もしも願い一つだけ、かなうなら・・・

So, last days in Japan. The final day we actually did anyhting worth mentioning was the 16.?17.? Don't remember the date correctly, but Cat and I were going to a rowthe live.
I'm wearing black, I know. Really wasn't myself the last few days, and I'd found this adorable HellcatPunks cardigan at Closet Child.
Jun, the drummer of rowthe, had been sweet enough to put us on the list, so we would get our tickets at preordered price. Which was good, seeing as we were so slow at getting our asses out the door, we bloody nearly missed their show O__O
We also had to drink before going, so Cat would have the courage to speak japanese. It's incredable how she gets better when she drinks, I'm the exact opposite XD
She'd bought something called Bee Happy, from the local Ministop, it's actually honey and ginger-spirits, and it was really tasty... to beging with. Kinda got worse and worse with every sip...

And no, I don't think we're drunk here. I wasn't drunk, maybe she was, I don't think so. Anyway, we had to go to Meguro/Ebisu, two places to which I have never been. We even got on the Metro, which which we never use, and considering we also didn't know where the live house was at, it was quite an achievement that we actually got there in time.
Even after entering the live house we had no idea where to go. Turns out it was down down down down, like four or five flights of stairs, deep into the earth. Ironically I actually had cell phone reception, and I never do at your normal basement 1.floor live house^^

The place was huge, not crowded at all. We could stand almost wherever we wanted.
And the live was fabulous!
We really fell for rowthe after the last live we saw with them (the one with Roach and Chemical Pictures) so we had been really looking forward to seeing them again.
The music is so... tight? that it seems like a wall of sound, but it doesn't close you out, it kinda closes around you, so I guess it's more like a bubble... I know, brilliant explenation, you know JUST what they sound like now XD
Here's their home page: http://www.geocities.jp/rowthe_012/pc/index.html
It's wierd though, seeing people you kind of know playing out their stage personas^^; I don't know where to look. But then with rowthe you can always look at Non-chan(bassist), cause she has her back to the audience XD
At first we didn't think Twuma (vocals) was gonna be there, 'cause they started out with like four instrumentals, and we'd seen on his blog that he'd been to the hospital the last week. But luckily he was there, the music is never quite the same without that beautiful haunting voice of his.
Here's Cat(I love how Sadako she looks XD) and I at am/pm, getting something to eat and heating up while waiting for the band afterwards. It was party time :D

It was nice to talk to Non-chan again, she wasn't at the last party^^ Nice to see a girl in a band for once. Some of the Roach fangirls were there as well, so we weren't alone.
Twuma had seemed in pretty good shape on stage, considering the photos he shwoed us on his cell phone. He had had to crack open a collar bone that had healed crooked, and put metal spikes in it. He had this huge sergical cut on his shoulder, it looked really brutal. But he was still up for a party.

Just then I got a mail from Nuts, and suddenly I wasn't so much in a party mood anymore. Well, that's what I told him anyway, and so he invited me over.
Was kind of sad not to be able to go to rowthes uchiage, and felt bad about leaving Cat there, but she was completely fine. Non-chan took good care of her,a nd the other band members too. And there were even a few 'celibrities' there:p

Nuts made me tea and we kind of watched the EVA movie, and kind of not. I've always liked this song, but now it's kind of special...


And then we talked. A lot. And I guess I cried a little too much, but it doesn't seem like I scared him. Though I can't have made much sense to him, crying and trying to speak japanese at the same time. But I think he knows now, if he didn't already.

I got a mail at the airport, saying he was sorry he couldn't see us off, but he couldn't get off work. I choose to believe he actually wanted too, 'cause I'm actually pretty sure he's the kind of guy who wouldn't just make that up.
I'm so scared of losing contact while I'm away. We're sending mail and all, but he's slow as ever. I just want to go back and see him as soon as I can, but right now it's impossible and stupid to to go just for his sake.
Wow, hearing that song again really fucked me up.
Cheer up, you're going to a christmas party today! That's right, it's Christmas!

Trains and music

So, what have I been up to the last couple of days, except waiting for mail and watching so much Fringe I'm now scared to find shapeshifters under my bed and Nina Sharp in my closet?
Allright, I'll tell you. I've been comicing like a bastard.

I was made aware of the Kemi-contest the other day. It's a comic contest for the whole of Scandinavia, in two categorys. Digital and paper-comics. Of course I'll be handing in for the last one, and the chances are really slim, I know, but you can't win anything less you try and I have won enough contests in Norway to make my head grow out of propotion. So I figured I'd try.

