Friday, August 10, 2012

But, I looked really cute, if I do say so myself.

Well, I got back from Nagoya a few days ago and I thought it was high time I made an update. To start, though, I have some photos from a trip to town 3 days before that. David and I went to town just to get some groceries and have lunch and we ended up going to SegaWorld as always. We actually did really well! Only spent about 1,000yen and won a bunch of little things. I spotted an amazingly fitting UFO catcher and its prizes.
The claaaaaw~! The claw chooses who will go and who will stay.
Ahahaha. I saw that and thought it was really cute, so I sneakily snapped a photo. And then I took a photo of the machine we won all our things from. And I might add, for Jake, one of my prizes was PedoBear. True story.
It was a nice foray into town. And then, 3 days later, it was off to Nagoya with Zoe! We were going to the World Cosplay Summit. It was a lot of fun! We took a bus from Shin-Shirakawa to Shinjuku and then from Shinjuku to Nagoya. We left at about 7pm. It was fun travelling with Zoe, but it was a looong trip. And I didn't sleep much, like usual. Booo.
When we reached Nagoya (at 6:30am) we were both reeeally tired. We really just wanted to get breakfast and then grab a nap. So, we took the subway from the station to the one near out hotel and went to see if we could check in early. Turns out, they do allow early check in, but it costs about 3,600yen. At this point, we were totally willing to pay it and I still think it was a good decision. We dropped out stuff and then headed to the Bux for a quick bite to eat. Caramel Macchiato~~~ How I've missed you!
After a lovely nap, we got changed and set out. We ended up going to the Osu Shopping District. And before I go on, I'd like to mention that it was a BILLION DEGREES in Nagoya! Holy crap! I didn't know it was POSSIBLE to sweat that much! But anywho~ Osu. It's HUGE! Lots of stores and different things to look at. I ended up buying a pair of shoes for my Kiki cosplay and a few other things. I also found Rose of Versailles face masks and eyeliner! It made me giddy!
And I should also mention, we got stopped by school kids for a contact assignment! True story! We worked when we weren't even at work! So, here at BH classes will have 'contact assignments' where the students will have to come up to us and ask us questions. (Where are you from? What is your favourite Japanese food? etc.) We all have to do them. And there, in the middle of Nagoya, we were cornered by 3 students and their teacher who asked if we had time to answer their questions. Ahahahaha. Work never ends!
We also checked out the shrine. It was massive! And there were so many pigeons! Like, at least 100! It was crazy! We stopped by the 7/11 and grabbed a quick lunch of onigiri and (in my case) peach water. Mine came with a little Pikachu toy!
After lunch, we walked to the Oasis21 and explored. I got my picture with Pikachu, too, since Angel did last time she was here. The Oasis21 building is really interesting! It's open air and there's a bunch of shops and restaurants there. This is where the WCS Championship was held. It's 3 levels (below street level, street level and above street level) and on the top level there's a pool of water. But, the way they designed it was so that you could view the water from below, so it's very peaceful and lovely. It also helps to give an impression of coolness to the building, since Nagoya gets so hot.
We also went up the Nagoya TV Tower. The view was really nice! And I guess it's a pretty popular place to get married, because they had a mural of marriage plaque things on one of their walls. It was pretty cute!
Oh, and this is the Oasis21 building from Nagoya Tower.
We were pretty hungry after this, so when we headed back to our hotel we made a pit stop at a cafe for a late lunch. We both got the miso cutlet sandwiches, thinking they were small. Oh god, no. They were HUGE! I could only eat about half! And Zoe got melon soda with hers and they put it into a boot!
We saw advertisements everywhere for WCS and I guess Uta no Prince-sama was doing a tie in, because the characters were on almost every ad! We saw some cute Hello Kitty Olympics ads, too!


