across Rainbow Bridge at night
- Check out the Shinjuku nightlife
- Hang around a manga kissa
- Buy shit at Akihabara
- Climb Mt. Fuji

So the deal with Fuji is that you're supposed to climb it at night so that you can get to the summit and see the sun rise. The summit is unfortunately above the clouds, so during the climb there is about a 90% chance you're going to get rained on, and about a 100% chance temperatures will reach freezing at the top.

It being Japan in the summer, I said to myself as I packed my things, "It's hot as hell in Japan, so I will bring summer clothing." That is to say, I should be having winter clothes for climbing Fuji, whereas all I have right now is a hoodie and a pair of khakis that are vaguely unwintery.

Umm...so bad idea. And I am actually averse to buying clothes that I will only use once. Besides, clothes in Japan are expensive, and I can imagine hiking gear being ridiculously expensive too. >_> I really won't have that much money to spare after Tokyo Comiket.

This is where I sit around and go, "Dou shiyou," and hope that Mel can save my ass and bring me clothes. Or at least...a warmer jacket than what I have.

I had crazy dreams last night. Probably because I pretty much figured out the rest of how my Legato fic is going to develop. Yeah, he's pretty insane, I think the little crazy bunny is rubbing off on me.

My first question in my dream last night, which I really wish I had asked when I had actually been dreaming it is: "Seishirou, why are you dating my mother?"

... >_>

That part of the dream involved a matsuri in Japan, where Seishirou took me and my mother too because apparently he was dating her. Should've slapped him around some and asked him what the HELL was WRONG WITH HIM. But I don't think it really occured to me, because I spent most of the dream hanging onto his arm like a proper fangirl should.

I think I should be glad I woke up before he killed me and my mother. >_>

Second part of the dream involved going to a Japanese language camp retreat with several of my friends (Sarah, the clone, Joel, Dave Morales, and many others) and partying all night in someone's room and running wildly down the halls.

Definitely not as fun as going on a matsuri date with Seishirou. I hope this isn't some bizarre foreshadowing. >_> *sweatdrop*

Anyways, I just read Mike Whitson's Guide to Climbing Fuji-san, which is one of my planned activities when I hit Tokyo. Shit. I did NOT bring enough clothing. Dunno quite what to do about that. *feels really screwed*

Had an awesome weekend. There were bad parts and good parts, but overall I had a blast, especially with the good news I got today. Thanks to my friends to keeping me occupied on the train back from Nara by sending me messages. Looks like we're going to have a Comiket Kaizoku Posse get together. ^_^

So here's the weekend recap of Sat/Sun:

Saturday Evening

Went to my farewell party, which most of the lab attended. It was pretty awesome. I had a huge tankard of lime chuhai and got pretty tipsy. Mediated a drinking contest between Kenji and Shoji, which Shoji won by downing a whole big bottle of nasty Kirin beer in under one minute. After the drinking we went to karaoke (seriously one of my favorite activities), and it was a lot of fun. :D I love singing, I don't know why. I just do. <3 Finished at about 2am, whence I went home to wake up in 6 hours to meet Mel at JR Kyoto on Sunday.

Sunday

I almost ended missing the stop at Kyoto because I'd fallen asleep. I woke up right when we stopped, stared blearily at the sign that said, "KYOTO" and barely ran off the train in time. O_O;;

The original plan was to hit Kiyomizu-dera, Eikandou, and Ginkakuji, but we modified that by doing everything backwards. So we ended up hitting Ginkakuji first, then walking down to Eikandou and Nanzen-ji. That actually screwed us over, because it was pretty late by the time we finished looking at all three attractions of Nanzen-ji. :/ We were on our way to Kiyoumizu-dera when we got horribly lost and shat on by a bird. (*sobsobsob*) I didn't get hit too badly, mostly the bird just landed a couple of drops on my head and my arm, and splashed my backpack ever so slightly. I think Mel got the worst of it. She got it on her head, her jeans, her arm, and got a lot on her backpack. ;_; Poor Mel.

So because we were so lost and it was so close to Kiyomizu's closing time, we skipped Kiyomizu in favor of finding the Citibank in Kyoto (incidentally, we were idiots and forgot its location. That was particularly amusing because we were sitting in front of it during Gion. *bangs head* Luckily I remembered that and we found it before it got too dark.) and having dinner at Mos Burger. My last Mos Burger dinner. *sniffles sentimentally*

So after that we headed off to the Nara Tokae, which is huge candle and lantern lighting festival in Nara Park. It was amazing. They had about 10,000 candles and laterns lit up all over the place, and it was absolutely gorgeous at night. ^_^ I took a lot of pictures, and even bought my own little latern thing that I toted around for a while. It was very beautiful and peaceful, and I'm really glad I went. (Pictures forthcoming, of course.)

