Happy Easter time!

Oh, it’s Easter! I made hot cross buns, ate Easter ice cream from Baskin Robbins and played with little fluffy Easter chick toys :)

Oh so traditional!

Mmm, crazy Easter ice cream :)

Hot cross buns that I made

Fluffy little chicks!

“Huh, what?”

Chick parade

Aaaah they’re so cute!!

Chicks for you

Aw

The hot cross buns were nice but not perfect! I need to work on my baking skills! Cakes are fine, but buns and bread are much harder, particularly without a proper oven. Oh well!

Failing to visit the Ghibli Museum

OK, I still haven’t been. It’s not because I don’t know how to buy tickets! I have the instructions written in my notebook and everything, I just keep forgetting to book them. You see you can’t just show up and buy them, you have to buy them in advance from Lawson (a convenience store) and you have to buy them for a specific time of day, The time/day can’t be changed and as you can buy tickets up to three months in advance you really have to plan ahead. So anyway, we were in Inokashira park and suddenly realised that hey, we’re next to the Ghibli Museum. We were just standing outside looking in when I remembered that the Laputa robot statue is on the roof! I got very excited and walked quickly (wasn’t excited enough to like, run) round the building and sure enough, you can see it from outside! Yes! There were a few museum staff around but other people were taking photos so I went ahead. Then one of the guys at the gate came up to us and I thought “Laaame” but he wasn’t coming to tell us to stop, no no! He said we should go over to the entrance where we could take photos of the giant Tototo at the ticket gate! Thank you lovely Ghibli Museum man! So we did and now I am more determined than ever to book tickets and actually GO.

It’s in the trees!

Ah! Look!

Look how big it is!

One please

Here is some money

I heart Totoro :)

Happy Birthday Happy Birthday

What a lovely birthday weekend I’ve had! And in celebration: some rather low quality photos from my ipod, hooray! I have some better photos but they’re on my camera, and it’s late (00.30) and I’m sleepy. People keep pointing out that I am always sleepy. I don’t think I am! Maybe I just say it all the time. Or maybe I don’t get enough sleep. I’m not sure.

Well it was Hina Matsuri the day after my birthday

Munna meets Bagpuss

Pretty gloves

Munna and Mijumaru are playing

Mijumaru in my birthday mug

These were on top of my cake :)

Perhaps you can tell: I got a lot of cute stuff. A lot of Pokemon stuff and a lot of Kitty stuff. Hooray!! I also had  a lovely party which involved cool people, Singstar, Rock Band, beer, pink sparkling wine and cake. Yummy!

Happy Blurry New Year!

Happy New Year!

Pretty colours!

Yaaaaay!

Help!

Oh! So slow!

I know, it’s been ages! I do apologise, I was having some photo storage problems but it’s all fine now :)

As promised, some more cute Halloween things:

Cute sweets extravaganza!

I don’t like these but I love the box!

Sweeeet

Aaaw

Spooky chocolate

Spooky pumpkin pudding

You’re under arrest, Gloomy Bear ghost!

Cute! I didn’t make this…

I did make these chocolate coffins though, yum!

Kawaii Halloween

I love Japanese Halloween goods! I can barely resist buying anything with a cute pumpkin/ghost/witch on it… I recently tried one of Baskin and Robbins new Halloween ice creams but I didn’t manage to get a photo, I was carrying too much stuff!! It had mini orange chocolate pumpkins in it! I’ll try to get another one and take a photo. I want to try all four…and the Halloween sundae! Anyway, moving on to things I HAVE taken photos of, here are some Halloween treats:

Halloween Toppo!

Aw, it’s a gift. To me!

Witch Koala

Can you see the little ghost koala?

LOOK AT THE LITTLE GHOST KOALA!!

Bat Koala

Halloween Kit Kats!

And the reverse

Mmm, pudding flavour, yummy.

Cute! And spooky. Mostly just cute though!

I made a cake

Check it out! It’s Danny’s birthday cake. It’s meant to be a Nintendo DS in case you can’t tell!!

Cake!

It’s a DS

Me and a cake

I like baking!

Why Sanrio Puroland is the best place ever

I was in Tokyo for a about a week so no updates, sorry!! I know, I know, it IS possible to update when I’m not at home but I just didn’t quite get round to it! Of course the main reason I was in Tokyo was the Tokyo Game Show and I will put some pictures up from that (only pictures of cute things though!) but I haven’t put them on my computer yet so in the meantime: Sanrio Puroland. We went there on the Tuesday after TGS.

