#I’ve also got 2 keychains an acrylic standee for me

[queer-trashmouth]

My Halloween hoodie is arriving the day b4 my bday!! I’m gonna wear it to d&b >:3

[doritofalls]

I would love to see your kiyo merchandise. I want to get some if my own, but it's hard as a lesbian to justify getting pretty boy merchandise and also without context he looks like a nazi which doesn't help. But let me gaze upon your shrine. I would like to see him.

;;;ok but only for you anon nobody else look

added nagito for filler and clout - wasn’t a very planned purchase, but i came across a local seller and a very good deal, so here we are. it Is the nicest figure i own, the base and pose are both fantastic. 

i’ve got the vivimus keychain - i’m really satisfied with the quality and design, but it’s pretty huge! i’m used to like, gashapon sized rubber straps, and the vivimus line is just reasonably bigger. 

i also have the kiyo acrylic charm from the halloween themed stellamap cafe collab - generally speaking, stellamap cafe collabs are my favorites when it comes to v3 merch, because the illustrations are just SO cute. and it is no different this time!! i really like this one, and the reference to his execution is just, funny in a very morbid kinda way. 

alsooo have two shinsai fancomics. i’m a huge fan of miu miura’s art (right) and this one’s holding up too - they portray emotions and horror so well, and they really did kiyo justice in this one. sadly they only have one other kiyo focused comic and i’m on the edge with picking that up because i’m not huge into the angie kiyo ship. they did a lot of komaeda/komahina focused comics though, and i’ll probably pick up a couple more of those in the future. 

rou’s style is very different with a much heavier BL touch, but i liked the comic well enough for the ship. will probably pick part 2 up if i see it on a reasonable price in the future. 

not pictured is stuff i was able to bag in recent months but is yet to arrive!! 

generally speaking, i’m not huge on suya chara, the illustrations are very hit or miss for me - but this drv3 lineup they did came out super cute imo, and i love this kiyo :’] i wasn’t looking for this one in particular but it popped up for a very good price. 

super excited for this one though!! i’ve been on the lookout for this doujinshi for a while. i couldn’t find much info about it online other than the sample images and a vague description, but the art seems gorgeous and i’m always up for gen kiyo stuff. there’s not a ton of it - most doujinshi understandably is either at least vaguely ship based or just porn, which is not the kind of thing i collect. 

i am also trying SO hard to find the sanrio collab kiyo standee under 1000 yen, but no luck so far. fingers crossed, they are VERY cute. 

as far as being a lesbian and hating kiyo’s fit goes - i completely feel you on both of those points!!!! being a lesbian and curating a collection that may involve pretty boy merch - my general rule of thumb has been only getting merch of gay people which. worked so far - though most of my collection is of girl characters (which is its own challenge entirely because this hobby comes with built in creepy male gaze bullshit). as a lesbian who relates to male characters but not on a level of attraction it’s really a niche.

also god, don’t get me started on kiyo’s outfit;;; there’s a reason i hadn’t drawn it proper despite having made fanart. i wouldn’t even mind the milita/bdsm inspiration, there’s an interesting cross-section to note between those sub-cultures as well if you wanna go there, but rui really just didn’t try. as much as i’ve looked at his silly outfit enough to distinguish it, it really gives a nazi vibe at first glance (which REMAINS stupid because it in no way ties into kiyo as a character. i’m ripping my hair out). either way though, if you dislike the outfit, there’s a fair amount of merch with alt outfits! (several of the graffart collabs and the sweets paradise collab comes to mind)

[theseaver]

It’s a Giveaway!

So today is an exciting day!  It's been exactly one year since I posted the first Nendos on Ice comic!  Woohoo!

I can’t believe how much my blog has grown since then.  Everyone on Tumblr has been so positive and supportive.  I read every comment, every reblog tag, and I recognize a lot of usernames that leave notes on my posts again and again.  I’ve made a lot of fandom friends, and I couldn’t be happier with where this blog has taken me.

I’ve also been extremely fortunate in my personal life.  I’m happy, I’m healthy, and I have a great job that I love.  I also got to travel to Japan twice this year, which was awesome.

So I thought, hey, let’s share the wealth.  As a way of saying thank you to everyone who’s supported me, I’m doing a giveaway of a few things I picked up on my travels!

