retromania retrospective, man...ia

Trough reasons I'm not gonna delve into, I ended up visiting a convention dedicated to nerdy retro stuff called "Retromania". It's got it all you'd expect: Old video games, Pokemon cards, physical movies, Pokemon cards, artist alleys, Pokemon cards, Pokemon games, Pokemon cards, a potion themed shop, Pokemon cards, toys of different kinds, even Pokemon, and, shockingly, Pokemon cards.

 

Did I mention Pokemon cards? I'm somewhat conflicted over the dominating presence of that. On one hand the franchise is over 30 years old so naturally it would count as a retro thing, and people (especially the kids) do love their Pokemon cards. On the other hand: good lord it seems to be an easy market for people to establish themselves and make money out of. The price of some of the cards I glanced over cost more than my monitors. As an outsider it feels like the card game trading market for Pokemon has gone way overboard. I think that all of the expensive modern cards do have cheaper and easily attainable alternatives for people who just want a card for play or they aren't too picky with their collection, but it's a bit ridicolous that some of these things can eat up at least 10% of most peoples monthly salaries. My own spending was fairly modest, got myself a Gameboy magnet by an artist who makes/sells a bunch of pins/stamps/magnets related to nerd media. And if there's anything I want, it's a magnet from a event/place I went to. I also got a Scissor model kit. I did not know they even made those for Pokemon. Of those that were available, pokemon love, and general Cool Toy Vibe, Scissor won with a solid competition of Metagross. 

Beyond that, it was pretty cool to see all the old consoles and games. Primarily the retro TV-consoles, since some were hooked up to CRT TVs and I saw some people playing them. It really does make a difference in how the games look and feel as they are played. I don't have a CRT TV or any old consoles besides a Game Boy Advance SP. Which, while neat, is replaceable with either modded consoles or just plain emulators. But the physical medium of a TV can't be digitally replicated. At least, not to the extent it's indistinguishable from what it's copying.

So overall I'd say it was pretty cool to visit, I also realized it was basically me poking a lil look into some fandoms I have barely any connection to. While I'm lightly entertained by the spectacle, I don't think I'd get much of it unless I actually did collect retro games/consoles.

a weeb (me) was in japan

I feel like every person who is at least mildly invested in art in some way wants to visit Japan. And we know that the Internet is full of those people, and therefore there are plenty of stories of people's trips to Japan. Well I made my visit in the beginning of April for two weeks.

It was a group tour, so all of the places and hotels were already booked for us for the most part. The tour focused on a lot of the Big Places, so we stayed in Tokyo for a few days (and had one day where we could roam around freely as we wanted), traveled to places with a clear view of Mt. Fuji, tourist-popular smaller cities, Kyoto for a couple of days, Nara, a couple of days in Osaka with a Hiroshima visit in between.

So the obvious benefit was that we did get to visit a lot of the well known locations, but due to the amount of travel and that a lot of these places are, and I can't stress this enough: H U G E, we never really had much time to truly absorb the surroundings. Even when we stayed in Tokyo for three days I still had trouble believing I even was in Japan, and that feeling didn't truly go away until the last few days.

One way that issue manifested was that I got myself a goshuin book (basically a calligraphy stamp obtainable from temples). While I did manage to squeeze in some time to get myself some goshuins, there were a handful of times where I couldn't get one due to time constraints/uncertainty when we had to leave. 

Still, I can't complain too much. It was truly a privilege, and fortunate, that I manage to afford the visit and that the weather was mostly really  good. We arrived during the cherry blossom season and most of the trees kept their pink coloring during our entire trip.

I have daily posts on my private instagram account where I go trough photos and events that happened. So I will keep it (......relatively) short with a dotted list about most of the areas.

General observations

• My IG algo completely changed within a day. Not that I complain though, I got served pretty good content.
• Dang they do have a lot of staff in nearly every place. And darn they are nice you.
• The otaku stores have a kind of "clean" feeling that really does make one say "yeah no my hobby is Cool, Actually". 
• The castles and temples we visited? Also Cool, Actually.
• Everyone was fashionable and/or hot???? What's going on here.
• Despite their cusine being well know for using soybeans and tofu, those are usually additions to the food rather than the main protein source. They really love their meat. Kinda annoying for a vegan like me, but a boys gotta eat somehow.
• Sakura trees really do make everything prettier.
• There's a baseball player named Shohei Ohtani (who may be the greatest to have ever existed, and he's just 31) and his face is all over a bunch of advertisements. My instagram feed pointed that out and I couldn't not see notice him.
• Convienience stores are everywhere and the fact that you can buy cheap food and booze (up to like 9% alcohol) confuses my Swedish Sensibilities (but I will gladly take advantage of that, also according to my Swedish Sensibilities).
• Tried Matcha Latte for the first time in japan. They were absolutely delicious. A bit weird with all of the Matcha flavored products though.
• Highball is not all that great tbh.
• I need a Taiko no Tatsujin arcade in my home yesterday
• Oh and a japanese toilet too.