After that we headed off home, where it was about 10:30pm already, and finished up Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side. I was so worried that I wasn't going to get Morimura, and that he would dump me on graduation day. *cries* I was so lucky that he decided to confess his love for me on the LAST POSSIBLE DAY he could. :D Oh well, it was cute anyway, though the game is evil by making him almost leave and ditch me. I swear I was going to have a heart attack right there. ^_^

The ending scenes were really cute, especially during the credits when they showed a shot of the blackboard in our classroom which had little scribbles of me/Morimura love on it. <3 It was so adorable. :D Aah, Morimura-kun, my ouji-sama. *heartsheartshearts*

Was gonna go after Himuro-sensei next (he's ridiculously difficult to get, since he's your sensei and you don't date him normally), but I think I might go after Kei, who is supposed to be my real prince. >_> I'll just uh...pretend he isn't voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru. XD (Actually, Midorikawa Hikaru doesn't sound too bad for Kei, and it is kind of cute to see/hear him say things like "suki da yo, ore," about my clothes. :D Guess Himuro-sensei'll have to take the number 3 spot on my TokiMemo quest. XD)

Best moment in TokiMemo thus far:

Himuro-sensei: *walks in the Cafe where Skuld's character works*
Skuld, Mel, and Kalvin: O_O;; What's Himuro-sensei doing here?
Skuld: XD Yo, sensei, what's up?
Himuro-sensei: >( "Irasshaimase!"
Skuld, Mel, and Kalvin: *cracking up*

You had to have been there.

Monday

So I woke up late, after Mel left for work, and I bummed around a bit, had breakfast/lunch, and started playing more TokiMemo because I just fucking can't resist. =____= Luckily I stopped myself, packed up all my stuff, my arcade stick, my games, and left a little after noon. :D That's when the messages from my friends started pouring in, and it seems we've got a sizable Comiket group going on.

Mel's coming of course, and so are Sam and Kalvin for reasons unknown. (I think Sam just wants to buy hentai.) Jumaane, despite having NO MONEY is coming as well, and I've finally convinced AkaiSakura to come too. ^_^ I'm betting that some people in the Tokyo area will want to go to (like Jelani, Liang, Amy, or Doug), so we'll have a group. :D Thankfully Amy and Akai are close to fluent, so when I stumble over myself asking Shayoukan/SakuraAnnin/Serenade/whoever for a Sukebu they'll step in and save my sorry ass. (I so want a sukebu from Serenade or SakuraAnnin/Crushers. I don't care how much I have to pay them. I'm getting a sukebu, or I'm going to break down and cry.)

So I'm in lab right now, just bumming around, thinking about how I should start working but how I'm too lazy too and how it isn't that pressing yet. It's near Obon week, so I have the feeling that nearly everybody is taking it easy.

Anyways, I leave on Thursday at noon, arrive sometime around 3pm at Tokyo Station, and have to take me and my luggage (which weighs about as much as me) to my hostel in Roppongi. w00t, Roppongi! Anyways, Comiket is this weekend, so for those of you who are still reading my blog, I have a special offer.

Skuld will be your doujinshi bitch this weekend.

Paypal me enough money for what you want (doujins usually go for 500-1000 yen a piece at Comiket), including shipping, give me detailed list of what you're looking for (Series/Pairing/Content/Circle/Cover Scans, whatever) and I'll do my best to find your doujinshi for you.

No guarantees I'll find what you want, though if I don't I'll refund whatever your money I haven't used.

Good deal? Sure. Let me know if you want anything.

I got shat on.

That's right, I was walking around Kyoto today and me and Mel got SHAT ON BY A FUCKING BIRD!

ARGH! (Well, I'm glad my dreams don't come true, because if I was bumming around Kyoto with the Kansai Posse [aka. KKD = Kansai Kaizoku Dan], I would be very unhappy to have my Saucy!Legato costume shat on by a bird.)

*bangs head against wall*

Oh well, guess what cheers me up?

Skuld has a boyfriend. ^_^ *lovelovelove*
His name is Morimura Sakuya, and he finally onfessed his love to me.

I WIN!

