Making my dreams alive! - Part I

Hello peeps, long time no see! My bloggers block is finally eased up a little bit and I actually feel like writing again so it's time to bring this blog back to life! I'm sorry for being so inactive with blogger lately (especially in commenting your blogs)! m(_  _)m I was just so damn tired the whole winter, but now that spring is finally here I feel more energetic and I hope it reflects to this blog as well!

So let's start this spring with my latest trip to Tokyo!

As I told you in february I won the ticket to Love Live! The Final Love Live -concert. It was a 2-day event but I got ticket only for the first day (Mar 31st) and I went to see the live viewing of the concert on the second day  (Apr 1st). I was supposed to leave to Tokyo on March 27th but all didn't go as planned. I was flying with ID-tickets, meaning that I only get to the flight if there are seats available, and of course on that exact sunday Finnair had to cancel few of their other flights to Asia and passengers from those cancelled flights filled all the available seats so I was left behind... (;__;) Well I needed to be in Tokyo on Tuesday at the latest so I didn't want to take a risk again with Finnair's flights and as soon as I got back home I booked the cheapest flight from Helsinki to Narita. Few hours later I was on a plane off to Paris! I flew from Paris to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong to Narita. It was the longest flight trip I have ever made but at least I got to Tokyo in time! I did little shopping on the day of my arrival but I was so exhausted from the flight that I went to sleep really early. Plus I needed to wake up on 5 am on the next morning...

So on wednesday morning at 6:30 am I met with my friend Misaki and her friend Rumi. We wanted to buy the concert goods that started selling at 8:30 am. I've always admired japanese people for their ability to wait in line so calmly for abnormally long times! Well at least I had company with me, but after 4 hours of waiting and moving one inch at a time I started to question my sanity.. XD Finally somewhere around 11 am we were done and I was super happy that I got everything I wanted!

The live goods! You could buy only one of each item and for example if you wanted to get 2 t-shirts you had to queue two times to get them!

Someone tweeted that there were almost 5000 people waiting for the goods... Thank god there were about 30 cashiers as well!

Everyone who bought the goods also got a random sticker of one of the Love Live girls as a bonus. I got Maki-sticker but luckily there were many people waiting near the shopping area who were eager to change stickers with you if you had their favourite girl. I found one girl who had Eli and she wanted Maki so we made the trade and both were happy! (^w^) I've always wondered how japanese people can be so extremely lucky because they always seem to get their favourite girls but this "trading things" explains it! Clever!

This truck was driving around Akiba and played Love Live songs!

After shopping the goods me and Misaki rushed to Akihabara where we had a reservation to SEGA's Love Live! collaboration cafe! Before we entered the cafe everyone had to make the signature sign of μ's (making a ring of peace signs with everyone) and yell "MUSIC.... START!!" as they do every time before their concert in the anime! It was so adorable I can't even...!! The cafe wasn't that big but it was really cute and there was Snow Halation and Sunny Day Song theme going on.

The menu had only few thing to offer and of course I wanted to taste everything because with every salty dish and every sweet dish you got different clear file and I wanted to have both! (>w<) Everyone also got random pictured coaster with every drink they ordered. I ordered Eli & Nozomi drinks and got Hanayo and Umi coasters... Just my luck. But then I remembered we're in Japan, so Misaki helped me to find a guy who was willing to change his Eli coaster to my Umi coaster! Win win again! XD

Kotori & Eli drinks!

For starters I ordered Rin's ramen dish and Snow Halation pancakes for dessert. Both dishes were soooo delicious!! Especially the pancakes! I can't even remember when's the last time I've eaten pancakes that good!! Yummy!

 They also had these cute Snow Halation cut-outs of the girls!

 There was also this board where you could write greetings!

With our tummies full it was time to go check few important Love Live locations. First we headed to Honoka's house which is a japanese sweet shop in real life as well. There was a long line of people waiting to get inside the shop but I just wanted to get few pictures of the house itself! We also accidentally stumbled upon the area which is in the CD cover of BiBi's final single! I didn't even notice it until I got back home and went through my photos! If only I had known I would've taken better pictures of it!! XD

 In the anime and movie the girls hang out in front of this cafe few times.

BiBi's 錯覚CROSSROADS scene!

Honoka's house!