The criterias are that the comic not be longer than 12 pages, it has to be in a nordic language and that it hasn't been published anywhere before. Quite conveniently I had done a very thorough job on an 8-page comic I called "Skinnene Synger"(The trax are singing). Well, I'd written it and sketched it and sketched it over maybe two times, which I am usually way too lazy to do^^
It was supposed to be my contrubtion to a comic book project in Oslo, but I didn't have the time to start before going to Japan.
Now I'm actually done with the outlining in three days, I've been good.
After this much boring information I wish I could actually show you something, but it's supposed to be "unreleased", even on the internet. So I'll give you the character sketches...
Mmyes, very interesting, I know. Sorry. And the notes have absolutely nothing to do with this story^^

If I by any chance should get a place in the contest I can't publish this here, but if I don't I will translate it and post it for you^o^

MUCC live in France

Friday Cat and I got up at four in the morning and walked all the way from her apartment to the buss terminal in Oslo. It's more than an hours walk. In the cold Norwegian night. We weren't alone though, because it was Friday night the streets were filled with drunk people on their way home. We even saw a dude singing loudly all by himself XD

Here we are, finally on the Rygge airport express bus, having a hot bun for breakfast. Wel, second breakfast.
Why all of this?
Because of these boys:

Ok, they're not boys anymore, they're hot old men, but they still rock like never before.
MUCC are doing a Europe tour now, and we had picked Paris to go see them.
We had also picked the cheapest possible way to travel...

We were waiting for our companions, Kimmy and Miriam, at the airport. Even though it was early I couldn't fall asleep on the table.

A sign at the toilet in the airport, this made me laugh. It also, randomly, makes me wonder how many people actually throw their tampons IN the toilet. I mean, they taught us this at school!
I remember at hight school, somebody wrapped their tampons in toilet paper and dropped them on the floor behind the toilet! I mean that's disgusting, and when you're that old, it's not emberassing to throw a tampon in the bin IN the ladies room XD
Anyway, I ramble... here's something else that's kind of disgusting.

Better than Yellow Label, but it's still Lipton. I promise myself my standard of living will improve!

Not much to say about the plane ride over, except that we still, for some reason (probably Kimmy talking like a radio), couldn't sleep.

A flower vending machine, that's got to be really french, right?

Travelig the cheapest way means you end up in the airport farthest away from Paris, so we took a bus into the city.

Yes, it was a very romantic bus.
So much we decided to put aech others underwear on our heads.

Actually it's some kind of neck warmer that Kimmy brought, this is one of the tricks it could do. It really did look like a pair of stretchy boxers though, until you looked closely.




Isn't Paris romantic on a rainy day?

At a place called LaFayette (like in True Blood!) we got our euros...

Have you ever though of how awkward it can be for a tall person to use an ATM? XDXD

Then we got on the subway to go to our hostel.

We were staying at a place called Woodstock. It was a very charming place, with friendly and helpful staff, and a cuddly cat! Forgot to take pictures of it though :(
The beds were confy too, though the room smelled like a bottle of nail polish remover, and it was so noisy!
If we were the kind who can't sleep with the sound of people partying all around us we'd be even more sleep deprived, but we were all so tired we collapsed at five and slept until two in the morning, when Cats alarm was set.
Time to go to the concert hall.
We already knew there were some peole waiting there, and when we came they seemed very friendly. They were determinded to make the whole queing thing as fair and stressless as possible, and they wrote everybodys names down on a list, and we all agreed to tell people who came where the end of the line was.




It all seemed fine until later in the day peole started arriving who apparrently were on this list, but hadn't been there in all the time since we'd arrived in the night.
I even tried talking to this one guy, and when he just said he was "with her", one of the girls we'd talked to I called her out on it and asked if they had just been lying to us with all that holy bullshit, and all she had to say was that his name was on the list before ours.
I can't say I have much of a better impression of France or Frenchemen than I did after the Kagerou concert some years ago. Anyway, that was the last thing we needed to decide we didn't have to show these people any respect and when the doors were opened we squeezed past most of them and all got a spot in the first row (except for Kimmy, who left his spot to find another one, which ofcourse made him end up with nothing. It's his first concert, but he's very tall, so he was allright).
I got to stand right in front of Yukke, which was where I wanted to be, and Cat got to be in front of Tatsurou.
There was a girl in a wheelchair in the first row, but the guards decided she got to sit on the inside of the fence. I'm really happy that they make it possible for everyone to go to a live, and I'm really happy they had a better solution for her. The pit just isn't a place for a wheelchair, people would have ended up being pushed and tripped over her.

