Hellooo..!
What's this? Another post? Less than a month apart?
I know, it's crazy. But I was going through my photos and I realized I had.. well, nothing really important to share. But a few notables from my summer this year.

For one, my cousin was recently married to her Brazilian beau! A lovely wedding ceremony for close family ensued, and I got to see my nephew dressed like a real dapper gentleman. :)

And theeeeen, I went to NY with Shota and his parents!!
Where I had one of theeese!! It was amazing. And my mother-in-law loved it.

We did some other NY stuff like sightseeing and watching musicals on Broadway (we saw Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, quite entertaining!) and eating copious amounts of American foods (ohh BBQ, how I miss yoou), but the real icing on the cake...




THE DAILY SHOW!! A couple of friends and I went out for margaritas and political satire, a great way to begin any summer really. This was, of course, after John Oliver had taken over for Stewart, but either Jo(h)n is fine with me.
But no seriously, he was funny. And the crowd smart. Almost too smart..



We also had lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner, which was awesome! Singing wait staff are the best, and our guy was extremely nice/adorable and a great singer. I hope he lands a starring role on Broadway someday. :)







And then I came back to Japan and learned that a bunch of my friends had moved to Osaka, so this happened, an outing at BarONE, which was actually pretty chill. I enjoyed the crowd more than usual. The free champagne was a nice bonus.










Then we went to the movies (...I think we saw Iron Man 3), and I saw this poster. And I wept for cinema.
Did anyone actually see this flick?? I can't really imagine anyone spending theater cash on this one.













Then I made friends with Yana! I love meeting new people! :)
On the day we took this purikura, we went to check out a FRUiTS Snap event being held in Shinsaibashi. I don't think I made it into the FRUiTS book, but it was nice meeting the owner of SPINNS and some of the designers. Over all, a cool a$$ day.












Meeting the owner of SPINNS, God-san ------>
I can now say I've stared into the face of God, and he was hairy. And very funny.

I'll post more photos from that one my tumblr! :)







The rest of the summer was filled a bunch of events, some put together by friends, and one featuring my band! And we were lucky to have a ton of awesome support (thanks again Maha!! >w<) which really is priceless (though it cost everyone there 500 yen.. ;o; ). But I'm so glad they showed!! :D

At a friend's event in Kyobashi! It was.. interesting..

My band's, SecondLady's, event in Nagahori! X3

All-you-can-drink at Giraffe in Dotonbori~

There were colorful drag queens.

Then we went to the Don Quixote around the corner and found this..! O_O

And I also went to outdoor yoga with some friends I hadn't seen in almost 2 years!! Good times :)

Then I went to Kosho's reggae even in ..somewhere. Near Toyonaka. A bunch of cool people~

Also, I went to my niece's ballet recital. Not really in that order, but relevant nonetheless.
I was quite impressed with her level of determination. She barely has a firm hold on the whole walking business, and she's already tackling new forms of expression. AND she wants to learn English. Quite the go-getter. :)

And that's most of my summer in a series of randomly arranged photos. I have to admit that I spent a majority of it hiding from the heatwave in my house. I got bored enough to start Final Fantasy XIII, which I hadn't opened since I bought it back in 2011.

My favorite character so far is the chocobo that lives in Sazh's hair. Yeah... I think that says a great deal about the story this time (and subsequently, the characters). But really, I just needed an RPG to pass the time. I get my real good-times from Borderlands (STILL. 2nd playthrough).

OHH, almost forgot. My friend opened up a new skateboard shop in kita horie with one of his friends! So there was an opening party, but I made a video for that. :)

Osaka gets a pretty bad rap for being a bit homely and.. well, dirty. And it is, really, when compared to the shining tourist attractions of Tokyo and Kyoto. BUT New York is pretty dirty, and that doesn't seem to stop it from being the most fashionable spot on the east coast, right? So I try to cut Osaka some slack and give it the best PR I can because truly, it IS a wonderful city with a colorful bunch of locals just looking to have a good time, just the same as the rest of us.

But THIS. This was too much, even for the Osaka-jin hidden deep in the recesses of my soul. This wasn't my first time at Spa World in Shin-Sekai, but it was my first visit to the pool on the top floor. And it was quite the... experience.






