Cosplay Project Haul - Yoruichi Shihouin

Hi All! :) This is my first blog post of 2015! Happy New Year to you all, even though I said that on my Facebook page on New Year's Day. Today was a decent day for me. I went around to the shopping centers in search for cosplay materials. Currently, I am working on Yoruichi Shihouin (四楓院 夜一) from Bleach and Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop for Winter/Spring. I might add more projects if time allows though. So my first stop was Michael's. I didn't find anything I was looking for there, which came to be a bit of a disappointment. Afterwards, I went to JoAnn Fabrics, and found my safe haven. I was able to gather some cream white fabric, some soft'n flexible sew on Velcro, some purple ribbon, and some white thread. I had a good deal too. I bought the fabric at 3.695YRD for 28.78$ at 7.79$/YRD. Originally, this would have cost 48$ so I saved a little over 20$ on my fabric. Something that is AMAZING for cosplayers! I am thrifty and cosplay on the cheap, but I still make it look nice. That is key.:) I used a 50% off one regular priced item on Beep'n Go, which brought my Velcro down from 3.99$ to 2$. My ribbon was 3$ and my thread was 3.49. I also got my wig in the mail today! It is a little lighter than Yoruichi's hair, and a bit shorter, so either I will get extensions to add to the length, or just hope people get who I am cosplaying as, which they should from her outfit.

A small review on the hair: it was only 10.97$ on Amazon, yet this is one of the better quality wigs I have had in a long time. When I got my Mirajane wig from Cosplay Magic for almost 60$, it was falling apart completely from the moment I took it out of the package, a lot of hair came out and it was shaped awkwardly for the head. This hair, I have only seen two strands fall out, which I expected, but it wasn't tangled or matted up at all. Also, it was easy to run my fingers through and it is able to withstand heat. So far so good, 8/10.

I will do a blog post about my Faye Valentine cosplay once I start prepping for it. I am using an app recommended to me by my friend Taylor (you can find her cosplay page by clicking on her name) called Cosplanner. I recommend it. It saves paper, helps you keep track of percentages done, and of amount for the purchases. I will include a picture of how it looks. :) Without further ado, here are my purchases and viewing of the wig!

All of the purchases, including the wig

Fabric

Ribbon

 Velcro

Thread

This actually has nothing to do with anything, but I wanted to show how my TV stand is organized.

Cosplanner

This is the look I am doing for her cosplay, instead of the orange one.

The wig, and yes I did add purple eyeshadow to my eyebrows so it'd match the color lol Eyebrows on fleek! jk

The wig from the back. See why it seems a bit too short?

That's all for now! As stated earlier, this was only some purchases for Yoruichi's cosplay, when I start Faye's, I'll make a new one, and I'll keep you posted on my crafting process. Do any of you cosplay? We have such a wonderful community, a family full of diversity, if I have ever seen one. I will also reiterate that "cosplay is not consent" so please respect us, and we will respect you back.

Till next time!

-Hachi

Travel Nostalgia

Wow, I look back at old photos of my time in Japan and realize it has been exactly eight years since I was last there. Kurume, Fukuoka was the city and prefecture. I was sixteen and a 2006 summer student ambassador for Sister Cities International as a representative of my hometown. We spent part of the time with our host families in Japan, and then our high school aged sibling would come spend time with us and our families in our American city. We'd go to various castles, and temples in Japan. We even got to participate in this awesome water festival in August where at the end of the festival, we got hosed down with water. It felt great given the intense humidity of Southern Japan. The food was AMAZING! My host mother made amazing Japanese curry and I think fueled my Japanese curry obsession, which during college I would make for my old friends. Also, we saw an apprentice geisha perform, which I had video taped and posted on Youtube. You can see that video by clicking the link. One of my favorite times in Japan was when my older sister (nee-chan) played the piano and my younger sister (imouto-chan) and I danced around. We all had a good time doing that. Even though it has been over eight years, it barely feels like five. I do still keep in contact with my host family on occasion and consider them a part of my family, and they do of me. Flash forward to 2014, I am currently on another sister city committee, this time for Sendai, Japan. I am working to connect high school students in both cities together to do high school exchanges, or at least a group skype conversation session with one another. I do hope this works out and that future high schoolers get the chance and experience that I did. In fact, I might get to visit Sendai in a couple of years. I am looking forward to it, and I am looking forward to meeting my host family again, and my friends/former conversation students in Japan again. Here is another picture from my time in Kurume. Sorry for the quality, other people took these pictures for me. :)

Have any of you traveled? If so where, and how long? Did you do an exchange, study abroad or for work?  Let me know in the comments below. I enjoy discussing travel. :)



Till next time!


Hachi

How about that shrinkage? (Natural Hair)

Shrinkage. My, oh my, the dreaded shrinkage. Or does it have to be dreaded? Can't it be embraced as well? We see everyday in the media, women with long, usually straight hair. So as a collective of  curly haired people, some of us come to desire this sort of hair. Typically it's achieved through the utilization of weaves, or wigs, and for others it is by heat styling. However, this euro-centric viewing can be damaging to the self-esteem of curlies. Some of us strive to achieve length in our hair after going natural, yet when all we see is shrinkage, we start to feel discouraged. However, why? If our hair is growing healthy and strong, why should we care how long it is? We are not defined by the length or style texture of our hair, but by the content of our character. We need to embrace what we have and flaunt it. Although, sometimes my shrinkage does annoy me, I do like the way my hair looks at that length too. My hair looks fuller and more youthful so to speak when the "shrinkage is real".
Also on the topic of natural hair, I get that the movement is more geared towards us African-American women, with "Afro-textured hair", but there are curlies from all walks of life.  Curlies from every country, every age, every gender, every ethnic origin,. What bonds us together is our refusal to accept the euro-centric concept of hair beauty. We refuse to chemically alter our hair. We leave it as it was, as it always will be, curly. We cannot cause this divide amongst ourselves, we must stand together if we are to stand at all. If you are wondering where this slight rant is coming from, it all started on Facebook. I am a "fan" and product tester for naturallycurly.com. This website has men and women from all nationalities and ethnicity and posts pictures of people in their wavy or curly glory, as such. However, I am sad to say that recently whenever Naturally Curly posts non-Afro textured people, others people will bash them as not "true naturals". Truthfully, it makes me sad. We should not be acting like this at all, we should embrace our curl family and support each other on our individual journeys. As our journeys do and will intersect each other, and we should all be there for each other. You can agree or disagree with me as that is just my opinion haha. Take care all :)



Till next time!

Hachi