Olymp and Togae went on their honeymoon last night. I've been having a sleepover/gaming party with Angelo, so it's a good thing I had paused babies waiting on the naming screen this morning. We beat Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Megaman 9 so far, and now we're working on Zack & Wiki. ^_^ So we were up until 7 AM and slept until 2 PM...!! The babies wouldn't have liked that if they weren't paused for it.

I've only awakened the baby girl on Pink Tama so far, because I think I'll let her twin sister sleep for a bit and awaken her for a later generation when I need a girl for a mate.

I named the baby girl Ulfa and raised her while Angelo and I have been puzzling out the Treasure Island level of Zack & Wiki. She just grew into a Kinakomotchi. ^_^

I'm very happy to have a new baby on a Sunday, because I have today off work to play with her and bond with her. It's fun to raise Tamas while hanging out on Angelo's bed playing video games! He's fighting cartoon undead pirates while I use his computer to write this blog post. ^_^

Pink Tama is back in action, and it's like we never parted! The buttons seem trickier than I remember though.

It's taken two days of rigourous connecting to build up Olymp and Togae's relationship. Olymp is a plucky little Masktchi who's been around since the Olympics. Togae has been very gentlemanly and has given her lots of gifts, but he wins the games almost without exception, which draws a bit of ire from her (which she expresses in the form of poop gifts).

Yesterday and today I've had long trips downtown straight from work, and I've made it my habit to connect my Tamas in the dead time I spend on the subway. I get phone reception on the bus, so I can surf the web on my iPhone, but on the subway I get no signal. It's a good time to connect Tamas or do some reading. So Olymp and Togae have been flirting for about half an hour a day, yesterday and today.

Tonight, on my way to my friend Shayna's place for a dinner party, they felt the romance of the occasion and started to wiggle. It was very sweet. Olymp gave birth to two baby girls.

I have completely lost track of what generation we're on though. Checking through this log, I find that Olymp was born back in early August, and she is the 105th generation. So the little darling who stayed by her side instead of flying to be with her daddy, is my 106th generation on Pink Tama. Lucky girl.

I'm spending the night at my apartment tonight after the party, and my collection of Connections is up at my parents' place, so sometime this weekend I'll have to scope out a nice baby boy who can grow up beside my 106th darling and become her prince.

This morning at work, while customers were browsing, I saw that Togae had an exclamation point in his mailbox. He'd already gone on a job search once yesterday, with no results. This time, though, we'd been able to spend the evening together at my grandmother's condo after Rosh Hashana dinner. I played through all the games in order, over and over and over. I even beat the Shapes game, which I have found most challenging! So I had high hopes for today's job search.

Just as I'd expected, the very first place he went to was very happy to hire him! And the job he got is very fitting for my pompadour-wearing Osaka silly boy. He's a dancer! Hilarious!

The dancer game is a lot of fun. I had to put it down to get back to work because it was too much fun, ha ha ha!

Now that Togae has a job, it's time to introduce him to Olymp. His income as a disco dancer will be able to support his relationship with her and then raise their children in a fabulous lifestyle. ^_^ I'll introduce them tonight, and I'll keep you updated on how their love blooms!

I've been a little impatient with Togae, I must admit. The V4.5 is missing a certain je ne sais quoi that is the trademark of Japanese Tamagotchis. The frequency of mail is a little too high; there seems to be less care in designing charm into the characters and their animations; the buttons are a little stiffer and the paint isn't as glossy. The pressure to raise skill points makes games more of a chore rather than a diversion.

Although what really is needed for me to learn to enjoy this Tama is to have dedicated play time with it. There is so much to do on this Tama that truthfully, it is not suited for casual Tama-ing where you take it with you even on the busiest days and just care for it when needed. 90's Tamas, older Connections and Chibis are better for that.

My days have been a little too full for the frequent superfluous beeping of the V4.5, but I think I will really appreciate having its company tonight at the second Rosh Hashana dinner with my family.

All that aside, Togae has reached adulthood! He became a Yasaguretchi! I laughed aloud when I saw him. What a funny character! Somehow I can imagine him having an Osaka accent and being very silly.

It'll be nice to meet Togae all over again in this new form.

Aobouzu and Tanuki left two nights ago, and I had sort of made up my mind about whom to activate next, but the next morning I was so rushed to get to work that I didn't have time to grab anyone on my way out the door! It was an empty, Tama-less day, and every once in a while I'd have to sigh about not having any vpet company. But it was a pretty good day at work, so it's all alright.

