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: