#ask niu

[niuniente]

Silly question.

What was your 69th flavour of icecream? Do you keep count? :)

I do keep count because otherwise I will forget the flavors.

My list says that 69th flavor was gingerbread. Which is ironic because in Finnish slang gingerbread also means a pussy.

[niuniente]

I don't understand the voting system for eurovision. But how did Sweden win? Did they bribe judges?

That's the theory! ABBA won Eurovision in 1974 and started their career, so 2024 is ABBA's 50th anniversary. There's one Reddit post saying that the person works in Swedish entertainment business and their boss had told them that they've decided to celebrate ABBA-week with Eurovision - before any country even had decided who they are going to send to Eurovision. The Eurovision final had a way too much emphasis on Sweden and ABBA, too.

Sweden's representative singer Loreen herself said in one interview, that Sweden had to win because of ABBA.

Swedish media also knew for certainty that Sweden is going to win through the whole spring before Eurovision artists had been chosen. It wasn't even "what if we win" but "lol of course we will win".

Jury, aka 186 people from different countries, gave so many jury points to Sweden that even if 2nd runner had gotten all 12 points from televoting - meaning that in every single European country the countrymen wanted the 2nd runner to win - the 2nd runner would have still lost. Doesn't matter if and when Eurovision viewers send millions and billions to Eurovision by voting their favorite song - the jury has spoken.

The gigantic amount of jury points for one country also means that all other countries didn't receive jury points or got very little even when there was nothing wrong in their performance - and in any other year than in upcoming ABBAvision 2024 they would have received jury points. The jury points would have divided wider among different countries' artists. Norway is especially pissed off but so is Germany, too.

So, 186 people decided the winner when millions of people wanted someone else to win. In fact, 70% of the Eurovision televoters wanted Finland to win. Rest 30% wanted either Sweden or someone else to win. No country gave maximum points to Sweden. The average point for Sweden from public was 6 and for Finland 10.

Finland got the 2nd highest score in televoting in the whole history of Eurovision, which has been celebrated since WWII, and still didn't win. Because of jury of 186 people.

And then, Swedish media dares to say that televoting and people can't be trusted and they can't be let to decide who they want to win because "the audience doesn't always know right" (a direct quote).

[niuniente]

BABY ALRICK!!!!!! i love him so much omg

BABY ALRICK WAS A SURPRISE FOR ME TOO AND WHAT A CUTE SURPRISE!

(and now we know that he got his lip scar as a kid doing something stupid lol)

[niuniente]

Favorite Finnish curse? (as in swearing although actually any curse meaning will do, lol)

I think Vittujen kevät, the Spring of Cunts, is one of my favorites - and it's commonly used one, too.

There's lot to choose from because according to a book published some years ago, Finnish has over 5000 different curses.

[niuniente]

I'm American and have never watched Eurovision but I feel like Käärjia should have won for his getup alone. He somehow, beyond all metrics, made a bowl cut (I don't know if that's the actual hair style but it looks like a bowl cut) have drip.

HE MADE A BOWL CUT FASHIONABLE AND YET HE GOT SECOND PLACE?!

ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOT! GIVE THAT MAN FIRST PLACE FOR BOTH THE SONG AND MAKING A BOWL CUT LOOK FASHIONABLE!

That's his own hair if you meant that and a bowl cut is pertfectly fine to describe it

Part of Eurovision is that there's magical and weird charm in it. Performers and singers and band can and should look weird or have a unique show. Like, unicorns shitting rainbows, that kind of a thing lol. It's really important part of Eurovision and it's vibe, like we have seen with Iceland's Hatari

This year Croatia's Let3

Ukraine's Verka Sherduchka has been an Eurovision legend for 16 years and EVERYONE LOVES VERKA.

And I will never remember the year or the performer's name without googling with I will always remember (Romanian's?) opera singing vampire

So, Käärijä fits there perfectly with his bowl cut and makes is extremely fashionable, as well as the radiation poisoning green :D

[niuniente]

Hi Nui! I'm going to be visiting a friend in Finland in about a month, and was wondering if you had any advice so I don't look like an absolute FOOL to them and all other Finns I run into on said trip (Also, if there's anything I absolutely have to do/try/see while visiting, that would be appreciated!)

These kind of questions always remind me of this Tumblr user whose father went to visit Finland. He learned Finnish and practiced his pronouncing. When he met a Finn and greeted him - very fluently - the Finn asked "Where are you from?"

The father was a bit bummed that his Finnish wasn't as good as he had imagined and asked was it his accent which gave him away? The Finnish guy replied: "You smiled when you said hi".

