Day Out in Nagoya (April 15th)

**NOTE** Okay, I wrote this all on the day it happened (April 15th).  I'm too lazy to go back and change it.  <_<  I'm just gonna go through and plug in the pictures and post it.  Sorry it's taken me this long!  D:


Today was full of fun!  I didn't make it to finding the darn fabric shop my host sister told me is in Nagoya, but I did get to do other fun stuff!

I did absolutely nothing yesterday, for the record.  I fiddled around online for a while, took a nap, got online some more, made spaghetti, read a bit, went to bed.  Boring day.

Anyway, I got up this morning, took a shower, and got ready to go (I wore my pretty green contacts).  I attempted to get in touch with the people I was meeting - Joel and Steven were going to get to the station ridiculously ahead of schedule, so I rushed a bit, but I couldn't get in touch with Nicola, so I didn't hurry too much.  The boys didn't get off at my stop to meet me, so I asked them to wait at the station where we had to transfer, and I hopped the next train in their direction, since it was almost meeting time and I still hadn't heard from Nicola!

I met up with the guys and after a few more attempts to contact Nicola, we made our way to Nagoya.  We got a weekend pass for 600yen for all-you-can-ride subway, which saved us a bit of money on our adventures today, and headed for Nagoya castle.

Shortly after we got in the gates, I saw a crowd gathering and heard some announcement babble.  Could it be?!  Bushotai?!  YESSSSS.  We went to watch.  I had a hard time seeing because we arrived a bit late.  There wasn't much to the actual show, which leads me to believe that maybe we caught an off-show (also, apparently Hideyoshi is usually there, and we didn't have him or Oda Nobunaga!).  There was a lot of talking and a bit of lolsy choreographed dancing, but I still geeked pretty hard over it.  XD  The characters was Maeda Toshiie, who did most of the talking (other than the foot soldiers), Tokugawa Ieyasu (who spoke the least), and some guy I can't remember because he's not in Sengoku Basara. <_<  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a good picture of them together.  D:

I realized too late that the lines were forming to take pictures with the actors!  Ugh!  So finally I made up my mind to get in the line for Toshiie.  Joel and I stood there for a few minutes before the girl standing in front of us told us that she was the end of the line and the cut-off.  //orz  NUUUUU.  But the girls were nice enough to tell us that we could go around and take a picture OF him, just not with him.  So I did that, and got a pretty decent shot.  NEXT TIME, TOSHIIE.  YOU'RE MIINNNEEEE.

Nagoya-jo Bushotai: Maeda Toshiie

Since waiting was futile, we moved on to the castle.  The sakura are on their way out for the year, which is sad, but in Japan there's always another flower season coming!  The sakura are just the most famous and impressive.  This means that soon my posts won't be spammed full of sakura pictures.  Come on, you know that's sad.

Sakura and a moat at Nagoya-jo.

Nagoya castle main building.

Sakura-flavored ice cream.  *A*  I wanted a different flavor, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get this again before next year, so this is what I got.  It was a light cherry, almost bubble-gum flavor.

This guys was going balloon animals and talking a mile a minute.  He finished that Minnie Moust crazy fast, then was going to to magic tricks or something.  We moved on to the castle.

The castle itself is a reconstruction, as the original burned down during the bombings in WWII (I learned last time I was here that America was bombing Japan on a schedule - all the main cities, which included Nagoya.  One day, the bombs hit the castle and it burned down in a matter of hours.  All that history!  D: ).  The buildings are slowly being reconstructed as funds permit.  It was a very large castle, so it's quite an undertaking.  There's been a lot of progress already since I was here two years ago!  And the inside museum bit is totally different from what I remember, too!

Beautiful.  <3 

On our way out, we found one of those cut-outs that seem to be so popular and had a nice passer-by take our picture.

Joel as Tokugawa Ieyasu, me as Oda Nobunaga, and Steven as Toyotomi Hideyoshi.  Maeda Keiji hangin' out at the bottom there.

We left the castle and went to the Osu area where there is a nifty temple and shopping area (this is the area where they have the World Cosplay Summit Parade, for all my nerds reading this).  We took some pictures at the temple.

Some really cool building-art.  View from Osu-Kanon Temple.

Then went into the shopping area, in search of a place for lunch.  We ended up getting yakiudon (fried udon noodles).  It wasn't bad.

We continued wandering down the strip after eating and I found a wig shop.  *A*  I was hesitant to go in, because I knew the cute lolita dresses in the front wouldn't be in my size and I was sure the wigs would be horrendously expensive.  NOT SO.  These wigs were the cheapest I've seen in Japan!  999yen for a short cut, 1900yen for most of the long ones!  STARS IN MY EYES~~  I bought a short dark brown one to use for the Mori Ranmaru (Sengoku Basara) cosplay I want to make for the event at Okazaki-jo next month.

It's very dark brown.  Picture taken when I got home.  ^o^/

I went to find the boys and we finished one lane of the shopping area and looped back to catch the other... and I decided to go get a couple more wigs while were there.  There are no good wig places (that I've found) anywhere closer, and like I said, wigs in Japan are usually quite expensive.  So I went back and bought one for a gijinka version of Panda from Polar Bear's Cafe and one to just wear around whenever I feel like it (not to work, of course!)

Silvery/white wig for Panda

Brown wig just for funzies.

Ah!  So great!  I actually regret not getting a couple more at that price!  It's kind of expensive to go to Nagoya, but since I found a wig source, I know where to go when I go back!  This totally made it worth the trip for me.  Now I have a decent hope of finishing Ranmaru for the gathering.  I guess I'll have to suck it up and make it out of cotton.  :I  I'd better go get it this week because a sewing machine won't fit my budget this month, and I'll have to make it by hand (unless I snitch a bit out of my budget for next month...)!  I could probably get away with working on the embroidery during my free time at school.  ;D  (To clarify, I don't mean 'time I'm not busy.'  I mean I have a period of time in the day where I can do anything I want - including leave the school for that time.)

Mori Ranmaru from Sengoku Basara in a few forms.  I'm was planning on doing his purple outfit, but I'm seeing his alt outfit for the first time and I LOVE IT!!  So if the first one goes well, I'll make the alt. too!

After Osu, we went to Sakae to go to Oasis21, which has the JUMP Store and Pokemon Center.  XD  I didn't really see much of anything I wanted at the JUMP store (thank goodness).  I did get a Nurarihyon slim poster set thingy (I ended up with Zen and Itaku - not bad, but I'd have preferred Yoru Rikuo or shodaime or nidaime) and a couple of Yu-Gi-Oh postcards for some losers at home who are fans.  <3

There was some sort of caricature event going on at Oasis21.  Tons of caricature artists had booths set up and were drawing people.  Some of the artists were in rather elaborate get-ups to add to their attraction.

We went up to the top level which has water on it (hence the Oasis, I guess) and has a nice view of the surrounding area.  Joel pointed out that you could see the ground floor quite clearly through the water, then proceeded to drop his camera into said water as he tried to take a picture.  I kept a firm grip on mine.

Joel and I on top of Oasis21

Then home!  It was a long day - trying to get our money's worth out of the trip.  I think we succeeded.  ^_^




May 5th:  Sorry again I'm SO BEHIND!  I do have several entries lined up.  I'll try to get another one up tomorrow, catching y'all up with what's been going on at school.  I also have an entry about my first experience cosplaying, the Hamamatsu Matsuri, and some other things to talk about!  I need to get back in the habit of writing here!!  I hope everyone enjoyed Star Wars (May the Fourth be with you) and today (Revenge of the Fifth).

See you soon~