BLOG -- Recap of August

I am very sleepy and tired from walking / standing around almost all day in Fan Expo so I'll keep this recap short and sweet. 

August was pretty bad in the beginning, with me working a record of 61 hours one week... but it got better as the month went on and now I'm on vacation. Fingers crossed that I'm not going to end up working like crazy next month to make up for my taking vacation this month!

Outings/Events in August:

- Hung out with friends overall x1.

- An old co-worker friend visited work.

- Chatted with a good friend on the phone. That almost never happens anymore!

- Did an escape room with friends. We beat it, wooooot! To keep a record, we did The Syndicate.

- Am currently in the middle of attending Fan Expo Canada -- I'll blog about it when it's all done.

- Started my two week vacation. I really need this break.

- Said good-bye to two more co-workers *sniffle* ;_________;

- Went karaoking by myself x1.

- Stayed over at my sister's place x0.


- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn achievements / news: 
-I did the Moonfire Faire event. The 2nd challenge was pretty difficult!

- Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius achievements / news: 
-My rank is currently 163 (yay I can leave the game alone for 14 hours 15 mins)
-I've awakened Wilhelm, Ramza, and Orlandeau to 7-star units
-I finally got Dark Fina. I had been wanting to pull her for a while, 'cuz she can equip whips
-I'm still waiting for the Valkyrie Profile banner... and the Nier banner (please please please come!).

Exposures:

- (YouTuber): StephenPlays -- I discovered this YouTuber for the first time months ago when I was trying to finish Chulip. But I didn't watch any more of his videos until this month, when I wanted to watch an entire Let's Play of Chulip. Now I watch his videos about a few times a week. I particularly enjoy watching his Stephen & Friends videos and First 20 (for some games).

Finished...

Watching:

- (Movie): Ant-Man and The Wasp -- This was nice. I liked that it retained the same kind of humour that was in the first movie.

- (Movie): The Greatest Showman -- The music is great. Hugh Jackman is great. Just keep in mind that the movie version of PT Barnum is VERY different from the real life version.

- (Anime): 12 sai Chicchana Mune no Tokimeki -- After mentioning this in my last blog, I searched it out again and found English subtitled videos. The series is soooooooo cute! I'll bet Hiyama is some kind of reincarnation of Akito Hayama from Kodocha! Hahaha.

- (Anime): 12 sai Chicchana Mune no Tokimeki 2nd Season -- Just more of the cuteness from the first season! I was sad when the series was over. 

Playing:

- (PSP): Ys: The Oath in Felghana -- This was shortish, but was very fun.

Reading:

- (Novel): The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by Mark Hadon -- This was really interesting. I could relate to some of the things in the novel. 

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS4): Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below
- (PS4): iDOLM@STER: Platinum Stars
- (PS4): Fez
- (PS4): Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
- (PS4): Nights of Azure
- (PS3): Borderlands 2
- (PS2): Drakengard
- (Xbox 360): Magna Carta II
- (3DS): Story of Seasons
- (3DS): Culdcept Revolt
- (3DS): Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition   
- (PSP): Persona
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): King's Bounty: The Legend
- (PC): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry)
- (Mobile): Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius

Watching:

- (TV Show): The Walking Dead (Season 7)
- (TV Show): Orphan Black (Season 3)
- (TV Show): Criminal Minds (Season 11)
- (TV Show): Six Feet Under (Season 1 - Episode 3)
- (TV Show): X-Files (Season 11)
- (TV Show): The Strain (Season 2)
- (Anime): Log Horizon (episode 3)
- (Anime): Attack on Titan: Season 2 (episode 8)

Reading:

- (Comic): Bodie Troll by Jay Fosgitt


That's it for August. Here are a couple pics I took this month, plus a YouTube video.

Oh, what could this be?!
If you didn't know, Skechers is currently featuring a 
collaboration sneaker between One Piece and D'Lites.

And this is the collaboration sneaker that I bought! Sanji sneakers! xD

A Stephen & Friends YouTube video.
In this video, Stephen and his friends play "Broken Picturephone",
a web game developed by one of Stephen's friends that's similar to 
Telestrations or Broken Telephone.
It's quite fun! :3

Thanks for reading!

