First Time Outside of my Neighborhood in a Year with Ichigo + Future Aspirations after the Ending of Semester+ Sakura Goodies and Tech Investments

 I had a look planned for today and my time of the month decided to tell me, "fuck no"-so I thought I'd make up for it by writing a post instead since I can't be productive in other ways. 

Usually, I do monthly posts because my life isn't that interesting? Like most of the time guys, it's been a ton of schoolwork or me being a total potato because I'm tired from said schoolwork. This online learning deal has made me be extremely tired of being hunched over my laptop if that makes any sense? But then I have to edit or create content for ya'll on said computer so it's been a bit of a task for a minute as I just got on break around two weeks ago or so? 

Plus, anything you do read, you've most likely heard about through Instagram or a video already. I do monthly do that way I have more to talk about. I know a lot of gals do really short to the point blog posts, but I'm a little different. Some of ya'lls like the blog stuff so I do it so you guys can indulge. I miss blogging culture though. Back in the day, I used to be all about this blog and even beforehand, I had a Livejournal and a Xanga for god's sake. LOL. I was that bitch at one point and then decided that I really liked video and picture content creation more as soon as I had a camera.

However, blogging is comforting. I don't have to be made up to the nines like I have to be in pictures or a video. I can just write on down days like these you know? 

Anyway, my summer vacation has finally begun. I *finally* have time on my hands and I'm a little shook. I'm so used to just being stressed or having shit I need to do that it feels odd to be slowing down. I so feel like I need to enjoy it though. This is my last summer vacation ever before I join the workforce and don't get nearly as long of a time off. I'm very lucky because I've been permitted a lot more down time than the average person thanks to being a student for so long. However, I'm really eager to make income and be able to travel and do stuff maybe. That's probably naive of me considering student loans and stuff but I think I just want to be able to make progress in my life in a different way. 

Speaking of progress, I made straight As! This is actually kind of wild because this school year sucked ass. My school is okayish but the way they've handled this pandemic has truly frustrated me. I kind of settled for this university because it was the cheaper option compared to the Bay Area. However, the more time I spent away from Sacramento, the more I realized that I didn't fit there. I missed the Bay Area and realized that my heart truly is left in San Francisco. 

There's nothing wrong with Sacramento but when you have to function in "normal" places without friends, it's a little harder. I realized how different I was there and how easier it was for me to make friends at San Francisco State as a freshman versus Sacramento State as a junior. I think if I pursued my master's degree, I'd most likely transfer to my previous university. I love how Sacramento is a bit more laid back but honestly? I love really big cities. As a creative, that's where I'd thrive. I'm an English major after all and even though I'm 30 and should be wanting to settle down, I have no desire to. I have no significant other. I have no desire for children in the future. I don't want that white picket fence lifestyle with a bunch of wine clubs and soccer moms who bond while their kids are in school/daycare. It's never been my vibe so the suburbs have never been appealing for me. 

I live in an area like that now (but in the middle of nowhere) and it's extremely isolating as a 30-year-old single person who is perhaps a little bit behind on life. I like to comfort myself by reminding myself that it's better that I made the decisions in my mid to late 20s because I'm not an impulsive kid making big financial decisions without knowing who exactly I am. I've had time to do some self-reflection and experiment around with jobs, living spaces, and people to really figure out where I am happiest. I haven't gotten it all figured out yet but I think at my age I handle things a lot better than I would if I had been 21. I don't care about what other people are doing around me or what milestones they are hitting in comparison to me. I'm just living for me and following my own path and making the right goals set for me. People can judge me all they want but at the end of the day, I'm truly living my life for me. I'm not living it for other people and other people aren't living my life. 

