Mango Clouds and Pancake Lines

Sup ya'll?

The school year is just a little over a month again and it's just starting to kick in that I'm actually somehow doing this ALT thing again for another year. And when the weight of reality hits me like this (as it did at the beginning of every term last year) I start getting the dark thoughts and weirdo retroversion to 15 year old angst. So maybe writing about the positive things in my life will help me?

Today I had a good day!

It was a rare "work day" for me, which oddly (in my company's lingo) means I have no work scheduled for the day haha. And even rarer, it was a work day for my friend, so we met up at the Laforet in Harajuku and hit up Urahara for a while.

There's always a bunch of cool looking guys leaning against the railing in front of Laforet. I watch them and think any second some cute girl is gonna come trouncing along and they'll run off to lovingly shove crepes into their orifices but it's only ever guys meeting guys. what ru doin japan.

We went to a well-concealed Taiwanese shaved ice place called MangoChaCha!

Memories of the ice cream shop I worked in for 3 days in high school come flooding back.

Points for prettiness, and it did have the weird sensation of eating a rain cloud. You know, all soft and fluffy yet dense with moisture?

I am terrifying.

Afterwards we went on a shopping tour of lots of cute tiny little shops selling pop clothing along the streets. This shop (Romantic Standard) was super cute. I might go back after payday and buy a t-shirt with a picture of Jesus and Mary in space on it.

Another bizarre thing you see in Harajuku all the time. ↗︎ Me taking photos of myself no, Random lines of people waiting for pancakes. I swear every time you come across a random line of people waiting on some back alley, there is a pancake shop nearby. Again what ru doin japan.

Went back to the Deal Design here for the first time in a million years. This place holds the best memory to me of when I was at Waseda and a friend and I went in here and I bought a chain and pendant ON A WHIM. We looked at it and priced it and told the guy I'd think about it and went away and spent the next hour in McDonalds talking about how he definitely knew I wasn't going to come back and buy it and that's why I had to prove him WRONG by going back and buying it. So I did. And then we all chatted about the GazettE for a while and it was awesome. Thinking about that still makes me grin. :)

I terrifyingly might go back and purchase a pendant here for 15000 when I get paid, too, depending on the outcome of PIERROT tickets. Despite needing to pay for the bills I haven't paid in a month. Despite needing to buy a damn table. Despite wanting to move so bad it hurts and needing to save for the fee. Despite basically everything. 

Ugh money. Another matter for another day. It's ticket investigation time.

Cheers!

Rainy and Going Home

It's so bleak out this week After getting caught in a sudden downpour in Shibuya the other day after going to see that gallery exhibition Ruki mentioned on twitter, I haven't been so keen to go out. I don't know why I just hate carrying an umbrella such that I'd rather stay home.

「WORLD OF INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM 1」

The exhibit was really modest but quite nice I thought. Yoda Koji (依田耕治) has done a lot of album covers and art for various bands (Dir en grey, the GazettE, Angelo, more), but his pieces are really interesting on their own. Especially if you bought the TOXIC album and are familiar with the illustrations inside the book, you'll recognize his style. Lots of cut-outs and layering, geometric designs, heavy religious imagery. He had two pieces, ILLEGAL FAMILY and WITHER which I especially liked. If you're in the Tokyo area, I recommend having a look for yourself. YUBISUI's work is much more graphic, like his Six Guns art for the GazettE, but cute and colorful. I didn't realize just how wide-spread his work is, honestly.

Died my hair btw.

I'm going home for a few weeks on Saturday, to the US. While I'm there I will listen to all my old mix CDs from high school and look at my old sketchbooks and think about how things were, as we do when we get older. Hopefully when I come back, I will feel some life has returned to me.

This morning after fighting with my mother again on skype an old friend from high school messaged me and we just talked about nothing for an hour or so. Literally, I think it was mostly just making puns at each other, no real communication, but I felt so happy then. I often feel like I am talking to walls, but I guess everyone feels like that.

And on that bleak note.

Good morning

Yet again it's been long time no write. I keep coming across things to say and pictures to post, but they just add up so quickly that unless I post them quickly I feel overwhelmed. I'm also an incredible slow poke and sometimes making one of these entries takes me like an hour, haha.

