Miku Expo approaches

2026-05-10

As is the norm for me, I keep trying and failing to write blog posts even though I have like a thousand different things I'd like to write up. So, here's a brief assortment of updates:

Miku Expo

Miku Expo is coming up in less than a week!

I'm eternally annoyed that they did the Ontario show in Hamilton, with Digital Stars the following night in Toronto. If you live in Toronto this probably isn't a big deal, but as someone who is 5 hours away from Hamilton and has a book a hotel for both nights, this is a pain in my damned ass. I ended up just booking both nights in Toronto and have resigned myself to taking the GO train/bus to and from the main concert, but considering there's gonna be like 2~ hours of pre- and post-concert travel on Wednesday I'm not too excited. Beats having to check in and out of hotels though, I guess.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to the show. I was initially a bit worried that I wasn't going to be familiar with many songs, but based off the setlists I've seen it seems like they're using a lot of classics, so that'll be fun.

I'm definitely more excited for Digital Stars, though. I don't think the lineup is as good as 2024 where we had both kz and the mysterious P*Light lookalike Hachioji-P, but I'm pretty excited to see Yunosuke even if I'm not super familiar with his music -- I just love when JP artists decide to try their hand at overseas performances here in Canada, as it's pretty rare. I'm hoping he'll play Supernova because it's one of my favourite Vocaloid songs from the past few years...

A week of respite

I recently took a week off work, and it's spring now, which means raves are officially back in season here!

It was nice getting to get out again for a show again. I've been following Banzai Beats since they started last year, as they always satisfy my desire for J-core.

When I saw this show announced, I realised it actually happened to fall on a day when fellow Asuka R. Kreutz appreciator Radio was visiting, so we ended up going together :3 I don't have any local friends into raves or doing crazy impulsive shit, so I usually go alone to events so it was nice to go with someone else for once.

We also ended up doing some other stuff, like going tourist mode and visiting the AGO and Toronto Zoo. I liked the AGO in particular -- I walk by it regularly on my ventures, but I haven't actually been in there in probably over 15 years. It was actually really chill and relaxing, so I have been considering one of their yearly memberships bc they're pretty cheap... I think it would be a nice place to just sit and write or whatever.

Of everything in the art gallery, my favourite piece was this by far:

"The Owl's Descent" by Kananginak Pootoogook

~~It looks like Phalanx in a really abstract way~~ For absolutely incomprehensible reasons, this one just stood out to me as I just found it really entertaining. We actually ended up coming back after leaving for dinner bc I didn't originally get a picture of it or take note of the artist, so it warranted a second trip back to the gallery.

I also got to experience line 5 for the first time! I haven't been on any of the LRT lines yet bc I usually don't need to go up further than Bloor for anything. It was very fascinating that the cars seemed to be a different model of whatever is used for streetcars...? As a result it felt odd for them to be going fast, like it shouldn't be allowed lmao. It wasn't nearly as fast as the subway and was really quite slow in comparison, but... it was fine.

Other things

In other news...

The arcade I frequent did an overnight event where they had freeplay from 12-8am! It was fun, but my god am I too old for all nighters, as I think I had mentally tapped out by like 4-5am. However, I don't live locally so I had to wait til like 9am to get the first bus home, so I really was stuck there LOL. I ended up grinding the shit out of Wacca as no one else was really playing it, so it was definitely worth it though. I don't know if I'd ever do it again, though...
I'm debating on whether or not to hit the Anime North Truck Rave this year. I don't really care to go to AN, but god... I wanna see RoughSketch. I don't know if I care enough to make last minute plans though, because AN is only a week after Miku Expo, and the venue is so far out... guhhh. If I had infinite money I definitely would, but as of now I'm so conflicted ;_;
USAO released a new album!! I was wondering why the hell like half the Tano*C guys were putting a new album all at once, and then I realised it was M3 lol. I'm currently waiting on my physical copy to arrive... it's mostly a compilation of existing songs/singles with not much new stuff, but it's a really good arrangement of songs I enjoy so I'll take it. The idea of having IMPACT on a physical CD pleases me greatly.
I'm almost at 100 days in Anki! It's fun that I'm starting to be able to read simple sentences, and have started to recognise some recurring characters so that sometimes I can even take a guess at new kanji... it's starting to feel like I'm actually learning something, lol. I still need to work on grammar so I can have better comprehension of sentences, but… ughh… I don't wanna do it ~_~ I'm struggling because I hate putting effort into things that are low-level and boring, but I do want to achieve the end result of being able to to at least read and listen semi-competently, so it’s a necessary evil.

And that's all for now. I do have a bunch of things on the backburner, but who the hell knows if I'll ever get to it, so no point in talking about things that may or may not even happen (sometimes I feel like saying I'll do things makes it less likely to happen).

Til next time.