Visiting the Suomenlinna Toy Museum

Hello bats! I've been trying to dig up photos of my travels so that I can write some blog posts about some of the interesting places I've been. I recently came upon my folder of photos from my trip to Finland in 2018, so here's a blog post about my visit to Suomenlinna! Suomenlinna (meaning "Castle of Finland") is an 18th-century sea fortress located on a group of islands just off the coast of Helsinki. In order to get there you need to take a boat from the mainland, so we took a ferry. There were only a few other people on the ferry, which was a welcome change from the ferries in Toronto. Our ferries are always jammed with cyclists and people with giant strollers, and it's usually standing room only. The harbour was very pretty, too! It was so clean and bright, and I saw the biggest, buffest seagulls I'd ever seen in my life. Like...these seagulls must have been eating nothing but fish and protein powder.

After a 20-minute ferry ride, we arrived at the fortress of Suomenlinna. As soon as we arrived at the island dock, we realized why so few tourists had opted to visit that day. It was chilly, overcast, and the wind was blowing so hard that it was howling. Since the island is quite hilly and rocky in places, we opted to wear more comfortable coordinates with boots and cutsews, but I wish I'd brought a heavier jacket or gloves. I was starting to feel a little bit off that day (within a few days I was laid up in bed with possibly the worst cold and sinus infection I've ever had) and I don't think the weather on the island helped at all, haha. Helsinki in late September feels as cold as early November back home! (╯︵╰,) 

Despite the lousy weather, it was very beautiful, and I'm kind of happy that there weren't too many people, anyway. It's strange how a place so close to the mainland could feel so remote and isolated. It was very peaceful.

Anyway, we decided to explore the fortress a little bit. The buildings were all separated by walking paths. Even though the fortress isn't objectively very big, it felt huge by virtue of how empty it was and how isolated each group of buildings was. You could probably walk the whole area in a couple of hours or less. And since I was sick, I didn't really have the energy for walking that I normally would. I think it would have been a beautiful walk on a warm summer's day.

There were a lot of walking paths to guide visitors along to different There were a lot of interesting historical buildings along the main path. We saw a ship dry dock, a church, underground tunnels, and stone gates. There are also a few shops and houses. It reminded me a lot of the Toronto Islands. After a long while of walking, we came upon possibly the most suspicious sign I've ever seen. Seriously, they could have just written "free candy" on the sign and it would have looked less ominous. Against our better judgement, we followed the spooky sign and ended up at what appeared to be a house...

Park Meetup and Record Shopping!

Whew, this week has been an absolute mess. I'm completely swamped with work and I'm getting super behind in my clinical work, amongst other things, but at least I have a bit of good news: my Iron Gate order has shipped! I'm going to do a detailed review as soon as it's here. I forgot to mention that I ordered the matching socks, too. My missing seamail package finally turned up, too. I figured it was at the bottom of the ocean by now, since the tracking hadn't moved since April! It's going through customs now. The package was a bunch of summery stuff like a short-sleeved bolero and ankle socks, so it's kind of annoying that it's arriving just towards the latter half of summer...but I'm also just happy that it's in the country.

I also went to a small meetup at a park this weekend. I haven't seen my comm or most of my friends for well over a year at this point, so it was really nice to go to chill with people outside of work. I had a somewhat busy day ahead, so I didn't stay for too long, but it was still a lot of fun. We met up in the late morning and managed to get a picnic table in the shade (no small feat). Unfortunately the strap on my shoe broke as I was walking to the park, but I used one of the decorative safety pins I had on my bag to pin it back down. #justgoththings

I haven't walked around that area for a while, but I was pleasantly surprised at how lively it was. Shops were open and restaurant employees were setting up their patio furniture outside. Lots of people were walking around and shopping. Other neighbourhoods along that street look pretty bad right now with lots of graffiti, boarded-up windows, tent cities, and people sleeping rough on the street. The pandemic has done a number on the downtown area, but it's good to see things returning back to some form of normalcy. There was even a goth club night happening over the weekend!