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

Have a good weekend and until the Fan Expo blog! :3

BLOG -- My trip to Japan V.3 -- EXTRA -- My down time in the hotel

So... I'm not sure how interesting this entry will be, but I kinda wanted to document it for myself, and talk about some of the interesting things I experienced while in my hotel room. I mean, I wasn't just experiencing Japan whenever I was outdoors -- I was experiencing some of it as well indoors. As a general rule for myself, whenever I was in my hotel room, even if I was doing other things, I kept the TV on as often as possible. Even for those days I woke up at 4 AM, if I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, I turned on the TV. I didn't have access to a ton of channels, but it was enough.

This entry will cover some of the shows / things I watched / caught while in the hotel.

From the window of my hotel room. I think the sun was just starting to rise.

Infomercials

This was something I enjoyed watching if they were advertising interesting products. The first time I tuned in, they were selling a super sharp knife that could cut through an avocado pit. The assistant's impressed reaction was great. 

The next time I tuned in, they were selling a steam iron set and claimed it could iron your clothes quickly without damaging them. They even held up a blown balloon and whacked it against the iron's surface to demonstrate the iron's safety (the balloon didn't pop). I would kinda like a steam iron myself after watching this, hahaha.

Whenever the infomercial sold clothes or jewelry, though, I switched channels.

The steam iron set they were selling. Steam Q.

Music Station

In all my visits to Japan, I never tuned into Music Station, although I really should have. As mentioned in an earlier Japan blog, Music Station is a show that invites various artists to speak a little and then do a performance.

When this show started, I was still switching between channels to see what else was on. I missed the first performance, but was lucky to catch the rest. Below are a couple that I enjoyed.

Sakurako Ohara x Takeru's performance for "Nakitai Kurai".

The volume is really low so turn up to listen. 

It was this performance that drove me to buy the CD single. 

It was just sweet overall, and that guy can really move, hahaha. :3

A medley from Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra featuring Nargo.

Again, the volume is really low so turn up to listen.

I like some of the sounds here.

-Something- Bookarisuto Cup

(Karaoke battle competition)

I tuned into this partway. I really wished I watched it from the beginning. Pretty much a person sings and gets graded for each line they sing, based on if they used enough / right inflection, hit the right notes, etc. And then at the end of the song, they would receive a grade out of 100%. From when I started watching, they were down to the last three finalists.

It was a very interesting watch. Supposedly one of three finalists hit a 100% score in an earlier song, so she probably had lots of pressure to do well. Fortunately for her, she won in the end!

The winning song. She performed Sarah Brightman's "Stand Alone".

Again, please turn up the volume.

I think she sings really nicely.

The final scores.

The Goldbergs in Japanese dubbing

I was surprised to find episodes of The Goldbergs playing... in Japanese dubbing. BUT -- it was a good kind of surprised! In some ways, it doesn't surprise me that The Goldbergs made their way into Japanese TV. The show has a lot of wholesome themes, and the core always comes back to family (at least from what I've watched). 

What did surprise me was the quality of the Japanese dubbing. They didn't dub it based on their own interpretation of what the characters would sound like -- they dubbed it to be close to the original actors' voices. And they did a fantastic job! I recorded some clips, but I messed up and the volume came out really soft... even much softer than the videos I already uploaded. :( Maybe if it's still on the next time I visit Japan I'll try again.

Various anime series

So I was quite lucky to catch some anime series. Maybe I just didn't have the right channels, but anime does NOT play every hour of every day, despite all the new anime series that come out every year. From my experience, I would often catch anime playing starting from around 8-9 PM on weekdays and only on about few channels. On weekends I caught some anime playing in the morning, but series that were targeted more for kids. A few of the shows I caught during my channel surfings (that I could remember) were Hyaku Houshin Engi (I had no idea that they re-booted this series), Cardfight!! Vanguard, the opening credits to Steins;Gate 0 (It was around 1:30 AM when I saw those opening credits and thought 'I need to sleep!' Also, I still haven't played Stein;Gate 0 so I have to do that first!)