Then it was time to hit the Kanda shrine which is also an important place in the anime. We definitely weren't the only one's with the same idea since the place was crawling with Love Livers! XD Later in the evening I noticed on twitter that Emitsun (Honoka's voice actor) had also visited the shrine earlier that day!! I can only hope that she was there at the same time as we were! Huhuhu! (= w =)♥

There were a lot of Live Live emas in the shrine! Most of them wished luck to μ's in their Final Live!

Finally it was time to hit the karaoke! Misaki had made a reservation for JOYSOUND's Love Live! karaoke and our room had Kira-Kira Sensation theme in it! The karaoke had the same "get random coaster with each drink" thing going on as in the cafe, and this time I got Nozomi and Honoka coasters so I was pretty happy with them! We sang every Love Live song available and it was so fun!! Why can't we have karaoke boxes here in Finland as well?! I'd visit them every week!

Sooooo cute!! ♥

The drink menu! Wish I could have tasted them all!

Eli & Nozomi drinks and our Final Live pen lights! ♥

2 hours went by super fast and before I even realized, it was time to leave. We went to eat late night ramen and then it was time to head back to my hotel. I had super fun and Love Live filled day! A perfect eve before the main event! ♥ But more about that on part II... (>w<)

BONUS PIC:

Purikura at it's finest... Check out my oversized hand and loooooong legs! XD

Nippon 2014 Part IV: Monster Hunters in Eorzea (pic heavy)

Sopivasti viime reissun aikana Tokiossa oli myös meneillään meijän lempipelin, Monster Hunterin, 10th anniversary ja sitä varten oli tehty ihan oma näyttely Shibuyaan! Sinnehän oli siis mentävä hinnalla millä hyvänsä. Valitettavasti näyttelyssä ei saanu kuvata kun tietyillä aluella, mutta niinhän se taitaa olla melkeinpä kaikissa näyttelyissä joten ymmärtäähän sen. Itse näyttely oli paljon isompi mitä osasin odottaakaan ja kokonaisuudessaan tosi laaja! Harvoin sitä muutenkaan näkee mitään kunnon näyttelyä joka on omistettu ainoastaan yhelle pelisarjalle ja kyseisen sarjan kovina faneina toi oli meille tosi iso juttu vaikkei ihan kaikkea ymmärrettykään kielimuurin takia. :D

Conveniently during our trip to Tokyo, our favourite game series, Monster Hunter, celebrated it's 10th anniversary and there was an exhibition held for it in Shibuya! That was a must-see for us, no matter the cost! Unfortunately photography was not allowed except for few areas but I guess that's how it goes in most of the exhibitions nowadays. The exhibition was much bigger than I had expected and all in all it was a really comprehensive experience. You rarely see an exhibition of that scale devoted to one game only, and as a huge Monster Hunter fans, this exhibition was really a big thing for us despite the language barrier. :D

Life-size statue of a monster called 'Gore Magala'

The receptionist girls outfits from the game

 'Kinsect' from Monster Hunter 4

 Wyvern Strife - dual blades

 Wyvern Blade 'Silver' - longsword

 Princess Burst - gunlance

 Diablos Horn - bow

 Khezu Horn - hunting horn

 Kut-ku Anger - light bowgun

Soundboard where you can hear different screeches of the monsters

A big ass statue of 'Serlegios', the new main monster from the newest MH-game.

Serlegios armor set

Näyttelyssä oli myös upeeta MH-aiheista oheiskrääsää näytillä.

There was some cool MH-merchandise on display too!

Cute keychains!

 Even golf balls! XD

Damn that Rathalos bike...... *drooooool*

Näyttelyn jälkeen oli pieni kahvila mistä sai vielä ostaa Monster Hunter ruokia. Otettiin vaan yks hodari ja pelistä tuttu potion-juoma (joka olikin vaan tavallista Spriteä tai 7up:ia) koska ei oltu kauheen nälissämme. En oo vieläkään ihan varma, että saiko sitä potion-juomakuppia ottaa mukaan vai olisko se pitäny palauttaa muiden astioiden mukana muttaaah.... otettiin omamme mukaan. Fuck the police! XDD

After the exhibition there was a small café where you could get your Monster Hunter meal. We only bought one hot dog and a potion drink (which ended up being just normal Sprite or 7up) since we weren't that hungry. I'm still not sure if it was allowed to take the potion bottle with us or should we have returned it but we ended up takin the bottle with us.... Fuck the police! XDD

