Kamakura!

So yesterday I went to Kamakura with some people from my Japanese literature class. Kamakura is about an hour away from Tokyo, so we all had to wake up pretty early and catch a special train that goes down there. We met up in front of the station and there were 12 or 14 of us. First we went to Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu. To get to Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu, you have to walk up this main street that goes straight from the ocean. You don't notice it at first, but the street gradually gets narrower to make the shrine look farther away.

So we get there, and we're walking up the main path with food vendors and the center actually has stones instead of just gravel. Nanao said that this was the path meant for the gods, but now... no one really cares. Everyone just trodded all over it. People often bring their children to shrines (I think in general, but I'm not sure if it was this shrine in particular) when they turn 3, 5, and 7 years old as a celebration that they're still alive (hooray high child-death rates of the past!) and to wish for good health in the future, so we saw lots of adorable Japanese children in fancy kimono (girls) or hakama (boys).

We take a few pictures standing around, purifying ourselves, annnd my camera's battery promptly dies. Until I get pictures from other people whose cameras didn't die....

CRAPPY CELLPHONE PICTURES FOR ALL

I am too lazy to post thumbnails when I have explanations on the pictures on flickr, but here are some fun stories:

We got fortunes at Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu. You pay 100yen and shake a stick out of a box, and the number on the stick corresponds to a paper fortune you get. I got "sue-kichi" which means I can expect good luck in the future. It has subcategories too like wish, marriage, relationships, illness, business, and exams. We all laughed and said THAT'S NOT GOOD LUCK when we noticed my illness said "It will be too late. Take care" but now a day later the slight cough/drainage I've had for like a month is starting to get worse. Freaky! I'm stocking up on orange juice and going to bed early writing this report lol I HOPE YOU APPRECIATE THIS YOU GUYS.

After that we wandered around to some of the sub-shrines, pictures, bladdy blah blah. We went to Motohachiman which is what Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu was based on. It was really small. We sat around and ate snacks before deciding we should head for lunch.

We got bento and ate on the porch of one of Nanao's dad's shops (Nanao was our tour leader :3), and then we went to the literature museum. It was all carpeted and we had to take off our shoes. It felt like a slumber party except it was kind of boring. Maybe literature museums are more interesting if you can read any of the displays and are familiar with the authors besides "oh yeah we had to read a story by him... I think." But the place was gorgeous! It used to be somebody's summer house (I forgot who...) before it was convered into a museum. Lots of gorgeous trees, and you could see the ocean! It was nice seeing the ocean after not seeing it for a few months. :D

After that we went to another smaller shrine for Amaterasu, the sun goddess. She's the ancestor of the Imperial family I believe, so she's very fancy-pants except this shrine wasn't. I wish I could remember the name. Anyway, it was very, how can I say this... vertical. It was on a hill and lots of stairs were involved. Someone found a path leading into the trees so we all climb up thinking we'll be able to get a nice view of Kamakura... haha no. TREES EVERYWHERE, CAN'T SEE DIDDLYSQUAT. We were all huffing and puffing and trying not to slip and die as we came down.

After that we went to see the Daibutsu! It really was humongous. You could pay and go inside him but the line was really long :/ Apparently Obama went there a few weeks ago and had some macha (green tea) ice cream, so now everything macha-flavored there is called オバ抹茶 or Obamacha. It wasn't SUPER AMAZING but pretty tasty~

I probably cut out a lot of yesterday's trip from this post but it's late and I'm tired lol. Oh, after we got back from Kamakura a few of us went out for dinner in Shinjuku. We went to this cheap Italian chain I can't remember the name of, and got soup, salad and a personal pizza for only 680yen. It was fun and DELICIOUS. I've really missed pizza here (ESPECIALLY WITHOUT CORN ON IT. ALL PIZZA HERE APPARENTLY HAS CORN UNLESS IT'S PRETENDING TO BE FOREIGN) and I got delicious dessert om nom nom.

Then I came home and did homework. Gross.

