Any resemblance to real people is entirely coincidentalね
I thought I had to play co-op with you too get on the Island (hope I don’t get “voted off the island” )
Let’s get this party started!!
Hmmm
When I had that issue in Japan, there was an over-the-counter thing next to the lip balm that I bought and put on and bam immediately better…but Ugh granular weird coating super-thick and ugly… Now I wonder what it was
Pfft!
Crud…I laughed so hard, coffee came out my nose!
Curse you–riotously funny commentator on life
that could be the case, but they have all of the rights in the world to increase the markup because people are used to their machines and they live in the area, and they don’t decide to go with it, that’s the most interesting part
Ooh, so excited for you! The 誓いのフィナーレ film and season 3 are genuinely my favorite entries in the series, aside from リズと青い鳥 ofc ^^
Yes, in 2024, and also will have a small update today!
well, no the concert hall has never interested me that much, but I went to the town of Uji and I did the whole Hibike-themed scavenger hunt that the city made for us ^^
And of course climbing the mountain yapping with random women from the UK that decided to get off the beaten path but didn’t know anything about Hibike, I don’t hate pain after all
I might have had my first ekiben that day btw, I completely ignored sightseeing Kyoto having only gone to the Nintendo office and off to Uji for the pilgrimage ^^
First of all, because of crashing yen, especially on used products, you can get really good prices on things, so I ended up getting a new lens for my camera - you might have noticed how blurry some of the pictures were because of the lack of light, I got myself a f/1.8 35mm now and DAMN
Almost all of the pictures below will be taken with it. Quick thoughts: it takes SIGNIFICANTLY better pictures, but my shaky hands and night photography still win with that lens pretty often. It’s fun either way, especially for just 10k yen (it used to cost €400 when it came out!)
I got horribly, horribly lost at the Osaka Station today, not to mention the fact I paid for my Kansai Area 1 Day Pass with a virtual card and I couldn’t redeem it and needed to wait for almost an hour for someone to help me ^^
I DMed my friend in Japan for some emotional support as I was trying to find a train beyond Kyoto, and she did help me out at least pass some time, and then started posting pics from her train too xdd
Why is it so important? 成瀬！ It’s exactly this level of local recognition that I find extremely amusing and fun, so I spent an hour or two walking around 大津 and looking for cool things related to the series ^^
There’s a FamilyMart not that far away from the Zeze station that has this amazing display of 成瀬 related things, and the shopkeeper was really amused to see a person from Poland come all the way to 膳所, so she got me and I got myself a copy of the third book and started reading it ^^
yes, it’s hard for me to read, but not impossibly so! Though, names of places and proper nouns still knock me over ^^
大津 and 琵琶湖 are absolutely beautiful this part of the year because of the greenery, I really have a feeling that Golden Week might be when the single best weather in the whole Japan is there ^^
Aaand, here it is! The famous Michigan cruise! And yep, it also has Naruse-themed merchandise connected to it, and buyers of the book until in a few days have a special deal!
There isn’t that much left of the Haruhi decorations around, but I heard the story that the clock at 阪急西宮 got taken down in the city, and then Kyoani stans were like “NOOO BRING IT BACK” and… they just brought it back ^^
Pilgrimage destination #3! 神戸！ I came in because of Persona 3’s Port Island, but as it turns out, the Persona 3’s Port Island is in Odaiba, Tokyo, and not the Port Island in Kobe : I xdddd
This in general was a very international district from a lot of western government officials that places their areas of operation in that area, and that explains the unique architecture
suddenly, me and EVERYONE AROUND ME had their phones go crazy and start screaming “EARTHQUAKE EARTHQUAKE”. My heart jumped to 150 and I didn’t know where to go and where to hide.
Luckily, I didn’t perceive any shakes at all, but one friend I’ve been DMing was in 大阪 at that time and they wrote me that their building was shaking for 5 full seconds and I was like “AAAAAA”
My heart took a bit to calm down after this
So, tiny stories, I found a JELLY JELLY CAFE IN KOBE! AAAAAAA
I spoke to the owner of the cafe about their podcast and さきこ and せんな and she seemed to know the places where they were owning the cafes and the limited events, but you couldn’t buy any board games there, nor even drink any coffee, so I didn’t stay there long
But when in Kobe, do like the Kobeists do! I went for 和牛, because why wouldn’t I, of course I would xddd
Kobe surprised me in the best possible way, because it looked like a very modern, very functional city with a good plan, where Tokyo looks a little stuck in 1990 and Osaka a little in 2010, this is definitely a 2020 city! I MEAN LOOK THEY HAVE BIKE LIGHTS AND BIKE LANES ON EVERY MAIN CROSSING IN THE CITY!
