I see everyone is friends with Mitrac, peak realism
Every time flying to/from Japan is either the best day for reading ever or a living nightmare, no inbetween
The two modes, 桜木 and カビゴン, no inbetween
I feel super awkward about this too, so I made what one of my friends called “legally distinct” versions of everyone lol. Like, that mii isn’t my husband, that’s Glasses! He may look similar and act similar but the dark shades make him his own character. everyone’s also bi, the miis are their own people, I claim no responsibility for any of their actions 草
I studied Mandarin Chinese for 5 years and I’m only now finding out that they have a version of furigana?! MIND BLOWN
I hope you enjoy your Japan trip!! and can maybe sleep on the next plane/train/bus/moving contraption lol!!
April 30th, 2026
- 13 reviews on WaniKani
- 7 reviews on Bunpro
- 2 lessons on Bunpro
- 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
- Anime: 名探偵コナン第１０６１〜１０６２話
- Manga: ハチミツとクローバー第３５話
- Walking around and doing things in Osaka!
The title of this manga sounds really familiar, not just because one of the pieces of evidence in the コナン episodes today was the ハチミツ, but I feel like I might have seen it somewhere else as well. Going on Natively doesn’t reveal anything, and the manga came with a really good price of…
…€0.269 as of today. That’s the cheapest per page, at €0.00135. Wow.
At this point the actual cost is no longer the money, it’s the luggage size for the mangas ^^
But I’m in a weird area of Osaka, there are two slot machine parlors right next to my hostel xddd
As for Detective Conan, I managed to finish the arc and saw who did the killing, but aside from the sliding puzzle which was a bit of an ehhh twist, there seemed to be no way to figure out what was going on! The whole investigation was going inside of Conan’s head and then he just laid the facts at the end and told to trust him 
But the ending song of that season of Conan is really good, could bop my head just fine ^^
Life
Chinese Airlines had a collaboration with Pokemon on their flights to Japan, this was so cute C:
But yeah, made it through, annoyed all of my friends with pictures of being in Japan and got myself a train to the city!
Also, I just did that just a few hours before, grrrr xddd
No sun today, pretty rainy day, made it to the hotel, went for a two hour long nap and woke up at 4pm ^^
I was still pretty tired, so a lot of the weather outside just accentuated my mood ^^
So fun story for today! I saw a vending machine in the city that advertized itself on “we have items for less than a 100 yen coin” and I was like “NO YOU DONT LMAO”, and then I came closer and they… did? I wonder how are they able to have the same products that are 120 yen elsewhere for, eee, €0.35 
I’m only 20 minutes south from Denden Town, so of course I had to visit it, so here’s one for akatsukinoluna and one for Mitrac ^^
There’s one doujin bookstore there called Melonbooks that is officially partnered with ガレット so I decided to go there and check if they had any physical volumes, and I didn’t find a single clerk to help me out, but also, it was doujinshi, 80% of the covers were hentai, so I just walked out xddd
There’s a new Danganronpa collaboration in the town and let me tell you, I’m upset, because my favorite Danganronpa character is Mahiru Koizumi because of the camera (and being Max Caulfield), and now that they took the camera away and gave it to Makoto, I’m angry xddd
this banana is not banana
i made it to 道頓堀 before it got dark, so it would’ve been a perfect blue hour if we still had some sun ^^
But I went further to Parco, and found out that Parco has a limited time museum for タツキ藤本’s Look Back! Some of my friends are huge fans of this movie, so of course I went in and looked around ^^
A lot of interviews, production materials, cards with the shots, how pretty is that!
In one of the interviews, Tatsuki spoke about the effect that AI has on art and that it disconnects people, and I found some of its framing really cute especially sincE JAPAN IS CURRENTLY DROWNED IN AI ART ALL AROUND ALL THE WAY FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE MAIN CITY, so just heads up xdddd
And yeah, Times Square in Japan, the more I think about the comparison, the more I think it’s apt ^^
also those guys are mvps thought i’d shout them out xddd
I had お好み焼き today, the specialty of Osaka, but it seems I didn’t get the focus with the camera on it xddd
And as I was getting back to the hotel, I didn’t sleep for like 25-30 hours today, and as a result of that, when things like this happen (once a month???) I always get cold sores on my lips, so I asked a friend from Japan whether they had any tablets in pharmacies because I couldn’t find them anywhere
She needed to consult extra people to get information about it, but we got a scientific term… that didn’t connect with the pharmacists and they didn’t know what I was talking about xdd
When I mentioned 口内ヘルペスタブレット, it turned out that the pharmacists didn’t understand what I was asking about, and then the cold sore just appeared biiig on my upper lip, so I went to one of the pharmacists and pointed at my upper lip to show her that this is what I’m currently struggling with…
…and she took me over to the section with gentle tapes to glue your mouth together to prevent snoring, because she thought I was making the “shhhh” gesture instead : I xddd
So I learned three things today,
- one, anti-viral tablets for herpes of any type, any active substance, are prescription-only in Japan, even though you can casually get them in DM in Germany
- two, people are said to grow out of having cold sores as they grow older… and no, I get cold sores for a week about every month unless I take the anti-virals… and I’ll get them again when I’m flying on the way away from Japan.
