Anywhere you are is just like home to you

It's probably looked like I've really done a lot in 2020 so far, but it's because I was trying to do as much as possible before moving away from Europe. I haven't really had time to stop and process any of it until just recently, and when I was sat listening to Mika Ice Cream came on and it transported me straight back to his live shows and it really struck me just how wild this year has been. It's only March and I've already traveled to Luxembourg and Holland, seen three Mika shows and met him, been to see four West End musicals, went to a special screening of my favorite movie and met the director, Todd Phillips, afterwards. I can't even wrap my mind around it all. And now I've moved to Japan!

I've only been here a week and it's barely sunk in and still kind of feels like I'm on vacation, but so far it's been amazing, mostly for the people I've met more than anything. I've had a bit of time to myself so decided to head into Tokyo yesterday for a bit of a look round. I'm really close and it's easily accessible so I plan on going back a few times, so had plenty of time to look at everything I wanted without feeling the need to fit in as much as possible in one day. I still managed to walk 13 miles though! I mostly visited Shinjuku and Shibuya, and it's weird how much my memory kicked in from when I last in Tokyo. I spent a lot of time in Shinjuku and Shibuya back then because I was super into J-fashion (and still am, although I'm not up to date with it like I used to be) and as soon as I was back I was remembering things that I had no idea I even remembered! I kinda knew which way to go and where certain things were, and it was also cool getting thrown off by things that have changed in the time since.




The Disney Store in Shibuya was one of the main places I wanted to go, and I can't begin to tell you how incredible this place is. What I love most about Disney in Japan is that they recognize that single adults are the ones with the most disposable income so there's only a tiny corner of the store selling toys for kids. It's the complete opposite of Disney Stores back home which is 95% kids with a few things for adults (although they are slowly getting better lately!). This is one of the main stores and it's across three floors, and even the inside is designed like a castle and you have to climb a spiral staircase to get to each floor. 




I also went to Tower Records as I've never actually been in one and I wanted to see the Japanese variations of my favorite records. Although I have Mika's CDs in English, I'm tempted to gradually collect these versions anyway, or at least one or two. And they had a whole Joker display. It was interesting to me that the movie is just subtitled because when I saw Joker at the movie theater in Paris it was fully dubbed into French. They had a DC Comics pop up shop in Shibuya 109 and I was disappointed that they didn't have any hint of Joker there, I find it weird how they're still not merchandising the movie despite how many awards its won. Let me give you my money!!

It was about 9pm by this point, so I caught the train back to Tsukuba (which takes about an hour). I've spent today recovering as about every muscle in my body aches - I don't realize how hard I go and how far I walk until the next day! I don't know how long I'll be living here honestly as I definitely have other plans, so I want to make the most of every second while I am here.

With this perfect finale, the cheers and the ballyhoo

I saw Wicked yesterday as I imagine it's going to be a long while until I get to see it again. And although I obviously enjoyed it, I'm happy to say that I'm content to take a break. I still love it like always, but it's definitely veering into the familiar and I don't want to see it so often that it loses it's magic as it's such an important happy place for me.

Sat in my usual spot, second row right under the Time Dragon!

Lisa-Anne Wood was playing Glinda and she's fantastic, I'd not seen her before but I really loved everything about her performance. I never understand it when they hide away the better actors as the standby and I always appreciate getting to see them in the role - I hate when people complain about having to see a standby, it's a treat! Laura Pick is Elphaba now, she's been the standby Elphaba for years but Nikki Bentley had to suddenly drop out which is a huge shame as I think she's my favourite Elphaba I've ever seen and I hope she's OK. I'd seen Laura before when she covered for Alice Fearn so knew I was in good hands, and I'm so happy for her that she's the principal now as she's worked so long and hard at the role. Unfortunately I’m still really underwhelmed with Fiyero which is a shame, he's one of my favourite characters so it always hits me hard. I still really loved Kim Ismay as Madame Morrible, she looks like she’s chewing a wasp throughout the whole thing and I love how non pantomime-ish she is with the role as that's usually how I've seen the character portrayed. There's a new Boq and I really liked him too, he was was really cute how he was simpering after Glinda instead of coming across as creepy. It does bother me though that Boq is the only character that they regularly cast POC actors for, when Fiyero is canonically a person of colour and always played by a white guy. It would be so refreshing to see him correctly shown just once! Overall I really loved it though! I nearly cried at the end as it was just so perfect, and on my way home I couldn't help but wonder that, if my dreams end up coming true, whether this could be the last time I see it in London?

They had some new merch, so of course I had to get it. I particularly liked the shirt as it’s a line Mika samples in one of his records, so for me it’s like both of my interests in one! It also makes me laugh because I’m literally the biggest loner out there and have no concept of what it’s like to be Popular at all.

Otherwise I spent most of my trip running after my own tail a little bit, but I still enjoyed it! I went to Covent Garden and had a little wander round, and popped into Cath Kidston as I was debating whether to get any of their frog collection which I really like (I love frogs!), but they didn't have my size so I decided to head to the flagship store at Piccadilly. I stopped and got some scoops of ice cream from a market stall - salted caramel and raspberry sorbet and ate it on my walk over as the sun was actually pretty warm. I ended up getting the frog skirt from Cath Kidston with a surprise 10% off at the till, and then I walked to the Saatchi Gallery as on the Tube I'd seen a poster for a Tutankhamen exhibition and checking their website I couldn't see any mention of tickets so decided to head on over. I've been to the Saatchi before so expected that even if the exhibit was ticket only, at least they'd be other stuff to look at for free. Wrong! I walked 2 miles all the way there for nothing, it is ticket only and tickets were £25 and it's taken over the whole gallery. I feel like they should at least have advertised that fact on their poster! I was at a loss for what to do as I had an hour to kill but my feet were killing me. I considered going to the V&A but there was nothing I actually wanted to look at, so I jumped on the Tube instead and went to Foyles as it's one of my favourite places lately. I love the huge array of books they sell in that particular store, and there's just something comforting about bookshops in general, they're one of my favourite places.