Finally went to Mitsukoshi BGC, I don't think I've ever been to a mall with lower ceilings, but I'm surprised about the out in the open layout that most malls here don't take. I did get a new puzzle gashapon for my troubles, and with new branches popping up closer to home I'm sure excited.

Yesterday was a taxing trip looking at hundred and thousands of figurines at Greenhills, the place to go for shelf fillers. I wasn't alone in this; my cousin had planned to look for a certain Funko pop in those stores.

Little did we know how much effort this took.

While the central mall is seeing improvements nowadays, most of the shopping center is still that notorious mess of stores hidden in nooks and crannies you least expect. Some secret cavern deep inside the mall can only be unlocked by a password and inside is cellphone repair.

Two underestimations: The amount of stores selling fandom collectibles and how rare a Derrick Rose Funko with a poster inside the box is. In the course of this search we've found other things of interest and even a gashapon haven, but still none of what we're looking for.

A shame, really. A place with the same store density as Kowloon's residencies would probably have that kind of toy just out of sheer probability, but no such luck that time. I'm not too fond of figurines myself, then again I am not engrossed in any single fandom nor do I have the disposition.

Well, we didn't find it and ended up buying something else for all that effort. Can't wait to come back.

Not a lot to report for yesterday, money and time felt tight and I went carrying a bag full of origami kusudama models, gauging how much of a burden it would be to commute and how I might approach selling them if at all.

The opening hour means a long line extending down a stairwell, any longer and it will wind back up. While in line on the way to the ticket booth, someone from the Pocky booth approached us for a sample and a ticket promo, causing the group behind me to discuss the merits of taking the promo and scalping the ticket.

Inside I headed straight for the artist tables and had an opportunity to show my wares to one seller whose table is decorated with a few hanging charms. I asked about the paper and they also came from Daiso, albeit in a design not available here as of this writing. I hopped to another table to commission a character and an older lady (someone's mother from what I can remember) noticed me beforehand and asked me about my kusudama. She bought one for my only sale of that day, returning less from the commission I did get.

Later on I met up with a streamer friend, then had some lunch. Looking for a place to eat took a while as every place was full, not unusual for a con Sunday in Megamall. Mother was with me to shop and she had to settle for the supermarket eatery as she could not find any place that wasn't crowded.

I returned to said friend in the middle of a photoshoot, he's the one holding the camera. I sat there for a while as by then my legs were tiring out. I had a bit of a chat with someone, Michael, who was there to learn taking cosplay photos. He's a cook by trade and from wanting to take his own product photos for online selling he's expanding his craft to make photography an extra expertise.

One side of Mall A is under construction, blocking out a decent number of stores including about four galleries at the fourth floor. The only gallery still up was hosting a painter's history of paintings, though that space mostly hosts painting exhibits anyway.

Chapter 6

A quick rundown of this weekend. A combined celebration took place at an aunt's place in Cainta yesterday. Three birthdays combined with the gender reveal of my sister's second kid. I missed out on most of the fun as I had to cater to someone who due to reasons I cannot disclose cannot join the celebrations per se. We went to a nearby mall and I ordered some KFC for him.

The mall is pretty tiny compared to the average mall in Metro Manila, it had a Daiso, which is enough for me. Unsurprisingly most items in there are about the same as in every other branch, including origami papers, so I settled on a pair of scissors that I wanted to get.

I arrived at the place to have a bit of what's left of the party food then not really do anything until we went home at midnight.

Next day, which as of typing this ended a while ago, my mother and I went out for Mass at the Center for Padre Pio near Eastwood City. It was a sleepy ordeal to say the least. We didn't even bother spending a minute more in Araneta and headed straight for home in a minibus to sleep in.

A quiet part of Caloocan just got a bit louder. An SM mall just in front of the sports center means one thing, a new hangout to spend an entire afternoon. Opening day, nay, weekend was brutal, with people already piling up at the entrance, the mall had to open earlier.

My first visit was on its second night, a sudden rendezvous with the sister et al. Just the drive was proof; I could have walked there faster compared to the traffic jam, but the jammed up two-lane road is just the beginning.

When we arrived the place was as packed as it can get. 

The mall isn't big, three floors in an area smaller than a wing of the original SM Fairview. The layout is like the usual SM mall save for some spaces left from adding parking lots. This combined with proximity and the usual area resident's favorite pastime of hanging out in air-conditioned malls and you have yourself a crowded mall.

Every food place is packed and there's nary a corner where a number of people have gathered to take pictures. We only managed to buy fries and shakes (the kiosk had limited options and ingredients because there's just that many), and this was on the second day, at the closing couple of hours.

Maybe letting the opening hype fizzle out will make things better. Yes and no. This Tuesday my mom wanted to check the place out. We went there by lunchtime and it's not that populated. A few days later, namely just this Friday we returned just for the heck of it and slowly but surely people were everywhere again, not as crowded as the first days but close enough.

Having grown up going to malls larger and fancier, I'm certain I'll be going here often only because a trip is cheaper. That's reason enough for me.

Many assume that the entirety of Metro Manila is the same. But living in the part of the region that isn't either an urban metropolis or a poverty documentary hotspot, the sorts of places you get in a lifestyle magazine are a ways (and means) from me. Funny then that I start like this when I'm just going to do a quick update on a dental visit.

Manila is a city that's grown on itself as time passes, and it shows with its old buildings still standing aloft the new ones being made next to them. Residents live amongst pieces of history as they carve their own in this place that has been messy even before Legazpi staked his claim.

Last January 20, my family paid a visit to a dentist who's more or less family (they're second cousins). The car trip involves a transition from the loud and modern bustle of Quezon City to the aged streets of Manila, stuck in time yet it moves along. 

We arrived at the office over at Lacson Avenue, which is just a walk from my university. The place itself looks like a living room that someone rearranged into a dental clinic. The front lobby is about 2 feet by 5 feet large with a TV next to a fridge. Separated by glass is the clinic proper, inside is a desk and two chairs, one awfully close to the door. There is air conditioning but it's hard to notice. I had some time to kill before my turn so I did a bit of a stroll to the old road where I'd get a bit to eat in my college days, Dapitan Street. Some of the old buildings still stand, but there were new faces made and old faces being torn down, the area around the university still prone to change as ever.

I had no time to enter the university proper but the differences in the street I regularly walked for years from a decade ago and now are noticeable.

As for my teeth, I had a cleaning and a rather deep filling, there will be a return visit, maybe I'll actually jot down something for another piece; our attempt at trying out a famous eatery ended on a closed shop.