My First Cosplay

Last Sunday was the annual cosplay (costume play) festival in Nipponbashi. Perhaps some of you read my post about going for the first time last year and how awesome and exciting it was! After going last year, I decided I wanted to actually participate by dressing up this year instead of just going to look. So, I started preparing my costume slowly throughout the year.

Festival Advertisement.

My favorite anime is Death Note, and although I find Misa Amane to be a bit annoying as a character, I really love her look which is like cute-gothic. I figured it would look cool and be rather easy to pull off. I’m not at all knowledgeable enough or equipped to make my own costume from scratch, so I figured that gothic clothing could be easily bought.

Me is Misa Amane form.

Actually, I got my main items on Amazon: the Death Note notebook (¥1,040), the dress & socks (¥6,350), the wig (¥1,980), and the chocker (¥899). I included the fees and shipping in all the prices listed. The dress was originally ¥5,500, but it was shipped all the way from China. The gloves were from Daiso (¥200). Some of the accessories I bought at the mall (～¥2,000), but some I already had. My tights and boots were also things I already had. So all in all, I’d say I spent around ¥12,500 or $111. Not bad considering I bought these items over the course of a year! I know some people must have spent hundreds of dollars on their costumes. I plan on wearing my costume again this Halloween to get my use and money out of it.

Full costume.

So let me tell you about the day! I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to prepare. I did everything from trimming my eyebrows, to shaving, to painting my nails, etc. I met my boyfriend at 11:30 to head downtown. I stopped at my local bar on the way to the station, though, to show my friends who were there. They are all middle-aged and don’t go downtown, so for them it was exciting to see me all dressed up, and they took a picture with me haha!

I was pretty embarrassed to ride the train dressed like an anime character, but I’m used to getting stared at for being white anyway, so I just accepted it. We got downtown around 12:30, and the weather was perfect! I ran into my friend right away which was fortunate because there were so many people! We got to take a picture together and then went our separate ways.

After that, my boyfriend and I walked among the crowds looking at all the different cosplayers. I got pictures of and with some of my favorites. It was really exciting for me when I found other Death Note characters, especially, Ryuk, a god of death from Death Note because he looked so awesome! When I asked to take a picture with him, many other people got excited to see us standing together and started taking our picture.

Me and Ryuk!

Me with L, another Death Note character.

Last year I got super excited when I saw Inuyasha, the main character of my childhood favorite anime, but this time I got even more excited to see my favorite Inuyasha character and junior high school crush, Sesshomaru!

Sesshomaru!!!!!

There were a couple Inuyashas this year, too.

It was a really fun experience to do cosplay. It does take a lot of work and planning, so it’s not something I want to do every year, but I DO definitely want to do it again sometime. Going to see the festival and actually participating in it is a different experience. It feels really cool to take on a different persona and be someone else for a day. 

Attack on Titan.

Spirited Away.

Pokemon.

Zelda.

K-pop Club Night… on a Tuesday.

Here’s a pro tip to all the dudes looking to pick up chicks at a club: Go to K-pop night. Lol. A club in Minami called Onzieme (it’s on the top floor of the OPA building), is closing down soon. Actually it may already be closed. I’m not sure. In any case, I only had been there a couple times, but since it is/was closing, I decided to attend one of their last big events, K-pop night. My friend who also enjoys K-pop invited me. I have never been to a K-pop club event before, so I was pretty excited.

The event took place on a Tuesday…not exactly convenient, but whatever. YOLO right? ^^; Luckily it worked out that I had no class the next day, so I just took work off anyway. So basically it was like a weekend night for me. You would think that dance clubs are dead on Tuesdays…WRONG! Actually I have been to clubs on a Tuesday before, and they have been dead, but this time was different. Why? Because it was K-pop night!

K-pop is super popular in Japan and is gaining popularity around the world. Before going to the club (the event started at 8pm), my friend and I got burritos and drinks. We didn’t want to get there too early. I think we ended up getting there around 9:30 or 10:00. I don’t remember exactly…it was after margaritas and long islands. BUT HOLY CRAP, it was PACKED when we got there! Like 1 am on a Saturday night! All the lockers where in use, so we had to hold our bags. As I said, K-pop is popular which contributed to the amount of people that were there. There’s that and also the fact that Onzieme is/was closing. Lastly women could enter completely free, and college students were on spring vacation. I believe these are the reasons it was so busy.

Freakin' delicious frozen margaritas!

Yayyy burrito!

The part that was the most shocking though, something I’ve never seen, was that it was about 80% women!! I’ve never seen so many women in a club before! That’s why I said that if you are a dude looking to pick up a girl at a club, they are all at K-pop night haha! It was a refreshing change! I didn’t feel nervous or uncomfortable like I usually do at clubs. I wasn’t afraid anyone was gona touch me. Instead, I just had an awesome time dancing with my friend, stopping to get a drink every now and then.

Yay for K-pop girl night!

The first half of the time we were there, they played a bunch of songs we didn’t know. My friend and I are pretty main stream when it comes to K-pop and like artists like Big Bang and CL. However, they played one song I thought was really cool, and now I can’t stop listening to. It’s called “Trespass,” by Monsta X.