Yesterday ruled. I did well in the presentation to the rest of the lab, and I even did better than my bowling average (which is a sad 100-ish. Top score of the night was 116, which made me feel pretty awesome). Played a lot of Taiko no Tatsujin and Pop'n Music too, and had great food and great company with the rest of the guys in our bowling crew (Ikezoe, Mikio, Takahiro, Yoshiya, Seiji, and Morimoto-sensei). All in all, even though our team (me, Seiji, Takahiro, and Yoshiya) lost to the other team, I felt pretty awesome, and continued to feel good until I crashed at about 3am. =_=

Had three separate dreams last night, probably because I woke up three separate times. First dream lasted me until 8:30am, where I would have gotten up had I not been a total lazy ass and decided to miss seeing the rest of the Kansai Posse (Mel, Sam, and Kalvin) and Osaka-jo. Second dream lasted me until about 10:00am when the cleaning person knocked on my door and I told him I'd rather sleep than have my room clean. Third dream lasted me until about 12:30pm wherein I decided that I'd had enough sleep and ought to get up.

So here are my awesome dreams:

Dream No. 1

Don't actually remember the details of this dream which kind of makes me sad, I think the second and the third dream totally wiped my memory base for this one. All I know is that I was hanging around Osaka with the rest of the Kansai Posse (and some other people, including the girlfriend unit and the clone) in a more movement conducive and saucier modified version of my Legato costume. :x

(This is where you get to laugh at me because my nerdiness shines through even in my dreams.)

I just remember walking around town, feeling and looking awesome. XD Costume consisted of a white trenchcoat (why I would be wearing one of those in the middle of Osaka in the summer, I don't know), a black turtleneck belly shirt (think of what Youji wears under his trench in the first Weiss Kreuz series), and silver pants. :D I think I had a lot of makeup on too, but I can't remember exactly. Either way, it was awesome until I woke up. And even then, I felt pretty cool.

Dream No. 2

This one's actually a little creepy, but there were some cool moments. So my friends and I are staying at this ancient Buddhist temple in the middle of the mountains, overlooking this huge abyss. The temple is really huge and some parts of it have been converted into modern facilities.

So I'm wandering about the place at night, and it's dark and kind of creepy. I can feel that spirits are inhabiting this place, and through nearly every single door I went through I could feel ghosts, and not exactly the pleasant kind. One of the ghosts even managed to trick me into going a room and nearly locking the door on me.

One of the doors in one of the modern wings of the temple didn't feel like ghosts, so I stepped through it and found that there was a wedding going on. They had created an entire artificial enviroment inside the room, complete with dusky sky, plants, a small brook, and lots of fireflies. Needless to say, it was really pretty, but I didn't want to be a bother so I had to duck out.

Apparently there was this huge gay rights rally going on in the stadium outside the temple, where I met a woman who looked a lot like my old English teacher, Mrs. Zuhl. The stadium was carved into the side of the abyss, so walking down the stairs of the bleachers was really scary, because if you overbalanced you'd fall down into the crevasse. That was part of the dream was kind of creepy, climbing down the bleachers with my friends and trying not to die in the process.

That's about all I remember of that dream. There were some awesome views. XD

Dream No. 3

This is probably the most amusing because it's Get Backers related. So my family owns this tiny little shop that's sort of an adjunct to the front of our house, and since my mother was away on vacation, she left care of the shop in Paul's hands. So it happens that Paul tells me that we need to team up with the Get Backers to get something back from a casino boss in Vegas. (Kind of an Ocean's Eleven thing.)

So Ban comes and visits me because I'm the head of the group, to evaluate my skills, and we're bumming around the shop looking for an omiyage for him to bring back to Ginji. In the meantime, I find out what Paul's secret ability is: he's a master of disguise. We were having a conversation in Chinese ('cause Paul's Chinese, I think), and when suddenly my mother's car pulls into the driveway, and she's home early, unannounced. This throws me into a panic, because my mother's not supposed to know I'm part of a secret organization about to heist one of the largest casinos in Las Vegas.

So Ban and I make a run for it while Paul keeps my other occupied, and apparently my special power is 1337 wu-xia-fu. Ban heads down the street right past the shop window (it's okay for him, because Mom doesn't know him), but I have to go the secretive way. So I leap up on the ceiling kung-fu style (with that awesome flip they always do in wu-xia) and run for it.