So, some dos and donts which came to my mind quickly, depending of course a bit where you will be heading and with whom you'll be spending time with. A 60 year old women from East-Finland is going to be different than a 20 year old guy from the capitol :D

Don't touch Finns Forget hugs, cheek kisses etc. with Finns. You may hug your close friends when you meet but it depends on your friends, of course. Don't touch Finns when speaking as we have extremely wide personal space and its violation will not be taken well. Touching another person in Finland is reserved for family members and a spouse/date. A hand shake is most appreciated if needed :3 Give Finns space It's rude in Finland to go too near of unknown people unless you absolutely have to, like in a crowded public transport. Always leave space between you and a Finn.

(Finns waiting for a bus in a rush hour and giving space to each other)

Be quiet and modest Yelling, talking loudly, screaming and being overall loud is considered rude in Finland. Especially in public places. There are others there, don't bother them with your yelling and scream-talking. Being too lively and expressive is considered rude.

Take your shoes off indoors! Extremely important! Don't walk inside with shoes! Leave them in the mudroom. Walking inside to someone's home with shoes on is probably the rudest violation you can do. Even construction workers etc. apologize before getting inside with their work shoes (and those are allowed because they're work shoes).

No small talk, no talking to strangers We don't have small talk pleasantries in Finland. I was just watching The Block from Australia, where every single phone call, with every single person, is always started as "Hi! How are you? Thanks, I'm good, too!" and then you tell why you called. Forget that. Just go to the point :D Don't talk to strangers unless you really have to. There are area differences in this though, and for example in East and South East it is fine to strike a chat with unknown people.

Be honest Now, while polite manners are good in every country, Finnish people appreciate honesty. If you don't, for example, like some food you are offered, you can say "Sorry, but this isn't for me" or "Sorry, I didn't like it that much." A Finn will feel like you're making a fool out of them if you, for example, don't like the food their offer but go "Hmmm, this is so tasty!" The Finn will most likely just feed you more the food you absolutely hate because hey, you said yourself that you liked it! Also, if you need something, ask for it. There was an article on a newspaper years ago about Finnish families who hosted exchange students. When asked had there been any issues, one woman said that they had a student from Japan. When the student went to take a shower, the family forgot to give her a towel. Instead of asking for a towel - because that would be extremely rude in Japan - the girl tried to dry herself with toilet paper, messing the whole bathroom. Now that in Finland is rude - you just made a mess, used a full toilet roll and humiliated the family because you didn't note them that "Excuse me, I need a towel."

Don't talk bad about sauna Sauna is a sacred place. You can say that it's not really your thing but don't talk shit about sauna. Again, would you want to go to sauna but you want to wear a towel, say so. Finns will understand.

Apartment buildings and house areas have Law of Silence for the nighttime All Finnish apartments have a silence time. It's a law and if you (or your guests or pets) constantly violate that, you will be evicted, especially if you are a tenant. Avoid loud noise between 10pm to 7am. While it's not illegal to take a shower between 10pm and 7am, if you can take a shower before 10pm or after 7am, please do so. That's being polite towards neighbors and that's how most of the Finns live.

We don't have a word for please Finnish language is straight to the point and doesn't have a word for please. When speaking English in Finland, you can drop "please" out from it. Would you want to be very polite in Finnish, you can use kiitos (thank you) in customer service for please. But otherwise, just ask for what you want without any sugar coating - that's not rude but honest :3 (I so struggle to use normal polite language in English because it doesn't make any sense to me lol)

Watch out for pickpockets in Helsinki If you come to Helsinki, watch out for pickpockets, especially during summer. During summer many criminal groups arrive from East Europe to Helsinki to steal stuff from tourists. You need to be mindful only in the central and tourist attraction spots, though.

Anything you can imagine comes lactose free! Not really a guide but just a little note that if you can't have lactose, Finland is full of lactose free products. Stores have a little L on the price labels for Lactose Free products. Laktoositon = Lactose free. Overall, all kind of different food restrictions are well handled in Finland.

I like to say that if you didn't do it in Japan, because it's considered rude or distributive, don't do it in Finland either and you'll be fine :3 Except for saying what you mean and meaning what you say.

[niuniente]

Finland was robbed, I voted for him and I will die on that hill, no matter how many Loreen fans would call me "misogynist" for stating the obvious. Did you have other favs besides Finland? Germany and Serbia deserved better too!! ToT

Germany, Spain, Albania, Norway and France definitely deserved more. Of course, when Sweden HAS TO win, the jury votes HAVE TO go to Sweden so the jury can't give points to other countries :3 Norway is furious of this year's competition and say this was rigged. Everyone seems to have a real bad taste in their mouth after Sweden won only because jury wanted it.

Just look at the like-dislike ratio on Youtube on Sweden's song:

Every single other Eurovision official victory video is having the similar like-dislike balance. Absolutely unheard in Eurovision! Usually, while there might be disagreements on who should have won, the winner is celebrated nevertheless. I heard the audience was booing and chanting Cha-Cha-Cha when the winner was announced and that outside in many places, where people had gathered to celebrate, people literally just walked out.