Access

Spa World スパワールド
3 Chome-４-２４ Ebisuhigashi, Naniwa Ward,
Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 556-0002, Japan
〒556-0002　大阪市浪速区恵美須東3-4-24
TEL: +81 6-6631-0001
Japanese Website: http://www.spaworld.co.jp/
English Website: http://www.spaworld.co.jp/english/

Spa World is easily accessible from the subway or from the JR Tennoji train station (it is about a 10 minute walk from the JR station though). If you're taking the subway, you can use the Midosuji Line or Sakaisuji Line and exit at the Doubutsuen Mae Station. Then look for a sign for the exit for Shin-Sekai (there might also be a sign for Spa World, but I'm not entirely sure) and it should be exit number 5. Spa World is the largest building the Shin-Sekai area, so it's very easy to find. I've yet to encounter English-speaking staff, but I'm always going in the middle of the night, so maybe some of the day staff speak English. Seeing as there's no information on their English site about it, have your Japanese skills ready!

The Spa World: What's it do??
Well, Spa World is essentially.. a world of all things spa-related. There's a gym, hot tubs and hot baths, sauna, foot baths, massage parlors, rock beds for sleeping, a "pool" and water slides on the top floor with a family bath, plus a hotel. There are also restaurants and ice cream counters. It really is a one stop and shop for all things relaxing. The entry fee system is a tad strange, but this is how I understand it:

Weekday Day Time Rates
3 hours - 2400 yen for Adults (1300 yen for kids 12 and under)
All Day (10 - 8:45 the following day) - 2700 yen (1500 yen)

Weekend Day Time Rates
3 hours - 2700 yen (1500 yen)
All Day - 3000 yen (1700 yen)

Afterhours Use
The afterhours rate is the all day rate plus 1300 yen. But it says this runs from 12am until 5am, so if you were to get there at 11pm, and leave at 6pm, I would think you just have to pay the all day rate? I've yet to test this theory, but I believe that's how it works.

Some separate fees include the hot rock beds, the foots baths, the massage parlours, use of the slides at the pool, swimsuit rental, water shoes rental, and socks and shoes rental for the gym. Use of the lockers is free (you get your 100 yen back after you open the locker).

Guests of the hotel are allowed to use the spa facilities without any extra cost, however, guests with tattoos are not allowed into the spa. :( Buzzkill, I know.

The Spa
The spa separated into two "worlds." One floor is the Asia zone and the other floor is the Europe zone (poor Americas ain't got no spa culture I suppose). These floors will be regulated to each of the sexes, so one floor will be for females only, while another floor will be for males only. The zones change between female and male use throughout the year, so check the signs before going to your floor!

The last time I went to the spa, the fem area was designated as the Europe zone. There was even a little log house the area for Finland, and while I'm unsure as to how accurate that is, it's cute? The spa was quite large, with large open area baths as well as an enclosed rose bath. Some tubs are also much hotter than others (as in one degree different, but for me, it matters), but there's usually a readout of the temperature somewhere near the bath.

The bathing area is quite spacious, and they've got what looks like really nice shampoo and conditioner laid out. Overall, it's quite a nice experience, even better when it's late night and there are very few people around. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep somewhere in the bath at least twice. Don't do that!

The Pool

There's a zoo somewhere out in the darkness.

The pool, although there is an indoor and outdoor pool, is only available during the summer season. And even though it's called a pool, it's really not. It's more like a lazy river with a landing zone in the middle for people coming down the water slides. To be honest, I couldn't actually imagine paying the 2700 yen just for the "pool," which is why I went during their summer sale which had a 1000 yen entrance fee (plus 1300 yen for afterhours use), but this also included a wristband to ride all the slides as many times as you want.
And here's where the problem started in earnest for me. As is advertised on the site, if you enter the facility after 11pm, you will receive a ticket for a wristband that allows you to ride all three slides as many times as you like until 5am. Unfortunately for Shota and I, on the day that we went, one slide was closed for mysterious reasons (they claimed maintenance, but seeing as no one was working on it, that's not really maintenance so much as just being closed). When I asked the staff why we weren't alerted upon entering the facility that we would not be able to ride all three slides as was advertised on the website and the tickets we received, I was greeted with questionable stares and essentially a #kanyeshrug followed with the excuse "Well, we have this event (the all you can ride event) so that we can do things like maintenance, but also make it cheap to use." Ahh, I see, because we're not actually paying for the slides, we can't possibly expect to use them as was advertised on your site.

