Bagpipes Galore

Well, my most loyal and kind blog followers, I do not know how to express my sympathies strongly enough for my past month of silence (in which much has indeed happened, mind you). I have just found myself without the will to type anything extra on top of all of my school work, but I know that is not a legitimate excuse; I am a writer, after all, and I will try to not let sheer laziness stand in my way again! 

However, this post may be long, we shall see. I will understand entirely if you simply scan it. It’s hard to tell where my ramblings will take me…

Currently I am composing this particular post while aboard the Stena Line ferry between Scotland and Northern Ireland, preparing for a weekend back in Belfast again. The prices for taking buses over airplanes and trains is an insane difference, and thus, I began my nine hour long journey from my new home back to Northern Ireland quite early this morning. Two buses, my current ferry, and one more bus and I will be at my destination (finally!) but I can’t beat the amount of money I saved. Plus, this ferry is something like a mini cruise ship. The best way I can describe it is that I feel I am in in an airport terminal with seats and windows, shops, an arcade, and several places to eat…and the terminal is coming on the trip with me. It’s very nice, to be honest. For the price of my ticket I was expecting to be standing outside on a deck next to my bus freezing in the rain. Not that I am complaining.

Anyway, I will write as much as I can either until we arrive at our destination, or my laptop runs out of batteries – or, somehow, I finish, whichever comes first. So please make yourself comfortable, those of you who are ambitious enough to read everything, and enjoy.

Since I last wrote, I have been on Harry Potter pilgrimages both around Scotland and Northern England, moved into my new home at my university, picked up a sport (what?! Athletics?!?), become vice-president of a society, made new friends, and have been given a place to do field study in the spring. Like I said, a lot has been happening. 

But first things first – we will start with Edinburgh and Harry Potter. I had been to Edinburgh once before, though only for a day, and I was excited to be given the opportunity to return to that fantastically historical and beautiful city to spend four days. Of course, I returned to the famous Edinburgh Castle which extends over the side of a cliff and gave JK Rowling her inspiration to create Hogwarts (which is located somewhere in Scotland, actually, according to the books!) but I also went to the Palace at Holyroodhouse, which is where the Queen stays when she travels to Edinburgh, as well as the Royal Yacht Britannia. Yes, I will admit, I am one of those Americans who is particularly infatuated with the thought of the British monarchy, so getting to see these places to richly connected to the Royal family meant a lot to me – not to mention they were all beautiful.

And the ruins of the chapel at Holyrood made me have a strong desire to do a Dragon Age cosplay, just to take pictures there. It looked like a scene straight from the game.

I also returned to the café the Elephant House, which is the café where JK Rowling wrote most of the first Harry Potter book sitting in a booth in the back with a view of the castle out of the window. Though I don’t know which booth she sat in exactly, I am going to pretend it was the one I was in because I could see the castle, and I like to pretend that I am somewhat following in her footsteps. But what I think my favourite part about the café was actually when I went to use the restroom – and entered a haven of fantastic Harry Potter-related graffiti absolutely covering the walls of every stall and every door! People had written everything from professions of love to characters, to their favourite shippings (canon and not), to messages about JK Rowling inspiring them to read/write, to general thank you’s for a magical journey. It actually made me tear up a bit – Harry Potter really was a magical journey, wasn’t it? Best graffiti I have ever seen.

But my Harry Potter pilgrimage did not end in Scotland. We took a bus trip to Northern England to explore a couple of castles on a tour aptly named the ‘Wizards and Warriors’ tour. The first castle was Bamburgh, which honestly looked like it was right out of a film or something, situated on a hill right above the coastline and overlooking a small rural village, surrounded by a wall. I discovered there were actually flats inside the castle that were comparable to the rent one would pay on a small flat in London – and now I want to go and live in the castle. Seriously. 

The second castle was Alnwick Castle, made famous because it is the castle that was used for Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films! Now, I know, the films are not that great, but it was still quite exciting to be there. I stood most notably on the place where the students received their first flying lesson in the first film, and even got to have a ‘flying lesson’ of my own, complete with broomstick, from a very English-sounding wizard. Lots and lots of fun, even if it was a touch embarrassing. But eh, I am glad that I did it. In my Slytherin hoodie. Of course. Represent! (and because I’ll probably forget to mention it later, I did wear my Slytherin tie on my first day of class. That’s right, first day of postgraduate study, and I pretended I was at Hogwarts. Again, represent!)