As for the archery range… You needed to walk 20 minutes through a dark forest with hardly any light inside of it, and my camera wasn’t keeping up with the NO LIGHT xddd
On the way back, when I was going through a dark park, I got jumpscared by a fox-shaped animal chasing a rabbit-shaped animal to death, they both got also really scared of me, but man, two jumpscares in a day was really tough. I’m glad I didn’t encounter either men or bear in the woods though ^^
I’ll probably spend a bit more time in Osaka tomorrow, though I did book a hotel for tomorrow in a different prefecture!
Tomorrow’s post definitely will be shorter and smaller, so see you tomorrow ^^
It makes sense that the fate locations are real places but it’s still weird to see them. I’m not sure if I recognize the haruhi locations or not (I’m a fake fan?). I think that the clock is in the endless eight episode. Lol, you’re zooming through Japan with multiple pilgrimages in a day. 気を付けて with the earthquakes. The new camera stuff does look a little sharper but I may only have noticed because you said so.
Wouldn’t it be scary though if you walked in real locations and suddenly there’s a message that fate started, timer activated and then monsters started appearing?
What? I’ve been playing too much FF XIV? Why the meow would you say that?
These photos!!!
I know completely zero about Hibike though so the relevance of the locations are lost on me I am afraid
Noticing the difference with your new-old camera and the lens:
(zoom of the crossing photo)
These are just in the background but they are so sharp! And that contrast between the sky and the pleasing cubularness of the buildings Japan how are you so aesthetic
This is just from your phone?? Seriously how does it go this hard??
The contrast makes it look like a rendering from a survival horror game.
Hands down my favourite though, the twirly light reflections against the dark water and the industrial lighting is just so good …and the clouds around the moon almost look like yin-yang
If I managed to get my own photo this cool to draw from I’d be super happy
Nice!!! Sorry, I guess Uji is what I meant. They’re so close that I conflate it and Kyoto in my mind Daikichiyama is such a pretty place!! I went at night and it was beautiful
Ahh, and more ひびけ stuff in this post!!!
All of your photos are so beautiful too! Very crisp
I’m glad you found such a cool deal on the lens!!
I saw this and thought “how the hell did you have time to do all this and still go to Kobe?”
Then my eyes popped out of my head
Thanks for the 成瀬 pictures, and 神戸 is also right in the top 3 of places in Japan I want to go later this year, although I might take like 3 days to do 琵琶湖 and 神戸, I don’t have as much energy as you, no way I can fit as much in a day
Yes, came here to say that. The lens was a serious upgrade. And your framing is so good! Thanks for making the effort in the middle of the night to share your trip take care of yourself!
I read a Reddit AMA with Naoko Yamada a while back where she said that she carries a DSLR with herself scouting for locations and that’s the reason why movies directed by her look so striking, I did the exact opposite of that: went to ordinary places that someone else scouted, and learned what was the thing they saw in that place through looking at it from different angles and understanding why they did that angle and that place ^^
there’s a lot of hate on digital AI processing of pictures in post on the phones, but truth to be said… I really like the effects of the AI processing? They might overexaggerate things a bit, but I genuinely remember that that building looked really similar to that picture, so even if it ends up coloring the memories a bit more, I’m still down for it ^^
I think there’s definitely enough stuff in both to have great time the whole three days, I’m just on a timer called “AIRPLANE AWAY”, I envy yall for being able to not have an AIRPLANE AWAY timer tick down for you xdddd
ITS HALF OF THE FUN MITRAC, it’s a half an hour to an hour mindfulness exercise at the end of the day xddd
3h of yapping in Japanese with a WaniKani friend and a random Japanese guy xddd
Book: 海外旅行の英会話p0->p46
(yes, it’s what’s on the tin, a book that’s only useful to be in the reverse order to how it’s supposed to be used, I mention to a friend from today’s study log entry that maybe I should practice example sentences in Japanese and phatic expressions and they delivered, I got this pretty little Daiso book ^^)
Will I read it yeeeeeahmaybeee? Will I learn those expressions I don’t know??? xddd
A big part of today was spent/wasted looking for coin lockers at the Osaka Station and it was much harder than I thought it’d be, as EVERY SINGLE LOCKER right next to every main entrance was taken and I couldn’t leave my belongings anywhere, so I took a stroll around Umeda to leave my suitcase
Also, found a very adorable kennel where you could adopt and care for animals, of course they made all of them awfully cute so that people would want to take them over C:
