September 16. 2004 23:59

Children's stuff. Like Harry Potter.

I might be a wonky godmother to my sister's younger son, but I seem to be more into changing the kids into my weird interests than teaching them the ways of Christianity. I'm not really their religious godmother, of course, as the boys don't belong to church and I'm all but officially out myself. Besides, I think the religious part of being a godparent is highly over-rated. I like to think of it more as guiding through life than banging in the "fear of God". The Christian mindset mainly makes me sick.

Well, anyway, this far I've mainly bought them little gifts, not taught them anything special. My first christmas present for the older one was a video of Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, mainly because my sister once said she liked Totoro and would've wanted to tape it when it was on TV. Since then I've kept to the more usual gifts, like clothes and a train. How this all connects to my Kyoto diary is that yesterday I went to Miyake Hachiman shrine for the Hozen festival, which is dedicated to kids and their up-bringing. They say that praying at the shrine keeps children sweet-tempered, so I said a little prayer for my nephews. I noticed they sold zodiac amulets for little boys and girls, so I decided to buy one for both. The older one, the monks told me, is a snake, and the younger is a sheep. I know they're too young to appreciate amulets, but I hope they'll like them anyway, at least when they grow up a little.

Besides the shrine's own little table there were loads of other booths full of toys and other stuff for kids. The big airguns at a few booths seemed kinda out of place in this otherwise cheery festival, but the rest of the booths were nicer. There were lots of anime and Disney merchandise and some games. There was even a booth for the all-so-famous goldfish cathing that once was a thing among anime fans. For lunch I tried takoyaki, octopus inside a ball of dough, and it was surprisingly good. I remember octopus being just slimy and tasting like nothing, but this tasted good. Even though the dough was a little raw. Then I tried a soda thing with ice, and I picked muscot, purely by colour. (I didn't notice there was a list of the flavours.) As silly as it sounds, muscot soda, it, too, was very good. Then I had to have a bag of cotton candy just because there was a picture of Sailor Moon Live Action on it and I though it was hilarious ^_^ (The cotton candy cost more than my lunch...)

Today I found out what that thing with the good-looking Korean man in it is called, as I saw a set of books of the same subject. It's called Winter's Sonate. It gets harder and harder not to laugh whenever I see that man and his girlfriend's picture, because this far it's been around CDs, TV, posters, books and even jewelry. The side-products seem to expand to every media possible ^_^

My plan for today was actually to go to another festival at Kiyomizu temple, but I got up so late that it wasn't worth it. The festival lasts for three days, so tomorrow I'm gonna get up really early and get there. I don't know what's wrong with me, it doesn't matter whether I go to bed at ten or a four in the morning, but I just can't get up before noon. It seems like I'm sleeping off a year's worth of sleep deprivation. I wonder if I'm sick... I do sleep a lot, but over a week of 12 hours or more a night is a bit too much. It's bothering me... (And look, it's eleven again, I really need to get to bed soon.) So instead of going downtown I spent a whole lot of time in the Internet, moving my e-mail from the net account to my computer (I really need to empty it or I'll run out of space) and reading web comics. I haven't been reading Megatokyo for such a long time, and Strange Candy for even longer.

I'm so addicted to Harry Potter again. When I saw the third movie, some couple of weeks before I left, I really felt like finally reading the books. The movie gave the impression that reading the book would give out so much more of the story (as it did), so I couldn't help starting the first book. As I have said, I didn't like the first two books that much, because they seemed very dull, especially as I knew the plot beforehand. The reading experience wasn't good enough to keep me satisfied, but nevertheless, in the middle of the first book, I was hooked. I could fill what the book was lacking by what the movies gave, and I really love the world of those movies ^_^ So, after I finished the first book, I took out the second one, even though there was only one week before I would leave to Japan and I already had way too much to do. But that's how I become when I get addicted, I just can't be without reading or seeing more. It's really annoying, but I can't help it.

Well, I got rid of that for a while as I left here. I took only one Rei Shimura book with me (and I still haven't read it), and there were so many new things that I competely forgot about Harry Potter. A few days ago I happened to think about it again and bought that third book, and now I'm totally hooked again. I finished the third book last night and even though I thought I would just return to sightseeing or doing real work after it, I'm now desperate for the fourth one. It doesn't even help to I think about how little cash I have left. As I couldn't get the files I need to work on a website I haven't finished today, I noticed that I have loads of free time during the weekend, and my need for the fourth book grew overwhelming. And it didn't help at all that I wondered to the Finnish Harry Potter fansite when I was surfing the Net, and read some really interesting things and almost spoiled myself there...

