Nintendo NY Grand Re-Opening

Hello! Yesterday I had the chance to visit Nintendo NY for their re-opening. Formerly known as Nintendo World. They were closed for a month for renovations and re-branded Nintendo NY. Their renaming makes me wonder if there will be other official Nintendo stores opening in the US! Anywho me and my friend Tiff had a chance to check it out.

So Tiff and I already planned on going to the grand re-opening regardless of whether or not I obtained my special edition. I'll take about my whole special edition fiasco at the end of this post. I will be upfront and say I am extremely grateful to have gotten because a lot of folks haven't been able to get one.

We got to the store around 9:30 and to our surprise the line was super long. I have a feeling that some people camped out overnight. It was super cold and we tried to dress accordingly. I even had a blanket big enough for us to share which we ended up doing later on. The blocks in that area of town are quite long. So we headed to the back of the line. I received an email from Best Buy's eBay letting me know that my item was ready for pickup. I had selected a Best Buy two subway stops away from Rockefeller Center. So I called to double check that it was for the right item and it was! So I left Tiff in line to hold our place and then went to Best Buy. I was SO happy when I got my hands on it. I will say the box was smaller than I expected lol The trip only took about 20 minutes total.

When I meet back up with Tiff in line we had moved a good bit. We figured why not just stay in line and see how it all played out. It was really cold outside but we were pretty prepared. The voice actor of Mario even came out to day hi to everyone. It was awesome that he came that far back in line. Tiff even got a high five from him!

Voice Actor of Mario, Charles Martinet

I was able to snag this picture of him upstairs without standing in the long ass line to meet him. I think you needed to have a wrist band in order to participate in the meet and greet, but since the area was so open I figured I'd grab a pic.

 Took these when we were finally by the store and thoroughly freezing our butts off

Visiting FAO Schwarz ❤︎ | Photo Heavy

Hope everyone is staying cool in this humidity. This may be the year that I break down and by an air conditioner -_- I found out in May that FAO Schwarz would be closing it's Fifth Ave location and relocating. Even though I have lived in the city for awhile I had never been. I asked Boba if he wanted to go there on a date since it had been a long time since he'd been there.

I thought it would be a good idea for us to stop by Dainobu to grab some snacks for the day. On the way we passed by Midtown Comics and decided to stop in. I saw the Jem and the Holograms comics and could not resist since I heard rave reviews for it. And since they were having a Memorial Day sale I should grab a few things. I also have an account with them. The lady at the counter recommended we check my account first just in case it was more of a discount than the sale. I ended up getting all three volumes for $3 due to my account^^ I have no idea why it was so low but I ain't complainin! 

We continued on our way to Dainobu. We loaded up like crazy with onigiri, takoyaki, and sweets like daifuku. It was my first time taking Boba, and I think he really liked the store. They also have fav drink, Mango Skal, in a large size #bless

Boba suggested we walk over to FAO. I forgot how annoying it can be to walk on 5th Ave. I'm typically not in that area because most of the shops are ridiculously expensive and it's always crowded. It wasn't too bad because we weren't in a hurry.

By the time we reached the store,  we both had worked up an appetite with the heat and all our walking. We sat in mini park right outside FAO and devoured our food. I snapped a few pictures of the iconic toy soldier before went in.

The Magical Art of Translation Lecture at Japan Society

Last month, Japan Society had an amazing lecture discussing translation, Murakami, and some of Japan's up and coming novelists. The panel also shared their thoughts on what it's like to be a writer and a translator. I had some time before the lecture because I left work a little early. I headed to Vivi bubble tea and Dainobu to grab a snack before the event.

I also saw that the Sebastian Masuda's Hello Kitty time capsule was there for his TIME AFTER TIME art project. It was so cute! I meet up with Tiffany shortly after snapping this pic of her majesty, Hello Kitty.

I was super excited to learn that Jay Rubin would be there. He has translated a lot of Murakami's work. They discussed how writing in a foreign language is a valuable tool to free yourself from tradition.

For a lot of the speakers on the panel, translation is a huge piece that plays into their own fiction and their writing process which is something I can relate to. I dabbled in translation in college when I decided to do a conference project producing my own translation of a few scenes of the manga Death Note and comparing it to the official English translation. I found a lot of disparities in language and tone. In my opinion, the official English translation did not carry enough nuance to highlight how creepy/scary of Light and Ryuk's interactions.

It was also refreshing to learn about newer writers in Japan since I'm a huge fan of Japanese literature. There was a writer on the panel named, Aoko Matsuda, and I am really excited to check out her work. I really loved hearing her speak about her thoughts on being a translator and a writer. There was another amazing speaker, Motoyuki Shibata, who is one of Japan's most well known translator and founder of Monkey Business. Also, Monkey Business is a great way to learn about new work from Japan.