I made sure I couldn't make the same mistake today, so I unpaused my Tama of choice last night. There's no way I'd leave an unpaused Tama at home! And so that's how I have my Globe V4.5 at work with me. ^_^ It has a boy on it named Togae. I think I hatched him for Matchmakerless Month, but I needed girls so he was paused.

When I unpaused him, he was a Kuribotchi, but he's since grown into his teen form: a character I've never ever met before! I have to go look up his name. ^_^

Kujakutchi! To me he looks like a British judge with a powdered wig. ^_^ I don't know what "Kujakutchi" could mean in Japanese. My mom is coming home from Japan tonight so maybe I'll ask her. ^_^ We're picking her up from the airport after I get off work.

I want to take a picture of Togae but it's really hard to get a sharp image with just my cameraphone. I'll try again at home with my digital camera.

When there are customers in the store browsing but not checking out, that's when I take the opportunity to connect my mateable Tamas. I have the sound off for that, of course, but it keeps me from wanting to stab out my own eyes from boredom.

Yesterday and today I've been working on my gorgeous little Akais, Amanozako the Kuchipatchi and Tanuki the Ribotchi.

They've been playing the betting game a lot, and Amanozako is extraordinarily good at it. She wins pretty much every time. She's a gracious winner, though, and gives Tanuki lots of balloons.

Today, Tanuki won his first betting game against Amanozako. I knew it would be a special day.

The next connect was Tanuki's turn to give Amanozako a gift. When he arrived in her shell, a shiny puffy heart appeared between their little heads. I was super happy.

The gift was an envelope sealed with a heart. A love letter! I wanted to "awwww!" but there were customers in the store. ^_^

Amanozako loved the letter. She opened it and read it, but kept the contents to herself. Sentimental love letters are certainly private things! She couldn't contain her reaction though; she squeezed her eyes shut and wiggled with happiness. It's her first love, and what a feeling that is!

The next time they played the betting game, it was with a very different atmosphere. And the next connect after that was the wiggle party!!

The fireworks went off, and Amanozako gave birth to two beautiful baby girls.

These parents are very much in love. I am so happy for them. I don't usually connect Tamas after they've mated, but I might let them continue their relationship. ^_^

Of course, once these two depart to their honeymoon on Tama Planet in two days, I'll be putting my Akais in stasis. This was a very satisfying run with them, but it's time to give some other Tamas a chance to shine! When I go home tonight I'll poke around my collection and see who's ready to come out.

~~

Ready? This is my last perfume review. ^_^ Thanks for putting up with the off-topic content! ^_^

I wore G today. I am so glad I left it for last.

G is definitely the most complex fragrance from the Harajuku Lovers collection. When I first put it on, I couldn't even make up my mind how I felt about it. I decided it would definitely take the whole day to figure out what I thought of it.


Ah yes, her first solo single. I absolutely love her style in this video. You can also see the Harajuku girls in this vid, and she even sings about Japan and Harajuku.

 I was sniffing my wrist every couple of minutes for the first few hours after putting on the perfume. Every time I smelled it, it was a little bit different: floral, fruity, sweet, powdery… it suddenly struck me that it was a mixture of the impressions of all the other scents. When I had that realization, the whole perfume started to make more sense. It is a multi-faceted, complex amalgamation of all the other girls' strengths. The other ones are fragrances, but this one is a real perfume, a little work of art, with a really human personality, kind of like how real people shift through varying moods and attitudes. The relationship among the perfumes is kind of like the concept Gwen uses to describe her Harajuku girls in promo interviews, or in her songs. The girls themselves are symbolic to her, and not fully real (or so she would represent herself to believe), but they are a source of inspiration to her. They "save" her, and permit her to regain her creative voice. As "figments of her imagination", they are indeed aspects of herself, parsed apart and existing outside her body.

Well that got a little cerebral. Tee hee, oopsies, back to silly superficial talk.

Anyway, that's why I am so pleased with myself for leaving G for last, because it allowed me to notice all the elements of the other perfumes inside of it.

I almost like it better than Lil' Angel. Lil' Angel makes me feel really happy when I smell it, and it is simply a delicious smell; however, G is much more thoughtful and interesting, which appeals to me a lot.

