#and available in every route!! yippee

[asphodelis]

fates faves :)

[schadentekkers]

Any match recs for someone getting into DDT/TJPW?

hello and thank you for entrusting me with this task, i feel honored and under prepared, but incredibly excited. yippee!

**linking all of the matches via wrestle universe, which i highly highly recommend for the amount of content you get for the price! i believe you can also do a free trial (which got me when i wanted to watch zack on noah and then i spiraled from there. but i digress.) and if you don't dig it you can cancel it! ALSO i'm sure these are mostly available via different avenues if you're like ok we get it shut up about wrestle universe.**

DDT ~

i made a chris brookes specific match rec list a few months back, which are still a lot of my favorite matches and ones i recommend for getting into ddt, so i will send you there before listing off some more! (also want to rec ueno vs higuchi from the king of ddt show as well!)

STREET WRESTLING at IZU-KOGEN GRANILLUMI - one of the first ddt shows i ever watched and i literally had the time of my life. so much silly fun that i feel really encompasses ddt.

TAKESHITA, SASAKI, & KANON vs. MAO, UENO, & TO-Y at SUMMER VACATION 2023 - a solid match as well as solid storytelling within 37kamiina !!

UENO vs. SAKAGUCHI at KAWASAKI STRONG 2021 - really really really good match... ueno suffers so beautifully at the hands of sakaguchi. (unfortunately sakaguchi recently retired and i've been sad about it every day since)

SAKAGUCHI vs. HIGUCHI at GOD BLESS DDT 2022 - a true banger i'm gonna be honest here

CHRISDREW vs. SHUNMAO at D-OH GRAND PRIX 2021 IN OTA-KU - it is a hardcore match so there is use of unconventional weapons (see: legos and plastic bins) and blood, so be warned if that's not your thing! a comfort match for me tbh..

there is also a rumble style match where everyone is in swim trunks that i want to rec but i cannot for the life of me find it rn. so anyways. these are some great ones to start with, i think. i also recommend just watching like, a big show and seeing who catches your fancy as my lists are often skewed by my biases lol. ultimate party 2023 is a good one to start with if you go that route!

TJPW ~

MIYU YAMASHITA vs. MIU WATANABE at GRAND PRINCESS '24 - SO GOOD. so good. so so so good. one of those matches you remember feeling every single emotion ever. if that makes sense

RINA YAMASHITA vs. MAKI ITOH at TJPW '24 - super fun, as you would expect. rina and maki have a cute-off and everything. there is also blood so a warning for that!

YUKI KAMIFUKU vs. VIVA VAN at WE ARE TJPW - i haven't watched this since seeing it live, but i remember really enjoying it and it's one of the matches that really made me love kamiyu..i already loved her from the ddt street wrestling show mentioned above, but this match was a standout from her (for me)

MIZUKI & HIMAWARI vs. POM HARAJUKU & SHOKO NAKAJIMA at SUMMER FESTIVAL 2023 - the sillies!!

MIZUKI ALL AROUND BATTLE ROYAL at ANGEL AND RABBIT - everyone is mizuki and it's incredible. if anything, watch for pom's attempt at whirling candy and also her bridge out of a pin <3

POM HARAJUKU vs. YUKI ARAI at MAX HEART PRINCESS TOURNAMENT - the match that started it all for me, i think. pom in all of her goofy glory.

again, recommending watching one of the big shows and seeing what moves you! grand princess '24 would probably be a good place to start!!

and hopefully these are enough to make you want to watch bc both promotions are just so good. like.. i cannot recommend them enough, literally begging everyone to start watching them bc i am SOOOOO glad that i did!

[kitty-otome]

MY LADY JULIET (FIRST IMPRESSIONS)

RELEASE DATE: january 22nd 2021

SUMMARY: you may be a trust fund baby, but you work hard to achieve your dreams: making your mark, and maybe finding love along the way. sadly, your parents have other plans, surprising you with a fiance. are you bound to you parents choices? or does the voice beyond your balcony offer something more?

