Tokyo Day 2: Fresh Fish, Japanese Fashion, Baby Boo and the Secrets of Japanese Women

Konbanwa! watashitachi wa tsukaremashita yo :P  はい、とても疲れましたよ！！

today was a very long, but good day. christine and i woke up at 6am to get ready and go to Tsukiji Fish Market,  the largest wholesale fish market in the world.  Although we really didn't leave until like an hour later, because we're slow like that XD  the day started off with us getting onto the wrong subway line on the wrong platform because japanese subways are confusing =/ but we made it somehow.

the fish market was...very fishy lol and extremely busy. trucks and carts were moving in and out of the market, pulling boxes of fresh seafood and fruit :) definitely glad we wore tennis shoes, both to dodge between traffic and avoid stepping in fishy water puddles.  It was kind of crazy to see all the seafood--fish, crabs, shrimp, clams, sea urchins, puffer fish and eels-- still writhing around in their bins.  (Honestly, only the eels were writhing.  The others sort of had a glazed-over, dead seafood look.  Well, because they were pretty dead and ready for sushi-making ;; )  

we missed the tuna auction because we couldn't wake up early enough lol but still managed to see a man lug around a box full of giant fish heads :P  It was super exciting, really.  To make it more commemorative, we got splashed by a flopping green fish, and as I watched, the man holding it unceremoniously tossed it onto the cutting board, raised his sharpened cleaver, and-- (then I turned away in horror).  You should have seen those fish chunks though!  They were like... beef!  Also a note, apparently they use liquid nitrogen or some equivalent to keep things cool, because some of the ice was smoking.

Mm, raw eel, fresh from the bucket.  Still squirming, even.  It kind of reminded me of grass jelly... which sort of makes me rethink drinking grass jelly XD

There was also a vegetable and fruit market in Tsukijishou, where we found miniature pineapples that are only useful for decorations.  We also saw a little stand with cute sweets, run by a nice old lady who even took a picture for us ^w^

after exploring, we found a small sushi shop in the market---wahhh the sushi is really fresh :) and i'm happy that christine was adventurous and tried raw fish lol  Yeah... and ginger.  I feel like I've given up part of my soul.  XP  I ate one piece of magoro (tuna) and one tamago (egg) nigiri sushi, and Tiffy had a roll of magoro sushi and a tako (octopus) nigiri sushi.  I wanted to take a picture of us inside, but the chef man looked not terribly happy about it XD;;... Because we were so confused in ordering and such, he started trying different languages on us -- well, a combination of Japanese, Chinese, and English, which greatly amused me, but Tiffy didn't understand the Mandarin, haha.  I was impressed with his knowledge though.   

This is the shop we visited, in case any of you want to go there when you're in Tokyo:

 

Other shops in the fish market that offer food.

we made our way to harajuku next--home of japan's avant garde lolita and gothic fashion.  we spent a total of  4 hours making our way through takeshita st, taking pictures of all the cool shops and gawking over the cute clothes :D only in japan can a grown woman wear a petticoated dress with a bonnet or dress in dark gothic clothes without being stared at and harajuku is where they buy and showcase all of it! kawaii :D although i do have a slight prejudice against frills, i can't help but want to wear some of those things around just for fun.  for sure, christine, you would look very cute in those clothes :) sweet lolita! haha  if only they weren't so expensive...the good thing about cosplaying? now i think i can sew anything :P

Tiffy was totally in love with this adorable Alice in Wonderland-style lolita dress:

There was also an awesome store/brand called Body Line that had almost all of their items on sale.  They had some gorgeous clothes for very cheap.  Tiffy fell in love with this one black and white wa-lolita outfit that would look really cute on her, and I really liked this pretty black lolita dress with a collar, ruffled neck, and lace waist corset over it.  We also saw some of these really cool outfits in a store called Richards (we don't remember the brand T____T) with a distinct flair for long and pointed pieces to their clothing -- pointed collars, pointed front flaps.  Any idea what brand this could be?
update: we revisited the shop...it's antebellum gothique :D i'm definitely going to make that outfit

By the way, at this one store there was this scary crazy lingerie lady.  In Japan, the shop employees will welcome you when you enter the store by saying "Irasshaimase~"  So we walk in, and then the lady says that, which is fine.  But then she starts saying some kind of advertisement or special or something, I have no idea... but the same phrase over and over.  Every 10 seconds.  Keep in mind that this is a very small store, about the size of a bedroom, and she wasn't even looking at us.  Nor was she looking at anyone else, because we were the only ones in the store.  It was really weird~~

tokyo tower was next.  it's very much like (in physical appearance) the eiffel tower in france, except that it's bright orange lol we planned on watching the sunset over tokyo...instead we watched as the sky got darker behind some gray clouds that were hiding the sun lol kind of a fail XD

however, we did get to a see a free concert in the tower by a japanese boy group (man band? lol) called Baby Boo lol awesome acapella singing and no cute guys--false alarm there christine.  it's definitely the fluffy hair that throws us off =/  Yeah I was so sad to discover how uncute he was, because he was so promising with a nice voice and a his fluffy hair and that quiet, reserved, serious kind of feel.  I totally thought he was going to be a pretty boy in those dark shadows and can't-really-see-him angle... disappointment.