You know how lots of people in Japan seem to really, seriously love Disneyland/Disneysea? Sometimes people even say things like “It makes me happy” or “It gives me dreams”. OK, so I can never imagine myself feeling that way about Disneyland because (Sssh, secret!) I’m not much of a Disney fan. Sanrioland on the other hand, made me feel the way I imagine Disney fans feel at their theme park of choice.

It’s amazing of course! It’s in the middle of this nothing area. All grey, mid height buildings and businesses and then suddenly this massive pink castle, right next to a road. It’s a little bit rusty and tumbledown on the outside but inside it’s fantastic. Once through the ticket barriers you look ahead and see this giant fake tree (“The Wisdom Tree”) and all these little nooks and pathways all around it, it’s hard to figure out where to go first!

First we went on the boatride. It was very cute but I have to admit I was a little scared! We were in a  boat, alone, and as you go along, little scenes light up with music and voices. I was distracted enough by the cuteness not to be too freaked out but ever since a terrifying walkthrough ride featuring historical scenes and sinister talking cats I went to with my Mum and brother in Weymouth when I was little I’ve been pretty scared of rides like this (Darkrides I think they’re called?).

OK, the rest of the place offered no complicated cute-fear combinations, it was all cute. We saw a show in the Discovery Theatre (Golden Age of sci fi inspired!) featuring Cinnamon, two lovely dancing ladies in awesome costumes and the audience participation catchphrase “Power of…communication!” I normally HATE audience participation but…I participated, I even did the whole making-a-heart-with-your-hands gesture! Loser!

The Kitty Lab attraction is fascinating too. A mini Kitty village! I was really bad at most of the games but never mind! Kitty’s house is adorable. Although…if you were Kitty, would you really want a pink bath shaped like your own head? Or a mirror? Or a sofa? Isn’t that a little weird really?!

Managed not to buy tooo many things. Bought elaborate bentos purely for the packaging rather than the actual food and found Tuxedo Sam goods which are almost never available! Also met some characters and went slightly mental cause they’re so impossibly cute. Especially Mocha with her sad eyes!! She kept looking up at me and making hug movements with her arms! Yes I know it’s a person in a costume!!

So you see..you really should go to Sanrio Puroland. It made me feel relaxed, happy and amazing. It gave me dreams!! ;P

Here is a massive gallery of photos to look at, enjoy!

Cute!!

Cinnamon lost in the Edo period

Oh…she can’t feel love, she is sad

She has pink hair so…she’s happy now!?

Kitty coffee!

My adorable pudding

Danny’s adorable lunch

My adorable lunch

Kitty cake and Kitty coffee

Fluffy!!

Magical mural

Lovely little Tuxedo Sam

Yay!

Quiet contemplation

Aaah! Cinnamon!

Kitty cakes

Cute angry Badtz Maru

Kitty Granny!

Graduate of Kitty College

Kitty Cafe, why aren’t you real??

Oh no!

Cookie Station!

Kitty and some of her DNA

Aaah!

Disco Kitty mirror!

Kitty’s bath

Kitty wallpaper in Kitty’s house

Inside the Wisdom Tree

Mocha! I can barely handle the cuteness!

Bye Bye!

And now I am going to try to tidy away all the stuff that came back with me from Tokyo :( Will try to update again this evening!

Waaay Overdue Summer Sonic Post!

Overdue, I know. Also, I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures because I didn’t take my camera *gasp!* so any pics are from my phone or Danny’s phone. I know, why didn’t I take it? We-ell..I just decided that I didn’t feel like carrying it around and I didn’t want to spend the whole time looking for cool stuff to photograph. I just wanted to walk around, feel good, listen to music and be! I do love taking pictures, really, it’s just that…well my gig pictures never look thaaat great anyway and I wanted to be unencumbered! It was a good idea, I think. I mean, it was insanely hot of course so…the less to carry around the better really! Of course within minutes of getting there we’d bought T-shirts and the most awesome bag ever (it has Morten Harket’s face on it) but they weren’t so heavy. Anyway…

I’ve been to a lot of gigs over the years but not a lot of festivals. I think this year’s Summer Sonic was the closest I’ve come to a ‘Perfect Festival Experience’. OK-no camping. I know for some people that’s a great big deal but I hate camping so the lack of tents was a bonus to me! Also the line-up, while good, wasn’t perfect or anything. I loved it though. I went last year too and I spent quite a bit of time feeling kinda stressed out. I still enjoyed it, I just felt a little frazzled and missed out on a lot of bands I wanted to see through sheer exhaustion. This year felt a lot more chilled out. We went down to the front more often and danced more! Maybe the dancing helped. It sounds lame but, dancing surrounded by hundreds of other people dancing just makes me feel really happy and free. It makes me feel like -Hippy Alert!-everyone is connected.