LOVE INTERESTS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE: 4/6

LOVE CHOICE: no

p. s. “first impressions” means i only read the prologue and the first chapter of every main story available. i make a lot of assumptions and i’ll probably go on a tangent at some point or another, so please be warned.

— THE PREMISE

in short, the mc (you) is a rich kid who dreams of becoming successful without the help of your parents (just like every millennial born wealthy, how predictable). unfortunately for her, her father unexpectedly throws her into an arranged marriage (on her birthday, might i add) with the flashy ceo of an entertainment company. in this story, your fiancé is chosen for you, so the other love interests are not other wealthy men, but people who work for your family/with you (AKA people your parents wouldn’t approve of). meaning, unless you pick the fiancé’s route, we’re falling into a romeo and juliet dynamic (hence the title of the game).

i think the premise is fine. it’s nothing new or original, but that doesn’t necessarily make it bad. who doesn’t love a good forbidden romance? i think it’s interesting that your fiancé is picked for you, rather than you pick the fiancé, i think it’s a good chance of pace.

— THE WRITING

the writing is quite good, much like the writing in most of voltage’s new stories. there isn’t too much description (at least in the prologue/first chapter), thus quickening the pace of the story. so if you’re someone (like me) who likes slower paced stories, you might find that these first chapters feel a bit rushed, i know i did. but if you’re someone who hates descriptions and long monologues, and who just wants to see action, you might really be into this style of writing.

personally, i love long descriptions and endless monologues describing the train of thought of the mc/narrator, but i know i’m of the minority.

furthermore, i find that whoever wrote this is very good at creating intrigue. although the writing isn’t particularly poetic (in my opinion, at least), it definitely sucks you in in other ways. the writers managed to spark curiosity in the readers without confusing them (something voltage writers then to do when attempting to create intrigue), which is quite a feat.

— THE LOVE INTERESTS

there are currently four love interests that you can play at the moment, they are keiji fujieda (the butler), haruto miyake (the chef), yoshiki minagawa (the coworker) and shotaru uekusa (the childhood friend). the love interests that are not available at the moment are hisashi aoyama (the fiancé) and motoki takahashi (i don’t know what he does, you don’t see him in the prologue, but i assume he works for hisashi based on the information available about him).

they’re all very attractive characters, aesthetically they’re very nice to look at. keiji truly does not interest me at all, he comes off as a cardboard box with a high sex drive, and hey if that’s your thing then get your thick brown packing material sis, but that’s just not for me. haruto seems alright, he comes off as quite immature to me, but i find that him and mc have good chemistry. yoshiki interests me. i’m really curious to see what he’s like when he’s in love (since he’s always as. stiff as a board). his main story seems pretty good too. however, i feel like they might’ve tried to recreate a takuto moment with his character design? who knows. shotaru seems pretty cool, i find his relationship with mc to be very cute. however, the love interest i want to play most hisashi. he seems like a very complex character and i’m really curious to know what are his motives behind marrying mc. i feel like he has a really fascinating/tragic backstory.

— THE MC

i don’t know what i feel about the mc. i think it’s still too early to really make a true judgment of her character. however, from what i see, she’s basically the stereotypical angsty rich kid who wants to live like one of the middle class kids, and i’m not crazy about that to say the least. i’d honestly rather have a bratty and self centered mc than an arrogant and “rebellious” mc who tries to act like she wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth, because then at least she’d acknowledge her privilege and have room for growth. but that’s just my opinion.

with that being said, her desire to distance herself from her parents is very understandable. her father is a raging misogynist and and her mother is an airhead-ish enabler. so her dislike for her parents is very understandable.

