Month: August 2026

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Bubbly Basin update – Pokopia

Me too.

The Bubbly Basin expansion for Pokopia is out a few weeks now and I am having much more fun in the game. I find the Magnemite form hard to use. I instinctly know how to go up, but moving Ditto down is much more counter intuitive. (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

The Bubbly Basin is underwater and you blow a small bubble to use as an air-helmet in your Squirtle form to be able to stay under water for long periods of time. Very handy.

And I love the water type Pokemon, Totodile and co are just the cutest! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡
There is more room for me to build. I feared in the land area, that breaking down the default mountain, I would mess up the area. In Bubbly Basin, there is more flat space to create.

Don’t eat me!

When scrolling throuhg Insta I see people’s amazing builds just like the ones that blew me away in Animal Crossing. I don’t think I have enough skill to build something nice but I will try in Pokopia.

Like a Youtuber said, Pokopia has everything that Animal Crossing is missing and I seem to spend more time on Pokopia now than on Animal Crossing. And this cozy game is fun to play for a few hours a day, and you can even sink more time into it if you want. But for me it is ideal as its a handheld, I can spend time in bed when my legs are restless again. Or play on the couch after work to wind down and relax. (⸝⸝ᵕᴗᵕ⸝⸝)

Mew appears!

I am glad I got the Switch 2 for this game, I am having fun with Pokemon again. I feel connected with the younger me and welcome the return of playful excitement.

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Master Setting Pokemon

I started this year with collecting Pokemon cards again, I had given away my collection from when I collected in 1998. I think I quit after Team Rocket came out. After that my relationship crashed, stuffing me with a huge debt and I lost interest in collecting as I had to pay shit off.

At the beginning of this year I came across some streamers and fell in love with the illustration cards and started to look in to how much it would cost me to collect the cards with art I love. Welp, I knew scalpers were crazy when the news hit about the rampant storming of the Pokemon merchandise at the Van Gogh Museum. I was looking in total disgust how grown people, started foaming at the mouth to get their hands on Pokemon items to flip for triple or quadruple the price online. Also the gifted Pikachu card is sold online for insane prices.

I had to displeasure to deal with scalpers when it came to releases from Volks in the doll community. Some lowlife paid people to stand in line to get limited release dolls to later flip online to people who weren’t able to get any because of these rotten scalpers.
I have no love or scalpers, Reddit has no love for scalpers and because some Pokemon cards go for insane prices, criminals target them. Looking at you, Logan Paul, you larper-trash.

My own collections are steadily growing with me going through big bulk from online sellers or physical store. If it is too expensive, they can keep it. ٩(ˋᗣˊ*)و

My favourite artists I am trying to master set are: Yuka Morii 56/273, Asako Ito 21/36 and Tomokazu Komiya 25/278. I don’t know if I every will complete the Yuka Morii and Tomokazu Komiya sets as there are many rare and expensive cards in it. The various Ditto cards are super rare of the Morii set.
But it is fun when you find a card that you do not have in your set yet. Exhilarating even.

Because the Japanese, Korean and English version of the Snivy & Venusaur GX is too expensive I opted for the Italian one. Found a lightly played version of the promo and I am so happy to have this full art in my binder. The same seller had quite a few old cards that I still didn’t have in the Yuka Morii set, some having a poor quality but a steal for €0,50. ( ˶°ㅁ°) !! Making my set now 56 cards obtained of the 273 out there.

My poor hubby knows nothing of Pokemon and I am slowly filling him in to the wonderous world of Pokemon, he has watched me play Pokopia and starts to recognise some characters like Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Ditto. Even when I was flipping to my binders, he remarked I know that trashbag, pointing to Trubbish.

I doubt I will get him crazy for Pokemon, but he is sweet enough to join me on my quest for cards or plushies.

Again, I am hooked. 〜⁠(⁠꒪⁠꒳⁠꒪⁠)⁠〜

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Rainbowholic physical shop is back!

