Tokyo Girl

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.