(off topic but, i think i should mention that her father’s words really hurt me, like actually hurt me. they gave me flashbacks from my own childhood, so if you’re sensitive to parental abuse or misogynistic remarks/insults, i would probably steer clear from this game.)

now, earlier i called the mc rebellious with quotation marks. the reason why i did that is because this mc has a very.. anticlimactic way of showing rebellion (in my opinion). this mc has a regular office job. there’s nothing wrong with having an office job, but if you hate your parents and want to rebel against them, shouldn’t you a) become a heavy metal singer so your parents are too embarrassed to be seen with you or b) become so successful you parents can’t interrupt your life anymore? who the hell becomes a regular office employee to rebel against their overbearing millionaire parents? not only that, but she explicitly says she isn’t completely satisfied in her current position. if she was satisfied with her job, then it would be a completely different story, but she isn’t. so, how is it rebellion? how is working a job you’re unhappy with supposed to make anyone jealous or envious? i honestly would’ve loved an angsty alt mc, who’s more interested in touring the world with her band than getting a husband, or a really brainy mc who’s more interest in pursuing higher education than getting married, or even a really business oriented mc with a wildly successful company who’s more interested in making bank than babies.

just imagine picking a job that you’re only half satisfied with when you have all that money at your disposal? that’s humiliating.

plus, she talks out loud to herself a lot which makes me weirdly uncomfortable. i understand you’re frustrated girl, but just get a journal or something. you’ll wake up the entire neighborhood with that blabbering.

— THE MAIN STORIES

most of the plots actually seem really good. in keiji’s main story, you realize you’ve fallen for him while he’s helping you plan your wedding. in haruto’s main story, you make a bet with him that you’ll fall in love with your fiancé, but you end up falling for him instead. in yoshiki’s main story, you start falling in love with him as you work together, but then you realize he might have sinister motives (much like a certain plot from irresistible mistakes). all of these plots seem great!

shotaru’s main story, on the other hand, seems absolutely pointless. in his story, you fall in love, but then he starts falling for a maid and you start falling for your fiancé, but for some reason, you’re trying to save your relationship, even though it sounds more convenient for him to marry the maid and for you to marry, well... your fiancé. (???) i promise i’m just as confused as you are. maybe the summary is just written really weirdly. i assume that’s what it is because the reviews are really good.

— THE MUSIC + SCENERY

unfortunately, there’s no music. although they let you know of that aspect at the beginning of the story, it still bums me out a little.

the sceneries are kind of boring, most are just old recycled backgrounds that i’ve seen a million times before, but the driving animation looks really fantastic (you know, when the love interest is driving)! it’s a different pov, the mc is in the backseat rather than the passenger AND the steering wheel is finally on the left. yippee-ki-yay! i know the steering wheel is usually on the right in japan, but as an american, i was very happy to see it on the left. that right side steering wheel irked me so much for some reason. it’s such a small detail but it brought me so much joy.

so, will i buy one of the main stories? maybe, mostly because i’m genuinely intrigued by where this story’s going to go. i’ll probably buy yoshiki’s main story, or hisashi’s main story, when it comes out. motoki looks to be my type, but i don’t know anything so far about his personality, so i couldn’t say for certain.

have you already bought any of the main stories? if so, what did you think? let me know!

[ladystylestores]

Road Trip Through the Scottish Highlands

Scotland, UK is a breathtakingly beautiful country that can make you feel like you’ve taken a step back in time with the vastness of its untouched lands and the old style buildings you’ll see in the towns.

The best way I think in which to see it all is a road trip to the Highlands.

So, grab your snacks and buckle your seats for the ultimate road trip adventure.

  The Ultimate Scottish Road Trip

Preparing Your Road Trip 

Route: Edinburgh to Inverness Distance: 318 km Driving Time: Around 5 hours Length for Trip: 2-3 Days

  Road Trip Highlights:

Fun, windy roads, in great condition most of the way

Epic views on every corner with plenty of designated places to park and take some great shots

Fresh seafood if you’re feeling hungry

The friendliest locals around to help you if you get lost

  Renting a Vehicle

After years of collecting Aeroplan points, I was able to cash mine in with a one week car rental at Avis for 25,500 points. Yippee! For those of you who are still struggling to get those points, you can find cheap options on Skyscanner. Often if you want to rent for 3-6 days, it’s cheaper to just ask for a one week rental. My favorite rental companies are Avis and Enterprise.