In July, Rainbowholic announced they were closing their physical cafe/shop in Tokyo and I was feeling a bit sad. I had put a visit on my Tokyo itinerary because their stationery is top-notch. And now I find out they have re-opened a much bigger store called Rainbowholic Stationery Land. ✺◟(＾∇＾)◞✺

You get of at Komagome station, on the Yamanote Line. Which means I am lucky cuz Ikebukuro is also on the Yamanote line. 🚃 And a short walk away from the station.
I already checked the neighbourhood and there is enough shrines to explore and cafes to relax at.

When I am in Japan it is nearing Halloween, and I don’t think they do anything for Halloween because that is a Western thing, they do have some cool stuff to do with Yokai. 👺

Yōkai (妖怪; Japanese pronunciation: [joː.kai][1]) are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. Yōkai are a vast range of beings, including shapeshifters, ghosts, demons, and tricksters. They can be mischievous, helpful, or malevolent, often appearing as animal-like figures, possessed objects, or humanoids. They embody the mysterious and uncanny aspects of nature and human emotions

And I saw that Rainbowholic has Yokai for their September pledge. I hope I can get a sticker sheet when I visit.

I am just so excited for them that they have a physical location again. I wished I could run my own stationery store here in the Netherlands but alas rent is too steep for stickers and titbits. (╥‸╥)

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Pokemon Kanto Park

I was a bit on the fence if I should get tickets only to find out I should have entered the lottery in July. .·°՞(っ-ᯅ-ς)՞°·. BUT, I am staying until November so I signed up on the only full day I had for the lottery. I checked how many people signed in and it was busy as fuck so there is a big chance I won’t make it. (╥﹏╥)

This is one of the few lottery visits I have squeezed in my itinerary. I might try to get a slot for the Pokemon Café but those won’t open until the 1st of September.

When I got Pokemon Blue in 1998, I was smitten with Bulbasaur. He has been my favourite ever since. While some other Pokemon are starting to grow on me like Ditto and Trubbish. ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ His is called Fushigidane in Japan and with his little vines he is the cutest. No one can beat my bubbisaur. My hubby was sooo sweet to bring me this plush from the Nintendo Store NYC during his trip. This is the soda pop line and it is freaking cute. (˶>⩊<˶)

If I manage to get tickets, it will be a bit of a journey with switching two trains and the last leg with the bus or gondola. Greater Tokyo is huge, you should keep that in mind.

Fingers crossed I get a ticket, the results will happen by the end of this month.

And remember stay whimsical, embrace cringe. Fuck GenAI and flip a table.
(╯˙ᵕ˙ )╯︵ ┻━┻

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Fixed my Swatch but is it better?

Was doing a little bit of summer cleaning because I never do it in the spring when the weather is okayish, always wait for a heathwave (ᵕ—ᴗ—) and found my old Swatch. I could have easily brought this to charity but it had a bit of sentimental value. I had left the Netherlands to start a new life in the North of Ireland but Brexit cut that life short. Rampant racism, unjustified fees for being allowed to stay while I had been paying my taxes from day 1. In 2016 on the way back at Dublin airport I bought this cool watch.

Years later I pulled it from the box, bought some batteries and was happy it still worked. Just the wristband had a sticky feel. I scoured the interwebs for a solution, luke warm water and dish soap but the material that keeps plastic flexible had given out. So I turned towards the Swatch website to get an alternative.

There were many different types of bands and I had no clue if they would fit this old model. It had been discontinued for years. What else to do, then to ask customer service what type I needed to order. And I get an AI-response back just giving me the link to the wristband section of the website completely ignoring my question what type I needed.
┻┻ ︵㇏(òДó㇏)
Lucky for me the people in the Swatch forum were helpful, but jeeze companies if you want to replace your customer service reps, do it with a well trained AI… “( – ⌓ – )

The shipment was a nightmare too because it came from Switzerland. Next time I just go to a Swatch store in my country to avoid the hassle.

