gaignun | Reading

Back to work... I expect the robots to be revolting tonight, for sure...

The one shop that I buy Gundam kits from started a massive Black Friday sale a few weeks back and there felt like there was something a little off about it... Yeah, they just announced they're sunsetting over the next few months because a billion reasons including tariff hell, but mostly peronsal-want-to-spend-more-time-with-family stuff. Better than being completely underwater, at least.

I'm going to try to get holiday cards out over the next week. If you're not on my usual mailing list but would like one, please PM me an address.

denise posting in

dw_news

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

thawrecka

I won't do a more formal version of the December talking meme, but if you leave prompts in the replies to this post about topics you'd like me to talk about I'll try to get through them during the month.

kalloway

I really need to catch up on these...

The Zen Diary - via JFF. It wasn't immediately clear to me at the beginning if this was a drama or a documentary and while it's more like some dramatized memoir, holy shit did it evoke a lot of feelings. Mostly wanting to punch the lead. Very well acted. A very good movie. Hated it.

Have a Song on Your Lips - via JFF. A fairly uplifting 'teaching choir' story with all sorts of complications. Also well acted and enjoyable.

Come Back Anytime - via JFF. Restaurant documentary.

Mottainai Kitchen - via JFF. Documentary about eliminating food waste.

Misc JFF shorts - via JFF and also on YouTube, several about sushi, yokai, music, and art...

The Scoop - via JFF. Hilarious as fuck double-crossing delight about an underground school paper and a writing club.

LOLO Itsukou Series 7: I Can't Hibernate with Books as a Pillow - via JFF, also on Youtube. By a group that writes short modern plays for student productions. Students in the school library on xmas eve. I'd watch more by this group.

Takano Tofu - via JFF. Sort of underwhelming drama about a family that makes Tofu and their complicated lives. Doesn't stick the landing at all but otherwise well acted.

Wizard Barristers - Yep, watched this again and still enjoyed it through the fanservice and whatnot does grate a bit. It's just the right kind of over-the-top that I sometimes need. I feel like the title basically explains the plot? Bonus for Moyo. Always bonus for Moyo.

Super Dimension Century Orguss - aka the one that didn't become part of Robotech and that's incredibly okay because Orguss is... There are some very good ideas in here but a lot that fail spectacularly and also a lot of absolute What The Fuck?! Listen, I watched Orguss so you don't have to.

E's Otherwise - rewatch as well. E's has some bumpy moments but manages to pull itself together by the end. The cross-dressing scenes still hold up incredibly well.

kalloway

I hope anyone celebrating Turkey and/or Nap Day had a lovely one. Since I was out incredibly late (for me) on Thursday and couldn't get myself together to do more than shuffle around the house for a few hours, everything I'd meant to do on Friday will get done today... I think it's just run by the pharmacy, run by the PO, and maybe another shop to get gloves for the mitten tree at the library.

I've taken advantage of a couple of gunpla shop sales... and I got my gift from the second Secret Santa and just... what a wonderful and generous community. I am humbled.

Still have some stuff on my giveaway post and I might be adding more as I clean and whatnot. I'll probably post it to

holiday_wishes by the end of the weekend.

I'm sure there's more but it's sure been a week and a weekend. I need a nap and probably some turkey...

kalloway

As usual, these are all free to a good home in the US. Alas, international shipping is beyond my budget, never mind the ridiculousness of the current everything. If you'd like something, it's yours. Please just say thank you and let me know it arrived.

* ~~One lot of BPAL perfume, including a couple of little bottles and quite a few of the tiny vials. I'll have to inquire how best to ship these but I'm guessing in bubblewrap and tupperware.~~

( Books, Videos, etc. )

thawrecka

I should write more about my Japan trip than just plane troubles, because I want to get all these thoughts and feelings down before they slip through my fingers.

I'll organise my thoughts mostly by area, as it's easier that way:

Ginza: This is where I stayed, and it was a perfect base for exploring Tokyo. Last time (which was 17 years ago! A long time!) I stayed in Nihonbashi, and it felt less convenient. My hotel was literally right above an entrance to Higashi-Ginza station.

Of course, Ginza is perfectly nice on its own. Touristy, but not overwhelmingly so, and clean and nice with lots of good signage, and very walkable. I spent a bunch of money at Loft and Itoya, which are dangerous as a stationery fan (I did not realise until I got home how many stickers I bought). Cursing that I didn't buy one of the sun and rain umbrellas at Loft, tbh, because it would be super useful in Melbourne. I also spent a lot of time wandering through Mitsukoshi department store just browsing and not buying anything. If I'd been more flush with cash I might have been in danger of buying a bunch of fancy makeup here, but given I already have too much eyeshadow I'm not sad I didn't.

This reminds me how convenient the trains are. They come so often! When I visited Tokyo in 2008 I'm pretty sure only Roppongi had the subway fare table in English, which was inconvenient when I was trying to get to Roppongi and my nearest station in Nihonbashi only had signage in Japanese. Now pretty much every subway station has English signage, and the ticket machines allow you to display the information in multiple languages and type in the station you're going to to get fare advice anyway. It's so convenient.

