BLOG -- Recap of June

June was pretty busy but pretty uneventful. I am still on-track with my "watch one movie every week" resolution :)

Outings / Events in June:

- Did temp work at my friend's uncle's trophy shop. It was busy work for a few weeks.

Exposures:

- Nothing this month.

Finished...

Watching:

- (Movie): Wolfwalkers -- I enjoyed the animation and music a lot.

- (Movie): Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father -- Really grim, but heartfelt, and worth watching. Have a box of tissues next to you if you ever decide to watch check it out.

- (Movie): Eternity -- I thought the world-building was interesting.

- (Anime - Movie): Josee, the Tiger and the Fish -- I enjoyed it.

Playing:

- (PS4): Yakuza 6: Song of Life -- I finally beat it! A blog will be coming... after most of the Japan blogs have been done ^^;

- (PS5): Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights -- I reached Ending A so I'm counting it. I'll keep playing it, though, until I've explored everything and seen all the endings.

Reading:

- Nothing this month.

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS5): Gal Guardians: Demon Purge

- (PS4): Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!

- (PS4): Dark Cloud 2

- (PS4): Skyrim
- (PS4): Moon: Remix RPG Adventure

- (PS4): Baldur's Gate I: Enhanced Edition

- (PS4): Black Bird

- (PSP): Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure

- (3DS): Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition   
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

- (PC): Crusader Kings III

- (PC): Divinity: Original Sin

- (Mobile): Dragon Quest III

- (Mobile): Bloons TD 6

Watching:

- (Series): Criminal Minds: Evolution (Season 2)

- (Series): The Goldbergs (Season 5)
- (Series): Huff (Season 1 - Episode 10)
- (Series): Stranger Things (Season 5 - Episode 5)

- (Series): The Boys (Season 5)

- (Series): Bob's Burgers (Season 5 - Episode 6)

- (Series): Squid Game (Season 3)

- (Series): House of the Dragon (Season 3)

- (Series): Shrinking (Season 4)

- (Series): Invincible (Season 4)

- (Anime): Log Horizon (Season 4)

- (Anime): Pyscho-Pass (Season 4?)
- (Anime): Kakegurui (Season 3?)
- (Anime): Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls (Episode 2)

- (Anime): Gintama (Episode 13)

- (Anime): Tokyo Revengers (Season 4)

- (Anime): Gurren Lagann (Episode 10)

- (Anime): Chihayafuru (Season 4?)

- (Anime): One Punch Man (Season 3?)

- (Anime): Junji Ito's Japanese Tales of the Macabre (Episode 5)

- (Anime): Demon Slayers (Season 4 - Movie 2)

- (Anime): Jujutsu Kaisen (Season 3)

- (Anime): Naruto: Shippuden (Season 2 - Episode 39)

- (Anime): Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Season 4?)

- (YouTube): StephenVlogs (Day 1061)

Reading:

- (Manga): One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volume ?? -- Chapter 1148) <-- I'm behind again
- (Manga): Berserk by Kentaro Miura (Volume 2)

- (Manga): Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi (Volume 10)

- (Novel): 86 by Asato Asato (Volume 2)

That's it for June. Here are a couple pics I took this month, some pics of my gacha pulls in Blue Archive, plus a YouTube video I watched.

Some sushi after finishing the temp. work. Yum!

A funny dialogue in Divinity: Original Sin.

After the free 100 pulls, I pulled 100 more and got Rio (Armed) along the way.

When Aris (Armed) and Kei's banners released, I got them before reaching pity.

I also got Yuzu (Armed) and Eimi (Armed) before reaching pity! No more pulling in Blue Archive for a while ^^

"The Internet's Most Documented Man" by Bowlmyshoes. I still have to watch the rest of his vlogs.

Thanks for reading! Happy Canada Day for those celebrating Canada Day and happy early Independence Day for those celebrating Independence Day in a few days.

As usual, if you have any questions / comments about anything, feel free.

Take care and until next time! :)

BLOG -- My Trip to Japan V.5 -- ADVENTURE PART 2 (Nipponbashi, Namba, Dotonbori)

Here is Part 2 of my Japan blogs. This covers the areas within walking distance of the hotel. Every spot mentioned here took about 10-15 minutes.

