I think my dreams mean something...

[rkold]

Last night I had two bad dreams both based on real life. The first involved the dollar suddenly sinking to $1=1 yen right before my trip to Japan. I'm sure this is because the dollar to yen ratio dipped recently from a little over 100 to 98, though now it is back around 99, but I always feel anxiety now especially after the misery of 85 yen to the dollar. I also then dreamed I somehow got on a Tokaido shinkansen without anyone checking for tickets and made it all the way to some random semi-inaka station called "Sakae" not far from Kokura and the edge of Honshu. i was walking through the station when suddenly I realized I had not ticket or rail pass and trains only came once every hour or two and I was stuck. I think this means I need to order my pass. >>;;; Of course this trip, I am unlikely to end up anywhere near Kokura as I am getting a JR East only pass. At the moment the 4 day Flex pass seems the best bet since I am only definitely taking expensive trains on Fri, Tuesday and Thursday. I think I'm going to private line it to Tokyo from Narita since they're all cheaper and faster to get to Ikebukuro and just bus it from my hotel on the 6th, since then I don't need to takyuubin! :D


On Saturday, I had originally planned to try to make it back to Tokyo to see a concert with dilettantka however there were a few minor problems with this. 1) the concert was in Odaiba but I had to catch a shinkansen by 20:03 or be stranded in Tokyo since that was the last Hikari going to Kyoto. It was also full in the reserved non-smoking section. My other problem was distances from Hakone were much further than they looked and things didn't always run quite as often as one would like. So i the end, I ate the cost of the ticket and stayed in Hakone. On the bright side thanks to ee970 and akaisakura not laughing at me and holding my hand I made it Owakudani! This was quite an accomplishment for me since it involved a ropeway. A ropeway that swung A LOT at various times!


A garden in Hakone we went to visit, that really would have been better later in the season lol


Not that there wasn't any early sakura...






Hakone or at least the side of Hakone we were on, was full of semi-feral cats. I think I counted over 20 in the time I was there. This one was enjoying the morning sun.




Edgeworth


The fountain in the center of the park


The Hakone Ropeway


Me, having survived the trip just barely and now freezing my butt off at the top!


Owakudani! The fog had come in, but some of that white steam is sulphur from the ground.


Tiny Buddhist shrine, the water was warm here of course XD;


By the time we came down on the other side it was gray, cold and foggy, though not as cold as on top of course.


Either sakura or momo in drizzle near my hotel in Kyoto, I still can not always tell the two apart. >>;


So it seems Syuusuke did become a fashion designer after all and there is an example of his outfit that looks like a tulip puked on her. I have no words... This was outside Isetan Depato


So, I was bad like many Japanese patrons and took some One-Off pictures @ Sato lol




One Off Yo Tenshi


Ume at Sato


One nice thing about rain is it makes everything look so green!




I'm pretty sure this is early sakura




This is definitely momo, as another patron kindly pointed out to me.






Suzaku and a cherry lol




And with momo


Me!



My camera battery died right after this so no Dolpa pictures.




Everytime Roy says something all I can think is LockOn. I know seiyuu should not get pigeonholed like that, but I just can't help it. And it doesn't help that Kimberly is now Hallelujah. So now all I can think about is LockOn getting molested by Billy, Halle and Ali, and really Ali is the only one of those I could see molesting LockOn easily. So far everyone seems very... ungay and slashy. It's odd since I felt like particularly in the movie the Ed/Al could at times be very strong and heck I could even see where the Roy/Ed came from. but now everyone seems very... asexual. I wonder if that will change as the series progresses. I like the OP animation.

Thanks to sumeragiskank and having heard about it from akaisakura I found myself watching Sengoku Basara and well from the moment Date started shouting out English as he rode in for his attack, I think I was in love. Hoshi sounds surprisingly un-Hoshi like and very manly. I mean Gino sounds like he can top, but he still sounds like Hoshi, but Yukimura sounds a lot less Hoshi-like and more manly despite the fact he is gayer than either Sanada or Yukimura in Tenipuri. I am in awe of him. He's also so dumb! ♥ I think I need to watch more of this series. It's just... really fun. This is what I had been hoping the movie Ichi would be. And for a video game the hair on the characters isn't even scary and all pointy! I wonder if I will be tempted to look for doujinshi.... I bet there is a lot where someone is molesting Yukimura.... >>;;;;;;;

Comments

[spiderlace.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos! The blossoms are all so pretty ♥

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Seeing all the blossoms definitely made this trip. I ordered a second camera card for my next trip in case I get lucky in Tohoku like I am hoping. :D

[paleonaturist.livejournal.com]

These photos (and those in your previous post - I got to skim it quickly, but didn't have time to comment!) are lovely! I especially enjoyed Suzaku among the sakura & momo at Tenshi no Sato - he's a real cutie, and his (and your) outfits are perfect in the setting!

I curse your batteries, though, LOL!!! You'll have to tell us all how Dolpa was now, and with each (missing) photo being worth 1,000 words . . .

Glad to see you're having fun.

~Bruce

[rkold.livejournal.com]

I think Suzaku is probably my favorite right now, but Shhhhh don't tell most of the others. I think only some of them would be OK with it. lol

Actually I can sum up Kyoto Dolpa in 1 word, "quiet." I'm so used to the Tokyo Dolpas and Kyoto Dolpa is just so much more low key than a Tokyo one. It makes things a lot more pleasant. I think sometimes it's hard to imagine the stress from a Tokyo event. It's just so crowded and involves so many hours. I had no luck at bingo at all and didn't even come close lol

[cc-lemon.livejournal.com]

As always, seriously gorgeous photos. You make me wish I were there.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

A good camera makes a huge huge difference. That and if you take enough pictures something is bound to come out. XD;;;

I wish you could have come too! I think you would have loved visiting Sato with me!

[chocolate_chip.livejournal.com]

Lol, this time the ones in question are sakura. From my observations, momo looks very much like sakura, except the blossoms are larger and more vivid in color, and sakura grows on a stem, whereas momo's stem is practically nonexistent, like ume's.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

See I heard there actually can be brighter pink sakura and that one of the big clue-ins is the petals. I heard that sakura always have a tiny indentation in the petal while Momo and Ume do not. I've heard there are over 70+ varieties of sakura and some are quite white and some are much more pink.

Does Momo come in the single petal variety, I've only seen the really ruffly multi-petal ones like the one at Sato.

Ume always seem much smaller to me than sakura or momo.

Pretty scenery.

[ginarolo.livejournal.com]

Fun seeing the SATO one-offs. Cool they had Yo-tenshi One-Offs!
Love the Pure-Drop One off Boy outfit!
Great Suzaku Cherry blossom shots!

Re: Pretty scenery.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't put in for any of the One-Offs, none were what I am really looking for. I really liked one of the ones I saw earlier but of course I was not chosen lol

And yeah this was one of the first times I saw Yo Tenshi One-Offs. Usually it's just the Yos.

[mec]

I'm not normally a flower person but you do take such lovely photos of them! I love the fountain too, and I think you are very, very brave to get on the ropeway.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

It was incredibly scary and I seriously had to close my eyes for parts of it and squeeze Erin's hand and pray that everything would be OK lol The worst part was when the wind started batting around the car! I've done the ropeway at Miyajima a few times and it is scary but the wind has never come up and moved the car lol

I've been practicing with the flowers. It helps a lot to have a good camera. I'm really hoping I can get a lot during my next trip!