But all that aside-- I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Actually I just celebrated Christmas on Wednesday with my mum on account of my coming home late for the holidays. This two weeks in America is really kind of turning out to be how I thought it would, too, if we're being honest here. I have eaten a ton of delicious, fattening food, drawn a crack ton of sketches, and watched a metric fuck ton of Downton Abbey. Classy, right?

Most of this in pajama pants and a T-shirt, save for a getting gussied up a few times to step out.

Can't see too well, but I love this red and off white striped cami-sheath (one way). It's super circusy with the mustache necklace (unknown, gift from a friend). New blazer was super discounted, too (Express).

Cute retro pumps I bought in a boutique in downtown Rome ages ago (Danita K, an unknown).

It's been nice chilling out and waking up at 6 am everyday, seeing old friends and family, but boredom is creeping in and I think I'm ready to return to the real world soon.

Today I watched the entire inaugural day of President Obama up until the parade when I really just needed to get up and do something for a while. The speech was really great, and I love that he wasn't afraid to mention some real issues he's ready to delve into in these months ahead instead of all of the usual metaphorical nonsense wrapped up in diverting patriotism. I'm relieved global warming might finally be ready to receive some coverage as a serious issue and not some kind of superstitious subplot. 

So yes. Here's to 2013. 

Maybe this year I'll finally become Barbie, like I always wanted to.

I'm workin' on it.

Halloween!

Firstly, I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! ミ☆

I was gonna update about the Predators and more of the GazettE shows today, but alas, I wanted to get to Halloween before that gets stale. I need to work on posting this stuff faster, because my memory sucks and I forget details, and then I have nothing real to look back at. DX

But anyway, it seemed like most of the big parties were the weekend before the 31st here in Osaka, but I'm not sure, since there were a lot of people milling about when the clubs let out about 1am (stupid Japanese footloose law, here you go). However, we decided to do our all-night celebration on the 31st (a Wednesday) because of whatever reason I don't remember.

The night was not extremely eventful, as we got a late start, and all kinds of things happened, but it was nice to go out for a whole night with people and wear a fun costume. People were super friendly out that night too, and the nanpa was a-happenin', haha (put your shirt on, girl!). We took pictures with people we didn't know, we drank a lot of weak gin, and some guys wrapped in toilet paper through life-saver candies at us from an open van. ♥

Anyway, some pictures from our party...

My costume wasn't really a costume, but I wore lots of pink make up with my super pink wig from Body Line (super cheap, only 999yen). The horns are tiny clip-ins from Kreepsville666 that are adorable but super easy to break. I wore a black dress with them. Some devil wings would have been cute, but I'm too cheap and lazy.

With Jiroko at the first izakaya, whenever she took her jacket off she was flanked by mens. XD

We only went into this izakaya because the street guy was so adamant and dogeza'd us on the street, he was super cute and fawned on our table like twice before he disappeared forever. The older guy working there was super funny Osaka guy, too. Everyone's a comedian, eh. XD

K and Kate. K and I were kinda like good-angel/bad-angel esque with our wigs. Kate was a scary lolita doll. Scary! ♥

The first of many drinks that ended in not even a real buzz for me. We went to another izakaya later, and it was the same weak stuff there too. Ah well.

Maybe the best part was all the random people wandering around taking pictures with random people, like this sexy police officer lady here. So many police officers this year, the entire time my mind was just going...

But of all, I think the officer of the year award goes to...

JUST SAYIN'.

The crazy amount of people waiting for purikura. We usually like to go twice at lease, but here it was just too crowded. While we were waiting some guy asked me if I was wearing a wig...

All in all it wasn't super exciting, but there were lots of interesting happenings, and it was fun to roam around with everyone dressed crazily. I could do it again, maybe with an earlier start next time, though. 

And Happy Election Day to my fellow Americans! I was too late to register for this year's vote, but I had a beer as I wrote this post to celebrate the good news. ♥

GROAN OF DIPLOSOMIA 01 @ Yokosuka

Today I thought I would talk about the Yokosuka show, or the start of the GROAN OF DIPLOSOMIA 01 tour. And try not to sound like Reita after spending so much time with his column yesterday. DX

So I am stupid and decided to shink up for the show on the morning of, which turned out great, only I had crazy anxiety dreams about hanging out with people and being late to catch my train and missing the show. In reality I got there about a perfect hour before doors open and was one of the first people in the doors (after spending thirty minutes having a minor freak out about the weird people I saw stealing presents from Ruki's box-- I only wish I were joking about that).