I received my Harajuku Lovers goodie bag today. I don't really want to brag about all the swag I got, because I already feel like a princess and I'd feel guilty talking about it. But it included a full-size 10ml bottle of Lil' Angel — they must have chosen that one because I was raving about it in the follow-up phone interview, which was very very kind of them. And I got laboratory samples of the full set (meaning, full-size but not in the decorative bottles). However, I still think I'm going to purchase a full-size of G, possibly a 30ml, because I really liked it (and I have a bunch of cards that will entitle me to bonus Optimum points if I buy one… let me know if you want one, because they expire in October and I have way too many). 

And also CHECK HOW CUTE THE BOTTLES ARE OMG OMG OMG.
This is the Lil' Angel I got:

Last night Rachelle and I were surfing around eBay Tamagotchis together, which put me in a hatching mood. You know what I'm talking about. ~_^ Tanuki had already gone to sleep, and my Imotchi also had to go to sleep, and I felt so Tama-lonesome! So I hatched Denny-tama, my red and blue P1 that Dennis gave me. ^_^ He was good company until he went to bed, and then I played with dear old Olymp the Masktchi on Pink Tama until she went to bed. It was fun to have a nice big crew with me! I'm sure I've been influenced by Dennis, who has a menagerie of fourteen active Tamas right now...!

Rachelle ended up buying the Umino that she was checking out on eBay, so we definitely have to have a group hatch on Little Beeps to enjoy our Oceans all together. ^_^

This morning I woke up to a cacophony of beeps from all the Tamas I'd hatched last night waking up together. Denny-tama needed attention of course, because he was just a young Marutchi. I heard the traveling salesman come for Tanuki. A few predators came for my Imotchi. And my foggy brain pseudo-detected transformation music.

That's right, Tanuki grew up! He became an adult! What form did my little raccoon dear become?

Ribbontchi...! Ha ha ha. I look at my little Akai couple and I forget which is which: the girl is a Kuchipatchi, and the boy has a big fluffy ribbon on his head. The real lesson here is that you can be queer and heterosexual, I suppose...! Ha ha ha.

I've started connecting them. One thing I've learned is Tanuki is terrible at the betting game. He has lost every single time. But Amanozako is gracious and gives him nice gifts. She's given him two balloons so far!