- three, even though everyone contracted HSV-1 when they were younger (well, not that friend seemingly xdddd), it’s very rare that cold sores appear as often as they do on me
And I don’t know what to do with the knowledge, sigh 
xddd
Either way, see you tomorrow! C:
They should also add Linux Avocalinux to their assortment! 
On a more serious note, I’m very glad you are having such a cool time!
Thank you fur sharing and best of luck with your studies and other cativities! 
I would say ‘have fun in Japan!!’ but I know you’ll be able to find 28 hours worth of fun activities to do in a 24 hour period 
And by the looks of it you’ve already done a whole bunch of stuff… but still, have fun in Japan!!
I am so happy that I am now aware of the existence of this 
This is so cool, I have to admit I’m so old school I’m also confused what is going on, is that a game anyone can play? 
Now you’re making me legit wonder for the first time in my life why I’m cagey about this online and kinda enjoy an androgynous online persona, so I’ll think about that for a while now…
That one took me a while, amazing
Waaaaa you photographed Harta for me 
and it looks so fun, and it makes it so much more real to see them lined up
Thank you Bidoof, I had a tough last two days and appreciate you thinking about me
お好み焼き is soooo good, I don’t have it often but it’s my favourite Japanese food quite comfortably
But 広島風 with noodles is actually better (大阪風 is still amazing)
Lots of medication is like that here unfortunately, all the classifications etc. are all different so lots of stuff which is easy to get in other countries isn’t always easy here
Summary
I was the same to be honest, it’s sort of gone now (not that big a deal) but out of all the personal information out there, it was probably the one I didn’t feel was important/didn’t want to say
Hope you’re doing okay 
Or the fact that acetaminophen even from the doctor is only 100mg, so 1/10th the US dose. Plus all the painkillers contain caffeine for some reason only the kami-sama know. Like what exactly do you expect 100mg of painkiller to do against a 40 degree fever plus giving you caffeine so you can’t just sleep through it.
I’M SORRY, I STARTED THIS DRAFT 2 DAYS AGO AND FORGOT ABOUT IT
My top recommendation is this bookstore
because they sometimes have good books for under 100 yen.
This one tends to have a good selection
Mandarake Umeda has a huge selection and also a section where you can get manga for 30-50 yen. Most of those are pretty bad, but I’ve found a couple of gems that way.
If you’re already planning to go to DenDen Town/Nipponbashi, then this place sometimes has a couple of good series.
DenDen has some other bookstores and another Mandarake, however, that Mandarake has a smaller book selection than Umeda’s due to space limits. If you’re over there already to shop for figures, then I’d recommend popping in.
Well, if you’d like a free tour or two and our schedules align, I could point some out to you. I wouldn’t recommend most places in 道頓堀. There are some hidden landmarks though and the other week when I went, we randomly saw a live chicken roaming
Sorry, I still forgot to add context. I’d like to have tour guiding as a backup career option, and having practice would help
My Discord handle is my username. DM me anytime before May 10th and I’d be super happy to have an 案内 around! C:
Thanks Malinkal! I’m doing better today
It’s funny you wrote that, surprisingly this is where I landed after thinking about it for a while. I realised irl people get defined by gender a lot more than online and my gender is just not that important to my identity. So I find it more relaxing to just… ignore it and not bring it up, not really consciously, but more as a pleasant default.
Omg you made wanikani people on tomodachi life that’s brilliant
Some lovely pics you took in the airport 
I sent you a friend request! idk if I can dm without having a mutual server
well and now because of dio-berry i stood up for longer yapping about fun kansai spots xddd
man, one can only make lemonade with so many lemons, stop throwing them at mitrac
imagine: stardew valley but every character is from a character creator and there’s no farm to take care of, just the town and the community centers ^^
i’m brainwashed by my queer book club to the point where i think that gender is a fun accessory you can use to assume certain perspectives on topics. Yes, there will be discrimination regardless of which of the three genders you pick for yourself, but there’s always lovely people that will connect with the gendered stories if you put certain gender descriptors in your stories ^^
but yeah, better than to gender is describe yourself through your role models and be like “im so literally them” ^^
YOU ALSO SHOULD HEY ITS FUN C:
May 1st, 2026
- 31 reviews on WaniKani
- 36 reviews on Bunpro
- 2 lessons on Bunpro
- 11 min of Kanji Learner’s Course
- Movie: 最終楽章 響け！ユーフォニアム 前編
- Mystery tour: 交差する街の物語 Bコース
oh you have no idea 
Mixed Life & Study
Osaka day 2!
