ugh, i'm amazed i made it home

[insaneneko]

I'm home, I'm exhausted, I am embracing the sunny high 80s weather here after the cold rainy season of Japan. I would've been okay with rain and cold if I had been well, but...these things happen on trips, I suppose. ^^; Ate a lot of good food and did lots of sightseeing. Two places I highly recommend visiting: Kurashiki in Okayama Prefecture (Ride the river boat!!! Get to the tourist info office at 9 and reserve seats--they are only 300 yen/person. It helps to know Japanese since you get lots of good info from the river boatman, but I think just floating along down the canal is pretty awesome) and Adachi Art Museum in Shimane Prefecture. Adachi is super duper famous for its gardens (which are indeed breathtaking) but the art inside is pretty awesome as well. Lots of late 19th cen/early 20th cen Western influenced Japanese art. Also, Shimane really wants foreigners to visit so you can get discounts into a lot of places if you show your passport. Adachi was half-price! I also enjoyed the prefectural museum right near Izumo Taisha. They have the corniest video explaining the myths regarding Daikokusama/Ookuninushisama (same kanji, different readings, the curse of Japanese!~!), the god enshrined at Izumo Taisha. Instead of doing the logical thing and making an anime, they did a really cheesy mash-up of live action and really REALLY bad sfx (the scene when Daikokusama gets run over by a molten boulder and is burned to a crisp is pretty tacky). It was helpful until all the names got to me and everything became a blur.

I couldn't find a single copy of Ao no exorcist volume 6 in all the bookstores I looked in. Of course, I didn't have a chance to look in many....But it was kind of amazing to not find it anywhere. It was even not in stock on Amazon!!

(BTW, Amazon Japan will ship for free in Japan for any price and if it's in stock it'll almost always be delivered in two days! I'm so jealous since I always have to give two weeks for free delivery from Amazon US to get here. ;_;)

I was very surprised to find out there's yaoi doujinshi for Summer Wars....It even merited it's own section in K-Books! I never even dreamed of slashing that movie...Am I losing my fujoshi lenses?

I bought the May issue of Ciel just to read Super Lovers chapter 10 in Japanese. I had to laugh at just how badly Ren's essay writing skills in Japanese were. I also enjoyed reading the chapter of Junjou Romantica in the same issue. That Za-Men mangaka makes me laugh and icks me out at the same time. Also, Usami jealous makes me smile every time. I wish I'd been able to buy the next issue that has the new Hakkenden chapter in it...I've missed that series so much.

I had no idea that there were FOUR volumes of Yume musubi koi musubi. I so couldn't get into the series...I hope her next series is more to my taste, especially since I've liked everything else she's done.

Comments

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Welcome home! Sounds like you visited some really cool places; too bad I'm not planning on being in that part of the country next time I go to Japan. :/

According to Ciel's website, the new Sakuragi Yaya story is: 駄菓子屋と小児科医のトリッキーな恋！ which...I'm trying to figure out if that's a reference to one of the Yume Musubi characters? Not sure. Either way, I'm really bummed because I was hoping she'd do Shunpei's story. Why create an awesome character and then leave him brokenhearted through TWO series? Ugh, so sad.

(Unless Shunpei grows up to be a pediatrician, lol.)

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

I hope her next series isn't about anyone from Yume Musubi! I really disliked that series so I'd be glad to see the last of it...Unless the story is about your awesome character. Then I'd give it a try. XD;

Where are you planning on going in Japan?

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

I actually liked the side characters in Yume Musubi better than the main character, so I wouldn't mind seeing them. But leaving it behind altogether is OK, too. As long as she gets back to Shunpei eventually. XD

(If he is a side character in this series and still has a broken heart, I'm going to lose it, seriously.)

Going for Comiket, so pretty much just the Tokyo area. We talked about going to Kansai for a couple days, but August is way too hot for sightseeing, really. Might go on a day trip or two--I'm a dork, so I really want to see Tobu World Square (http://www.tobuws.co.jp/). XD

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

Comiket! I've never been because none of my RL friends were interested and I didn't want to go by myself to such a big event. It doesn't help that it happens during rather unpleasant times of the year....

I've never heard of Tobu World Square, but it looks cool.

[wednesday-10-00.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Comiket is a dauntingly large event to go to by yourself. It's definitely too bad it's in August--when I left Japan a couple years ago, I swore I would never go back during the summer, but it's hard to avoid when that's one of only two times Comiket is held. In my experience, December is a much better time, but a fangirl's gotta do what a fangirl's gotta do. XD