BUT, the group, despite their weird name, are really good singers.  Check them out here.

One other funny thing -- Tiffy totally had an almost anime scene moment as we left the station for Tokyo Tower XD  The exit was up a flight of rather drafty stairs, which made her skirt billow out.  Just as we reach the top of the stairs, a group of school boys come walking but to go down the other side.  If she had been any bit unlucky, her skirt would have flown up just as they came by... but it didn't.  Rest assured, Tiffy was perfectly safe and covered the whole time XP thank goodnessssss lol

As we took the subway home, we made some interesting discoveries, as well as recounted some realizations we had throughout the day:

• Japanese women have the curious and amazing ability to wear a billion layers of fashionable clothing while maintaining a flawless, pale complexion -- and don't look either hot or sweaty.  Ever.  It's like they don't have sweat glands. i'm further convinced that they really don't. they're just flawless.
• Japanese women also have the curious and amazing ability to wear high heels.  All day.  Is this an Asian thing?  I mean, our feet were hurting halfway through the day, and we were wearing sneakers.
• Japanese working clothes are boring-looking.  I don't mean this in a bad way -- just that, well, most of the men are wearing suits (so actually, don't they get hot too??).  But unlike at home, they have this strict-seeming dress code of black pants and a white shirt.  Every shirt was white.  Every shirt.  Oh, there was the occasional excitement of white with STRIPES, but... no blues, pinks, yellows... whatever other weird color of dress shirt there is... red...  Even the Japanese women wore just khaki or black pencil skirts and white shirts.  Very interesting.
• Japanese people have this amazing ability to sleep on the subway while standing.  They don't even fall over.
• Japanese cell phones are all pretty uniform -- large, rectangular, boxy phones, usually flip.  And while we're on the topic of cell phones, on the subway, everyone is either playing with their phone, listening to music, reading, or sleeping.  There isn't a single laptop out, and I only saw one handheld console (white PSP, actually).  They read a lot.  They must be very literate.  And, there are hardly (by hardly, I mean we haven't seen even one) any children, other than the school kids.

well it's the end of the day. the boy count is still at zero and we made it back to the hostel in one piece, sustaining on the large amount of pastries and one roll of sushi that we ate at tsukiji.  we ended up getting bento boxes at a 24 hour fast food place, which were really good. but definitely tomorrow, we'll eat the correct amount of meals.

tomorrow's plans? akihibara, ueno park and Tokyo U :D  Otakus, be ready for us!  Just kidding.  But we probably will see some, as well as hopefully visit a maid cafe and a photobooth, and get some awesome anime stuff.  Please look forward to pictures!

Hi from Tokyo! :3

Hi everyone~  We have safely arrived in Tokyo and are sitting in our hostel pleasantly on the computer.  Actually, I'm very sleepy, because I didn't sleep on the plane XD;  But it's okay.

Actually, as i am writing this, christine has knocked out in the lobby :( gotta write quickly then

We share a room with 3 other girls.  One girl is from Toronto, Canada, and the other two are sisters who are originally from Mexico, but currently study in California.  They all seem pretty nice so far, and have been in Japan  for quite a while (compared to us, anyways).

Luckily, the subway ride here was uneventful, although we took quite some time trying to figure out which mode of transportation was best.  Unfortunately, the airport limousine bus didn't go quite to where we needed to go, but we did get to ride the subway without much traffic.  There were a lot of Japanese school boys.  One was kind of cute -- more like, had a serious face that was noticeable for me.  Eh heh ^ ^;  Anyways, there is definitely something about those uniforms...

I agree :) but christine and i were more worried about getting lost more than anything else. luckily, we got on the subway past rush hour and didn't have to squish too many people with our giant baggage =/

The only slight problem we had was trying to figure out which line to change to at Aoto.  We were looking around and didn't recognize the name of any of the trains.  One train was, meanwhile, happily sitting there for quite some time.  We didn't realize until right after it left that the names were of the final destinations, and we had just missed our train XD  But no problem, we caught the one a few minutes later.  One guy even asked us for directions, despite how lost we were, haha~  And here we are, happily in our hostel, clean and showered and visited 7-11 and everything.

Current cute guy count: 0.  Unless you count those little boys and the serious guy.  Which we don't, so I guess it's still zero.

it's still zero :P but tomorrow is tsukiji fish market, harajuku and tokyo tower! we've got time :D


anyways, oyasuminasai!

Meeting famous people, and awesome airplanes.

LA time: June 28, 2:22 pm.

After the lounge, we made our way over to our gate and I noticed a guy from Quest crew.  I was too shy to ask for a picture.

So I had to ask for her XD  He was super nice, and he let us take pictures with him :3  Tiffy was so nervous she was shaking when she was taking the picture for me.

I was really nervous for some reason, I'm such a loser. :p

Yes, she had a case of the sparkles :3  Now you know how I felt XD  We like his accent, too.  Australian?