They're coming with me on a Twitter meetup with a guy I .... sort of? ... know .... from a Warren Ellis fan community. We're meeting for a bite to eat after work. I'm going to be pretty open about my Tamas in front of him. Let's see how he reacts.

~~~

Well, here's the story with having Tamagotchis the first time you meet someone. ^_^

After dinner, I pulled my purse into my lap and started feeding and cheering up Tanuki and Amanozako. Leo was talking and he stopped and was like, "…Are those…?" and I was like, "Yeah, Tamagotchis," and grinned. He was like, "O… kay…" I had definitely thrown him for a loop. So the next thing I did was joke about it. "This is how we prepare for our grim meathook future," I said. "We learn to love little electronic pets and next thing you know, we are embracing our new robot overlords." He laughed pretty hard at that.

I also got a chance to try the next perfume in the Harajuku Lovers series: Baby.



Baby is named after the Harajuku Girl Baby, birth name Mayuko Kitayama. (What a beautiful traditional Japanese name, eh?) She's from Osaka, what what! My family is from Kyoto, but I live in Toronto, so I relate to Osaka the same way I relate to Hamilton. It's the down and dirty neighbour. ^_^ Osaka has a kind of "dirty"-sounding dialect, and it's famous for its comedians and as an industrial centre. There's a bit of a rivalry between Kyoto people and Osaka people, just like between Toronto and Hamilton. Of course I think Kyoto and Toronto are the cooler ones, ha ha ha!


They definitely did her makeup the prettiest of all the other girls. I wasn't so much a fan of the chola look they were doing on the others, but that is some hot red lipstick and I like the sweeping red-bronze eyeshadow.

So, a perfume called "Baby", eh? It could go in all sorts of directions. But I put it on and…

Yeah, it smells like babies.

It smells like baby powder.

I was like, oh mannn…

I am really over baby powder smell. I had a phase a few years ago when I was all about smelling like baby powder. Dove had just come out with their line of antiperspirant which has a really great baby powder scent. Baby powdery smells were my signature for a couple years. But then my body chemistry caught up with the Dove antiperspirant formula and it stopped working very well, so I switched to Degree, whose baby powder scent is strictly business. ^_^

I associate baby powder smell with my exboyfriend, because he liked it on me. So it's game over for that scent, really, it was over before it started. ^_^

And honestly… isn't that a bit too literal an interpretation for a fragrance called "Baby"?

As the day went on, it dried down to something a little more floral with a hint of spice. And here's where I run into trouble reviewing perfumes.

If the perfume smells like food? I'm GOOD. I know food. Oh my, do I ever know food.

But I'll be damned if I know flowers.

So, unlike my other reviews which were 100% all me, with absolutely no foreign influence from outside opinion aside from my friends in real life, I actually had to do a quick Google to see what other beauty bloggers are saying about this perfume.

Just a quick glance at one showed me a list of a bunch of flowers I've never heard of, and the only one that sounded right to me: white rose.

I would have guessed rose. But white rose, yeah, I can see that. Maybe a rose covered in a baby powder and that's why it's white.

I've been wearing Baby for almost exactly twelve hours now, and it smells like a cinnamony, powdery rose. But only on my left wrist, where I applied it directly. My right wrist smells like pure baby powder.

Tonight I asked Leo for his opinion on Baby. "Yeah, baby powder," he said. But did he like it? "Yeah, baby powder smells good– on babies."

Ha ha ha ha.

So my review of Baby is,
if you're a baby,
this fragrance is for you.

No, really, it's just a matter of taste. I wore baby powder scents for a couple years, so I know it has its appeal. It just doesn't do it for me right now, these days.

And also, it could be a lot more sophisticated if it's sprayed on as opposed to upended on my wrist from a sample bottle.

Which leads me to the next bit of good news: the marketing company that sent me the samples to begin with, are happy with my reviews and are sending me a goodie bag, which includes laboratory samples of each of the scents — meaning, they're full-size but in plain spray bottles instead of the fancy perfume bottles that they'll come in in stores. So I'll definitely update if my impressions change based on a more proper application of the perfumes.

Rachelle told me she's already seen the Harajuku Lovers perfumes at Shoppers Drug Mart, so they're already out for sale/testing if you want to check them out!

Last night, Tanuki fell asleep before all the excitement of going out to a little music theatre to see Thom play a show with Steve McKay. It was a good night for music, so it was pretty appropriate that I was trying out the next Harajuku Lovers perfume called Music.



Music is named after the Harajuku Girl, Music - although she's Japanese so she calls herself Ongaku-san ("ongaku" is the Japanese word for "music" or "melody"). She's actually from Okinawa, which is a really interesting part of Japan, because of its interesting cultural crossovers between Japanese culture, the ENORMOUS American army base there, and the island's history of the Ryukyu kingdom before the Japanese took it over in the early 17th century. The Ryukyu were a separate island culture that were more like a cross between Polynesia and China. So Okinawa today is a very interesting place. I spent a few days in Naha (Okinawa's biggest city) when I was in Japan last February, and it was a very striking change to get off the plane. It didn't feel like Japan at all, even though we were definitely still in Japan and everything was still in Japanese. There was a much more laid-back island attitude, the dialect was WAY different, the weather was much more tropical, and there was that enormous American army base in the middle of it all!

Okinawa also has a very distinct musical tradition from the rest of Japan, using a slightly different musical scale and variations on the traditional musical instruments. Okinawan folk music was played all over the place when I was visiting, and it was definitely different from the Japanese music I'm used to!