Museon jälkeen oli aika ottaakin nokka kohti Akihabaraa, koska oltiin tehty aiemmin pöytävaraus Final Fantasy XIV-kahvila Eorzeaan. Nimensä mukaisesti kahvila/ravintola on FF14-teemaravintola, joka on toteutettu pelissä esiintyvän Carline Canopy-rakennuksen mukaan. Pöytävaraus täyty tosissaan tehdä etukäteen, koska itse kahvila on melkosen pieni ja asiakkaita mahtuu kerrallaan sisään ehkä n. 25. Ravintolassa oli myöskin kahden (tai kahen ja puolen? ei voi muistaa XD) tunnin aikaraja per ryhmä, jonka jälkeen paikka siivotaan ja otetaan uudet asiakkaat sisään. Kaksi tuntia oli kuitenkin enemmän kun tarpeeks mahan täyttämiseen!

After the exhibition it was time to go back to Akihabara because we had made a reservation at Final Fantasy XIV Cafë Eorzea. Eorzea cafe/restaurant is modelled after the in-game location called Carline Canopy. The reservation had to be made beforehand because the place is relatively small and there's place for about 25 people. You can stay there for two hours (or two and a half? can't remember XD) at max and after that they clean the place and welcomes new customers. Two hours were more than enough to fill our bellies though!

 Kahvila oli todella kotoisa ja tunnelmakin oli ihan loistava! Työntekijät oli erittäin mukavia ja ruoka kaikessa omituisuudessaan oli tosi herkullista!! Juomapuoli olikin sitten vähän toinen tarina... Kaikki juomat näytti todella herkulliselta mut jotkut niistä oli vaan liian omituisia mun nirsoon makuun! XD Nautin kuitenkin kokonaisuudessaan koko illallisesta ja aiotaan todellakin mennä uudestaan sinne seuraavalla reissulla jos mahollista!

The café was really cozy and the atmoshpere in there was incredible! All the staff members were super nice and the food was all in its weirdness really delicious!! The drinks on the other hand weren't as good as they looked and some of them were just too weird for my picky taste! XD But I enjoyed dining in there and definetly will go again on our next trip if possible!

 Drink menu

Cactuar & Leviathan drinks

Ja kyllä... Se on suolaa, tossa sinisen lasin reunassa. Myöskin jokasen tilauksen mukana sai hienon lasinalusen jossa oli erilaisia FF-taidekuvia. Kukaan ei niitä kuitenkaan käyttäny lasinalusena ja mekin sujautettiin heti omamme laukkuun talteen sitä mukaa kun niitä saatiin. :D

And yes, that is salt on the edge of the blue glass. Also as a cool bonus, with each food 
or drink ordered, you get a coaster featuring awesome FF-artwork. No one actually used them as a coasters and everytime we got a new one, we just quickly put it in my bag to safety. :D

Ifrit pizza! :D Don't let the looks fool you, it was really good!

Titan hamburger. D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!!

DEM DETAILS!! Cute wittle titan-chan ~ !! >3<

 Ahriman mousse chocolate thingy! It was almost too cute to eat!

Limit Break! Meteor Cream Puff. Yet again, don't judge a book by its cover.
Delicious cream filled black-dough thingy and icy raspberry cubes. Yummy!!

"Kupo?"

Super söpöjä moogleja!! Kahvilassa saa kulkea ja valokuvata vapaasti ja esillä on myös muutamia pelin aseita. Keskellä kahvilaa on pitkula pöytä täynnä tietokoneita joissa voi pelata FFXIV:Realm Reborn:ia kun on maha täynnä! Oikeesti vitsi miten makeeta!! Suosittelen kaikille faneille ja ei-faneille käymään Eorzeassa jos Tokion reissu on tähtäimessä. On sen arvosta, lupaan! ^w^

Super cute moogles!! You can roam around the cafe and take photos freely and there's also few weapons from the game on display too. In the middle of the cafe is a counter full of computers where you can play FFXIV:Realm Reborn when you're finished eating! How cool is that?! I recommend from the bottom of my heart to visit Eorzea if you're going to Tokyo! Even if you're not fan of the game it's going to be worth your time, I promise! ^w^

Until next time ~ !! o/