I don't know, but it was nice.  Accents are always nice :D

As for the plane... man, first class is awesome.  We are in row 14, an aisle and window seat.  It's one of the ones that doesn't have a seat in front, so we've got like a yard of leg room XD  Wei -- so much for those 3 inches, we got like an extra 2 feet.

It's too bad that we're not tall enough for our legs to be that long.

Other things...

TVs that come out from our arm rests.  I think we have a bed function.  I think we also have a massage function, that's what it looks like.  I want to press all the buttons.

It was kind of funny, we were too excited when we got on -- you can definitely tell we haven't flown first class before XD  We got kind of scolded by the flight attendant since we were trying to take pictures as we got on.  We even have little flashlights on the side.  Tiffy is currently taking a bunch of pictures with her new camera, which has a front LCD for taking self-pictures.  And we just saw a flight attendant with this cute apron on... not even to Japan and we're already tourists XD

Even though we're on a plane to Japan, it feels kind of surreal because all these good things keep happening.  Once we land in the airport and realize that we don't know enough Japanese, it's not going to be quite as good.  And for Catherine -- we're sipping champagne (not quite a cocktail), but we are having free alcohol in small amounts.  But we don't need the alcohol to act giddy.

Yes, they offered orange juice and champagne to us.  The lady asked us and I guess it was the honor system about if we were over 21, but I think we act too much like kids to be taken seriously... haha.  There is a TV right in front of us.  They have headphones, and they even offered dark blue cardigans to wear during the flight.  AND they have plug outlets for our laptops.  This is pretty awesome ^w^

That's it for now.  From the airpot cabin, mata ne~

P.S. They just gave us little towels to wipe our hands on XD!


lol we are like little kids. i think i've pressed every button on my airplane la-z-boy chair and to my delight, it reclines fully into a bed. mango sorbet and a variety of other snacks and drinks are available on call (which we definitely took advantage of) and lunch and dinner were like 98172398 course meals...and yes, we (tried) to eat them all.


so full.  i see why people fly first class :P 

Hello from the First Class International Lounge :P

we are sitting here, sipping tea and eating sushi and milano cookies in the first class lounge

yep because we got bumped to business class woot! we woke up early so that we could beat LA traffic and the long lines at LAX, which ended up being unnecessary because after we were put in first class, we went through the nonexistent line and now have 2 hours to spare before our flight

the only missing is the cute guys ^^

yeah so far the count is zero 

we have seen asian guys so that at least is a plus XD

actually i take that back. there are two cute little boys speaking japanese and eating cereal in the lounge :D i like their yellow crocs

i agree :) 

a couple of minutes later....

i think i just saw a guy put soy sauce on his fruit because i couldn't see sushi on his plate

to be fair, i thought he was eating his grapes with chopsticks and drinking water out of a wine glass. it's not thaaat pretentious right? haha

LA to Tokyo: T minus 12 hours.

In 12 hours, we'll be on the plane to Tokyo.

In preparation for our adventures, Tiffy and I have been reading through her Japanese book.  Now we're listening to Japanese music.  Tomorrow on the plane, look for the two girls sitting there reading Japanese aloud from a Japanese textbook XD;

Cali Day 2 and 3: Huntington, Bonaventure and a Birthday Bash

Today... mostly relaxing day.  We left for Tiffy's uncle house mid-morning, and there watched the World Cup for a while until the U.S. lost against Ghana.  After Tiffy and I went with Tiffy's uncle to pick a cake and pick up photos for her grandmother's birthday party tomorrow, we headed for Huntington beach with most of Tiffy's relatives~

There, I experienced some nice cold Cali water, pretty Cali sand and beach, and almost drowned two or three times in some awesome Cali waves XD  Beautiful day and beautiful place, though ^ ^

After that, Tiffy's aunt cooked everyone some yummy spaghetti. We all got ready, dressed up nice and stuff with makeup.  Catherine does very extravagant makeup, and she put on fake eyelashes for me ^ ^  They actually stayed on, and I look more Japanese with them.  I just need eyelid tape and circle lenses to get that Japanese doll look now XD  I should dress up as a doll for an anime convention.

she would make a very cute one :D

When we were ready, we headed off for the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.  Rather, we headed for the top of the hotel, which had a revolving cocktail lounge with a lovely view of the city at night.  It reminded me a bit of Reunion Tower, or what it should look like since it's been closed since a couple years ago.  One interesting thing was that only the floor moved, so the light fixtures above seemed to be moving back and forth across the ceiling of their own accord (it was kind of weird at first XD)...  We all got some nice fruity drinks, Tiffy and mine non-alcoholic of course ^ ^ and got to keep the glasses~  Catherine, Tiffy, and I all got little boot glasses, although in retrospect, I should have asked to change to something more representative of the tower (but I hadn't really paid attention to the glass selection until everyone's drinks came ;; ).  Oh well, it's still a nice souvenir ^w^

We also took some pictures of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  It would be really cool to watch something in there someday~

Tomorrow... mass, Volcano Tea(?), and then Tiffy's grandmother's birthday party~  Should be a fun and long day, so I think we should say good night ^ ^

:) the day went exactly as we planned so I hope you had fun in Cali, Christine! my grandma turned 70 so we held a pool party at my uncle's house.  Lots of food, lots of people and lots of fun :) including karaoke and a game of football tee hee  

California Days~~

After a very early plane flight, I'm finally in Cali with Tiffy ^w^  Surprisingly, it was a bit cloudy and chilly when I got here (well, I guess that's not a surprise, since it's like 95-100 everyday back home), but it's sunny outside now.  