Tokyo

• JESUS CHRIST TOKYO IS FUCKING HUGE
• Due to concerns of luggage space and home-space as well, I told myself I shouldn't impulse-buy any figures and only buy one after thinking it througly... so on my very first day I was in Mandarake in Shibuya and saw one, lone box on the floor along with other stuff. It was a figure of Satan from Shin Megami Tensei (the blue freaky one). Picked it immediately. It's still in the box. Looking forward to open it up.
• On our first evening we went to a local, small park where people were eating and drinking under the sakura trees. It was honestly one of my favorite moments of the trip.
• Walked pass a Maid café. They are real. They do exist.
• Young women standing with signs to pick up men are real and I don't feel good about it. Especially for the one I saw who was wearing white fur jacket, high heels and a full-body bikini covered in holes.
• On our last day in Tokyo, my brother and I went to a dart bar (we did not play darts) and had some chatting with the bartender, a local (who seemed to be baffled over why we would visit Osaka) and a couple of american students who we chatted with quite a lot, about work and education systems in our countries. Honestly quite fun!
• I did buy a japanese wallet (from Don Quixote) that I primarily used as a coin case, very useful.
• DID I MENTION HOW DAMN BIG TOKYO IS. BOTH THE SIZE OF THE CITY/AREA/WHATEVER YOU CALL IT BUT ALSO THE BUILDINGS. NO WONDER SO MANY PEOPLE LIVE THERE

Mt. Fuji

• It is honestly far more beautiful and grander in real life than what photos can capture. I get why it's such a big deal. We were also lucky that the weather was crystal clear so we could see the thing all day.
• We also visited Hakone Open Air Museum on our way. It was real cool. For some reason they also had an outdoor foot bath, which uses the natural (real hot) water from the mountains. Feet turned pinkish when we had to go.
• At the insistence of the hotel owners, they asked us to wear their kimonos for their traditional dinner, which was really cool. They also had a big onsen bath (indoor and outdoor). It was a bit of a hidden gem considering it was a bit out of nowhere in terms of its placement (we were right next to a golf range, and no good walking paths in the area at all). Even our bedroom was enormous.

Kyoto

• Kyoto is just overall a very beautiful city. It's got a good mix of traditional and modern architecture so there's a lot to enjoy, without being as overwhelmingly Big as Tokyo.
• Spotted a purple haired girl in Kyoto station singing the intro song of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Hell yeah.
• Stumbled upon a couple of posters for How Tourist Should Behave which was very funny, if unnecessary, for me, the only good tourist.

Osaka/Hiroshima

• We got to travel with Shinkansen trains. I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable and spacious they are.
• The peace memorial museum and park was as (understandibly) upsetting as it sounds like.
• We got to eat their local okonomiyaki, we had a really lively and fun host. He accompanied with a female staff member who was also very nice and helpful (and... v-very cute). And the food was very good and surprisingly filling.
• Dotonobori, famous for its cool river and funky restaurant mascot statues, is C R O W D E D during the evening. It's even worse than Shibuya in Tokyo.
• Umeda Sky Building was overall cooler than Tokyo Skytree, since the elevator lets you see the outside while it's going up. The building being a lot closer to the rest makes them it feel more closely connected, and the scale of the view hits harder because of it.
• Visited multiple branded stores (Ghibli, Pokemon Center, Capcom, Godzilla) and bought NOTHING so good on me for showing restraint, even if it got tested quite a bit .

Other

• Kenrouken garden was beautiful, especially with the sakura trees. We got to participate in a tea ceremony in a building in the garden. It was so epic.
• Nara was the coolest place: Nice deers (the crackers for feeding them ran out sadly) and the Todaiji temple was an amazing sight. Even got a goshuin from there!!

move it move it

I have not been very active with a bunch things during this month. As in: I, a self-proclaimed gym-rat, haven't been working out since february 1st. That's how you know some shit's been going on.

I caught a cold, helped someone with moving their furniture out, got a back-ache, caught a cold AGAIN, spent a day moving furniture out of my current apartment, and another day cleaning it.

So despite it being the shortest month of the year, it was one of my busiest in a long while. 

I still haven't moved into my new apartment due to renovation work, so I've been staying at my parents place for the time being. At least the worst part of moving is over (packing and getting stuff to a new place). So for the fun of it I'll list up all the things that went wrong in the otherwise successful move that took two trips to finish:

* Disassembling the desktop was a royal pain in the ass. Almost every part was connected with flat hooks that were put inside holes. Which meant it was difficult to tell how pieces were connected and which should be pulled out in which order.

