I have such a sweet hubby.

Hey all~ Just a quick post today.

David's been looking for a job in Japan and he's had a few interviews with another few coming up. Keep your fingers crossed for us! <3

We went to town today and David actually bought clothes! Fashionable clothes, too! Now we just need to get him into a pair of jeans and we're all set. I managed to get him to buy a few Hawaiian shirts, so I guess we're still working on it.

That's about all the exciting news actually. Ahahahaha. But, I did reach my room and found this on my board.

I have such a sweet hubby. <3

It's one of those crazy porta-shrine things.

So, this evening I went to a firefly festival! It was a lot of fun! BH offered a firefly festival package for this evening and a few guests took part. David, Natsuki, Brad and I all went. And since it was a festival, Natsuki and I wore yukata! David wore his 'ManKata', too!

To start, we drove to Yumoto and had a quick history lesson. It seems that in Yumoto the only people who live there have the last name of Hoshi or Koyama. (Meaning, Takako and George-san live there!) And we walked around and admired the old style houses. We took a small rest inside one of the houses and I spotted one of those cute pig bug repellent things. They're kinda cute so I took a picture! I really kinda want one!

After our rest it was time to go out and watch the shrine move past. It's one of those crazy porta-shrine things. I can't remember the name. It was interesting to watch! The men carrying it all seemed to be a little tipsy, but they were really cheerful and fun!

They stopped for a bit infront of us and then proceeded to drink more! There was free beer being passed around and they would drink some, then toss the dregs in the air. (Nothing landed on us, thank god.) And then came the sake! They started passing out paper cups to everyone and pouring them a little sake each. I was too polite to refuse, so I just accepted. They apparently hand it out to wish good fortune and health or something like that. I only got a mouthful in my cup, but David's was half full! I took a sip and passed it off to Takako. Hahaha. And then, it was time for them to move again!

After they walked off, we hopped back into the van and drove over to a nearby field. Armed with flashlights, we hopped out and started walking around looking for fireflies. There were so many! And so cute, too! Little dots of light all floating about. It was amazing. I wish I could've taken photos!

And then it was time to come home. It was a great night! And I'm kinda proud~ I dressed myself and tied my own obi! And it doesn't look too bad!

I guess I'll introduce people, too.

So, Haruka is in charge of the British Hills social media. Basically, she posts to Twitter and Ameblog and keeps people up to date on British Hills plans and random little daily stories and whatnot. And recently she decided to make a Team Reception post. Awww yeah! We all look pretty awesome, if I do say so myself~

I guess I'll introduce people, too. To start on the top left we have Karl and then me. Karl is from the UK and he got here in May. Then, the people sitting are Haruka, James, Natsuki and Megumi. James is also from the UK. Megumi is awesome! She's so sweet. Best boss ever. Haruka is really sweet, too. She has a great sense of humor. And then we have Natsuki, our newest addition. She is adorable. I love her. She's so sweet and such a hard worker. And she's really funny. She's currently counting down the days until she gets a proper black jacket. That green monstrosity is reeeally hot and uncomfortable in the summer.

Also, I recently had to pose for some Tuck Shop photos. Natsuki was making a sign for Tuck Shop hours and asked me to throw on one of the dresses and just pose. So, I did. I love wearing the gowns, can't lie. I'm all about dressing up, as everyone knows. Ahahaha. Tuck Shop is really cute, too. I like working there, although it can be reeeeally dead most days.

Cute, eh? That's Shop!Haruka I'm posing with. She's cool. And in other news, Belinda is awesome and helped me take in my cosplay so it actually fits now! Woo hoo! Gotta get started on the wings next. George is supposed to help me with them, thank god. I don't even know where to begin with them. Fancy steampunk wings. That's what I need. Oh boy. XD I'll post pictures of my costume when everything is done.

It was quite cute, but their 'American BLT' was the worst thing on the planet.