SF is kind of in turmoil right now due to the pandemic but my hope is that if I ended up staying in the US, that I would be rewarded for wanting to live thereafter so many people fleed/dipped out of SF. The rent just needed to go down a little bit more of I need to get paid that sweet sweet Bay Area income in order to thrive properly. Sometimes I just look at apartment complexes just keep informed or wonder about the prospect of living said area. For now, the goal is Tokyo or at least somewhere in Kantou. LOL. I want to live in a different country for a little while just for the experience. I'm extremely privileged to be able to entertain that prospect and go after that dream. Technically, I would have graduated this semester but I'm getting my certificate in TESOL/TEFL so I can better teach English abroad in Japan. I feel like I'd be a better candidate with that under my belt. I want to entertain other job prospects later on in life but teaching was always my goal to start with honestly. I always thought it would be high school English literature but given the fact that I'd need to go to graduate school (and wouldn't even get a masters for that nonsense) and I can't afford that, I think going abroad is my next best option. 

Gosh my blogs are so serious with future prospects each time. I hope I'm not boring ya'll too much with it. I just feel like maybe if I write it down and work hard that I can somehow manifest it all into my wheelhouse. haha...

Anyway, on Saturday I had to go get my first dose of the vaccine. I chose the Pfizer one because that's the one being distributed in Japan apparently (just in case there's some type of discrepancy when I try to yeet), plus that one had the least wait time in between. I have a rather hefty to-do list over my final. After the vaccine, I need to take care of some health things. Mainly filling some cavities (I had a filling pop out during the pandemic and it's made that tooth eat shit) and getting a proper eye exam. I think I mentioned how I didn't want to buy new circle lenses until I figured out my new pointage, so I've just been wearing my holy grail Mimi lenses for a little bit while I wait it out. Then after all of that, I want to start working on getting my passport that way I can travel. 

But first comes first, I want to get my vaccine out of the way. Ichigo ended up helping me with this ordeal and I am *super grateful* about that because I don't drive. I don't live near ANYTHING and without their help, this wouldn't have happened. I live in a weird situation that I'm trying to get out of in regards to family, so sometimes I really do have to rely on my friends in order to get anything accomplished. It's extremely frustrating to have to rely on others (it places a dent in my pride, not gonna lie) but I know that soon, it won't be like that and I'll possibly have more control over my circumstances. Especially if I have income in order to send myself to other places that are more accessible to a non-driver. 

I blogged the adventure Ichigo so some of you already know the gist of it. I ended up going to Riteaid thinking nobody would think to go there because it's kind of in a weird location in my town. There was only one pharmacist doing the shots so we actually waited for-fucking-ever and I was grateful that I did a last minute outfit change with more comfortable shoes because I truly would have ate shit with the original plan. 

Speaking of my outfit, I did a really neat classic himekaji style look that I'm quite proud of. I've been waiting to do an orange look for FOREVER. -yodels- Orange isn't done a lot but whenever I do see an orange himekaji look, it leaves a huge impression on me because it's not a color that everyone just up and fucks with. 

I got this outfit way back in the wintertime and recently purchased some shorts to go under it as well as some cowboy boots. Would ya'll believe me if I said not one part of this whole getup is legit brand items at all? This is ALL from Aliexpress. The boots, the shorts, the top/dress thingie, the flowers in my hair, the eyelashes. All. Of. It. 

Honestly, this proves how accessible gyaru fashion is if you just *look around* and do your research. This whole e-girl thing combined with gyaru isn't gyaru. It's e-girl for a reason. There's a lot of Aliexpress items that really do look like Liz Lisa, ma*rs, and d.i.a but you have to coord them a certain way to really pull it the fuck off. People really did assume I was wearing all Liz Lisa that Saturday and I wasn't! haha... 

I used to back in the day go to these cheapy Chinese/Korean owned Asian fashion stores for my gyaru wear because overseas just somehow really values cuteness or intricacy better than the United States does so I really was able to find pieces that looked like Liz Lisa without it being Liz Lisa all the time. Same applies to Aliexpress. If you search around you'll really find what you're looking for. It's just a matter of coordinating it in a way that looks gyaru rather than looking like whatever they have shown as the stock image on Ali or what you see people on the internet wearing. 