NOTE: Even though I have Namba and Dotonbori in two separate sections, Dotonbori is actually within Namba. Since Dotonbori is a key location in some of the Yakuza games, I like highlighting it as a separate place.

Below is a link to a previous entry about these areas.

Japan Trip 2023: Nipponbashi / Den Den Town, Namba, Dotonbori

NIPPONBASHI

DAYS SPENT: Several mornings and afternoons

OVERALL THOUGHTS: We wandered around Nipponbashi often, especially when we wanted to check out Den Den Town for some nerdy shops like Animate or Volks. I liked that this area was within walking distance.

PLACES VISITED:

Den Den Town (RE-VISIT)

I'm sure I've mentioned this in my last Japan trip, but Den Den Town is Osaka's version of Akihabara. Looking for some anime, video games, or electronic goods? Den Den Town's got it. There are some shops that carry second-hand figures or claw game prizes for low-ish prices. There is also a Lawson 100 shop closeby where you can buy some things on the cheap. Only thing to keep in mind is that most shops in Den Den Town open around 10 AM so avoid getting there too early.

A shot of Den Den Town.

Oh my... I wanted this so badly. But the cost... it's too much (approx $954 CAD)! D:

A shop that sells goods for Dark Souls, Warhammer, Elden Ring, World of Warcraft, and other series. The merchandise is pretty pricey but looks like nice quality.

Look at all the Yakuza games! <3

Hikaru no Go Exhibit

While my boyfriend and I were walking around Namba, I saw a poster and standee advertising a Hikaru no Go exhibit. Being a Hikaru no Go fan, I wanted to check it out. It was located in Space Gratus, which we found out was some gallery space with Animate. We went to Animate on the last day of the exhibit, but couldn't find Space Gratus on any of its floors. When we were about to give up, I saw a Hikaru no Go sign or poster on a building just across. It turned out that the building across from Animate was Space Gratus. Phew!

Admission into the exhibit was 2200 yen each. I was a bit surprised because the poster didn't mention any admission price, but I didn't mind. For me, the exhibit was very nice. There were tons of original manga pages with a few key locations or scenes recreated with real furniture. Close to the end there were coloured pieces like manga covers and some promotional artwork. 

On another floor was an eating area, which I think needed some kind of ticket or reservation to enter. There was also a gift shop that had tons and tons of goods. For any Hikaru no Go fan, it was a shopping paradise. Sadly, almost everything was a bit on the pricey side (and in gacha format, ugh). I still got a few things, which you'll see later in my "Swags" post. 

Overall, I really enjoyed myself. I was also happy to see attendees of varying ages (around 20-50+) at the exhibit. The fandom for Hikaru no Go still lives on! :)

A random card that's given with your admission. We got Akira and Sai on the top left. Akira's my favourite character so I was very happy. XD

A Go board and some stools. I think the Go problem was shown in the series. We were allowed to sit on the stools.

A recreation of Hikaru's room depicting a specific scene.

Sai and some manga pages featuring him!

Kuromon Market

When I looked up places to visit in Namba, Kuromon Market often came up. Kuromon Market is a shotengai (a shopping street) that has a lot of foods and goods to buy. We got there just as the stalls and shops were opening up. Barely anybody was there but when it got to noon, the market was packed. 

It was a really neat place. There was a dining area with a bunch of benches and lots of food stalls. I haven't seen any other shotengai with a dining area before. There was also a supermarket. We also saw a small walkway in the middle of Kuromon Market leading outside to a couple cafes selling what looked like handmade souvenirs. 

I would definitely come back! :)

One entrance into Kuromon Market.

Inside the market. The canopy design looks nice.

The little walkway in the middle of Kuromon Market. It was random and inviting.

OTHER PHOTOS:

Something neat around Den Den Town.

Why are there figures of the Netflix One Piece characters??

In Animate, there are capsule machines containing fanart merch. I never realized it before!

There was so many fanart merch of Blue Archive. The machines were tempting me so much.