As said online: United by music, divided by jury. The shitshow aftermath is strong. Every single Eurovision social media post celebrating Sweden is full of negative messages and how Käärijä should have won. Eurovision Youtube mod keeps removing negative comments quickly. Yesterday there were lots of critical voices in the comments, now there's suspiciously too many positive voices for such a huge dislike ratio.

Loreen herself is completely innocent in this. Too bad this will affect her career and public image negatively.

There was no reason for Finland not to win. None. If the televoting was to believe, it was Finland's victory. But apparently televoting doesn't do a shit when jury decided that a country X must win, let's give them so many votes that even if the 2nd place runner got full 12 points of ALL European countries by televote, they can still win with 20 points only.

And that's never going to happen.

Talk about robbing televoters' money since their voting doesn't count :))))

[niuniente]

I have never seen him this flustered it is so cute!!!

You will love the close ups :D Look at the eye twitch lol, that was completely unintentional and I laughed my ass off for it.

[niuniente]

Plague, staring at Cure, trying to mentally tell her to UPDATE HER DING DANG FIC or GET THAT DING DANG BOOK OUT ALREADY I'M TIRED OF SNEAKING TO LOOK AT YOUR NOTES

Cure over here like "WHY IS HE STARING DAGGERS AT ME?! WHAT DID I DO WRONG THIS TIME?! WHY IS HE UPSET?! SHOULD I ASK?! NO, I DON'T WANT CONFONTATION, I SHALL JUST IGNORE KDFJ;ALDKFJ"

Just another lovely case of two people not reading each other correctly.

It was a very weird few weeks in the office....

[niuniente]

Have you ever heard of an artist called Ivan Bilibin? Or something that that, not sure I spelled the name right. I only heard of him from some Art Nouveau blogs on here (don't seem to be currently active) that reblogged stuff from each other, and not only was his stuff incredibly pretty, it's also VERY much what I desire for my own artwork. Unless I'm confusing you for another person (which is very possible) I think you studied art, and I'm curious as to how well-known he is, among people who have actually learned stuff.

He was a new name. I checked his art and yes! He's got the classic Russian/ East European fairy tale art style from his own time.

Sometimes I can find old translated story books from Russia from second hand stores with similar art. It's always a pleasure!

Finnish children book illustrator Rudolph Koivu lived around the same time with Ivan Bilibin. You might enjoy his art, too, albeit it's softer.

'

I would also recommend Danish artist Kay Nielsen.

[niuniente]

Have you ever used one of those Make A Monster picrew?

I used the RPG Monster Husband Generator, my friend tagged me into it. That's how Alrick was born.

But not others, no.

[niuniente]

This is random because I've never sent you an ask before but... I drew my first comic today. I was inspired mainly because of you, and a post you reblogged not long ago about how your first comic will not be good but it won't be anything if you don't even start it. So, thank you. I'm actually really proud of it.

I'm so happy for you! Thank you for telling me <3 Have fun with the comic process - and honestly, you can never become something if you don't start something.

[niuniente]

Hey Niu~ Do you have any smaller wonders you'd recommend visiting in Japan

Sure!

OSAKA

If you go to Osaka around the end of a month, there's a monthly temple flea market in the Shitennoji temple yard. It's arranged on 21st and 22nd of each month, and regular people are selling there their old stuff, as well as booths selling vintage kimonos, yukatas, haoris etc., ceramics, decorations, lots of antique items, statues etc. Take a subway to Tennoji station, the temple is next it. Read more here!

In Osaka, near Tenma JR railwaystation, is a takoyaki shop owned by an 86 year old lady called Hiroko. She's been making takoyakis for 60 years in that shop. You might have seen this image set of Hiroko giving a piece of her mind about people complaining that her food is too yellow (if not, see it - it's hilarious!) Her shop is called たこ焼き 寛子（ひろこ), Takoyaki Hiroko (Hiroko). The address is 5 Chome-6-3 Tenjinbashi, Kita Ward, Osaka, 530-0041, Japan. If you use subway, get off at Ogimatchi station to get to her store.

If you love toys and anime merch, there are two good spots for these in Osaka; one is the famous Den Den Town and other one is Kiddy Land in Umeda.

You can get to Den Den Town the easiest from Nipponbashi metro station. Just head towards south. You can also walk from Namba to Den Den Town as it's just right the next corner.

Kiddy Land is a bit harder to locate in the gigantic Hankyuu department store (which is like multiple building spreading across the whole Umeda) but you can get there the best from Umeda station. Kiddy Land has lots of toy stores, like Miffy, San-X, and a mixed store of everything cute, and also a Lego store. If you go out from the building from the door next to the Lego store, you can walk a few ten meters to a big Loft-store. It also has some merch, typically San-X and Sanrio and Disney stuff, but on the top floor of the same building there's an anime store. They sell lots of art books, replica swords and also special collectible statues like Japanese deities.