So, my birthday was like 2 weeks ago and I have a ton of photos from my birthday trip. We ended up going to Tokyo for my birthday. I wanted to go to Disney. Eeeee! And we ended up meeting up with Gayner, who's working in Chiba now. We also hit up a few other places, so lets get started!

So, we left a day early. We originally planned on leaving on the morning of the 16th. I worked an open shift on the 15th and David was off. So, we ended up leaving right after I was done work. Woo! We had originally planned on spending the night in a love hotel, but we chickened out. Ahahahaha. Love Hotel Hill is located in Shibuya, so we headed there. And when we saw the hill, we decided against it. It was just really... weird. Like a red light district, basically. Which, I guess that kinda is what it is... Yeah... But, anywho, I digress. We ended up staying at the Tokyu Inn. I don't recommend it. It was way too expensive for what we got. But, oh well. We just needed a place for the night. Live and learn. We ended up going out for McDonalds that evening for dinner. Which, trust me, is a luxury. The burgers here in staff kitchen suuuuuck. I would kill for one of mom's burgers right now! True story! And they had a very informative message board extolling the virtues of McDonalds and they're products. It was kinda funny. After dinner we ended up going out to karaoke for about 2 hours. It was fun! We both sang like crazy and it was a laugh.

The next morning we woke up a bit early and headed to Ueno. We booked the Mitsui Garden Hotel again for our trip. It's a really nice place! And for staying in Ueno, right next to the station, it's a pretty fair price. So, we went early, dropped out luggage and set out again. And where do you go when you have a free day in Ueno? The Ueno Zoo! We bought a quick breakfast of pastries from the station and then headed over. I had the best pastry thing ever. It was like a cheese bun, with LOOOOOTS of cheese on top and some ham in it. Yuuuuuuummmm~ We also bought a few panda cookies. They were cute and delicious!

The zoo was a lot of fun! I haven't really done the zoo thing in yeeears! And there were a lot of adorable animals there. Granted, it WAS raining, but it was still a good time. I won't post every animal I took a photo of, but I will post my favourites. There were some pretty buildings there, too!

So, to start off, let me introduce you to my favoruite animal. The red panda! Or firefox! Or lesser panda! Whatever you call it, it's freaking adorable! Soooooooo cuuuuute! And there was one at the zoo that was all fluffy and pudgy! I want one! Sooo cute! We ended up going past the red panda area twice, just because I wanted more photos. Ahahaha.

Next up, we have Pallas's Cat. It just looked like a big, fluffy grey cat. But, still adorable. It was housed in the nocturnal animals area, so no flash photos. hence why my photo sucks. Ahahaha. We also saw some adorable otters! They reminded me of papa. Also, we saw a hippo that shared a birthday with me!

We also went over to the polar bears area. There was a polar bear from Canada there! And it even posed for me when I went to take a photo. True story. It saw me and posed all nicely. Yep. We also saw some adorable seals that were just taking a snooze. There was one swimming about, but these guys were just lazing about all cute like. Yep.

And before I finish with the zoo photos, allow me to show my geek side. Behold, the Hufflepuff house badgers!

...Yeah. Not as menacing as I thought. But, they were cute. Ahahaha. After the zoo, we went and walked around Ueno Park. There was a pretty impressive temple in the vicinity, so we walked about. It was really nice. There was a memorial place for Hiroshima victims, as well. And there were crans people had folded hanging there. It was neat.

And then after the walk, we decided to get something to eat. We ended up eating at the First Kitchen restaurant again. I like their food and it's pretty cheap. So, we ate there and then went to check into our hotel. Our room was facing the station this time. We got settled and then I took a quick nap. I was pretty bushed from walking about all day. But, I only slept for a bit. We ended up going to Akihabara that evening. And, as ever, no photos since my camera can't take night shots. But, I got a photo of what dinner was. I got a croissantwich thing and poutine! ...Although, it was the worst poutine I've ever eaten. It was a little disheartening.