Here are some other Blue Archive merch, but official ones.

NAMBA

DAYS SPENT: Several mornings and afternoons

OVERALL THOUGHTS: For this blog, Namba covers the rest of the areas surrounding the hotel that aren't highlighted. We did a lot more exploring on foot to see what things we could do and check out close by. 

Keeping this here from the previous Japan blog:

For those wanting to maximize the JR lines, you may want to stay at a hotel closer to the Osaka Loop Line or closer to JR Namba, if you don't mind changing lines. It was about a 10-13 minute walk to JR Namba from our hotel. 

PLACES VISITED:

Namba Yasaka Shrine

This was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. My boyfriend enjoys checking out shrines and temples so I try to include some in the itinerary. Namba Yasaka Shrine doesn't cover too much area, but the large lion head stage more than makes up for it. That lion head is huge and menacing in an awe-inspiring way. There weren't too many people when we were there so the shrine also felt very peaceful with all the surrounding greenery. I'd recommend checking it out at least once.

The entrance to Namba Yasaka Shrine. The lion's head really stands out.

A closer look at the lion's head. It looks ready to suck up everything surrounding it.

There is a note to not write on the table. Clearly, it wasn't followed!

An area to do the cleansing ritual that is common at shrines. The cleansing ritual involved drinking some of the water, but apparently the ritual got changed after the COVID pandemic.

Parks Garden

Parks Garden is at the top of this shopping complex called Namba Parks. We checked this out on a whim and it was very scenic. There was a lot of greenery and neat architecture. There were several flights of stairs with varied plants at each level. It's definitely a place to visit for a scenic experience. It was slightly windy, though, so maybe bring a light jacket.

My boyfriend standing in front of the Parks Garden signage.

The entrance looks a bit majestic.

Look at all the plants!

I like that there are some people just chilling on the green.

Pop-up Events at Namba Square

Across from the hotel was Namba Square, an open area that would often have chairs and tables for passersby to sit and relax a bit. Sometimes those chairs and tables would be put away and events would happen instead. During our trip, we saw two events pop up in Namba Square. We checked out the first event briefly because we had some time and it was music-oriented (which really interested me). We didn't have time to check out the second event, but we glanced at it briefly when walking by.

Overall, it's nice seeing random events pop up in Namba Square and seeing various people gather.

The schedule for the first pop-up event.

Going by the schedule above and the time I took this pic, this would be the idols segment. They were singing and dancing.

The schedule for the second pop-up event.

The set up looked very interesting.

OTHER PHOTOS:

A shot of Namba at night.

Pay phones still exist!

These were the movies playing while we were there. I watched Kokuho in theatres (in Canada) months after the trip!

The standee and poster advertising the Hikaru no Go exhibition. I'm glad I noticed them.

We went to Karaoke-kan again. Prices went up slightly but they were still cheaper when compared to doing karaoke in Toronto.

I crappily sung a song from this anime, hehe. :)

I took a picture here because infomen booths are in the Yakuza games.

Whoever put these two prizes side by side is cruel! T_T

DOTONBORI

DAYS SPENT: Several mornings and afternoons

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Dotonbori is still Dotonbori. It's a place with a lot of beauty, food, shopping, and people. The crowd can be off-putting sometimes, but if I'm ever in Osaka, I will always do my best to stop by -- because I love Dotonbori so much. :)

The beauty of Dotonbori at night.

Dotonbori Hotel looks very funky!

Another shot of Dotonbori at night.

The crowd of people wanting to go on the Tombori River Cruise. If the crowd wasn't so huge then we would have tried taking the cruise.

Water bottles and flowers offered to the two firefighters who were killed during the Dotonbori fire back in August 18, 2025. May they rest in peace *bows*

That's it for Part 2. For anybody waiting all this time since Part 1, thank you for waiting! Fingers crossed that Part 3 will come much sooner *fingers crossed*

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or comments about any of these places I visited, feel free to say something in the comments box or fill out a contact form!

Take care, stay safe, and until next time! :)

BLOG -- Recap of May

May was a hard month. It almost felt like every week had a new stress.