And though Muji already is widely present in Europe, Muji cafe wasn’t, so I sat on a stool ahead of the cafe waiting to be called to drink a coffee that was, well, nameless quality, it’s good and it’s not supposed to be loud or anything, that’s the point of Muji xddd
I got me some Muji coffee experience ^^
Either way, the WaniKani friend of mine said that yes, they wanted to meet up, so I spent a big part of today walking around Tennoji, where we were supposed to meet up, looking through books at 紀伊國屋 ^^
Both of those actors below are friends of the study log btw ^^
We met up at 四天王寺, which is a shrine where because of Golden Week, there was a book market! And a lot of really good discounts on all sorts of things you will never be able to find digitized on the internet ^^
We chatted a bit and then we took a train to 道頓堀 to grab something to eat, and as we went to a shrine in there because of a recommendation, a guy who was feeding the cats started talking to us, and while the friend was pretty good at answering those questions, I literally did not use Japanese in like 8 months now xddd
We went to a vegan takoyaki place that had more text in English than in Japanese, which was a bit of the problem for the guy, because he didn’t know how to speak English, and I didn’t necessarily know how to translate things to Japanese from what I was seeing xdd
But yeah, as the time went on, I was unlocking myself with Japanese, friend was supporting me and asking me questions to get more Japanese out of me too, cool ^^
Also, bit nsfw, so I’m not posting the picture, but in the bathroom, there were inflatable balls you could write your wishes over and throw them at a person to have your wishes come true, and I did write mine! C:
And we parted ways at like 9pm with what I’d consider to be the weirdest evening I’ve had in a while, can’t complain though xddd
So, thank you @DIO-Berry, that was such a sweet surprise and a day I definitely did not have on my bingo card for the Japan trip, that evening took a completely different direction than I thought it would ^^
here’s to another friend from WaniKani I might or might not meet at this trip later this month ^^
So I take a train to 和歌山 where the guy was from, as I booked a cheap 旅館 here, and it’s one of the last trains of the day, but as it turns out, my ryokan is at the station 和歌山市, which is 40 MINUTES WALKING AWAY FROM THAT ONE
The taxi guy comes, and I show him the address where to go… and he doesn’t know how to read ローマ字. So I read him the address, and he drives me there in the rain, in the dead of the night. It’s dark everywhere, including the 旅館 address and the guy starts getting visibly nervous, being like ええここで本当に大丈夫？？？, and i’m like 旅館が開けるといいな and so on, it’s still raining, no lights at the ryokan, sliding door doesn’t open, we both knock on the door. It takes a bit for a guy to respond, open the door, and the taxi driver is so happy he puts his hands in front of me for me to grab his hands and to thank him xdddd
He drops me off, very happy, also he tried to practice English out of the embarrassment at the ローマ字 bit, and we carry conversation he trying English and me trying Japanese xddd
So the 受付 at the 旅館 had forms to check in that didn’t have English on it. Taught by the experiences of JUST NOW, I asked the question whether I should write in ローマ字 or カタカナ and surprise surprise, he also doesn’t know how to read romaji xdddd
I did check into the ryokan, had a long shower, called my mom in Berlin, and yeah, Wakayama tour tomorrow, wooo xdddd
See you tomorrow, should also be fun! I’m receiving my JR West Kansai-Hiroshima area pass tomorrow, let’s see where it leads me ^^
Masterful photojournalism
Wow, traveling with impulse and planning
Usually it is OK and sometimes it is amazing
Glad you got to meet our DIOberry and more
And sometimes it sucksね
So sorry about the luggage toting in the rain, accidental taxi and late ryokan entry stress… お大事に
It’s actually beautiful that the taxi driver cared about your welfare
They are such professionals in Japan
Yeah, I feel bad for Japanese monolinguals since it’s really best in reverse, but that just means more for you. I have a similar book for emails, but it has a bunch of cultural notes and grammar explanations, so it’s a lot more useful.
Aw man, if I had realized that’s what you were doing, I would have recommended taking your luggage to Tennoji or Namba. Pretty much any big station has lockers.
I think his beef was that the restaurant didn’t feel Japanese enough to him and that the English on the walls was the sign of it for him. He’s in my dms complaining about how the Brazilian guy and you didn’t understand tatemae and honne… I gotta remember to forward this blog to him yet too
I forgot to mark the location before, but when you pass through Osaka station again, I recommend checking out Umeda Sky Building’s basement! and observation floors too. They’re fun. It might be a little hike (10-15min walk) though.
I’m really glad we could meet up too! It was fun and ended up not being what I expected either lol
Ask away lol.
