So, lots of catching up? 8D

Sorry I've been away all, I just haven't had time to update lately!

Ok, so after Eva World, Zoe and I came back home and it's been a bit bleh I suppose. We had KIFL students stay with us for 12 days though. That was interesting. While we were away they started to stay with us, so I didn't meet them till half way through their stay. While they were here two of the students used to come visit with me every night. Yuki and Tomohiro (Tomo for short). They were really sweet. We'd talk about anime or whatnot just to pass the time. When they left, Yuki invited me to come to Tokyo and gave me his email, ahaha. They were really sweet.

 (Yuki is in the red shirt, Tomo is in the Rolling Stones shirt)

I also went to town with Helen one day. Just to get off the mountain. We just wanted to walk around and be somewhere else lol. I got the BEST chicken curry sandwich I've ever had. OMG it was so good!

Because of Obon week (a special week in August celebrating the spirits of the dead) almost everyone has time off so they all came to British Hills to visit. We had the teachers outside doing face painting again. I went to get my hand done and Brett did one hand, Sara did the other. I'm sure you can guess who did which hand.

Yup. Lol. It was really busy here during Obon! Lots of schools and day visitors. It was lots of fun!

 After Obon, the days kinda seemed to run into the other until...

ASHLEY ARRIVED!

Gah. The day Ash arrived, I requested a 1/2 day so I could go have lunch, put on my yukata and be ready to wave to her bus when it arrived. Unfortunately, I don't know how to put on a yukata myself so I had to get help from Helen, Keira and Kyoko. It took so long to get ready! It felt like forever. Unfortunately, I was done and finally dressed at 1:20. Which is when Ash and Dave's bus arrived. I flew out the door and ran to the front area to see the bus pulling away. I couldn't see Ash and I started to think maybe they didn't get on the bus. I started running to the manor house yelling "Where's my sister!? WHERE'S MY SISTER!?" I ran up the manor house steps and she saw me and ran to me from inside the manor house. We slammed into each other and hugged really tight. I started crying lol. We didn't even have time to catch up. Our bus to Shirakawa was at 2:20 and Ash needed to get dressed! Kyoko helped Ash put her yukata on. We had to run to catch the bus and we all went to Shirakawa together.

When we got there, we had to wait for our train.

After sometime, it showed up. And we all hopped on. It took about 30mins to get to Sukagawa, and every stop on the way, more people hopped on the train. SO many people! And so many yukatas! I felt under dressed compared to some of them.

When we got to Sukagawa, Helen and Paul buggered off together so it was Ash, Dave, Keira, Gwen and I. We walked around and just enjoyed ourselves.

I got a crepe. It was yummy!
We got a great place to sit for the fireworks too! We had nothing to sit on, so we just sat on the floor. But after a while, this really nice  elderly lady came over and offered us a tarp to sit on. It was such a nice gesture. So Ash and I went out to get something nice to give her for her kindness. We bought her some freshly made donuts. By the time we brought them back for the lady, we had upgraded tarps! Another person about our age had offered us their spare tarp too! So we had returned the elderly lady's tarp. Ash and I still gave her the donuts as a thank you.
The fireworks were good! But it started to rain just as they started! And it was 2 minutes of fireworks, then 5 minutes of commentary. Still good though.

They did this one really pretty thing, where they strung a bunch of fireworks on a rope and lit them all off. It looked like a shower of shooting stars. It was beautiful.

We were all totally exhausted after the day, so on the taxi ride home we all slept. After we got home though, I felt great! So I stayed up and played video games till like, 2am. Lol.

The next day, Ash, Dave and I went shopping in Shin-Shirakawa together. I bought some groceries and we went to the Sega Game World. I have shit luck with UFO catchers, but after I announced that to Ash and Dave, I of course won a plush on my first try.

It's a bunny~! With LOOOOOONG ears. It's cute. :D
We went for lunch and I showed them Mega Stage. We came back up the mountain and then it was time for the goodbye interns party!
We've had interns here since the beginning of the month, so they feel like part of the BH family now. We all went to the pub last night to have one last party with them.

 I'm gonna miss them, they were a good bunch.
They left this morning, we all went outside to wave goodbye to them. It was sad seeing them go, but we'll hopefully stay in touch!

Evangelion World, Tokyo, and Long Lost Friends

So after all the hustle and bustle of Nagoya and the WCS, Zoe and I had to depart　for　Tokyo.　Unfortunately,　our　night　bus　left　at　10：30,　so　in　order　to　make　it　to　the　bus　on　time, we　had　to　leave　the　WCS　early.　We　saw　all　the　performances,　but　we　had　to　miss　the　grand　finale　and　the naming of the winners. The team we wanted to win DID win though, so we were really pleased.