Here is a list of the bands/singers we saw:

7th August:
One OK Rock, the pillows, The Drums (end of set only), Band of Horses, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Jonsi, Stevie Wonder

8th August:
Hurts (end of set only), Yes Giantess, Two Door Cinema Club (end of set only), Delphic, Passion Pit, a-ha, The Offspring, Jay Z (beginning of set only), Calvin Harris

the pillows

Pretty and lonely

A shining light

Bagpuss checking out the stage

Pink sky

BRMC

BRMC in yellow

Bagpuss is impressed. I think.

It was very hot…

Bagpuss is sad that this is a-ha’s final tour

This is pretty much what one drinks at festivals

Waiting for a-ha

The Offspring!

“You used to hold me”

Happy dance

One OK Rock were good at SHOUTING VERY LOUD. The pillows were very happy and self deprecating. The singer stopped a few times to go “Atsui desu ne?” (“It’s hot, right?”) and to comment on what was playing on the loudspeakers over on the main stage. I really thought they were going to launch into ‘Jump’ by Van Halen at one point! Band of Horses were lovely and had pretty background visuals (I wish they’d played ‘Monsters’ though!). BRMC were great, we were almost right at the front for them. I’ve only ever owned their first album and hearing them really reminded me of high school. It was one of my ‘zoning out’ CDs. (‘Red eyes and tears, no more for you my love, I fear, no more tears, no more tears, I’m in love…’). Jonsi was the only artist of the weekend to make me cry a little (a-ha were close though!!). His voice is equally beautiful in real life, it really is unreal, like crystal, and heartbreaking. He looked like some kind of broken angel on stage. Heart rending.

And Stevie Wonder? Wow, what a special guy! He had me from the moment he stepped on stage dressed in head to toe white and playing a white keytar (which he proceeded to play lying down and then behind his head). His backing singers were awesome. How much would I love to be a backing singer!? I want to sing and do very literal mimes! Their miming for ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’? Immaculate!! They mimed signing something, folding an envelope and handing it to someone! Me too please! At one point he had the crowd chanting “Free, from racism!”, “Free, from poverty!” and so on. He brought some of his children on stage and later professed his conviction that he’s “Gonna have some more children, yeah!”. He sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and invited everyone to record it so that, in case today was not their birthday, they could play it when it was their birthday and remember this moment! Oh wow. My cynical little heart melted into a puddle. It was such a warm, lovely performance. Everyone seemed really happy, loved it. Thanks, Stevie Wonder.

Next day we started off with Yes Giantess. They were pretty energetic and fun. Two Door Cinema Club was PACKED and had a moshpit and everything.  Delphic I quite liked and danced around to a lot. Passion Pit are one of those bands I’ve failed to check out but have been meaning to. Really liked them. A-ha were, of course, fabulous. Morten Harket looks amazing. No ‘Manhattan Skyline’ though!! They finished with ‘Take on Me’ and as they left the stage Magne Furuholmen muttered something like “What else could we play?”. Not angrily, more cheerfully matter-of-factly! This was their last ever gig in Japan (not that I ever REALLY believe artists when they say ‘Farewell Tour’…) so lots of people were shouting stuff like “Morten!! Thank you so much!!”, “I love you!” and so on. Some people were waving little Norwegian flags! Incidentally this was the only show where there appeared to be someone passing out in the audience. She didn’t, she clung on to the railings but she really, really looked like she was about to faint the whole way through…

After a-ha we saw The Offspring and the start of Jay Z (pretty lights) then headed over to the Dance Stage to catch Calvin Harris’ DJ set. I was terribly tired but threw myself into dancing for the next hour anyway. It was so much fun. No one pushing, everyone just jumping around like crazy and throwing their hands in the air. Lovely. So left the festival feeling hippie-ishly mellow :)

Lantern Love

A  lantern festival in Tado. It was small and pretty and a little mysterious. In the dark, Tado feels like a little floating island.

Red lights

Singing songs

Pretty lanterns

People in the dark

Overhead

Blurry game

Movie set lighting

Hidden

String of lights

Names

Pretty lines

Ordered

Lonely bridge

Lonely prayer

Overpowered by light

Yukata dress up

Cooking time

Hot!