December 2018 Update

It's the last update of 2018! Let's start with some shopping information:

• All group orders released in 2018 have been taken care of! It's incredible to see how much merch is made for UtaPri, they pretty much kept me busy all year. I have many repeat buyers and also got a lot of new names on my sign-up lists. I'm glad that people are finding my blog and social media and/or telling their friends about it! Thankfully the sign-ups are still small enough for me to manage all by myself, although the Prince Parka order was pretty close to overwhelming me. If you were part of a group order this year and would like to express your gratitude, you can leave a review on my Facebook page or on my Sales Tumblr (anonymous is okay)!
• So many newcomers have asked me various questions about my group orders, so I've written a guide, which you can read here. I hope this helps anyone who has questions about the sign-up and payment process!
• Because of all of the new merchandise being released, I've slowed down sales of old items, but I do have some new items that I will post in a few weeks. Some of you who follow me on multiple accounts may have noticed that I post items in different places at different times, and I don't always post the same things everywhere. This is mostly to be fair to people who use different social media so everyone can have a chance to buy something from me.
• Lastly, I will stop shipping items for the rest of this year since I must prepare for traveling during the winter break. I'll resume selling items and shipping in January!

So 2018 has been an incredibly busy year! In the 2 1/2 years that I've been writing this blog, this year as definitely contained a lot of turning points, the biggest one being my transition from translations to shopping.

When I started this blog in 2016, I never thought it would become home to a bunch of updates about ordering UtaPri merchandise and the latest events I've attended. At first I was a little disappointed that I couldn't offer more translations, and even a little guilty because I started this blog for that purpose. But in the past year, I've received so many messages of appreciation from people who have asked me to help them buy UtaPri stuff. I even learned how to trade with Japanese fans, an experience I didn't expect to gain while living in Japan.

The other unexpected change was my love for the 2.5 stage plays for Gekidan Shining (and even non-UtaPri plays). I've never had a large interest in "live action" shows (despite being a Sailor Moon fan, I've never watched any of the Sailor Moon musicals). Even when I went to see JOKER TRAP and then Shining Revue in the spring, it wasn't something I intended to become that involved in. Four viewings of POLARIS, one favorite actor, and three DVD purchases later, my involvement with UtaPri has truly evolved and I'm happy to see talented actors and staff involved in bringing these stories to life! I'm excited to see what 2019 holds!

I hope everyone finds some time to rest as this year comes to a close, and I'll see you on social media!

November 2018 Update

Time for another update! Late October has been a physically exhausting month but I'd like to give everyone a roundup of what's been going on:

• Happy Birthday to Cecil! He's always had a special place in my heart but that place has become bigger and more special thanks to Polaris. I posted a few pictures on my social media to celebrate. He's definitely moved up in my favorites ranking! ^^
• This was quite some time ago but I got Top 1% in the Tokiya/Camus event on the International Shining Live server! Although I didn't have to go for 1 million points like I did for Ren's first event on the Japan server, it was still quite challenging considering I had to work (whereas during Ren's event I wasn't working yet).
• I attended a live viewing of the Quartet Night concert and it was great! I only had a ticket for Day 1 and didn't get one for Day 2 because I figured it would be on the DVD (I also ended up being sick with a cold over the weekend so I went home to rest on Sunday). I also got to do karaoke in the Quartet Night room at Karaoke no Tetsujin! The rooms are only around until next weekend so I was very lucky to be able to go! (You can see photos on my Twitter and Instagram)
• I will be attending a theater showing of the STARISH Fan Meeting on Saturday, it's only been six months since the concert happened and yet it feels like it was forever ago, so I'm excited to see it again!