Enough of the mushy stuff.  I know why you’re here.

The Prizes

The Victor Nendoroid

Includes: One Coach Victor Nikiforov Nendoroid, brand new and unopened One Stammi Vicino Victor charm

The Yuuri Nendoroid

Includes: One Casual Yuuri Katsuki Nendoroid One Yuuri with a riceball charm

The Tiny Phichit Merch Bundle

Includes: (1) Three long poster blind boxes.  Posters measure 73cm x 26cm.  I have opened them once before, and you could probably find out what’s in them if you knew where to look, but don’t you want to be surprised? (2) One skater silhouette water bottle (3) One Tiny Phichit keychain, for your own Yuuri Nendo (4) One Young Victor rubber charm (5) One Yuuri Pliestsky gold coin (6) One Yuuri Plisetsky at the beach standee (7) One podium family acrylic pin (8) One podium family acrylic charm (9) One clear acrylic ring with stills from the show on it (probably Yuri P., it’s hard to see through the plastic bag) and one chain that makes it into a necklace (10) One set of three can badges (11) Three square pins of the podium family in boxes (12) One set of four acrylic charms of the Grand Prix Finalists... and Victor

Disclaimer: All pieces of merch except for the Nendos were purchased secondhand, so nothing is new.  Even the Nendoroids have been sitting at my house for six months.  However, I would say everything in “Like New” condition.

Rules

-You must be 18 years or older to enter (idk how Tumblr expects me to verify that, but there it is) -You must be in the US, again because of Tumblr’s giveaway rules, although I’ve got a little something for my international followers here -You must be willing to give me your address, or else how will I send you your stuff? -You must be a follower of mine, since this giveaway is for people who are supporting me (new followers okay) -You cannot delete your blog on the 17th, like people are talking about doing.  I must be able to reach you on Tumblr after the giveaway ends -No giveaway blogs -No reblogging necessary, unless you want to

How to Enter

So here’s the cool part.  When you enter this contest, you get three entries that you can spread amongst the three prizes however you like.  If you want to put all three entries on Victor, go for it.  This way, the winners will get what they want.  I'd love it if the Nendos could to go to people who really want them or can’t afford them, rather than to someone who’d rather have the merch.

So to enter, just leave a comment on this post dictating where you want your entries to go.  This comment must be concise and clear. For example: “I would like two entries to go to the Yuuri Nendo and one to go to the merch bundle.” Nothing fancy.

This giveaway starts now and ends on December 28th at noon central time. The winners will be chosen at random and the results will be announced on January 1st, 2019.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me in the last year.  It means so much.  I love you all!

(this giveaway isn’t administered, sponsered, or endorsed by Tumblr.)

[adurnah]

Two days in Numazu (Love Live Sunshine real life setting): a report

Heya! I know I haven’t used my Tumblr in ages, but I didn’t know where else to put this so here I am.

So, I’ve been to Japan for two weeks in late February and I managed to spent two days (Sun 19th and Mon 20th) in Numazu and Uchiura, the places where all of Love Live Sunshine is set. It was an incredible experience, so I’ve wanted to write a report both for me to remember it but also to show other people the place. I can’t believe I procrastinated two months in this

From Kyoto (where we were before this) we arrived at Numazu on Sunday morning at around 8am, by night bus. This is Numazu Station, featured a lot of times in the anime. We’ve been really lucky and had a wonderful weather! at least for one day

After going to check-in to our hotel (if you’re interested in going, I really recommend you Sanco Inn Numazu Ekimae, it’s super close to the station and the staff knows English pretty well), we came back to catch the bus for Uchiura.

Right in front of the station there’s a collaboration cafè, Yudai Festa Sun! Sun! Sunshine Cafè. We went there later for dinner.

This is the bus stop to Uchiura. You’ll see Love Live is literally everywhere here. Unfortunately I already knew we had no chance to catch the LLSS collaboration bus if we didn’t want to waste time (the first was at around 11am iirc)

While we were waiting there for the bus, another bus arrived and a girl next to us asked us “Where are you going?” so I said “Izu Mito Sea Paradise” (since it’s the most known attraction from Uchiura and it was actually our first stop), and she said that that other bus that arrived was going there too. So we took that bus.

