Japan Again!
Eugh god.
Jet lag is such a pain in the ass. The worst part about it (I might be repeating myself here but I am sooo jet lagged I don't care) is when I come back it takes forever to recover because I've got nothing going on at home and can just pass out at 5PM every day after work. So it's been a while since I came back from my last trip to Japan and I'm still fighting off sleep during the sunlight hours so I don't wake up at midnight like I have the last few days. Even though I've been trying to stay up things are just not resetting.
Here's a review: Spending 18 hours in transit sucks ass.
But going to Japan is still worth it. This trip was part leisure and part business. It's very rare that I get to Japan twice in so short a time span. It will be a few years before I get the chance to go again. And this time I was solo for a large portion instead of hanging out with family, so since I didn't need to worry about anyone but myself on the leisure leg I went a liiiiiiittle bit wild on the merch. Compared to some people I'm sure I was still modest about it but since I don't buy too much stuff during regular times coming back with a pile of things this time felt like a major splurge. I ended up picking up some cheap kimono, and some tea supplies.
Jet lag is such a pain in the ass. The worst part about it (I might be repeating myself here but I am sooo jet lagged I don't care) is when I come back it takes forever to recover because I've got nothing going on at home and can just pass out at 5PM every day after work. So it's been a while since I came back from my last trip to Japan and I'm still fighting off sleep during the sunlight hours so I don't wake up at midnight like I have the last few days. Even though I've been trying to stay up things are just not resetting.
Here's a review: Spending 18 hours in transit sucks ass.
But going to Japan is still worth it. This trip was part leisure and part business. It's very rare that I get to Japan twice in so short a time span. It will be a few years before I get the chance to go again. And this time I was solo for a large portion instead of hanging out with family, so since I didn't need to worry about anyone but myself on the leisure leg I went a liiiiiiittle bit wild on the merch. Compared to some people I'm sure I was still modest about it but since I don't buy too much stuff during regular times coming back with a pile of things this time felt like a major splurge. I ended up picking up some cheap kimono, and some tea supplies.
Unfortunately I could only buy what would fit in my tiny handheld suitcase so even though I ended up at a tea dogu place that was having a closing sale of 50% off most its stuff, and even though I technically could have afforded some of the more expensive stuff with that discount, I literally could not get any of it home and had to make do with just a couple smaller things I still needed for practice.
But the bulk of the stuff I bought was dumb fandom stuff.
Yes, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to not buy any books, but I gave myself a cheat allowance for Japan, because how often am I getting to Japan? I tried to be good none the less, due to the aforementioned space issue, and because I still really shouldn't be buying books. I picked up a new BL light novel, Nakano Kun and Sakagami Kun. It looks like it started as a web novel and maybe there's a manga too? There's a single episode of the manga on Comic Newtype at least.
I hit all the BookOffs that I passed and at the Akiba Bookoff found some Haikyuu doujins, for like 110 yen! That's less than a buck! I only bought one, (Damn tiny suitcase!!!) but one of the stories inside is Kenma/Kuro sickfic and many of the artists have a style that is close to the anime, which is something I always prefer in doujins, so I think I picked the best one.
Here's the cover. If I'm not lazy later I might try scanning some pages but the binding is a bit tight for clean scans.
The bulkiest purchase was a book on Ghibli and Architecture. It's full of concept art of some of Ghibli's most iconic buildings.
And for funsies I also picked up a Sci-fi magazine that had BL as it's feature topic (just lucked out there) and a book on learning about Hyakunin Isshu.
I also picked up a bunch of other things, but I'll save those for later posts because I want to go to sleep now.
But the bulk of the stuff I bought was dumb fandom stuff.
Yes, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to not buy any books, but I gave myself a cheat allowance for Japan, because how often am I getting to Japan? I tried to be good none the less, due to the aforementioned space issue, and because I still really shouldn't be buying books. I picked up a new BL light novel, Nakano Kun and Sakagami Kun. It looks like it started as a web novel and maybe there's a manga too? There's a single episode of the manga on Comic Newtype at least.
I hit all the BookOffs that I passed and at the Akiba Bookoff found some Haikyuu doujins, for like 110 yen! That's less than a buck! I only bought one, (Damn tiny suitcase!!!) but one of the stories inside is Kenma/Kuro sickfic and many of the artists have a style that is close to the anime, which is something I always prefer in doujins, so I think I picked the best one.
Here's the cover. If I'm not lazy later I might try scanning some pages but the binding is a bit tight for clean scans.
The bulkiest purchase was a book on Ghibli and Architecture. It's full of concept art of some of Ghibli's most iconic buildings.
And for funsies I also picked up a Sci-fi magazine that had BL as it's feature topic (just lucked out there) and a book on learning about Hyakunin Isshu.
I also picked up a bunch of other things, but I'll save those for later posts because I want to go to sleep now.