  Tips:

Many credit cards often offer car insurance for rentals so check if your’s provides this option to avoid insurance fees at the rental office which can often cost you more then the rental itself!

You will need an international drivers permit to rent vehicles abroad. Getting a permit is very easy in most places. In Canada you can visit your local CAA and apply for $25.

If you are a Canadian renting a vehicle in the UK, you do not need to get an international driver’s permit and will only need to show your local driver’s license.

  Tunes for the Road

To make your road trip even better, make a Scottish playlist. Some great tunes for driving include:     •    Highlander’s Farewell by Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas     •    Johnny Tarr by Gaelic Storm     •    Hug air a’Bhonaid Mhois by Julie Fowlis     •    Hinba by Lau     •    The Cruel Sister by Old Blind Dogs     •    Celtic Pipes & Drums by Peatbog Faeries & Folk Police     •    Lough Erne’s Shore by Old Blind Dogs     •    Shooglenifty by McConnells Rant

  The Route

Road Trip – Scottish Highlands – Day 1

Start in Edinburgh and spend at least a day there before hitting the road.

  Fishers Leith

As soon as we arrived in Edinburgh, we headed straight to Fishers for a seafood lunch. Scotland’s seafood is so good, a large majority of it is actually shipped to Spain. We ordered some oysters, mussels, calamari which were all fresh and delicious. If you go Monday-Friday between 12:00-6:00 PM you can get a great deal with their set menu of 2 courses for £15 or 3 courses for £18.

  Old Town

Next on our stop was to head into old town to walk off our great meal. Old town is an architecture enthusiast’s dream with every building having its own unique look and dates back to the medieval times. Make sure to look out for the Castle of Edinburgh and the Royal Mile.

  Beer Sampling

As we strolled through old town, we popped into a few pubs to sample the local beers. Try the Fraoch which is a Heather Ale (Leann Fraoch) that’s been brewed in Scotland since 2000 B.C. Also try the Tennent’s Lager which is the local’s choice in pubs.

  Ghost Tour

When it got to the evening, we booked a free ghost tour with CityExplorers. Our guide was Max who somehow managed to turn stories of murderers, dungeons and witch hunts into a walking comedy skit which was a lot of fun.

  Road Trip – Scottish Highlands – Day 2

A Scottish Breakfast

The next day we started our morning at The Abbey, which is a proper Scottish pub offering a great breakfast starting at £4.95 and an unimaginable selection of whiskey (if you’re up for some early drinking). I went with the Scottish breakfast which includes egg, haggis, sausage, bacon, black pudding, white pudding, hash brown, tomato beans and toast. It was my first time trying haggis, and it  wasn’t’t bad at all!

In case you don’t know, haggis is made from sheep’s stomach and is stuffed with liver, heart and lungs of the sheep. Despite the name and what it’s made of, I would eat haggis again.

  Arthur’s Seat

After breakfast we headed to Arthur’s seat which is around a 30 minute hike to the top of a hill,and over looks the entire city for some fantastic views.

Unfortunately, as soon as we started hike it started raining…hard. On the positive side, there were very few tourists and those we did encounter were retreating down because the rain was making it difficult to hike up.

By that point we saw it more of a challenge against mother nature to make it up to the top and pressed on. By the time we reached the top, not a single person was there and we had the entire spot all to ourselves.

After hearing stories from the ghost tour the night before about people hiking to the top of Arthur’s seat and then falling off, it felt very eery to be there on our own. Not to mention being surrounded by fog, mist, and then getting hailed on (in the middle of summer) which is when we decided it was time to go!

  Tips

Arthur’s seat is located in Holyrood Park which is a great place to cycle in or have a walk around.

It’s also close to Holyrood Palace, which was the home for Mary Queen of Scott’s and is the official residence for the royal family when visiting Scotland.

Tickets for admission into the palace cost £12.50/adult.

If you don’t have much time, it might be worth just taking a drive around the road that circles the entire park and hill. The ride is no longer than 10-15 minutes and you can get some great views and spots for scenic pictures.

