So I had to move to a friends corner while my current apartment goes through some renovations. For the next two months I’ll be living in this nice and cozy corner.

My friend generously donated those two shark plushies to keep me company, I creatively call them AAAAA and 五百(go-hyaku, 500).

Japan was fun, once again. Super warm, super beautiful, One Piece almost everywhere, so many people, and way too many eyes on me. When you have blond hair and blue eyes you better get used to people talking about you around you. Like, constantly. People ask for selfies, take pictures, and once drunk enough, flirt like no tomorrow.

next time i’ll colour my hair black

If anyone has any questions about travelling to Japan or some such, feel free to ask. I’ll answer to the best of my ability.

But now I might finally have time to keep up with the One Piece content..

Speaking of, I decided to showcase some things I picked up with me during my trip to Japan.

In one SBS Oda was asked which 四字熟語(yojijukugo, shortly explained as japanese idioms consisting of 4 kanji characters) described the Straw Hat crew the best, and his answer was 前代未聞(zendai mimon, unprecedented, unheard of). During my travels I ran into a young calligrapher, and commissioned her to write the yojijukugo for me.

Needless to say I like it a lot, she made the process of writing look so easy.

Japanese people really love gacha, in mobile games and irl. There are lots of lotteries going on, in which you can win certain items from different series and such. I had bought the upper ‘X’ scene from a drift store earlier, and wanted another. I bought two tickets, and with one I won the Sabo one, which I like a lot.

But the other ticket scored me on of ‘the grand prizes’, Franky figure from the Stampede movie. It’s huge, I really don’t care for figures, and it was the day before I left when I won these. Needless to say, I had to do some repacking..

(Call me if you want this. I’ll cut you a deal)

Then finally I got my hands on the vivre cards. It was a huge pain to put these inside the binders in order and so on. I’m still missing some packages but I’ll get my hands on them eventually.

I also bought this weird looking thing. I was told it’s kind of like scratching a lottery ticket, and under the scratching it should have a picture kind of like the Luffy in the cover. I’ll try and see what these are all about, Japan has really interesting merchandise some times.

That’s some of the things I bought, I might some day post more of the findings. Nevertheless I’ll most likely post more about the places I visited, it was near impossible to do during the trip.

Finally One Piece Stampede!

I’ve been looking forward to this for so damn long.

Might post a small opinion about it later if there’s anything noteworthy.

Ah yes, finally Japan. The first week has passed, three more to go. Universal Studios was a blast like last time. There was a little less One Piece stuff than last year, but I was nevertheless quite happy.

One Piece Water Battle. Over the children (and adults) screaming over getting wet, I couldn’t hear much what was going on. Buggy and Galdino were amazing as usual, and then for some reason Lucci decided that it was time for him to interfere.

They shot insane blasts of water into the audience, and I got wet in matter of seconds. Still worth it though. Last year Smoker had a smoke mascine under his coat, this year Lucci turned into Leopard.

Thousand Sunny pastry. Not very impressed it seems.

The One Piece Premier Show was simply AMAZING. So much fireworks, incredible stunts including a man being lit on fire and falling down a 7 meter (23 feets) drop into water, and breathtaking fighting choreography. I can’t stress enough how cool both Zoro and Sanji looked, neither of them missing a cue in their fights. Simply amazing.

The plot revolved around Bon Clay, and him rescuing Luffy from some non-canon baddies, Diamante and Magellan.

Also Katakuri appeared, and the audience screamed in unison. I believe he is very liked in the general public.

Bon Clays ballet was flawless, and he was flawless.

During the show filming wasn’t allowed, but at the end it was, when they brought a shit ton of other characters to greet the audience. They ran up and down the rows of people, high-fiving and greeting them.(I got high-fived by Hina, Buggy and Ace. Lifegoals achieved)

And finally, just some of the loot I’ve been gathering up. Second hand stores are my absolute favourite places, all you see above was 100¥ a piece. (0,8 € and 0,9 $)

I’ve never even heard of that Chopperman comic in the left corner of the left picture. Does anyone else know anything about it? At the first glance seemed pretty.. Odd to be honest.

30 day One Piece challenge, day 3

03. Favourite scene

After taking a bit of a break, let’s continue right along;

This one was a no brainer because to me there’s only one scene that trumps them all.

30 day One Piece challenge, day 2

02. Your favourite villain

Unlike the last one, this one was easy;

Donquixote Doflamingo is easily the best and most terrifying villain we’ve yet to encounter in One Piece. My god he is horrifying, even though he’s now been defeated.

30 day One Piece challenge, day 1

01. Favourite Straw Hat

I regret doing this challenge already, it's incredibly hard for me to name just one favourite, especially out of the Straw Hats.

But if I really had to choose, it'd be somewhat of a tie between Zoro and Brook, with Zoro winning with the fact that he doesn’t ask to see panties every so often (Brook, mate, it’s gotten a bit old).

Many people already like Zoro, and most of us like him for the same reasons; His loyalty, his personality, his idiocy with the directions(which I find extremely relatable), his amazing fights and simply incredible character design. I mean, is there anything to dislike about Zoro?

So despite Zoro being my favourite, let me tell you about Brook instead, and why he shouldn’t be as underrated as he is in the One Piece community. The skeleton grandpa deserves more love than he’s getting right now.

30 Day One Piece Challenge

I wanted to rant about One Piece, so I decided to do a 30 day One Piece challenge(are these even a thing anymore). I couldn't find a proper template so I just picked the most appropriate questions from different challenges.

Let's see how this one goes

00. What got you into One Piece

I was a 10-year-old wee brat when I began reading and breathing One Piece, and I've grown up into a fine(ish) adult with the series constantly by my side. One Piece has had such a major impact on my upbringing and on what kind of a person I have grown to be, so there's no certain time or event that made me get 'into' it. I don't remember much about my life without/before One Piece, and I know the all of the chapters by heart (quite literally, and I’m not even ashamed to admit it).

I suppose the first time I got 'into' One Piece would be when years ago I saw one of the books being sold at a store and I asked my mother to buy it? I fell in love with it immediately and here we are, 16 years and a dozen adventures later. I remember the time when Zoro being 19 years old felt so old, and suddenly I am almost Robins (pre-timeskip) age.

Wait when did that happen woah

J-World in Japan. There were lots of different drinks named after characters, and just looking at the cutesy cakes made me feel like I needed to brush my teeth. 

Even though the place was clearly mainly designed for children, I had embarrassingly lot of fun. Brook had a horror house, Nami had a casino, Zoro had his own dojo which were fairly amusing.

I was fortunate enough to visit it before it closed its doors.

Apparently this was the last picture I took when in Japan. What can I say, true art at its finest.