29 January 2013

(´∀`) Tagged

I am super bored; and feeling incredibly lazy.. I was supposed to blog about something worth reading that I found interesting, but I've hit a creative block. English is no longer my native language; I just want to gurgle and sleep in my blanket cocoon.


I got tagged by Mana! Thanks~

25 Questions'-tag :

1. Do you have any pets?
In England; 4 Cats + 1 Fish.
U。・ェ・。U My Boyfriend has a dog; it is mine.. forever.

2. 3 things you see at the moment :
My phone, cheki and diary. (*^o^*)

3.How is the weather?
Today is warmer than it has been in a while; but it's cloudy, windy and did rain.

4.Do you have a driving-license?
No~ (・з・)

5.When did you wake up today?
Uh; first time around 5am to reply to a MSG. Then 7am, and finally 8am. (* ̄・ ̄)ノ

6. Last shower?
Yesterday!

7.Last Movie?
ALIEN on the TV

8.Your latest text-message?
From my Uncle asking about Japanese music.

9.Which ringtone do you have?
DELeTE - Transplant, because reasons.

10.Did you ever been to a foreign country?
Japan; though pit stops in China and Qatar.

11. Love sushi?
(ノ=´∀`=)ノLOVE♪ I am demanding my Boyfriend brings me some!

12.Your favourite supermarket?
I don't really have a favourite.

13. Did you ever take some sleeping tablets?
Nope.

14. How many siblings?
One younger brother.

15. Computer or notebook?
I have both. ヽ(*´з`*)ノ

16. Which age you will reach on your next birthday?
SECRET.

17.Glasses or lenses?
I have glasses, and wear lenses.

18. Dying your hair?
Previously; yes.

19. Any plans for today?
I went to the post office; how exciting. I also studied a little bit.

20. When did you cry the last time?
Uh; October.

21. Best Pizza covering?
N/A.

22. Hamburger or Cheeseburger?
N/A.

23. Did you had an allnighter?
23. Have you ever done an allnighter?
... ENGLISH PLZ. But I try to avoid allnighters.

24. Eyecolor?
Hazel; which confuses my Japanese friends.  

25. Can you Cola and Pepsi tell apart from each other?
25. Can you tell Cola and Pepsi apart from one another?
Nope. However I do strongly dislike pepsi from a bottle.. Uhh? (-ェ-*)  

Rules :
* Tell your follower, who tagged you. 
* Answer the questions 
* Tag 6 other blogger 
* Tell them, that they got tagged
* BREAK ALL THE RULES!! (ノ´‐`ヽ)

21 January 2013

ヽ(;▽;)ノ ちび!

A few months ago I came across ちびのせかい-Chibi no Sekai-,  they are adorable hand crafted chibi  made in polymer clay of various Japanece musicians!! Chibi in Japanese roughly means 'small' but often in Anime and Manga it portrays super cute characters with large heads. After entering the give away to win any custom order, I actually ended up asking the owner of Chibi no Sekai if she would do me a commission and she agreed! Throughout the process she kept in contact and updated me of the progress. Which you don't often find with people when you ask for a commission!

I recieved my package, after much of a long wait because postal services here and in Germany suck! Little Kapibarasan was curious.. わふ〜
Aren't they adorable?! I asked for Renji, as well as Neu as a gift. Because I missed DELeTE last live, I will hand Neu to my Friend when I go back to Japan; so I hope she likes him! I asked for Renji, because he is my favourite member of DELeTE, and the only member to have kept in contact with me.

Overall I love the skill behind these, and the time taken~ I have slightly altered one thing and added a gem to Renji's necklace; but that wasn't the fault of the creator. I was being picky, but she honestly did an amazing job and there is nothing to fault with these!

Both are a little under 5" each in height, though they are keychains I feel they are too delicate to be swinging from my bag! They already have a nice home on my bookshelf. Each chibi also comes with the keychain, I did ask about colouring and letters, and I was allowed to pick colours, extra beads and naming; which you can't see clearly on my photos. However you can see them in their own little folder here!
So do please like her Facebook page! Ask her for commissions; I've asked her already about whether or not she will do K-Pop artists - so she is not limited to just J-Rock!
She does ship out of Germany; and wraps all her creations safe and securely.

