Kaylee

Games of Endless Enjoyment

Sep 5, 2019Sep 6, 2019 Kaylee

As a certified woman, I love Animal Crossing, but not just because of the bright colours and the cutesy characters (although that does help) but also the category it fits into. I’m not quite sure the name of the category but to generalise is games which have no end goal.
Having nothing to work towards makes the game more fun in my opinion. You’re not pressured to do anything, no time limits and no restrictions. You can just run around and do nothing and it won’t matter since nothing is consequential.

They’re easy to jump in and out, so when you forget about it for a while and come back there’s no confusion of where you are out what you’re doing, and even if there is, like say you played Minecraft one time three months ago. You turn on the game and you’re stuck in a mine. It really doesn’t matter. You could continue further, you could turn around and find your bearings. There’s nothing in control and it’s so liberating. Exiting quickly is always easy too, you can’t get stuck in a level trying to defeat a boss for half an hour (Okumura boss fight I’m looking at you) when you need to leave for work in 10 minutes and everything is a disaster and you’ve wasted the last 2 hours because you forgot to save. Not talking from experience of course.

Another thing about these games is that they fill in a void for people in their late teens/early adulthood. As the economy is destroyed by baby boomers it’s harder to imagine a good life, so in animal crossing when you pay off a home loan or even your whole mortgage, it gives you a sense of accomplishment that seems unrealistic in real life. It also makes you feel like you have friends who love to spend time with you and also this super cute my melody backpack, which could never happen for real.

They keep you creative. Plenty of times during childhood I’ve felt like I’ve been forced to fit into a box, but with endless possibilities, there’s no box to fit in, your imagination can go wild. Games like Minecraft and Happy Home Designer give you the freedom to make things how you want (with limited supplies of course) even if they’re super weird and time-consuming.

An honourable mention would also be Persona 5. Yes there is a story and Morgana constantly makes you sleep, but there are small sections between palaces where you can just go out and increase social ranks (AKA go on a date with Ryuji, let a girl dream) and just do random semi-open world things like go fishing (Because every game needs fishing, apparently).

Travel

Amsterdam: Our First Trip Together

Aug 22, 2019Aug 22, 2019 Kaylee

Amsterdam was the first place me and Matthew ever went together (other than a school trip to Barcelona one time). Both in first-time relationships, we didn’t know what to expect. We’d never spend such a prolonged period of time together, but boy let me tell you, that holiday really made Matthew question his decisions.

We traveled on the overnight ferry but, because I get seasick, we both took tablets and got knocked out. But, before the tablets came into effect we somehow joined a dolphin watching class? Or something like that, I’m not really sure. I don’t remember seeing anything though so good thing we didn’t pay for it.

The first place we went to was a zoo which started off a whole line of trips where a zoo is required or else it’s not a real trip. It’s possibly, to this day, one of the best zoos I’ve ever been to. However, I might be biased since I was young, in love and surrounded by cute animals. They had a reptile room, which was amazing as you could get up so close to them. However, the heat of the room on a hot day was unbearable.

The only problem which isn’t really a problem was the butterfly room. I have an irrational fear of butterflies but Matthew loves them so I didn’t want to disappoint. I took a few pretty decent photos before fleeing in panic.

At the zoo, there was also a microbe zoo which I have never seen before and was the perfect mix of super gross and interesting. It was full of moldy food and liquids and a dead giraffe just chilling in a box. Also, Matthew had a nose bleed there which could’ve been gross had I not been surrounded by microbes.

The ice bar was not all it was hyped up to be. Yes, it was pretty cool being in a room made of ice but you’re just paying to be cold and bored. The chairs are cold so it’s hard to sit down and the only drink they do (or did at this point) were chocolate orange vodka or Heineken for obvious reasons, both of which I did not like, but since I had paid to be in there I felt trapped.

The bar before you get in had nice drinks but I assume due to logical reasons you can’t prepare too many drinks in a room made of ice, so I suppose that’s understandable.

