Long time no post! I had planned to make an entry earlier in the month, but alas, I forgot. It's been a pretty crazy month for me, but I do hope that anyone who happens to be perusing my posts has been keeping well.

Still in Japan, but now, it's even colder than before! I witnessed my first couple snowfalls in a good while in the past month and a bit, and it was crazy!! I was going to my local FamilyMart to withdraw some money the other day, and the second I stepped out I noticed it was snowing! I may be from Aotearoa, but the area I'm from doesn't get much snow, so it was very nice to see. The new year is always a blast for me, but this year, I've felt a little less energetic and excited– probably because of hemisphere differences and downright freezing temps.

I've also applied to graduate, since it's my final year (technically)! Hello brand new world of 0 job offers and ridiculously overpriced paper that says I can read words and perhaps even think critically! I was originally supposed to be graduating the day after my 22nd birthday, but alas... I am going to defer to the November graduation since I'm in Japan until the end of July, and want to attend the in-person ceremony. On the bright side, there's gonna be so many pretty graduation photos because it's spring! My best mate who lives in the capital is probably gonna come, too. I can't wait to have the clout of doing Oshikatsu with my grad folder, haha.

Related to the New Year, I participated in Hatsumōde for the first time with some friends of mine from the dormitory after we all stayed up late to see the date change and drink champagne (which our French friend ever-so-kindly reminded us wasn't actual champagne because it wasn't made in France) while having a laugh together. We visited Atsuta Jingu, did our prayers, and I started my collection of Goshuin as I had wanted to! So far I've collected 4: 3 from Atsuta Jingu, and one from Banshouji. I may do a collection page in the future for these + the assortment of Eki Stamps & associated memories from the location if I get the time! This is kind of inspired by that of ScarecrowKid's stamp page– it's a very neat idea and a great way to share details of a trip!

Anyway, onto some more substantial yapping...

Site Updates

As you've probably already seen, I've added a page dedicated to a certain beloved idol series! This was my first foray with JS, and I'm hoping to pick up more where I can since it's a valuable language. Even though it was mostly somewhat fiddled-with code from W3Schools, it was a good starting exercise for me to get a bit of a hands-on experience. I probably won't use a huge amount of it on my site due to certain reasons (my laptop being what I like to call "the pug of pasocons" with how badly sites that are chock-full of scripts tend to run on it), but it's a useful skill to have regardless, especially since I've been working with it on Codecademy recently! In general, I am incredibly pleased with myself about how it all turned out. It could do with more text and visuals, but I can always go back and add more later if more stuff for it comes to mind..!

I would like to get more updates out if I can with my site, but for certain pages I've really wanted to push and have people see, I have been absolutely fighting for my life trying to figure out how I want to lay it all out– no joke. This is particularly true for my yume ship page– partially because I'm so fussy about it being seen!! I've done about five different layouts at this point, and I'm just completely stumped since I've had the lore for my stuff sitting typed-up and ready to go in my Google Drive for weeks now! In fact, I've gone so stir-crazy over this layout business that I'm writing self-insert fanfiction– I never do that for myself because I haven't killed the part of me that cringes yet! I've seriously considered taking the L and using a template for it, but I am way too proud of an individual (and literally just insane, see below) to do that. I like the satisfaction of making my own sites with my own two hands...

Anyway, as I usually do when I want to code but am mentally blocked over laying things out in a way I like, I have been rebuilding some of my pre-existing pages to be more functional and look good on mobile. If you see me post a reworked page I've already redone several times since launching the Atelier, no you didn't. Though, if you're seeing this post, you may already be seeing it...(smiling in complete and utter pain).

As much as I'm blocked right now, I'm still having fun making sites look nice and ironing out all kinds of visual bugs. I did discover the infamous "scrollbar for no reason" glitch on Firefox after spending about 20 minutes crying to myself & my friend's dev discord trying to figure out what it was while thinking I bungled my code, only for it to entirely resolve itself after I went to sleep. How fun! I do wish they would fix that soon, though– there's no reason why 100vh/vw should reasonably make a page scroll unless there's more than one element making it overflow... anyway.