Japan Society always has such amazing events and I consider myself lucky to be able to have access to such a wonderful institution. I really enjoy reading works by POC and LGBTQ+ writers and people with different gender identities, and the lecture gave me more writers to check out. I recently picked up the first book in a YA series by a WOC named Marie Lu which I will review after I finish it. Thanks for reading!

My First Sakura Matsuri | Cherry Blossom Love

I hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather! I attended my first Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanical garden with Tiffany. I only attended on Saturday, but next year depending on the events I would love to go both days. Geek Girl Brunch was holding a Lolita themed brunch where we brought on our food. The weather started out a little chilly, but gradually warmed up as the day went on.

I decided to spend the weekend with Tiffany. It's also nice to kick it with her and relax at her crib. We got up and helped each other get our coords on. For some reason I always hate pulling things like dresses and tight garments over my head lol It's like I'll always panic a tiny bit midway through like I'm gonna get stuck lmbo Been doing it since I was a kid lol Tiff always thinks it's funny because it's the second time she's seen me do it haha One day I'll master it!

Our journey was very interesting compared to the last time we wore Lolita together for the Novala Takemoto meet up at Baby. It was a lot more positive not that we cared either way haha A lot of people gave us nice compliments. I had a few older black women tell me they thought I looked really nice. We did receive interesting comments, too haha A guy asked if we were attending a tea party, a lady walked past us telling us we were in the Parasol Society. It's interesting having people talk about you when you're right in front of them. It's like uhhh I'm right here lol

We arrived right on time at 10 for the meet up. Geek Girl Brunch was giving away a few free tickets, and Tiff was able to win one :)

Tif's coord

I really love her Innocent World dress! I checked out there website and I love pretty much everything they have. I'm hoping to buy a dress from them to make a country Lolita coord with me being a Southern girl and all. I gotta represent!

My coord

It was the first time I wore my coord from my lucky pack from Baby. I like everything, but I'm not  a big fan of the blouse. I'll be looking for a new blouse at AnimeNEXT to replace it. I'm also hoping to buy a new dress while I'm there^^

My First Geek Girl Brunch | The Ghibli Brunch

Hey honey babes! This week has been snowy and rainy, and I'm looking forward to warmer weather. Last Saturday I attended my first Geek Girl Brunch, and it was awesome! Geek Girl Brunch is a monthly themed brunch for ladies only, sorry boys. It started in NYC, but now has chapters all over the word. There's even a chapter in Germany! So if you're interested see if they have one near you. February's brunch was a Studio Ghibli themed brunch at a restaurant called Do Or Dine. I wore my Tee Fury Ghibli/Beatles tee; it was hiding from me for a few days, but I was able to find it. Please enjoy the food porn^^

I was surprised to learn when I arrived that the restaurant was closed and only open for us. It was nice having the place to ourselves. I thought that was amazing. I arrived with about three or four other ladies; the remaining ladies around a few minutes later. We ended up being a squad about 30 deep.

Japan Week at Grand Central and Meeting Domo kun!

Howdy there, I just got back from a relaxing long weekend. I hope everyone is staying warm. On Friday I had the day off and decided to stop by the Japan Week event at Grand Central. The event lasted from February 18th to February 20th. The event is sponsored by the Japan Tourism Agency, Japan National Tourism Organization, and few Japanese businesses in NYC and Japan. They even had a stage for performances.

One side had booths for Japanese businesses while the other side was set up like a Depachika. This event was my first time hearing this term. A depachika is a food market located in the basement of a Japanese department store. Sweets, street food, and snacks are typically sold. Mitsuwa even had a booth!

The entrance to the side with booths for Japanese business

Guess who I got to meet?! Domo kun!!!

I saw on the website that there was someone in a Doraemon costume but I didn't see the person during my time there.

The depachika side smelled amazing; some of my favorite snack places were there like Beard Papa's^^ Their cream puffs are amazing! It was nice to experience a little taste of Japan. This event has been going on since 2012. Each year has looked amazing, so I imagine next year will be awesome as well. I look forward to the chance to go visit hopefully in the near future. I'll definitely have to brush up on my Japanese before I go though! Thanks for reading!

Meeting Novala Takemoto and Wearing Lolita for the First Time

Hello loves^^ January has flown by so fast; it literally felt like it was December yesterday. The one perk is that hopefully we can experience Spring weather soon. Earlier this month Tif and I found out that the Baby the Stars Shine Bright/Tokyo Rebel store in NYC would be having an event with Novala Takemoto. I'm super mad that I missed AKIRA when she came, so I def wanted to meet Novala. Being new to the Lolita fashion, I'm still learning, but I had already heard that Novala, Mana, and Misako Aoki are very revered in the Lolita fashion community.