I'll end this post here, but I have a three day weekend so hopefully I'll get caught up on posting. I saw Alice Nine for free last last Saturday, and then last Tuesday I went to a free Momoclo event in Yoyogi park. I really want to make a post comparing the two, the fanbases are so different yet similar. It'll make a really interesting post. :)

Until this weekend when I'll actually have time to sleep~
-Blondie

ももクロ SECOND TIME

So. Momoiro Clover is still trolololling around Tokyo promoting their single. It comes out tomorrow. They're not very popular so they need a lot of promotion :/

Anyway, I went again! I was wavering a lot about going a second time over the past month before deciding that my budget couldn't handle it. The Sabrina offered to pay for all three CD+DVD preorders in order to get me a twoshot with a member of my choice. And I mean really, how could I resist that?

For those not in idol fandom, a twoshot is when you get to take a picture with an idol. Since it's only you and one member, it's called a twoshot.

I'm beginning to think MomoClo is cursed, because I went yesterday bright and early... and because I took a different train, I read the signs wrong and ended up at the Showa-dori exit instead of the Akihabara Electrical Town exit. (Yes, that's the exit's name. No, I'm not joking). A bit of wandering led me to the proper area, so it wasn't as bad as last time. Plus it wasn't raining.

OH BUT WAIT, WHY IS ISHIMARU CLOSED? IT SHOULD BE OPEN BY NOW. WHY IS NO ONE OUTSIDE? WOTA ALWAYS HANG AROUND OUTSIDE WAITING IN LINE FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR. Lol well because it's a weekday, ishimaru opens at 11am instead of the 9am it does on the weekends. And because it was a weekday, the ticket distribution wasn't until 4pm for the 6pm concert. :| So I wasted 260¥ on train fare (plus the 300¥ for an iced caramel latte during wait-around-and-see-if-someone-shows-up time) and a sick day for my religions class for DIDDLY SQUAT.

So after my last class ends at 3pm, I haul ass back to Akiba and AH, MY SOCIALLY AWKWARD BRETHREN. I stood in line for until 4pm and reserve my (second) copy of the normal version of Pinky Jones. And pick my number in line.... 131!? That's a load of bullshit! But ah, I guess if the numbers were given out based on place in line, they'd get wota sitting outside a lot earlier than an hour or two before distribution. -_____- Still aggravating though.

My thought process in Akiba is bad. Combined with last concert's toilet incident, I decided to forgo drinks while I waited the 90 minutes until I could come back and actually get it. And it's kind of rude to sit in a coffee shop and not order anything. Plus I don't need the calories, and I certainly don't need to spend the money, so I'll just wander around!

Well, obviously I spend more money wandering around than I would at a coffee shop by a long shot. I decide to wander around Club Sega like I did last time, and I actually won another Nyanpire! ^^ It's smaller and has a cell phone strap, and is decked out in Christmas gear. I actually got it on my third try, trying to get something else but the UFO catcher knocked it out completely on accident. Lucky!! Then I went up and checked out some of the vidyagames. Because it was 4pm on a Monday afternoon (I'm assuming), there were only two people playing Project Diva. I wasn't that interested in the game itself, but considering there was a line set up for people to wait and four machines, I figured it was popular enough to be fun and I gave it a shot.

The first time I had no idea what I was doing, the instructions were in Japanese, and somehow I pressed buttons and got the song set on hard. Lots of flailing and button slamming ensued, I'm pretty sure I annoyed (or at least amused) the other two guys playing, because they were actually good. Second and third time I played on easy, but it was too easy for me but then I couldn't figure out how to get the level to medium. But it was fun and I want to play it more and get really good at it! So that and the UFOs was... less than 1000¥ down the drain and into Club Sega's pocket. Let's look at it that way!

After that it was fairly close to 5:30 so I headed back to ishimaru and actually timed it perfectly when you include my bathroom break. I am going to miss the availability of bathrooms in most establishments when I get back to America, that's for sure.