Special mentioning goes to the Namba Daiso (Namba Daiso Nansan-dori). It has 5 floors, all stuff with 100 yens. It's very near Namba metro station, easy to find! If you want to get super fancy and you've got a big budget, the Takashimaya department store is near this Daiso. You can find all kind of food items there, some with ridiculous prices. There's also Daimaru department store in Namba in close proximity - they sell fresh made taiyaki cakes in the bottom floor's food section.

KYOTO

Near Kyoto, you can find a small town of Arashiyama. It is the most well-known for its ancient wooden bridge and bamboo forests. People go just walk around into the bamboo forest. Many movies and TV series has been filmed in that forest. There's a direct train service to Arashiyama from Kyoto. Arashiyama is especially gorgeous at the end of November when the fall has arrived to Kansai area. It's apparently also super pretty during cherry flower season in spring. There are lots of temples in a small area, too, if you want to explore them.

(Here's the famous bridge).

In Kyoto, there's a design shop of SOU SOU. Now, SOU SOU makes and sells handmade tabi shoes, kimonos, yukatas, string bags, dishware, and wonderful print tabi socks but they also have their own, traditional Japanese café at their Kyoto store called Sou Sou Zaifu. You can get only coffee and matcha tea here - the order is hand made in order in front of you. It's very quiet and idyllic, intimate place. I accidentally went here to find shelter from a rain and it was so lovely. Even the shop itself is worth the visit, if you're interested in fashion and design! Read more here.

(Sou Sou Zaifu cafe. It seems the same guy is still working here. He was very friendly!)

TOKYO

If you travel in Tokyo, about 45 minutes by train from Tokyo is the city of Saitama. Saitama has a Sayama Hills at Tokorozama, which is also known as The Totoro Forest. Hayao Miyazaki has taken inspiration to Totoro from Sayama Hills. It was hard to find any information of this place in English (and even in Japanese!) in the past, but nowadays there's information in English. Read more here (with a Japanese map)

[niuniente]

Hi Niuniente, can anyone be considered/label themselves as punk? I'm a big fan of punk rock and the ideals of self expression (more so now more than ever thanks to Hobie Brown + the enterity of Spiderverse) but it feels like I'd be a poser for saying I'm 'punk' due to growing up in a middle class suburbian area.

Sure, why not, if you ask me. Every group, whether punk, manga, lolita, goth, black metal, reggae, cosplayers etc. have their own "Elitists" who will tell you that you need to perform that thing the way X, V, I and P. Then, and only then, you are accepted as True Thing X. But, from my experience, the TRUE people of any genre or underground group are the ones who are most accepting, adapting and supporting of anyone who wants to be in the group. Everyone is a beginner at first, right?

You don't have to earn your rights for underground movements but you're expected to be a certain way once you decide to join in. In punk, resist oppression, aim for equality and kindness for everyone, fight the injustice and just generally don't be an asshole (like so many are). You can do this just simply being a kind, just person, who considers the well-being of others, especially those who need help.

Here are some definitions of punk:

(and you should totally follow @thepunkprophet and maybe ask him this same question! Or, maybe thepunkprophet can leave you a comment below?)

In short; Be genuine and honestly kind and that is enough. It's a far less common than you'd think! Be an ally for those, who need support and who are oppressed by the mainstream.

And if needed, don't hesitate to use your teeth to fight for a good cause.

[niuniente]

I gave Käärijä most of my votes and ALL of my love. Such a pity but such a deserved amount of popular votes!

Thank you! The jury votes were absolutely insane. Any other performer, whether Käärijä or someone else, would have needed like 500 points from a televote after jury had given Sweden over 300 points. That's an insane and impossible amount, as everyone's beloved Käärijä was insanely popular by the public and got whooping 380 points. Millions of peoples' vote = 380 points. That's a huge amount but the jury can basically give the same amount with 50 people.

So, after the jury votes, no one else had any chances to win anymore. So many amazing performances out there last night and jury didn't even bother with them???

Everyone seems to be very pissed off in each and every Eurovision social media platform.

But hey, it's Abba's 50th anniversary in Eurovision in 2024 so how handy for Sweden to win :)))

[niuniente]

in awe and in fear of the newest DHD update. also thank you for the shot of alrick getting dressed, I love the way you draw especially how you simplify anatomy.

Thank you! My working method is "As long as it works, it's fine". I hate the naive thought that all art needs to be realistic or semi-realistic only, and everything else is worthless.

Oh and I also love vintage manga from 70's and 80's (some 90's comics go, too) which simplifies shapes and anatomy, and use only few lines.