It was hard to bid Edinburgh farewell when we had to because I had fallen even more in love with that city than the first time I ever visited it – in fact, Edinburgh was one of the reasons I decided to pursue school in Scotland, I loved it so much the first time. However, that didn’t mean I wasn’t excited all the same, because our trip was getting closer and closer to me moving into my new home (and giving my PS3 a new permanent home rather than carrying it and all of its weight all over the country!). And thus our journey took us to Dundee.

Cue the terrible rain and such the entire weekend we were in Dundee and moving into my new home in St Andrews, which was about ten miles away (considerably cheaper to stay in Dundee and commute to St Andrews for the time being). But despite the rain, I also fell head over heels in love with St Andrews from the moment we arrived. Never have I seen such a small place have so incredibly much character. This is beginning to sound cheesy, I understand that, but legitimately – the cobblestone streets, the old building faces, the ruins of a castle and a cathedral, two separate beaches complete with both sandy lengths and dramatic cliffs, huge university buildings…it was like seeing something out of a story book.

Except that it is my home now.

I still don’t think that I am used to that yet.

As for my personal home – well, I live quite far from the city centre, but the facilities are very nice. The room was quite drab when I moved in, but I decorated it as best I could and made it my own (despite the annoying rules that forbid one from hanging anything on the walls and the monthly room inspections to ensure these rules are followed). I also met my new flatmates, a point that I had been quite nervous about – how would they handle my nerdy, otaku self? Would they be okay with constant k-pop and strange cosplays? What about running around in a wig? Would they hate me?

Thankfully, I have amazing flatmates from all over the world – Taiwan, China, Columbia, and Greece, and then myself, and we all get along quite well. That was one stressful worry out of the way. And it helps that they all seem to like Howl’s Moving Castle and have seen Death Note. Wasn’t expecting that. 

 Before and after - quite an improvement!

As for the university itself – it is unbelievably accepting of the nerdy community, and even embraces it it seems. After all, with societies devoted to Pokemon, Anime, Steampunk, Wargamming/RPGs, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and Medieval (as in, they have fights with real medieval weapons every Sunday afternoon in town) I felt at home pretty quickly. I joined the first three societies in my fantastic list and have been settling into them quite well, and am interested to get a bit more into Steampunk since I have joined.

And this week I was voted Vice-President of Project Anime, which is quite an honour, and I am really excited to help transform the club from just meeting on Friday nights to watch anime (currently watching Bamboo Blade and Durarara!!) to also being involved in cosplay, music, and Japanese fashion. Plus I did run for the position while cosplaying Shizuo, which I really think helped me secure the vote. More about that later, I’m sure.

Oh yes, I did mention athletics, didn’t I? I have never been on an organized sports team in my entire life – as in, not even in elementary school. I only go to the gym around convention time so that I look good for my cosplays, and I hate every minute of working out. However…fencing? What is this? An athletic event that makes me feel like a pirate/musketeer/the melee party member in an RPG? Sign. Me. Up. And that is how I now spend my Monday evenings and Wednesday afternoons sweating more than I have since my marching band days and running laps around a gym so that I can swing a sword around and stab other people. Immensely satisfying, and I feel like it is going to make my cosplays superior somehow. We’ll see.

Right, time to talk about classes themselves, I think. I only have two modules this semester – Theories in Peace and Conflict and Issues in Peace and Conflict. Now I know that does not sound like a lot of class by American-university standards, but all the emphasis here is on learning outside of class. Cue the immense booklists and 5000 word essays (speaking of which, my first one is due in about a week and two days, which is all I will be spending this coming week doing…) but I have become quite certain over the first three weeks of class that I am in the right degree course. I actually find my textbooks interesting for the first time in my life and the discussions seem to go by very quickly. This really is what I am meant to be studying, and that is a real blessing.

What I am most excited about is single-handedly the field work component of our class, however. For the past four years all I have learned is International Relations theory, and never anything that I felt could be practical application (insert here a note about how the ferry is suddenly rocking back and forth and reminding me I am on a boat, which is actually slightly nauseating…) which was getting very frustrating. But finally, I will be getting my hands dirty in Sarajevo, Bosnia. I can’t get over how blessed I am to have this opportunity in the spring – I have always had a special passion for Eastern Europe, so this chance is once-in-a-lifetime. I do not know many details about exactly what we are doing there yet because my classmates and I are planning it completely and have not started yet, but details will follow when they are available. But expect stories from Bosnia when the time comes.