I think a lot of the advice going around by really skilled gaijin gyaru applies here. Don't look at other gaijin gyaru for inspiration fully. Look at models. Pay attention to specific eras if you really wanna pop off. However, I will say be careful trying to look exactly like models. I think it's good to do to start with but then after awhile, pay attention more to specific fashion eras or add your own style to it that is cohesive with the look. You don't want to be doing a model cosplay after all! :P 

Sometimes I try to emulate models and other times I try to do my own thing. I think for this orange look I was trying to combine the 2007 era with a bit of 2009/2010 I think in regards to himekaji/LL. I feel like the orange color was pretty big in 2009/2010. There's a pretty infamous picture of Kumicky in some orange coordinates that I like and there's this one dress/top set that also is pretty famous and has orange in it from that time. Also the cowboy boots definitely reminded me of that era of Liz Lisa that was a little bit romantic/boho/western all at the same damn time. 

The flowers and updo was me trying to pull a 2007 where my hair and make up was way more princessy. I feel like 2010 was lightening up a little bit already. Honestly, the hair and make up was supposed to go with an outfit that included Jesus Diamante and really old Liz Lisa that I have that is also orange but I made last-minute outfit change with Ichigo who validated the decision by insisting that the outfit I went with was casual and way cuter for the occasion! So I intended to do an older vibe but went newer but my make up and hair was the intention of doing an older thing.

This was also my first time doing full on updo. I don't use extensions or anything so I don't get to do a lot of fun stuff. My hair is a weird range of colors right now. My natural color isn't a consistent color and honestly throwing bleach in has made it more consistent but I can't commit to the upkeep of full bleach on a student budget so it truly is what it is. LOL. Most of my hairstyles are flukes/experimentations. I was trying to give myself a mini him bump so I could throw the flowers I recently bought off of Ali in and hey, it ended up working surprisingly. The back was a little ugh but you know what? It is what it is when you're doing your hair yourself and don't have the help of extra hands and hair. It wasn't too terrible!

Make-up wise, I messed around with orange makeup. I did kind of a neutral eye with a pop of orange. The bling under the eyelashes made a return because I swear to you, THAT is my current makeup boom ever since I got the magazines where Tsubasa does it-so now it's THE the thing to do. The blush is a Canmake blush I own in a bright orange color. I really want a dupe of the Candy Doll "Carrot Orange" color because it's got some type of yellow hue to it but alas, I cannot find a dupe. </3 For the lips I did a really fun thing. I recent purchased the HolikaHolika Devil's Lip Plumper set and when I tell you this shit works, I mean it. Holy fuck. Too Faced's "Lip Injection" shit doesn't have ANYTHING on this Holika Holika one. It hurts a little but but omg it makes your lips huge. I wore it under my Jill Stuart lipstick and I think it worked out pretty well. If my lips looked different in pictures, then hi: that's why. I used a bomb lip plumper. I super recommend it. 

After my vaccine, Ichigo and I headed over to a city next to mine to hit up a plaza that has a lot of Asian goodies. They had never tried Bonchon before and was tempted from my vlog from where I stayed in my dorm room alone last year. I told them if I was ever on campus again, we'd hit Bonchon. However, I never ended up going back to my campus due to COVID, so we hit up another Bonchon for Korean fried chicken nearby. However, when we got there it was their close-up time until dinner hours. SO we had to stall around.

We ended up going to Ranch 99 to get snacks for our respective houses. I ended up buying fuck tons of tea because I always end up drinking more than I do eat. I got from Strawberry flavored Royal Milk tea because I love strawberry flavor. I also have same tea in the peach flavor at home. <3 I've also tried to sakura flavored one. I got some Itoen Jasmine and Matcha milk teas. Some regular green teas from Yeo in juice boxes (that stuff is my shit man, I grew up drinking these in my teenagehood). I also got some Japanese fruit jellies (lycheeeee) and some more rice wine and sakura flavored chips from the Chinese Lays brand because apparently I'm psychotic and love that flavor profile. ahaha. I think it's an acquired taste! I had to eat it a couple of times before I liked it. 

