Monday, February 24, 2014

Japan Day 2014!

In the weekend, I went to Japan Day! Had a great day enjoying japanese culture, eating japanese cuisine and seeing people again ^^.

There were quite a few cosplayers there who were helping out the Overload stand~ Ah, I love the atmosphere around the group ... maybe I don't know many of the people very well but they are always friendly and welcoming.

Since I did not have a cosplay prepared I was contemplating either wearing my Norway cosplay again, or wearing my go-to schoolgirl lolita outfit. I decided the latter, since I imagined the weather would be quite warm.

Here's Amey and I~


And *cough* obligatory selfie lol.


I saw and had a chat with some fellow cosplayers.




I ate delicious food.

There was a long line at the Takoyaki stand, but it was so worth it. Nom.


There was also this special samurai ramen for only $4! Also very yummy.


Navigating through the various stands~

Oh, looky there it's a Titan!


Traditional Japanese Dolls.


Portable Shrine.


Witnessing the cooking process of takoyaki! 

Sort of inspiring me to get out my pan out again to make a hopefully successful attempt haha.


A random balloon structure that looked pretty neat.


Professional ice sculpting!


I thought this stand had very cute signage ^^. 

I love how they incorporate mascots.


There was also this guy, who was singing a candyfloss jingle! I very much admired his enthusiasm, and it sold me the candyfloss haha. Haven't eaten candyfloss in so long that I almost forgot how good it tasted.


After going through the showgrounds a few times, we decided to take a break and had an attempt at Geocaching. We reached some cool spots that we never would have found if not for the directions~

Amey looking cool at the top of the hill.


The roots of this tree were pretty intricate, and nothing like I ever seen before!


We headed back and joined in the bon odori dance near the stage. It's some kind of traditional dance in the culture, and seems to incorporate a lot of hand movements.

To be honest, I was nervous about joining but then I was like "Oh, what the hell" and it turned out to be really fun to participate in. Should do this kinda thing more often ^^

You never regret the steps you take, but you always regret the ones you don't.

Here was my haul at the end of the day~

$5 Snack Pack from Japan Mart! I always enjoy looking at the cute food japanese food packaging. Sometimes, I cut the package carefully so I can keep and look at them again hehe.



Some books from the secondhand books stall for $1 each. 

Mostly children's books. Didn't realise that I bought a book about toilet training hippo until I tried to read it. Oh well, now I will never forget the word for poop in Japanese (うんち).


Not part of Japan Day, but since I'm a roll with posting pictures ..

I bought some Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyoujin) cellphone straps from Angie's group buy! Thanks to Angie for organising it <3


All in all, it was a great day!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Paramore and Frozen

On the 19th January 2014, I went to the Paramore concert in Auckland! I wasn't sure I was going because I didn't know anybody who wanted to come with me, but at Christmas I discovered that my cousin was a big fan as well so we decided to go together. We actually still do have a lot of the same music tastes, even from when we were younger. It was an amazing experience, and I was honoured to be in the presence of the band, and Hayley Williams' amazing voice! Her voice really is powerful and resonant live! She is such an inspiration to me! Not just her voice, but her style and fashion is really unique and adventurous, and she doesn't care what people think. The only thing I regret is not buying a General Admission. It looked like a lot of fun to be in the whole concert vibe.

Now present self is wishing past self wrote this all down the moment after arriving back home from the concert. Because I was so buzzing with energy and excitement that night. Haha, well there's the videos to help me reminisce the feeling.

( Paramore! )

The Opening Act, Twenty One Pilots was also very good! Their music style is quite unique from what is on the charts. I really like the mix of genres they have there, and the pumping beat. The duo did an amazing drum performance at the end as well.


Ended up watching Frozen twice! Once for regular viewing with Lunatarius and the second time on Waitangi Day again with Rinelle and Rolly as well >u<)b. The first time I watched it, I did not know what to expect. I just hoped it wouldn't be so 'kiddy' because the poster and trailer made it seem that way. When I watched it, I was mind-blown, and throughout the whole movie experience I was riveted with emotion. I was glad I brought tissues .. ALL MY FEELS! And who knew Kristen Bell could sing so well!? I was filled with awe. It turned out she was classically trained in musical theatre before becoming an actress. Frozen was a very heart-warming story, fueled with girl power and celebrates the bond between sisters. It isn't the first Disney animated movie where the girl rebels against order though. I feel Brave exerts this message more.

