It's the wave of the future, here today..!! :D

It's been touted as the new facebook, and I'm not so sure about that, but for now, I'm willing to dive into it and give it a try. If any of yous guys are using Google+, feel free to add me! Apparently, you can have webcam hangouts (which sounds really interesting!) and I was able to add Trent Reznor to my circle, so that's already neat-o brownie points, but I'd really like to meet some people I can actually talk to :P

Look for me! This is my profile link: https://plus.google.com/104415809208942730860/posts
And my profile photo!
So if you see this cool chick, add me to your circle! :)

This just going to be a quick post about the Osaka Girl's Free Market being held in Osaka next weekend, October 9th!! You can check out the Japanese website here, and I'll put up some information in English in this post.

What is Girl's Free Market??
It's an open market, for women (and they babies ;D) only, being held in various locations throughout Japan and run by the DECOLOG company, which is a popular mobile blogging site in Japan. They company also has a small TV segment and a magazine (I don't know if it's monthly, or a quarterly thing though), so they're pretty well known.

Who's selling things???
Well, the purpose of a free market is for normal people, like you and me :D, to put up a tablet and sell some clothing, accessories, pretty much anything goes..! Booths are put up by bloggers from the site, so in the Q.A. they tout it as a great opportunity to meet your favorite bloggers. From what I've seen on the site, a lot of the popular bloggers are also shop staff, so if they do have a booth, they should at least be selling some nice stuff :D

Where can I find this thing?!
Osaka's free market is being held at the Kyocera Dome Osaka Arena in downtown Osaka. It's easily accessible by:
the subway: the Nagahori Turumi-ryokuchi Line - Dome-mae Chiyozaki Station or Chuo Line - Kujo Station,
the JR trains, Osaka Loop Line Taisho Station
and
the Hanshin trains, Namba Line Dome-mae Station.

Tickets? Or can anyone go?
Unfortunately, or at least I think it is, you do have to buy tickets in advance. They can be purchased at any convenience store, and the cost is 500 yen for one ticket. If you buy 3 tickets though, it's only 1200 yen..! If it were free though, I'd be more tempted to go D=!

So there aren't any brand store booths there??
As far as I can tell, no =/. It's all user-generated (does that phrase apply outside of the internet???) goods. Second-hand from what I've read, but I've been to a lot of Japanese second-hand shops, and their second hand is usually pretty good. Damn near perfect most of the time *jelly*.

So who IS selling stuff??
You can check out the list of the booths at the free market here. They've also encourage the people running booths to upload photos of their booth to the site, so you might be able to find some photos of what's being sold too..!

Gimme some straight up logistics!!!11
Date: October 9th, 2011, Sunday
Time: 11am - 5pm
Expected # of booths: 630
Expected number of participants: 12000
Price: 1 person 500 yen / 3 people 1200 yen (300 yen discount)

But why should I go??
Apparently, models from the magazine S Cawaii will be present at the Osaka and Tokyo events. For Osaka, they will be running a booth, hosting a talk and doing snaps of the event. So if you're looking for some photo opportunities, this sounds as a good a chance as any. (No models for the events in Fukuoka and Nagoya have been announced tho D': )

I wish I had some kind of photo or something to share, but there's nothing for me to link to except for the DECOLOG site, which is pretty colorful.

If you're looking for some second-hand goods, check it out!! It also sounds like a nice way to spend a cool autumn afternoon. I will probably be cleaning my apartment and waiting for my Halloween costume (equally as exciting in my book!).

Oh, and watching Ugly Betty Season 2. That show is so goooood! Everyone who agrees, raise you glasses (the ones that go on your face) in her honor. :D Also, I love Gio!!♥

★Peaces★

Kiraria is a kansai-based beauty website that provides information, reviews, and links to hundreds of beauty, nail, and hair salons in the kansai area.

I first found this site through their TV program that runs at some time in the middle of the nightヽ(°▽、°）ノ But it's really nice because they review salons on TV and it really helps you get a feel for the atmosphere. And for people really picky about the "vibe" of places, like me, their show is a great way to get a little insight.


But if you're not a night stalker, like me (´＿｀｡), then don't worry because they put all their videos on their website for you to watch anytime..! So convenient :)


On to the Site!!


