I never would have thought that something as world-altering as a pandemic would halt my day-to-day life, kicking me back to a way of life I hadn’t experienced since my college days. Back then, I felt like I had all the free time in the world to explore hobbies, and it’s back then in 2011 when I first started this blog. It’s fitting then, in our forced quarantine where I returned once more to writing about anime, even though it was nothing like the academic style of the start.
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A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of experiencing Joe Hisaishi live in concert with the Seattle Symphony and Chorale. His works encompass many of Studio Ghibli’s films directed by Hayao Miyazaki. We had originally purchased these tickets for April of 2020, which as you will notice was right near the start of the pandemic. Like most everything else around that time, the concert was postponed and as the threat of COVID became more apparent I expected outright cancellation. Miraculously, the concert rolled forward two years to today, and I, along with the rest of the sold out seats, experienced a journey both nostalgic and unforgettable.
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2022–the year of the tiger (my year!) and a continuation of the global pandemic that has flipped our world for the past couple of years. I’m here to keep on keeping on and drop down a few resolutions.
I know, right?
Resolutions bring with them elevated expectations, failed deadlines, and ensuing depression—but that’s only if you approach them the wrong way. I’m taking the more relaxed approach, viewing them more as a guideline than some kind of demand of my daily life.
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If you follow me on Twitter, then you’ll know from last weekend and the year prior about my love for Babymetal, a Japanese group joining heavy metal with pop idol music. Babymetal began their 2018 World Tour at the start of this month, beginning in the U.S. and moving onward to Europe. My husband and I opted to attend the Austin concert on May 10th, their second stop on the tour. We had seen them perform the previous year as a participant in Pain in the Grass and as an opener for Korn. This was our chance to finally see them as the headliner amid a crowd of fans just like us. I had always wanted to visit Austin, which would also be my first trip to the state of Texas. The combination of Babymetal, and the city’s amazing music scene, food, and culture made this one of the most enjoyable and relaxing vacations we’ve taken.
After two weeks in Japan visiting Kyoto, Osaka, Wakayama, Hakone, and Tokyo, I am happy to be home. There’s still plenty I miss from that country, on which I’ll go more into detail later, but overall it really is nice to be back in my own town. One major takeaway from this journey: consideration for others. No matter where I went, people were kind—not just nice in a perfunctory way, but kind in a manner that let me know they honestly cared. Their love for their country overflowed into everything I experienced from food to festival. This was our second time to Japan, and I know it definitely will not be the last.
I’ve been in Japan for the past week, and have one more to go before flying home. This will be the first year since I moved to Seattle five years ago that I will not be attending Sakura-Con. I think the trade-off is worth it!
We began our journey in Kyoto, then later moved on to the citrus-growing countryside of Wakayama. As I write this, we are now on the bullet train heading towards Hakone, where we will spend one night before finishing our trip in Tokyo.
You can look forward to a more thorough report of our trip, as well as my Winter 2018 season review and Spring 2018 set menu once I return home. Until then, please listen to episode two of the Kaiseki Anime Podcast if you haven’t already (episode three coming soon!).
Happy Spring!
We’ve finally arrived at the end of the series, and I’ve chosen Sakura Quest to lead us into the next year—not because it was the best of 2017, or even necessarily my favorite. Sakura Quest had its ups and downs. There was a time where I was worried the plot wasn’t going anywhere. With enough failures, and never ending communication, Yoshino grew along with Manoyama and found a new purpose in life. That’s the message I want to take to heart and relay to you now: learn from the mistakes of this past year, speak openly with the people around you, and strive to improve in the future. Whatever your belief, I wish you a wonderful holiday season and new year.
One year ago today, I said “I do” to my husband, and promised to share with him a future filled with all its ups and downs. We referenced our hobbies and quirks in our vows, agreeing to compromise as necessary and always communicate. Looking back on our time together before and after marriage, I can happily say that we’re as strong as ever.
So much of what makes every day interesting is a summation of several little things that would normally be too mundane to stand out on their own. Take for example the fact that he brews coffee for us every morning, and that I try to time dinner with his arrival home from work. I could just as easily make the coffee, but he takes into consideration that he always wakes up first. He wouldn’t mind making dinner, but I like to cook. These normal, even boring, details mean a lot to us both and are nothing like the tumultuous romances I imagined when I was younger.
This season’s show, Tsuredure Children (or Tsurezure Children), picks up on the types of romantic scenes that skyrocket ratings: the moment when you realize you’re in love, the confession, the firsts that fill every relationship. Usually these scenes are bookended with slower moments where the characters first notice and start to get to know one another. For the audience to care, we need to know who the players are and why we want them to be together. Tsuredure Children skips these seemingly necessary steps by jumping straight into the juicy meat of the matter.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whew, we made it. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen, but here we are. Thank you for sticking with me. I mulled over what I wanted to discuss for the last day of “12 Days of Anime,” whether I’d pick my favorite from the year (which I actually covered on the first day), or touch on a central theme from 2016. Instead, we’re getting personal and looking at the path Anime B&B will take starting with the new year.
This was originally going to be a compilation of my new inspirations from 2016 across several social media sites, but my list turned into something more of a YouTube sponsor! That isn’t what this is of course, but I’ve tuned into YouTube more than any other medium this past year, with favorites covering everything from fashion, fitness, food, and travel. I’ll only list the channels touching on Japanese culture here, but feel free to suggest any of your own favorite YouTube channels, podcasts, or blogs you think I should check out.
Anime B&B 