Manga List - August

I've actually been super super busy this semester with uni and finding a job because I WILL BE DONE WITH UNI AFTER THIS SEMESTER (can I have a hallelujah?) but yes, it's been stressful so unfortunately I haven't been reading much!

Ok not much is a bit of an understatement. I've read one new series, and pretty much just been keeping up with the existing ongoing series like ajin, second brain, soredemo sekai wa utsukushii, toukyou kushu, taiyou no ie, and watashi ni xx shinasai.

Taiyou no ie introduced a new character which I'm not too happy about because I'm still basking in the happiness from the last few chapters where things finally started working out and them BAM. No my heart is not ready for this to start all over again.

Watashi ni XX shinasai also suddenly dropped a bombshell. It's been ongoing for quite a while so if you got bored and dropped it (like I did), then perhaps it's time to revisit because drama is heating uppppp!

And also Hirunaka no Ryuusei released two mini chapters with Hibi Chouchou cameo! I looooove Suiren & Kawasumi even though the story is retardedly slow-paced and unrealistic as heck. The cameo chapters are super cute as expected~~ here's to hoping for more cameos!


Right, anyway onto new manga!


Shiki (complete)

"Sotoba is an old-fashioned Japanese village nestled deep in the mountains. It has a small population of about 1300, and the villagers strictly follow age-old traditions and customs.
One sweltering summer, a mysterious and deadly disease begins to spread rapidly among the villagers, affecting young and old alike. In the midst of this spate of puzzling deaths, a family of beautiful and elegant individuals moves into the abandoned 'Kanemasa' mansion on the hill-side over-looking Sotoba... " - Baka Updates
Genre: horror, suspense, drama, mystery, supernatural

 This series started off pretty well - I was very happy with the fact that they started off the story with a girl who dressed in all sorts of alternative jfashion. However, the art wasn't too appealing in any particular way. I guess it worked well for the horror element but it wasn't really creepy/weird enough to actually be scary? Anyway, the story progressed along pretty well, but once the identity of the Shiki was discovered, the story took on a very predictable route and people just started dying left and right not unlike Ousama Game (reviewed in last month's manga list). Also something I didn't like about this manga is that there was no clear protagonist. Out of the three characters that could be the protagonist (Natsuno Yuuki, Muroi Seishin, and Ozaki Toshio), only the ending of the first two was actually defined. WTF happened to Ozaki Toshio?? Anyway the ending was really rushed and left many many many questions.

The last thing that irked me about this story is that it became very very philosophical. About halfway through the plot, the author introduced the story of Cain and Abel as an analogy of the relationship between humans (or just one /possible/ protagonist) and the Shiki. But then they didn't explain it very well so it just became hella confusing.
Rating: 3/5

Apocalypse no Toride (ongoing)

"What can you do when you get mistaken for murder? Nothing. You go to prison. Lucky for you, your inmates are some of the biggest cutthroats in the prison. Seriously, you are lucky. Especially when zombies attack."
Genre: horror, supernatural, sci-fi, mystery, action (LOTS OF ACTION)

This is easily one of the creepiest/weirdest horror manga I have read in recent months. I loooove all the weird as heck mutations the author thought up. Am I weird? Haha either way this manga is ridiculously grossly intriguing and I love it! The art style is perfect too.

The protagonist is not a very well developed character - he sorta just suddenly went from the weakling little nublet to a zero-sympathy plotter with too much power for his own good. Actually he's a pretty stupid character - most of the action fighting is done by his comrades, and then occasionally he swoops in to save the situation by some amazing ability that he doesn't understand. It's kind of weird, but if you don't mind the semantics too much this is a very enjoyable manga.

It's up to chapter 33 at the moment but feels a lot longer (perhaps it's 1 month releases so more pages per chapter?) anyway, I suppose it will go to at least 50 chapters if the plot doesn't extend. Can't wait for the next chapter!!

Rating: 5/5

Actually I spent much of this month trying to find nice shoujo/yaoi manga but somehow all the ones I could bear to even start turned out to be really cliche or grossly cheesy /sigh. Andddd so, this month's manga list is tiny because I really could not bring myself to share stories that were so unspectacular (even unspectacularly bad). SORRY! Hopefully I will find some nice manga next month ne?