PS; She has a give away right now!! It's easy to enter, just like, share and comment! E-A-S-Y!

14 January 2013

☢ 281 ANTI-NUKE ☢

 Japanese Street Art

Whenever I visit Japan I always end up photographing such weird things, anything from the floor to local graffiti, or "Street Art". I absolutely find it fascinating, especially in Japan. Sure you get the 'I LOVE ____' graffiti scrawled up the side of vending machines, chain link fences and such, but you also get amazing pieces of art! Some pieces are very mind boggling, where as others, promotional tags.
I wouldn't consider the tags part of a 'terrortory' not like here where I come from, you see 'NG15' around a lot, because apparently we have a representative 'gang' in our area, nice...



After the Tsunami disaster in 2011, it sparked many people's concern with health, especially after the meltdown of Fukushima power plant. The threat and worry of radiation became a nationwide epidemic, and a lot of unanswered questions, skillfully dodged and skirted around.
Nearly a year ago after then, I was in Japan, and a year after the Tsunami; so obviously the disaster was to be remembered, charity and fundraising made streets swell, because; after all despite all the help previously Japan was still suffering with worry and dread of this unspoken radiation!
If you looked beyond the fundraisers that day you will see (yes see) a silent voice - and even today you will still see the silent voice of "281 Anti-nuke", a graffiti tag artist who believes in anti-nuclear power.
 
'I HATE ☢ RAIN' 
This little girl is all over Tokyo - mainly Shibuya is where I spotted her the most. Her anorak comes in a variety of colour, but the message is always the same. 281 Anti-nuke also created a new tag for the Summer.  So the fear is still out there, however who really will take these small voices into consideration?
Image credit: SNUPPED
281 not only focuses his views on anti-nuclear, but also anti-tepco, (Tokyo electric power company). Many of 281's work for anti-tepco involve Children's characters such as Hello Kitty and even Seseme Street characters.
281 has been known now as the Japanese version of Banksy, where you can see the similarities and especially since no one knows the true person behind 281.


There are so many other pieces - between Shibuya and Harajuku you see a vast vast variety and it is indeed beautiful that many local people just breeze by them without a second glance. I on the other hand, always stop and take photographs. Though I do this in the UK so I am no different and I love Art like this. By the way, not all pieces of street art are scary demonic sounding threats and/or warnings. Some are purely innocent, creative and cute. As long as the work isn't tacky or discriminative, I see no reason as to why graffiti should be hidden from society. 
Disclaimer: all images are © to me unless otherwise noted beneath the image!

7 January 2013

★ SpaM ★


I never really posted a full "update" from Christmas, and after reading many peoples blogs about their presents and gifts; maybe I should? I didn't get an extreme amount of presents, it's notorious, the older you get, the less presents you get; unless of course you have incredibly wealthy parents. I asked for two things this year: a camera (well I don't have a photo of that, but it's a beautful white Nikon waiting for me to attack it with stickers) and the full set of Pirates of the Caribean movies.
Which, speaking of Pirates, I am actually excited for Johnny Depp's star role in the new movie, Lone Ranger. Anyway I digress!! Here are the few of my goodies:
 
 ★ Pyjama, admittedly I haven't had a new SET since... I forget. But I tend to buy sleep shorts only, or lounge pants - yeah I sleep in band shirts.
 ★ Only Yesterday DVD, who cannot love Studio Ghibli movies? My Brother got me this and we watched it Christmas Day together. Such a cute story.
 ★ Watermelon purse, such a hippy and natural organic material, again from my Brother. I might store my camera inside it or coins. 
 ★ BITS N PIECE: I randomly got lip balm that is coca cola, it tastes nothing like coca cola yet it's official. WOT. Touch screen gloves, I was skeptical but -- THEY WORK! I also got a little bear ring from my Brother. A calender from my Grandma and a bunch of chocolates. 
Additionally I also got a cold and mild chest infection, thank you Mother!

