"Don't waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself."
- Mary Schmich
Updates
I'm baaack! xD How've you guys been?
Japan was awesome. Absolutely amazing... And
hot! The temperature reached 37 degrees at one point, when we only ever have highs of 23 here in an English summer. It's really humid too, so we got pretty tired at the end of each day >_o
SO. Between all five of us, we have around 600 photos... and they'll take a while to sort out. So I'll just pick a handful to show you guys! I hope they load ok Dx
- DAY 1 - UENOWe arrived in Tokyo at 9AM, in the middle of a typoon xD It was raining HARD. We were so tired from the flight we slept most of the first day, and only went out in the evening to eat. Ueno is GORGEOUS at night, lots of sparkly neon-lit backalleys with weird and wonderful shops.
- DAY 2 - UENO PARKWe woke up to a massive earthquake at 5AM! Since my hubby and I were on the 11th floor of the hotel, our room shook like an absolute bitch. I was genuinely scared the building was collapsing! But luckily, no one was harmed. The other guys on the 3rd floor said it wasn't so bad for them
We explored Ueno Park today. Lots of lovely shrines and greenery (and deafening bugs, but we got used to those).
- DAY 3 - ASAKUSA / AKIHABARAWe went to Asakusa to check out Senso-Ji Temple. Because our maps were crap, we took THREE HOURS to find the damn thing, when it should have taken 15 minutes xD But it was worth it!
After Asakusa, we headed on over to Akihabara for the first time. Yup, definitely Otaku central - there were LOADS of billboards advertising anime and manga, and crazy maids handing out free stuff everywhere! I'll show you my hoard a little further down~
In the evening, we stayed in Aki and went to a kaiten-zushi restaurant. Holy crap, these places are awesome! Yummy sushi at a great price~
- DAY 4 - GINZAIn the morning we went back to Ueno Park to visit Tokyo National Museum. Such awesome history! They had some really impressive exhibits, some showcasing artefacts made around 1000 BC. The Japanese artwork was gorgeous too!
In the late afternoon, we went over to
Ginza. Holy crap, Ginza is like an epileptic fit.
It's SO SHINY at night! Shiny, warm, bustling, AWESOME. We didn't actually do much there (we planned to visit the Sony Building and Tsukiji but we arrived too late), however... the boys dragged me to
The Pokemon Center and they all had fanboy screams over all of the cute toys. xD
- DAY 5 - COMIKET OMFG COMIKET. I totally didn't expect what was coming! I've never been to an anime convention, so to suddenly go to the biggest one in the world is SCARY. Guys, you cannot IMAGINE how many cosplayers there were. ~
Infernal-Device and I were in fits half of the time, yelling "Holy shit there's Yoko! Holy shit there's Asuka! AND REI!" all of the time xD
ROFFLE EDGEWORTH. We went up to go mingle with them and were promtly told we were in the wrong place D:
I saw loads of
Hetalia cosplayers running around the event, even cute little Sealand at one point xD But I admit, Evangelion and Code Geass were the popular trends at the event. HOWEVER. We saw the most awesome Snape cosplayer coming down an escalator, looking totally awesome and in-character. I roffled hard.
And yes, the Joker attended too xD
I could write an essay on all the new experiences at Comiket, but I'll just keep it short for now. Lots of cosplayers, lots of comics, lots of funny moments!
After Comiket, we walked the short(ish) distance to Miraikan, the Museum of Emerging Science. Much fun being crazy with technology!
- DAY 6 - AKIHABARA #2Today, we rested for a while before going back to Akihabara in the evening. We went to loads of shops, the Tokyo Animation Center (a crapload of awesome merchandise, my favourite of which was the Kaworu Can - canned bread with Kaworu Nagisa from Evangelion on the front of it).
Also, the guys bought me a doll from the Volks showroom. She's so pretty, but I have yet to paint/assemble a face for her so no photos yet Dx
Ah, I almost forgot! Here's my stash of free stuff that was randomly handed out in Aki:
Click for the image, it's too big to paste here! <3Free art win! I also included volumes of Dear + (very gay) and Lala Magazine (Host Club!) that I bought over there, and a random
Kuroshitsuji...cell...thing... that I bought for a nice price of 200 yen.
- DAY 7 - UENOToday, we rested ^_^ Had a bit of a walk around Ueno, went and ate udon noodles at a bar (my hubby spilt his all over himself while the rest of us were laughing) and had a browse around a few shops.