Though... it may be a good time to make a start on this season's anime soon..... fufufufufu :3


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UNDERGROUND and revisit to Meet Fresh

Hiya~

Since Fashion week is on this week, I thought I should post quickly so as not to have a huge build-up of posts that are way out of date *cough Europe cough Japan cough cough cough*

Day before yesterday, I went to the UNDERGROUND exhibition which showcases new work from a mix of established, emerging, and new designers.

Silly me not only forgot to bring my DSLR but also my phone wtf. Once in a blue moon occurrence, but it was the worst day to forget my phone :(((

crowd. people. everywhere.

Thankfully, JY was free and came with me to the exhibition so she let me use her iPhone for photos! Maybe next time I will remember to bring my camera eh ><;

Blue Blank

Meadowlark

Meadowlark was the brand I wanted to see the most *v*
Did not disappoint, though I was too shy to take closeups without my camera camera QAQ

Thprks (pronounce: the parks)

I don't understand this. It's lovely to look at but supposedly it's not a brand or company but just an installation......

Jason Lingard

The water feature is pretty cool, is it visible in the photos?? QAQ

Jimmy D

Not really my thing aye...

Jojo Ross. The photographer on the right is not part of the installation.

 My favourite installation! Ok I'm getting pretty sick of the whole black hand thing (can anyone tell I'm not like a massive fan of Lorde?) but i liked the white cala lilies painted black.

And this model is so gorgeous. And has awesome eyes. Her contacts omg.

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In the evening my mom suddenly decided that she wanted to go out. I told her a new place had opened up (Meet Fresh) and she just had to try it. Right. Now. Sometimes I feel like she's younger than I am, what with all that energy and spontaneity. hahaha

We stopped by Gloria Jeans first.

Not like we had coffee before or anything. One can never have too many mugs of coffee in a day.

Taro Ball #3

We finally got to Meet Fresh at almost 9pm, and I feared it would be closing. Their international website doesn't have a mobile friendly version, and the desktop version is just hellish to use on a mobile device because things don't scrolls correctly and scale out of the page and so on and so forth. Long story short, they need to put up their hours on some NZ foodie sites!!!

Thankfully the store wasn't closed, and in fact the line almost reached the door! It wasn't actually too bad for us since we got there at a 'light' time. By the time we sat down to wait for our orders, the line had reached the door. Yep. Business looks just as good in week 2.

I ordered another taro ball because they're really addictive. This one has peanuts too! My mom ordered their specialty herbal jelly, hot.

Said herbal jelly. It's a right mess....

Ok truth be told, this herbal jelly was actually quite nice. It's has a much lighter herbal jelly taste than the cold version, but it just looks so unappealing LOL.

Try it though, it's good. If you don't remember the name, it is the last item on the 'recommended items' list on the counter. :)

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Liebster Award!

Thank you Susy and Roxy for nominating me for the Liebster Award!

Taken from Susy's blog

Been seeing this award going around, but never did it myself. I usually don't do chain stuff because it really irks me when I see stuff say 'pass me along' and stuff like that like I'm obligated to do it or something. But I guess blogging is one of those things to get me doing things outside my comfort zone, so I'll do my best to be positive about stuff like this!

So here's the rules for the Liebster Award:

Susy's Questions

1. How long have you been blogging?
I've been blogging on a few blogs, technically from 2012 maybe? I started this blog in Dec 2013 though, and hopefully will stick with it~

2. If someone gave you $40 to spend on beauty products, what would you buy?
A Chanel rouge coco shine lipstick. I am addicted to that line of products.

3. Do you read manga? If you do, which is your favourite one?
I do, I read a heck of a lot hahaha. My all time favourite has to be NANA (Ai Yazawa), but I have many favourites!

4. Have you ever been to another continent?
I have been to North America, Europe, Asia, Australasia (does that count? Because I came from Asia so it should count? lol)

5. What is your favourite dessert?
My favourite dessert is probably tiramisu. I eat it way too much QAQ

6. What is your best feature?
My best feature is... my passion for beauty? haha I love doing nails and hair and makeup and looking at fashion. Possibly love it a bit too much actually...