The show was excellent! The band was so alive, and they all had a little section of trying to speak frenche. I don't know frenche at all, so I don't know how good they were, but luckily they talked english too. Well, Tatsurou did.
They mostly played songs off of Karma, which meant a lot of dance grooves and boy did I dance! On this point it's so fantastic to be out of Japan! I didn't have to care about anyone else.
Some of the songs I don't know so well yet, but I'll still say most of them are actually better live. I started crying really hard on this song called "hane", 'cause it really made me think of my feelings for Nuts, and how far away away he is and everything. But then they unexpectedly played Saishuu Ressha and it made me so incredably happy!

The thing with MUCC is that they have so many great songs that no matter what they play you will always end up missing a lot of songs. But that's just how it is.
After the final song the most incredable thing happened! Satochi was throwing out the drum...skins? (what's that called in english?XD).
I never catch ANYTHING. In my entire life I've only caught ONE pick (and I once stole a set list XD), but the last drumskin flew right at me. I grabbed it, but I only had one hand and saw all the grabby fingers reaching out everywhere, so I kind of threw myself in the direction of Cat. When she grabbed it I didn't know it was her, so we were fighting for a little while until we looked at aech other and just sandwiched the thing in between us. It must have looked really comical to the people around us XD

Yay, here it is! Singed by everyone!
Cat is the one taking it home, there's no fighting over that. It definitely means the most to her and I don'y have a place for it anyway, but I still feel like i caught something^^

When I got home I'd finally gotten a mail from Nuts. I'd found out I'd forgotten something in his adress, and had sent him a new mail while I was in France. It made me feel really good for a while. Wish he was more of a mail person.

Stitch it up

So, back from a quick trip to Paris to see Mucc. I'll write about that sometime, but I am SO tired right nowXD Can't sleep though, have stuff I want to do.
But anyway, here's one of the pictures I drew the last days in Japan/airplane/the night I got back home.

Was inspired by a guy we passed on the street in Shibuya, he had snakebites on the upper lip and we started talking about if Cat had a guy like that they would "complete" each other XD Since she's got a piercing in the middle of the top lip (have no idea what that's called). So I took it a step futher and called it "Stitch".

It's that time again...

It's time to go back home, the last two days have been kind of stressfull. Cat bought a bag to fit all her stuff...

...and herself in. I got to use her beaten up suitcase as a post package to mail the stuff I can't carry to the airport. No guy to carry the luggage to the airport, it's kind of wierd... I know someone I wish would come but we're not on that level... and I can imagine the face he'd make under the weight of my bag would break my heart completely XD
Here we are in the process of packing, this morning.


Actually, the room has looked kind of like this all the time we've been here. I'm so glad the girls we live with arn't uptight^^;

When we finally decided we needed a break for breakfast it was Dotour again. This time we hit the big one and bought cake!

It's pumpkin tart! Ok, honestly we've been snacking like pigs all week, but we're feeling so sorry for ourselves XD Three months in Japan is too short...

Cat, looking sad. Actually I've noticed she always looks kind of sad, or like she's not happy with her food, even when she is. I just noticed recently :p Oh well, I love her anyway!

Did some drawing at the cafe as well. We've been arting quite alot lately, so when I got home I'll post some of the pictures I've made. Putting your heart on the brink kind of gives you inspiration ^^
Also, I'll post more about the final days in Japan when I get back (and possably after the Mucc-live, depends on how jet lagged I am when I get home). Really need to go to bed now!

Our final meal in Japan was, naturally, idian :D This has got to be the biggest naan bread I've ever seen! I had to call it quits after two thirds, and that NEVER happens.
Anyway, we're leaving a lot of stuff behind, for the girls in our room and possably new guests to enjoy.
Handsoap
Toothpaste
candy
couch pills
stuff for cleaning wounds(and piercings)
Shanpoo
Conditionar
Hair removal products
Mild soap

everything us sleezy party girls need XD

Desperate love scenes :p

While I was in Osaka I also suddenly got the urge to draw again. I never really go long without having some spontanious outbursts of wanting to pull out a sketch pad, but a lot of the time I'm just not carrying a sketch pad or I don't have the time.
But when we were in Osaka I suddenly had some inspiration, and a feeling that really lingered that the time had come to sit down with pencil and paper again. I love that feeling^^

So I bought this, which is really really cheap, and it's not so bad either. The paper is a bit thick for my taste ('cause I rub out alot of my lines), and it's not something to use for creating a master piece, but it totally works on a slightly less ambitious level^^