So Ongaku-san (birth name: Rino Nakasone) is also a very interesting and varied character, as you'll see in this little interview! She's a quirky girl and I liked her immediately upon watching this.

There was a lot going for me to like this fragrance. I was interested in the woman who inspired it, my favourite colour is blue, and also I lo-oooooove music, so I thought for sure this would be my favourite fragrance.

However, I think it was also victim to the sample-bottle problem that Love was. I don't think I got a proper application of the perfume because I had to just overturn the sample bottle on my wrist instead of having a proper spray. Lil' Angel was somehow potent and bright enough to overcome that, but Love and Music are fruitier, richer, and in an in-between place between bright and dark, so they're harder to detect when not sprayed properly (I think).

I could tell that Music is an interesting scent, although it wasn't as evocative as Lil' Angel. It's not a very complex fragrance but it is still a unique structure when compared to most mainstream perfumes that I've tried. To me, it smelled like strawberry champagne. Fruity, sweet, bubbly, and kind of alcoholic. (I wonder if a purer form like an eau de parfum would smell less champagne-y than the eau de toilette.)

As the day turned to evening, the perfume dried down and got more and more floury and less wet and champagne-y. By the time I was going out for the night, it smelled more like strawberry shortcake, which is a nice smell too. It was very faint though, probably because of the way I had to apply it.

I polled two people about the scent: JM, who also smelled Lil' Angel, and my friend Mandy. Reactions were a lot less enthusiastic, probably because it was harder to detect the fragrance. Mandy actually said she didn't like it, because it smelled too perfumey and she's not a fan of perfumey scents.

So, Music was a bit of a disappointment, but I'm not willing to commit to this judgment because I think mostly the problem was not being able to spray it on properly.

I was surprised when Tanuki lasted the whole day yesterday as a Cherrytchi. I guess I must have paused him overnight at some point to require him to take an entire day so his 24 hours as a Cherrytchi could elapse. But this morning, right upon waking, he grew into his teen form. I was ecstatic to see he became a Ringotchi! I think having the sound on at work is really helping me get healthier teens. It must have been missed discipline calls that were getting me the unhealthier teens every time.

Today was Tanuki's Cherrytchi day. He wasn't ready to transform into his next form, so I didn't have anything to report really. He was very good. I didn't turn his sound off at work at all today, so some of my customers were treated to a bit of beeping. ^_^ It's all good.

So I wanted to post my review of the next fragrance from the Harajuku Lovers line:

Lil' Angel is COMPLETELY different from Love, and I really really dig it. It's named after Angel, birth name Jennifer Kita. She's an American hip hop dancer with Japanese heritage.



(Okay, about that psychotic hallucination and talk of "Gwen's dream world" — I believe Gwen's just making a very convoluted, ironic comment on pop star eccentricity by making all her Harajuku Girls play into this weird background story. Because I get the strong sense that she's not actually crazy. I mean, she loves Björk and she married Gavin Rossdale. She knows what's up.)

Lil' Angel is a very sweet fragrance, sugary like candy, but light and airy. It's actually a very interesting scent. It smells like a familiar, identifiable candy, as if it's something from your childhood that you've eaten a hundred times, but you just can't put your finger on it. It's just beyond your reach. It's somehow a very nostalgic scent.

I made three of my friends sniff my wrist at different parts of the day: Mary in the morning, and my friends Rachel and JM at about 9:00 PM when we were out for dinner. All three of them were in wide-eyed agreement with me about it smelling like some candy, and they were all stumped, clutching for some way to identify what it is. JM was like, "It's like some far away memory…" I find it so interesting that my friends who are different ages and genders all had the same reaction to the fragrance as I did. The perfume also lasted a long time and stayed the same the whole day. It only disappeared after about thirteen hours.

I was struggling all day to try to pin down what candy it smelled like, and I finally concluded that it's like a cross between Rockets and cotton candy. So it's like a fresh, airy, sugar candy with just a hint of citrusy fruit. Really, really cool. I have never smelled a perfume like this before.

I was kind of on the fence with Love, but I am definitely seriously considering buying a bottle of Lil' Angel. I think it rocks. I think I could make this my signature scent, especially for spring, when the sweetness would work really well, and around Hallowe'en, when all the stores are stocked with candy!! ^_^

I decided it was time to take Tanuki with me to work. I paused Amanozako, put Tanuki in my pet pouch, and took him with me to work. It was a little bit too hectic at work to unpause him, but I was able to play with him on the subway downtown. It was a really nice bonding experience, because I just held him in my hand the whole subway ride (about half an hour). I turned the sound off and checked on him as often as I pleased. When a guy sat down beside me, I thought about hiding my Akai back in my purse, but I decided I would be proud of my hobby and just hold my Tama right in my hand. It's not unusual to see people holding electronic devices in their hands on public transit these days. Everyone has their cell phones in their hands, checking them just as often as I check my newborn Haatotchi! If not a cell phone, it's a DS or a PSP or a video iPod... everyone's holding little screens. So no one even looked twice at my bright orange Tamagotchi.

I paused him again when I got to the open rehearsal and auditions. It was a really fun evening. I met a lot of new people who were trying out for the choir for the first time, which was really gratifying to see. We went out for dinner together.