Another cool thing about the event was the dancers. There were a few people there who knew all the dance moves to all the songs playing and would get up on stage and perform the whole dance! I wish I could dance like that. It was impressive.

Dancers Dancing to PSY.

The second half of the time they played a lot of songs we knew which really got us pumped up! It was so fun to just have girl time. I’ve been a hard club-goer since coming to Japan, but in the past several months or so, I feel like I’m starting to wind down. I used to just blow it off when guys grabbed me in clubs or hit on me, but now, it has really started to upset me. Also, since the time my wallet was stolen at a club, I have been more on edge when I go. So ya, it was nice to just have a fun, care-free time. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for another K-pop event!

Rockin' out to "Bang Bang Bang" by Big Bang.

Acupuncture?

So I’m not the most spiritual person out there, and I don’t like to believe in things that don’t have hard evidence or science behind it, so when my doctor suggested I try acupuncture, I blew him off at first.

The Wikipedia definition says, “Acupuncture is a form of alternate medicine and a key component of traditional Chinese medicine involving thin needles inserted into the body at acupuncture points.” The Chinese believe that acupuncture balances the flow of life energy in the body… It is said to have several benefits such as improving blood flow and relieving pain and stress. Western scientists seem to scoff at it.

In America, acupuncture is seen as like a spa treatment that rich and famous people do. However, in Japan, it is a common medical procedure that people think nothing special of, like taking an aspirin when you have a headache.

I’ve been going to a clinic once a week for several months now (Japanese healthcare makes it dirt cheap) for my chronic back and shoulder pain. I’ve had pain since high school or earlier. Now that I can finally afford it, I thought I might as well take advantage of the services here! My weekly routine involves electrical stimulation (which I’m very familiar with due to my experience working as a physical therapy technician for a little bit in America) and a massage from a licensed therapist. These are things I understand and trust. Not only has it helped with my back pain but with stress relief as well. I look forward to my massage (which lasts about 10 or 15 minutes) each week.

However, these things don’t completely relieve the pain. A week of strain on my back from work, exercise, and such, often brings be back to where I started. Not always, but often. There are good weeks and bad weeks. My treatments seem to just give me temporary relief. I didn’t think that acupuncture would help, but when I started to have trouble sleeping from anxiety and stress, my coworker and doctor suggested that I try acupuncture. My doctor had been saying from the start that I should try it for my back, but when my coworker recently said he thought it’d help relieve my stress so I can sleep, I figured, “What the heck, it’s worth a try, and it’s cheap enough.”

So this is what the treatment consisted of. First, the woman doctor made me take off my over shirt (I had a tank top on) so she had access to my back. First she felt around with her hand for the strained muscles. It’s amazing how she pinpointed them with her fingers. She would push on a small spot and say, “Wow, you’re really stiff here.” Damn, I could feel it when she pressed. After sanitizing my skin with alcohol wipes, she started to put in the needles on different spots on my neck and upper back. It didn’t hurt too much. It was actually more like an ache that a stabbing feeling. I wouldn’t consider the experience to be pleasant, though. It’s not like it felt good, and I didn’t feel particularly relaxed, but then again, maybe it’ll take me a few times to get used to and embrace the experience.

Acupuncture.

Another thing that often accompanies acupuncture is “moxibustion,” which is another Chinese technique where the doctor burns moxa (aka a dried herb called mugwort) on you. It smells kind of like incense, and the little cones of it that they put on you (in my case my lower back), get pretty hot…almost uncomfortably hot. From what I read briefly, it’s a type of heat therapy. It Japanese, moxibustion is “お灸 (okyuu).” The process of having both acupuncture and moxibustion done together is “鍼灸 (shinkyuu).”

Acupuncture and Moxibustion.

After the process, which took maybe about 20 minutes, I stood up and felt really dizzy and lightheaded which surprised me. I thought perhaps it was because I had my forehead resting on a somewhat stiff foam pillow which cut off circulation to my head or something… but when I asked if it was normal to feel this way, the doctor said yes. She also said I may experiences some hot flashes from increased blood flow, but that never happened.

So the real test was when I tried to sleep (mind you it had been a few days since I had a good night’s sleep). When I got into bed I fell asleep instantly. When I woke up the next morning, I was shocked. My back also felt great; however it usually does anyway after just the massage and electrical stimulation. Me being the skeptic I am, I attributed the good night sleep to just being exhausted from not sleeping much.

Now, I am writing this post more than two weeks after getting acupuncture done, and I am happy to say that I have slept very peacefully every single night since! Was it the acupuncture? Is it a placebo effect? I have no idea. My back is hurting a bit now, but I have to say that it felt great for an entire week and a half after the acupuncture, which is longer than usual. I’m still skeptical of it all but admittedly intrigued. If I start having trouble sleeping again or my back gets really bad, I plan on trying acupuncture again. If it works a second time, then perhaps I’ll become a believer. Until then, maybe give it a try!