Yeah I am only just recovering and last night I managed to sleep in my own bed. The last few nights I have slept downstairs because my coughing fits were terrible and I felt like I was keeping people awake! I also 'overdosed' on vitamins and my body decided to try and flush everything out, talk about fever!! So we didn't have a very enjoyable start to the new year,  so here is hoping 2014 will be better HAH.
I recently asked for a custom chibi order! I am so excited to receive it, I will do a blog post when I do, linking you to the page where I got it done and photos. I have to be careful because one of the chibi order is for my Friend in Japan. She's a massive fan of DELeTE too! But I am so excited for them to arrive!
 
2013 GOALS
★ Visit the Boyfriend! It has to happen, I'm on a near break down and I want to see him again! Although we had a small conversation and it seems he wants to come to England for "Summer". I just need to encourage him to get his passport now.
★ Save up as much money possible, with a Job of course. Because it's getting really irritable and I looked today at the line of work avaliable and it is slim. But I am keeping my chin up. But then I will focus on a working visa in Japan for WHENEVER.
★ Japanese. I'm sure I am repeating last years goals I aimed to achieve. Originally I had said: 'Learn one kanji a day' because I have over 300 kanji flash cards nows, so that is one a day (albeit a few days of non-study right?)
★ Spend quality time with Friends, in Japan and the UK. I really miss my Friends in Japan and when I go back we are going to celebrate Christmas together. I do have everyones gifts - apart from Mi-chan, but I have a rough idea!
 

1 January 2013

My Year: 2012

Deep thinking always commences in the shower -- right? I'm not the only one who does this, I know. But I came up with an interesting and very fun blog so I can reflect on this year, so a pre-warning that this may get very lengthy and picture heavy!! ( ̄▽ ̄;) I will link back to various parts of my blog also for those who want to read further into my mayhem.

January:  This was probably one of the most boring months, I had already paid for my secret trip to Japan (In March) so January was a slow start to this year. Waiting, saving.. same old same. To be honest, January's are ALWAYS boring, right? Even though it's a fresh new year and we all set goals and aspirations -- the majority of mine had flopped progressively through the year too.

February: The month of ~love~ but we also had snow, and I love snow. Everyone should love snow. February was the shortest month but of course it felt like the longest, counting down the days until I would leave for Japan. Oh and let's not forget, this is when I picked up my "Band Promotion" work being cheeky with the Guitarist of DELeTE, Koki. Who came and went as quickly as the snow. But the work continued and I had arranged to work directly with the band in March. The most exciting news for February!
 
Sid in the Snow!

March: Japan! For the, third time? Oh.. I finally made a couple new Friends! One who I met again later this year, Ku. March was such an exciting month because I had so many things planned while I was out in Japan. Some plans flopped, and some plans were just even better than expected. For the first time I went to Tokyo Disney too! I also met DELeTE, working with them I took photos of the live for them too, which was very bizarre and still to this day I am amazed and bewildered that I got the opportunity to meet them.
With the guitarist: Renji.

April: Anyone who spends time abroad, or away from home, knows the "come downs" of returning to reality. I admit, April took me a long time to gather myself and well, due to events previously I was still taken back at the proposal. April is Easter which means - CHOCOLATE, the best remedy. Again I was asked to return to Japan to photograph DELeTE  but it was impossible, instead -- I screen capped their Live Stream. Smart move because no one else did. Also, April 1st was the announcement from An Cafe, that their Hiatus was broken and they would return the same year in September! Japan:GO!GO!

May: I cannot recall much excitement for May. Other than studying Japanese whenever I had the motivation. Seriously this month is so confusing since no where online where I can recap well enough to feedback on May. Did it even exist?