The available colours were off so I went for a clear type band and while it works I am not quite happy with the result. The plastic is so stiff, wearing the watch is a bit annoying. Let’s hope it will wear in with use.

You might think that why on earth do people wear watches these days because we have phone to check for the time. Well, I do not want to grab my phone each time. There is no clock in my home office so I rather have this option. And mister posh doggo is cool.

Will keep using it until I get my smart watch, that is more connected to my health and will help me with pacing to make sure I do not crash again with PEM.

As always, stay whimsical, Fuck GenAI and flip a table! (╯˙ᵕ˙ )╯︵ ┻━┻

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Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

With my Tokyo trip coming closer every day, less than three months! ✧｡٩(ˊᗜˋ )و✧*｡ I needed to plan what I want to see or do. Sadly, a lot of things that are popular in Japan, needs reservations months in advance.
I am not in the mood to fight over tickets for Pokemon Kanto, the Disneys or the Gibli Museum. I went to Tokyo Disney Sea in 2006 when it wasn’t that popular yet and I feel fine not going this time. When my hubby will come with me to Japan, he will be my support for these crowded spaces. I don’t want to freak out in a park, all by myself.

But I did not want to go to Tokyo and have no special things reserved and after seeing almost all Japanse Insta posters go to the new Sailor Moon show, I needed to buy my own ticket.

I got a S seat which mean I will have the high-five send off with the Silver Sailor Moon team actors on a Tuesday evening. I am soooo looking forward to this as I saw Sailor Moon at a young age when it was broadcasted on German and Turkish television. The Netherlands sucks as an anime fan, and the Dutch dubs are horrible. (¬`‸´¬)

My drink will be Sailor Uranus, I am such a big fan of her. She is my spirit animal.

Roll on October, I want to pack my bags and leave! It has been 20 years since I was in Japan.

And remember: embrace whismy, stay cringe. Fuck AI and flip a table.
(╯˙ᵕ˙ )╯︵ ┻━┻

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Rainbowholic haul 1

I’ve been following Rainbowholic on Insta for ages now. I love stationary, I love stickers and journaling. And they have made various reels and tips on how to be a happy stationary fan.

I had planned to visit their physical store in Tokyo coming October but they closed down half way of July ( ꩜ ᯅ ꩜;)  to focus on a new project. Noooooo!!! I was looking forward to it, but I do wish them well and there is still the online shop you can get their goodies from.

Rainbowholic goodies

They have a huge selection of goods: from flake stickers, to collab sticker sheets, retro gatchapon trinkets, a collector stamp book, stamps and many more. And when you purchase ¥ 20.000 you get free shipping and to the Netherlands that was via FEDEX. I do not dislike FEDEX, they are fast and customs payments are easy peasy.

The reason why I started with this purchase was because of the Licca-chan sticker pack. Licca is my all time fav, I rarely see any stationary of her online so I had to scoop some up for my journaling. ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ After that I kept adding tidbits to my shopping cart and hit free shipping. Woosh €100+ gone hehehe. But as you can see totally worth it.
Especially the capsule toy stamp will be fun to create with. Flake stickers + stamp = a lot of funga.

The collectors passport will be going with me on the trip to Tokyo, I hope to fill it with many, many stamps.◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜

And remember my cuties. It is not wrong to enjoy whimsical and be cringe. Fuck AI. Flip a table! (╯’□’)╯︵ ┻━┻

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Why it is good to buy from small businesses – July edition.

For July I did not get order that many things from small creators as I put in a large order from Rainbowholic. They are an independent stationary store in Japan and buying one sticker sheet and paying €30 in shipping would be insane and unsustainable. (,,>﹏<,,)👉👈

Allisart, SuzesMore and ShiyiStudio

As you can see I am on the Pokemon tour again, I think the last Pokemon game I played was Violet and Let’s Go Evee but dropped off because Final Fantasy XIV kept sucking up my time. Even if you play casual, you need some significant hours in the game in able to progress. This year I decided not to play FFXIV any longer, but did enjoy the new trailer of the announced expansion. Hope others will have fun.