Random photo of the scenery from the bus.

Comes out, that bus wasn’t going to Izu Mito. I don’t know what happened, if she didn’t understood what I said or she was just wrong, but at some point on the road to Uchiura the bus changed direction. I kept looking where the f- we were going on my phone, and comes out we were going to the near city of Izu-Nagaoka. I tried asking to the driver if the bus was going to Izu Mito Sea Paradise (maybe taking a longer route) but he said “No, *something else I didn’t caught* Sea Paradise”. IDK. In the end I found with Google Maps that there was another bus going to Izu Mito from that area, so we dropped off the bus and waited for the other bus. 

The funny thing to all of this is that at that bus station in the middle of nowhere and far away from every LLSS location there was this:

No matter where you go, Love Live is there.

An old woman also asked us (in Japanese this time) where we were going and she confirmed that this bus was actually for Izu Mito and she was right this time. I got pleasantly surprised that people are so friendly there, even with weird gaijins like us.

This detour unfortunately cost us a lot of time, but in the end we managed to arrive to Izu Mito Sea Paradise! If you don’t know, this aquarium is the setting for the Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM PV.

I forgot to take a photo outside This is the Show Stadium of the Aquarium, where most of the scenes in the KoiAQUA PV happen.

I loved this tank with sakura flowers inside.

I haven’t took a photo of the whole coloured jellyfish pool (where You is being emo in the PV) but I had a bit of fun photographing the single jellyfishes.

Shukas Otteeeeers so cute. I went to see them hundreds of time.

A dolphin came to say hi to us! o/

A nice view of Awashima Island and... Fuji-san being shy and hiding behind clouds.

Aqours images signed by the seiyuus. In front of this place is where you can see half of the aquarium’s audience are Love Livers, a lot of people came here to take photos of the posters. I loved the guy that posed next to Mari doing her “Lock on!” pose lol

Best grills and best seiyuus signatures

The aquarium shop has a literal aquarium with Aqours acrylic standees inside

YouChika under the sea and a fish staring at me

Aqours standees inside the aquarium shop.

The visit to the aquarium took us until midday, since we also saw the shows. After lunch, we went out and headed to our next stops.

First of all we stopped at the close Sannoura Tourist Center, aka the tourist center of the town. I tried periscoping inside of it so here’s a video: https://streamable.com/d5n33 (I can’t find a way to embed it sorry)

As you can see the place is FILLED with Love Live, it really is the main attraction there.

If I recall correctly this page in their signature book was signed by the seiyuus when they first came here in February 2016. I witnessed one of Rikyako’s best masterpieces with my own eyes I feel blessed.

After we looked around a bit the two staff members showed us a map of Japan where people put a round sticker for the place where they were from, and they also had spaces of overseas. For Europe iirc they had a space for UK, Germany and then “Other Europe” lel, so we put our sticker there. There were only 2 sticker on “Other Europe”, and I wondered who they were... comes out it was my friend and her boyfriend who come here in December :’D Not a lot of people are as crazy as us uh better for them

After this the staff girl asked us if the wanted to write a post-it with cheers for the seiyuus for their First Live. After I wrote mine, she took it, looked at it and asked “Yousoro?” (since I wrote it in blue and added an anchor), I said yes and then she disappeared for a bit and came back with two You keychains as a present for me WTF I was almost crying as I thanked her, so kind!! They also gave some Chika goods to my friend, I was speechless. As if it wasn’t enough, while we were going out the staff guy stopped us and gave us one of their big posters??

Like seriously WTF. Are they really so happy to see tourists?

I feel sorry that they also tried to make some conversation with me but unfortunately I’m still a beginner in Japanese and they didn’t know a lot of English ;; They managed to ask me if we were going to see some locations and I said that in fact we’ve already been to Izu Mito. They were so happy ;;

Another nice thing I didn’t expected is that outside of the Tourist Center we found a few itashas. Not comparable to the one you can see in UDX in Akiba but they were nice!

This one was very well made, except for the fact that one side was wrongly mirrored lol

This guy has good tastes.

We left the Tourist Center in the direction of the school. This is the place where Mari falls while running, in fact, to the school to meet Kanan.