So, what are we doing in sunny California?  Currently, bumming inside Tiffy's grandmother's house XD

Plans for the day... hopefully go to a pier and walk around, then visit Hollywood and City Walk at night.  Tomorrow, perhaps the beach?  And after that -- Japan!

update: we ended up doing all those things :D and i'm tired now haha tomorrow is huntington beach and a bbq cookout! hope you're enjoying cali so far! 

Let's have a tea party :D

after seeing these pictures, doesn't it make you want to revisit alice in wonderland cosplay again? 

Oh wow, those are gorgeous~  No offense to Daniel, perhaps a girl should take over being Alice this time XD?  But yeah, we should definitely revisit that set!

Welcome to ---, California :D (& Sub-post about Pennsylvania :3)

I figured the next entry has been long overdue :P


Christine and I will soon be starting our trans-pacific adventure to Japan and China :D super exciting! but first, the fun starts here where I am: Californiaaaaaaa! home of Disneyland, Hollywood, the LA Lakers and the Golden Gate Bridge :D 

*cue Katy Perry and her unfortunately catchy song "California Gurls"*


 ----, CA is a small town, not the best in the world, but the kind of place where you say hi to the neighbors and buy snow cones and hot corn from the man selling stuff out of a grocery cart lol and of course, my family is here! Catherine, Albert, Paul, Michael, Steven, Andrew, Priscilla and Justin :D 


I can't wait until you come, Christine! I love Cali and I hope you do too :] how was Philadelphia?

I actually wrote some stuff about Philadelphia in my own blog -- it's all locked up though, more for my own memories :3   Philadelphia was pretty fun, lots of sightseeing ^ ^  We actually first visited some other cities in Pennsylvania, namely "Amish Country," which was absolutely beautiful countryside.  Main sites include the Hershey Chocolate Works, buggy rides, lots of farms, and huge expanses of green and trees.  It was kind of a shock going to Philadelphia proper, which was completely inner city-style.  Chaos and people everywhere, but kind of exciting.  Lots of U.S. historical sites there -- definitely worth a trip!

I'm posting on Thursday, so this time tomorrow I'll be joining Tiffy in California and we'll be sun-bathing it up on the beautiful beaches :3  Yay, excited~

A-Kon 21 Day 3: Purchases, Rubix Cubes, and Relaxation

We actually left before 11 today! it was quite an achievement, even if we did cut it close lol

Tiffy and I didn't dress up for the last day of A-Kon, so we made it through a lot more without getting paparazzi'd -- although some guy almost asked me for my picture, because he thought I was ? from ? ... because of my hat?  I dunno.  Tiffy and I wore the hats we got yesterday at the con, and we just wore "normal-ish" clothes, so we were free to look around.

We bought a lot of art posters, some pins, and Tiffy also got some T-shirts and other things for her relatives.  Oh~  I also bought a postcard at h.Naoto so that I could get the guy I took the picture with to sign it XD  (The designer guy from Day 1.)  He was really cool~

lol i think cool is an understatement, Christine.  it was like he sparkled and you were in awe. it was funny :D
one of my best purchases was a new long red wig! i'm excited because i have some new cosplays in mind hehe but noel's guns first :P

At around 1 there was an Inugami autograph signing.  Surprisingly, there weren't that many people (but there usually aren't that many people the last day of cons anyways) in line.  Tiffy and Daniel were in the Dealers' Room for a bit longer while Jordan and I went downstairs to get in line.  We got our badges signed v(^w^)  They were really cool and nice.  I wanted to get this one pretty pin, but it was really expensive for a pin.  The last Inugami member noticed that Jordan had a Rubik's cube, and they were like "Sugoi~" (cool~).

Since there weren't that many people, we decided to go through again (and lied to the guy at the front saying we wanted to look at a pin they had for sale) so Jordan could show off his Rubik's cube skills XD  He had them scramble it, and then I timed him and he solved it in less than 20 seconds~~  It was super cool, and they were all impressed.  It was so awesome~~~ o(>___<)o  The person they had filming the signing was filming him doing it, too.  It was really really cool!

Later Daniel wanted to get stuff signed, too, but then the guy at the front was getting mad at us (me and Jordan) for coming back -___-;;  And unfortunately, apparently the policy is you have to buy something in order to get something signed.  So Daniel didn't end up getting anything signed =\

yeah i felt bad about that :( daniel had stayed with me in the dealers room while i searched for souvenirs for my cousins.  boo but i do want to thank jordan and daniel for putting up with all of christine and my stuff while we were at the convention. you guys were awesome  They were really good about it, too.  Thanks you guys, you are the best! :3

We were pretty much done by then... we went to the 3rd floor to see the art gallery, Tiffy and I took pictures with a random skeleton and some hamburger CD cases, and we went to check out the food court, but the guy wasn't there today QQ...  Daniel went to watch a video game orchestra concert.  He was going to meet up with a friend of his afterwards, so the other three of us just left.