June: 私の猫が死んだ 20120619 -- My Family lost our Cat, Sid. He was suffering and in the end we had decided to put him to sleep as it was best. June was a rather... depressing and slow month. I had been truly annoyed by my work advisor at one point and felt it wasn't his right to judge my appearance or feel the need to tell me how I never look 'enthusiastic'. To be honest, I was thankful when June was over it was the worst month this year so far!

July: Every year my Family will go together away on a "Family Holiday" - most of my Friends seem to have grown up from doing such things, but my Family seem very.. traditional, and we go annually around the UK, this year my Father had decided to go to Isle of Wight. I was on a budget during the Holiday because back in May I had booked myself flights to Japan in... AUGUST. I was very excited for that but so pleased to be going on Holiday within the UK again. It was very quaint in Isle of Wight, such a small Isle that you can tour it within a day if you wanted.
Random Boats at Isle of Wight!

August: Japan! I travelled this time totally alone. I had not told anyone as it was no ones business as to why I was going back to Japan so soon, though those who knew, knew I was travelling to meet my Boyfriend.It was freezing in London, though arriving in Narita, my first step into Japanese summer was like baking myself. My first time in Yokohama, oh and I managed to meet up with Katie and Ku when I visited Tokyo. I went to see N@H first oneman with Katie, which was amazing. I did a lot in August that I linked my whole archive actually, everything from N@H to the Summer BBQ and even the Aquarium!

September: I celebrated my Boyfriends Birthday with him, that was something I have never done, well.. so maturely? He actually told me that he doesn't really celebrate Birthdays, but I went out to purchase him cake and an extra present! I felt really proud of myself, as strange as that sounds. Though staying in Yokohama I developed independence, well~ of course I depended on him a lot too. We also went to see Miku Hatsune, that day was awesome, I took my Boyfriend and Hiro to Akihabara. Then I persuaded them to visit a Maid Cafe with a slight pirate theme! I also worked with DELeTE again, and met with the band previously in August casually and again sometime early October.
DELeTE @ 池袋EDGE!

October: My Birthday! I celebrated it with my new Friends and received so many Gifts! My Boyfriend took me to Yokohama Bay, and we visited the Sky Garden and the amusements there. We realised an influx of people, and went to investigate and realised it was actually Oktoberfest! I kind of celebrated my Birthday twice, which had also included a huge meal out with my Boyfriends Parents, siblings and partners. It was so fun that I was accepted, way-way back in March I had his Parents asking me to visit! We also decided (in August) that in October we would go to Disneyland Sea for Halloween! My first time at Disney Sea! It was such an amazing time! I returned to England, late October, and celebrated Halloween at home, all lonely and depressed.
東京ディズニーシー!

November: The cold realisation that you not be able to see your Boyfriend for at least another year? Depressing. Although I had a trip to London to see my Friend Toni, I hadn't seen her in over a year and I did also miss her too. We saw An Cafe together and ate amazing sushi at 3am! My plans have been non-stop thinking about Japan, which has kind of interrupted with future plans; like Christmas...and looking for a job had totally side lined because of the lack of motivation. It didn't help when my Cat got sick, and desperate at the time I created a ChipIn page to help her. Oh, and DELeTE disbanded also, November was a crappy month really.

December: It is now December and looking back at the months above, my year has been pretty dismal and 'romance afflicted'. I am a little excited for Christmas this year, I think the stress of buying gifts for my Family really grinds you down where you wish it would just be over already. But it's the only time our Family gets together (aside from Birthdays). Although next year I hope for something a little different. I sent D-chan an advent calender, and my Boyfriend a card, though he doesn't celebrate Christmas but this is what he gets for dating me. Aheh~

2013 Goals:
☆ Return to Japan to see my Boyfriend! Of course, this is #1. Although he wants to come to England, shocking. But I want to see all my Friends again in Yokohama!
☆ Continue with self-teaching Japanese, as difficult as it is, I want to aim for a kanji a day (lolweek). But one is better than non. 
☆ Work~ I cannot do much without this, the other week I did miss a call from ONE of the billions of agency I am signed up for, annoying.