I also saw Rebecca there, who I don't think I have seen since the first Yokohama Blitz show of HETERODOXY in July? It's so nice to run into people you know when you go to lives alone, especially when you're traveling so far. :D

The tickets for this tour have such a nice design!

So I shoved some stuff in my purse, grabbed my tickets and was off-- I was coming back by night bus, so no luggage! It was super nice to travel so light, but of course I gave in and bought goods (instead of waiting for the Osaka shows, like I intended to) so I ended up hauling a little more back.

Heading out!

I know a lot of girls get dressed up or look nice for lives, which is great and I wish I could do that, but dressing for lives to me is dressing for comfort and function rather than appearance. Tour shirt and some comfy pants or tights and shorts is the way to go usually. Maybe if I weren't going there half for the purpose of thrashing around like a wild animal. But I really can see beauty to going there looking like a hottie and coming out like a some sort of withered plant. It's the Filth in the beauty, eh? Eh??! 8D

Anyway, Yokosuka was a nice place, partially because it was pretty and good weather and there's the ocean, but mostly because THEY HAVE FUCKING SUBMARINES, YES THEY DO. It's always been a dream of mine to see a real honest-to-god submarine. And if they had offered me a look around inside I actually might have skipped the live. XD

COMPACT PLACES.

Some snaps from the live from le instagram.

The hall was really nice, a very classy performing arts center. The problem was the balcony seating on the sides was lame as fuuuu-. I got my ticket through HERESY but somehow ended up with 3rd floor standing, which was a shock to me (and the other girls in my section, actually: "へっ、ファンクラブ入ってるのに立見?!" ). I mean, I'm used to getting some awful ticket numbers for the GazettE, but that was just kind of like a smack in the face, really.

But anyway, I went in on the left side and stood with some awesome Aoi fan girls and some middle schoolers who seemed like they were playing MASH or something on a clip board during the live. They would giggle and mark things and circle things and then stand up and do the furi very boredly for a song or two.  That was all fine, but the problem was that all the people on my side were there for Aoi and we had absolutely no view of him the entire live (well until he came over to stand on Uruha's side for a few seconds during the encore). And really we only saw Reita during Ride with the rockers. Ruki was even only visible to me on occasional glimpses through some people's arms. So we all played stare down with Uruha and part of Kai for about two songs before we gave up and just furi'd and kind of smiled at one another.

This is where problem number two came in. None of us knew each other and no one was used to the transition and the style of the new DIVISION songs yet. So we weren't really sure what to do. Usually, when I'm at a GazettE live I see during pretty much every song but the slow intermission, people are doing something, but Yokosuka was a lot of stillness. It seemed for a lot of the live people would try to do some furi or move, but the music would change up and we would all just end up standing there like ghosts. I know I looked around and worried when I saw some people sitting down around the hall, and I got REAL worried.

I guess that's the thing with so much new music at once, though. It was the tour start, so I expected it to be more of a crazy blow out, but it was kind of like watching some slightly psychotic baby deer trying to stand for the first time.

I love the GazettE almost unconditionally at this point, if we're being honest, but I can admit when a live wasn't amazing, and Yokosuka wasn't amazing for me. I think it was just too much new at once and bad seating and the strange new jazzy sound they added into the setting that just threw me. But it was just the beginning, so I knew it had to get better, and it definitely did when I saw them in Osaka.

The live wasn't bad, though, just uncomfortable? The atmosphere was a little weird. I mean, if anything, the new songs sounded really polished and the visual display (the part I could see) was really nice. Of course this is all just my personal impression, and I'm no one but some lone fan girl laying in bed with a laptop on a Wednesday afternoon, so feel free to discard me.