You can make an account where you can save images of hair styles, nails, and salons you'd like to visit. They also have a horoscope section (do you see how low my love life was that day?! Shota and I must've had a fight :P), and current presents for users. Off to the right, are more links. There's a jobs board, a home make-over page, a page that links to videos from the TV program, coupon section and then the presents again. They really want to give you free stuff (;´▽`)y-~~
 
One of my favorite things about this site is the coupon section. Compared to the countryside (where I usually go to get my hair done), Osaka is kind of expensive. A straight perm like I usually get, which is about 9,000 yen in Nara, is over 11,000 yen in Osaka, sometimes not including a wash and blow-dry. And that's just at a regular, not so popular, still pretty small salon. I don't even want to look at a well-known spot. （ ´；д；）


But Kiraria offers discounts at hundreds of shops. You can even see on the screenshot, there are over 4,000 coupons available, over 2,000 of them being for hair salons alone, in the kansai area.


They coupons can range from discounts, to buy-one-get-one free type deals, so read the details as carefully as you can. Oh, the site is only available in Japanese, so you should definitely use RIKAICHAN to help with the language barrier. Though any seasoned shopper would be able to get around pretty easily, the site itself is quite intuitive.




 There are thousands of pictures for you to browse through for some hair and nail inspiration. All the photos come from salons too, so if you find a style you like, you know exactly where to go to get it done. Now that's just ridiculously convenient. It takes most of the stress out of the salon search. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ


You can also narrow down your search with some parameters. The hair parameters are in this order: Length, Image (what style you're going for), Menu (what you want done), Color and Area. For the nail parameters, you can choose from: Type (bio-gel, tips), Image (pop, ethnic, gorgeous), Menu (do you 3D or stones?), Design, Color, and Area.

You can also do a shop search based on where you are and what you want done.

I've already started collecting shops to visit in the future, and really enjoy browsing the catalogs for ideas on what to do with my hair. Hopefully other kansai visitors or residents will find this useful as well..! :)

★Peaces★

Day's aren't usually bad or anything, but I rarely have a day where I sit down and go "damn.. today was a good day." Today was one of those days though. :)

Check out that caaaandy! :D I'm such a big kid...

I started it off by sleeping in pretty late. I do that on most days when I don't have work, but I usually regret it later because I've lost time to do.. stuff. Mostly art study or blogging *cough*, but sometimes important things like phone calls and cleaning. Today, though, just as I was waking up, a package arrived. And not just any old package. This was a care package from mom-dukes! And whats the first thing I uncovered?? CANDY! It's like early halloween up in here..!



And that wasn't even the best thing in the box.

I still cry when I watch Bambi D=

The biggest thing pictured is the best thing about this package, but the items are important too ;). They definitely bring the care to mind in care package.

But do you see the amount of Disney stuff she put in there?? The only thing I asked for were the two Blu-rays (because they're limited edition and aren't sold anymore after a certain period D=), but I got some Tinkerbell band-aids and vitamins gummies with the deal. Now I can be healthy while enjoying studying animation blu-rays. Classic ones at that. THANKS MUM♥

The care package put me in a good mood, so Shota and I double-teamed some chores in the house, had lunch and I even finished two new demos I downloaded on my ps3 (Catherine by Atlus, which was AMAZING, and Faery, which is just feeding my fantasy needs right now). I now have another game on my list of things to buy when I visit the states in November ;D.

Then I finally mustered the energy to ride out to the department store to hunt down a magazine for one of my best friends back home. I was feeling kind of lazy so I did this nice grungy look with my Star Wars backpack. I love that backpack..! It wasn't too hot out today either, so I didn't sweat myself to death either. Nice :D

Pictured here: Good sunset :D

After picking up my friend's book, we went to the stationary section where I found some nice stickers to go on the wedding gifts. And also reminded myself that I needed to get started on putting those together :o.

While we were in the bookstore, we heard there was a rooftop buffet going on, so we headed to the roof to check it out.

It was my first time on the Kintetsu Depatment store's roof and it was pretty nice, though very small. We went as the sun was starting to set so I was able to feed my sunset addiction by snapping more photos. I do love a good sunset :)

When we got back home, we still had a little time before we wanted to eat, so we broke out Dynasty Warrior 6..! Shota kept dying with his character Zhang Fei, though we did manage to beat Lu Bu on hard mode once, so we he switched up to Zhao Yu, and really started kicking ass.

And we killed Lu Bu on master mode!! Do you know how long I've been running in fear from him!? It was so easy tooooo. Wanna know the secret..?? Gotta attack him while you're on your horse. Now you too can go and whup his arse~!!