The next day was DISNEY DAY! We ended up going to DisneyLand, because I like it better. Ahahaha. We met Gayner at the station and all went together. It was great seeing her! She even brought me a gift. Pokemon candy! Awww yeah! Awesome! We got into the park and made a beeline for the fast pass area at Big Thunder Mountain. Star Tours, Space Mountain and something else was closed, which suuucked. But, it was still a good day! Gayner had never been to any Disney before, so we got her on the Small World ride first. Kinda like a Disney initiation. She understood why we called it her initiation afterwards.

We ended up going to Toon Town after, since I never really spend much time there. Too many kids. But, we did the Roger Rabbit ride AND the Gadget Coaster. Yes, Gadget. As in RESCUE RANGER Gadget! My childhood returns! It was glorious! I also got breakfast in the form of a Mickey pizza.

We did a lot of rides throughout the day. I forgot to take pictures, actually. Ahahaha. I was having too good a time. And also, it may be because I got heat stroke. Yep. I gave myself heat stroke for my birthday. I'm so generous! ...Actually, it was awful. I had a migraine almost alll day. And, originally I thought it was from dehydration, so I think I chugged about 3 bottles of water or Aquarius (like Gatorade) in about an hour. As such, I had to use the bathroom every 20 minutes. Gah. It was awful. But, oh well. I still had a good day.

May I also add, Disney has some pretty spectacular parade floats for their Tokyo parks. I don't usually get to watch parades (read: David hates them), but we caught the tail end of their Daily parade. Can't remember the name, but it was cute!

So, after catching the end of the parade, we ended up going for dinner. I was starving and of course I wanted to eat at the Queen of Hearts restaurant again. The food was great! I got the rotisserie chicken and man, was it goooood! Not SwissChalet good, but still amazing. And they had a cake there! It was just perfect! We got it and David and Gayner sang happy birthday to me. Heehee. It was sweet! And I know the cake said Happy UNBirthday, but who cares! It was delicious!

Disney was celebrating Easter until the 30th of June, so we got to see the Easter parade, too. I've decided it's going to be one of my cosplay dreams to dress up in the Bunny Girl outfit. Too damn cute! The parade was adorable, too. We sat near where it started, so we saw almost everything.

On the subject of clothing, people wear a lot of interesting and cute things to Disney. Students tend to wear their school uniforms and others just dress up all cute. And then you get the dude in the school girl costume. Kinda weird.

After the parade, we all floated about for a bit. Gayner went home at about 7ish and we did a few more rides, then went home too. My head was really throbbing by this point and I just wanted to sleep. I slept like the dead, I might add. It was great. The next day we didn't really have plans. All we knew was that we needed to be back in Shirakawa by about 9pm, to catch our taxi. So, we headed to Ikebukuro for the afternoon. We went for lunch at the Milky Way Cafe. It was quite cute, but their 'American BLT' was the worst thing on the planet. I was expecting lots of bacon and mayo. Not so much. It was chopped up ham. Yick. At least my coffee thing was good. Kinda like an iced cappuccino from the Lodge. We got a seat by the window and it over looked a main crossing. It was fun to just sit and people watch.

So, after that disappointment, we just floated around for a little while. Walked about the shopping district, went to otome road, shopped a bit and then I decided that we should go to the Sunshine 60 building. They have a really neat observatory and I had never been up there. So, off we went. It had an amazing view! It was awesome! We could see the sky tree, I could see Shinjuku, there was an aquarium below us that had seals out and about and I could see them, too! It was awesome! We grabbed some really nice ice cream while we were up there as a snack and just looked for almost an hour. There were windows you could climb up onto and stare straight down! It made David kinda nervous, but I thought it was amazing! I'm quite sure Angel would've had a heart attack on the spot.

And then, just like that, it was time to go home. We caught the shinkansen back to Shirakawa and hopped our taxi home. It felt nice to be home, but I wish we lived closer to Tokyo! I love it there! And now, we have come to the end of this post, so I shall leave you with a photo of a billboard. It's traditional, after all.