In case one of them is how often this happens though… This is the 3rd or maybe 4th time I’ve experienced this in nearly 7 years of living here
Some people cherish human connection I suppose? We first talked about cats, then got to know each other, and then it happened to be around dinnertime. He wanted to take us to a friend’s restaurant, but they had sold out of food (not uncommon for small restaurants) and the others were closed.
amazing, I feel like I would be way too shy to suggest that right after meeting someone, and it’s never happened to me so spontaneously! Or has it… I’m going to replay my younger years and get back to you (it might take a while )
I did Japanese, but that was mostly “hey how to solve this puzzle” and “how did you manage to connect the dots” or “good luck with your next puzzle”, and not every day you have a conversation about…
…so I have a feeling that I have some of my own opinions about Japanese customs that Japanese people probably do not share even if I understand the context behind them, but I don’t feel comfortable enough with the vocabulary and grammar choices yet in order to be able to articulate where does the disconnect lay xddd
I’m glad I was at least able to express my discomfort but I wish I was able to express why as well
sounds very much like a part of the American culture, you should tell us how does that work ^^ xddd
But yeah, it definitely was unexpected and I’m kind of glad that there were both of us there, because otherwise I’d be wondering what kind of a cult am I just about to join ^^
He was very sweet though C:
at one point in time i should just make a collage with all of your praises and put it on a wall or something because they do really good things to my ego, I need to be careful to keep that in check too xddd
It’s a bit of an anthology of gags that require to have a decent knowledge of F/GO lore in order to understand what’s happening and I regret to inform that I did indeed possess almost enough knowledge to understand the contexts even though I haven’t played it
I actually went for this one because I thought the cover was really cool, but of course none of the stories are like the cover and I was a little let down, I should get better at preventing being baited to read things just based on the cover xddd
So you might have heard at least one of the things that city is known for: Tama the cat, it’s the 20th anniversary of a cat who went on public transit and drove away far enough for it to become the next SNS sensation ^^
和歌山 compared to the other cities I’ve visited so far is a bit calmer, even though it still seems to be pretty spacious. Its’ biggest attraction is a big castle that they built an observational deck for a decent distance away that is perfect for 35mm lenses, photography thanks you C:
Because it’s the season around now, I got me some スイカ and it was really tasty, though I spent a while roaming the city afterwards trying to find a place to throw the plastic out, eventually I just returned to the shop and 預かり’d it in there ^^
And to my surprise, in places it genuinely feels like there’s more English language than Japanese, because a lot of things from Japanese get translated regardless, plus there’s proper nouns and names of things in English too
I heard some horror stories of deer eating on things other people have or being pushy, but no, my experience has been the sweetest, I even fed the deer and managed to pet them too ^^
The deer park in Nara is really big, and as I was hiking through it, there were a lot of temples inbetween. I kind of regret to inform but I’m not a big fan of the Japanese architecture/temples from the olden times?
I’m starting to find my favorite settings, but a big tl;dr is that at night I will not go above 1/200s when trying to capture something, because I’ll always shake it and blur it xddd
Also, look, following the recommendations of DIO-Berry, I started looking at Daiso in search of tiny books in there, and I found a couple of riddles similar to the 謎解き ones, I might or might not be solving them ^^
I had a curry today, I asked for it to be extra 辛い and the guy serving was like “haha look at her she wants to have extra 辛い! let’s do our lest!”, and then they didn’t deliver xdddd
It was a thick curry, it was spicy, but I wouldn’t call it hot and definitely not extra 辛い C:
(FINALLY NOT A BLURRY PICTURE 1/30s F3.2 ISO560 WOOO)
So in 奈良, everything dies off at 8pm, I was surprised, because I still had energy in my legs and I wanted to keep going, but there kinda was nowhere to…?
…so I signed up for 250 yen for a membership at a chain of manga kissas, and they had a really good selection of mangas and magazines if I do say so myself xddd
I sat down and I read for half an hour, had some hot chocolate, then chatted a bit with the receptionist because she was interested in how did I get to learn kanji, how have I heard about 漫画喫茶s (it was hidden on the fifth floor without any banners!) and do people in Poland know Japanese much, and she really seemed sweet and genuinely curious! Asking questions out of template is always a plus for me C:
And yeah, went back to the hotel and started yapping with a girl from Taiwan, one from Germany, a guy from Spain and an older woman from England, all of them were pretty new to Japan, so I did talk a bit about the coolest experiences I’ve had so far, we took a picture together and we were asked out because it was midnight and we were talking loud in the common area xddd
Today was definitely a more nature-heavy and walk heavy day, tomorrow I’m taking a Shinkansen to 広島, and I haven’t decided what to do after that yet, so see you tomorrow! ^^
)
take care of yourself!
amazing
!
so adorable, you clearly won his heart
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