Life Lately – 2020 So Far

Guys I have not written a life lately post since June 2019 – how crazy is that?! I’ve clearly been living too busy a life to even update you guys with anything, haha!

However, for February I thought one was necessary on my blog because for pretty much all of January (and hence 2020 so far) I’ve been pretty quiet, which many of you will know the reasons for.

I was in Japan! I didn’t state exactly when I was going, but from the 12th January until the 26th January I was in Tokyo, Japan for a very much overdue trip with Dane.

Since we got together in 2013 we have dreamed of going to Japan and finally that dream became a reality. I don’t want to talk too much about that here as I would like to talk about it over various posts on my blog. I will go into some minor details here though.

It was amazing and although we watch anime/read manga and know quite a bit about Japanese culture, we definitely weren’t prepared for what a culture shock we were in for. We LOVED Japan and we honestly cannot wait to plan our next trip there (probably 2022 now…).

We travelled to various places around Tokyo including Shinjuku (which is where we stayed), Shibuya, Harajuku, Hakone (which is an hour outside of Shinjuku), Ikebukuro, Akihabara, Chiyoda City, Toshima City, Nakano City and more!

My favourite place to go to was a mixture of Shinjuku, Shibuya and Akihabara for various reasons.

Akihabara was FULL of otaku, kawaii, geeky goods – which were right up our street. We loved it so much there that we went again for a second trip!

Shinjuku (as I mentioned) was where we stayed for our trip and it was definitely the best place to pick! Just a short 5-10 minute walk away was everything you could want and more, including places to eat, shop, play games and even catch trains from that went everywhere we wanted to go. It was perfect and I’ll definitely stay there again in the future.

Shibuya was the best for shopping, as well as walking around. It’s home to the famous Shibuya crossing, as well as the Hachi statue that sits right by the train station. Shopping there was incredible and I regret not going back for a second visit.

One place in particular was good, but also disappointing at the same time, which was Harajuku. I imagined it to be this lively, colourful eating and shopping haven that I would lap up! Sadly at the start of the day in Harajuku I was really poorly and ended up being sick. I quickly recovered and me and Dane were able to get on with what we set out to do for the day, which was mostly visiting animal cafes! Harajuku (to me anyway) wasn’t full of the lively and colourful places I’d imagined. Eating there was amazing and I regret not being able to eat more, but shopping was a bit of a let down. It seemed to be a mixture of copy and paste of Wego and (what seemed like) colourful fashion you could buy on eBay.

The only reason I would venture there again is to go back to the Pompompurin Cafe, which was one of my favourite places to eat at during our time in Japan! I’ll be talking about this on a separate blog post, so keep eyes peeled for that! 😀

The food in Japan was amazing and I miss it already. 7-eleven was so convenient for food, especially breakfast and the range of choice was incredible! The hot food was probably the best for me and I wish I’d eaten a lot more of it.

As a savoury eater, I ate so much sweet stuff because it was EVERYWHERE and it was amazing. I miss it so badly… I just wish we could at least have crepes here that are as good as the ones in Japan.

Enough of Japan for now – I’ll save all the in depth information for the blog post(s) about it.

I wanted to touch base on some other things here, including my blog and personal life.

Some news I want to share, which I am SUPER EXCITED FOR is that I am going to see My Chemical Romance in June!!! 😀 Booking tickets to go and see them was a nightmare and I haven’t felt so anxious about buying something since we booked our holiday to Japan.

I tried to book both the Saturday and Sunday show whilst out in Japan and due to the crap pocket WiFi we had, this just wasn’t doable. I sat in a cafe for an hour trying to book the Saturday show with zero luck. Then as we were walking around Tokyo I attempted to book the Sunday show, with less luck than before. I was gutted. Absolutely gutted. I got over it however by the time we got back to the UK.

THEN my friend Claire (Claire Likes To Doodle – who you can read about here) told me about a third show they had announced for Thursday. I knew I had to get on that as soon as I could. I saved the booking section on Ticketmaster on my phone and made sure to be ready to book. The morning came and a stressful 30 minutes later, tickets were booked and paid for and I WAS IN! YES, YES, YESSSSS!

I am beyond excited to see My Chemical Romance again after almost 10 years (I last saw them in 2011) and I already know loads of memories will come back to that show and the previous show I saw them at (Black Parade UK tour back in 2007).

I’ll be going with my boyfriend, who isn’t actually a massive My Chemical Romance fan, but is coming with so I’m not going alone. I don’t have any friends who can come in the week, or at all (due to also not being fans), so he’s doing me a favour. 🙂 I’m paying for his ticket, which is fine with me… Because he’ll be buying our dinner haha!