Ofcourse, I don't have any scans, but thought I'd post them anyway and post proper scans later. First there's this:

My god, I really do draw huge ass heads!XD
And since I made the jacket blend in with the background the body looks even smaller. I really like the idea (so might make another BETTER verson of this, or not?), though it's not really clear. I first thought about the word rib cage, and the bird in the left cage (maybe his heart?) was let loose and died, but it's really up for entepretation.
I posted it with no explenation at all on my norwegian blog, and my friend Jacq said that she thought of the canarys used to detect poisonous gas in the old mines, and that the cages were like his lungs, so maybe he should really stop smoking XD
It's called "katakoi". Kind of like "hardened love", it sounds stupig :p

The other one I made was this.

Details:


I made it thinking that being in love always looks so nice from the outside, and you always want to be in love when you're not. But then you fall in love and all the uncertainty and dark feelings come out too.
Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that this inspiration came to me when I was in Osaka and felt I was kind of isolating mylef from what I should be doing...:p
Guess you can expect more of the emo when I come back to Norway. At least it turns into pictures^^

It's just a little crush, not like I...

We held our last concert (only until next time I come back to Japan) the other day.
I still had that nasty cold I cought BEFORE going to Osaka. I think the house we lived in wasn't a very healthy one, because everyone there had some kind of cough.
We only had time for one practice day before the show (since I had been so selfish to use some of my hard earned money and holyday to go to Osaka), so Tomo had put us up for five hours... which is way too much, especially if you're not in very good shape.
So before the last hour my body just gave in, not to mention my voice who I really should be saving for the following day.
It was a hard day, but I did get my birthday present form the band...

A star shaped tamburine! Just the one I wanted :D
I don't know much about playing the tamburine yet, but there is a right way to do it, and I'm going to check it out on Youtube!
I also kind of want a case for it. Do they even sell tamburine cases... starshaped ones...?
Finally I can carry an instrument after practice too, like everyone else!

The following day was a live, and my voice was in no state for singing...

Here's me, dressed (or not dressed) for the rehersal.
I had ginger in hot water (which is something my mom used to make me when I had a sore throut back in the days of my high school band) and also had chocolate, which somehow helped^^
My mood was really good, I really looked forward to the show, and it turned out great, allthough I'm sure I fell terribly out of key on our newest song, "Keep in mind", which is kind of high. My voice could not go there that day. But the crowd was awsome, even though hardly any of our friends could come that day.

Here's a group that we met again, that we've played with once before. The dude on the left, and the girl, named Si-non(shinon). They play kind of animesong-ish j-pop, which is not my thing, but they're good at what they do, and also they're cool people, so it was fun seeing them again.
Also, my friend Naoki, the blond dude beside me, and the only guy I had managed to drag to the show that day, was REALLY happy to see them (wel, her XD) again.

After the show we had an uchiage (afterparty), just the band and Cat. Most of us were really tired, but we did manage to get down quite a few drinks and a mountain of chicken and edamame. I also have an hillarious video of Tomo talking about his jacket, because the guys decided to play "nihongo kinchi game" (japanese is forbidden game).


Mario, demonstrating just how hard his hair is. He uses sentaku nori (washing machine glue??) to spike it. It sounds dangerous, and I'm sure it is.
It was a fun night, even though out support drummer, Hayato-kun (who has got to be the nicest guy in the world!), couldn't come. I've been feeling really close with the band lately, though I'm not sure how it's all going to turn out, eventually.


Speaking of something entirely different (I'm sorry, toooo lazy to make two posts), I finally got my date with this guy I actually really like. You know, Natsu, who I met just before going to Osaka.
Here's what I wore...

I kind of thought I'd hold back on the pink, because he's a rocker boy, and I'm not sure he's into the whole princess thing but... I'm sure you can agree that I failed on that one.
And I had also bought this purse, because I've noticed how my shoulders always get sore and tired, and then I get annoyed.

So I've bought a shopping/date bag, and it's so much more comfortable.

We originally had the date plan of doom, which was to go to see the manbou(sun fish) at the actuarium in Sunshine City (I've been wanting to see that fish forever!) and then go to Tokyo Tower, to which I have never been.
Unfortunately the aquarium was closed for some reason (kanji-kanji, I can't always read what he writes XD), so we changed the location to Roppongi Hills.
Ofcourse I was a little bit late, which I totally wasn't planning to be, but I'm not really familiar with the Tokyo Metro :(
He said he didn't mind though. And I was so happy when we met, because he really is as cute as I remembered (but he's not a stud at all, which I also really like). And he's really skinny (I've been complaining to Cat all the time we were in Osaka, that he'd probably grown a beer belly during new years XD). I'm into skinny guys, ok?