So we go in, and I buy all three and lol I'm only the second person to buy all three singles that day. I'm not in the front and I certainly don't have a seat, but there were less people there because it was a weekday and I find short people to stand behind, so only one corner of the stage was blocked out and I could see everyone if I stood on tiptoe. The concert was more enjoyable this time, although they didn't perform ココ☆ナツ since they were playing it in the store and it got stuck in head. -__-; I am so impressed with Momokuro just because all their dances are so energetic. Other groups have energetic songs and choreographs too but they usually have a balance of those and ballads. MomoClo has NO ballads as far as I know. They certainly didn't perform any in the concert!

After the concert, the handshake event started. I sat, and sat, and decided "Fuck it, I'm not coming back a third time, so I might as well just get a handshake ticket and talk to them all once more." I suppose I should mention here that starting from the night before, I was harassing everyone I knew who I should choose for my twoshot. My original favorite was Akarin, but she seemed so unenthusiastic compared to the other girls last handshake event that I was disenchanted with her. I was leaning towards Shiorin because Sabrina kept saying she was my type, and because to me she is infinitely cuter once she takes out her pigtails:

But honestly I think almost everyone is adorable and choosing was really hard. Kanako is cute and seems really genuinely nice, Momoka is the most adorable thing on the planet, Ayaka is too fucking beautiful to be 14, and even Reni's look of sheer jubilance as she's performing makes me like her more. But at the same time, last time I told Akarin she was my favorite, and she isn't very popular. I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings, even if she seemed kind of unenthused last time.

I decide that the handshake would give me second impressions and I'd make my decision then. I went up and Akarin immediately recognized me. She said "Ah, hisashiburi!" and said that my blue nails made me look cool and she liked my earrings. She asked if I had fun and thanked me for coming. I think Akarin, despite being an idol, is kind of shy because she was a lot warmer to me this time. Shiorin also said hisashiburi and thanked me for coming. Momoka called me a cutie again >w< and I was just like NO YOU ARE but more polite and in Japanese. I mean really, I challenge you to have this:
telling you "You are cutie!" and not pretty much melt into a puddle. LOOK AT HER. A lot of people think Shiorin is the cutest in the group and to those people I BITE MY THUMB AT YOU, SIRS.

Kanako recognized me but couldn't remember my name. Reni seemed to be confused by me but was smiley anyway, and Ayaka was like "AH, YOU!" and stumbled through a "good evening" for me. Walking away, I still had no idea who to choose. It was between Shiorin and Akarin. Momoka almost made it, but I'd been "decided" on Shiorin a majority of the time so she won out over Momoka. Texting my roommate, I complained a lot. Asking who I should choose, she said she had no idea who anyone was and her opinion was moot. I whined again, and she told me to pick Shiorin just so I could figure out my ~*true feelings*~. And shit, it worked. The fact that I didn't immediately jump on the Shiorin train showed that DEEP INSIDE, AKARIN WAS STILL MY FAVORITE. So, with resolve, I went up and was first in line for our twoshots.

And then a staff member brought out a box with tennis balls with the girls' names written on them and I had to pick one. I thought this might be maybe for the people who bought two versions of the single, because they got a twoshot too but just with a member. Nope, it's for me! So, lolling at my turmoil all being for naught, I pull out a tennis ball.... THAT SAYS AKARIN.

YEAH. FATE.

So I go up there, and Akarin is surprised to see me getting a twoshot, probably because I didn't last time so she figured it was the same gig. We did normal peace signs because I froze, I should have done hearts with her ;___; The girl who had Akarin before me brought cat ears for the both of them and Akarin looked ADORABLE in them. They looked so good on her I was hoping she brought them and I could do it next. No. :[ BUT, afterwards she told me she thought my hair was pretty and she was really glad I came. I told her she was my favorite and Sabrina's favorite, and hugged her :33

AND IT WAS AMAZING. And then I had to go home and type up my Japanese oral skit and do lots of reading.

~Blondie