Going to the Heineken museum was always a stupid idea for us because neither of us drinks lager. However, that only lessened our appreciation slightly as the museum itself was still very cool. It has a nice terrace on the top which looks out over Amsterdam and they give you a free half-pint of Heineken. It was under construction when we went so there’s probably more now but I haven’t got a clue.

We went on a canal tour, which I don’t remember much of (a common theme), only that it was extremely hot and that we went on the wrong one. One thing that I do remember is “fritessaus”. It’s literally just a sauce for chips but it’s the best one, so good that we bought a litre bottle of it to take home.

Due to my memory of a goldfish, I don’t remember much else since I didn’t take many pictures but from what I’ve recalled it was pretty much a regular city break just with nicer locals.

Travel

Shibuya & Harajuku

Aug 8, 2019Aug 8, 2019 Kaylee

Shibuya crossing was slightly smaller than I’d imagined but still proved how incredibly accurate Persona 5 was at mapping out Tokyo correctly. I genuinely felt immersed in the game and it made me want to play it again. The subway station also felt surreal; It was so busy all of the time and it was easy to get lost trying to find the exit never mind the connecting subway. Just outside the subway was the Hachiko memorial statue which was always far too crowded, and I don’t think I ever got a good picture of it. This area, in particular, made reality feel hazy because I could just imagine Yoshida making speeches in front of the tourism center.

Speaking of Shiba Inus, we also went to a Shiba cafe in Harajuku. Being from England, Shibas are something we only see on the internet and cry over because they’re so cute, but in Japan, they are everywhere. I’m not sure if I ever saw another breed. In the cafe you got a free drink included with the price so I thought I would try melon soda. Best decision of my life. Melon soda is the only drink that matters and I hate England for not letting me have it sooner.

But anyway, the dogs were unbelievably adorable, like, I’m not a dog person but I need one. There was one sitting under the TV next to us the whole time and would not move so I claimed it as mine (even though she wouldn’t come out to me either) and another small white one which kept running around who also did not love me. Most of the time they just lay there because they know they’re better than us and don’t need to do anything to keep us brainless humans entertained, but every now and then they would bark at each other or run around.

While we were there, a special Persona event was on so we went there as soon as we could so that we wouldn’t miss out on anything. It was only small so we didn’t buy much and I’m also not very fond of buying keyrings, or mystery character things which was what most of the store consisted of. We haven’t finished Persona 5: The Animation yet but photos I assume came from it lined the walls which I had never seen before. Side note: Baby Yusuke stole my heart.

Tower Records was something I really looked forward to, even after we had been several times I would still look forward to going back. As a fan of K-POP, I knew it would be a lot easier to get hold of physical albums in Asia. Tower Records held nine stories of music, and a whole floor was dedicated to exactly what I was looking for. Within several trips here I bought about half the collection of NCT albums, but sadly the trip was not quite long enough (and suitcases not quite big enough) to buy any more. What also shook me was that there was a signed NCT 127 poster so, like, me and Haechan have been in the same room… Maybe not at the same time but it still counts.

Another favourite shop was the LINE FRIENDS store. Again, as a fan of K-POP, I was attracted here by the BT21 collaboration and quite shamefully nothing else. Walking in I had to pretend to know who Brown and friends were when really I had no clue and I was there for RJ and RJ only. We took several trips here and they rotated the stock so we ended up buying quite a bit. And by ‘quite a bit’, I mean around £150 worth of RJ merch. Not my proudest moment, but as a Jin stan it’s my duty to support his son. Of course I’m not the only guilty party as Matthew has an infatuation with Mang, however, he’s not as obsessed.

Off the beaten track we found an animal cafe with a range of different animals. There were hedgehogs, otters, chinchillas and some other rodent which I’m still not sure what it was; Maybe some sort of squirrel? It was advertised as a hedgehog cafe but, in all honesty, we only went there for the otters, who did not disappoint. They had a small bag they kept hiding in which melted my heart, and their little squeaks are the cutest things ever. I’m not sure if I was supposed to but I stuck my finger through the hole in the glass and held an otter’s hand, but if anyone reading wants to get me in trouble another girl did it first I was just copying her and it’s not my fault.