After this, we went back to our hotels for a shower and a nap. We'd walked around a lot in the sun, so we figured we deserved it. Ahaha. After our nap, we went back out for the night. There was a smaller ferris wheel near Oasis21, so we went on it. The view at night was lovely!
That's about all we did that night. The next day, however, was COSPLAY SUMMIT! We both got up at about 10:30 and went to get our tickets before we got all kitted out. It took me about an hour and a half to do my makeup. And, as anyone who knows me knows, that is a looong time for me! I don't think I've ever worn so much makeup! Not even for my wedding. But, I looked really cute, if I do say so myself. I was wearing falsies, too! They made my eyes pop!
And then, once we were ready, we set out! There were sooo many people! And so many amazing cosplays! It was awesome! Zoe and I each wanted a picture at our respective 'store'. Jump Store for Zoe and Ghibli Store for me!
After that, we just walked around and gawked at the amazing geekiness. I got stopped for so many photo's! It was very flattering!
After about 5 hours, we popped outside to sit and have a snack. It was amazingly hot again and we were both melting. Literally. Stupid 15 pounds of makeup.
 There were a few more cosplays to take photos of, and then it was on to the main event! The championship! Wooo!
Oh, and I might add, I found a Studio Ghibli cosplay group! As Zoe and I were walking around we stumbled on them! And they didn't have a Kiki! They had a Tombo, though! Tombo is Kiki's kinda love interest. They were really sweet, too! I went up to grab a photo and their faces all lit up when they saw me. I almost literally got pounced on and they asked me to join them for a small photoshoot!
For the Championships we had front row seats to the far left of the sitting space. We had an awesome view! We weren't supposed to take photos and my camera takes crappy non-flash photos, so I don't have any. Sorry. The costumes and skits were great! Japan won. And I think it was rigged. It's the WCS 10th anniversary. And I joked to Zoe that Japan would win. And I was right. Their costumes were nice and the skit was good, but it wasn't the best. Indonesia had better cosplays and Italy had better cosplays and a better skit! But, whatever. It was still quite fun. The ONLY photo I have is from Zoe and it's of the contestants at the end when Japan had just been announced as the winners.
After the Summit, we limped back home and I took the world's most heavenly shower. Seriously. It was glorious. Never have I been so happy to wash my face. EVER. Ahhhh~ I slept like the dead that night, I might add. It was great! And the next day we slept in, too!

The next day was supposed to be a lot more cosplay stuff, but we never made it. Instead, we went to the Aquarium! And that was awesome! We saw a dolphin show, orcas, massive crabs! It was great! The view when we first arrived was really, pretty.
 It was a nice day~ It was still a bazillion degrees, but we spent most of it inside or in the shade, so it was ok. That is also what prompted us to sit in the Splash Zone at the dolphin show. We thought it was a 'beware of splash hazard from dolphins jumping around' type deal. Nono. It was actually a 'OH HEY! I'm gonna have the dolphin splash you so you look like a drowned rat!' thing. No kidding. I smelled like salt water all day after that! But, it was ok. It cooled us down and made us laugh.
After the aquarium we were ready for lunch, so where did we go? RED LOBSTER. True story. I felt a little twinge of guilt over eating fish after being there, but whatever. It was delicious. I got blue crab spaghetti and we shared some popcorn shrimp. :D
We then checked out the little theme park next door. They had a big ferris wheel there, too. So, off we went to ride it! It went pretty high! And the door kept shaking, so I freaked out about that a bit. But, the view was nice. And we had Stitch as our date~ Ooooh.
And then, just like that it was after dinner and we were packing. There was one last thing for us to do, though. We popped to the castle quickly. And there was a festival going on! I WISH I had brought one of my yukata! I really regret not bringing one! Oh well. I DID do goldfish scooping for the first time! And I got a cute black fishy~ But, I have it back since we can't have pets. Lol. It was fun, though!
The trip back the next day was very uneventful. It cost a fortune, though! Egad! 10,000yen to go from Nagoya to Tokyo on Shinkansen! Expensive! >__< But, it was nice to get home and back to David. I missed him while I was gone.

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