Just as a record for myself, the last time I visited Japan by myself, I caught an episode of 12-Sai: Chicca na Mune no Tokimeki. I thought the main character looked so much like Sana from Kodocha. This series is on my radar, lol. Hopefully I can watch it one day.

Arashi ni shiyagare

This is a variety show starring Arashi members and other celebrity guests. I'm not a huge Arashi fan, but I do like some of their songs, especially "Truth" (their outfits look so hot, lol).

It was kinda interesting. I had fun watching one of the Arashi members trying to beat another guest at a snowboarding arcade game.

One of the Arashi members making a face. 

A segment where various celebrities came out dressed like somebody else.

This one is dressed as Jackie Chan.

This one is dressed as Toshi from X-Japan.

Miscellaneous

Below are pics I took from various shows / news segments and other things.

A game show. This person was tasked with figuring out the 

monetary value of all the coins in 10 seconds.

A show where the hosts were going around Tokyo, looking for good curry.

I should try doing that next time!

Another place selling curry buns. Wahh, I want some!

A news segment reporting on crows flying about 

Shibuya station and stealing Suica cards.

Watch out for them!

The REAL Toshi from X-Japan singing "Forever Love" while playing on a keyboard. 

It was very lovely!

I recorded this just for Persona. I did not realize till later that it was 

a commercial for Puzzles & Dragons, lol.

Just like with other videos, this volume needs to be turned up.

And that is it for my Japan blogs for this year!

If you have read from the beginning all the way to the end, thank you soooooo much T___T *huuuugs* It was really hard for me to start blogging about Japan because every time I thought about it, I just wanted to be back there -- back on my vacation, back when I didn't have to worry much about my spending, back in the whole experience. So... thank you for all your patience!

Next time I go back, I'm really hoping to what I've been wanting since my first trip: to catch the cherry blossoms falling!

Now to rest up and ready myself for the walking / waiting / Cosplay fest that is Fan Expo.

Have a wonderful week and thanks again for reading!!

BLOG -- My trip to Japan V.3 -- RANDOM THOUGHTS + SWAG / PURCHASES

So in this blog, I'll be listing any miscellaneous thoughts or observations I had while in Japan. Then we'll go into my swag / purchases. That section will be sorta photo-heavy. If you want to jump straight to that section, do a search for "swag/purchases" (make sure there are no spaces between the "/"), though you probably won't need to since there aren't too many new thoughts / observations this time. I think this makes sense as I get more accustomed to Japan every time I visit.

I should note that some items I bought aren't shown here, since they were gifts. Annnd some items that are shown I don't have anymore, since they were given away as gifts, and I'm too lazy to do re-takes. I'll mention in the captions what I don't have anymore, lol.

If you wanna read my previous entries to see what thoughts / observations I had before, here they are:

2016 entry
2014 entry

MY MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS OR OBSERVATIONS

- Almost no questioning to what you are buying. If cashiers actually judge what you purchase, they must have great poker faces. From my experience, all transactions were treated professionally and efficiently -- no reactions of any sort. Granted, I didn't buy anything really worthy of a cringe or sneer or something, but -- it kinda surprised me, especially for times when I purchased a ton of stuff. The only time I got a reaction was when I was buying double of something -- it was usually to confirm that I did want to buy two of that thing, which I can appreciate.

- Wi-Fi works in the subways! To me, this was an amazing discovery. This allowed me to play FFBE while commuting or check Google maps or whatever else. It also allowed me, my sister, and her hubby to stay in contact while underground. We created a BBM group to send messages. My commuting experience has now been spoiled, hahaha.

MY SWAG/PURCHASES

Skirt from WEGO. I still like my pleated skirts, hahaha.

Things that I bought from Daiso (100 yen shop). A jar / bottle cap opener, 
a pack of pens, hairbands, a towel handkerchief, a black tie. 
I don't have the tie anymore.

More things from Daiso. Blank word cards (for whenever I start learning Kanji), washi memo pads, shikishi (autograph) boards.