Here's some goals for '24, partially dragged from my special mystery page that I didn't know what to name and launched at random last year while neglecting my final essay:

• Travel Log, including sections for Eki stamps & Goshuin. I'm a little freak of a woman who likes to collect at heart and have a few travel plans in the works, so let's see how these go.
• Yume page– obviously. You will bear witness to my cringe. Or not. But it would be cool if you did!
• Oshikatsu/Otakatsu-related information. This is a big one. I haven't seen much information about this on the English side of the web, so I'd like to make a little resource about it so people can come to see the fun of these kinds of activities! Plus, it'll function as a space for me to share my own stuff somewhere that isn't social media, and promote some cool creators who have real cool setups!
• Media recommendations page. I've wanted to make one of these for a while, especially since my friend Ren made a really neat notion site with his BL recommendations last year. Since it's not up yet, I would just like to do a shameless promotion of the Dungeon Meshi anime while I'm here, as it is currently releasing. I loved this manga and I think the adaptation is absolutely stellar! Farcille yuri is so good it gives me a migraine.
• Just making my site look more visually appealing! I want to fiddle around more with CSS elements to make my site look good, and find more good sources of sozai to spruce them up a little... I also want to start making my own visuals, but I have no idea where to start since my creative inclinations lean more towards written forms as opposed to visual! Though, I just don't draw because I think I suck at drawing people. I enjoyed basically everything but people-related art when I took art classes in high school, and very much enjoy drawing landscapes... so, we'll see how it goes!
• 1-2 updates per month, at least one of which being a new page/notable one. This is probably gonna be a little unobtainable due to how wonky my schedule is about to get, but let's see how this goes! I would like to push multiple pages at once if I can, but I also tend to code at a snail's pace and don't want people to think I've mysteriously died

Nerd Updates

As mentioned in my last post, I had wanted to go catch the Taikyoku Denki butai adaptation for SQS– unfortunately, I missed out on it due to monetary reasons (booooooo)! ePlus is a service that unfortunately kind of hates foreigners, and I had to shell out for my visa extension since I'd only planned to be with my host university for one semester (fly high, 50NZD I had to pay for something I got for free... you shall be missed...). Though, I've seen a lot of clips of the performers and a... certain surprise performance during the dance section. I'm a little jealous of those who got to go, but I can always grab the BD when it releases for a more permanent way of checking out the story and dance live section! I'm also planning on grabbing bromides of Mishima Ryo's Rei depiction– he looks awesome, genuinely such a perfect choice on Movic's part! There was a clip of him posted by Chiba Mizuki (the voice and butai actor for Rei's in-universe partner, Roa) from the other night where he took the others phone and recorded the two of them together before leaving the hall. It was so sweet! ChibaMizu, the #1 infinit0 stan, strikes again!!!

This month also marked the release of Station Idol Latch!'s first album release(s), their third-interim result for their election, the announcement of their second live in Yokohama! I know I'm broke, but I'm planning on going since it's close to my birthday– plus, I didn't get much of a chance to explore Yokohama while I was there last time, so this is a fantastic opportunity since it's a one-day concert as opposed to a two-day one like SideM 8th was. I'm about to do my ticketing as I type this, actually– a kind friend from our little discord circle offered to let me ticket on her code as long as I cover her & pick up the tickets from conbini until she can pay me back when she arrives. It's gonna be really fun– especially since we're gonna be the first foreign fans at the live! I also want to hunt down pins of my oshis, Rui and Ryo, so I can make cute badge rosettes for my itabag. I have and acrylic stand of Rui on the way, and hopefully one of Ryo too soon enough! They re-released this one set of water-colour style merch called "pale colours", and I really wish I grabbed Ryo's stand from that series... but I'll have to settle for his regular ekimen one for now!

Since the live is on a Saturday and I have 3 days off for weekends during the semester, I was thinking of staying in Nippori since it's on a direct line to Yokohama, doing some shrine visits and seeing Yanaka Ginza... I mentioned this in the aforementioned discord and got immediately blasted for being on my yumejoshi behaviour, since Ryo represents Nippori station and personally recommends Yanaka Ginza as a local place... such is fate.

Current Jams

I was wanting to do a small section like this to promote a song or two I've really been enjoying as of late. This month's choices? Heisei (mode: Tsukimiya Toto) by Stargaze Shelter, and Flag on the Wind by Station Idol Latch!'s Leaders block.

I actually discovered Stargaze Shelter on my Spotify Discover Weekly back in 2022, their style is genuinely so beautiful and easy to listen to! I highly recommend all of their stuff. As for the Flag on the Wind... it's probably my favourite block song that was released, tied with Egao de Go!!. I am totally not biased because Ryo is in it, though. Absolutely not.

Closing words

Anyway, that's about it for me this month! I hope we can all make the most out of this year and overcome the challenges it throws at us. Until next month!