These monthly update posts are taking more time than I anticipated, so I think I'm going to do seasonal updates instead. I'll post my next update for autumn at the end of November.

• It rained a lot at the end of the month, and unfortunately we discovered a roof leak because of this. Thankfully it wasn't in a spot where it could damage anything on the floor in the house, and it was small enough to be managed with towels, but it was still quite troublesome. We're already in the process of having it repaired. It will be a lot of work, I guess we need an entirely new roof.

• Work was particularly stressful… But for privacy reasons I don't really want to go into any details on it. I did my best to try to get it under control and talk it out with people who could help. Still a work in progress… I'm not having trouble with my job overall, just one ongoing project.

• I've had a lot of trouble with my entire right arm and shoulder this month. It's gotten in the way of my crocheting more than anything, because it often extends to my thumb. It isn't excruciating, but it's very bothersome and I also don't want to make it worse. I've been giving my arm a lot of extra care, and I started an easy strength training regimen that mostly focuses on the upper body since I'm aware problems like this are frequently caused by a lack of sufficient muscle strength. I've been to physical therapy a couple of times for different problems and frankly I don't want to go back, so I'm trying to work things out on my own for now… I will see a doctor if it continues for much longer.

• August 17th was our dog's 13th birthday! She's happy, healthy, and energetic! Actually, we got an automatic reminder about bringing her in for a check up, but when my mom called to schedule an appointment, they told her she didn't really need one yet unless there was a problem. Honestly, there isn't! She's in very good shape for her age, and I'm so grateful. I absolutely adore her and hope I can enjoy a few more years with her by my side.

• I'm getting back into painting my nails! This time with more knowledge on how to do it right. Using nail oil to keep the nails healthy, cleaning off any polish that gets on my skin using a clean up brush, etc. I'm not into doing nail art, but I love doing alternating colors on each nail, especially with a glittery top coat. Nothing better than pastel rainbow nails! I can't stop admiring them!

• I safely received the package from Japan that I talked about in last month's update! And no tariffs on top of what I already paid, thank goodness. I was so relieved. But I don't know if I'll be ordering anything else from Japan any time soon… As fucking ridiculous as the tariff situation is, I guess I'll take it as an opportunity to enjoy what I already have and to get more creative with finding things that suit my taste within the country. Do I really have a choice to do anything else as long as this garbage stays in place? I know this is going to make the price of just about every damn thing go up, but it won't be as expensive as importing things just for myself.

• Related to that, I'm starting to look at calendars and a new journal for 2026. What can I say, I get excited about these things. Every year, I usually import mine from Japan. I just have better luck finding ones I like through Japanese manufacturers, and until now it's been pricier than buying locally but not prohibitively expensive. But with all this tariff nonsense, I'm not even considering doing it the same way this time. I really like the desk calendars and journals from Sanrio Japan, and my wall calendar for my bedroom is usually Precure, but this year I have to do something different. Which feels a little weird to me, because I've been using the Precure wall calendars every year since 2008. But I'm not too heartbroken over it. For one, I honestly haven't found Kimi to Idol Precure to be a great season. I don't hate it and mostly enjoy myself watching it week to week, but it's felt a bit off to me and I'm not nearly as fond of it as I thought I might be based on the premise. But also, using the same kind of calendar from 2008 to 2025 is a really long time! Variety is nice sometimes. I think I've already found some suitable replacements that I can still get for reasonable prices.

• Many years ago, around the time that it first became popular among international communities online, I had an interest in mori kei fashion that never completely went away, but it dwindled to the point that I decided not to wear it myself anymore (not that I ever had a very good mori kei wardrobe). This month, my interest in it started re-developing. I think because my mind is starting to turn towards autumn, and while mori kei is a style for any time of year, it works best in colder months with all of its layers and mostly earthy colors. I don't hate summer, it isn't brutal where I live and I like to appreciate the greenery while it lasts since it doesn't stay green in the winter here. But what can I say, I still love autumn and find myself missing it when we get deep into summer.

  A particularly nice thing about mori kei is that it's fairly easy to get into. It's not too difficult to find pieces that work through thrifting. So, I went to a thrift shop and came back with some tops I could use. Now I need, well… Most other pieces. It's going to take me a little time to build up a usable wardrobe. I plan to go back in October, when the thrift shops will be putting out their colder weather items. It's also great that I can crochet now, because crochet pieces will go very well with mori kei! I don't want to stop dressing how I currently do, which I can only describe as… Generally cute and pastel but on the brighter side? More fairy kei than anything else. But I want to add a little mori kei on top of it, especially for the cooler months.

