So, I finished up my study abroad program, and landed in Japan 2 days ago!
This is what I drew for my Travel Portfolio final. No one liked it very much, but it’s fine. I’m done. 
For my Hong Kong Comics final, Howard Wong, writer for Marvel, came in and gave us all feedback! And after the 5 of us finished our presentations, we went out to Genki Sushi at the Dragon Center mall, and my prof treated us all to dinner. Genki Sushi’s super cool. They sent us food on little motorized trains!
I’m going to miss the Hong Kong Sequential Arts department a lot.
The next day, I had plenty of time to wander around before my flight. So I went to Comix Home Base in Wan Chai, and checked out the Toy Street nearby. It was really nice. I wish there was a kind of concentrated Comics Spot near my home. I guess MOCCA in New York could count, but I’ve never been there so I don’t know what it’s actually like.
After that I went to Causeway Bay and had an old lady under a bridge curse a certain someone by beating his name with a shoe. I felt better afterwards, I think.
Then I just packed and prepared for my flight to Japan. I got like 2 hours of sleep on the plane, but Vika (her mom is my mom’s best friend, and she’s the one taking me places in Japan) met me in the airport that morning and we went to our super cute hostel in Asakusa, Tokyo. It was so adorable. Also there was a big shrine there that we walked past to get to the hostel.
After that we had to take like 5 trains to get to Chofu to meet a friend of my stepfather’s who lives there. Japan’s seventeen thousand train lines perfectly demonstrate why monopolies are good in certain cases. Because no one should need that many train tickets or transfers to get around one city.
In Chofu, we went to a soba noodle restaurant inside a park. The soba noodles were very good. All of the food in Japan is so good. And so cheap. I love it. So much.
After that we walked around the park for a bit. There’s a shrine, and a building that dates back to the Edo period. And a Traditional Japanese paint-a-pottery thing, apparently.
There was also a GeGeGe no Kitaro museum. I have never heard of this franchise before, but the museum was really cool. I like the concept and the visual style a lot.
Then we had shaved ice! Mine was melon flavored. It tasted like snow with syrup on it. Weird but good. It was way too hot outside.
On to the Ghibli museum! We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, but it was still beautiful outside and in. It reminded me of Disney, but more subtle and serious. My favorite room was the concept art room, where all of the creator’s inspirations were tacked up on the walls, and I saw my favorite Russian animator’s sketches up there with everything else! I’m so glad.
After that we got yakiniku. That was my first time trying it. It was really good. No pictures, though.
Then I fell asleep on the train because I had 2 hours of sleep the night before.
Yesterday morning, we went to Denny’s for breakfast. Holy shit, this Denny’s makes American Denny’s look like a trash can. This is a thing I ordered, for 5 USD. AT DENNY’S. It was extremely delicious.
Then we went to an Owl Cafe! It also had a meerkat, a parrot, some hedgehogs, some chinchillas, and other creatures.
After that, we took the metro to Akihabara and walked around. I bought way too much anime merchandise, because I am a nerd.
We took a long time figuring out how to get to Matsuzaki, where Vika lives, and took the slow train instead of the shinkansen (a bad move.)
But then we got to Matsuzaki and yesterday I walked to the 7-11 and went to the fire festival in the next village over, which was super neat! The whole area is super gorgeous.
Sticky Pencils 