You know, it cannot be understated how a good pair of headphones doubles as ear mufflers in this weather.
Today’s reading basically aligns with a small thing that happened where the bank confirmed that the final closing procedures are ongoing.
The reading is basically going “yeah, you’re nearly out of that bullshit, but don’t lower your guard just yet.”
I woke up slightly early and I wanted to buy a couple of drinks at the supermarket but being early as it was I killed time dressing the girls for today’s photos. To be fair, there’s a Seven Eleven a few minutes away, but despite coming here specifically for the experience of the snow, I WILL still avoid cold whenever possible, thank you.
That said, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about perhaps coming back to Hokkaido during summer. Partially because I wanna see the same surroundings but with different looks, but mostly because a lot of my wanderlust has been stiffled by all the snow, by how I see a building in the distance I wanna check but predictably it’s an area of lo transit so there’s piles of snow taller than me blocking the path.
I lowkey wonder how much trash gets revealed when it all melts considering the amount of trash I already see in the snow.
Perhaps best not to know…
I forgot to mention it yesterday but there’s this sign on the station that’s like “Aomori vs Hokkaido” and I’ve been thinking coincidentally about making Aomori my next winter trip. However, just like how I arrived too early in Otaru for the candles festival, I kinda wanna go to Aomori during Nebuta season, the festival where they make all the huge paper statues with lights inside.
However, I can just… go more than once in a year, y’know.
By now I’m back from the supermarket with extra drinks, snacks, and a quick breakfast. I also grabbed the mail slips for luggage from the nearby post office, but that’s a matter for later.
Light breakfast complete I go back down with the girls and I love these outfits so much.
The poses just came so naturally.
It makes me think about the fact that despite taking so many photos with dolls, I don’t take “doll-like” photos this often. In fact, the last time that I can remember doing that was the photos I took of Luna for her birthday all the way back in 2024.
Which actually brings a really fun comparison.
Last year I gave a friend one of my photobooks and showed her more recent pics of Luna and Sol (specifically the school uniform Sakura Season ones) and she commented how much more grown up they looked in the more recent ones. And that’s definitely an ongoing sentiment.
Wish I could say it’s on purpose, but alas…
It’s a curious thing nonetheless, though, how the posing skill and just me being becoming more and more bold as time goes on has reflected in the girls going from feeling like awkwards teens into proper young ladies.
After these two shots I returned because the cold was beating my ass. I wanted an extra photo with both of them together all dolled up, but that’ll wait until tomorrow.
I grabbed salmon sushi from a shop in the nearby mall and went back home to warm for a bit. I held off showering until now precisely to warm up a bit faster.
There’s a funny thing in the room where the shower is the older kind with a hot and cold valve rather than a central thermostat for the water or one of those where you push to one side or the other. As a result the cold water valve must be moved fractions of a fraction of a degree compared to the hot one since, y’know, cold winter and all that.
I dropped the girls in the room (out of the bag so the humidity of the snow didn’t mess them up) and cleared up my bag to go to Hokkaido for a bit.
The road was smooth, I didn’t have to wait standing and got on the super duper ultra sexy limited express that doesn’t stop as much.
Sapporo Station has become slightly familiar by now so I blindly (and I cannot stress enough how blindly while at it) went DIRECTLY to buying Yoitomake.
My beloved.
Oh how I’ve missed you.
They were selling a strawberry one and it makes me mad because Amuro is on the regular blueberry one but they don’t have Char on the other one.
Packed with my backpack already half full of them, I went to ACTUALLY rethread familiar places for a bit.
I stopped by the JS Burger. I think I mentioned it last year but I first encountered it in Fukuoka and this is where I learned not only that it was a chain but that I had one nearby in Osaka and Kobe all along.
I also arrived in Lunch Time so they had their salad bar and their lemon dressing that haunts me, I need to know their recipe…
From there I checked the Volks shop, just because it’s as good excuse as any to have a starting point, really.
On the way I passed by Odori and they’ve been building those massive snow statues I always see on the news.
Sadly they’re not done yet, but it was interesting to see them in progress, especially because they have a whole crew working on them and I kinda wonder how they follow the instructions to build them.
I maike it to the Volks shop and there wasn’t much that interested me but hey, I saw other cool shops nearby.
From there I decided to go to Loft, not looking for anything specific, but again, in a “might as well” sort of plan.
Couple of escalators and WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
I no joke froze when I saw this. There I was talking shit about Kingdom Hearts the other day and here I am with a pop up shop with stuff from it.
I may talk shit, but I am not immune to metal keychains of Oblivion and Oathkeeper…
…and Fenrir.
…and Ultima Weapon.
…and a deck of cards styled like Chain of Memories cards while at it for good measure.
I idly explored a bit more, but like I mentioned, the issue of snow blocking so many potential paths put in a small layer of effort that didn’t feel worth it in the long run so I made motions to be on my way back.
I did consider exploring the legendary Sapporo Underground but then I caught glimpse of how big it is and postponed the idea.
I arrived slightly winded to my room, but I’ll readily admit that I was shocked at how much I was able to do today on the whole, really.