On two weeks of radio silence, part two

One of the things that felt really hard for me during my radio silence was the fact that I felt completely isolated from my family. How isolated? Well, when visiting Sankeien, my brother texted me asking if I wanted to be in on my cousin's wedding gift. I was not invited to this wedding.

Now obviously that probably wasn't a slight, but more of a 'Well, it's not like she can come anyway'-type deal, but to not even be asked when clearly everyone else in the family was, felt harsh. When talking to mom later, she mentioned a funeral they were going to on the weekend. Apparently the wife of my dad's twin brother had died. No one had told me.

So yeah, that was fun. Feeling like the world has moved on without you, and that just four months can make your own family stop thinking about you was something that quite upset me. It's like because I'm not there, I don't matter. And what helps when you're feeling upset?

That's right, full scale replica Gundam models.

You thought guys I was kidding, didn't you. Nope! This baby is standing in Odaiba, looking absolutely enormous. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome.

I spent last Friday hanging out in Odaiba, eating pancakes and just generally trying to get my head back in the game. It's pretty wonderous what half-sleeping in the sun will do for your mood.

I'm feeling kinda excited about the fall starting. Not only for the glorious sweater weather (although I totally feel like a spoiled brat for thinking that 25 degrees counts as sweater weather), but just for the fact that time is moving forward. It's not some timeless dream of eternal summer, I'm actually moving forward. Just now I was browsing IKEA furniture, and it actually hit me that I fucking live in Asia when I had to choose which country I belong to. I keep forgetting, however much sense that makes when I'm surrounded by Japanese people who more or less only speak Japanese. To me, that's just... the way things are, I guess. I don't think of this place primarily as 'Japan', in that mythical magical sense that I know a lot of people do, but as more of... home, I guess. I feel like I'm home.

And now we've finally arrived at this week, this Monday more specifically. Mondays are my inofficial 'hang out with T'-days, where we get up to silly shenanigans around Ikebukuro. This week we decided to hit the Ikebukuro aquarium before work. It's another one of those things we did two years ago, although I'd forgotten how awesome that place was, which made the impact feel slightly less powerful than that of Sankeien, but still, it was fun to go back and do it all over again.

Except for seeing this guy. Seriously though, what the fuck is this? This fish was nightmare fodder if I've ever seen any. See those tiny things under its body? Those are hands. This is like some evil frog-elephant-fish-bunny-abomination.

Crab the size of a medium-sized dog anyone?

Not to mention these scary mofos.

He's sending hugs to Pony!

This kid came up out of nowhere and stood on my feet to get a better view. You're lucky you're tiny and absolutely adorable, chibi.

Happy manta rays!

As much as jellyfish freak me out, I've gotta admit that they look pretty damn amazing when they're lit up in neon colours.

T sharing a moment of inter-species connection. That, or a severe longing for sushi.

These fish are getting into their Halloween groove early.

Happiest. Axolotl. EVER.

Turtles are bullying bastards.

Iguanas have the whole group cuddling thing down.

T, being his usual mature 28-year old self, pointed out every single piece of poop he could find in the aquarium.

The Ikebukuro aquarium can boast very sleepy seals.

This is a new Disney movie waiting to happen, right?

Armadillos with butts that would make Nicki Minaj feel inadequate.

Adorable prison break anteaters.

I like to think of this as 'the cuddle hutt'.

I'm going to sound like a complete psycho now, but this last fish knows me. Two years ago, a fish swam up to me looking kinda happy. T joked around saying: "It's happy you came to see it!", and we joked and waved to the fish. Now, this fish swam right up to me with the happiest look on its face and hung out in front of me, as if saying "Hey! It's you! You're back! I missed you!", and I never thought a fish could convey so much emotion, let alone stir up so much emotion in me. BFFs, Best Fishy Friends.

Our first fishy encounter, two years ago. Swear to god it's the same fucking fish.