For dinner, we had hot pot and watched Advent Children (our next cosplay -- please look forward to it!).  I also made some tiramisu ^^ which was super yummy btw

Oh yes, about our next cosplay... Tiffy and I (and others, if possible) will be doing Advent Children.
The casting is currently as follows:

Tiffy: Tifa Lockhart

Me: Aerith Gainsborough

Wei: Cloud Striife

Jordan: Zack Fair

Daniel: Kadaj

Ran: Reno

Probably only Tiffy and I will be done, since the guys' are all pretty difficult and involve armor.  We're intending to go to Onicon, so please keep an eye out for future posts about it!

I intend for us to be better than this group! which is really good lol think we can get a rufus, loz and yazoo?

What~  They are so pro.  Good luck to us >__<;;;

All in all, A-Kon was a lot of fun, and I think we did really well for our first time costumes.  Thanks to everyone for a great time and a wonderful first cosplay!!
I agree with Christine :) A-Kon was pretty awesome and I hope that we continue to get better and get more people to cosplay with us! 

A-Kon 21 Day 2: Photoshoots, K-Pop, and Maids

Our second day of A-Kon started at approximately the same time -- we got up at 8:00 am.  I went downstairs and no one was up, so I finally got to wake up the four guys XD  (Because this is the first time they didn't get up before us =w=;;)...

Somehow, despite getting up at the same time, knowing what to do for our costumes, and not having to do as much makeup as yesterday, we left the house about half an hour later... I think it was the bagels for breakfast.  But that was fun, so it's okay~

Yesterday one of Tiffy's buttons fell off of her sleeve, so Jordan took us to Joann's before we went to A-Kon.  I had my wig/contacts/makeup and skirt and hoop skirt on (but not jacket and cape), and Tiffy was fully dressed.  Imagine Rachel and Noel shopping~  It was pretty funny actually XD

Actually, we didn't get as many stares as i thought lol 

One lady just asked us if we were going to some kind of convention.  We told her we were going to an anime convention that was going on this weekend, and she pointed to her husband(?) and told us that he also dressed in costume, but for a sci-fi show (I think).  I thought we should go to Walmart and have a picture of Rachel and Noel shopping, but we forgot to by the end because we were so tired >__<;

we got to the convention at 12:30 and true to the christine's jacket observation, the second we got her cape on, we got spammed by cameras =/ headed straight to the dealers room since we only made it through a quarter of it the day before. since the paparazzi frenzy died down, we managed to get through all of it before our blazblue photoshoot at 3pm.  got cute hats as well :D christine got kitty and panda ones and i got one with ounk bunny ears!

Red punk bunnny ears XD  Not ounk bunny ears  I almost thought you wrote "oink" or "pink" o_o

BB photoshoot was very fun :) never thought i'd ever be part of the large photoshoots i always see online but it was nice to get all the characters together: taokaka (x4), bang (x1), jin (x1), noel (x2, including Tiffy), rachel (x3, including me), arakune (x2), hazama (x2) and ragna (x1).  makes me kind of sad that our group never completely finished, but i think we could manage it for future cons :P despite that fact, christine and i did get lots of attention--from hardcore BB fans and creepy otaku and chinese food counter boys--as just rachel and noel. personally, i think we did really well for our first cosplay costumes and I can't wait to do more! being at the con is so inspiring...i have like 209520934803 ideas in mind :P

So the first day, we went to a Chinese food place in Plaza of the Americas (a neighboring hotel) to eat lunch.  Today we went to the same place just because (Tiffy, Jordan, and Daniel were in line and bought food there), and apparently the food counter boy recognized us and mentioned so today.  Tiffy and I think we should go there again tomorrow to eat and see if he still recognizes us without our costumes, haha~

after lunch, we lined up for the cosplay competition. the line was ridiculously long! to occupy our time, we had jordan provide 30 second entertainment for curious bypassers haha

Cosplay competition was fun. in a nutshell--

1. the japanese wannabes have no idea what kpop is lol which was apparent by the silence in the room when Lollipop by Big Bang started playing

2. Men with big bellies like to shake it....

3. Men with big bellies shaking it are really really scary....

4. AWESOME COSTUMES

5. cosplay skit 2 = ???

In the room where the contest is, they have a stage at the front, a big TV to the left, and, for some inane reason, a huge raised platform where the control center is right in the middle.  And they, for some equally inane reason, decided to put chairs behind the control center anyways.  So we, by great misfortune, ended up sitting practically right behind the control center, but a little to the right so that the control center blocked both the stage and the TV (what wasn't  blocked by the center was blocked by people's heads QQ)...  A lot of people around us ended up leaving because you really can't see anything.

After some talking and awkward-looking dancing by the hosts and random people they pulled from the crowd, the show got started -- with Lollipop by 2NE1 feat. Big Bang.  They played the whole music video and everything.  It was really weird, because, well, it's an anime convention, and everyone there knows J-Pop and anime songs sure enough, but K-Pop??  I think only Tiffy, Jordan, and I really knew it, and we were kind of singing along.  Daniel, who went separately from us and sat a few rows behind us, said that one girl in front of him knew it also.  I thought that if they played Nobody we should dance along XD  Rachel and Noel dancing Nobody?

