• Travel

    Kameyama Shachu

    I adore Nagasaki’s signs that are in Japanese, Korean, English and Chinese. Because I couldn’t read Japanese back when I first visited Japan, I found Korean, in addition to English to be quite helpful. (Things made a lot of sense to me whenever I read something written in Korean that didn’t have an actual meaning in Korean. And for that, I’m thankful I was able to read Korean.) These signs I liked so much led me to temples and eventually to the site of the former Kameyama Shachu.

  • Travel

    Overrated Nikko

    Of all the places I was looking forward to visit in Japan, it was Tochigi’s Nikko. I was drawn to Nikko due to my images of nature and its many world heritage sites.

    Unfortunately, Nikko couldn’t meet my expectations (whatever they were) and left me with much bitter disappointment. A part of the negative experience could very well in part be due to my travel companion being a major pain since the morning of the trip. She was just bitchy AF and for the life of me, I could not comprehend why especially when she didn’t do any of the planning for this trip. (I kid you not unless you want to call a calendar showcasing our departure and arrival date as planning… Begin the eye rolling, folks.)

  • Event

    Mom Thinks I’m Crazy to Marry a Japanese Guy

    Okay, first of all, contrary to this post’s title, I’m not getting married to a Japanese guy. Heck, I’m not even getting married to anyone! Well, at least not yet anyway… One day, perhaps?

    You’re probably wondering why I titled this post as “Mom thinks I’m crazy to marry a Japanese guy” and it’s because it’s the title of a movie I watched recently. On the 8th, the Japan Foundation held a screening of this movie at the Taiwanese Art Academy in Westwood. Yeah, Westwood of all places. (Westwood traffic was bad. The 405 traffic was also bad. So, what else is new?) Because of it being in Westwood, I was close to not attending this screening. I was actually quite hesitant to RSVP for this screening. And then on the day of the screening, I had other errands to tend to prior to the screening which made me second guess on whether I actually wanted to even go to Westwood. In the end, I decided to go to the screening. I was a few minutes late, but I made it and me being a tad bit late wasn’t a problem because 1) I managed to get a seat and 2) the screening hadn’t begun yet. I honestly wished I had gotten there early so that I could have gotten a seat in the front row. Sitting behind people taller than me was a pain. Worst of all was how I couldn’t see all of the movie’s subtitles thanks to it being blocked by heads in the audience. Meh. (Thank goodness that my crappy Japanese skills came in handy, I guess?) The idea of sitting on the ground, right in front of the first row actually crossed my mind a few times during the screening but I suppose I knew better and chose to stay put. (I mean, I was actually fortunate to even have a seat. There were actually people standing against the wall in the back of the room to watch the movie.)

  • Event

    San Fernando Valley’s Obon Festival

    It’s summer and you know what this means. It means hot weather, sweaty people and festivals. One particular festival that occurs every summer is the Obon Festival. This festival, while most well known in Japan occurs outside of Japan as well. Not long ago, I had the opportunity to attend one of the biggest Obon Festivals in Southern California. It was San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple’s Obon Festival held in Pacoima. Yup, the valley where it’s super hot if isn’t already hot enough elsewhere in So Cal.

  • Event

    Cybird’s Ikemen Series booth experience at Anime Expo 2018

    Hiroto at AX2018
    Hiroto, cosplaying as Ray Blackwell from Ikemen Revolution

    Since I was only at Anime Expo 2018 for a day, I was quite limited in what I could do. That said, I did pay a visit to Cybird’s booth inside the Exhibition Hall. There, I got a bag and a card (2 actually). The bag, I got after showing that I had the “Ikemen Revolution” app on my phone. This year’s bag was smaller than last year’s but it was still a nice freebie regardless. As for the cards, I received them after publicizing their booth to my Twitter account and showing it to an employee. The employee (male) was rather expression-less (just like last year) but I suppose that’s just a personality thing and I did get two cards from him, so I’m guessing it’s all good…