I also just became aware that I am riding facing backwards and have been for about an hour now. Funny how one seems to overlook that sort of trivial detail.

London Expo is also just around the corner – two weekends from now, to be exact! I will be taking the bus to London as well due to the extreme difference in cost and the fact that a bus will be the easiest way for me to transport my cosplays that great of a distance without having to shove them all (plus my computer and anything that I buy while I am there) in one small carry-on bag for an airplane. And the train is ridiculously overpriced. So yes! My fourteen hour overnight bus ride shall be full of excitement and adventure, leading up to a full weekend of awesome! I applied for a panel and two workshops but have not heard back about them yet, and am not going to say what they are here yet lest I jinx my chances, though I do hope I find out soon so I have time to actually plan them (alongside that 5000 word essay I mentioned earlier…)

The cosplay gods also have smiled upon me, because we were originally going to have to miss Sunday at the convention so I could make it back up to Scotland in time for my class on Monday. However, my class on Monday was randomly moved to Tuesday – just for that week. So now we can go to the Expo all three days, take another overnight bus back to Scotland Sunday night, arrive Monday morning, sleep for a very minimal amount of time, and then enjoy Halloween!! I have my costume for Halloween about half-done right now but I am keeping it a secret until the day (or at least until it’s done). It’s awesome, though. Admittedly.

Ah yes, another random note – I did get a job here as well, with the title of ‘event host.’ And yes, I used my experience in the maid café in my interview to prove that I was a good candidate since 186 people applied and they only wanted 11. Apparently it worked because I got the position, and basically work sort of as event security now. Fear me in my suit jacket, tie, and yellow safety vest.

You know, I think I might actually wrap this up here, surprisingly earlier than I thought I would, but I am feeling a bit woozy from the boat rocking, and do need to utilize a bit of my time to do research for my essay so that I can enjoy my weekend in Belfast without having to do as much homework. Hopefully next weekend I will be travelling to Glasgow for ‘Glasgow by Gaslight,’ which is a Steampunk/Victorian gathering on Saturday, as long as I can find another person to go with me. And I will not let another month pass before I post here again.

Thanks to everyone that is still reading – I hope that you are enjoying my experiences (though not as much as I am, of course *wink*)

Prince Yuki

Welcome to Scotland

 Welcome back, and thank you for joining me again. This update will not have much about otaku-isms, but it will certainly have a lot about Scotland.

Well - I made it here in one piece, and have been in the United Kingdom for exactly one week now. My cosplays are still shoved in space bags in the bottom of my suitcases, and my wigs are still tragically smashed into bags. But that's only for one more week - and with all of the travelling I am having the opportunity to do before moving into my flat, it is well worth it (albeit still quite painful).

I spent my first three days in this fantastic (but very cold!) country in Glasgow, mostly just settling in and figuring out mobile phones and bank accounts and boring but necessary things. I also bought UK power cords for all of my essentials - namely, my PSP, DS, and PS3. Priorities, of course. I checked out Glasgow's Forbidden Planet the first day as well....oh yes, Forbidden Planet. I probably should have mentioned that earlier - it is basically the UK's nerd store, full of manga, graphic novels, action figures, and the like. I quite enjoy visiting all of them and seeing what they have.

Tragically, Glasgow's was quite disappointing, with very little I cared about aside from the large manga wall, and the space itself was hard to maneuver in at all. I will have to find another one once I get more settled in...

...you know, I just realized another important fact I failed to mention in my first post. This is actually not my first time living in the United Kingdom, and thus, I am not entirely new to everything here, which might be an important fact to point out. I lived and studied in Belfast, Northern Ireland a little more than a year ago for six months, and still have a lot of connections there. Okay. Important background information out of the way and hopefully dually noted.

Anyway, back to Scotland. I did not see very many other exciting things in the city that are not typical to most cities, but the people were nice enough. I also enjoyed three meals at a small inn called the Burnbrae (spelling? I hope that is right) that was in the suburb I was staying at that were absolutely fantastic. Chicken tikka, potato and leek soap, and then - yes. Haggis. I actually quite enjoyed it, which means it might be time for me to look up exactly what is in it...let's do that together now, shall we?

According to the all-knowing Wikipedia,"Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours."
Errr...........well. I'm glad I read that now, rather than before, because it was legitimately very good. Moving on now, I think.