  I'm a pastel girly through and through, so my personal image of how I want to dress in mori kei is mostly on the cuter and lighter colored side. I'm thinking very light and somewhat muted pastels paired with light neutrals like cream and off white. I discovered the brand Merry Jenny, and while I don't think this brand would identify itself as mori kei, I do think most of what they sell could be used for mori kei or very similar fashions, and I really love a lot of their pieces. Due to the aforementioned tariff bullshit, I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to get my hands on anything from Merry Jenny, but I'm taking a lot of inspiration from their general vision.

• Related to my mori kei interest, I watched the movie Little Forest: Winter/Spring since I saw it recommended as a "mori kei" movie. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who likes chill, slow movies that are more slice of life than anything else. It's about a young woman who returns to her rural home town to take over the small family farm after living in a city for a brief time, and is mostly framed around the foods she makes and eats using the plants she grows. I don't think it's "mori kei" in the sense that it strongly showcases mori kei fashion—although it sometimes does—but more in the kind of life it portrays. I have yet to watch Summer/Autumn, but I definitely want to. (Also, apparently there's a Korean version, but I watched the Japanese version.)

The big thing I did this month was attend an anime convention! I had been looking forward to this for a very long time. If you read my post about my gallbladder removal surgery last year, then you know I had planned to go for the entire weekend and stay at the resort where it's held, but couldn't because I was still recovering. So, I've been wanting to do this for a couple of years now, and it finally happened!

Here's some notes on how it went, somewhat in chronological order:

Events:

• This convention has a pretty great itasha showcase, and I managed to catch a parade of them coming into the resort when I was in my hotel room on Friday, just before I was about to head out since the con was really starting to kick off (I got to the hotel pretty early). Most of them had people cosplaying as the characters on the cars hanging out of the roofs. I assumed they were hired. I saw them posing for photoshoots later on after they all parked, it was fascinating. Aside from a Pokemon-themed motorcycle, I didn't see any cars with characers I'm personally a fan of, but I still enjoy seeing them. They also hold voting so that awards for the best cars can be given out, but I forgot to do it before it closed!

• Went to an idol history panel and won a quiz that they held at the end of it! I won a light stick! Literally all I had to do to win was pay attention to the panel, all of the questions came from it LOL

• Attended the AMV Contest on Saturday afternoon. This is always my favorite event, and it did not disappoint!

• Attended an anime openings panel. Literally just a panel where we all watched a curated playlist of really good anime OPs. Simple but fun appreciation of a medium we all love!

• Late on Saturday, there was a much smaller AMV panel showcasing AMVs that didn't make it into the contest but that were still very good, and I stayed for about a third of that. I would have stayed longer but I was exhausted. I did get to see a Precure AMV that I absolutely loved!! My first time seeing a full Precure AMV being showcased (but I have seen plenty of short clips being used in multi fandom AMVs).

• I sat in on a couple of KPop/JPop random dance sessions, I honestly love watching them. It's so fascinating to me how it seems like everyone 10+ years younger than me knows at least a few of these dances by heart. I've been inspired by these panels to learn some dances myself, at least some easy ones for songs I like, so I'd like to give it a shot. It would be good exercise. Maybe I can dance a little next convention?

• There was an idol event on Sunday with cosplayers dancing along to songs for their respective characters. It was really fun, I even brought the light stick I won on Friday and did the best easy wotagei that I could!

• I did some real damage in the artist alley!! Phew!! I found more enstars items featuring characters I actually like than I expected to, haha! Also, Princess Peach and Pokemon are very popular subjects for artist alley artists, and I'm a big enough fan that I'm happy to buy. I have some things I still need to hang up, but I need more adhesive squares first, and I also need to put more work into setting up my studio so I can take things out of my bedroom and rearrange. Also the artists were all so sweet, complimenting my outfits and itabags and even taking photos of the bags!

• I didn't really find anything I wanted in the exhibitor hall except snacks. But the snacks are very delicious! I did spot a figure of Chibiusa and Pegasus from Sailor Moon that I've considered getting for a while, but it was WAY too expensive, even when I account for tariffs being applied if I ever buy it directly from Japan.

