shruggingcutely

[shruggingcutely]

Exchange year in Japan is over and I'm so sad because on a daily life basis life there fit me so much better, now I'm a fish out of water again

But at least now I get to play Pathfinder with friends and family, which was not an option in Japan, and that's also good, love to make a grumpy gnome farmer yelling at the goblin player character for stealing crops or accidentally have the mayor of the town crack up everyone with the blandest pun so hard they can't breathe anymore, TTRPGs are good

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

While lots of Westerners waste their time complaining about the very idea of idols, I'm going out there to to see chika (i.e. underground/indie) idols live and they have like 20 piercings and sing about how much they love sex while their fans dance their feet off and do background calls and then they give a girl who spent like $200 on cheki (i.e. polaroids of you and your idol) a piggyback ride and ask her if she's really okay spending all that cash on them

I'm not making an argument here, I just think chika idols are fun

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

Thanks to doing my research I haven't really experienced a lot of culture shock after coming to Japan, but one of the things that just slowly unraveled is how different tea culture is here, and I'm not talking about tea ceremony

So in Austria you can get tea bags anywhere and most of the tea is herbal, fruit, or black tea. You can buy pre-made ice tea, which is basically sugar water, or "tea" that is water that smells faintly of whatever is supposed to be infused, and every restaurant has tea on the menu (and unless it's an Asian restaurant you're probably just getting tea bags)

In Japan I *can* get actual tea leaves in supermarkets (mostly limited to black and green tea), and most cheaper teas (i.e. tea bags) come with instructions for hot brewing and cold brewing. Because turns out if you ask your tea anywhere you'll mostly get cold tea. Which isn't bad at all. Every konbini or vending machine has several kinds of unsweetened cold tea you can just get for like 100 yen per liter and it's great especially when it's hot outside and you need some barley tea (which is so good btw). But if you like your tea hot, like me (I like my tea hot, is what I'm saying), it feels kinda weird that restaurants only have the cold kind (unless you specifically ask for it and they don't just have it pre-made). Haven't been to many cafes yet because poor, but I assume your chances of getting hot tea are better there

The thing that actually bothers me, though, is how surprisingly hard it is to get oolong tea. Not the cold kind you can get anywhere, the actual tea leaves, because oolong tea benefits a lot when you use the leaves. The thing about oolong tea is the leaves are curled up and you can reuse them a few times in a row and as the leaves unfurl the taste changes. I love that about it, and you're never getting this effect with tea bags or like tea powder (which already feels kinda weak if it's not like, matcha, tbqh). And when I looked up where to buy oolong tea leaves, I learned that they are surprisingly hard to find and relatively expensive, even though Taiwan, where it's from, it's like, right there (it's actually still pretty far away, but relatively speaking). So when I tell people at work, coworkers or customers, that I love hot oolong tea, they're like, hot??? Because it may as well be a completely different thing

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

Coming to Japan has given me too much power, now I can see the gross cheap sake in Bocchi The Rock and go to the supermarket to see what it's like for context and find out it's absurdly cheap and also really not good at all but still pretty strong and then my coworker calls me an otaku for doing this and I can't argue with it because yeah, I don't even like sake

(how cheap is absurdly cheap? 90 yen for 180 ml, that's 10% of what proper sake costs at my workplace)

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

Finally watched Bocchi the Rock and I cannot make any jokes about Kikuri inviting Bocchi to do "something fun~" together and Bocchi getting extremely flustered about girls and then it turns out they just play music together,

because the show literally already made that joke, thank you

Also appreciate that every time Bocchi does something for someone else's potential approval it's for girls, like basically daydreaming bras flying at her on stage

Anyway, great show for a lot of reasons, I'm just gay and leaving it at that

#rant #yuri #bocchi the rock!

[shruggingcutely]

Coming to Japan has been transformative in weird and unexpected ways

I like my part-time job??

I like going outside sometimes??

I'm not constantly tired??

I blame all the walking

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

You didn't miss anything, my shipping muscles don't get much workout these days because I watch too many Vtubers and I refuse to ship them because it's weird

You might have missed something if I stopped procrastinating on Shiny Colors to get really into Shhis (read: sad ex Luca)

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

Patch notes

They are telling me Twitter is dying. I'm not that optimistic, but I guess it doesn't hurt to give a status update.

