endless summer

  Please note: this sat in my drafts since July 2025. It's a mess. I think it's too difficult to chronicle emotions. Please enjoy the hot mess. reflecting on the announcement, her dreams, the future This doesn't come as a shock to anybody who may be reading, but the idol known as Shimakura Rika means absolutely the entire world to me. I think everybody gets an idol like this at least once in their life, if they're lucky. Someone who appears at exactly the right time and quietly rearranges the shape of your world. I met Rika-chan early on in her career and early on in my own life (by early I mean, I was in high school) and she has taken me places I had never even imagined for myself. If it wasn't for her I would not have embarked on the journeys that I have today and I'm endlessly grateful for all the joy that she's brought to my life. But, the graduation announcement.. Everybody goes on and on about how you can't prepare for the inevitable. Those peo...

First time sending a birthday card, applying for concerts, meeting local wota, finally seeing my oshis, accidentally buying double of things... A year of many "firsts"! A deeply informal review of my 2023      Hi! Thanks for stopping by. I'm Chloe if you didn't already know. I follow Shimakura Rika and Arisawa Ichika closely, while also following their respective groups more generally. I don't think I've ever put myself out there in long-form text, so I'm feeling like I need to do a re-introduction... If I had to describe myself, I'd say that my friends know me to love my favorite things a little too hard. This is a roundabout way of saying that I put 150% into everything that I do!! Working, studying, even relaxing, I always have to be fighting something!!      As a wota, I feel like that part of myself really starts to come out. I try to do everything that I possibly can from overseas. Like- do the online events, buy all the streaming, collect good...

 A deeply informal fan report: I met my forever oshi Shimakura Rika in person for the first time!! And with the help of some really kind wota, I also got to talk to more than half of BEYOOOOONDS!! My life will literally never ever be the same!!  pictured: "Recommended cute pose", "Spider-man pose", and "World's no.1 most happy pose" My first BEYOOOOONDS in-person Kobetsu event!     A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to my first ever BEYOOOOONDS Kobetsu event. For those who might not know what a Kobetsu is, these are the events where fans go get polaroids taken with their favorite idols. It's at these events where fans are also able to converse with the idol, get signatures written for them, and have dreams come true. As an overseas fan, I feel like nobody really talks about these events given how inaccessible they can be for people living outside of Japan. These events are usually announced one to two months in advance and require...