We arrive back at the Honky Tonk where Shidou, Kazuki, and Ginji are waiting (not surprisingly Kazuki's in a dress), and I get to watch Ban and Ginji be cute and cuddly. XD Shidou rolls his eyes and tells me that they've been doing that ever since they got married. We hang around for a bit waiting for the rest of my team to show up, and somewhere along the line I get utter the line, "If he was girlier, he'd be Kazuki." I'm not sure who the 'he' is in that conversation, but I remember saying that. It was probably a complete non sequitur.

Next scene we're at the hotel in Vegas which is Ancient China themed. Ban and Ginji have their own room (no surprise there ^_~), but it's faraway from the room my team and I have (poo, no sounds of banging or screaming at night :/). One of my team members (not somebody in real life, probably someone my brain just made up) is flipping through channels trying to decide between TNT and Cartoon Network or playing on the PS2, which is about when I wake up. (Very unexciting point to wake up during, huzzah.)

So yeah, that's three pretty fucking awesome dreams in one night.
Man, I am so ippai of awesomeness. XD

Tonight: farewell party. ;____; I am so gonna miss the guys. Must not drink too much, because I DO NOT want to throw up and be miserable again. Probably very little sleep tonight. *grumble*

Tomorrow: Kyoto, Nara, TokiMemo at Mel's place. Whee, awesomeness! :D

OH yes...and one more thing:

NARUTO 226: OMFG. O_____O

I have translated Chapitre 53 of Tsubasa for you all. It's a little late, but I've been really busy lately. Only a few days left in lab, better use them well.

It's a busy weekend. Bowling tonight, Osaka-jo and farewell party tomorrow, Kyoto, Nara, and TokiMemo on Sunday...it's full up, my friends!

Love to all my peeps.

Today is going to rock.
Well, yesterday pretty much rocked too (except for the dead fish I found in the morning).

I have loads of stuff, I'm not that much down the hole, my research just turned out something pretty awesome (let's hope it stays awesome before I leave), and even though 2 tamagocchi died on me in the period of these past two days, I am still feeling pretty spiffy.

So I took a closer look at the GGX+ box set last night, and I don't believe the little sticker that says it's used. It seriously isn't. The DVD was still in its original plastic shrink wrap, the necklace was still in its plastic bag with the Sammy/Arc Systems sticker on it, the original inserts were still in the game booklet and there wasn't a single scratch on the disk.

If it's used, someone bought the entire thing, decided they didn't want it (for god knows why) and sold it back to the game place. I'd been eyeing it ever since I got here, but for some odd reason never got it. Well, I'm just glad it was still there when I bought it yesterday.

That's right, I got the GGX+ box set practically new for a little less than 3000yen.

DAMN! That's a good deal. Not even Ed can yell at me for that. ^_^

Anyways, presentation in the afternoon and bowling in the evening. Oh, sweet sweet goodness!

Went shopping today because I just couldn't hold the urge in. Japan is very bad for my pocketbook. I am so fucking glad I'm not living here permanently, because that would mean I would be LIVING IN THE STREETS! =____= (or in the park.)

Today's Loot

- 1 Hisami Shimada manga (so yaoilicious, and yes it's the same hot thing that Asphodel found in NYC a couple of months ago)
- Tokimeki Memorial Girls Side (only 2500 yen!)
- Tokimeki Memorial Girls Side Illustrations (only 2500 yen!)
- Guilty Gear X Plus Box Set (only 3000 yen used!)
- 2 Tokimeki Memorial Girls Side special bromides (Kei and Mihara-in-a-leopard-spotted-speedo. O_o Mel can have that one if she wants.)
- 1 Trigun doujinshi (Vanishing Vol. 5 by Slayers. Yeah, it's Midvalley/Legato, but at this point in my desperate little fanhood, I'd even settle for Kuroneko-sama/Legato. =____=)

...and I'm about 10,000 yen out, but feeling like the happiest kitty in the universe. The GGX+ box set has a sexy sexy Fuuenken necklace in it. I HAVE SOL'S SWORD DANGLING BETWEEN MY BOOBS. (That almost sounds like paizuri. XD) I seriously am the happiest kitty now :3

No Tsubasa translation today. Sorry kids, got too lazy. Maybe tomorrow.

ganked from Sherrie

Well, this isn't LiveJournal, but since most of my random-peeps are on LJ anyway...