In general, Tokyo is so much more convenient for foreign tourists now. (Which turned out to be great for me because my Japanese is so much worse than I thought it was, lmao.) In some of the more tourist heavy areas the overhead announcements are in Japanese, then English, then two varieties of Chinese, then Korean. At Tokyo Station I think there were also announcements in Thai. Amazing, tbh. I don't feel any city has an obligation to be convenient for foreign tourists, but it is very nice.

I did a lot of shopping at the Tokyo Station shops in 2008; I did a lot in 2025, too 🤣 I bought a kimono Miffy, and a fancy mug from the fancy Ghibli store, and I very nearly bought a tacky plastic keyring about my fave anime character before reminding myself I have too much plastic crap already...

Tokyo Tower! I went to Roppongi thinking I'd go to the Mori Art Museum, but once I got there I only wanted to walk to Tokyo Tower instead (even though there's a closer station to it, yes). And it was so worth it. The bright red and white tower against the bright blue sky! In front of Tokyo Tower there was a mini Tokyo Tower surrounded by Christmas trees, and it was so cute. This is the only thing I remembered to photograph.

Ikebukuro: I really enjoyed this neighbourhood and went there two days in a row. It's well known as a place full of anime merch frequented by women, and certainly I went to the massive Animate and looked in several of the second hand stores and considered buying things... but in the end, I stumbled into the Sunshine City shopping mall and bought a bunch of feminine accessories and looked at a bunch of cute clothes. I planned to buy other things, but then I spent ¥16,500 on a cute handbag & bag charm at Samantha Vega, and I can't remember how much on a hairclip at Mary Quant, and honestly if I'd had more cash I could have spent so much more... I also liked the other shopping malls in the area and the general vibe. Just a really nice area, tbh. I have to go back!!

Akihabara on the other hand, meh. I didn't like it in 2008 because it felt crowded and sleazy, and I don't like it for the same reasons now. Most of Tokyo smells mysteriously nice, but Akihabara doesn't. OTOH, the Animate there had a different selection of merch, and was where all the Natsume Yuujincho stuff was?? I bought a Nyanko-sensei pen.

I also could have spent entire days in Shimokitazawa. If you like neighbourhoods full of vintage shopping and independent designers that make you feel like you're not cool enough to be there, as I do, then this is top notch. There were so many cute things in the stores! I nearly bought a purple handbag at Wego (where everything was delightfully tacky), before reminding myself I'd already bought a handbag the day before elsewhere and how many handbags do I need... Well, I'm still thinking about that handbag, so I guess this is a reminder you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and 100% of the accessories you don't buy.

I bought so many stickers at B Side Label. I could have spent hours in there, buying every sticker I saw. They're so cute! This is their website, and I bought more anime stuff here than anywhere else, lmao. You can get B Side Label stickers all over the place - Loft, the Jump shop, the various TV station shops in Tokyo station, etc. - but I'm glad I waited to buy any until I got to one of their own stores and could browse a bigger portion of the collection.

Some other thoughts:
- I'm 5'4 or 5'5 depending on who measures me, and it's really nice to visit a country where almost everything is made for people around my height.
- Rice is healthy for most people, but I can't actually digest it very well, so after eating it several days in a row, having to deal with plane turbulence didn't only do in my back, I also felt queasy the whole plane flight. Live and learn.
- Google maps was good at telling me the public transport to get somewhere, but almost every time I needed walking directions it tried to lead me in a circle. What is with that?
- I talked with a friend about it after I got home, who said that he felt disappointed that Japan no longer gives him the feeling it used to the first time he went there, whereas it still gave me that feeling: excited to be there, and just different enough from home to be interesting but not so difficult that anything was particularly hard to navigate (even with language issues). Honestly, still feels like a very nice place for a solo female traveller to go, and I can't wait to go again.

I've probably forgotten so much of what I wanted to say about it already.

kalloway

Comic-con complete!

- when I went to borrow the ancient rattly hand-cart from my father, he told me I could just store it in my garage from now on, which is basically saying it's mine.
- for the first time ever, evening load-in was not delayed by having to wait for the Ghostbusters car getting itself situated.
- more than made table back before load-in had finished.
- arrived a tiny smidge early day-of and had to wait for the Ghostbusters car to get itself situated. (I feel like this set the Universe back on track or something?)
( more notes below )

At some point in the coming week I'll get a post up to give away a bunch of stuff I don't want to store/keep hauling around. Now to try to catch up on everything else...

thawrecka

I am back from Japan! I had a great time. Until an overnight flight home that was 10 hours of turbulence, so now I'm tired and in pain. At least I had the good sense to make sure I had a few extra days off work after my flight, so I have time to recover.

Realistically, I am not going to catch up on any social media, and I'm not even going to try.

harukami

Shared History
Sorry We're Closed
Full spoilers for the game, set post-game after the Chamuel route.

Michelle doesn't think it's fair that her new paramour doesn't remember how they got here. Robyn thinks she should leave things lie and explains why--but Michelle will always go her own way where this person's involved.

FRANS

Reading

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Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

(no subject)

Media Roundup, Accidental Advent All-in-One Again

Another Long Weekend

Books & Videos (Etc.) Giveaway 2025 Edition

Japan trip 2025

Blue Water Int'l Comic Con

(no subject)

[Fic] Sorry We're Closed, "Shared History"

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