So we slipped　out　of　the　WCS　area　and　went　back　to　the　change　rooms.　Our　stuff　was　left　there　all　day　so　we didn’t have to drag it to the subway from the hotel. We got changed, and headed out for the subway. We had NO idea where we were going though! Fortunately another gaijin was in the area and she saw us all confused trying to figure out which train to catch. She told us which one we needed and pointed us in the right direction. We were squished in like sardines in a can on the train, and the competition wasn’t even done yet! I can’t even imagine what they would have been like AFTER the performances. Luckily, we only had 2 stops to go from where we were, so it was a short ride.

When we got to the main station, we had no idea where so go for our bus, and we must have asked about 5 staff where to go. They all pointed us in opposite directions. We finally made it to the bus with 5 minutes to spare! It was scary! The ride was pretty crap though. There were some girls on the bus (it was totally packed with girls like, my age) and they were giggly and talking all night, so I didn’t sleep much.

After arriving in Tokyo, we hopped a train to Hatagaya (only 2 stops from Shinjuku) and found our hotel. We both felt grimy and terrible after a) a really REALLY hot day in Nagoya with no shower after and b) no sleep; but we couldn’t take a shower because we had to race back to Shinjuku station to catch a bus to Fuji Q! We didn’t even sleep much on the bus there! It was filled with giggling teenagers! But, when we got to Fuji Q we were feeling great! The adrenaline really kicked in. On the way there, we briefly saw Mt. Fuji! It was almost completely covered by clouds! I would have taken a picture, but there was nothing to see really.

At Fuji Q we went to EVANGELION WORLD! EEEEEeee It was AMAZING. Here, have some pictures!

(This is TOTALLY my favourite picture.)

I would totally want to go again.

After Eva World, we went for lunch, I finally tried the much acclaimed MOS burger. My verdict? Kinda crappy. I don’t know what all the fuss about it is. It’s just like…standard fast food. It was tasty, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see what the fuss is for.

Unfortunately, because it was SO busy at the theme park (its summer holidays right now) we didn’t get to go on any rides. It was at least a 2 hour wait for every ride! NO way man, too long for us! We just walked around instead.

All in all, my Fuji Q experience was good. Although, it’s kinda sad. Fuji Q is one of the biggest theme parks in Japan, and it only had 4 roller coasters. Yeah, you read right. And it really was rather small. I’m comparing it to Canada’s Wonderland. I was expecting a bit more from it. Still fun though.

After Fuji Q, we took the bus back to Tokyo and then took the train back to Hatagaya. We checked into our room and had a shower. It was SO refreshing! We made plans with Beverley and Wendy to meet up and have dinner together, so we set out for Harajuku to meet them. We ended up going to TGIFridays for dinner. Not very foreign I know, but we get Japanese food on a regular basis, so North American food IS a luxury! Dinner was great. It was so tasty, I forgot to take a picture. Lol.

After dinner we went for karaoke. We sang until like…11:30! It was so late! So much fun though. I forgot how much I love Wendy when she’s drunk. After karaoke, we just went home, and I promptly passed out. I don’t even remember falling asleep!

WCS 2011 - Day 2 - WCS Championship

OMG. The championship was AMAZING! During the day, we decided that we would go get our tickets early again. The championship didn't start till 5pm, but we figured there'd be a bunch of cosplayers milling about in the early afternoon. There certainly were! We got to the change rooms around 10am again, and I'm glad we did. We picked up our tickets, and because we were so early, we got seats 65 and 66! Third row! It was fantastic seating!

 It was really hot, so Zoe and I both brought parasols to keep the sun off of us. I think hers matched her costume a bit better than mine though. Lol.

We went down into the mall, and ended up taking more pictures! There were some awesome cosplays that day!

Because it was cheap and easy, we ended up getting McDonalds for lunch as well. They're having a 100yen buys you any size drink deal right now, so we both got another drink after.

After lunch we wandered to the place the main event would take place, they were having a sound check for the band. It was JAM Project. They were really good actually. They all sounded fantastic live, and they had great stage presence. They really knew how to wind up the crowd.

 We stayed and watched them for a song or two then decided to go. We still had lots of time to kill before the show so we went to get some pictures on the green strip outside.

Not too bad, eh? :D
After that, it was time to go back to the show! It started at 5:30 so we went right on time and got our (AMAZING) seats. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures during the show or any video but seriously, it was fantastic! Everyone is so talented! The performances were really wonderful. Brazil and Spain's were my favourite. Spain did Romeo x Juliet (it's an anime) and it was really filled with emotion. And Brazil did FFXII Balthier and Ultima. That one won the championship. They were fantastic! Great special effects and soundtrack. Their costumes were spot on as well.
We unfortunately had to leave early because we had to catch the night bus. We saw all the performances though, so it kinda worked out. We just had to miss the announcement of who won. D:
We ran to the station to get the night bus and we went to Tokyo!