When I posted the chips on Insta a lot of people comments about them saying they were super cute because the pringles can style has the chips be pink! 

Ichigo got some mochi flour and recently made some cool looking mochi donuts. Wahhh. I'm inspired. I wanna try. They also got lots of nori and lychee drinks. ahaha. 

Afterward, we still had time to stall around so we hit up a boba placed called Happy Lemon. I've tried it once when my friend Janelle visited me back before my birthday last year. However, I hadn't ever tried it myself! I got a strawberry black tea (we have a boba shortage so I don't think they were doing boba here -sad-) and Ichigo got a mango concoction. It was suuuuper yummy. I really like the flavor of the Happy Lemon teas at least the one I've had. It's very refreshing even though there are not many customized options like iTea and T4. 

We tried hitting up 85c for some goodies (I'm never ever near 85c Bakery anymore and it breaks my heart. I used to loiter around at 85c and Paris Baguette while chatting with friends. We'd order cake, tea, and just sit talking and I miss it direly) but they didn't have ANYTHING. They were basically sold out of most things and the line for everything else was gross so we got the fuck out of there. 

We ended up stalling around outside until Bonchon opened. Which was good because we hit it up right before there was a dinner rush. We both got boneless chicken and ended up getting different sides for us to share. I really like Japchae so I got that and Ichigo got some french fries. I honestly thing I made the better choice. :P The fries were okay but the japchae slapped. 

We got back to my place and set some stuff up to watch High&Low together. 

I think I've gushed about High&Low before. It literally got me through lockdown when I was staying alone at my dorm. It's such a fun j-drama/movie series and I super recommend it if you like bosozoku/gang/yakuza shit and EXILE TRIBE. hahah. I basically converted Ichigo into the Church of Exile and we've been having SO MUCH FUN spazzing out over this shit. 

It's been nice rewatching the series with a friend and fangirling over it all over it again. It's fun gushing about stuff even outside of fashion stuff. We like a lot of similar fashion and music things and it's overall just....really really fun to talk to someone about a variety of different things. Especially out of fashion considering that I feel like studying and fashion is all anyone knows me for. 

We basically watched ALL of the season one in one go. We first started watching on my laptop because it wasn't dark enough for my projector and then eventually we moved to watching the rest of it on the projector. So far, we've gotten up to movie 1 together. I've watched the whole thing just to say so it's fun torturing my friend knowing stuff's gonna happen and that they're not readyyyy. 

Afterward, Ichigo went home and that was most of that day.

It was so nice socializing and just leaving my fucking neighborhood. I've been so sick of seeing the same shit for a year straight with no break. I'm really eager to do more stuff this summer since restrictions are loosening up. However, I have a lot of things I need to take care of and I also have to be mindful because I'm trying to also save up for Japan. So I might be hermitting a bit more just to save on expenses since I'm trying to have a bigger adventure than usual if I just stay disciplined. 

Speaking of video stuff though, I got myself a cool little photography/videography gadget that I am very excited to play with. It's called a gimbal and it creates really smooth cinematic shots for your videos. Basically, it's a camera stabilizer. I first started seeing them used in a lot of the Japan walking videos that I like to immerse myself into in order to relax. However, I noticed that some vloggers use them to get incredible sceneic shots or even bomb outfit pics or whatever. It's like...a tripod on crack. There's a lot of different gimbals out on the market but I invested in the best of the best. I got the DJI OM4 as my tool of trade. It's hard to enjoy right now on my dying iPhone X (the battery is giving way and the clamps balance where the volume buttons are so it's chaotic right now) but I'm hoping when I invest in the new iPhone 13, that I'll be able to have a lot more fun with this gadget. 