And now, I'm getting back to some study and then getting ready for work..! Damn, it really was a good day. I don't get these so often, so I really wanted to share. Hopefully everyone else has some good days coming up too..!♥

The song I got the title from ;)
★Peaces★

P.S.: I have another restaurant to put up, I just forgot about it until I saw the photo today. Oops! D: It's a really good Mexican place too...

A few weeks ago, I had the unfortunate pleasure of contracting a virus. Well, it ended up not being a virus, but I'll get to that later.

It all started with an innocent dinner with dad-in-law. He likes eating, but he really likes drinking, so we usually end up at a bar or izakaya. This day, however, Shota and I had both skipped lunch, so we were dying for some real food. I told Shota he could choose this time, so we ended up at a local yakiniku (Korean BBQ) joint near the train station. It's located near a lot of shabby looking bars, but I wasn't going to complain since food is usually food.

We got our meat, ate, but left a little earlier than usually because Shota wasn't feeling well. We stopped for some cake at Saizeriya, but didn't stay there long either because Shota was getting irritable and sleepy-eyed. So, we said our good-byes and went home.

Fast-forward to Sunday evening, and Shota has a fever of 37.5C or so. It's a little high, but not terrible, so I give him something for his fever and send him to bed. The next day, he goes to work, but maintains the fever from the night before. I suggest a doctor's visit, but he's stubborn, or doesn't like doctor's, not quite sure which. He puts it off and decides that if he doesn't feel well Tuesday, he'll see a doctor.

On Tuesday, he leaves work early and goes to the doctor. The diagnosis is a virus, maybe. The report I got from Shota wasn't terribly clear, but he gets a blood test taken, some meds, and the day-off work on Wednesday.

Wednesday comes around, and he's looking better. His fever is receding and he appears, overall, more coherent. Thank goodness, because I can't understand feverish, frantic Japanese. Since he's feeling better, we decide to run some errands the next day and just enjoy our day-off together.

By Thursday, Shota is much, much better. He's back to his bad jokes and goofy faces, which means I can spend less energy baby-ing him and get back to my own business. We go pick up my wedding gown early that day, then had back home for a quiet afternoon with out PS3. But by the time we get back, I'm not feeling so well. We eat some lunch, then play a little Dynasty Warriors 6, before I ask for a break and take a nap. I wake up around 7pm to a worried Shota. Apparently, I don't look so good, and I have a fever. Crap..

I pop-in some anti-fever medication, and hope for the best, but by 8pm, my fever has jumped up to 38.7C and I have chills. I've never had chills before, but it's probably the worse thing I've ever experienced next to vomiting (I HATE vomiting). So I'm on my futon, shivering like crazy, with a fever close to 100F and two ice-bottles under my arms. I send an e-mail to my boss and co-worker telling them I probably won't make it to work on friday.

That's the end of the story of how I got this not-virus. Now on to the hospital bit. It's pertty long though, so you'll have to click READ MORE! :)

I've haven't been completely idle this week..! I finish some portfolio work, and also edited up this video! It's from a trip I took back in May (so long ago..!ヽ(=´Д`=)ノ) on the Nozomi shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. The Nozomi train the fastest bullet train in service I think. It can get you to Tokyo in 2.5 hours! It was much preferred to the 8 hour bus we were originally going to use （ ´；д；）.

Anyway, check it out if you have some time. It's pretty long, but the music is relaxing. I think it represents the feeling of riding on the train in Japan well :)



We were going to Tokyo to enjoy some QT at Disneyland and Disney Sea. I like to pretend I'm an adult most of the time, but deep, deep down, I just want to run around theme parks all day. A theme park filled with my most treasured cartoon characters is all the better. It also reminded me of my futile dream of working for Disney's Visual Development department. Ahh, a girl can dream （●´－｀●）.

You can also take a look at some photos we took. These are, obviously, all outside of kansai, but it's nice to step out of the expected sometimes ( ´ ▽ ` )

I was incapacitated for a week or so, so I haven't been able to update on anything..! Shameful I know, but since I was in a hospital alone for a lot of the time, I did get to study some more kansai-ben. :)
Anyway, I'm back home, pretty much whole, and with a nice story about my time in a hospital in the Nara countryside..! Hopefully it'll be of interest. After that, I should have some kansai-ben stuff then another shop to share, I think. I have lots of paper to go through, so it might take a minute. Uggghhhhnnnggg

;w;
It's almost autumn though!! Nice!!
Everyone take care! Make sure you proper cook your yakiniku (korean BBQ)!!

★Peaces★