The things I really needed to buy from Daiso: cheap, cheap earbuds, hahaha.
For its value, it lasts for a pretty long time!

Things I got from Namco Namjatown. Funwari (like chiffon) cakes, 
admission ticket, free stickers that came with the admission, washi tape, memo pad.

The funwari cakes. When I actually opened it, I read that one of the flavours 
was cheese. I gave all those to my sister, hahaha.

Takoyaki handkerchief. I got this from a small gift shop at the takoyaki museum.

I was so tempted to get more stuff from there...

there were so many tako (octopus) plushies, hahaha.

Stuff from the Ghibli museum gift shop. A clear folder featuring parts 

from the "Delicious! Animating Memorable Meals" exhibition, 

a blank greeting card with a pretty stained glass design.

More things from the Ghibli museum gift shop. Boro the caterpillar plushie, 
white bunny plushie from Totoro, soot plushie from Totoro, a tin of cookies.
I initially thought of buying those cookies as a gift, 
but that tin... that's a quality-looking tin!
I don't have the soot plushie anymore.

Inside the cookie tin. There were various flavours. From what I would read: sesame, chocolate, maple. My favourite was the sesame -- sooo delicious!! <3

Things I bought from the Capcom cafe gift shop. 
Two clear Monster Hunter-themed folders and one Okami-themed clear folder. 
One of the clear Monster Hunter folders was for my sister.

More things from the Capcom cafe gift shop. Pens featuring Okami, Mega Man, 
Monster Hunter; a hand towel featuring Resident Evil, a placemat for purchasing 
a certain value (I chose the Resident Evil one), a mini tote bag.
I don't have the hand towel nor the mini tote.

The Phoenix Wright stuff I got from the Capcom Cafe!! Kyaaa~~~ lol. 
Edgeworth-smelling perfume, Phoenix Wright-smelling perfume, 
bookmark / rulers, random character boards.
One of the bookmarks / rulers was given away.

A closer shot of the perfumes.
I can't wait to smell like Edgeworth some day! Hahaha xD

Some slime cookies and FFXIV job pins from Artnia.
I don't have the metallic slime cookies anymore.

Stuff I got from the Conan pop-up shop at The Loft. Two random character boards, 
a sleek-looking thermos, an accordion-style notebook 
(I thought it was a regular notebook until I opened it, hahaha), 
bookmarks, some gifts I got for purchasing a certain amount.
I really need to continue reading / watching this series...

Another thing I got from the Conan pop-up shop and a couple things I got from The Loft.
Conan-themed towel, a random Kirby figure, a mini 3D puzzle of a beef mug.
I gave the 3D puzzle away.

A couple things I got from Nakano Broadway. The shop sold a lot of 
fan-made goods (so many SMT goods! But so pricey ;___;) and some official collectibles. 
I got a Pixie keychain (from the SMT series), a character board of Shinichi and Ran.

Persona 5 original soundtrack and Sakurako Ohara's Nakitai Kurai CD single 
from Tower Records. Getting that CD single was like a mini-mission for me, hahaha.

Persona Super Live 2015 (music concert) Blu-ray, Ace and Sanji keychains, 
Kurama keychain (kyaaaa!!~~~ <3), Yu Yu Hakusho-themed pen, washi tape, 
and Conan washi tape. One day I'll blog about my anime guy crushes, hahaha.

All the things I bought from Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo. A tin of chocolate cookies, 
keychains of Mimikyu and Pikachu, two pens, Pikachu stickers, Ditto gacha, 
and a clear postcard they were giving away for free.
I gave the Pikachu stickers away.

I got this mainly for the tin, but the cookies were actually very good! 
If you visit a Pokemon Center and want a lightly crunchy chocolatey cookie, get this!!

I got this Vivi figure from one of those "shady" shops in Nakano Broadway. This figure is supposed to be a crane game prize, but I bought it outright from that shop.

I also bought this Boa Hancock figure from a "shady" shop, but in Akihabara.

I just think this outfit is really nice... and it's Boa Hancock! 

She must be so happy in this dress, hahaha. Watch out, Luffy!