It really kicked up a notch in the encore, though, when they pulled out the songs we all knew and loved. Though, it was super surprising when they came out with TOMORROW NEVER DIES as the first encore song (after a really short, super jazzed up Ride with the rockers), it kind of cheered me up I think. The also performed SILLY GOD DISCO, which we all freaked out over. Megaphone and everything. At some point in this song Uruha approached Ruki behind his box and there seemed to be something fanservice-y happening there, but one of the girls down front made a huge fuss and completely blocked it out of my line of sight.

The bus! Crazy colors in the night as I walked back to the station to wait in a McDonalds in Yokohama for a few hours for my nightbus. There were a bunch of girls here watching a sassy-looking blond guy shove a huge box into a van. His job looks difficult.

Here's le setlist: よこすか芸術劇所 the GazettE (2012.10.08)

[Diplosomia]

[XI]

DERANGEMENT

GABRIEL ON THE GALLOWS

VENOMOUS SPIDER’S WEB

VORTEX

CLEVER MONKEY

THE SUICIDE CIRCUS

DRIPPING INSANITY

余韻

影踏み

籠の蛹

[Depth]

歪

ヘドロ

VERMIN

SLUDGY CULT

HEADACHE MAN

ATTITUDE

REQUIRED MALFUNCTION

[Melt]

[EN]

Ride with the rockers

TOMORROW NEVER DIES

SILLY GOD DISCO

SWALLOWTAIL ON THE DEATH VALLEY

COCKROACH

LINDA ～Candydive Pinky Heaven～

[WEN]

関東土下座組合

Goods I picked up at the first live.

I grabbed the pamphlet for sure this time because it's divided into member booklets this time. Aoi's has some super laughable photoshop and Uruha's interview makes me criiiiiiiiinge. Also picked up the pink version of the cellphone case, the iphone accessory pierces and button sticker, the big t-shirt that saya WACK and a bag to carry it all in.

Whoever put rivets in the material of that bag should be scolded though. Two of my strap holes broke the second time I used it and there wasn't even anything heavy in it. DDX

And now I've said too much and remembered why I don't usually do live reviews, haha!

I apologize if it seems this blog has gone in a weird direction. But it's not a live blog! I do plan to post about boring things again! :D

Oh yea, and I translated Reita's SWEET HOME from Garish Room 16 at my livejournal if anyone's interested on Reita's thoughts on the band over the past 10 years (or at least until 2007).

Living In IKEA

So today is le magical DAY OFF for me, and I'm using it as a Cave Troll Day, as Katie calls it. By this I mean, I'm sitting on my floor all day and enjoying myself until I go to meet a friend for dinner later. 

From when I moved to Osaka last November well into this year (maybe a month or two ago?) I had this weird feeling of wanting to be around people all the time. I actually hated going home at night. I think I had only really spent two or three days by myself in total by the time I moved to Umeda. But that mysteriously disappeared some time ago, and though I think it may be part of me calming down, part of me thinks it's just because I'm emo. :D

Anyway, I've been meaning to post this for about 700 years, so today I want to post IKEA pictures! For a while about two months ago (oh wow I suck) everyone on blogspot was flocking to IKEA for some reason, and I really, really wanted to go. So Jiroko and I went! ...and sorta just moved in.

We caught the bus from Namba and had a jaunty ride. When we arrived of course, we started with food, which is always the way.

Delicious Swedish meatballs that look not one bit appetizing on the plate. And so much bread. XD

Then there was some obligatory napping.

Jiroko looked a little tired still, so I made us some coffee.

She was grateful.

Then I got a call on ye ol' house phone that there might be a party.

So Jiroko put on some rice for everybody.

And I got out the booze... angrily?

But they no one ever came and we ended up watching TV instead.

Yay! And that is what it is like to live at IKEA. For normal people.

Now, if you're a Southern Belle, it can go a little differently...

The Southern Belle wakes up everyday like a Disney Princess, make-up fresh 

and hair perfect. And yes. In the South, a proper girl's room is always covered in roses. 

Every Southern Belle also has a proper vanity for powdering her nose. The South is a

very sultry place, after all.

"Oh my! A gentleman caller!"

And that was our magical day at IKEA. There's more, but I had to end it somewhere. Some omake..

Who-whose bed are you in?! 

Just can't get any privacy around here.

Nap time.

And that's all. :D

Oh yeah, and I really, really wanna watch the fuck out of this movie. :D