The show itself was pretty good.  There were some amazing costumes like Tiffy said: Princess Ai (three furies and the really tall girl with red wings and a short pink dress), Jet from Cowboy Bebop (because he totally had the Jet feel), a few animal(-esque) cosplays, and some really nice fancy dresses.  I don't remember all of them.  Then there were the skits, most of which were pretty bad (or just random).  The first one had a website called Ilikenonexistentgirls.com, which apparently takes what you want in a girl and spits out an anime girl for you.  It was pretty funny~  XD  The second one was definitely wtf like Tiffy said, they had really weird and nonsensical dialogue that was made worse by the fact that they sort conglomerated in one corner of the stage... behind the podium, where the announcer was.  So not only could we not understand them, we couldn't see what they were doing.  There was a cute one from Castle... crashers? of these four characters doing a little dance.  One had Faye Valentine doing a dance, musical-style, to a song from Lady Luck, "Cowboy."  What else... there were lots of weird singing/dancing ones.  Oh, but the absolute best one was last -- they had a bunch of props, and they did a skit to "Tick Tock" with Roy Mustang and his assistant, a girl.  They had Roy singing over the song and changed the words to fit, and then at one part, Ed shows up and dives in on his knees with his arms raised just as the song goes "The party don't start 'til I walk in~"  It was so good~

i was definitely disappointed in the quality of the skits though...i thought they'd all be a little more entertaining? some of them were so random and the funny thing is...you have to submit your skit ideas in advance. i demand to know who was screening these skits :P 

I had some ideas for skits that we could do~  One is a BB skit in which there are two gamers who try to play the game, but the characters just ignore all the commands they try to do XD  For instance, Bang versus Litchi, and using Rachel (who doesn't feel like fighting and just sits down for tea).  Then at the end, we line up and do the Haruhi dance XP

Or we could do one in which two guys start fighting over a girl (literally, fighting), and then somewhere in the fight they begin bantering back and forth.  The insults turn into "I bet I can ___ better than you," which then turns into a dance competition that isn't even about the girl anymore, and they pull a second girl in and start doing the waltz from FF8.  And at the very end, they both do an extravagant dip XD

While the judges were deciding, there were random shows involving big men lifting their shirt and... bouncing up and down.  It was pretty gross.  But there was one funny part in which the announcer told us how someone told him to order his food at McDonald's in his narrator/announcer voice, and he and another guy demonstrated to us how a conversation would go in a drive-through:

Cashier: May I take your order?

Announcer: (in booming voice) Yes, I'd like a number 3!

Cashier: Uh, I'm sorry, I don't know the numbers... what would you like?

Announcer: I said, a number 3!

Cashier: Sir, are you threatening me?  You sound like you're threatening me.

Announcer: No.  Have you ever seen Dragonball Z?

Cashier: Yes, I've watched some...

Announcer: Well then, I want a number 3 -- and super saiyan it!

Afterwards, we just headed home.  Wei, his brother, Scott L, and Faruk went to the bath house again for some reason, and then came over later when they were done to drop off Faruk.  Ran came back around the same time (as Jordan, Daniel, Tiffy and I were finishing up dinner).

like i said before, it's strange how much they like the bathhouse and getting scrubbed down o_O tee hee hee i kid i kid

And... that is when, the following ensued, as Ran shared with us about his adventures in the maid cafe...

Ran: When we won, the punishment game was for them to do jumping jacks!  And we won twice!  (in a squeaky, excited voice) And when they did it, the ruffles just come up like this, and you can see... the ruffles just come up like this!  *waves hand in a flapping motion by his thigh to demonstrate*

Scott: I'm depressed just knowing him.

Tiffy: (to Wei) You know that when you go to Japan, you're just going to be spending all your time in maid cafes, right?

Ran:  No, but I'm sad that we can't talk to the maids in Japan though.  I'll just be like... *takes Wei's hand and stares into his eyes, breathing heavily* ... I just... my KOKORO... my feelings are hard to express, but right here... *touches chest over heart* ...It's just DOKI DOKI."

oh Ran....for those of you that don't know Ran, he has sort of a maid fetish haha it has something to do the with the frills and ruffles and general cuteness of it all...sigh.........lol  

Yep >__<  I also think we should do a maid cafe skit with Ran as the main guy and a bunch of cosplay girls from different series that are roughly lolita-ish.  Ran should toss in that line at the end to one girl with a lot of frills and curls and such... and then the maid speaks with a man's voice XD  (We think that Wei should play that maid~~)

christine, we need to look up revenge of the vampire bunnies!  Oh right, so apparently one guy thought I was Mina from Revenge of the Vampire Bunnies... talk about random...

A-Kon 21 Day 1: The Real Version...

So, our day 1 at A-Kon.  It started at 8 am, but somehow we didn't leave the house until 11...