7.  Who's your favourite blogger/vlogger?
I don't have a favourite. I need to find more bloggers.

8. If you could only wear one colour for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
Baby pastel-near-white pink. DID YOU SEE THAT COMING? xD

9. What is your favourite brand and why?
Versace. I honestly don't know but I just love Versace.

10. Who's your girl crush?
I don't have one.

11. What's your favourite band/group?
I don't have one.

Gosh, I seem to be unable to answer a whole heap of questions wtf :/

Sorry Susy! QAQ

Roxy's Questions

1. Why did you start blogging?

I have a terrible memory and I wanted a way to make sure I can look back when I'm old and actually see stuff in detail haha. Blogging helps other people too, rather than keeping a private diary ^^

2. How long have you been blogging?

See answer in Susy's question #1.

3. What’s your favourite cosmetic item?

Lipstick. But my must have is eyebrow pencil.

4. If you could be anything in the world, what would you be?

Probably just be me haha but a better me.

5. What is your must have item right now?

I'm really in need of a watch at the moment... one I can wear for work QAQ

6. What is one thing you would like to change about yourself?

I want to be more proactive.

7. What’s one thing you can’t live without?

Food/water. Just being practical here xD

Actually though. None of the materialistic stuff I absolutely can't live without o.O

8. In 3 words, how would your friends describe you?

Fashion, Asian, Foodster

9. Which country would you like to live in?

Switzerland. (though I'm reconsidering on the basis that it gets to -20 degrees celsius in winter....)

10. Who is your favourite blogger or youtuber?

Refer to Susy's question #7.

11. What is your favourite fashion style?

Gyaru. GYARU FOREVERRRRRRR ;D

11 Facts about me

1. I love art, but can't draw for sh** even though I took (many) lessons as a child. That's why even though I say my Instagram is for fashion, I do follow a few art accounts that I really admire.

2. I also love gymnastics (both artistic and rhythmic) but I took it up in intermediate and by then I was way too stiff to get anywhere without a ridiculous amount of effort.

3. I am a huge bookworm. Fiction book-giant-worm.

4. I used to play tennis and I still blame it for my massive as heck calves which will never shrink.

5. I would like to get muscles surgically removed to reduce the size of my calves if it's possible. Can't nobody (not even a nutritionist) convince me that I want more muscles. Nope.

6. My weight yoyos like crazy because I love food and I have zero self-control. Or I do, but my self-control is a real hypocrite.

7. I'm frugal as heck, but sometimes I spend as if money drops from trees. I'm a big fat paradox in that sense too.

8. I love making awesome nail designs and doing awesome hair colors. Sometimes I wish I could live alternate lives where I could be in the beauty industry.

9. I love a lot of different styles, so much that (for example) I wish I could buy several different houses so I can decorate them in different styles. But that's excessive. I don't know what I'll do when I get my own place. The internal conflict is strong :/

10. I'm really really lazy. As if you wouldn't know by now.

11. I'm getting real sick of this long as Liebster award thing.

Yeah I just gave up at 10 and 11. Sorry not sorry >>;

11 Blogs I am nominating

1. Cherry Wood

2. Kurumi

3. The Sugar Blog

4. Whittaker Fashion

5. Annate K-Cosmetic: Beauty Blog

OK this post has taken me an entire hour and I really don't have the time to find 6 more people to nominate so if you read this and haven't done the Liebster Award, CONSIDER YOURSELF NOMINATED :)

11 Questions for bloggers I've nominated

1. What was your inseparable childhood plushie?

2. What was the first cartoon you absolutely loved as a kid?

3. If you could makeover one celebrity for fun, who would it be and what style would you makeover them to be? (photos optional!)

4. If you could do one crazy daring thing right now what would it be? (ie. skydiving, etc.)

5. Have you had a 'crap I could have died doing that' moment, and what was it that you did?

6. If you went without internet for a day, what would you be doing instead?

7. What is the weirdest proposal you have received?

8. What style do you think you will have when you're 80? (photos optional)

9. What are your favourite shoes right now? (doesn't have to be one you own)

10. What is your must-have beauty product in your daily bag at the moment?

11. What was the last song you listened to / are listening to right now?

Have fun bloggers hue hue hue I'm done~~~~

Comment me when you've done them!! I'd like to check them out (though I followed you guys anyway so I guess I'll see them on my feed anyway right right? :)))

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Street Eats / Miss Clawdy / Meet Fresh / The MF Gatecrashers

Hiya!