All in all, I would rate Shibuya and Harajuku a 4 out of 5 partly because Matthew has yet to draw artwork for 5 out of 5 stars, but mostly because Akihabara exists and nothing can beat that.

Gaming, Travel

Akihabara Vol.2 – A Gamer’s Paradise

Jul 25, 2019Jul 25, 2019 Kaylee

I love arcades. I always have. I go to Butlins with my family every year and you will find me in the arcades wasting my parents’ (or on more recent occasions my own) hard-earned money trying to win a Princess Anna plushie that I know the machine will not let me have. Fortunately for me, (but not my bank account) Japan was full of arcades, but the best were obviously in Akihabara, a self-proclaimed gamer’s paradise, as it had all the things I could ever dream of.

Most arcades started with claw machines on the first few floors. However, unlike Butlins, they actually housed not only Princess Anna merch but also other things I would actually want to spend my money on such as Morgana and Kizuna AI plushies.

Similarly to other arcades, they are borderline impossible to win but somehow you would always see someone who had won and it was never me. I came close several times but the staff seem to notice and move your prize into a ‘more helpful’ position which really makes it ten times harder and you end up wasting so much more money.

Capsule machines in the arcades were also something I enjoyed. They were scattered around every floor and had a wide range of prizes. Obviously, my first pick were Attack on Titan keyrings because who doesn’t want a chibi Levi on their keys. The only problem is that the odds are rather low. The capsule balls are so large that there are probably only one of each prize in the small machines so the chances of actually getting something you want are smaller than you would imagine. However, the adrenaline rush is still there and you still get a prize at the end of it so who cares if you accidentally spend thousands of yen trying to get a Levi and never succeeding?

Further up, above the claw machines, there were floors filled with rhythm games, a personal favourite of mine. As a child, I played Taiko no Tatsujin on Nintendo DS which has recently been released on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The game is basically just a large taiko drum and you have to hit the correct part of the drum (or controller) at the correct time to earn points and keep a combo going.

The Taiko machines were definitely where we spent the most money in the arcades because it’s just so addicting. Depending on where you are the price and number of plays varied and we found the perfect mid-point in Akihabara. What added to the already perfect setup was that we had four songs we constantly played, so with the two songs per 200 yen, we would play two times and feel fulfilled. In fact, we played so often that we actually got blisters on our hands from the drumsticks. We were just that dedicated to perfecting Guren no Yumiya for Levi.

On these floors were also sometimes Mario Kart machines. I thought it was pretty pointless paying for it because I have Mario Kart at home but, according to Matthew, it’s supposedly different. I disagree, the only difference I noticed was coincidentally you could play as Don-chan from Taiko no Tatsujin. However, something I did enjoy about it was the face filter photos which followed your kart around.

On one occasion we stumbled upon the smoking floor which was totally alien to us. It was full of real gambling machines like horse racing and slot machines and I’m not about that life. We made the most of it, though, by playing Poyo Poyo Tetris which I had never heard of. Obviously, I was a natural as I was playing for quite a while before the game decided I was too good and for some reason just ended my game.

All in all, I would rate Akihabara arcades a 4 out of 5 because, although they are the best arcades I’ve ever been to, I really can’t get my head around the idea of smoking indoors? It’s such a health and fire hazard; I just don’t get it. Also unhappy with not achieving plushie Kizuna AI booty as the staff don’t understand that I want it, and so move it to a more difficult position.

Travel

Japan’s Character Cafes

Jul 11, 2019Jul 11, 2019 Kaylee

The Moomin Bakery/Café was the first one we went to so I didn’t really know what to expect other than it being extremely cute and Instagrammable. It delivered on this for the most part as the cafe was, in fact, cute and Instagrammable. We had already eaten, so we only got desserts (Matthews fault). But, since it was technically a bakery, I don’t think that main meals were their main selling point. The desserts were served in cute Moomin cups which I really wish I had bought. They were fairly good but also quite basic and padded out with a lot of cream.