I decided to spend the night at Tiffany's house on Friday after work so we got get dressed together. Her family's house is really warm and relaxing, and it was nice to meet her family members. Saturday morning we woke up a little late since the event wasn't until late afternoon. Boy, did we have some outfit shenanigans lol We changed outfits a few times due to fitting issues on both sides and were both semi-frantic and frustrated. Eventually, we both let the other know that the other looked fabulous. We both were just overthinking our individual coords but that the other looked awesome. It just goes to show that people tend to be hard on themselves. Tif is really the bomb, I'm so happy that we became awesome friends. My previous job was very toxic for both of us, but she is one of the best things that came out of it for sure.

We made it to the store around 3:15, 3:30 and luckily there wasn't a line which surprised us. Novala greeted us as soon as we walked into the door and shook our hands. He was very nice :) He even complimented me on my hair and took a picture of it on his cell phone.

We took a picture together and I got his autograph ^_^

Line Pop Up Shop in Times Square

Hey hey hey! I hope you enjoyed your holidays^^ I got to relax my butt off and play lots of video games with Boba, so I def had a good one. Speaking of video games Boba did his first live stream on Twitch of him playing Destiny on his Xbox One. He was super adorable! I was also able to spend a lot of time with a few of my good friends. Tiff and I decided to have a date and visit the Line Pop Up Shop in Times Square before it closed its doors as it was open for a limited time.

As soon as you walked in the door they had a super adorable Cony statue that we just had to pose with. Peep Tiff's adorable Line shirt with Brown and Cony on it. I think that those two characters are my favorite.

It was a lovely store and was quite large which took me by surprise due to its Time Square locations. Most pop up stores in that area are very small. They also had an amazing selection! They had different kinds of plushies, stationary, folders, cell phone straps, stamps, and much much more. I even saw plates and glasses!

Hatsune Miku Art Exhibition at Wallplay| Universal Positivity

Hey homies! It's getting super cold in NY, and I am not happy about it. It's almost time for me to take my Senegalese twists out and I'm debating whether or not I should put in another protective style. I may just ride out the rest of the winter by covering my hair with a hat. I can wear my bonnet underneath to avoid friction^^ #lifehacks lol

Back in October I had the chance to visit the Miku Expo at Wall Play. My boo, Tiff, was working there. So I decided to stop in and visit her. It was really cute inside and they had a cafe on the main floor. They also had this cute Miku Hatsune figure right when you came inside.

Upstairs they had merchandise you can buy; there were some really cute shirts up there. There was also a wall that people could draw on. I actually didn't know much about Hatsune Miku or the other vocaloids, so I really liked that they added a timeline and a short explanation.

Seamless is Ruining My Life

Hey boos! I finally had a weekend to myself to relax. I did some running around, but not as much as usual. Boba, myself, and our friend James played Guild Wars 2 on Friday and participated in on our their events for Halloween. It was so much fun to play that game after such a long break^^ We need to have a LAN party soon with our guild.

Anywho, y'all know that I love to eat. I'm that person that will have food chilling in my fridge and will ignore it and take my butt out to eat like I got money. Living in NYC does not make it easier when you have wonderful, seductive websites like Seamless. For some reason, I do not like to cook. It's not that I can't cook, it's just that I don't want to which is a habit that I need to break. Back home down South if I want to order food, I have to get in my car, drive somewhere, then order it because they don't deliver. Or I have to call and talk to someone on the phone. When I first moved up here and heard of Seamless my mind was blown. I was like wait wuhhhhh? I can have delicious food delivered to me without talking to anyone or leaving my home?! Shoootttt, I'm sprung. And believe me y'all the Seamless thirst can be oh so real. It's so nice to order food on the way home and have it arrive shortly after you.

I would usually get Seamless only on the weekends during the day and then do my usual food runs on weekend nights. A couple of months ago and up until recently, it was so bad that I would order off Seamless everyday after work and on the weekends and go out. This adds up to a lot of money if you aren't paying attention.

I'm trying to be better about my finances especially sent I want to get more into different fashion styles and travel more. So, I decided to take a look at just how much I was spending and make some positive changes. I've bought more groceries and am concentrating on saving more money. All in all everything has been going well. I'm happy that I recognized where my money was going and made a change ^_^ I'll let you know how my progress goes especially on the cooking front and thanks for reading!

