filed under "things i never actually thought i'd get to hold in my own two hands" are a bunch of albums by j-pop singers and bands that i discovered in high school. these bands had a huge influence on my taste in music today, as well as like fifteen thousand other things, from the way i dressed back then to the places i went in tokyo this april. my goal was to buy at least once cd that i loved back in the day, whichever was available or cheap.
i've probably mentioned on here a bunch of times that yuki's album prismic is and has been my favorite album of all time (yeah, that means it goes over all pet shop boys albums and even over tangerine dream's optical race and lily on the beach, which is REALLY saying something) so you can probably kinda fathom the sheer joy i felt when i found a used copy of it sitting on the shelf in the book-off in shibuya.
the first time i listened to it i was probably in 10th grade, years and years after it had originally come out. i remember it heavily influencing the way i wrote (what would then be) the first half-assed draft of circus of nero, which was at that time called "Цирк" because i was a russian nerd. it was also the reason i started a project called "good times" which i found the original pages for a few days ago. i'm thinking about revamping it now, it seems salvageable in a way, i probably have yuki to thank for that. she was the reason i dressed, acted, wrote, and drew the way i did back then. her music is what pushed me to improve, to live up to the sound that i wanted to mirror in my story.
i bought the cd and held it close the whole train ride home. i didn't listen to it when i was in tokyo, i waited until i got home to unpack it from it's original box and look over it. it came with the little booklet and everything. it's one of the items that i treasure most in the world.
66db brings back memories of redesigning capital into a (still shitty) new character, i u mee him reminds me of taking my sister's colored pencils to draw in my math notebook. curse reminds me of roleplaying russia in some shitty private gaia threads. there are a lot of old memories there, but now it's also attached to a bunch of new ones. 66db sounds like the marunoichi line on a busy afternoon, i u mee him is a rushed day to find gifts for people in the sunshine mall in ikebukuro. curse sounds like the last rainy morning i spent in roppongi, trying not to cry as i looked out the window at the little speaker that would play the weird chimes every afternoon at five pm.
the number one spot in the "things i never thought i'd get to hold in my own two hands" category was yuki's masterpiece album prismic. but here it is, sitting on the shelf above me. and i'm happy.
30.8.14
1.8.14
shigatsu, pt. 2
of all the places i went to and hung out at in japan, i spent the most time in shibuya and akihabara.
akihabara was the first place i really visited and branched out to. while i was usually being very route-conscious and adhering strictly to mental maps and directions, by the end of the month akihabara was the only place i was totally unafraid of exploring in full. after a while i ended up just exploring, wandering around, checking things out away from the main roads. i ended up there a lot, returning for presents for people because it was great for shopping. that, and i was kind of afraid of being out by myself at night, but i trusted the akiba area and was ok with being there after the sun went down.
weirdly enough, i had very few experiences with people there. most places, like shibuya and harajuku, have stories of interacting with people attached to them, but with akihabara i spoke to almost no-one. kind of fitting, since a lot of people there seemed to be the same way.
i think the don quixote in akiba was my favorite one out of all the ones in tokyo i visited. it was 8 floors, i think, with the top floor being the akb48 cafe or whatever it was, and the basement/ground floor being a pachinko area. the mandarake there was really tall, this ominous black building down a kind of side-alley. and there was a shopping center, apparently it was a "hobby lobby" that was several floors of anime and game shops. the top floors of most buildings were maid cafes or places where people wore those ball-jointed doll masks.
shibuya came up frequently, especially near the tail-end of my trip, and it initially confused the shit out of me. i exited at the hachiko gate every time, but i never found the hachiko statue until the day before i left the country. the streets in shibuya are really windy and hilly, and most of the time i was there, it was raining. i bought an umbrella at the donki there, and i got super lost trying to find the forever 21. i spent a lot of time at tower records.
it weirds me out because i feel so distant from these places already, but i essentially spent a month there. while i did try to go somewhere new every day, i'd also usually stop in akiba or shibuya on the way back to get something, because they became somewhat of a second-home away from temporary-home. i didn't like going to the same conbini multiple times in one day so i'd get food in akiba or shibuya and then bring it home with me. the day didn't feel like a success in terms of vacation because i only really feel accomplished when i get someone a gift, and both places were perfect for that.
it rained a lot in shibuya and i miss that. i miss seeing the people with their clear umbrellas and hearing the same kyary song on loop.
akihabara was the first place i really visited and branched out to. while i was usually being very route-conscious and adhering strictly to mental maps and directions, by the end of the month akihabara was the only place i was totally unafraid of exploring in full. after a while i ended up just exploring, wandering around, checking things out away from the main roads. i ended up there a lot, returning for presents for people because it was great for shopping. that, and i was kind of afraid of being out by myself at night, but i trusted the akiba area and was ok with being there after the sun went down.
weirdly enough, i had very few experiences with people there. most places, like shibuya and harajuku, have stories of interacting with people attached to them, but with akihabara i spoke to almost no-one. kind of fitting, since a lot of people there seemed to be the same way.
i think the don quixote in akiba was my favorite one out of all the ones in tokyo i visited. it was 8 floors, i think, with the top floor being the akb48 cafe or whatever it was, and the basement/ground floor being a pachinko area. the mandarake there was really tall, this ominous black building down a kind of side-alley. and there was a shopping center, apparently it was a "hobby lobby" that was several floors of anime and game shops. the top floors of most buildings were maid cafes or places where people wore those ball-jointed doll masks.
shibuya came up frequently, especially near the tail-end of my trip, and it initially confused the shit out of me. i exited at the hachiko gate every time, but i never found the hachiko statue until the day before i left the country. the streets in shibuya are really windy and hilly, and most of the time i was there, it was raining. i bought an umbrella at the donki there, and i got super lost trying to find the forever 21. i spent a lot of time at tower records.
it weirds me out because i feel so distant from these places already, but i essentially spent a month there. while i did try to go somewhere new every day, i'd also usually stop in akiba or shibuya on the way back to get something, because they became somewhat of a second-home away from temporary-home. i didn't like going to the same conbini multiple times in one day so i'd get food in akiba or shibuya and then bring it home with me. the day didn't feel like a success in terms of vacation because i only really feel accomplished when i get someone a gift, and both places were perfect for that.
it rained a lot in shibuya and i miss that. i miss seeing the people with their clear umbrellas and hearing the same kyary song on loop.
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