Okay. Spa World, minus ten points.
Other things that turned me off the whole pool area was the general upkeep of the area. The floors are quite grimey, usually covered in hair and some times food from the food court area, that could all easily be trampled into the nearby lazy pool.

Young people (usually teenagers or 20-somethings) are usually seen running around main entrance, next to the empty lifeguard chair, and though you would hear a whistle every so often, it wasn't nearly enough.
Also, near the female and male entrances, there's a shower with green flooring that leads you to the elevator. The single most disgusting part of the pool. Just the amount of hair and.. I don't know what. It was brown and it covered a lot of the flooring. I didn't want to step on it with my bare feet, but I didn't have watershoes!! No watershoes!!

After walking through the hygienic disaster that was the pool area, I was hardly inclined to make the most of money already spent in the hot baths, and just opted on going home to wash. I hate to admit it, but the pool has put a sour taste in my mouth with regard to using Spa World. It's not really the cheapest spa around, or the nicest (and though it has 温泉 onsen in the title, most people, surprisingly a lot of Osaka people, don't consider it an onsen), so unless you're conducting some sort of social experiment or you really want to go, save your yen and go somewhere else? I hear New Japan has some nice baths.

Maybe that's a little harsh, and as time heals these wounds, I may retract some of these harsh opinions, but as of now, they stand, completely justified.

Spa World, you get ★★☆☆☆ 2 out of 5 stars. Clean your act up. Literally.

★Peaces★

Here's a hilarious and completely gross sign we found near the underground walkway that leads to Shin-Sekai. We originally thought it was a sign to discourage people from parking their bikes. Boy, were we wrong.
"NOTICE: This area is not a toilet. Please do not piss here. There is a toilet up ahead to the left. -From Naniwa Police"

...Werd. I promise to not let the next post be so gross. :)

View Ashiyagawa and Arima Onsen in a larger map. Exhibit A.

So back in early June or so, a couple of my friends and I decided that we all wanted to get out more, get a little exercise, and be able to hang out without spending money. So we gathered a few items, some good walking shoes and headed out to Ashiyagawa in Hyogo Prefecture. What ensued was the worse spur-of-the-moment hiking trip of all time.

A Hike from Ashiyagawa Station to Arima Onsen

The originator of this idea was the who I assumed (we all know what happens when you do that) had all the details down. We were going to take a short hike, not more than a few kilometers, through the forests near Mt. Rokko to Arima Onsen, where we would, upon arrival, enjoy a nice free foot bath. Simple enough. Where it gets complicated is where the trip planner gets fuzzy with the actual hiking directions/distances. So what was supposed to be a 3 or 4 kilometer hike, turned into an 11 km hike that will never be done again.

Now I've tried explaining this trip to a few different friends, but the thing is, unless you're extremely familiar with where Ashiyagawa and Arima Onsen are in relation to one another, you won't have a clear idea of how ridiculously long of a walk we took. Thus Exhibit A above. I've tried to plot out the few places we stopped (we stopped A LOT), but you can get the general idea from the blue markers.


I won't lie, I enjoyed the first 3 or 4 hours. I took a ton of photos and video with my nice camera for that walk up the first mountain. But really, once you've climbed one mountain, you've climbed them all, am I right??
A nice view from one of our earlier summits. The city laid out below is Ashiya, which is where many rich Japanese people live. All the cars we passed on our way to the trail were Mercedes Benz, BMW, or other luxury vehicles. But the best part was the houses. Unlike standard homes built off of one basic model, almost every home had it's own design aesthetic! If for some reason I was never allowed to leave Japan, I would demand to live in one of those homes. Those photos are on my nice camera though, so I'll save them for another post. For now, use your imagination..!