Desktop? More like hecktop!!!!

* The bookshelf got nearly torn apart when we tried to twist it to make it easier to get it out, because we were holding it at vulnerable spots as we rotated it.

* The apartment had two, large and fast elevators. We used only one at first, but halfway into the first loading; the button for going to the first floor suddendly stopped working. We essentially had to call for an elevator, and if it was the broken one, send it to a different floor and press the elevator button again so it would get the other one.

* The door to the actual building didn't have any obvious way to keep it open and I'm pretty sure we might have ehm messed it up........ this is not the first time it's happened to it and I don't think it's gonna be the last either.

* The left side of the truck's running board was broken and disconnected from the stable(-ish) part.

* As we were ready for the second trip I realized I had lost the keys to the new apartment. Had a bit of a panick for a few minutes but eventually found it underneath the left side of the passenger seat.

It was sure a wednesday. But it's all done so now I'm enjoying the rest for that work + the cleaning for the day after.

nose, handshake emoji, eyes, bottom text: leaking

I have been sick since thursday, which I think is a result of couple of factors: consumption of food and bevarages of questionable quality (met some friends at a local pub) and people generally catching colds around this time. I got literally no sleep during the bedtime hours between wednesday and thursday, and I developed a headache and a cold soon after.  

Literally me fr

All of these things which influenced me to do a very wise decision: Instead of resting I'm gonna play a video game. Specifically Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Even though I told myself I would play Hollow Knight as the next game to give myself some break from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games. 

But it has been a while since I played a game to begin with, and I've heard that this was a relatively short game so I could finish it by the weekend. 

One thing I was worried about with this game is the developers major problem with Refusing To Let Kiryu Go. Up until this point he's had, what, 4 games where the end is "This Is Kiryu's Last Story" and then follow it up again by picking his arc by straws just to have him do something, often at the expense of other characters. I groaned loudly when he made a sudden comeback in the middle of Y:LAD and stuck around for a while. And now he gets his own game as the sole protagonist. Again. Yippie. 

So with that pessimism addressed; LADG:TMWEHN is really good and has an absolutely fantastic ending. It works as a second/third/fourth attempt to do Kiryu's story right. There's a lot of rethreads but they've been repackaged to make the story better overall. Also the ending turned me into a sobbing mess. Which I haven't felt for any piece of media in Years, so that's gotta count for something.

The new gadget mechanic for the combat is a welcomed addition and it is really fun to pull gang of people with the Not Spider Man Web Shooter Metal String Watch and dashing around with the goofy jet shoes. 

 I'm so used to the games being from a different time period in terms of technology that I did a double take when I did a substory that revolves around a guy using Not ChatGPT as his dating guide, hilarity ensues. It does feel strange that the games have now reached the moderna contemporary period instnead of catching up 30 years of technological development. Rombas aren't that quirky anymore, it's AI time now, fuckers. 

Who needs an hour long youtube video about the dangers of ai chatbot when I have a japanese video game from late 2023 telling the same thing with (slightly) less insanity 

In the end the game turned out to be a really positive surprise, almost frustratingly so. Like "Oh, they still got it" kind of way. I don't know how well regarded the Majima spin-off and Infinite Wealth are (latter of which this game has a demo of, and the ending does feature Kiryu with his godawful haircut from Inifinite Wealth, ugh), but it did make me feel a bit more hopeful about playing those games. That being said my main frustration with Y:LAD was the game got really tedious to play in the last quarter, and it is in a different game genre than Name, so I'll see.

why

Until then though, I played maybe 15 minutes of Hollow Knight so I will finally get around the indie darling I should have gotten around to ages ago, I finally find out why his night is hollow.

drip it like its hot (showing my cool jackets)

 If there's one thing that I'm looking forward for the spring/autumn period it is the Fashionable season (read: cool jacket season). I'm quite fond of layering in terms of clothes and jackets make the best use of that. It helps that they are generally the most detailed/attention grabbing part of any outfit.

I have a collection of jackets that I quite like and figured I wanted to show them all In One Single Beautiful Post. 

I took all of these with my digital camera and figured around... 3/4 in that I have a standing lamp right next to me to make the darker clothes a little more clearer. And could have used it from the get-go, but oh well.

Sand brown parka from Superdry

My go-to winter jacket. Warm, plenty of pockets (except no on the left chest for some reason). It's drawback is that it's pretty heavy, so I generally try to avoid wearing a heavy backpack with this. Altough the word "try" is doing a lot of heavy lifting (heho) here.

!Solid all-weather jacket

Another go-to jacket, but for the other seasons when it's getting chilly. Which, living in Sweden, happens a lot. Very easy to put on and fairly practical. I like the blocky kind of striped pattern on it. At the very least it looks more interesting than down jackets (I see them a lot in my area. I understand why they are popular but my god have I grown tired of them lol).