We styled Daniel's wig roughly like Ragna's, but in the end he looked like Riku from Kingdom Hearts XD;;  He made Ragna's gloves, though, which was cool.  We turned Jordan into a JRocker with straightened/spiked hair, foundation, and fancy eyeliner~  Well, it really just looked like Rachel and Noel with three JRockers by the time we were all ready.

lol i think rachel can have a JRocker harem.

i did not expect A-kon to be so tiring. we were bombarded almost every second at A-Kon with flashes of light and cameras once we stepped into the con. it got old after a bit since we couldn't look at anything :( It took 2 or 3 times as long to get to places just because we stopped so much. As much as i was surprised with the number of people who knew about blazblue, i think it was just the fact that Christine's dress  was absolutely gorgeous :D and big and showstopping haha case in point--



man: please tell me you're who i think you are
christine: who do you think i am?
man: mina....from revenge of the vampire bunnies
LOL christine and i just look at each other...

christine's rachel was one of the only 3 there and I think it was the best :) not bc i'm biased (because i am lol) but objectively, it was made well and faithful to the original artwork hehe
there were several other noel's at the convention as well. mine's wasn't bad in comparison, considering it's my first costume ever.  Definitely had lots of wardrobe malfunctions lol it's a good thing we packed up a emergency con kit.  I lost a gold button and my spray paint rubbed off on my outfit giving me terrible deodorant-looking marks (grrrrrrrr.....), people kept stepping on my streamers, deflating the metal tips etc. lesson learned--i'm top coatiing future metal pieces and lol by the end of the night, i pretty much perfected my streamer wrap/unwrap process so that i wouldn't get stepped on.

Personally, I think that Tiffy's Noel was the best of those there.  Both the hair and costume fit her well, and she just sort of had a video game character feel, you know?  Okay, maybe I'm biased too, but really -- Tiffy looked good as Noel.  Two others had a light blue that didn't look quite right.  Lots of people stopped her for her picture, too ^^  And she definitely had that fight pose perfected by the end, even if she didn't have the guns.  The only problems we had, I think, were that my ears kept flopping over and one of Tiffy's buttons fell off on her sleeve.  

I'm sad that I didn't have Nago and Gii, though TwT  One Rachel had Nago, and the other Gii.  The one with Gii had incorrect hair styling and her costume was not terribly well made, but she was so cute that she probably fit Rachel the best of the three of us.  I'm going to make Nago and Gii for our next round, definitely~  And Tiffy will make her guns, and we'll be even better v(^w^)v

i definitely have to make the guns...otherwise ran will just keep making fun =/

in the afternoon, wei and faruk arrived as carl clover and arakune. together with ran as hazama, we were a pretty good set :D i think by the next con, with daniel as ragna and jordan as jin or hakumen, we'll be awesome!

christine, i think we'll have to make a special post about our costume construction :P  Yeah, probably XD  Or else this post will be too long.

Due to the paparazzi crowd, we only made it through about 1 row of the Dealers' Room today.  After we ate lunch at a Chinese food place in Plaza of the Americas, we headed to stand in line for the opening ceremony.  Unfortunately, the ceremony consisted primarily of them thanking this or that person, and then bringing up a bunch of the guests that none of us knew because most of us only do anime/manga in Japanese.  (Well, scanlated mangas, but not webcomics or anything.)   The only person I recognized was Inugami Circus-Dan, a visual kei/J-Rock band.  Here, a picture:

They're an interesting group, although I don't really listen to their music.  A friend in high school introduced me to them, but I think I wasn't as interested in their style as some others back then.  (Subsequently, I forgot what they sound like.)  They were pretty cute, though.  They came on stage, and Kyouko (the singer, female) said a few things in English but seemed really embarrassed and shy.  Then one of the guys whispered in her ear for every line in Japanese she said after that XD

she really was cute :D "tonight we have a live" hehehehe

After that, we were thinking to go into line to see Inugami perform, but we had to wait an hour, so we wandered around for a while before getting back in line.  We were all pretty tired and gross, so we just stayed for one song.  Their music is interesting -- it's borderline hard rock music background, with guitars and drums, with a sort of old Japanese (maybe enka?) sound for the vocals.  I really liked the background music, but the vocals were so-so (just not my style, that is).  I'd like to look back into their music, though ^^

Somehow, we decided to go to King Spa Sauna, a Korean bath house that Wei has been talking about forever.  It was authentic Korean... which means getting nekked all together (with the genders separated, of course) and showering/sitting in hot baths together.  Tiffy and I had not been expecting to go on Friday, so we didn't bring extra clothes or shoes... it was kind of weird.  But we took our contacts off and couldn't see anything XD  Wen-shin, another girl who came to join our group (we went to middle school together, and she knows Scott C) as Tsubaki Yayoi, came with us.

