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I had a really weird dream. By now I forgotten most of it, but I dream of myself going around places looking for a Yukata because my sisters wore one. When I found a greenish Yukata I cannot find an Obi.. I put down the Yukata to looki for an Obi. When I did not find an Obi and went back to the Yukata the Yukata was gone.

Bon Odori 2009 at Esplanade, Penang.

It was the 13th time this event was held. I did not attend this event until sometime in 2000 or 2001.And I have been attending it almost every year since.

This year there was improvement in pavilion/booth/food stall location. Previous years the food stalls took a large portion of the field, and caused much inconvenience amongst crowds. So this year they took up the road beside the field, right in front of the Town Hall. So food lovers go find their food there. Although a few food stalls still took up the field but this time they were placed somewhere not facing the sun, and still nearby the other food stalls. All's fair.

Souvenir stalls sat at the side of the field, selling paper fans, accessories, plushies [ octopus and money cat. ] Japanese figure dolls and Yukata. Ha! About those, I was going to say I might buy one. But the RM200 ones were of batik patterns. Yeah I understand hand-painted batik fabrics do not come cheap but RM200 for local made Yukata was a little pricey for me. As for the real thing? Well they imported from Japan, yeah.. stock only arrived this morning, sure.. with Obi [ non pretied ].. RM300. Cha-ching +_+ Ironically for the men's top Yukata shirt is RM90. What a difference.

So did I buy it? No. I thought of saving the money up for Dissidia: Final Fantasy when it comes out in English And yeah.. no Yukata.. as if it was meant to be like in the dream? Oh well.

And there's the usual gold-fish scooping and water balloon fishing.. there's also one Obake Yashiki [ haunted house ] but I did not go there naw. ><

Centre stage looks the same, nothing new. But this time the official cameraman had to shoot his best photos/videos from a separate stage a little to the side of the VIP pavilion. But tourists and newspaper photographers can still took photos from the centre stage.. since the stage is barred by security fences.

This year I took up a corner from the barred fences. I thought I can get most of the views in it, which was nice indeed. I feel sorry for mom though.. we were all very near the speakers ><.

The programs were as follows :

arrival of guests
give speech
Opening ceremony - drum performances
Bon Odori Round 1
Soran Bushi Round 2
Guest Performances - Japanese Folk Dance Round 1
Yosakoi Dance
Bon Odori Round 2
Soran Bushi Round 2 + 3rd upon request by MC
Guest Performances - Japanese Folk Dance Round 2
Bon Odori Round 3 + 4 with Folk Dancers + 5 with 30 locals [ with condition they wear a Yukata of course ]
Then they were all privileged to stay on stage to watch the Fireworks.

Lol what's funny was the fireworks was said to last 10 minutes.. but I checked the watch when it's over.. its only pass 5 minutes. But it was worth the watch. Mom and I were resting at the VIP pavilion and after knowing the fireworks is coming out, we moved to the side of the same pavilion [ and not going down with the crowd ] and watched the fireworks from there. It was a good seat to view it right in front of us.

Then mom and I went home, but I swore I heard the Bon Odori had another round, but we were tired [ I really am now >< ] and we went home.

Between those Round 2's we just rest and I ran around looking for cosplays, after took one photo of the Naruto/Atatsuki [sp?] cosplays I just had to find more. I thought I saw a funky looking Cloud, with a little mismatch of the getup but the black apron was hanging there so I figured that's Cloud. I also saw a guy don in red with a cross-shaped earring dangling on his left lobe so I thought that might be Genesis. But then again it could be anyone else in a red coat [ DMC Dante or Triggun for instance ]The girls look lovely in their Lolita/maid style dresses. Well done ^^ I finally see people actually cosplay in Penang. I just wanna shout at them guys :

THAN YOU! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Better than keep hearing ComicFiesta and similar cosplayers from Selangor or in Melacca or even in Sarawak. >< But at least I am glad to see people do cosplay here in Malaysia. Just not too frequent I guess

I wonder if I can able to do a cosplay like that in next year's Bon Odori? Dress like a Turk perhaps? I'm sure all I need are a pair of contacts, a toy gun >< , black tie, and a big black coat that can be zipped [ or have to modify it somehow ] and boom, you get a Tseng ><. Then again I am such a procrastinator I may never be doing that >.<

Alrighty I need my sleep >< I still got Oral Exams in the morning .. last tutorial to attend for this semester and in August -gasp- Final Exams ><

Night night darlings.

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Feature's still up for grabs ^^.

First 10 to comment gets 2 features from that person's gallery. Yeah I know 2 is so few but never minds right? if I get lesser respond then I'll feature more.

1. She wrote a book and it's gonna be published. Congrats. Oh yeah, also a doll collector ^^



2. Obviously reverse for Sapphire lol. Fellow Malaysian and member of OrgUnderground. Has cute imaginations when it comes to writing.



3. I kinda forgot to add her to my watch list D: Anyways she's a nice manga artist and Kingdom Heart's fan. Check her out.



4. Known him from the old chatroom. Nice kid. Sorry for calling ya kid ><



5. Known him around sometime in an chat room, then he created his club and chat room, Org-Underground. Nice guy actually ^^