I haven't posted much since semester started... It's been a lot more work than I expected ^^; guess I should have been more proactive in the last week of my holidays haha~

Anyway, part of the reason I haven't been posting is because my weekends have been spent going out but with people who don't take photos of everything hahaha so then I don't have photos for my blog... I still feel a little awkward being "that one person" who takes a million photos of everything everywhere I go ><

Yesterday was the annual Street Eats event down at Queen's Wharf. I try my best to attend all the food and other public events around, mostly just to see the crowd haha

Street Eats managed to attract a lot of people yay! But it was rather disappointing (imho) for a number of reasons:

1. Not enough vendors

2. Lines were ridiculously long (because of 1)

3. Products weren't really 'street food'

4. Prices certainly were not 'street food' appropriate

5. Prices were wayyy too high for what you'd get.

Even though the covered area was huge, it felt like there were no more than 12 vendors? And outside there were 3 or 4. Out of the entire event only the $5 burgers from the Food Truck seemed alright and they sold out (pretty early I would think).

Mexico had the coolest stall *v* the line for Orleans (the stall right of Mexico) goes wayy beyond the pole on the right side of this photo. It stretches across the entire hall.

The long skewers of stuff at the bottom left look awesome, but at $10 you can only get 4 prawns. Not the entire long skewer. Just 4.

I actually went with TTY and VYL who both agreed that everything was way overpriced, so we ended up going around Wynyard Quarter and eating at Miss Clawdy.

I don't eat out often, so pretty much every time I do, it's at some place I've never been before haha.

Miss Clawdy is really cute. The interior is nicely decorated and cosy, reminds me of The Depot a bit but cuter. They serve cinnamon popcorn while you wait for your order which I thought was a nice touch. Those popcorns are addictive.

I had cajun hushpuppies with spicy tomato relish, andouille sausage & gouda which is a side dish but imo has enough carbs to serve as a main. First time ordering hushpuppies ever, thank goodness it wasn't too oily ><

I also ordered a key lime pie with torched meringue. Everything apart from the meringue was great. I was expecting actual meringue but no...it's that fake cream stuff they use in Taiwanese cake stores :( which also means that the torched part was very soft and disappointing :((

Afterwards we went and visited the newly opened Meet Fresh dessert shop!

VYL said that the line would take half an hour and I wouldn't believe her. Our wait in line & waiting for our orders really did take half an hour ==;

VYL's house specialty herbal jelly (cold)

I'm quite impartial to the taste of herbal jelly but this was strongggggg

My taro ball #1 order

All their items are numbered. And the stuff inside each order is printed sooo tiny that it's incredibly hard to read the chinese characters. Thankfully everything is written in English too.

Close-up of my order. It's actually really nice as a snack. Just has heaps and heaps of carbs and sugar...

I actually wanted to get their bowl in the photo because it looks so much better than the takeaway cup and we were eating there anyway, but they accidentally put my order in a takeaway cup :/

At least everything is recyclable!

It's a little on the sweet side, but honestly quite good! Definitely going there again ASAP ~

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In the evening I met up with Arietta (Knot Just A Scarf) to attend the Marr Factory MF Gatecrashers show. We decided to go there at 4, because doors open at 5 and Arietta said it would be super packed so we should go early. Turns out the show is actually due to start at 6, and the show ACTUALLY started at about 6:20. The fashion scene really is something huh...>>;

Well, waiting wasn't too bad, we had fun discussing NZ fashion, the outfits of the people attending (lol) and life ^^

One thing I really can't can't can't stand is the amount of chain smoking that goes on. I usually don't see many smokers at all, and then all of a sudden in this place every second person is smoking.

Photo of all the smoke, courtesy of KJAS

Actually, no, every 3/4 people were smoking. Non-stop. By the time the show started, we were choking / having coughing fits. Even now (more than 12 hours since the show) I still feel like my nose is a bit dead and fresh air doesn't smell fresh anymore wtf. I did always think that I would want to get into the NZ fashion scene and blog about it but if I have to inhale all this secondhand smoke, I'm re-evaluating whether it's something worth stepping into...

