Caramelldansen our way around Japan

Back in Australia! Better yet, back in the Perth part of Australia, with no plans to do anything particularly exciting for at least a week. Which ought be something of a relief by now (given that between Japan, Melbourne and all that other stuff I've been solidly busy for almost last month) if only it hadn't all been totally AWESOME, totally worth it even despite all the stress, and if I wasn't missing Japan already. Being back also means I'm looking forlornly at the horrible backlog of LJ posts I meant to make before I left - plus the new Japan ones - and it's gotten to the point where it's going to start competing with my fic WIP list if I let it get much worse. In no particular order, this is what's on it:

Japan: The Guilty Gear report
Japan: The Squeenix report
Melbourne: The Amaranth Ball
Melbourne: Manifest (day 1)
The World Ends With You, Thoughts on, + rather extended critique of the ending
Guilty Gear: That Post On Recent Canon I Have Been Putting Off Since April Sometime

Not including about 10 GB of photos that need to be sorted through, and where appropriate cleaned up and posted. BUT at least I can count on pinneagig's awesome photoshop skills to help with that part. For now I'm just going to leave all the photos and fannish stuff aside for the moment and talk about the actual trip for a bit. And maybe elaborate on just exactly what I was on about in that last post.

One of the things about living in somewhere as isolated as Perth (and I do like living here even if this city was built on the far side of nowhere) - is that most of the other places you're ever likely to go are going to be bigger and more exciting. On the flip side, I don't think I'd want to live in Japan long term. Between the education system, all the racism and sexism and the massive pressure everyone there seems to live under that country is seriously crazy and not just in the good way. But I would not at all mind getting to live there a bit more on the short to medium term scale. They've got fantastic shopping, great food, a railway system that can get you just about anywhere and runs on time, are quite obviously the holy ground for the anime fan, and there is something very neat about being able to walk down any regular, commercial city street and find pretty little ornamental shrines sandwiched in between the buildings here and there. The Japanese fit a casual version of all their old Shinto/Buddist spirituality in with modern life as if there's no contradiction there at all, and I really do like that.

( Culture shock: More than you ever wanted to know about Japanese bathrooms )

( The actual trip - starting in Tokyo )