京都 Maiko and maybe a Geisha will make your night in Kyoto, even if it’s just a snap shot!

These are some photos from when I was in Japan for the first time in 2007. I was traveling with my mom and my friend from Tokyo 東京. When we got to Kyoto 京都 the first thing my mom and I wanted to see wear kimono clad women everywhere, we saw a few everyday women dressed in kimono which made me happy, but as for my mom it wasn’t enough, we had to see the geisha. My friend from Tokyo 東京 did want to be out at night in an area she didn’t know, plus she thought we were going on a wild goose chase along with the whole hotel staff. In this geisha quest we also meant seeing a maiko would do, but at the time I never knew the difference between maiko and geisha(or as locals call them geiko).

The key differences between them is the maiko dresses more colorfully and decorative then her, as they call it, “older sister”. A geisha becomes an older sister by taking on a maiko as her understudy and when they come of a certain age or are ready they become a geisha after a ceremony. There is also a ceremony to bind them as sisters as well.

So after arriving in Gion(one of the geisha districts) my mom and I were on the look out for geisha/maiko along with a few other tourist. As you can see I found a few maiko and maybe the one in the car was a geisha since she was being escorted by a few men and didn’t have any decorative head pieces on. Also below I have a a photo I took of the shoes under the doorway and a photo of the entrance where the geisha walked out of. It was quite a fun night!

宇多田ヒカル a Japanese music video I forgot how much I loved

Here’s the song traveling by Utada Hikaru. I forgot how much I loved this song. Oh the joy of rediscovery.

雪 Yuki puppy!

Though she’s not Japanese her name is since when I got her she looked like a little snow ball body! Her coloring is filling in but she’ll always be my little yukikochan! 雪子ちゃん！

These are when I first went to get her or I should say fish food! No one told me their was puppies where I stopped to get fish food!

Then here she is home. (below)

The last few are the most recent.

きれい Such a pretty cosplay

Her name is Alodia Gosiengfiao. She’s from the Philippines and is a cosplayer model and artist. She is a widely know cosplayer that has cosplayed over 40 animes, movies and video games! She started to become popular in 2003 when she was 15 cosplaying Rikku gun mage from FFX-2. She won an event at a convention and has since been appearing at conventions worldwide as a participant, performer, judge or as a guest. From there many companies in the Philippines have hired her to endorse their products. Not only that but is featured in magazines and TV shows!

Plus she was ranked as #76 in 2010’s Philippine’s FMN 100 Sexiest Women poll! (info from wikipedia)

Now how can I do this? I want to be in magazines and host things! Plus who wouldn’t want to be in costume all the time!

一二三 counting in Japanese

Number in Japanese is bango ばんご

The first symbol is the kanji and the others are the spelling in hiragana then followed by the romaji.

1    一   いち ichi
2    二   に ni
3    三   さん san
4    四   よん/し yon/shi
5    五   ご go
6    六   ろく roku
7    七   なな/しち nana/shichi
8    八   はち hachi
9    九   きゅう/くう kyuu/kuu
10  十   じゅ/じゅうju/juu

Note: Japanese usually avoid shi しand ku く. Shi しalso is the sound for the word death 死. Ku くis also the sound for the words pain or suffering 苦. So because of this gifts are usually given in threes or fives.

アニメ anime next convention 2012 cosplay

So here it is, anime next cosplayers. This was the highlight of the convention getting to see people be creative in costume! If anyone knows the name of the characters that I didn’t add a caption to please leave a comment, I would love to know! Even better if any of these are you I would love to here about your anime next experience or anyone that attended for that matter!

Below is a Mori girl/dolly kei style fashion, it’s absolutely beautiful.

Ranka and Sheryl from Macross Frontier.

Here’s a character from black butler. I have to say this was one of my favorites that I just happened to see out of no where.

Tsukasa from .hack//sign. I was hunting him down for a photo all weekend and finally had the chance to cross his path rather then just seeing him in the distance.

Here is a cosplay of ayumi hamasaki’s outfit! I think this is her link.
http://mei-hoshi.deviantart.com/art/AnimeNEXT-2012-Schedule-306333299

Here is good old fashion sailor moon with a twist. No sailor uranus and instead a random guy. When did he join the sailor scouts?!

Here is a sailor Pluto I found that looked pretty awesome roaming the double tree.

Another sailor moon character. I can’t remember her name but it was rini turned evil (lady black?). As you can see I’m an old school fan of sailor moon since I seem to have a theme in my photos.

This guy was quite the character! His name is kkitty kkitty.

And last here I am with a fellow totoro! (^-^)/

まあ まあ まあ まあ、おおとう とう とう！ Sushi video! I had to make a separate post for it!（＾∇＾）

べんきょうしる An awesome site to aid in your Japanese studies… Lingualift!

http://japanese.lingualift.com/

This site is actually pretty cool for learning and has a sleek design. They have online chapters that is an E text book that offers a new way of study and memorization games that are quite fun. Plus they actually work and you can set your difficulty.  Though this site may not be for complete newbies to Japanese since it seems to move a little out of order if you don’t have the basic vocab down.

Here is an awesome video from this language learning site that I found quite hilarious.

And can the cat fit in the box?

Here’s another fun video of the sounds of the kana, the AIUEO song. Enjoy!

もえかな Booster pack to add to super kawaii cards!

Now add these to your original pack to make studying even better.

Get them at jbox.com

ファッション yesstyle.com (doesn’t over price my fashion…)

Though this site isn’t strictly Japanese fashion it has a wide rage of companies from Eastern Asia. This site has it all from clothes and accessories to makeup and cosmetics. I  do own a couple of the below items and love them! Find what fits your style!

$25.60

Soho Central

$19.20

59 seconds

$62.00

Grace Candy

$27.00

Puffy

$58.50

Little Paw

$45.00

Puffy

$54.00

LOYER.mod

$27.00

Spicy Holic

$17.60

59 seconds

$28.80

Smoothie