A bit ahead we found this groceries shop called “Oh! Mos” that sells mikans and specifically the Jyutaro x LLSS mikans, and also has this big Aqours shrine. I told ya LL there is really everywhere.

Fun fact: Suwawa, Rikyako and Anchan went in this shop a few weeks later, when they were there for their DIVER photoshoot, and left a signature (that’s the shop twitter account).

We took a bag of mikans and when we went to the counter to pay, the old woman pointed at Chika’s image in the bag and said “anime?” to us, lol. When we said yes (?) she showed us that they even have the cardboard box of mikan, the megaphone and the sign that Chika uses in episode 1 to gather people for her school idol club, lol. SUKURU AIDORU BU DEEESU. My friend took a pic with them

Btw, mikans are really good.

Moving on, we went to the place where the girls (try to) shoot a PV in episode 6. The place is called “Nagahama Castle Ruins” but there really isn’t much except for a really nice view.

Actually, I had printed a lot of these postcards with anime screenshots to take this kind of photos, but unfortunately I realized taking a good shot takes a lot of time and effort, plus the wind was not helping me. In the end I gave up and took really a few of these. I still have all of them so maybe I’ll try again if I manage to go back in August.

If you turn back you can already see the school!

My friend took a panorama of the bay.

Moving on to the next stop: the little shrine where Kanan ends her morning run and dances under the stalkers other girls’ eyes.

I saw a lot of people thinking that the shrine where Kanan dances is the same as the one in episode 4 to where Ruby and the seconds year run, but it’s not: that one is in Awashima Island and it would have required Kanan to take the boat from where she starts her run. In fact it’s this one, a bit before the school. There were two other Love Livers there taking photos.

After this we finally got to the school bus stop! Featured in the ending, as well as in episode 1 when You joins the school idol club.

I failed this photo on so many levels.

Going up the hill to the school, such a nice scenery.

And here it is! Uranohoshi Girls Highschool is in real life a middle school called Nagaisaki. It was Sunday afternoon so no one was around, except for the gym where we could hear some people inside.

After this we walked all the way back to Izu Mito and beyond to see the other locations, like...

Yasudaya ryokan, aka Chika’s house!

And right in front of it, the beach featured in the very first LLSS image, as well as the scene in episode 1 where Chika and Riko talk. Someone already wrote Aqours on the sand.

And the pier when Riko tries to kill herself jump in the water.

Early blooming sakura.

Last one I tried to take. Kimi no kokoro wa kagayaiterukai?

Shougetsu Cafè! aka the place were a CYaRon radio drama is set, and also were the 2nd years seiyuus went during their Teku Teku. Of course we went to grab some mikan dorayaki! They are super good. I even bought mikan jam, but I still have to open it.

Photos and signatures of the seiyuus.

We were so lucky we even found the LLSS kitchen car! I bought the You Noppo keychain.

Unfortunately, at this point my organization failed me. We wanted to go to Awashima Island, but I got wrong the place where the boat docks. I thought it was in front of Shougetsu, where there actually is some kind of port, but it wasn’t. We lost time looking around and on the web (how come that the Awashima Marine Park website doesn’t say where the boat docks?!), then tried to ask to the girls in the kitchen car who managed to explain to me it was 20 minutes by feet to get there. Unfortunately it was already kinda late, and since we didn’t want to rush it we decided to go back to Numazu. While riding the bus I saw the bus stop “Awashima” and the docks. If only we had take the right bus in the morning I would’ve know. Too bad.

Even if we didn’t rode the LLSS collaboration bus there was still some Love Live on board. Someone likes OmoiNare ships here.

At Numazu station we finally grabbed some Noppo Pan! I bought the LLSS (caramel) flavoured one this time, and later I tried the strawberry chocolate too. In the same shop in the station I also bought some really good mikan cookies.

Going around Numazu by night. This shopping district appears in episode 6, and it also contains Maru-san (Maru’s favorite bookstore) and the cafè used as a background for Guilty Kiss first illustration

Obligatory visit to Numazu Gamers, or Numazu’s Little Demon shop.

Inside the shop.