Guess who else was in Glasgow apparently?

Continuing on in my travels, I also had the opportunity to visit Loch Lomand, Loch Ness, and the Highlands. I fell in love with the Highlands from the moment I first saw them - incredibly desolate and actually a bit eerie, but fantastic. Apparently the sheep sometimes get stuck in the bogs there and die, which is actually quite tragic. Not sure why I felt the need to share that...probably because the fact upset me a bit and I always like to share that sort of thing. Anyway, it was a long day trip indeed (600 km - the longest day trip in Great Britain) but most certainly worth it. On top of that, the weather actually held up quite nicely! It did rain a bit, but nothing too serious, and never when I was actually outside and not just travelling.

Is it bad that all I could think about was how epic it would be to take some serious cosplay pictures out here? Imagine that. Especially something like Howl's Moving Castle. Fantastic. Something to look into.

The picture above is of an area called Haunting Glencoe, where there was actually a bagpiper playing as well to add to the entire 'Scottish experience.' The shot to the left is just from the window of the bus, but I loved how the tops of many of the mountains were lost in the clouds like this one was. We also stopped at a unique little place called the Drover Inn that was supposedly haunted...like everywhere else in Scotland. But I could feel it a bit I suppose, because as soon as I walked in, it felt cramped and sketchy, and the air itself just felt very heavy. I lasted about ten minutes before I had to leave. Cannot imagine actually staying there. I'll pass.

I kept my eyes open for Nessie, but apparently this was not the day because I didn't see anything other than black water, and a entire bus full of French tourists.

After a week in Glasgow and the Highlands, I spent the weekend back in Northern Ireland with my significant other and friends, which was a brilliant time. Upon arriving I had my heart set on returning to what had been my favourite Indian take-away for dinner that night, and as soon as I walked in the man behind the counter remembered me AND already knew what I was going to order even though it had been over a year. Fantastic. One of the single best moments of my trip thus far. Overall, the weekend was great and full of friends and love (and scones). I'll be travelling over to Northern Ireland whenever I get the chance.

Oh! My significant other did have the most fantastic welcome back present for me - a pre-registration for London MCM Expo at the end of October!!! We spent a lot of time over the weekend planning that, and planning cosplays, and I can legitimately say that I am unbelievably excited to go to a con in London - especially one as big as London Expo. I am more than likely going to take my formal Ciel Phantomhive, Jin Kisaragi, and Shizuo Heiwajima cosplays, but that could change between now and then. I do have six weeks, after all.

And the day after London Expo is Halloween, when there is supposedly a huge festival in Edinburgh. I won't be missing that, and intend to be dressed as Hei/BK-201. Equally excited.

AND there is a con called 'Scotland Loves Anime' that is in mid-October that I am going to look into once I am settled in at university. There is a weekend of it in Glasgow, and then another in Edinburgh. I can't feasibly go to both, but I need to figure out one or the other to go to. Cosplays are still up for debate.

I am extremely glad to be settling right back into the convention culture here as quickly as possible, though, and I am looking forward to seeing what cons in England and Scotland are like - and the cosplay, of course!! Most importantly.

Currently, I am sitting at a quirky little B&B in Edinburgh waiting out the remnants of a hurricane that swept past America and is now slamming Scotland with gale force winds and rain, and desperately hoping that it is gone by tomorrow so that I can explore this city a bit better. It's quite charming and incredibly different than Glasgow, but that will have to wait until my next entry. I will leave you with this, however - I find myself addicted to a fantastic local drink known as Irn Bru, which is a super-sweet, bright orange soda that is made in Scotland. I was drinking a bottle of it every day...

...and then my taxi driver told me this morning that last week its recipe was actually taken to the Court of the European Union, which was trying to get it changed because it is so bad for people, and it has been banned in several countries (including America it seems!). But they lost the court case, and Irn Bru remains the same. For now. Oh joy. I'm so pleased I'm putting that into my system.

Right there with the haggis (which the taxi driver also told me would put hair on my chest).

-Prince Yuki

A New Beginning

Well, hello there, and welcome to my humble bit of cyberspace. Please, make yourself comfortable. Have some tea, or hot chocolate if you prefer, and take a seat wherever you would like. Oh, and a biscuit of some kind. Have one of those too. Food makes reading anything on your computer screen a bit more enjoyable.

