I did want to try something different this time in Osaka, and what I tried was going to a pure dance club.
Wow.
i didn't start the day thinking it would be that type of day, but today turned out to be a #treatyoself day.
Rested, and ready to go, I spent a little bit of time with the Injikan (foreign residences) in the Kitano area.
A number of houses were either well preserved, or delicately moved and reconstructed. I even got to see Mozart's house! (Well, a reproduction of it!)
It feels good to take a break every now and again. After yesterday's unexpectedly long day, I thought I should take it easy and shuffle my way over to Kobe.
Quickly, I packed up and checked out right before 11:00 am and made my way back to Kyoto Station.
Since I didn't have to check in until about 15:00, I had some time to kill so I figured since Fushimi Inari Shrine (via Inari Station) was less than 10 minutes away. I'd be able to relax in a peaceful environment.
How did I do? I'm glad you asked! Peaceful? Yes! Relaxing? Well...
So, there are larger organized activities that happen in major cities. However, many of those try to target the weekend. For the actual day, I wasn't sure if it would be anything more than just finding a place to have a pint or two of Guinness.
Instead, I'd find myself heading back to the hotel around 7 am.
Wait, what?
Back in 2011, I fell in love with a new anime series called Hanasaku Iroha, thanks to my good friend, Animation Studio P.A. Works. I didn't realize that I was also going to be introduced to one of my favorite bands, nano.RIPE.
Most anime will have an opening and ending theme that is written and performed either by an established band, or by an up and coming one. Starting with the OP, they eventually wrote and performed more songs for the series, and I was inevitably hooked. I had a chance to try to see them perform a live (Japanese borrow word for concert), but I couldn't get the timing right. I always told myself that if I got another chance, I would switch around whatever I needed to, so that I could finally go.
Not only were my basic expectations easily passed, they were exceeded, then obliterated.
Here is the story of one of the best live concerts I've been to.
Well, I made it!
All in all, I can't tell if I'm used to the trip now, or if the improvements in air quality and pressurization made a difference on the Dreamliner, but I didn't feel tired enough to sleep for a long period of time on the plane. Additionally, the newer entertainment system had hours upon hours of movies and TV shows, so I rarely had to rely on outside forms of entertainment.
Once I landed, I took care of the usual:
日本 4.0...Start!
#3dc
-- wake.eat.sleep
Despite the arrival of meteorological spring, Chicago's winter couldn't help but give us one last run to set new records.
That puts Midway at 84.4 inches and the 2nd snowiest since 89.7 inches back in 1978-1979. So, yay?
Personally, I haven't been upset over the snow or even the amount of snow. However, I'm all about seasonality, and the season for snow is over. Here's hoping for a seasonal spring and an average summer ahead!
#3dc
-- wake.eat.sleep
It's been 3 years since 03.11 and I still remember how everyone was calling and texting me to check the news at 5 am Chicago time. The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami impacted a lot of lives, and still does today.
Today is March 9th, or 3/9, Hatsune Miku Day!!
The pun here of course is that "mi" is 3, and "ku" is 9. 39 is also the designation for the Miku Channel. And can also be read as "san" "kyu", or "thank you"!
For those of you who aren't familiar, Miku is a virtual idol. A vocal musical instrument created off a real singer's voice, and utilized and heard now by over millions of people worldwide.