About Pre-Orders:

• The Prince Parkas showed up weeks earlier than I expected and has taken up the bulk of my attention. At this point I have processed and shipped 90% of the orders, and am continuing to work on combining items for other people.
• I managed to trade a few Mysterious Halloween Items, though not much since I haven't found a huge response for trading over Twitter, which is unfortunate. I am slowly getting to them this week, I've been held back due to having busy weekends every week since the beginning of October.
• I've opened two more group pre-orders, one for AGF merchandise and the other for Mystic Light merchandise (artwork that was introduced with the latest trading card collection). Regardless of whether they announce anything else this year, I've decided that these will be the last two group orders that I host for 2018. This year was really exhausting, with very limited living space, having a 5-day-a-week job (and going out to Tokyo to run errands/attend events almost every weekend), and difficult trips to the post office because of limited time and capacity to carry multiple packages. I want to finish delivering the rest of these items as soon as possible so I can have a fresh new start for the new year.

Other Sales Information:

• Once I finish with this year's orders, I will be reorganizing my combined shipping policy for next year. The problem I had this year was having to hold large orders for MONTHS, which takes up more and more space over time. I like to offer combined shipping to save people money and save me the trouble of mailing multiple packages, but I don't live in a warehouse-- I just don't have the room to hold items for three, four, five, even six months. When I can manage to find the time, I will create a chart to indicate which orders can be combined and how long they can be held.
• Items that I sell for immediate purchase I would prefer to be shipped ASAP; if it's just one or two items I don't mind holding them for a while, but if you purchase a bundle from me, I would like them to be sent out quickly.

Hopefully everything will be taken care of by the end of the month, it's very hard for me to correctly estimate when I'll have things done because I have to put my work and my health first (as I'm writing this I'm almost finished getting over a week-long cold that made me miserable during QN Live weekend).

Thank you all for cooperating and being so understanding! I hope I can make a major change by the end of the year that will help reduce my stress!

Below are links for AGF and Mystic Light Group Orders:

UtaPri Mystic Light Merchandise

Request Deadline: Saturday, November 18th @ 11:59pm EST

Payment Deadline: Saturday, November 24th @ 11:59pm EST

AGF Shining Angel & Mystic Devil Merchandise

Request & Payment Deadline: Saturday, December 1st @ 11:59pm EST

October 2018 Update

Since I seem to finally have a break with group orders again, I've decided to provide another update! This one is very brief as I'm writing this during the current Shining Live event and since Tokiya is the UR I'm trying harder than I normally would ^^;

• Mysterious Halloween Night orders and Setsugetsuka orders have been made! For the Halloween orders, I did send refunds for the rubber straps that I never had a chance of getting. For other items, I had to make seven orders so once everything is sorted I'll need to figure out what's missing so I can send the right amount of money to the right people.
  
• I just got the e-mail that QN Future Live pre-orders are being shipped in about a week! I'm very excited to receive everything! Also, I have one person who had to cancel their penlight order; if anyone is looking to purchase a QN Future Live penlight, please contact me!
  
• I've received many inquiries about this, but Prince Parka orders are not due to arrive yet, BUT according to my order record, it seems that BOS is currently preparing them for shipment. I'm expecting them to be shipped out towards the end of the month, but when I get more information I will share via Twitter.

Also, some brief commentary about the past few Utapri events I've attended since I haven't mentioned them before:

• Setsugetsuka was great! I was able to watch the full music video and it was incredible. I've decided that the "Flower" group (Ren, Otoya, Ranmaru, Syo) is my favorite! I was also able to see the actual outfits and there's so much detail in them! I wish it hadn't been only two days, what a waste to publicly display such a beautiful collection for such a short time!
  
• Mysterious Halloween Night wasn't much of an "event" but I still went. The displays were cute and I was able to pick up merchandise. It's nice to see HEAVENS included again!
  
• I went to see the 2.5D live stage adaptation of Polaris and it was life-changing. The music, the costumes, the story, everything was amazing and I wish I had seen it more than four times! Shojiro Yokoi (who plays Cecil) has become my favorite actor within the 2.5D Gekidan Shining series, he has shown such love and devotion to the character and it makes me so happy. I'm very excited for the DVD to be released next year so everyone can see it!
  

Lastly, I'm trying to revive my Instagram account by posting some past photos, since I took a ton of them and never really had the time to share. My IG is the same as my Twitter (bitchfacetokiya) so feel free to follow me there for pictures of some events from this year as well as items from my collection!

Please take care of yourself as the weather changes, everyone!