I’ve played Monster Hunter once and accidentally fell asleep so this was more for Matthew, but I was impressed nonetheless. When you first walk in there’s a giant Palico which, from what I remember, is pretty cute. There were two PS4s with Monster Hunter to play and a Great Sword hung on the wall. The ordering system was pretty cool, but less so if you can’t read Japanese as that’s the only language the tablet shows. All you have to do is type in the number of the meal and it sends the order to the kitchen. Matthew ordered a matcha tea milkshake and I ordered some kind of soda with jelly in which I ended up drinking both of, and they were both okay. For food, we ordered a crab pasta; Which was really tasty and would’ve been even tastier if I knew how to get the meat off the crab. Matthew ordered what he described as a “ridiculously thicc rasher of bacon on a bed of gnocchi in a tomato sauce” which he claims is the best thing he ate. We also ordered a side of fried chicken which had a whole ass chicken foot in it.

I’ve been a fan of Sanrio since I was young so I had high expectations for their canteen. We both went for ramen because it was one of our first days so we weren’t feeling experimental and you can never go wrong with ramen. The presentation was good. Matthew had a really cute Gudetama in his ramen and it almost hurt to watch him eat it. The sweet egg used to make the Gudetama and the Pompompurin on top of the ramen I didn’t really like, but it seemed to be on everything later on in the holiday. Other than that I stand by that you can never go wrong with ramen because it was delicious!

The Pompompurin café was quite strange. We didn’t plan to go there but we wanted to see the Shibas across the road and had some time to spare. It took about ten minutes to get in which was totally fine since we had, like, an hour and a half but when we sat down nobody came to us for a good while. We waited for about twenty to thirty minutes for anyone to even take our order which slightly worried us because we really didn’t wanna miss the Shibas but, when we were eventually served, it only took about fifteen minutes for Matthews food and.. not mine? He was hungry and wanted to eat but I wanted to take cute Insta pics so this was literally the worst thing that could happen, and I had to beg him not to eat. After about five minutes my food finally came and visually was definitely worth it, but as a meal, both were slightly disappointing. Matthew’s beef stroganoff had about two pieces of beef in it and I’m not sure if my beef was meant to be cold but I didn’t like it. The rice, on the other hand, was very nice.

The Doraemon café was in the Fujiko F Fujio Museum in Kawasaki. We were hesitant about going in because it was extremely busy and we had to take a number which was around sixty off the number just called so we didn’t know how long we would have to wait. Fortunately, it was a museum so it’s not like we had to just sit and wait. We wandered around for half an hour then luckily enough came back to two numbers before our own. The service was great, they sat us down straight away and we ordered pretty much as soon as we sat down. The menu was small so the food came out quickly and looked so great. The staff were friendly and brought over Doraemon plushies for photos which, unfortunately, came out awful because Matthew blinked but the effort was still there. I ordered the chili and it was great, and in my opinion, it was the best character café food we had all holiday.

The Ghibli Museum is hard to get into and you can only get in at certain times so naturally there was a queue to get into the Straw Hat Café. Thankfully, the staff know this and they had sun-shades, chairs, and menus set up outside. So after a short 10-minute wait, we could order straight away. Us being stupid and from Britain ordered drinks first and confused the staff as they tried to make us pay after we received our drinks. When we got that blip sorted out the food came out quickly. The drink I had was really nice; pretty much just a soda float but it was blue so that makes it cooler, and the curry I had was just a basic curry, but the plate I liked a lot.

The Kirby Café in Skytree town was supposed to close before we got to Japan, which I was upset about but, somehow, (because Google listens) an ad came up on Instagram saying that the time had been extended, so we immediately booked in for it. When we got there we got a bit lost and when we found it a nice American boy, who was clearly a very big Kirby fan and was there on his own, asked if we could take pictures for him. Shout-out to him, he was cute. I ordered a hotdog and Matthew ordered a burger. My verdict is that they definitely used IKEA hotdogs. I know an IKEA hotdog when I taste one and I’m not complaining because they do the best hotdogs out there. Also, those tiny star hash browns are genuinely the best hash browns I’ve ever eaten and I am devastated that there weren’t more of them.