Down coat

Or as we call them here "the mom sausage". Got it from a guy who got made fun of for "wearing a coat only women do" (and that was before the nickname was made). I didn't care and just wanted a big heat isolating coat at the time, which it did well mostly. Hate the hood though, it collapses if the air resistance is anything higher than "walking speed".

Levi Denim jacket

I like denim jackets for their "rough" look and that you can customize them with patches and stuff. And as you can see I'm too much of a coward to actually make a use of that. I have single Oni patch that bought in summer that I haven't made use of. Maybe one day.

Majima Sukajan from Insert Coin

One of my most weebish clothes but that's okay because it's still good as hell. Based on the back tattoo of the Extremely Good Character Goro Majima from the Yakuza games. Among the jackets they had for sale I thought this was the best looking, and it fits really well.

Brown hunter jacket

The token brown jacket that looks pretty cool, but is frankly a bit lousy with the pockets and such. I think out of all my jackets this is the one I feel the most "eh" about.

Biker jacket

look it was on sale and the last sample and the arms don't go way back when i raise them in front so that makes them cool and good okay no i dont have a motorcycle or anything dont make fun of me

Double breasted navy blue wool coat

My "Fancy" coat for all of the Important Occasions. Or if I want to wear something really nice that day. 

Brown wool coat

I got really attached to the blue coat and decided to get something casual. The most recent item in my collection and real happy with it.

Japanese bomber jacket

I call it "my second hand golden treasure". The actual "cool jacket", which I was not only lucky to find but was also my size. Fell for it immediately and I'm looking forward to the spring/autumn season to wear it again.

Racer themed leather jacket

Another good one found in a second hand store (same as the bomber jacket). It's pretty volumous and I love the colors and patterns on this thing. Pretty good at keeping heat as well so it's surprisingly useful for a detailed jacket.

sport hatin gym rat

I've never been a sports person in my life. I hated playing soccer during breaks (which was the absolutely most common thing boys did) and I hated watching sports as well. I hated participating in gym class, only somewhat tolerated brännboll (baseball for babies) and basketball (because I was tall and it wasn't as endurance demanding as soccer).

I did try a couple of martial art classes (Judo and Karate) but I found the training to be rather boring and I noticed I had a sense of FOMO if I were to somehow skip a class. So for a big part of my life up until my early 20s I avoided exercising altogether.

I did try weightligting a few times before it truly stuck with me. I didn't know what I was doing or why I did specific exercises for or why a lot of workouts had rather redundant movements in the same workout sessions (turns out: they were bad).

So despite, frankly, not looking the part, I have been going to the gym for a majority of my adulthood and found the freedom of being able to train however I want whenever I want really rewarding. So it being good for my health and making me stronger really adds to the whole thing. Oh. And getting muscles. I honestly didn't know being swole(-ish) would feel as good as it does... it helps with the motivation sometimes as well.

Let's get the gains!

quickly comparing photos by a digital camera from 2004 and a smartphone from 2022

Clickbait title: does OLD DIGITAL CAMERA beat SAMSUNG SMART PHONE!? 

I got around to getting the CR-V3 batteries I mentioned before and they really did make the camera work properly. No longer having to shake it just to hope that the batteries manage to keep proper contact to the case, assuming they haven't been drained already. 

I decided to take some shots with it and my phone to see in what ways they meaningfully differ. Which, as it turns out, is many. 

(Digital camera to the left, phone camera to the right)

(im not fixing the weird alignment issue)

The most apparent difference are the colors. The digital camera has a much warmer tone, which I appreciate, as it makes the images feel lively. The shadows are also a lot darker and more prominent, definitely more than they are in real life. The phone camera is a much colder and has brighter shadows, if any at all. I would say that in terms of creating a moody scene the digital camera wins on this. 

Another obvious difference is how detailed the pictures became. The phone shows things like wrinkles, material texture and just generally making things more obvious about what they are. The camera is generally blurry. Not enough to make it hard to tell what things are made of, but definitely not as clear as the phone, even in brighter settings. 

It may be due to habit, but for me it's also easier to control a phone than a camera. It's much easier to focus on what you want on the image, where as the camera feels like a bet half of the time (it took me so many tries to get the glowing letters on the keyboard readable). And I'm sure I can do some editing in my phone to make its photos match the appearance of the camera photos. 

Overall I am pretty satisifed with the digital camera. I think I'll have to get used to its quirks (if I should even call them that) to make a proper judgement of it and to make the best use it. Don't think it's going to replace my phone camera completely (being easy to pull out and also to post with are huge benefits) I do hope it'll eventually become my primary camera... assuming I can also get a charger for the camera/battery but uh that's for future me to solve lol.