Hi, I'm in Japan for a year! Wow!

I go to cool classes (real), have good mental health (mostly real), cry because there are so many ways to spend money (real), high-five idols (real), get random English words thrown at me in surprisingly high-level Japanese conversations (real), and get run over by trucks, sending me into fantasy worlds where I'm the weakest but the strongest (fake).

It's cool, I recommend it (if you go into it expecting a real country and not anime wonder world), and the Japanese economy could use some more tourists apparently

I dunno, that's pretty much it, hi

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

In case you ever got mad that I criticized Bushiroad and then said Idolmaster is pretty okay (like these are in any way related), good news, I too get mad every time the algorithm wants me to see Producer x idol stuff because I was looking at gay idol art, hope that helps

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

I dunno, just wanted to say that if you treat different Vtuber agencies or not-agencies like console wars and go "grr, I'm not watching them because they're not [agency of choice]!!" I'm calling you a baby

You don't want me to call you a baby, right

("I want to support independent Vtubers" is fine, that works)

Free yourself of the shackles of these arbitrary limitations and pick up like painting or something or go for a walk

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

Bushiroad said I’m a criminal now

I’ll take it

#rant

[shruggingcutely]

Ibaraki: *enters Shuten's room*

Shuten: *straddles a tied up, gagged, blindfolded Raikou*

Ibaraki:

Ibaraki: Are you winning, Shuten

Shuten: Oh, I'd say so

#i made this #fanfic #fgo #Fate Grand Order #Ibaraki Douji #Shuten Douji #minamoto no raikou (fgo) #chat

[shruggingcutely]

Chiyoko: Rinze, love triangles are so sad!

Rinze: I agree...

Chiyoko: They're best friends, but then they fall in love with the same person! It makes me cry...

Rinze: Yes... Therefore, Juri... I am afraid I would ask you... to accept us both...

Juri: I thought you were talking about manga???

Juri: ...But I guess it's fine...

#i made this #fanfic #yuri #shiny colors #shinymas #chiyoko sonoda #rinze morino #juri saijo #chat

[shruggingcutely]

Hina: Chisato, let's kiss

Chisato: No, you smell like garlic

Hina: Oh

Hina, texting Maya: Chisato was a vampire?

#i made this #fanfic #yuri #bandori #chisahina #hina hikawa #chisato shirasagi #chat

[shruggingcutely]

Lappland, looking down Texas: Seems like your girl down there can't get enough of me, look at her vibrate in excitement

Texas: ...That's my sword

Lappland: Obviously?

Texas:

Lappland & Texas: *absurd sword fight*

#i made this #fanfic #arknights #lappland (arknights) #texas (arknights) #chat

[shruggingcutely]

Lappland: Wanna taste of my stew, it's good

Texas: Can't, got something in my mouth

Lappland: Yeah, my dick!

Texas:

Exusiai: Ahahahahahahaha

Lappland: Hahaha

Texas:

Texas: *stabs Lappland and leaves*

Lappland: Ah... good one...

Exusiai, wiping her tears: Hahahaha... hooo boy...

Exusiai: I thought it was funny

Lappland, bleeding out: thanks

#i made this #fanfic #arknights #lappland (arknights) #texas (arknights) #exusiai (arknights) #chat

[shruggingcutely]

Hazuki: Here's the key

Madoka: Thank you... Um, sorry for bothering you

Hazuki: Don't worry about it! Your show is in two days, right? I'm looking forward to it!

Madoka: You'll watch it...?

Hazuki: Of course! We always watch when our idols are performing!

Madoka: I see... I, I'll do my best

Hazuki: That's what I like to hear.

Madoka: Um...

Hazuki: Yes?

Madoka: If I do well... would you... give me a reward...?

Hazuki: Sure, I'll think of something nice!

Madoka: Hehe... Oh. Um. I, I gotta go, uh, do lessons

Hazuki: Have fun!

Hinana: ?????

Koito, nodding: Madoka is pretty spoiled

#i made this #fanfic #yuri #shiny colors #shinymas #madoka higuchi #hazuki nanakusa #hinana ichikawa #koito fukumaru #chat