Japan Block Fair and Hookah Bar

Hey loves! I hope that you're doing well and enjoying the holiday. I had to work earlier even though no one everyone else was off >_< Luckily, my homie and co-worker Mehgan had to come in, too. So, I wasn't too afraid to be in that huge building by myself that may or may not be haunted *clutches pearls*

I wanted to take the time to talk about an event I attended last month. Oh and before I start let me say that Comic Con was awesome this year. I definitely want to go for four days next year with Boba. I have some nice photos that I'll be sharing soon. On to the event!

I heard about the Japan Block Fair through twitter, so I asked my boo Clarissa if she wanted to go with me. We meet up around by the West 4th subway stop and walked to the fair together which was on 6th Ave between Washington Place and Wavery Place. It started out as a normal street fair with the usual vendors. I love running into street fairs because the vendors have the best food. When the street fair's location we were a little disappointed. It was super tiny, there were only a few vendors set up.

 Those materials were beautiful^^

 These yukata's were so lovely

Despite the small size of the fair they had some nice food stalls. They had takoyaki too! Clarissa and I both wanted marble soda (aka Ramune) so we left and went to St. Marks and hit up Sunrise Mart. While we were out my wifey, Laura invited Boba and I to dinner at Bill's Bar and Burger; their food and milkshakes are the bomb. I was super excited because I hadn't seen her and her gf, Rae, in a little bit.

So, Clarissa and hung out for another hour or two, and afterwards I picked up Boba from work and we headed to the restaurant. To my surprise Laura and I's good friend Naomi was there, the five of us always have a blast. Unfortunately, Naomi's gf couldn't make it. I think if the six of us went on a triple date the world would explode lol Afterwards, we ventured to a hookah bar and we had strawberry hookah. Fun fact: Boba loves hookah a lot and owns one; he also used to work at a hookah shop when he was younger.

It was a really awesome night and even though the Japan Block Fair left me a little disappointed, I still appreciate that I can attend events like that in NYC often. It was nice to get out and enjoy the nice weather with a friend. Thanks for reading!

Maid Cafe Visit and Food Run

Hey cuties! I've been well, but it's been crazy busy in a good way. I've been out every night this week kinda late. I just returned from a lovely tarot date with one of my besties ^_^ I don't see this late night trend changing anytime soon as I have another hangout tomorrow. After that it'll be Friday and I've also been invited to something as well, then the weekend lol No rest for me^^ I'm sure my social life will die down the colder it gets because that's what usually happens in NYC. Everyone hibernates and re-emerges for Spring. Summer is pretty much gone and I will admit I'm a little sad since it's my favorite season. At least I've got Fall! I wanted to share with y'all my recent trip to a maid cafe last month!

I knew that there was a Maid group in NYC due to a Youtuber I follow that participates in it. I heard that the group are available for events. I was visiting there Facebook page and saw they actually had a cafe! I've always really wanted to go to a maid cafe and a butler cafe. I literally called Tiffany two seconds later and asked if she would go with me. She was super pumped and said yes immediately! Tiffany is my frilly friend who accompanied me to the opening of the new Lolita brand store Baby the Star Shines Bright opening. You can read about that adventure here. The exterior and interior of the cafe was super cute! Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the inside due to my hunger haha It was really cute inside they even had a nice anime/manga goods section.

いらっしゃいませ！

They had really had food items with adorable names like Doki Doki Beef Bowl and Nyan Nyan Curry combo. I decided to go with chicken cutlet curry and a strawberry smoothie bubble tea with tapioca. The rice came in the shape of a heart! How freakin adorable is that^^

Next, I suggested we grab dessert at Eight Turn Crepe which is a place that sells Harajuku style crepes. I was surprised when Tiffany told me that she hadn't been before. You know I had to fix that! I heard some bangin music playing as we got closer. I realized there was a DJ spinning some really good music. She was hittin up the old school R&B.

She had me in there dancing, I tell you!

My delicious crepe

Tiffany took me to this place that's Alice in Wonderland themed and sold delicious tea. Their tea menu is huge. It's a book with about 10 or 12 pages front to back of different kids of tea. I feel in love! I've been back several times and took Boba last week. He really enjoyed it as well. You get your own pot of tea, it can be small or large and it's priced really well. They have food, scones, and desserts.

Their huge book of tea

I decided to go with the Red Fruits since I love red berries. I've since had their Chocolate Chai, Symphony, and Rooibos Phoenix. My favorite is the Rooibos Phoenix since I love really sweet things. It's a red bush herb base tea with honey, caramel, and vanilla and you can have it served with milk and honey.

Red Fruits black tea

We walked past a cupcake ATM

I really love living very close to NYC. There's so many cool things to see and door here which is very different from where I grew up. NYC even had a Harajuku Fashion Walk on this past Sunday. Everyone looked super cute and I really want to participate next year. I'll be writing about more of my adventures exploring new places in the city, so look out for that. Thank you for reading!