Relaxing in the park was great! There were a couple of promo carts wheeling around the park and handing out samples. I got a tallboy of cider and two tiny bottles of flavoured whiskey, and a tiny can of ginger ale to mix. It's technically illegal to drink in the parks here, but I mean...come on. This park is the public drinking spot, so they totally know what they're doing. I saved mine for later, though - there were a lot of cops and guys in security uniforms around. Don't they have anything better to do on a Sunday morning? I wonder if the police presence had anything to do with the encampment that the city bulldozed there a little while back...seems like overkill to me.

After saying goodbye to my friends, I stopped at Sonic Boom. I wanted to browse but it was so crowded that it was hard to get around, even though they were limiting the number of people inside. The aisles are just so narrow and everyone was trying to keep separated, so I got inpatient waiting my turn to look at the different shelves haha. After I while I gave up on browsing and picked up a few little goodies that I had set aside for pickup: a Siouxsie and the Banshees pin, a Swans pin, and a Drab Majesty record. I love the clear yellow vinyl! I didn't even realize that this one was apparently from a limited run of 600. I don't have a lot of storage space for records, so I tend to only buy them if they're colourful or have cool extras included or something. The coloured vinyl looks so cool when it's playing.

I started listening to them a few years ago, maybe around 2015? I think it was right when Careless was released. I liked them, but I didn't get really into them or listen very often until a couple of years later. Now they're a mainstay on all of my goth playlists since I'm more into synthy stuff these days. My favourite Drab Majesty album is Modern Mirror, but the coloured vinyl was out of stock at the time, so I got The Demonstration instead. I love the cover art. The glass block walls really take me back!

I've really been enjoying softer, dreamier, synthy darkwave and post-punk lately. I've always enjoyed that particular style (Switchblade Symphony and Lycia are some of my favourite bands ever, and has been for many years) but lately I've been appreciating it a lot more, especially the newer bands. I've been listening to a lot of ACTORS, Traitrs, LEATHERS, and Kælan Mikla lately. There are so many good new bands that have popped up in the last few years now that this kind of sound is popular again.

I also think it's a really great entry point into goth for people who aren't familiar with the genre, too. It's a little bit more accessible and easy to listen to than a lot of post-punk, which I have to admit is a bit of an acquired taste. I can throw Drab Majesty or Soviet Soviet onto my office playlist and nobody would bat an eye, but I don't think Bauhaus or Nick Cave would go over so well...

Well actually, maybe it would - we do get an awful lot of goth or formerly-goth clients at my work!

Anyway, I added the Swans and Siouxsie pins I got to my Strawberry Switchblade tote bag. I think I'm pretty much done with it for now. It's looking a little bit crowded, but I've always liked having an obnoxious amount of pins and keychains on my bags. There are so many on this one that it rattles when I walk. This is the bag I took the emergency safety pin from to fix my shoe strap. Always gotta be prepared!

That's it for now...thanks for reading! Stay tuned for my Iron Gate review coming up in a week or so.

[Current Music: LEATHERS - Missing Scene]

Neo-Moitié: What Does the Future Hold for Moi-même-Moitié?

Note: I wrote the bulk of this piece in late 2018 but never published the post, so I've gone back and revised some of my opinions as my feelings have definitely changed over the past 3 years. Brace yourselves, it's a long one...

Back in 2017, Tanaqro, the parent company of Wunderwelt, announced that it had acquired Moi-même-Moitié and spared it from the slow, quiet death that has claimed so many Japanese gothic and lolita brands in the past few years; Putumayo and Black Peace Now have already closed, with Mary Magdalene possibly on the chopping block. h.Naoto closed all of its physical stores in Japan. Big shifts in the lolita market and retail in general were putting pressure on these brands, but the pandemic has only accelerated the rate of decline. I expect to see at least a few more brands go out of business or start to wind things down within the next few years. And with so many established lolita brands closing their doors, I'm grateful that Moitié is still with us, even though I'm still a bit unsure about the direction they're taking.

As someone who got into lolita fashion purely because of an interest in goth, Japan, and Mana, I have really mixed feelings about the brand post-acquisition, but a lot of hope, too. These are my honest thoughts and feelings about what I like to call "Neo-Moitié" and the future of the brand.