Anyway, none of us were familiar with Roppongi Hills, and we had to wander around for a long time just to find a place to eat lunch.

This is a thousand yen cheezeburger... it was pretty tall though, and I got a ton of fries and a roll cake on the side. I was supposed to stop eating fries... but he helped me :) And he also ate my pickle :D:D:D
Yes, I am that happy about that.

Afterwards we went to see the view on the observation deck.

I actually saw Fujisan(Mt.Fuji) for the first time in my life. Though it was impossible to take a picture... and we wrote down out New Years wishes and stuff.
The ticket to the observation deck also got us into a crazy art exhibition with an artist called Odani. I really liked it, though it was very dark business. And the best part is that he liked it too! He wasn't bored or bumbed out going to an art exhibition!
He was really tired afterwards though, from all the strong impressions, he said. I kind of feel he's a person who breaks really easily, he seems frail.
Not only 'cause he's so skinny, but he also has this kind of haunted expression on his face most of the time. He'd had a strange pain in his side since the day we met(two weeks earlier, and he hadn't been to the doctor) and he smokes XD
Anyway, we also got to enter a kind of planetarium. Not the kind where you go to make out, unfortunately, but it was really beautiful. And dark! I should have taken my chance and grabbed his hand, not to walk into him, but I'm a coward...(T_T)

After the hills we went to Tokyo Tower, as planned.

It was really pretty in the dark! And kind of romantic, just there was a lot of people around... I mean, it's Tokyo Tower!

And Tokyo is so pretty in the night! Looks just like christmas illumination!

This is the only picture I have of us together :p I kind of had to force him, You can't see it in the picture, but underneath the glass is a fall into certain death!
For some reason it seemed men had a much bigger problem stepping on this than women, allthough I did have to force myself the first times too.

After that we kind of went upa nd down the elevator and back and forth a bit, to check out everything there was to check out at Tokyo Tower. We didn't go to the was museum or anything though, I've heard it sucks. Also, it cost money, and I'd felt like such a creep for having him pay for the expencive meal and ticket at Roppongi Hills, so I had bought my own ticket at the Tower.

So finally we were downstairs and wondering where to go next. He'd been asking me all day "what to do about the morning", so I kind of had high hopes for the night, but suddenly he said he was sorry, but he had to go home and rest. He was feeling sick!
wtf. I totally felt I was being dumped by the only guy I've really cared about since I came here this time, but it really looked like he was serious.
I guess making my date sick is actually better than being dumped though :p But what an anti climax.

Luckily, I got to see him again the other day. I was to come over to his place when he finished work (like 12 in the night, he works at a recording studio) and have private drinking party at his apartment.
We were to meet at 00:30, but he got held back at work (by mucc, apparently, so I can't complain^^). Fortunately there's a McDonalds near where he lives, so I could wait for him there.
His apartment was a littlebit chilly, like most japanese apartments are in winter, but it had like five guitars and a computer with big speakers. He also gave me a blanket, placed me in front of the heater and made me something to eat.
I had so much fun, and he really is alot more outgoing when he gets drunk.

Might have had a bit too much fun, but if nothing had happened I think I would have exploded, or cried my self to sleep besdie him. Maybe just cried until he noticed to make him comfort me, this is what I've become XD
I did talk to him about some stuff though, partly 'cause Mina had warned me about how some(most) japanese guys think, and partly because I already had that impression myself, from experience. But I'm pretty sure he's not like that. He's not a gyaruo, and he's actually older than me, and seems alittle bit more serious. I'm not sure how serious though, and there's only one week left...
I'm going to go back to Norway with a achy heart either way.
We're still sending mail, maybe even more than before, and hopefully we can meet again one of the following days. Cat and I also moved to Tokyo yesterday, so I'm only half an hour away from him by train now.

But that's right! Yesterday we gathered our extremely heavy bags and headed for the City.
After a very tireing trip with huge luggage and a problem with a taxi driver, we finally got to our hostel. It seems very nice, though it's way too cold!

After arriving we went to a yakiniku place. We'd been wanting to eat yakiniku for so long.
The food was very nice, though it was kind of expensive and the played shit korean music. More than anythink it was nice and warm in there.

I'm not sure we'll be able to eat anything but Sukiya and McDonalds from now on.
And maybe we have to do all our shopping and camwhoring at Ministop XD