I didn’t know One Piece before we went to One Piece Tower and I barely knew One Piece after we left so characters didn’t affect my choice of food for this one. I picked a Sanji drink which was basically a fruit salad in a cup and Matthew ordered a Nami drink for two reasons which are both clearly visible when you look at her. For food, I ordered a Sabo burger which I picked because I was intrigued by the black bun. I’m not sure who Sabo is but I googled him and I’m, like, ninety percent sure it’s just Sanji in a different outfit. I wasn’t entirely impressed by my burger because it had silkworm egg in it which, as a concept, put me off eating it at all, but it had those star hash browns from the Kirby Cafe so I was over the moon with that. However, I really enjoyed Matthew’s pizza, but he only let me have one piece (ba-dum, cha).

Technically, we went to Osaka for Universal Studios, but I choose to believe it was for our thicc king Gudetama. The Gudetama Café was quite hard to find, so I wasn’t surprised when there were only two other people in the café. That actually made it seem better because what makes a depressed egg seem more depressing than his own café being empty? Gudetama cartoons shorts were playing on the TV so his adorable depressed little voice rang through our ears for the half an hour we were there and Gudetama plushies were dotted around the café. The only other people in the café went mad taking photos with them so I attempted to do that too and bug fell off the plushie, and I was permanently scarred. On the other hand, the food was so cute that we also got dessert. The food altogether was great and good value for money.

Bonus Boys:

My two favourite things? Churros and Levi Ackerman, so a Levi churro? Universal, you win this time because that’s an offer I can’t refuse. It had orange peelings on the top to represent a mop head, (I think?) which I wasn’t really a fan of, and it was very dry. It had definitely been sitting under a lamp for a while but it’s a theme park so you can’t be too picky.
Disney is known for its good food so Disneyland in Japan we had high expectations of. We ate at Huey, Dewey and Louie’s Good Time Café. I had a pizza and Matthew had a dumpling both of which lived up to Disney’s reputation. The pizza was quite small but, for the price you pay, it’s definitely worth it.

Overall, I give them a 3/5. I think character cafés are great as long as it’s a place where you’re interested in the specific characters. If not it just feels like you’re paying too much for average food. The menus are mostly small and full of easy-to-make meals as they can get quite busy, so don’t go there looking for an exquisite meal.

Uncategorized

Five things I want from Animal Crossing: Switch

Jun 9, 2019Jun 9, 2019 Kaylee

1. For it to come out… before I die??

It’s unrealistic to say I’ve been waiting since 2013 because, we all know, for a good two years I was totally engrossed in New Leaf, but no information since September! Come on Nintendo, stop slacking.

2. A better multiplayer experience.

I want a more solid online mode, not that I have anyone to play with. It would be nice to have a social hub like in the Splatoon series, because I find it far easier making friends online than in person. Friend codes are also too complicated. You should be able to send requests through the Nintendo online service. Personally, I just want something that makes Nintendo’s online service worth paying for.

3. Give me back the asshole villagers.

I own the GameCube version but I haven’t played it much. However, judging by the memes, I want them back. It would be funny if you could have a friend level scale similar to pocket camp and have enemies.

4. Debit cards, and the Gracie Grace Store.

Because nothing made me feel more rich and accomplished than turning up (during sale time, of course) and telling Gracie just to charge it to my card because, if your bell balance in your pocket doesn’t decrease, then technically you spent nothing? (Do not try this in real life)

5. Character customisation!!!

As a half Asian woman, I have to stand in the sun for at least two in-game hours so that my character matches my skin colour. I don’t have time for that! Just give me a goddamn tan slider! End the gamble of getting a character that looks nothing like you by answering a series of dumb questions and let me choose my eyes.

If you would like to see me and my tanned skin in Pocket Camp form, add me with this unnecessarily long code!

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