On playing catch-up, part one

Oh hi there! Bet you guys were thinking I was dead or had been kidnapped by the yakuza or something. I'm back anyway. You miss me and my everyday ramblings? Well here, have a much overdo long-ass, picture-heavy post. Take it as a token of apology. I feel bad for neglecting my writing, and for neglecting you, my silent readers. I don't know if I'd say that things have been busier than usual, but there's a lot going on in my world and in my head, and I haven't really felt like writing all that much, but I haven't forsaken you! I'm going to give you a quick rundown of everything now instead. Brace yourself, walls of text and pictures are coming. And goldfish. A lot of goldfish.
So where were we last? Right, cryptic posts about arguments with the Philosopher. That's been going on a lot in the past few weeks. I think we're better now, but the distance is really not something that's even close to being a good set-up. It's hard to know what the future will hold. Managing a relationship when you're in different time zones, with needs that are probably pretty different, is a much bigger project than I thought it would be before I got into it. It's still something that's important to the both of us though, so we're trying to make it work. Still hanging in there.

Right, now that that's out the way... I've bought glasses!

Given how long I'd had my contacts (let's just say... way too long), my eyes were beginning to feel a little unhappy, and when I read that really gross article about a girl who had an amoeba eating her eye (seriously, it's the stuff of nightmares, so click that shit at your own risk), I took that as the universe sending me a sign. Glasses it was. T tagged along being T, alternating between being legitimately helpful and being an annoying bastard, and helped convince me that I wasn't crazy for picking these glasses out. I mean, round and brown, that's pretty much what I wanted to stay away from to start out with. I've gotta say though, I love them. I've gotten so many compliments at work (apart from Franco's very straight-forward "Hey, what's with the nerd glasses?"), and they make me feel Shy-Girl-in-an-Anime-cute, or Hot-Hipster-Architect-cool, depending on my outfit. Anyways, at 7000 yen, they were a steal. Seriously, that's what glasses cost here. No lie. Also, the only person who ever calls me Harry Potter is T, so I guess it's not too much of a likeness.

To celebrate this new-found sense of vision, T took me to J-World Tokyo, a miniature amusement park based on the Shonen Jump comics, like Naruto and Dragon ball. Obviously I was going nuts for the Gintama displays, because Gintama is awesome.  "JUST DO IT!" and all those other memorable one-liners, I mean, what's not to love?

*cough*

Ready to go on adventures with Katsura now!

Om nom nom.

Choji was there too.

Adorable Elizabeth and Sadaharu cake~

Speaking of anime, Pony and I used to watch the shit out of Hakuouki, drooling over all the hot male characters and the subtle kink that constantly seemed to be going on. Anywho, I told one of my female otaku clients about it, and she came back the other day, bursting into my booth, excitedly exclaiming: "I watched it. I watched Hakuouki. It was amazing." Apparently her husband had caught her watching it, asking: "What's that?", and her answering: "Uh... it's uh... anime" and them just leaving it at that. Perving has got to be the best way of bonding ever.

*cough* *mumbles* *clears throat* Where were we? Right, stuff that's been happening. The weekend before last, Peewee took me out to lunch to cheer me up from work being a bit shit, and took me to Art Aquarium, a really awesome installation where all the art was made up of funky aquariums, light shows and goldfish.

Guess who wants goldfish now. Yup, this girl. They make for really amazing decoration. And hey, I've managed to keep my Muji plant alive, so maybe I can graduate to goldfish sometime in the future? I want one of the bigger ones with the fat snake-like head. Totally awesome.

In the evening, I headed out to Hiratsuka in the Kanagawa prefecture for some fireworks. I had accepted pretty much instantly when one of my friends invited me, because I'm seriously taking every opportunity I can to wear my yukata and look adorable. I jumped on it so fast that I didn't have time to google where Hiratsuka actually was, which meant wanting to die a little inside when I realized it was in the middle of nowhere, and that it would take ages to get there. Sucks to be me, right? Getting there made the whole thing worth it though - it was a really nice day, and the fireworks were pretty badass. We actually had some space to sit, which after only having experienced the Sumidagawa fireworks in all their crowded glory is pretty awesome, and to make things even better, these fireworks were close as hell.

Getting to hang out at the beach on a warm day is pretty sweet too.

As someone used to fireworks only really ever happening on New Years Eve, Japanese summer festivals make me happy. I'm growing a little sick of Japanese people's obsession with Frozen though - they play this fucking song everywhere, and the fireworks festival was no exception. Maybe it's symbolic for people here, always doing the right and proper thing, and just secretly wanting out.

I caught the last train home, which as always in Japan means seriously drunk people. It's not like Stockholm-version-seriously-drunk, where they're loud and obnoxious and try to talk to you, but Tokyo-version-seriously-drunk, where they look like lost little children and you kinda want to take care of them. Drinking to the point of falling asleep on the subway floor is bad for anyone. This guy in particular got off at Shibuya after some sweet old man went: "Hey! Hey you! Are you okay? Where are you going?", looking embarrassed and confused. At least there are worse places to be stranded than Shibuya, and crime is pretty much non-existant here, so I'm sure he wandered home at the early hours of the morning to his unapproving wife, to a horrible day of being hungover.

I felt like such a bitch for taking the picture, but this shit brings out the small amount of mothering instinct I have in me, and I needed the photographic evidence. Come on, sweetie, let's get you home.

On my way home I listening to music, and as always was completely oblivious to the world around me, so I didn't notice when a guy I'd breifly made eye contact with started chasing me down the street, trying to get my attention, just to tell me (in a surprisingly non-creepy way) that I suited my yukata and looked cute. Talk about confidence boost of the day. Keep those non-creepy compliments coming, people!