Back at my apartment, I raised Tanuki while waiting for America's Next Top Model to start (I love that show!!). He grew into a Cherrytchi just after the show started. ^_^

I'm going to really enjoy having him around with me for the next little while. I adore the shell he's in, and the name "Tanuki" just feels like a cheerful, happy friend. ^_^

I've been trying out a new policy at work: I've stopped turning off the sound when customers come in. I feel like having the sound off so much is causing me to miss a lot of disciplines, which explains my run of unhealthy teens. Customers are just going to have to deal with it if they hear my Tamagotchis beep! They're not such unpleasant sounds — certainly not as bad as cell phone ring tones.

However, it would seem that old habits die hard, and I had turned the sound off on my white Akai when Amanozako saw fit to transform into her adult form. And my Heavenly Beast Princess became…

A Kuchipatchi, of course! Ha ha ha, I love irony. My Heavenly Beast Princess is a totally innocuous, non-threatening, koochi koochi koo, squishy little duck-lipped darling.

This means it's time to raise her Heavenly Beast Prince. I checked out my Orange Leaves Akai (which is quite seasonal, since it's getting cooler here in Toronto, marking the onset of autumn), and there's a baby boy on there who hasn't even gone through his first hour of life! I got as far as naming him: Tanuki. I remember picking that name, because the shape of the leaves remind me of tanuki. I think I blogged about it here.

Tomorrow is a terrible day for raising baby Tamas, since it's a) Wednesday, which is always hectic, since Wednesday is shipping day; b) the day of my choir auditions. I haven't quite decided what to do. I could bring my backup Tam around with me — my Morino — although I'd be worried about missing a predator or a foot. I suppose I could train Mary on what to do and leave Morino at the cash register (one of us is usually by the cash register), and just pause him during the auditions. Or I could just continue with Amanozako as usual. I suppose I'll see what my mood is when I wake up tomorrow morning.

Until then! Sweet dreams!

I forgot to write down what time she went to bed last night as a Cherrytchi, and now she's grown so I can't contribute her bedtime to the Akai sleep times project on Little Beeps.

She became a Young Oyajitchi. It's really quite beyond me why she became a Young Oyajitchi, since I let her drop by two hearts MAYBE once or twice. I made the mistake of looking at an Akai growth chart and I saw the Darumatchi, and I'm just aching to get that character. I don't know how, though.

What are the secrets of the Akai growth pattern? Could it be diet? I've been feeding her mostly radishes. Could it be discipline? She's got three bars of discipline.

Maybe she's just trying to live up to her namesake of being a fearsome monster with big pointy teeth. ^_^

I glanced over at 12:30 last night and saw that Aobouzu had indeed left his baby daughter to move on to Tama Planet. He was entrusting his heart-shaped baby to me.

I didn't wake up early enough to raise his daughter before work, so I brought her with me safely tucked in to my Ringotchi pet pouch so that she wouldn't be jostled and activated before I was ready.

I always tuck in my Tamas with their screens facing the cushiony part of the pet pouch. Using this method, I have not yet had a Tama come unpaused accidentally or have any other button mishaps. Today it was important because I wouldn't want my baby to be named a series of nonsense characters and then be activated and neglected...!

It's been a busy day at work today. The boss dropped off a shipment of toys, and now the credit/debit machine isn't working. Someone is coming by sometime today to replace it. With all of this going on, and all of my other responsibilities that I'm late on, I asked Mary to come in and keep me company for a few hours while we got a handle on everything.

Mary just left to go to a family dinner. Her birthday is next week (happy birthday Mary!!) and they're having a dinner for her tonight. ^_^ So now I'm alone in the store again, and thanks to Mary I'm caught up on a lot of the work I needed to do, so I thought it was time to name my little red heart baby.

As per my tradition on my white Akai, I'm using names of Japanese mythological creatures and folklore monsters. ^_^ I think the first time I hatched this Akai was for a Hallowe'en hatch on TSS, and I really enjoyed this theme so I've stuck with it all along!

This time I've named my little daughter Ama No Zako, which means "Heavenly Beast Princess"...!!! Spooooooky! I love that name. The Heavenly Beast Princess ::EXPLODED!!:: out of the storm god Susano-o-No-Mikoto  when his rage built up within him. She has super strong teeth that can bite through solid steel, and she can fly at super speeds! That's pretty kickass, I think.

(Source: The Obakemono Project)

You'd never know she has such a fearsome namesake when you look at her now, though! Little heart-shaped Haatotchi! Soon she'll grow into a toddler and we'll see if some of her fangs show, ha ha ha.

I'm coming down with a cold. I woke up with a sore throat and now I'm starting to feel cold and icky. So I've been feeding Amanozako lots of healthy food (all red, of course). Lots of radishes, and sometimes rice and meat pie. I haven't fed her any ebifurai (fried shrimp) yet. Since my mom is in Japan right now, my dad and I have been eating REALLY poorly. Neither of us can cook. So I'm trying to live vicariously through my Tamagotchi's diet.

I tried to take a photo of her as a Haatotchi, but it's really hard to get a decent shot of the screen of an Akai, especially with overhead fluorescent lights and a cameraphone.

Can you tell I'm delaying so that she'll have a chance to grow before I hit the "post" button? ^_^

...Ah, there we go. And isn't that adorable? She became absolutely the most innocuous, non-threatening Tamagotchi character of... well, possibly of all time! The Cherrytchi. ^_^ Adorable little thing.

Welcome to generation 4, white Akai. And welcome to independence, Amanozako the Cherrytchi!