Outings / Events in May:

- Had a voice chat with my LINE friends. It was fun in the beginning, but went not positive at the end. I had a meet-up with a couple of the people in the voice chat the next day to talk about it but ended up feeling really hurt (I couldn't say why I was hurt at the meet-up because I was seconds away from crying multiple times). I had to take a break for a week to process the feelings before having a phone call to voice things out.

- Had a board game day with a couple of my boyfriend's friends. That was really fun.

- My boyfriend and I visited my mother's grave for Mother's Day.

- I started something new but I'll keep it a secret for now.

Exposures:

- (Video Game): Guardian of Lore -- I tried this out for two hours. While the art and music was nice, the gameplay was too brutal for my liking.

- (Food place): One2Snacks -- This is a small place that is open only 4 days a week, but it has really good Malaysian food. I've tried two dishes from there so far and enjoyed them both.

Finished...

Watching:

- (Movie): Return to Silent Hill -- This wasn't as bad as I was expecting... but it's still not that good.

- (Movie): Tetris -- I enjoyed this a lot.

- (Anime - Movie): Paprika -- I loved it.

- (Anime - Movie): Human Lost -- I only watched this because it was loosely based on Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human. Human Lost is not good.

Playing:

- Nothing this month.

Reading:

- Nothing this month.

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS5): Gal Guardians: Demon Purge

- (PS4): Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!

- (PS4): Dark Cloud 2

- (PS4): Skyrim
- (PS4): Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
- (PS4): Yakuza 6: Song of Life

- (PS4): Baldur's Gate I: Enhanced Edition

- (PS4): Black Bird

- (PSP): Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure

- (3DS): Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition   
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

- (PC): Crusader Kings III

- (PC): Divinity: Original Sin

- (Mobile): Bloons TD 6

Watching:

- (Series): Criminal Minds: Evolution (Season 2)

- (Series): The Goldbergs (Season 5)
- (Series): Huff (Season 1 - Episode 10)
- (Series): Stranger Things (Season 5 - Episode 5)

- (Series): The Boys (Season 5)

- (Series): Bob's Burgers (Season 5 - Episode 6)

- (Series): Squid Game (Season 3)

- (Series): House of the Dragon (Season 3)

- (Series): Shrinking (Season 3 - Episode 9)

- (Series): Invincible (Season 4)

- (Anime): Log Horizon (Season 4)

- (Anime): Pyscho-Pass (Season 4?)
- (Anime): Kakegurui (Season 3?)
- (Anime): Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls (Episode 2)

- (Anime): Gintama (Episode 13)

- (Anime): Tokyo Revengers (Season 4)

- (Anime): Gurren Lagann (Episode 10)

- (Anime): Chihayafuru (Season 4?)

- (Anime): One Punch Man (Season 3?)

- (Anime): Junji Ito's Japanese Tales of the Macabre (Episode 5)

- (Anime): Demon Slayers (Season 4 - Movie 2)

- (Anime): Jujutsu Kaisen (Season 3)

- (Anime): Naruto: Shippuden (Season 1 - Episode 5)

- (Anime): Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Season 4?)

- (YouTube): StephenVlogs (Day 1061)

Reading:

- (Manga): One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volume ?? -- Chapter 1148) <-- I'm behind again
- (Manga): Berserk by Kentaro Miura (Volume 2)

- (Manga): Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi (Volume 10)

- (Novel): 86 by Asato Asato (Volume 2)

That's it for May. Here are a couple pics and a screenshot I took this month plus a YouTube video I watched.

Some mochi donuts. I really enjoyed the matcha (top left) and oreo one (top right).

One of the Malaysian dishes I tried from One2Snacks. It's called Char Kway Teow.

I got Himari (Armed) during my free pulls, yay!

"5 Signs It's Gaslighting, Not a Disagreement" by Psych2Go.

Thanks for reading!

As usual, if you have any questions / comments about anything, feel free.

Take care and until next time! :)

BLOG -- Recap of April

April was a pretty busy month. My boyfriend and I completely forgot about Good Friday and went to a Costco that was closed. It was unsettling seeing an empty parking lot for Costco. We also started doing some weekly goals to slowly progress doing some things we wanted to do for the year.