A little further along, we made it to this nice jumble of rocks. And me, somewhat posessive of an adventurer's heart, couldn't resist a small climb. The view from the top of the rock was great, but no one else made the climb. I guess it's true what they say about it being a little lonely there on the top, am I right?!

I don't know if I can stop doing that. I'll try though.















And then I encountered this little guy on the trail. I'm usually quite impartial towards insect, but this one reminded me of one of the little slugs eaten by Timone from The Lion King so much that I had to snap a photo and share it! 

I didn't eat it though.









And then we made it to Kazefukiiwa (風吹岩） which, I learned from the Google, is just considered a somewhat large hill. Thank you internet for belittling my tiny hiking accomplishments. Anyway, there were quite a few families up there (with very small children, 2-3 years old), stopping for lunch before going back down I suppose. FYI. There is nothing really kid friendly about this hiking course. At some parts, it requires more rock climbing which put much fear into my heart when I saw a mother pushing her little 3-year-old up the mountain face. Not recommended. The poor babe could hardly balance on his own two feet let alone a slippery, rocky path.


From here, I do believe you can see all the way to Osaka. But it's all just buildings to me.
Do I look tired in this photo? That's really too bad seeing as this isn't quite the halfway point.
As we were leaving Kazefukiiwa, we walked by this huuuge piece of mountain protruding from the ground. This photo doesn't really do it justice since there's no human to compare it with, but trust me. It was huge (and that is what she said).
A shot of some of the flowers growing in the forests. While I did read that there are special varieties of flowers that grow within the forests, the names are lost to me now. Perhaps, if they pop up in a photo later, I can do a quick translation. Anyway, this flower reminds me of something a little fairy would be hiding in (overacting imagination set to ON).
 Here's a nice example of what a lot of the trails look like. Some have small manmade steps to help with small climbs, but a lot of the time, it's just a rocky path. You really have to be careful which rocky path you choose too because there are quite a few and they all run in many different directions (some to Mt. Rokko, some to Arima Onsen, etc.).
It was by the time we reached this dam that I grew sick of photo snapping, all the trails began to look similar and in the back of my mind I thought that we might not make it out. And I also wished I had a machete on hand (best weapon for any situation). If you check the Google Map, I've labeled the dam, and you can see how much is left until Arima Onsen.

3-4 Hours Later
We made it to Arima right as the sun was getting ready to set. And much to our chagrin, the foot bath was full of people (mostly children), so we couldn't get a spot. At least we got to walk around Arima? You have to look for the bright spots after a wandering the forest for the better part of 7 or 8 hours. After we found the express bus station with a one way ride to Osaka, we hopped on that and just headed home.
We do plan on going back to actually get into the onsen. Sometime. By that bus. From Osaka.

Until then, I suppose we always have the memories.

And I that's the story of how I will never go hiking again.

An update to life post coming soon! :)

★Peaces★

Well heller there!
Long time no see! Once the weather got warmer, I just decided to abandon my computer for... Borderlands (because that's definitely relevant to the weather).

Needless to say, I beat Borderlands and am now working on my second playthrough, but the urgent need to play has passed, plus I finished the pile of historic romance novels I compiled onto my kindle. And it's not that I'm finding ways to avoid blogging, but when you start reading other people's stuff, it definitely makes it that much harder to get back into.

ANYWAY, enough with the rambling, I'm here to share a yearly Osakan event that I finally attended for the first time this year. I originally wanted to go in 2011, but they cancelled it because of the earthquake. I have no idea if it went on last year (a simple Google search would resolve that ignorance but pffftt), but I made an extra effort to drag myself out of my house at 2pm to go.

I ended up missing the stage events (さすがアリースちゃん（；￣д￣）ハァ↓↓) but I was able to snap a few photos of cosplayers. Most of fun is in video form though, which I've yet to string together into awesome sooo that will just have to be shared later.