How did I get back into collecting Pokemon? Pokopia for the Switch 2. I wasn’t even looking to buy the Switch 2 until I saw people online having fun in the game. While I haven’t played that much, and redecorated as beautifully as all the other people out theres, I still have 90+ hours in the game. Ditto is so cute!! ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜

Earlier in July I dropped by De Zilveren Vos again. It wasn’t that busy for the weekend, must be the heatwave the Netherlands is not equipped for or people gone on holiday. Had a little chat about with the proprietress about how aggrivating AI is becoming while I made a small purchase from Allisart and SuzeMore.

The full illustration fanart Mimikyu card is the best! I need more. This is my third art card. I bought two from AmyArtful which can be seen here on my Insta.

Then I stumbled across a fucking awesome bag charm of a Mola Mola. I love them, they are so weird and intriguing. Go check out their wiki page. Unfortunately I had missed the Kickstarter but ShiyiStudio had extras up on her Etsy page. Isn’t it adorbs? She has some lovely art up of Animal Crossing and Ditto so it ended up being a bigger order than expected hehehe (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)

Spreading the message again, support small creators. Fuck AI. And flip a table!
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

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Finally upgraded my camera

D3400 Nikon Body with 55-200mm objective

For my upcoming trip, I felt I needed to upgrade my old Nikon D3000 to a model with more megapixels. 10 wasn’t cutting it anymore. But new cameras come at an hefty price, even the budget models like the D3000 back in the day.

I am not a skilled photographer. I did make some good shots at the Berlin Zoo decades ago but I never got round to spending more time with my camera and propely use it. I enjoy taking photos. Some familymember took one of my nicer photos that I took of my family from Facebook and printed it out when my dad passed away. I wished they asked me for the original image because the resolution from Facebook pic was shit. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Between my D3000 and my current camera I had a LUMIX vlog set, kinda swayed by all those YTubers that one day I would vlog too. But I dislike the sound of my own voice and I have nothing interesting to tell. (˶>⩊<˶) Maybe I will get an OSMO one day and vlog with voice over about the Netherlands. About the LUMIX, I do not like that camera, the flip screen died twice on me and fed up with the constant repairs. So it is collecting dust in my closet.

Finding a new D3400 was not possible as this camera was launced in 2016. I was looking at a 24 megapixel range and with an F-mount. My objectives are still in great shape and buying a different mount camera would seem like a waste as I would have to buy new objectives.
I’ve been on the refurbished tour lately, my Iphone 13 is a preowned device and I wanted to be more sustainable with my purchases so off to the second hand camera market I went. There are several websites out there but I chose to get my camera via MPB.

Initially I was looking at the D3500, the replacement for the D3400 but the megapixels were at the same level. If it had a significant change it would have been interesting to add the extra €80 for the upgrade. The camera I eventually got costed me €230 and had only 5000 clicks on it. Very nice deal. And came with 12 months warranty. ദ്ദി( • ᴗ – ) ✧

Shipping was superfast from Germany, I got the original box and charger. And what I love about this camera is that I left the battery in for a little under two weeks and it did not drain at all. My Lumix drained the flipping battery in a day and I had to remove it each time I did not use it during the day to make sure I did not run out. WTF is up with that battery life?

My old 8GB SanDisk UltraII card worked on it but 8GB will not be enough when I go to Japan. The best suggested card for this model would be the SanDisk Ultra SDXC UHS-I cards and I was in luck that they were being sold online for 52% off. So I got two of those, 128GB each. If I run out of memory card space, I can always buy extra at Yodabashi (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

Only flaw the camera had some adhesive at the bottom but I managed to scrape that off.

The website experience was great, the fast shipping was great and the condition was just as advertised. I will be using MPB a lot more in the future. I need a macro lens for my miniature photograpy but first this trip lies ahead of us.