Stuff from the One Piece gift shop at One Piece Tokyo Tower. I bought a lot of stuff! 
As you will soon see. Here are Ace mango gummies, Luffy grape gummies, 
Ace and Luffy cloths, a 2018 calendar. I know 2018 is already more than 
half gone... so I'll just use this another year when the dates line up to 2018, hahaha.
I don't have one of the Luffy gummies.
Ace's gummy, while good, has a slight kick!

An expensive Ace pen (I spent 2500 yen just on that pen...!), a tin of 
chocolatey crunchy snacks, another tin of snacks, a random figure, 
a 3D puzzle of the Gomu Gomu devil fruit.

Inside one of the tins. These were okay. I was surprised by 
how soft the nutty, crunchy-looking one was.

More stuffs, lol. Stickers I got from playing Franky's attraction at 
One Piece Tokyo Tower, a mini guide that came with purchasing admission to 
Live Attraction 3, pics of Nami, Sanji, Usopp. I got them from filling out their 
respective "shopping card". I explained this in my last blog, but here it is again:

At the store, they have a shopping card system where every 500 yen spent gets you a stamp on a character card. When you get 10 stamps (i.e. have spent 5000 yen), you get a pic of the character. The first character to fill out is always Luffy, and it goes in a specific order. When I went last time, there were only 10 character cards available, but since then there are more. I was a little afraid that this card system would have discontinued by now, so I'm glad that it's still going. I'm currently on the seventh character card, which is Robin's.

An Easter-themed cushion of Sanji (Zoro is on the other side), more random figures, 
a medal of Sanji, a chain for the medal, customized Ace stickers, a pic of Chopper. 
The medal and stickers you can buy from vending machines inside the shop.

A close-up shot of the Sanji medal.

For an extra 100 yen, I was able to get the medals engraved. 
The message was... "Still yours". Hahaha. ^-^'

An umbrella that I will probably never use. The designs are really nice.
I had to re-jig my packing to fit this in my luggage.

Law figure that I got from a limited-time game at One Piece Tokyo Tower. In the game there were a bunch of strings, and the ends of those strings led to various prize tiers. You could only pull one string. The Law figure was... A tier, I think? There were other figures among the A tier, but what you received would be random. The Sanji sticker card was B tier and my sister gave that to me. The Luffy card came with my order at Mugiwara cafe for ordering Luffy's burger. And then a pic of me, my sister, and her hubby and our score from doing Robin's attraction. If we pay 1000 yen, we could get a photo like this. We had the highest score that day. Can you guess who I am? **Please don't say the far left! Hahaha**

Souvenirs I bought from Haneda airport on our way back. Hello Kitty-themed Tokyo Banana, and melon-flavoured Kit Kats.

 The inside of the Hello Kitty-themed Tokyo Banana.
It tasted very apple and was so soft.

Cost of Swag / Purchases (in Yen) (NOT counting what I gave to friends)
WEGO (Skirt): 1990
Daiso: 1016
Namja Namjatown: 1224
Takoyaki handkerchief: 500
Ghibli Museum gift shop: 4700
Capcom Cafe gift shop: 18090 (Those perfumes really burned a whole in my wallet, hahaha)
Artnia gift shop: 2600
The Loft: 1400
Conan Pop-up shop: 6900
Nakano broadway shops: 2957
Tower Records: 5500
Animate: 9300
Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo: 4008
Akihabara "shady" shop (Boa Hancock figure): 1177 (It would definitely cost me more if I tried via crane game)
One Piece gift shop (at Tokyo Tower): 20600 (I definitely splurged a lot here, hahaha)
Airport gift shop: 2600
7-11 (PSN cards): 5000 (I have no pic of this because it looks like a regular PSN card)


Grand Total (excluding gifts for friends): 89562 yen

I mailed away some items and had my sister declare some of them to reduce my declaration value (thank goodness!!). Next time, though, I would like to stay within my limit. Shipping away items is getting more costly.

Thank you so much for reading!! If I can, there might be one more Japan blog and then I'll be entrenched in Fan Expo, which is happening this week. Oh my goodness -- I'll be so busy, hahaha... >__>!!

Until next time and take care! :)