( Closet cosplay of Anna from Frozen for the Sing-a-long haha )

I liked how Anna was clumsy, and not typically princess-like. It kind of made her more relatable in a way. You always get a clumsy male character, but for girl they are usually meant to be composed and everything. She is a bit naive, yes but that's all part of the character development. She's been stuck in the castle all her life, and hasn't experienced what it is like to be in the outside world. The combination of her carefree spirit and her excitement about finally seeing the other side of the fence might have muddled with her mind. I guess she does take things a bit far though haha.

As for Elsa, it must have been very traumatising for her with the events in the beginning. I could feel how much pain she was feeling - about both having to hide her true 'self' and how she felt she had to keep a fair distance from Anna to protect her. When Elsa escaped and was able to truly let go, and be who she really was - she finally felt free. After all those years of hiding, it must have been a good release! There was a fair bit of character development for both of the sisters. Of course, the timing wasn't very realistic because in real life these things take a larger amount of time to shape up.

Anywhoo...

( "Hoo! Hoo! Big Summer Blowout!" - Oaken *shot* )

I can't get over how great the songs are~ I feel like doing some covers just for fun haha. Found a few easy chords for guitar that work for "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and for the pop version of "Let it Go".

Last night I ended up playing for three hours. I'm surprised I still remember the chords since I haven't played properly in a month. Hurrah for muscle memory! Bb and Bm are still a bit hard to reach at the moment .. so gotta stretch those fingers~ I am not very good at guitar yet since I pretty much only use two basic strumming patterns for most songs, but it is fun to be able to play and sing at the same time.

Frozen Chords

 Do You Want to Build a Snowman
 Let it Go (Idina Menzel)
 Let it Go (Demi Lovato)
 First Time in Forever

INB4 slow at blogging.

Dear self, please update more often and then in thirty years you'll have a nice time capsule to look back to!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Super Cute Android Themes

When it was Boxing Day sales, I decided to finally buy that Micro SD card, and my phone has been happier ever since. Thus began my little adventure of customising it again!

I have then found different ways to achieve a cute phone, rather than just using the themes that are available in the (English) Play Store. It can be hard to find when you cannot read an Asian language.

I made a post about this at the beginning of last year - "Cute Go Launcher Ex Android Themes" and guess what!? THERE ARE MANY MORE CUTE THEMES OUT THERE! You wouldn't believe the excitement I felt when I discovered this. Sometimes I get amused by small things. I thought I was just limited to using the Peperico themes, and yes although they are cute .. I would like to try some non-penguin related themes as well. Yay, more cute apps for Android!

All these images are from the Google Play Store and do not belong to me.

Let's begin!

1) CocoPPa


This app has hundreds of different wallpapers and icons that you can choose from to make your phone cute. You sign up for an account, can follow artists and even share your own wallpapers and icons that you have made. If you are looking for more premium content, you can also purchase branded icons from this place too. It was originally made for iPhone but I am so glad they ported it over to Android too!


 

2) icoron


This app has a similar concept to CocoPPa, but only for icons. It might take some sifting, but you can find some pretty cool stuff here too.

 

 

3) PhoneThemeShop


This app was one of my most amazing finds. It is predominantly in Korean, so it might be hard to understand but they do have English for the main menus which is helpful.


It would be helpful to download GO Launcher Ex first as the themes use this app as a base. It looks like PhoneThemeShop is a directory for user made themes that are from Korea. Honestly, they are much nicer than most of the themes that I found in the main Google Play Store, and there are plenty quality free ones too.

Ways that you can customise your phone with PhoneThemeShop:

> Theme Package: Download themes for theme apps, such as GO Launcher Ex
> Messenger Theme: Download themes for various messenger apps such as Kakao Talk
> LockScreen: Download themes for various locker apps, such as GO Locker
> SNS Theme: You can also download a themed version of the Facebook or Twitter app
> Keyboard: Download themes for GO Keyboard
> SMS: Download themes for GO SMS
> Contacts: Download themes for GO Contacts
> Modify so much more! Even the battery icons at the top of your screen, its insane!

4) CUKI Themes


Yet another collection of cute themes!



Related Blog Posts

My other blog posts about Android Apps:


Other people have posted about a similar topic, so check them out too!


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Hope you found this post helpful. I just love having a cute phone, and I want to share information to others to achieve the same, because I myself would have really appreciated knowing about these sooner too!

If I find some more awesome apps, I will be sure to update this page again ^^.