(in no particular order)

10 Livejournal Friends You Wish You Knew or Want to Know Better
1. Sherrie (djecstasy)
2. Susan (millyfan)
3. Bennu (munashii_bennu)
4. Mel (agentmel)
5. Jo (ariseishirou)
6. Clare (choffman)
7. Eike (yhibiki)
8. Haz (hazard_us)
9. Min (mintsui)
10. Phi (c2lan)

8 Livejournal Friends You've Known Over a Year
1. Nicole (Fluffymaru)
2. Kamitra (kamitra)
3. Shi (Shineko)
4. Miriya (miriya)
5. Ultemys (ultemys)
6. Houki (houkichan)
7. Ginga (gingaktb)
8. MD (mdkitten)

6 (Livejournal) Friends You Feel Closest To
1. Roni (mortenuova)
2. Ed (skuldnoshinpu)
3. Alichan (spark_658)
4. Destra
5. Omi
6. Big Hentai Mike

4 (Livejournal) Friends You've Met in Person
(friends who met through LJ or the 'net but met later on)
1. Destra
2. Cocoa (momijizukamori)
3. Amberlee (amberleewriter)
4. Joel (jibakushounen)
(...and there are many others to boot, amongst them my clone and my girlfriend.)

2 Livejournal Friends Who Would Make a Good Couple
(This was tough, but I'd have to go with...)
1. joep87
2. thelegendof_zzz

I am Legato II. I should change that to read Legato 2.0. Smaller, faster, smarter, more AZN! What is there not to love? XD

On sad news...one of my fishies died. It wasn't looking too genki after I soaped the bowl and changed the water, and I came in today and it was floating belly up. The sadness. I flushed it down the toilet where it can live with Handai's sewage for the rest of its eternal afterlife. Nemo's still alive (the little goldfish), so that makes me feel better. That fish is pretty tough and pretty genki. May it live long under Seiji's care after I leave.

Anyhoo, got my pictures of the Heisei Yodogawa fireworks up here, got some pics of fireworks (man, my camera skills are ass) and some movies of fireworks you can amuse yourself with if you're horribly bored.

Also got Chapitre 53 of Tsubasa, which I am in the middle of translating. Nothing terribly interesting there, no sign of Seishirou. ;_; I have a feeling he won't be showing up for a while. *sigh*

I really want to go to the Mandarake and the Animate so I can get stuffs for Chiko and myself, but there's a typhoon in the area (it was pouring last night) and I am not up for travel or sightseeing in the middle of a typhoon. >( I suppose I'll have to wait until next week. -_-;;

*licks lips* So full of good music. ie: 4 Enigma albums. :D And Utada Hikaru albums, which I mostly had anyways, but not with me. w00~~

On other news, I leave my lab in a week. A frickin' week.

One more week with Doi (who hasn't washed his coffee cup in 4 years), Seiji (the American), Mikio (my Naruto-and-One-Piece comrade-in-arms), Yoshiya (the code monkey), Ikezoe (the tsukomi) and Morimoto-sensei (the boke), and Kenji (the guy who learns all his dirty words from me), Kazuma (the quiet one) and everybody else. *sniffles* I'm going to miss these guys so fucking much. I've had a really awesome time in Japan because these guys just plain kick ass.

It's really crunch time here. I had a presentation I have to do sprung on me, so I have to put together a small powerpoint presentation thing by Friday afternoon. BLARGLE! Stop hosing me unexpectedly! *bangs head against wall* If it weren't for the PowerPoint part I wouldn't be having problems. =_=;; It's the fact that I have to put something together. :/ I hate presentation preparation. >P Can't I just get up there and talk? I know what I'm talking about at least. >_> *sigh*

In other news, nobody told me that Naruto 225 came out (I expected them to be on hiatus for longer) so I just barely read it. (Mikio gave me the heads up. I'll talk with him about it later.)

All I'm going to say about it now is:

1) Go read it if you haven't yet
and 2) SASUNARU LOVE.

I'm glad I put The Art of Life on hold for this, because this is a totally major development. Looks like the fic is going to be on hold for a little bit longer due to major plot unfolding in the current Naruto-verse, but I have a feeling the actual manga is more exciting than whatever drivel I'm writing anyway.

Read Naruto, biyatches. NarutoFan.com is my crack source, and will be your dealer too.

