meet-up with ri

One whole week but I finally have time to write about my meet up with Ri last week! Write-up itself is small because we spent a lot of really lovely time talking so we'll go the scenic route.

And yes. I did retro-filter the hell out of these photos.

Anyway so Ri and I met up in Harajuku in the morning and walked over to Yoyogi Park intending on some last minute hanami but to our surprise we ran into the Doggy Carnival instead! I like cats too but I'm much more a dog person so my face was basically

We didn't see any particularly gorgeous hanami around--and by that I mean really any--so after getting solicited by a particularly handsome water salesman we parked it on a bench with some takoyaki.

Ri is ridiculously easy to talk to and super down to earth. We were both inspired by the same type of thing to come here and it seems like we're both slowly starting to be able to follow our dreams. So...yay!

 

When we crossed over into actual Yoyogi Park we found the Horde of Evil Crows. No really, they were insane. 

Despite the actual lack of hanami in the park, there were a ton of people there! Really nice to see Tokyo so full and teeming with life again. We did however find the above few trees and a lot of very young hanami groups and this very nice middle-age couple that took this two-shot for us.

Ri was so stylish and pretty in her coord, too!

After that we headed back to Harajuku so Ri could get a shirt from the Hangry&Angry store. So nostalgic! Also popped into Deal Design and Candy Stripper before running into this crowd of people waiting for a famous model who neither of us knew to come driving out of a back alley? Yeah.

Lastly we headed to Shibuya where Ri was giving an interview and I had a friend's show to go to so we popped into a cute cafe for some cake and ice cafe lattes. I think that was my third that day if I remember correctly.

After (sadly) parting ways with Ri I headed over to Shibuya Cyclone to see FEAR FROM THE HATE play. I used go to visual-kei shows, but I've been sporadically hitting up a few metal/screamo/hardcore shows and I have to say they're pretty fun. I don't throw down for them but it's still nice to watch metal and the atmosphere is so much more relaxed than visual shows. No stress. Just lots of death-voice. It's kind of nice to be honest.

Basically the biggest pain-in-the-ass to find livehouse next to Holiday, however

Got home stupidly late and got up bright and early the next morning to meet up with my bb, Caroline! We haven't seen each other since the quake and it was so good to be reunited. Had lunch at our beloved T.G.I.Friday's and sadly our little baby waiter wasn't there. He was lulzy. I liked him.

Afterward we proceeded to the PARCO in Ikebukuro where we were on a mission to have our matching EGOIST hat purikura.

Favorite favorite favorite!

Caroline's so cute here X3

The EGOIST in the Ikebukuro PARCO always has at least one rude staff girl working every time I go in but they were legit so nice to us that day! I think it's because Caroline was already dressed up and I was head to toe in EGOIST save for my black tank top and shoes. In the words of Janice Ian, "Suck on that! Aieieie!"

After Caroline and I parted ways, I met up with a friend so I could assist with something for his band. I don't really want to say anything else until things are more concrete but it was really fun and I'm glad I could help them out even a little bit. Hopefully I'll be able to say more later but let's just say I'm ridiculously excited that it looks like little by little my dreams are starting to come true, too. I still have a long way to go and I need to figure out how I'm going to get there but, I'm getting somewhere and right now that's all that matters to me.

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caroline

Aaaah do you ever feel like it's one of those weeks that's just going to go on forever? I've felt kind of down lately; mostly appearance-wise, but my mood's kind of off too. I'm hoping it's just the weather? It's been so so so cold here lately and it affects my skin so horribly.

On a happy note, a little write-about my meet-up with Caroline on Sunday!

A bit tired so I'll condense with some pictures. (*^▽^*)

First we went to CHAO-THAI (right in the same building as Argent Sue!) which Caroline recommended and it was so good! I honestly don't think I've had Thai food since I ate it while visiting Leah at Furman almost four years ago. It's been too long!

I had the Pad Siew.

After that we headed to 109 where Caroline attempted to hunt out some red frames from W♥C and I wanted some red pumps. Both (that day at least) ended in failure but it was still fun.

Though the staff-chan at Flag J did bring me about 6 pairs of red shoes that were not the kind of pumps I was looking for.

Bless you Flag J, staff-chan.

I did however manage to pick up a new pair of shorts at Durer! I'd never bought anything from them before but I've literally been wearing the hell out of my current pair that I picked up at Alta almost a year ago. Here's the new ones, though. I love the wash and the distressing.

I thought they'd be too small (they only had S and M) but both Caroline and the staff girl assured me they were totally fine. I loved our staff girl too because she actually had thighs and curves! We talked about how troublesome it was to actually, you know. Have a butt. :


Headed up to Dolly Kiss as well because I'm a sucker for all their 3 pairs for 1050 yen deals.

Only two here because I wore one home, haha.


When we came out of 109 it was actually snowing! Well, snow flurrying but still nice. It snowed so much in Atlanta when I was home for the holidays I shouldn't be saying "Yay snow!" But at least I know in Tokyo it won't stay.


We made our way to purikura after that and ended up picking a machine in the far back of the room. It didn't give me the best coloring but our crazy rakugaki made them really, really cute. This is my favorite one.

If you know who Mark Hamill is, you'll know I spelled his name wrong here. So ashamed.


Anyway, even though it was short I had such a good time! Caroline is really down-to-earth and easy to talk to and we always had stuff to talk about. I miss so much having other foreigner friends I can relate to here!

I mean, don't get me wrong; Tokyo is wonderful but it is what you make it. I have Japanese friends--coworker, girls who I've met and traveled with for bands and lives--but there's something really comforting about being with fellow "gaijin" who love the country as much as you do but can also acknowledge the parts that you side-eye or even the parts that down-right suck.



And speaking of "foreign friends" I get to see two very dear friends in the next two weeks! This weekend I get to meet my friend from South Africa who I've known for yeeeeears online but we've never met in person. We met through the Gazette almost five years ago yet ironically we're both going to see girugamesh in Chiba on Saturday. I'm super excited!

Theeeen the following week will be a 3-day work week for me as I'll take a day off in addition to an already 3-day weekend to go see one of my very best friends who JETs down in Kyushuu. Haven't seen her in over a year and she's a really, really dear friend of mine and I've been looking forward to this trip since November.

So super busy but I'm pretty much ridiculously excited.


I'll probably be dead for a few days so maybe a mini-live report/update on Saturday or Sunday?

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we love mark

Had my meet-up with Caroline in Shibuya today and had tons of fun! I just finished preparing some stuff for work tomorrow so I'm a bit pressed for time but a mini write-up is definitely in the works for tomorrow.


But! You can enjoy a shot of our amazingly lulzy yet adorable purikura and my they-were-perfect-this-morning-then-wtf-happened-bangs.



For now off to bed! ♪

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