Outings / Events in April:

- Had lunch with former co-workers. It was nice catching up with them.

- I took advantage of a Shoppers Optimum promotion and have subscribed to AppleTV for free for 3 months. As long as I watch one thing it'll be worth it. :)

- Had lunch with my sister and friend. It was a fun time.

Exposures:

- (Food place): Union Chicken -- I tried a chicken & waffle dish. The server said it wasn't spicy but I still tasted a bit of heat. :x

Finished...

Watching:

- (Movie): The Big Short -- This was pretty interesting.

- (Movie): Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) -- This was pretty interesting, too.

- (Movie): Exit 8 -- This makes me want to try out the game.

- (Movie): Super Mario Galaxy -- Not as good as the first movie, but it was still very entertaining.

- (Movie): Terrifier 3 -- Still too gory for me.

- (Anime): Ace Attorney -- It was nice seeing some of the cases animated, though I think the pacing was a bit fast. There are a couple episodes that are not in the video games, so that was extra fun.

Playing:

- Nothing this month.

Reading:

- Nothing this month.

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS5): Gal Guardians: Demon Purge

- (PS4): Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!

- (PS4): Dark Cloud 2

- (PS4): Skyrim
- (PS4): Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
- (PS4): Yakuza 6: Song of Life

- (PS4): Baldur's Gate I: Enhanced Edition

- (PSP): Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure

- (3DS): Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition   
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)

- (PC): Crusader Kings III

- (PC): Divinity: Original Sin

- (Mobile): Bloons TD 6

Watching:

- (Series): Criminal Minds: Evolution (Season 2)

- (Series): The Goldbergs (Season 5)
- (Series): Huff (Season 1 - Episode 10)
- (Series): Stranger Things (Season 5 - Episode 5)

- (Series): The Boys (Season 5)

- (Series): Bob's Burgers (Season 5 - Episode 6)

- (Series): Squid Game (Season 3)

- (Series): House of the Dragon (Season 3)

- (Series): Shrinking (Season 2 - Episode 7)

- (Series): Invincible (Season 4)

- (Anime): Log Horizon (Season 4)

- (Anime): Pyscho-Pass (Season 4?)
- (Anime): Kakegurui (Season 3?)
- (Anime): Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls (Episode 2)

- (Anime): Gintama (Episode 13)

- (Anime): Tokyo Revengers (Season 4)

- (Anime): Gurren Lagann (Episode 10)

- (Anime): Chihayafuru (Season 4?)

- (Anime): One Punch Man (Season 3?)

- (Anime): Junji Ito's Japanese Tales of the Macabre (Episode 5)

- (Anime): Demon Slayers (Season 4 - Movie 2)

- (Anime): Jujutsu Kaisen (Season 3)

- (Anime): Naruto: Shippuden (Season 1 - Episode 1)

- (Anime): Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Season 4?)

- (YouTube): StephenVlogs (Day 1061)

Reading:

- (Manga): One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volume ?? -- Chapter 1148) <-- I'm behind again
- (Manga): Berserk by Kentaro Miura (Volume 2)

- (Manga): Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi (Volume 10)

- (Novel): 86 by Asato Asato (Volume 2)

That's it for April. Here are some pics and screenshots I took this month plus a YouTube video.

An appetizer my former co-workers and I shared. I enjoyed the meat skewer and the squash fritters. Almost everything else had a bit of spice in it.

The chicken & waffle dish at Union Chicken. It was a lot of chicken but a little too spicy for me.

My boyfriend and I came across some promoters giving away these Reese's Nougat bars. They were really good!

This was the first time I got first place in A finals in any of the Champions Meetings for Umamusume. I couldn't be happier. XD

The uma that got me to A finals and to 1st place. She'll never be sent to the glue factory, lol.

"You Paid $6,000 for Coachella 2026... FOR THIS?!" by Social Symone. She posted more videos about various Coachella experiences and from watching them all, I have no interest in ever attending Coachella. :/

Thanks for reading!

As usual, if you have any questions / comments about anything, feel free.

Take care and until next time! :)