I suppose that I should begin this blog by introducing myself. But I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to start with my general purpose for writing this, and what I am actually going to be blogging about - that's why you are actually here reading this, after all, because I doubt you care little about who I am as an individual. But I will get to that for those of you who do - just be patient with me.

I tend to ramble on sometimes. That is just a warning going into this.

Anyway, yes, welcome to 'An American Cosplayer in Scotland.' Just based on that title you can safely assume that yes, I am an American, yes, I like to cosplay, and yes, I live in Scotland now (or well, I will be living there in two days). Thus, I wanted to keep a blog that could talk about....
1. Cosplaying in general - conventions, new outfits, fads and crazes, frustrations, etc.
2. The 'otaku' world in the United Kingdom versus the United States
3. General stories and thoughts about what it is like living in a foreign country

So yes. I thought it would be interesting to keep a blog in general about my experiences, but I knew that they would end up revolving a lot around cosplay, anime, gaming, etc, so why not just admit that from the start and say that is what this blog is going to be focused on? That way everyone knows what they are getting themselves into right from the start.

Or so you think, at least.

So, now on to a bit more background about the mysterious person typing this. My name is Yuki (no, it's not my real name, no, I am not ever going to tell you my real name, and yes, everyone in real life calls me Yuki anyway). I'm actually a post-graduate student about to start working on a Master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. This past spring I graduated with a double Bachelor's degree in International Studies in Culture and Biblical and Ministry Studies through International Missions, as well as a double minor in Political Science and History.

Whoa, whoa. Slow down there, Yuki. Isn't that a bit of a mouthful? Well, yes, it is, actually, but it is conveniently easier to type than it is to say out loud. And the next typical 'otaku' reaction - you study WHAT? Yes. I'm a politics nerd. I want to save the world some day. And yes. I cosplay and watch anime and play lots of video games in my free time. Somehow people just do not usually follow this connection - but I promise, it is real.

I'm just my own special breed.

Other than that - well, I love J-Rock and K-Pop. I do really bad dance covers of my favourite songs. I think that Sony will always always always PWN Microsoft in every way, shape, and form (I just finished up a year of working at GameStop, so I've had this argument many times). I love to write - so expect long entries - and I have a soft spot in my heart for fanfiction. I'm also part of a maid cafe as a host/butler/whatever title you wanna give to the people not wearing the cute dresses, but I'm sort of on hiatus from that because of moving. However, it is still a huge part of what I do and who I am. I'm also new to the Lolita fashion scene thanks to a few of my friends, and have been dabbling in kododa-style Lolita. So that'll probably be in here too.

Oh right. I guess I could put in a picture.

That would be myself and one of my best friends, July, who may be mentioned in here from time to time along with a few of my other friends. Anyway, yes. We're very beautiful people. Or she certainly is, at least.

Well, this post is getting quite long, isn't it? I suppose that I should stop this extended introduction sometime soon, but I will at least post a list of the cosplays I have done, currently do, and which are currently shoved into suitcases preparing to make the some-odd-thousand-mile journey to Scotland with me.

ACTIVE COSPLAYS
Lavi - D.Gray-Man - PACKED
Shizuo Heiwajima - Durarara!! - PACKED
Hei/BK-201 - Darker than BLACK - PACKED
Tamaki Suou - Ouran Host Club
Death the Kid - Soul Eater
Kagamine Len - VOCALOID - PACKED
Jin Kisaragi - BlazBlue - PACKED
Seifer Almasy - Final Fantasy VIII
Ciel Phantomhive - Kuroshitsuji - PACKED
Masaomi Kida - Durarara!!
Usui Takumi - Maid-Sama! - PACKED
Howl - Howl's Moving Castle - PACKED

PAST/INACTIVE COSPLAYS
Cloud Strife - Final Fantasy VII
Izaya Orihara - Durarara!!
Roxas - Kingdom Hearts II
Edward Elric - Fullmetal Alchemist 

Well, now that the obligatory list is over, I think I will draw this to a close with a few remaining words...
1. Packing cosplays is difficult and requires sacrificing a lot of regular clothes (especially to pack all the shoes...) but space bags help
2. Shoving styled wigs into bags and packing them flat in suitcases feels something like ripping one's still-beating heart from one's chest

But yes. My next post will be from after I am settled in my new home and hopefully at least somewhat unpacked - or at least the cosplays will be! Expect more pictures, first impressions, and anything else that I may feel so inclined to say.

I hope you have enjoyed our time together. I certainly have.

-Prince Yuki