Going to the collabo cafè for dinner! They have this fake UraGirls bus stop sign which actually resembles the real one (including the timetable)

I got the full You menu: Youkisoba (I even got the appropriate coaster), You’s drink and You’s Magic Tea (it’s a butterfly pea tea, it’s blue but when you put lemon in it it becomes purple). I really liked it tbh to be just a collabo cafè (not famous for the quality of their meals...)

And this concludes our first day in Numazu.

The next day we decided to do just a short visit to Numazu, since going back to Uchiura just to go to Awashima Island was too expensive.

Nakamise again.

We went to see Yoshiko’s house, a building called Natty Numazu. At the first floor of the building, on the other side, there’s a watch shop that even has some LLSS merch, and when the shopkeeper saw us looking at it they made us enter and sign their Yoshiko signature book lol

This tiny temple is right next to the alley where Yoshiko is seen in the last scene of episode 5 (before starting running away from the others).

Of course since You is best grill I couldn’t miss this place: You’s house! Which is not a house but a Western-style cafè called Orandakan.

Just from outside you can’t be wrong this is the place.

Their You shrine from inside.

When we entered an old lady came to us and made us seat. She tried failed a bit to talk in English and brought us their signature book (I swear every single place has signature books there). My friends told me she also said “Welcome to You’s house” but unfortunately I didn’t catch it.

Their menu is only in Japanese but luckily since the teas are all in katakana and the cakes had pictures we managed to order something.

Not bad but tbh kinda pricey, I paid 1010 yen for a tea and a piece of cake... but it was at You’s house! So it’s ok.

Our message in the signature book, I did the writing and my friend did the drawing.

Moving along Yoshiko’s escape route, we passed next to Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium (where the first years go in their KoiAQUA radio drama, aka the shiirakansu aquarium) and Numazu Hamburger & Cafè, where the first years also came for their Teku Teku.

I took a photo of this sign and not of the place, how fail I am.

We finally arrived at Byou (which I discovered actually means View-O), the water gate/observatory where Yoshiko finally stops running and also where You and Mari go talk in episode 11. Going up only costs 100 yen but due to some circumstances we decided not to go. The weather got bad in any case so we wouldn’t have seen anything anyway.

And this concludes our trip around Numazu, and is also where we suddenly started having incredible bad luck.

The weather was getting worse and worse, with strong wind and rain. On our travel back to Tokyo we wanted to make some stops: at Atami to visit the Plum Garden since the plums were in full blooms, at Nebukawa station (the station of feels in the anime), and Kozu station (the beach of feels- yes, they’re in different places). After riding the train we already decided that we would miss Atami, the weather was too bad to enjoy a garden. We could still stop at Nebukawa and Kozu, I mean, we just have to stop and take some photos, it can’t be that bad, right?

Wrong. The wind was so strong we were basically flying away, I’ve never seen something like this. We run inside the station and I only managed to take these photos.

Being the wind so strong we decided not to stop in Kozu, since it would’ve been a pain with our luggages and everything. But, after arriving at that exact station, the train stopped. We heard a lot of messages but we couldn’t understand them. We checked online and discovered that all trains in the Tokaido line were suppressed due to strong winds. And we were in Kozu. But we couldn’t go down. I couldn’t believe our bad luck, lol. The train stayed there for three (THREE) hours before leaving, and even then it was going slow and occasionally stopping, making our travel from Numazu to Tokyo 6 hours long instead of 2. But in the end we managed to arrive in Tokyo safe and sound.

Anyway, except for this last part, I really loved going to Numazu. It’s a bit of a struggle if you don’t know Japanese and it’s kinda expensive, but if you’re a Love Live fan it’s really really worthy. It’s not just “seeing” those places in real life, you can do that from photos... but being there, living like them, taking the same bus they take to school, eating mikans and Noppo pan... it’s an incredible experience. It makes it feels like everything is more real, even if it’s just an anime. I really hope I’ll be able to go back in August!

I want to give many many thanks to LuciaHunter for the LLSS Locations Google Map (link: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.3623197,139.0468361,10z/data=!4m2!6m1!1s1cL4tMTO0iVaz69hqK88wyetWkR8 )

and also u/MasterMirage and u/FliryVorru for their reddit posts, they all were a huge help in planning this!

This concludes my report of these two days in Numazu. If you really read this till the end thank you, hope you like it! And if anyone has any question feel free to ask!