september 19th:

ok new entry, it's been a while since the last one.

the first part of this is going to be more general about what i've been up to; the second part will cover an event i went to recently.

so, a lot of the past few weeks has been just resting and recuperating after my final class wrapped up. i finally got confirmation from the university that i've graduated and that i should have my diploma on the way soon, which considering how long it took to hear back from them was a huge weight off my shoulders. just getting that confirmation i didn't somehow miss something and will have to take some class in the winter or spring or something.

i've also been working on an art project with my friend rai, specifically a set of illustrations for otasune week over on tumblr. they did all the sketching, while i cleaned up the lines and colored each piece digitally. i'm very happy with how they turned out, so i'll be adding them to the site soon on the gallery page.

the latest splatfest was... well, disappointing, results-wise. i did have a ton of fun fighting for team frye though! i didn't get any x333 battles, but i did get a fair few x10 battles and even an x100, which our team won.

hoping that my girl finally wins another splatfest with the next one, though.

i've also still been really into pikmin bloom and walking! i've been trying to get in as many steps as i can each day, and i've been averaging between 3k and 5k every day for the past few weeks. i got 10k three days ago and 8.3k the day after for the latest community day event, which on top of not sleeping much either of those days, completely tired me out, so i didn't get many steps in at all today. i'm going to try to finish the ice cream event in time starting tomorrow though!

one major thing i've done recently was...

go to smile fest! for the uninitiated, smile fest is a figure event hosted by good smile company, the company that makes nendoroids and pop-up parades and a few other figure lines. the first smile fest was held in august 2021 in orange county, ca, with a second event following in december in santa ana, ca. this last one was their third, held at noguchi plaza in little tokyo in los angeles.

my first impression of the event was that it was way more crowded than i was expecting... though having braved the crowds of anime expo for years, i was able to adjust quickly once i had some tea in my system. i had been up all night the night prior and was practically running on fumes by the time we reached little tokyo, with there being an unexpected several hour train delay and no chance to eat since breakfast at 6am. that, and the fact that there were no new figure announcements or previews from the event, which previous smile fests had, initially kind of soured my thoughts on the event. the sales menu was also a tiny bit underwhelming, as i was really hoping they might have the hitori gotoh nendoroid in-stock, as she's a recent release i wasn't able to pre-order. alas, she wasn't available, and most of their other options either didn't interest me or were out of my price bracket. on top of that, security at the event kind of sucked. the line staff ended up separating me from my travel partners and was giving my sibling a really hard time for no good reason, which totally pissed me off when i ended up hearing about it once we were able to reconvene. despite that, we were able to get through the merch line, and the prices that gsc had for their merch were reasonable. this stands in contrast to some of the other vendors there, one of which was selling figures from 15 years ago for double their usual aftermarket price, which was nuts. i ended up getting this miku figure:

which is currently exclusive to this event, as well as online and on-site pre-sale during the magical mirai events held in tokyo and osaka back on 8/11 and 9/1. she's super cute, and her design is based on the magical mirai 2022 miku design featured in its theme song, future eve by sasakure.uk. i was initially torn between getting this figure and the magical mirai 5th anniversary miku nendoroid but decided on 10th due to liking future eve quite a bit and really liking the gradient on miku's pigtails, as well as her overall pink-blue-yellow color scheme. i want to pick up mm5th miku eventually though! her accessories are super cute, and i love her big top hat.

we ended up leaving the event shortly after getting out of the merch line, as the games that were on offer didn't have any figures that we really felt like trying for. despite it not leaving the best first impression, i left smile fest happy. i got a super cute miku figure based on a song i love, i got to see some cool cosplayers, i had a good time talking with my travel buddies, and i got to experience what it feels like at a convention without all the cons of going to conventions (or at least the conventions i've been to), minus the con-typical shitty experience with security. it was a good time!

on our way out, we took notice of the itasha cars and bikes they had on display near the front of the event, and i got some pictures of the miku car:

as well as some pictures of a luka itasha bike:

we stopped for lunch prior to doing more shopping, where i got a chicken teriyaki bowl that was pretty good!

after lunch, we checked out a few shops nearby the restaurant, where my sibling found some cute earrings and my friend bought some re-ment miniatures after i showed her the miku set. he's been looking for miniatures for his nendoroids for a while, so i'm glad i was able to introduce him to re-ment (despite how costly re-ment sets can get @_@).

we then headed over to weller court to do a little more shopping before heading home for the day. our first stop was sora gumi, a shop that features art and merchandise made by local artists. i was super excited to show this place to my travel companions, though realized quickly that stock pertaining to their interests was limited. i spotted a rin bag i wanted but couldn't afford to drop the cash for, as well as a bocchi hoodie that was similarly out of my reach. we then mobbed over to kinokuniya and window-shopped a bit, where i spotted this lovely bocchi spread:

...but no bocchi merchandise aside from this. my bocchi quest was a bocchi bust. none of us ended up spotting anything that grabbed us, at least not enough to buy, so we headed downstairs so i could look in the anime shop on the first floor. i found this cute miku noodle stopper figure:

she's smaller than i expected, and i'm pretty sure i overpaid for her a bit compared to what the noodle stopper figures usually sell for online, but i don't care. her design is adorable, and i love the color palette, so i'm very glad i spotted her and picked her up. by the time we wrapped up there, it was time to head for the station and head home. unfortunately for us, getting home was the same story as getting there in the first place, though at least the delay wasn't quite as long this time. i was exhausted by the time i got back, i only had the energy to warm up dinner and eat it before i went to bed.

that was yesterday (or the day before yesterday as i write this, the clock just passed midnight), and today i've been sleeping a lot. pulling two full days including an exercise day and a travel day really takes a lot out of you, so i've just been relaxing today as much as i can. i plan on working on my resume and job applications starting tomorrow though!

i've been holding back on it for a little bit just since i'm still recovering from a full year of school with no breaks (as in i also took classes over winter and summer breaks, so i was never fully away from school since last august), that and i'm kind of scared of getting my first real actual job, but i've just got to do it scared at this point, because if i don't, it won't get done. that, and so many people go find and hold down jobs, so i should be able to, too, hopefully.

for now though, i'll sleep.