In the evening, we went to an 'English Pub' in Ueno. xD Being English, we figured this'd be hilarious. And it was! Fish and chips were on the menu, as were... salmon pizzas!? And with chopsticks? xD It was so fun.
I admit I may have had a few drinks too many that night, as I recall being chatted up by a Japanese girl called Tomoko. Or was it Tomoyo? I can't remember Dx She really liked the fact we were English though. She was drunk out of her mind xD
- DAY 8 - SHINJUKUWe sat around Ueno for a bit in the afternoon, before getting the train to
Shinjuku. Here we went up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building - holy crap. At night time, the panoramic views are INCREDIBLE. The photos don't do them justice! It was awesome up there
Later that night, we hopped on an overnight bus to Kyoto.
- DAY 9 - KYOTOWe arrived at 7AM, and later checked into our Ryokan (guesthouse). If you go to Japan, you've gotta try a Ryokan! They're awesome, traditional Japanese inns. Tatami mats, fusuma, futon and we had lovely Kaiseki-style breakfasts in ours. The thing I love most about them?
Japanese baths. Holy crap, onsen are amazing.
This was the Japanese garden outside of our room - just slide a door and you're there
We also visited Shousei-en gardens today:
And also Higashi Honganji temple - crazy stuff! It all felt incredbly spiritual, taking your shoes off and walking around the giant wooden building with people praying and singing all around.
- DAY 10 – NIJO CASTLE / GIONSo… hot…! But Nijo was pretty impressive… very peaceful, in fact. Even though a group of tourists decided to sit all over the walls even when there were ‘do not sit here’ signs pasted everywhere. Uurk, so disrespectful!
That evening, we went to Gion. I was hoping to maybe see a Geisha, but all was quiet :3 Out of all the places we visited, Gion had the most character – just like the old Kyoto you see in the movies. We went around from twilight to evening, and… well, to be honest the whole place felt very haunting. Not in a bad way, but it was certainly eerie! Scary masks and sculptures littered about and ~
Infernal-Device’s ghost stories didn’t help either! Dx
- DAY 11 – KYOTO IMPERIAL PALACE Baaaah, this place was much bigger than we anticipated! It took us AGES to walk around, but there was some nice scenery!
Around midday, we walked a VERY long route to the top of the famous
Philosopher’s Walk. On the way we stopped off at a local bakery and an art shop :3 The Walk itself isn’t too long, but there were loads of shrines to see off the track! Honen-in Temple was amazing, especially the graveyard. It sounds weird but I totally could’ve slept at peace in that place…
We visited lots of little places along the walk, and we ended up at Nanzen-ji – an impressive complex with great panoramic views of Kyoto. It was so high, and without shoes the floor was really slippy. I was scared of falling off Dx
- DAY 12 – STARBUCKSNo exaggeration Dx Checkout was at 10AM, and our bus back to Tokyo was 11PM. Because we had all of our luggage, we couldn’t really go far from the station. We spent most of today in Starbucks. EIGHT HOURS. And then we got kicked out, so we spent another FIVE HOURS in McDonald’s next door xP On the plus side, there was a giant book store on the third floor of Kyoto Tower so I spent most of the time browsing there. But ~
Infernal-Device made a crazy monster out of some trash! RAWR.
At 11PM we got on the bus…
- AND AFTER THAT…. –I won’t bore you with the details of our journey home
It was long, let’s just say that. And it involved Japanese guard escort at one point.
So, that's a summary of our awesome visit! I could go into so much more detail but my hands are in PAIN from typing ;A; I'll now be posting another journal to stop all of these images clogging up my front page Dx *dies*
Peace out~
Project List
Trades~
MelodyXoX //
Rukki // Painting
~
sushi-country //
Hetalia UK // Sketching
~
Infernal-Device //
Cybil and Horrace // Awaiting reference
~
sikiie //
Sakura // Done!
Gifts~
PoofyPajamaPants //
Michelle // Painting
Bethan //
Summer Bouquet // Painting
Commissions=
Soniihedgehog // Chao commissions // Inking
'Never Hit By Lightning' anthology cover // Done!
Africapella logo // Done!
Stamps
Art is © Kit Jo Yuki, please don't use without permission~!
20th Anniversary CLAMP Fanbook! 
Joy
This year there are 100 wonderful artists (click 