So yes, I am will be listening to loads of My Chemical Romance in the run up to the show in June and maybe bringing back my emo self from back in the day… 😛

At the start of January and just before my holiday I turned 30… Yes I am old and I don’t care! I had a lovely day with Dane, who took me out to an animal park and in the evening we went out for a meal with my parents. Japan was the biggest celebration in a way. 😛

Dane bought me my blue Pandora ring for my 30th, which I love so much!

I didn’t do my yearly “what I got for my birthday” post and the reason for this is because I didn’t really want to… I just wasn’t feeling it. I’m more than happy to share what I received on this post but other than that… I just didn’t want to.

This leads onto my next point about life lately for me, which includes a massive thing about There Might Be Coffee. I know I posted a while ago how I wanted to just stick to posting on my blog once a week. Sometimes it might be more, especially if I’ve been inspired to write and want to get something out there. However, I have recently felt like my blog isn’t as “big a deal” to me as it used to be years before and it’s Dane who has made me think why.

When I started my blog I was out of work and bored. I loved my blog as a place to talk and be myself. Then I got my job and since then until 2017 I was unhappy in work. I used my blog as a place to escape and talk about things I love and share these things with people. These days I’m pretty content in my life. I’ve got a job I love, Dane, my lovely home, I’ve just been to Japan and my mental health is the best it has ever been in 20 years! Life is pretty good right now and to be able to type that is amazing. If someone had of told me 4 years ago that I would be in this position now, I wouldn’t believe them.

Don’t worry guys. This isn’t the end of my blog – far from it! It’s just the beginning of me being able to realise what I want to do and how I want to do it. I want to venture more and more into topics I am mad about, especially Japan and now I’ve been I can talk about it more than ever before.

I also want to talk about more things I know and love and I STILL want to bring you guys enamel pin posts, as well as Nendoroid figures collecting and geeky home decor.

I would also love to venture into IGTV over on my blog Instagram account (theremightbecoffeeblog) as I have always wanted to do YouTube, but I don’t want to deal with editing and arsehole trolls. IGTV I feel would be a little bit more manageable.

So, my blog will be going through some “changes” but nothing too drastic. Just less posts a week, more Japan/kawaii/otaku content and less gifted content.

I noticed last year that at one point my blog was COVERED in gifted *** posts and although I loved it at the time (because companies wanted to work with me) I look back and shake my head. That isn’t me. It especially wasn’t me to work with so many different people.

This has taught me a few things. I LOVE working with food companies. I love food and I love talking and sharing good food places, so when I get to work with places I want to shout about, it makes me happy. What I don’t love however is working with loads of people and constantly having gifted posts, instead of posts I want to get up about geeky stuff.

So, I have decided to distance myself away from that. I just don’t want it anymore. I want to work with more independent artists whose work I love and want to shout out about! If I can work with the artists, amazing. If I can’t then whatever – I’ll still shout about their work! An example of this will be an independent company I’ll be reviewing this month called Quirkory. I discovered them back in August last year and since then I have been hooked on them and their designs… Make sure to keep eyes peeled for that post!

I’m also toying with what to do with my newsletter now we’re into 2020. I had 3 newsletters out (September-November) and I honestly feel like it was a massive flop. Hardly anyone subscribed to it and hence hardly anyone read it. Which is actually saddening. I’d decided to have the newsletter talk about what was due to come to my blog throughout the month, as well as a general chit chatter that I don’t really bring to my blog as much.

I’m thinking of doing something four times a year on the first day of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I’d possibly look to trying to work with companies to bring competitions too but even so… I don’t know if my heart is in it for my newsletter anymore. Any thoughts on this would be great. I know some of the readers/subscribers of my newsletter have been so lovely! But if your heart isn’t in it… You know?

Other than that, I can’t think of anything else to share really! 2020 is the year that I start to live my life and do things I wouldn’t have thought to before. I already have the itch to go back to Japan and plan to get our 2021/22 trip planned this year.

I also want to go to Amsterdam for mine and Dane’s 7 year anniversary. Only for a weekend, but it’s a place I have always wanted to go. As soon as I feel comfortable and ready, I’m going to book it for us both! Maybe as a surprise trip for Dane? 😛 We shall see.

Do you guys have anything to share from your lives lately? If so please let me know in the comments below! 😀 I love hearing about how things are going for people, good and bad. I’m always happy to listen if any of my readers who needs help and support. You can always reach out to me via a DM on Twitter (maybeecoffee) or Instagram (theremightbecoffeeblog).

Until next time guys, I hope you’re having a lovely weekend so far and enjoyed my ranty blog post. 😛