Parting is such sweet sorrow, especially since our stay in Osaka was a very pleasant one, not without thanks to our very gracious host. She took very good care of us during our stay, and we also had fun playing with her dogs. All good things end, however, so we had to say goodbye eventually.


Our luggage home were mostly filled with tons of random things my mother got in bargains. It was a little surprising that I didn't buy as much as I thought I would. And yet the (relatively) few I did buy took up a significant part of our baggage allowance, considering that they could all fit in just one plastic bag. Note to self: photobooks are heavy and it's not advisable to buy more than one at a time!

The day was really nice and clear when we left. I wish we had this weather the day before!

When we were still planning our trip, I tried to make a list of things I definitely had to get while I'm in Japan. I had only a few items on my list because it was very hard to decide that kind of thing, but I actually got almost all of what I did write down! I wish I also wrote "Drifloon merchandise" because that was the one other thing I didn't manage to find.



At USJ I got a Deathly Hallows keychain after a bit of flipflopping. My brother said, "Just buy it. You can't buy it anywhere else." He was only partly right, because I didn't find it anywhere else outside Universal Studios, but the souvenir shops in Hollywood actually sell items that can be found in other areas of the park. If you fail to enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you can still buy yourself Bellatrix's wand or a Gryffindor scarf at Studio Gifts East.


So, anyway!! In K-BOOKS (both in Nipponbashi and Ikebukuro), I got a lot more photosets than I would ever have actual need for. On my list are three photobooks, one of which I got from Osaka, but they also had the Pole Dancing Boys photobook which I grabbed thanks to the influence of D2's number one fan, Asuka. (Also I wanted D2's first photobook and since I didn't find it there, I figured the PDB one was the closest I could get.)

I found the D2 photobook at Ikebukuro anyway!

Hamlet, Amazing Grace, and Neverland That Goes Away pamphlets

Would you believe that I did not spend a single yen in Animate? I'm surprised too. I actually kind of regret it a bit. I was already there! I could have bought myself a SCEPTER 4 keychain or something Durarara!! related. And yet I chose not to. Ah, I made myself sad right there.

I love how that Pikachu is so shocked. Is that its reaction to my face?

I bought the Pokemon pencil because it's a Kuru Toga!! I got it with the intention of giving it to a friend, since I already have a Kuru Toga of my own and there was no need for two. But now I'm having second thoughts, hehe~ It's fine, I have time to think about it!

I dropped my mirror when we were in USJ and the good side broke so I decided to look for a replacement. The Pokemon Center in Tokyo didn't have many choices for mirrors and I actually found a cute DRRR!! mirror in Yodobashi Akiba, which I probably would have gotten if I hadn't already bought this Pikachu mirror.

The choice was between Ariel and Rapunzel since my brother already took Dumbo. I was going to get Rapunzel but her gold ring said "Love" and I didn't like it, lol.

I've always envied Japan's cute passcases but I wouldn't have any use for them in the Philippines. The only time I could have logical and practical use for them would be if I were in Singapore, and that's not often! The MRT and LRT lines in Manila just recently adopted reloadable train cards, partially making my dream come true. Even though I don't live in Manila, that's still close enough, right?

Unfortunately, the Pokemon Center and the Animate in Akihabara didn't have any passcases I liked enough. My brother and I got these from the Disney store in Sunshine City. If we visited the Kotobukiya in Akihabara before we went to Ikebukuro, I probably would have gotten a Nozomi passcase instead.



Alright! Judge me all you want! It's not like I went out of the way to look for StarNinger merchandise! My brothers and I were about to leave Yodobashi Akiba when we found ourselves in the toys section. So here I am with this super cute thing.

I bought two more of the same sketchbook from Tokyu Hands.

The lady even wrapped the tubes in bubblewrap in addition to cute polkadot paper.

From U-Arts I got four Copic Ciao markers because they had a thing where it's cheaper to get four! Inktober has already passed, but I thought I won't get the chance to buy them this cheap anymore and I still want to practice with markers and black and white anyway. Of course, there's three tubes of Holbein watercolors too... although now I wish I got more. While I only really had Opera and Jaunte Brilliant on my list, it wouldn't hurt to have more pretty colors.

This small thing is surprisingly heavy.

Aside from the things on this post, we bought souvenirs for friends and also got a few capsule toys from different machines because who can resist gachas?! The only tokusatsu ones were Kamen Rider Ghost related, which I wasn't too interested in yet. I tried my luck at a machine that dispenses Overlord Baron from Gaim and Kamen Rider W in the hopes of getting either, but I still got Ghost instead. Now he's hanging out with Sabo on my camera.

Aaaaand that's it for my series of Japan blog entries! I hope you all enjoyed reading them as I did writing them! I wish we had more time and resources to go to more interesting places so that I'd have more interesting things to write about. It's unfortunate that I'm a boring person my nature, and now that I'm back to my regular old life, maybe it'll be some time before I can post again.

Until next time!