I mainly got it for vlogging purposes. I'm hoping to travel soon and I just thought it was such a cool little gadget to have in order to have really stable shots. Plus, it got a reverse mode for selfies and if I throw it on a tripod, there's a tracking feature where the phone will follow me-which is pretty awesome for things like cooking or maybe showing you guys my styling videos using my wardrobe in the future? We'll see. I haven't gotten to play with it too much but I'm looking forward to doing more with it. 

I also want to go outside of a work trip just because believe it or not, I've never gotten to travel or take a proper vacation outside of a con. I think it would be a really nice experience for me. My family has never taken a vacation fully and I feel like it's up to me to do anything if I want any type of new experience. It would be so awesome to go there during the cherry blossom blooming season especially. I'm all about urban exploring but how beautiful does it feel to have hints of nature in places with the trees?

Plus, all the sakura-flavored goodies! A couple of months ago I bit the bullet and indulged a little bit by purchasing the Strawberry Sakura Strawberry instant lattes that are super limited edition to Japan. It was wayyy too tempted. Those are two of my favorite flavor profiles combined. I love strawberries and I love trying lots of sakura flavored things (I had mochi for New Year that was sakura flavored and I also had the Lays chips in sakura. I also recently purchased sakura bath salts-so 2021 has truly been spring time for me!). The latte is absolute CRACK. I love this flavor profile so much. It tasted and smelled nostalgic for some reason and I can't put my finger onto why it did but I loved it. Also what the actual fuck Japanese Starbucks? Their instant lattes froth perfectly and aren't a syrupy flat mess. I'm saving my last three sticks for special occasions before the expiry date. I also gifted Ichigo with one of them and my sakura x matcha Pocky as well because it's a good combo together. 

I recently filmed two videos that should be coming out soon. One is part two of the May 2007 Popteen flip-through and the other is me being a personal shopper/stylist for ya'll on Aliexpress. I mentioned earlier that I was good at that sort of thing, so I thought I would help some "baby gals" out on their gal journey with some affordable items. I'm pretty protective of my brand name things and won't be helping in that realm (I always say there's great reward in finding your own treasures) but I thought that Aliexpress is fair game. Especially since a lot of new kids are trying to utilize it and may be over-looking a lot of stuff that could legitimately help them improve. 

I'll explain my reasonings behind some of the items I chose in my video for reference. I think a lot of people even with brands tend to have this tendency to think "ooh pretty/shiny" but then don't really think about how they're going to coordinate things. Definetely pay attention to sheens of fabrics, colors, what eras or models you're taking inspiration from. For example, I don't care how many people do it-throwing a d.i.a belt with an Alba jacket is too weird. It's two entirely different eras of gyaru. Pick one. Either you're doing the early 2000s get up to the 2009-2012 bullshit. I know they're both cool but pick one day for one era and another day for the next. 

That's another bone I have to pick. You don't have to *commit* to a substyle. Nobody OWNS a substyle either so don't think you're copying or stepping on someone's toes. For sure come up with your own concepts or ideas/find your own inspirations but honestly, picking one substyle just limits yourself so much. I'm the bitch that will be goth'd out one day in all black and then agejo the next day. Deadass, I've done that before and I have so much fun doing it because nobody knows wtf to expect from me. I definitely have eras of time where I'm fixated on one style for a while but honestly, I just like pretty things and clothes. 

I feel like there needs to be an emphasis more on love gyaru for gyaru versus trying to be exactly in THAT way. It's okay to experiment with substyles...I just don't know about mixing too many elements from different eras or whatever. 

Anyway, I'm sure this blog is getting way too lengthy so I'll end it here for now. Hopefully this month will be a little bit more eventful because I have things to do which always means an excuse to get dressed and leave my fucking house. haha...