After conquering the hike up Arthur’s seat, it was time to hit the road to Inverness.

  The Cairngorms National Park

Our first stop on the road was to the Cairngorms National Park which is the largest national park in the UK. The park itself contains the ancient Caledonian forest which has almost been wiped out from all of Scotland. 

You can find many species of animals there including red squirrels and even wildcats. There are many different paths to go on for hikes, a couple estates to visit, Balmoral Castle and a steam train ride around the park. 

  Tips

We were short on time to catch a train ride but the Strathspey Railway runs a return trip from Aviemore through the heart of the Scottish Highlands which costs £14.25 for a 90 minute adventure.

If you are feeling like getting in touch with your nature side, you can find some great wild camping spots in the park.

  A Hidden Beach

Just as you exit the Cairngorms National Park on the A86, there is a beautiful sandy beach where you can stop for a picnic lunch, do some fishing or even spend the night camping if you can brave the midges! The beach is located on Loch Laggan in between Quad Bike Tours and  Ardverikie Estate, you’ll be able to see the beach through the trees as your drive by with a designated parking spot to stop at.

  Tip

Every encounter we had with Scottish locals they would always bring up “the midges”. They are similar to mosquitos but much smaller and will drive you crazy in the wild if you don’t have repellent on.

Apparently, the best form of repellent recommended by the locals is wearing Avon Skin So Soft. In truth we were fairly lucky considering the horror stories we heard about them, but we came prepared with repellant just in case, and you probably should too.

  Road Trip – Scottish Highlands – Day 3 

Glengarry Viewpoint

All along the road to Inverness you will find parking spots which are great to catch some epic views. As soon as you pass the sandy beach you will encounter three castle like buildings. Stop at Glengarry Viewpoint (about 1 hour after passing the hidden sandy beach) where you can stand on a rock and catch views of the entire landscape. Funny enough, one of the lochs is actually shaped like Scotland.

  Invermoriston Waterfalls

Next, head to the tiny town of Invermoriston and leave your car at the local parking lot. Cross the street and follow the sounds of running water. This will take you to a waterfall for some great shots.

  Searching for Nessie and Urquhart Castle

Head back to your car and make your way to Urquhart Castle which overlooks Loch ness for your chance to find Nessie. This is the site of an ancient ruined castle, one of the largest in Scotland which was built in the 13th and 16th centuries. Tickets to visit cost £9 per adult. Although we didn’t’t find the mythical sea monster we were able to catch the sun setting from the castle.

  Inverness

This is the final destination for the road trip and is about a 30 minute drive from the Urquhart castle. For the best views of the city, head up to Inverness castle.

  Exploring More in The Highlands

Your trip doesn’t need to end once you’ve reached Inverness. In the Highlands there are many things to see and do.

  Dolphin Watching

Unfortunately, we didn’t’t get the chance to personally catch views of the dolphins ourselves but if you head to Chancery Point along the loch of Moray Firth you will have a good chance of seeing them there.

  Glen Ord Distillery

You can’t visit Scotland without some Scotch tasting. Take a visit to Glen Ord Distillery which offers tours and tastings. We went on the most basic tour which cost £6 and includes a tasting of a 12 year old whiskey.  Interesting enough, this distillery only sells their scotch in South East Asia and is not available anywhere else, including the UK.

  Golf

Did you know that the modern game of golf was invented by the Scotts? There are a few courses around including Torvean Golf Club, Inverness Golf Club and Fairways Loch ness Golf Course.

  Watching the Indigenous Scottish Game of Shinty

An ancient game said to predate Christianity, shinty is a team sport that Highlanders play and was previously used to help train boys for warfare. Catch a game with local Highland teams.

  Continuing Your Road Trip

If you feel up for seeing more of Scotland, I recommend continuing your road trip through to the Isle of Skye. Skye is well known for its beautiful, unique landscape and best explored on a wild camping road trip.

  Travel tip shared by Jenn amapforkandcork.com

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