I decided to go look if there was a bookstore near here that sold the Harry Potters in English. To my great disappointment, there wasn't any. The bookstore nearby only has the fifth book, and the other 3 or 4 I visited didn't have any of them in English. They had lots of other interesting stuff, though, like the whole of Kenshin manga and Hikaru no go manga, and boy did I want those. But thinking about my financial situation, I managed to keep myself from buying them. I ended up getting as far as the Qanat on this journey, which was in fact a good thing, as I needed to visit the 100 yen store for some household items anyway. I really need to buy the book tomorrow when I get downtown.

Oh yeah, I saw a dream about Harry Potter a few nights ago, too. I didn't think I'd tell it, but since I'm on the subject, I might as well. Harry had been having attacks by these dementor-like nightmare-ish ghost things every night, and every time that happened, he woke up screaming and sweaty. They weren't sleeping in the Gryffindor tower at the moment, but in some small hall. The whole Gryffindor house was probably there, and it didn't seem too temporary. Wondering who he would bother with his screaming tonight, Harry ended up sleeping next to Hermione. Indeed, a ghost appeared tonight as well, and Hermione woke up to Harry's scream. He was really upset and out of it, these attacks were worse every time. Hermione tried to comfort him and moved to his end of the bed, and finally they fell asleep, Hermione with her arms protectively around Harry. In the morning Ron was looking for Harry and walked right into them, sleeping quite close to each other (even though the reason for it had nothing to do with any romantic feelings...). The two woke up as Ron was catching his breath, so upset he was out of words. He yelled at them agrily and left the room, leaving Harry and Hermione a bit lost of what had happened. This led to Ron being furious to Hermione for quite a while. He wasn't speaking to her, beyond blaming her about always thinking only about Harry. "Harry this and Harry that and we should be nice to Harry as he is going through a rough time." Hermione was getting a bit angry herself, as she didn't quite get what she had done wrong. She was venting out her feelings to Harry, as they sat outside. I don't remember the exact words anymore, but the conversation started with Hermione tutting and wondering what she had done. "What's so bad about comforting you?" she asked, annoyed. "In my opinion, I think he's jealous," answered Harry. "Why of course!" Hermione suddenly bursted, "That's so obvious, why didn't I think about it?" Then the meaning of the sentence struck her and she let out a small "oh...", looking troubled. "Really?" she asked, turning to Harry. He nodded. "Oh dear..." she let out and stared into the air in front of her.

Then the dream ended, or faded into one of these half-dreams I so often have before I really wake up. Half-dreams are really nice, as I can continue the (sweet) dream I had seamlessly, and at the same time have control over what's going to happen. I have the vividness of a real dream and the controllability of a daydream combined together ^_^ A half-dream is one of the best things to have. It's a shame they require a free day with no alarm clock, because waking up to reality ruins it all... But this time I couldn't get the dream to continue properly, I just made a short scene about Hermione apologizing Ron (and him still being a bit cranky), which didn't survive long. Ah well, the main dream was nice anyway. (I can hear their English accent in my ears... As I can when reading the book, as well ^_^)

I was thinking about eating out today. There are a few restaurants nearby: yakitori, steak, chinese and a couple of other places. I checked their prices when I passed them and they all seemed reasonable, but when I came back from my bookstore hunt, the steakhouse had already closed and I didn't feel like trying yakitori. So I did the next best thing: bought some snacks from the convenience store and literally ate out, on the stone step in front of the dorm. A couple of women who visited the dorm found me funny and asked if the food was good. I said it was and they smiled. They seemed like nice people. Then I watched them try and get their car turned on the tiny road and this time it was my turn to smile at them. But the food really was great, I had tamagoyaki (a bit sweet omelette), these little tied things that had something inside them that might've been chicken, and three things that looked like buns on a stick. There was sausage inside the buns, in fact, and they were the best of all.

As I sat there on the rocks I saw two tiny little stars in the sky. Then I realized that I haven't seen stars in ages, ever since I came here. I love stars, I could spend ages watching a sky full of stars... (But normally, when I try to, there are so many mosquitos I can't stand it -_-;) I wonder if they come out at all around here, or if the city lights are so bright that they are outshined.

Phew, it's late again. It took me two hours to finish this entry, again. Now I'm gonna go and get myself a drink from the near-by vending machine, just because I can, and then go to bed. Good night!