…I don’t know, WaniKani forums…?
So I went to Shinsekai today, it’s a traditional district of Osaka themed after the early 20th century, and I did my NINJA TRAINING AND BECAME A NINJA
why did naruto take so long for that i dont get it
also i did my 弓道 trAINING AND I BECAME A SAMURAI
…if I knew it was that simple I would’ve come to Osaka to become both a Ninja and a Samurai faster xdddd
But man, both the shurikens were a little bent and the arrows were just curved, so although I did land some hits, it would be nice if they conserved the equipment sometimes ^^
Anyway, Shinsekai!
Really pretty, and with the power lines everywhere, MmmMmMMm C:
So all around the city there were ads for 謎解き, and as with my September 東京 update, I love those! I got the starter set, will be relevant later in the post ^^
I got to Osaka Station, and when people claim that in China you have those crazy 3D cities with overpasses at specific floor, this is probably the Japanese version of it, so pretty ^^
And umm, unfortunately, 響け is one of my favorite intellectual properties I know of, and a new film just dropped, so of course I had to go to it
As it turned out, the new film was a retelling of the story from the third season, the third season was CRAZY good, and since this movie was only 1.5h long (and covered half of the season), some of the story beats didn’t hit as hard. It still was a really good companion movie, because the anime skipped over the Sunrise Festival and this one had the actual performance, and there were a few more shots of 田中あすか in this one, but the most important fact is that since it’s a story I really love and adore, I had a much easier time with listening comprehension with this movie than any other one, it was really fun!
Though, the cinema at 1pm today was almost exclusively older people, 70% men, 30% women xddd
You can take your own seat to the cinema!
The final final movie (Season 3 part 2 retelling) is coming in the fall, they had a teaser at the end of the film too ^^
I found Pokemon and Nintendo today on top of the station’s Lucua mall, new merch lines from Mario Kart World and Hoenn!
And I went to Capcom cafe, they had a collab with Hololive… and wait, what’s that on the desk?
I ended up doing another 謎解き! One that just started a few days ago, with Osaka Station in mind. One that made you run all around 16 floors of the station to solve puzzles and to advance the story ^^
The puzzles were genuinely really hard and even Japanese people I met along the way and was asking for things were struggling with some of the hints
The game takes place in real life, and there’s different things printed on banners and walls around the station, and you need to, first, locate them properly, second, interpret the hints left in those areas, third, DO A TON OF MENTAL GYNMASTICS IN ORDER TO SOLVE THEM
I did one course, it had three individual stories and an epilogue, the first story was so hard I used hints on Line for almost every step of the puzzle, by the second one, I had clearer expectations of what was expected of me, but still used a lot of hints and asking people around, and by the third…
…I just sat down and spammed those recordings for like half an hour and I almost forgot I’m supposed to have a poor listening comprehension, because the story was so engaging and so fun to follow xddd
It took me something like 4 hours to finish a 90-minute course, as predicted by the game makers xddd
A lot of reading in Japanese (that was surprisingly smooth to me!), a lot of puzzles I just couldn’t figure out, a lot of cooperation with people in real life, that was really fun! C:
If I ever end up doing the A course or the other mystery tour, I already have the sets for them ^^
Osaka Station at night is really pretty~
I got myself a ramen bowl today, and asked for it to be large, taught by the experience of small food portions in Japan, aaaand they gave me a liter of chicken broth and a kilogram of noodles. IT WAS GIGANTIC xddd
I didn’t manage to eat it all, but damn, that was interesting ^^
After that, went to Shinsaibashi as it’s a really pretty night district ^^
And yeah, Book-off…
Some coffee…
And wrapped up in the Dotonbori Donki C:
Overall, really fun day, and I’m glad I ended up doing so many things! Definitely learned a lot of Japanese today, so I’m grateful for that too!
Let’s see when I wake up tomorrow ^^
now I get it, thank you 
For sure I’m missing out on this 
I’m inspired by how creatively people like you use the concept of gender. I’m still learning
thanks 
You’re a Ninja and a Samurai now?
You can’t be both… it’s like pirates versus vampires or something. Gotta pick a side.
The rally puzzle has to be hard mode as a foreign language learner.
Ooh shrink wrapped gameboys. I got the famicom/nes themed one from a Japanese seller on eBay the last year of college but unfortunately I got a lot of scratches on it.
Ah! I was there last November!!! I went with my friends :DD They have two little kids, so I feel like being with them and seeing them have fun made the experience more fun for me too!!
Nice!! I’m watching it for the first time and just finished season 2! Have you ever seen/been to any of the Hibike related stuff or spots in Kyoto?
That sounds so fun!!! Thanks for sharing. Also very cool to enjoy something like that in Japanese
Omeowdetou gozaimeowsu! 
Bidoof… how?? 
I am now fully convinced, you have time travelling powers. No doubt.