Selfie after the show! They had nice lighting for the models before they entered hahaha we weren't the only ones making good use of the lighting equipment post-show! Arietta looks so young...what a babyface! *^^*

Oh yes I dyed my hair this week with Freshlight Champagne Pink! It's obviously a tone lighter than it used to be, which I'm quite happy with, but unfortunately the pink tinge is fading at the speed of light... Guess I will be touching up a color in September rather than October as I had originally planned...

Some photos from Knot Just A Scarf of the looks I liked. In no particular order because the models didn't come out by designer and I cbb searching through the designers' collections to find out which look was whose.

The models are so pretty wtf ;w;

Meanwhile I stood out like a sore thumb with my casual gal look... Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to show up in cult party kei? hehe

My outfit for the day. 100% not winter friendly.

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Liz Lisa haul arrived! + First outfit / Penderie

Hiya!

Sorry it's been a heck of a long time since I last updated! I've finally moved all my 2000+ travel photos onto my computer, so hopefully I can upload the posts soon since I've already typed them out like the eager beaver I am *v*

My Liz Lisa package came in on Friday, unfortunately in the very early morning (as they do), but I was so excited because it literally came three or four days after I received the 'item sent' email from Tenso!! They are SO FAST. I cannot stress how amazing Tenso's service has been throughout the entire shipping service process!

Here are my lovely items in all their packaged glory~

YEEEEESSSSSSSS :D

My shoes came in the shoe box perfectly stuffed with huge balls of paper (as expected of Liz Lisa), and all the clothes were acting as cushions in the package for my friend's snacks. There were also other random pieces of paper stuffed in the box to keep his snacks safe -0-

The amount of packaging and the space they left in the box is insane. The over-packaging is probably the only problem I have with Tenso tbh.

Yes. My friend B bought snacks to be shipped over with me. No, the snacks were not worth buying after the shipping cost was added. Moral of the story: buy things that are expensive compared to their weight. ie. just clothes.

Of course, no haul post can be uploaded without an outfit!
I actually wanted to take photos of all my clothes before doing this post, but I don't think I will be wearing some of them for a while because the temperature suddenly dropped last weekend, even though we are supposedly heading into spring. Lovely typical New Zealand weather yeah? xD

So anyway here's my Penderie dress, which was a whopping 70% off or something!

Ripped off my instagram @snowrii because I've lost the original photo :'(

The quality is seriously amazing for ~20USD. Brand items are so worth buying when they go on sale fufufu *v*

My face for that day

I haven't really had a chance (or the will) to put on proper makeup the last two weeks, what with uni life really catching up on me, but I'm finally getting back to it! The fashion season is coming up in New Zealand, so hopefully there will be a lot more local content to blog about ^^

Stay tuned for my other Liz Lisa outfits and travel tips for Europe & Japan!


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Microbeads are polluting our waters!!

I haven't really been pushing the whole clean green thing on my blog so much (my mom is absolutely sick of how I harp on about it at home), but I saw Sample Hime's new blog post on microbeads polluting our water today and had to share it!!

If you want to read the whole thing, there's the link above. But for those that just want a super condensed version of how YOU can help, below is an extract from her tl;dr

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Well for starters, consumers need to be more conscious of their choices in products and avoid products that contain PLASTIC BASED microbeads. Although some manufacturers may try to be sneaky, there are many resources that will help you identify the plastic ingredients in your scrubs, as well as lists of offending brands and products.

Beat the Microbead offers a comprehensive list of international brands and products containing plastic beads sorted by country!

They have also kindly put together a list of brands that are pledging to replace microbeads with safer alternatives, or have already done so!

If you're looking for a list of safe products, Allure made a nice little list of substitutes.

And best of all--Plastic Soup put together a smart phone app that allows you to scan the barcode of your product in question to find out if it contains those nasty plastic beads!

Screencaps of Plastic Soup's app from Sample Hime's blog

You can help this issue along by writing to your local governments, and by sharing this information on your blog! It's up to us to educate other people, because quite frankly, before I read about this I had no idea! I'm sure there are just many people out there who also never gave this a passing thought.

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If after reading this, you really want to know how to have the microbead effect in your masks and cleansers by using biodegradable products, head to Sample Hime's post for her list of recommended natural alternatives!

Bloggers and readers alike, please spread this news around!

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