Everyone’s been asking about my trip to Gary and Yoshie’s wedding in Japan from a few weeks ago. Rather than repeating the same stories over and over again, I thought I’d sum it all up in one place.

My first night there Gary, Bobby and I hit the town. We wandered around Namba, Amerikamura and Den Den Town until the morning trains started running. Sorry for the blurry photo. I had been awake for 32 hours by this time.

The next day the entire family visited Osaka Castle. The castle was nice, if choked with tourists wearing identical Roots jackets. I preferred the grounds surrounding the area, with its battlements and giant rats.

The wedding ceremony took place in a temple nestled within a lovely hotel not far from Osaka Castle. I was unprepared for the group clapping that takes place in a Shinto wedding and did not take part. This was my one regret for the entire trip.

The only excursion we made outside of Osaka was a day trip to Kyoto, where we explored various temples and walked among the cherry blossoms. The perfect capper to an altogether wonderful journey.

As my journey to Japan draws ever closer, I find myself wondering if I haven’t set myself up for disappointment. Can the reality possibly match the dream?

Then I see a woman cosplaying as a go go dancer from a 70s Godzilla movie, and I know that everything’s going to be alright forever.

Seeing as no one has responded to my plea for Japanese gift suggestions yet, I asked the owner of my favourite cafe for his recommendations. After giving it some thought, he determined that I should get Gary to pick up a set of Infant Island fairies, presumably to keep them in my pocket should I ever need to call upon the majestic power of Mothra. That line of thinking had me questioning whether Toho has ever considered an Infant Island music box, one that has the twins twirling to their rendition of Mosura No Uta. So far I haven’t found anything, but I’m not giving up hope.

If you want to experience the siren song of the Infant Island fairies, an mp3 of Mosura No Uta can be found at Monster Movie Music.

Some days I just sit around obsessing over kaiju.

From the Japanese drama Always 2. Via Twitch.