In the meantime, check out some of the cosplays!! Makes me wish I had the skills for cosplaying..o(TヘTo) くぅ

 The first one I had the courage to ask for a photo from, the always relevant and awesome Sailor Moon cosplay. I still have a Sailor Mercury costume holed up somewhere that I will probably never wear but #kanyeshrug These two ladies were adorable! I love me some Dark Lady. I would just prance around in that pink wig in my house. Just let that mental image sink in a bit. (◕ฺー≦)ノ

 And then there was this schnazzy Skull Kid from Legend of Zelda. I never played the whole game (I didn't own a N64), but my b.f.f. was/is a huuuuge Zelda fan and had a ton of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask merch. So really, this photo was for her, but it's also a flawlessly executed cosplay that deserves all the thumbs-ups in the world. Plus DAT POSE. Werk it Skull Kid~

I saw this lovely cosplayer for Chii from Chobits towards the end of the street parade. I'm ashamed (except not really) to admit that I was a huuuge CLAMP fan back in the day and world fiercely defend all their works, even if it made little sense or came with a barely-satisfying ending buuut.. such is youth. I know better now and have recently started watching One Piece (i.e. lesson not learned).

I have no idea what these cosplays are supposed to be from, but they were very friendly and so a photo was taken. I feel like I've seen the costume in the middle before but... Nope, nothing. Anyone else know where it's from??

AND THEN THE OLD-SCHOOL CYCLOPS!! I was looking for Gambits and Jean Greys for the rest of the day. I need to find where he picked that costume up or get him to make me one..!

Now check this out..!! A set of triplets! Triple KITT cars!! I wasn't alive when this series was running, nor have I a big enough dose of eighties nostalgia to want to go back and watch all 90 episodes (I will spend my time with the first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers thank you), but THAT is a good looking car.


It's even got the KITT interior. Surely, it must fly. Surely. Also, I'd be more into getting a license if I had one of these to drive (read: accident).

And no costuming event would be complete without a Captain Jack Sparrow. The ladies always love a Captain Jack Sparrow.

The rest of the day was spent running around with friends, taking a little video, doing a little drinking and them some gaming at Round1!! There's no better way to end a geeky day than at the arcade floor of the Sports Stadium in Round1.

I wore this silly outfit because I don't have fancy cosplay clothes. Instead, I built my outfit around the ridiculous idea of being a post-apocalyptic zombie hunter (?? mostly it's just the zombie hunter t-shirt). Because two jackets is always necessary (no, it was, since it was quite chilly that night) and all zombie hunters need garters. Don't want to be caught with your socks 'round your ankles (though that would be impossible in knee-high boots)...!!






About Nipponbashi Street Festa
Nipponbashi Street Festa is a yearly street parade and festival that goes on in Osaka's Nipponbashi area. The Nipponbashi area is often compared to Akihabara in that it's seen as a mecca of sorts for anime and video game fans in the kansai-area. It doesn't have the glitz of the now famous Akihabara, but you can easily a large Gundam poster lurking on a building nearby. On the day of the festa (usually a Sunday), Nipponbashi Street Shotengai is quartered off and families and cosplayers roam the road, checking out events, special sales, but mostly importantly, costumes.

You can find the official site here.

This was longer than expected, as usual, so I'm gonna try my hand at doing shorter entries. Like this crazy ghost story my co-worker told me about!! But you'll have to come back to hear about that. ;)

★Peaces★

Why hello there..!!

Long time, no see..! I hope everyone is well :)

April has begun, and though it started a tad hectic, I think it's mostly settled down into something manageable. :P

But this post isn't about me (only lol), it's about sakura, Japanese cherry blossoms, that have already done their fleeting dance through most parks and temples in Japan.

This year's sakura seemed particularly ..short..? It lasted maybe a good 2 weeks, while I feel like last year they were around for almost a month. I have no idea how long they actually lasted, and my memory has a tendency to obscure the facts of what actually happened sooo... Oops maybe. :)



These first two photos were taken at the small shrine located in Ame-mura in Shinsaibashi. The shrine is unfortunately quite rundown and usually covered with a bit rubbish from nearby, but the beautiful sakura were easily able to distract you from all that ;)

And then BOOM face time. Lol One of the oddly warm days from March, so we had to take to the out of doors. I think we were starting to get a bit of cabin fever from being inside all winter. :E