Yeah i'm not sure why the boys were so adamant on going to the bathhouse...maybe there's something going on that we don't know about christine :P jk! but for once, i'm glad i have terrible vision. if you really think about it, there's something strange about stripping down with your friends and strangers o_O

As we were very awkwardly stripping down in front of the lockers, Wen-shin got us two towels each... but the towels were so tiny!  So, stifling embarrassed laughter, we shed our clothes and attempted to cover ourselves with those towels.  All three of us came out clinging onto those towels, and the Korean ladies there were laughing so much at us (=w=;;;)a  I'd have to admit, it must have been a pretty funny scene, though.

i'd liken it to a scene in some cheesy movie. i wonder how it's going to be when we go in japan...probably not any less awkward lol

We showered at these little stalls, sitting down.  It's pretty similar to the Japanese hot springs, actually.  After that, we all went into the hot (103 degrees) green tea bath for a while, then to the regular bath of the same temperature.  There was also a hotter bath (106 degrees), which I tried after that, and then Tiffy and I both went into the cold bath (73ish degrees).  We got separated from Wen-shin, but went together to the wet sauna, back to the cold bath, and then finally into the green tea bath.  It was actually pretty nice, once you get over the being unclothed part.  Though when we showered at the end, we were sitting on opposite sides (backs to each other), and Tiffy asked me if people ever have shower wars  XD  She then proceeded to spray me with her shower.  After a while we were just spraying each other over our shoulders... haha, the ladies probably thought we were so immature.

lol i couldn't resist. there are all these shower stall things with showerheads...it's hard to believe that not one person thought of doing that

When we finally came out, we wore these pink clothes they had available, and went outside to the common  area.  It turns out we were the last to come out (no concept of time in those spas), and we ran into Jordan.  The others were at a table in the corner eating (we totally missed them when we came out somehow).  Jordan showed us to all the interesting rooms they had: the Volcano Room, Ice Room, Salt Room, Pyramid Room... what else... there were a lot of rooms with different healing/cleansing powers.  The Ice Room felt pretty nice~  They claimed that it feels like the North Pole but... no, no it doesn't >__<;;

We got back and ended up sleeping at 4 am again...sigh

A-Kon 21 Day 1: Tired.

We are tired.

Lesson learned: cosplaying is being papparazzi'd... very little time to look at stuff.

Wardrobe malfunctions...

Never go to opening ceremonies.

First concert-y  thing ever with Inugami Circus-Dan was pretty fun ^^

King Spa Sauna is weird... Korean ladies laughing at us for being modest ...;;;

Wei looked really good and Faruk actually came as Arakune...

Somehow we left the con early but ended up sleeping at 4.. ish... Tiffy, Jordan, and Daniel are currently planning out sets for the next cosplays (Vampire Knight, where Tiffy is Rima Touya, Jordan is Kaname, I'm Yuuki, and Daniel can be either Zero or Aido..

Too tired, the end, good night~

Cosplay Central = Sweatshop-ing it up

Hi everyone~ I have a full house today. Tiffy, Jordan, and Daniel all came in for A-Kon and are staying at my house. We've been costuming (at least, Tiffy and I have -- Jordan and Daniel are playing chess even though neither of them know how to play that well, and Daniel ought to be working on his wig/costume) XD

Countdown to A-Kon: T-minus 24 hours

Costume progress: Christine 95% (minus plush and umbrella)

Tiffany 85% (metal pieces, streamers and wig)

I think everyone else is going summer style :P in truth, never realized all the work that goes into cosplay....it's very very tedious

We just made a late-night trip to Wal-mart after eating dinner that my mom made. It was a really awkward dinner actually, because it was family-style around the table. That was the first time I ate family-style with them, and while I was getting drinks and stuff, they just sat there silently without eating (which was really weird for me >__<). And then when I sat down and we started eating, we were pretty quiet for the first few minutes -- so I started laughing a lot... >__<;;; But it got better after a while. Daniel started talking about Dancing with the Stars, and the conversation somehow moved to Karate Kid, Three Ninjas, Power Rangers, and then Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (though I was pretty clueless during all of this XD~~)

Some random conversations throughout the night...

During dinner

Christine: (to Jordan) Eat faster~

Daniel: He's enjoying his food. (pauses and turns to Jordan, then in a menacing tone) Enjoy it faster!

"Playing chess" #1

Daniel: If you move that queen, I can eat you.

Tiffy: ...Eat? Is that a valid term?

Christine: Yep.

Jordan: I've heard it used before.

Daniel: I guess taken out of context, it sounds pretty bad. If you make that move, I can EAT YOU.

"Playing chess" #2

Daniel: Why are you so good?

Jordan: I don't really know what I'm doing.

Daniel: I don't really know what I'm doing, either.

Tiffy: If you both don't know what you're doing, then obviously you'll both think the other person is good.

Jordan: This game will probably just end up in a draw.

Daniel: Where there's only the kings left?

Jordan: Yes, that's a draw.

Christine: Well you two could just circle each other until one person makes a mistake.

Jordan: In a king versus king game? No.

Daniel: You could just get one person into a corner.

Tiffy: You guys should just do a king versus king game. I would like to see that.

Jordan: ...Daniel, do you want to sleep tonight?

lol :D well with A-Kon coming up, it's understandable that our sleep deprivation would lead to some strange situations...all that besides, i really do want to see daniel and jordan have a king versus king game :P

I think it's time for us to sleep now... and prepare for another day of cosplaying~ =w=

oyasumi nasai :)