It's...Destra!
...as Midori from Midori no Hibi. :D

That costume rocks. Why didn't she or Alex tell me they were going to Otakon? *big sniffles*

Oh yes, and since I linked the picture from Kakashi-sensei (Okay, his real name is Sean, but he will always be Kakashi-sensei to me), I figured I'd pimp out his page too just to be nice. ^_^

Argh, once more I feel like I missed out. While you guys were having a great time at Otakon I was having a not-so-fun-filled weekend at Koya-san. :/ Oh well, could've been worse. Now all I have left to look forward to is... >_>

TOKYO! (As a proper Osaka-n I shouldn't be so excited for Tokyo, but allow me to be OOC and jump giddily up and down ^_^)

Because Tokyo has:
1. Ilan Almog (aka. That crazy motherfucker.)
2. Comiket (aka. Sweet sweet doujinshi heaven)
3. The Going Merry Go! (aka. OMG, I want to ride the One Piece ship.)
4. Akihabara (aka. Otaku Paradise)

...
but I miss hanging out with all my other friends at cons!
*sob*

Heisei Yodogawa hanabi tonight. :D Gonna go with Mel in our yukata. ^_^ Huzzah!

...I miss all y'all in the States. ._. But have no fear, I am coming home...soon...in...a month. :/

I love rifling through my colleagues' CD collections. You find the nicest things in there. ^_^ Since I don't really have a solid source for MP3s (I really should've just been more patient in waiting for Suprnova to load), it's really nice ripping from CDs that other people have bought.

Today's loot (for once, loot I haven't spent money on!):

Enigma: The Screen Behind the Mirror
m-flo: Planet Shining
m-flo: The Intergalactic Collection
Jamiroquai: synkronized
Jamiroquai: A Funk Odyssey
Utada Hikaru: Deep River

I have more music than the shit-ass little collection I uploaded onto this laptop. Oh, I am so happy.

I'll be even happier once I have my 200GB hard drive and I'll have every single MP3 (I think that's almost 4000 MP3s) and all my good anime up there. Oh yes, sweet sweet digital storage, I want to have your digital children.

EDIT: Whoo, just dug out even more CDs. Thanks, Kumano-san! XD

Enigma: The Cross of Changes
Enigma: Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
Enigma: MCMXC a.D.
Utada Hikaru: Distance
Favorite Blue: Solitude

...man...if only I'd started ripping all this shit earlier. =_=

Yesterday ended surprisingly well. O_O;;

Mike Short (the subject of many funny stupid-gaijin-in-Japan stories) randomly called me sometime after 6pm, totally surprising me because I'd forgotten that he'd got one of them free trips to Japan through American Airlines.

So we ended up hanging out in the Umeda area. We spent a lot of time talking at a kaitenzushi place, spent a while at and looking for good arcades (didn't find any, because it was really late *sniffles*), so we settled for karaoke, which was a bomb because they had some really awesome songs we sang to. I think the highlights of the night were definitely "One Headlight" and "Scatman." (Yes, THAT Scatman song.) They also had "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (if you don't know what that's from I'm going to have to beat the shit out of you), and that rounded off our night of horrible singing rather nicely.

It was a small adventure, but it was a good adventure nonetheless, and I am even more envious of the Tokyo people...because they have Ilan.

Man, Ilan's gonna come back with so many fucking stories... like apparently the one where he was so drunk one night he passed out in a park and woke up to a hobo trying to do weird sexual things to him. Go Ilan. >_> Only Ilan...

Anyways, since I made a cracked dream entry yesterday, I'll make another cracked dream entry. I can't believe I had a Seishirou/Subaru dream after so long. Must've been the karaoke place having "Strawberry Kiss Kiss" and me desperately wanting to sing it. XD (But I did it last time with Mel, so... >_> new songs with Mike Short.) Anyways, so I'm hanging out at Subaru's house (don't know why) trying to fix his old broken walkman (apparently it was left to him by Seishirou, and he was upset that it was broken, so I decided to fix it for him), when suddenly I notice that one of my friends (I don't know why I brought one of my friends to Subaru's house. It's a very dark, dim, and depressing place.) starts acting a little weird.

As it turns out, Seishirou's spirit had spontaneously decided to possess my friend (probably because he wasn't too bad looking), and started putting the moves on Subaru (who had just come back from tree-feeding then). I, being the wonderful friend that I am, egg on Seishirou's spirit, fulling willing to sacrifice my friend for the noble sake of true love. XD

...and then just when things were about to get good...

*dundun*

The alarm clock went off.

Oh well, I suppose that's payment for letting Seishirou posess my friend. XD
Rah! *cheers* Go me!

I am seriously "blah" right now.
I've been groggy all morning, I'm still groggy, and I left my tamagottchi at home so it's probably dead by now. And I just barely hatched it last night.

*sigh* Oh well.