~~~

It's funny that Amanozako became a fruit, because the first fragrance I'm going to review is quite fruity in smell.

Love, the first fragrance in the collection, is represented by hot pink and this little cutie here. It's named after Gwen's dancer, Love, birth name Maya Chino. She's a ballet dancer-turned hip hop dancer.



When I first put on the perfume, I was really pleased with how it managed to be fruity, sweet, and yet still interesting. It smells kind of apple-y, but also floral, so I guess like apple blossoms. When Mary sniffed my wrist at work, she liked it a lot and definitely got the "apple blossom" mental image.

I like how it jives with the name "Love", because love is also sort of full and sensuous and fertile, like a big round red fruit. Actually, if I were to imagine an object that produced this smell, it would be a big luscious fruit that wasn't quite red — more like the exact pink that they chose for the cap of the perfume.

I've been wearing it all day. Bearing in mind that it's hard to apply eau de toilette from those little sample bottles (I have my atomizer in my apartment downtown so I just overturned the bottle on my wrist a few times and then rubbed my wrists together, and then smeared it on my neck), I'm not so happy with the way the perfume smells by the end of the day. It's lovely and sophisticated for about six hours, but by the end of my workday, it had lost a lot of the more interesting notes. By the end, it was smelling a lot like an old Victoria's Secret body splash I used to have, which smells, well… cheap. Like there's too much alcohol in the formula, or like it's too synthetic or something.

I'm wondering if I decant it into a proper atomizer and spray it, maybe I'll have better luck. The fragrance is completely gone from my right wrist and I only have that body splash scent on my left, which is the one that got it applied directly from the bottle.

I don't know if I'll get a chance to do that before tomorrow, when I try the second fragrance: Lil' Angel.

Hey, the perfume samples arrived today! They are sooo cute.



They're the five upcoming new scents from Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers fashion label. There's one for each of her backup dancers:

Love ~~ in hot pink!
Lil' Angel ~~ in yellow
G ~~ in teal
Music ~~ in deep blue
Baby ~~ in baby pink, of course.

So far I'm really excited to try them all. Tomorrow I'll be wearing Love for the first time. ^_^

If you don't know, Harajuku is a district in Tokyo. It's famous for its youth culture of street performance and extreme fashion. It's very unique to young Japanese people. Gwen has appropriated this theme and is bringing it to the western world.

I would ask my mom if she's going to Harajuku, maybe she can take some photos of it for this blog, but I think she's staying in Kyoto for her whole trip... or maybe not, I should ask. But anyway, here are some examples of Harajuku street fashion that I found on the web. It's this fashion movement that has been inspirational to Gwen Stefani for the past few years.

Okay, so it was probably more of a 50/50 chance, but…

The Matchmaker came today for Aobouzu and brought a little Debatchi. She seemed to be exactly Aobouzu's type, because they hit it off right away! After the fireworks cleared, I saw that she had given birth to a little Shirohaatotchi! For those of you keeping score at home, "shiro" means "white" and in Tama language, "white" means FEMALE! That's right, Aobouzu had a baby daughter, which means that this round of playing with my Akais will be extended for at least one more generation.


Aobouzu and my lucky daughter!