• I went to the 18+ section of the dealer's hall/artist alley for the first time. I didn't find anything I wanted, but it was interesting. I looked through some boxes of doujins at a stall with a guy absolutely screaming about "coming to look at his smut" (lol okay dude). The enstars doujins were like 90% ones featuring Rei, and there was a decent amount of them. Which former ReiP dumped their doujins on these folks? I looked over one booth where a girl handed me a book of stickers to look through, and there actually was a Princess Peach sticker I was kinda interested in, but I was suspicious of the fact that the art styles were pretty different, so I passed.

Food:

• Excellent chicken and biscuits for dinner on Friday. And not a huge portion, which I appreciated since I wasn't terribly hungry by the time my dinner reservation came around. I don't usually order dessert at restaurants, but I'm such a fiend for peaches that I got a slice of their peach cheesecake. Also, this was my only big trip of the year, so it was the time to indulge. It was topped with more of a peach compote and I would have preferred actual peach slices, but it was still delicious. Any tart cheesecake is a good time for me.

• Got grilled chicken, sticky rice, and pickled veggies from one of the visiting trucks for lunch before the AMV Contest. SO good!! I ate outside and had a lovely view.

• Saturday's dinner was salmon with rice and green curry. Really freaking good!! I actually keep thinking about it. And once again I indulged by ordering a fancy drink, a non-alcoholic strawberry mojito. Delish!!

• I've gotten to be an "early to bed, early to rise" kind of person, so I was up early on Saturday and used it as an opportunity to take a walk around the resort. Very nice! But when I went to do the same thing on Sunday morning with a slightly different route, I ended up passing by a restaurant with a breakfast buffet. …So I skipped the walk and did the breakfast buffet. Yeah, buffets are expensive, but it was all great!! Everything was very well made, no skimping. They had a honeycomb in a wooden frame that you could slice pieces off of, I was amazed by it. I've been wanting to try honeycomb, so I put some on the underside of a croissant. Well……. It tasted like honey! So it was very good! Curiosity satisfied!

• I got a bowl of tonkotsu ramen for lunch on Sunday, along with another non-alcoholic mixed drink they called a "kawaii cooler" (LOL). The ramen was pretty good, honestly!

• I brought some of my own food to supplement what I could get from the resort, both to help with expenses and in case lines for food were too long. Actually this didn't seem to be a problem, especially since I reserved for dinner both nights I stayed, so I think next time I go I can bring less food. The rooms only have hot water for preparing things, after all. But it was pretty cool to be able to make my own breakfast out of oatmeal cups and an apple and some preserved sausages! Never making mac and cheese cups without a microwave ever again, though!! So gross!!

Miscellaneous:

• Dracula Flow cosplayer. That's it, that's all I've gotta say.

• A Deku cosplayer absolutely losing his mind on the dance floor at a concert that was held Friday night.

• Lots of Umamusume cosplayers. A surprising amount of KPop Demon Hunters cosplayers, given how recent it is.

• SO! MANY! LABUBUS! For sale and on people's bags. Also Labubu outfits, which honestly I was also looking through even as someone who isn't interested in Labubus (but who is kinda fascinated by the craze). Some of them probably could have fit my Kohaku and Aira nuis, but I didn't find anything that I couldn't live without. So, no judgment to folks who get really attached to their Labubus and dress them up. I do it for my silly little anime guys, too. Just don't stab anyone or go into debt to get your Labubus.

• There was a massive line for badge pick up on Saturday. They didn't have a huge badge pick up area, so it must have been slow going. I was grateful I got there on Friday, and in retrospect didn't feel so disappointed that I couldn't attend on Saturday last year.

• The resort wasn't reserved just for the convention, so there were also just regular ass people there to stay for the weekend who seemed quite confused by all the nerds around them. I'm used to it at this point and find it pretty funny, honestly. Lots of people there with young kids since there's a small water park attached to the resort. At dinner on Saturday night, a little girl walked by my table, got a good look at me (an adult dressed super duper pink), then shouted to her mother "Why is everyone DRESSED UP!?" I have no idea what her mother's answer was, but I couldn't help but laugh. Why indeed? Maybe you can be a nerd and join us someday, kid!

• Hawks flying past my room window?? I wondered if they were trained since the place is a resort with activities, not just a hotel, but I also saw them in the parking lot early in the morning, so I'm honestly not sure!

I had a wonderful time and have already purchased my badge for next year (they do a sale within the first week following the con, so I better might as well get it for as little cost as possible)!