On an interesting note, I had another one of them Farscape dreams last night. I have no idea why I've had so many Farscape dreams (probably because the series just fucking rules), but this time it wa Scorpius!John cuddling with Aeryn in her little fighter craft. It was actually cute, despite the definite weirding out of Scorpius!John. >_>

Also dreamt about cuddling the girlfriend unit and playing TokiMemo. Man, my dreams are so telling of me. -_-;; *another sigh*

I better be getting con reports from y'all who went to Otakon. (I'm so sad I didn't get to go in a huge group like I did last year, but I suppose there's always next year. ...or I could just say, "Well, at least there's Comiket." ^^;;) Especially of the L'arc concert. *sniffles* I want L'arc. (Okay, I want GLAY even more...but...) This is so not fair. L'arc goes the year I'm not there. *waaaah* Watch it be someone stupid again next year.

I was originally gonna head out into town today because I haven't yet hit Osaka-jo, and I need to buy myself the Comiket guide, but I figure I can wait a couple of days, because Chiko needs things from Animate, and I was going to stop by there. :/ Oh well, I'll be holed up here at Handai where the cicadas are dropping like flies and I can't even walk home at night without kicking one/being attacked by one. =___=

Still need to sightsee Kyoto before I leave too. Blar, so many things to do, and I'm only here for another week or so. ;___; I'm going to miss my Handai peeps so much.

This weekend was quite the adventure. O_O;; I had a blast, though I have to admit it could have been blastier had several nasty turns of fate been avoided.

I got to Takanohara a little bit late on Friday night and made Mel wait for 15 or 20 mins for me. I felt kind of bad about it, but then I remembered she made me wait for Universal Studios three weeks ago, so I stopped feeling so guilty. XD There was a typhoon that night, so we weren't able to break out the fireworks like we had desperately wanted to. ;_; Oh well, that's all right.

I spent all of my time, and I mean all of my time on Friday night playing through Tokimeki Memorial. I have three weeks left to go of my last year, and Morimura-kun (aka. Sakuya-chan) is NOT blushing at me yet. O_o;; This is totally throwing me into a panic. I have THREE MONTHS LEFT before the game ends, and I have feeling I'm not going to get any guy. Oh, cry. I've invested 10 hours in Sakuya already, just confess to me, ALREADY! He gave me an almost confession! *sobs* I bet that rival smart angsty goth bitch is stealing him away from me. Curses. He didn't even give me a birthday present and didn't go out with me on New Year's.

I swear this is all stupid Himuro-sensei's fault. >( He's started liking me a lot recently, which is making things really difficult, because I don't want him to bomb me. (If a guy gives you a bomb, you basically lose.) And speaking of bombs, all the other stupid guys have decided that if I don't date them enough, they'll bomb me. >_< Which means that I have to string along Hibiya (stupid underclassman), Kei (stupid Midorikawa Hikaru), and Mihara (stupid who gets in the way of my Morimura!) while I go for my beloved Sakuya-chan.

:/ Not to mention that if I accidentally read Chiharu's last letter I'm going to end up with him. (I think he's a character from one of the earlier TokiMemo games. Dunno which one, though.) I suppose if Morimura isn't blushing by the beginning of February I am going to have NO CHOICE whatsoever but to land Chiharu. *sob* At least I can console myself with the fact that he has blue hair. >_> *cough*

So yeah, the possibility that I might lose at getting my guy in TokiMemo really did not start my weekend off well.

I played a little bit of Guilty Gear Isuka after I woke up Saturday morning (like...two or three games), but we had no time because we were already running late to Koya-san. So the route I chose was really shitty, and while it was the most direct route, it look the longest in terms of having to wait for the infrequent trains in Wakayama prefecture. :/ Shiiiiiit.

There was also the fact that I ended up losing my bag on the first train transfer at Kashiharajingu-mae. That SUCKED ASS. I was a total wreck on the third train (yeah, it took me that long) when I noticed. And I had been all hyped up writing my real beloved a line for roleplay.

So we were on the training and waiting for trains for a total of about 4 or 4.5 hours. :/ When it really should've just taken us 2 if we'd gone back to Osaka and taken the roundabout but fast route. *sighs* Thankfully we took that back.

Anyways, so we ended up at Koya-san around 3:30pm wherein we checked into our Shukubo (it's a buddhist temple where they allow guests to stay), Fumon-in. It's really nice there. O_O;; The rooms are all traditional tatami style, and they even let us join the morning prayer service. ^_^

As soon as I got there I called the Kintetsu line for my lost bag, and they found it. I told them to bring it to Kawachi-Nagano, where I would have been changing for Tondabayashi if we decided to hit the PL fireworks. (PL is a religious cult, but they supposedly have the largest fireworks in the world. 120,000 fireworks, with a finale of 7,000 at once that light the sky so bright it's day.)