Oh by the way: I was approached by a word-of-mouth marketing company who saw a blog post I wrote and thought I'd be a good candidate to review a new perfume they're releasing. They're sending me a few bottles of perfume that they would like me to try out, and then write about here. Basically in exchange for me writing about the product in my blog, they send me the products for free! Luckily it's not so far away from a Tamagotchi theme, since the perfume is inspired by Japanese youth culture. So I hope you'll tolerate little bit of semi-off-topic beauty content here!

I know I said I was thinking about unpausing my V3 and giving it some time to shine, but last night when I went to check on it, it had the battery sign on the screen. Not blinking, just solid on the screen. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong.

I replaced the battery and it didn't give me the option to download. It had lost its memory.

I was kind of depressed about that, and didn't want to think about it for the rest of the night.

This morning, my two Keitai babies were on their own. I woke up before they did and I knew it was time to make a decision.

To help me decide, I looked at my dearest Pink Tama. Olymp is still there, waiting for me to raise a mate for her. So I went through my other Tamas looking for a boy to raise. From oldest to newest, the first Tamagotchi that had a boy on it was still not a Tamagotchi that Olymp can mate with. It's good old Aobouzu the Memetchi on my white Akai! Remember him? He's been paused for a long time. I was happy to reactivate him. I've never had an Akai running by itself before. This will be a new experience.

My white Akai also happens to be quite an attractive Tamagotchi. The simple pure white is very interesting with a screen full of red pixels.

My other Akai also has a boy on it, so Aobouzu is waiting for the Matchmaker for now. If he has a daughter, I will raise her and mate her with the boy on my Orange Leaves Akai. If he has a son, I'll move on and play with the next Tama that strikes my fancy. ^_^

Let me tell you, I have never seen anything like this before! This seemed more like a mating ritual between some of our quadrupedal friends and less like a human-style relationship!

Despite Kanta's single-minded preoccupation with Fusako, down to evolving into exactly her growth pattern, Fusako seemed determined to play hard-to-get. Their gifts were almost exclusively nasty gifts. They traded illnesses back and forth, to my dismay. Whenever one of them won the betting game, the other would be furious and lose hearts. This was more of a competition for dominance than a blossoming romance!

I didn't witness a single heart appear during their interactions before they suddenly began their mating wiggle. I was quite shocked. I wouldn't even have thought that they had a single smiley for each other, from the way they'd been acting. But apparently Kanta saw his opportunity and took it. And now we have two baby boys!

Truly, an odd story!

Now I have to make a decision about my next move for my Tamagotchis. With two baby boys on my Keitais, their mating potential is now nil. I don't have any other Keitais, and Keitais can only mate with other Keitais, so I'll have to use the Matchmaker at least once in the next generation.

But I think this is a good opportunity to take a look at the rest of my collection and see who else needs attention. I've had a good little run with the Keitais for a few generations. Maybe it's time to look for a girl on another Tamagotchi type to initiate another sequence.

When I get home tonight I will tackle this question! I think it's time for me to explore a version that I am not that familiar with. I think I'd like to play with my V3 next. I believe there's someone lying in stasis in my V3, but I hatched that one for a group hatch ages ago, and reactivated it for Matchmakerless Month, so I was always raising it for the sake of having something to hatch, or on a mating mission. I think I need to take time to enjoy it as itself. But I'll tackle that question when I get home from work today.

I don't get it. I really don't.

I feel like Kanta's life was radically different from Fusako's. He was always in bed by the time I was out partying, so he was never neglected. I checked on him very frequently and caught most of his hearts right when they dropped. But he followed exactly the same growth pattern as Fusako!

That's right: Kanta grew into a Kuchipatchi too!

I guess he's spent his whole life looking forward to meeting the woman of his dreams: a little Kuchipatchi babe named Fusako. ^_^

Kanta must know what I have planned for him. He must have been watching as Fusako grew up. Because this morning he transformed into a Young Mametchi! This is the same growth pattern that Fusako followed.

It's kind of funny to me, to imagine Kanta as a Young Mametchi. To me, Young Mametchi is a very feminine character, a very sweet and quiet and well-behaved little creature. And Kanta from Tonari no Totoro was a little boy who was dirty all the time and worked hard on a farm, and had bad attitude to his elders. ^_^ I guess he's trying to tell me, "I am myself! I am not going to live up to your expectations from my namesake!" Yes you are, little one. You are you.