We spent about an hour walking around Koya-san in the pouring rain (stupid typhoon), but by the time we got started everything was closed so we spent more time bumming around our room ("we" being the usual Kansai group: Me, Mel, Sam, and Kalvin) playing cards (Spoons and Egyptian Ratscrew) before dinner was served.

I was so glad they served a vegan dinner, because it's the first time Mel could eat without worrying what sort of animal products might be in her food. After dinner we headed down to the baths to have a good soak and a long conversation, before heading up to my room to hang with the guys and have a couple of drinks.

This is where I discover I am seriously bad at sake, or any fermented beverage that has rice in it. The umeshuu stayed in my system, and it was so sweet that I seriously didn't notice it. Well, that backfired when in the middle of conversation I slumped over onto the tatami floor and passed out.

Apparently I am perfectly coherent when I am passed out. This is very strange. I can speak coherently, I can explain myself, I can move, but I'm actually sort of asleep. It was very odd. I remember telling the guys I had to go to the bathroom to 'break my seal' and I remember explaining to them what that euphemism meant. (The first time you pee when you drink is called "breaking the seal.") I remember getting to my feet, walking to the door, opening the door, and walking down the stairs all the while telling myself that I COULD NOT, MUST NOT throw up. Funny thing is, I remember all this as if it was a dream. O_O;; If I hadn't woken up on the floor downstairs after I had walked into a post, I would've sworn that it had all been a dream.

So I bumped into a pole and just fell on the floor when I woke up and was a little confused as to how I had ended upon a wooden floor instead of a tatami one. It took a while for me to realize that what I had been dreaming was really happening, and that while I was passed out I spoke in coherent sentences and was capable of full motor function. (Save for stationary object avoidance.)

So I dragged myself to the bathroom mostly-dead, and must have spent out half an hour in there emptying myself of the wonderful shojin-ryori (Buddhist Food) and the umeshuu, and wishing I'd die of alcohol poisoning, because that'd put me out of my misery. After about a ten minute nap on the cold tile floor of the bathroom (sadly I don't remember my dreams anymore), I got up, declared that I was sober (and I was), walked up the stairs, changed out of my yukata and into a fresh one (for some reason I was sweating like hell while I was drunk...maybe I sweated out all the alcohol. I don't know.), climbed into my futon and went to sleep at about 10:30pm.

Woke up in time for morning prayer completely sober and hangover-less (I have yet to have a hangover, I suppose my complete misery while the I'm trying to purge the alcohol from my system makes up for it) and in time for morning prayer service which began at 6:30am. It was interesting, but Sam fell asleep. Oh well.

We had another two hour nap and then bummed around Koya-san. They've got a lot of interesting historical things (being the headquarters of the Shingon sect of Buddhism), and they've also got Okunoin, one of the largest collection of graves in the world. They've got a lot of famous people's tombs up there, including Nobunaga. I was going to search for Mori Ranmaru too, but given the fact the place was very un-gaijin friendly and had no informative signs, we gave up on the search for anybody interesting.

We headed down the mountain at about 5pm-ish, and I made it back to campus after a dinner stop in Namba station at about 9:30.

So I am here, after not going to PL (we were just too goddamn tired), after having had a weekend full of rain, wasuremono (lost things), a surreal experience followed quickly by a wishing-I-was-dead experience, long train rides and waits, and my Morimura Sakuya-chan not loving me.

WAAAH! This weekend was horrible! *sniffles*

Well, it had its good parts. :D

Now I really have to buy TokiMemo Girls Side for myself. ~<3
I am so ippai of dating sims.
So ippai.

Gonna be spending the rest of my year on dating sims.

...also, anyone know who to go to in Boston if I want to mod my PS2? >_> I'm seriously debating just getting a used jPS2 and telling my parents in China, "Oh yeah, I brought my PS2 to Japan! :D Yeah, this is my PS2...I didn't buy a new one, don't be silly. >_> *cough*"

We'll see how much money I have left at the end of the trip, since I would actually dearly love to upgrade my computer and have money to apply to grad school with after I get home. (In addition to live comfortably. -_-;; *sigh*)

...while I was having a horrible weekend, y'all were enjoying yourselves at Otakon. *shakes fist* ;____;

Sakuya-chan ~<3
;___; Confess your undying love for me.