Fullmetal Alchemist

Do you know Tully's Coffee released "Bearful Sleeves" last week, which sold out veeeeeery quickly? There are two colors, white and brown, and both sold out on the first day of release at almost all the locaions of Tully's Coffee in Japan. ON THE 1ST DAY OF THE RELEASE. I can't believe it. They were released on November 29, actually.

I guess many people think I got two within the day ... well, I couldn't. I stopped by my favorite Tully's Coffee location in the evening that day only to find they already had sold out. The store manager called some other Tully's Coffee locations (thanks a lot) but bearful sleeves sold out at all of the locations she contacted.

I myself called several other locations and the customer service center of Tully's Coffee as well and found there were a lot of customers who hadn't bought both or at least one of two colors and wanted Tully's Coffee to produce them again as soon as possible.

The next day, Tully's Coffee announced they will release other bearful sleeves next spring and that they will set purchase quantity limit next time. Please check out its website, though the announcement is written in Japanese.

Since they didn't decide to release the same products, I was very very angry at the headquarters of Tully's Coffee at first, while I'm very happy that Tully's teddies are popular among people. I thought, "if its founder Kouta Matsuda were still the president of Tully's Coffee in Japan, what would he do to deal with this?"

On second thought, I realized Tully's Bearful was born after he resigned as president and I shouldn't say "if he were still... " or something like that. Besides, Eggs 'n Things wouldn't have been introduced to Japan if he had not left Tully's Coffee, maybe.  

While he was the president, Tully's Coffee didn't have their lucky bags, "Happy Bags," either. Nowadays, a lot of cafes and shops sell lucky bags here in Japan. Tully's "Happy Bags" are popular. Well, I call Tully's bearful "teddies," and I always think they are cute and want more people to know them. Tully's Coffee in Japan did a great job. Teddies were born to make people happy while I was born to make my darling happy, haha.

I've really wanted to get bearful sleeves, but they are not available at many of the locations of Tully's Coffee ... it's not too much to say all the locations don't have the items anymore, so I bought them at an auction, haha. Though I didn't want to use this way, I didn't have a choice.

Finally, I got these two. I'm so happy. They are so cute, aren't they?

Left: White Teddy.

RIght: Brown Teddy.

How much money do you think I've spent for these two? To be honest, I've got other goods of Tully's Coffee including these stamps, most of which were bonuses of beverages of Tully's Coffee many years ago and are not available anymore. Might as well. I'm still waiting for several LED light straps. Soccer teddy one is for my darling because he played soccer when he was a teenager, and barista is also for him.

One of my dreams is that someday I'll give some bearful goods to Hikaru Utada, my favorite Japanese artist. Though I don't listen to Japanese music very often compared to foreign music, I like her music and have many of her albums, and lots of fans know she really likes bears and wrote a song named "I'm a Bear."

Anyway, I'll use bearful sleeves the next time I come by Tully's Coffee. I'll use them with hot honey milk latte first. Also, I wanna try two new seasonal beverages too, both of which I wanted to have on November 29. I'm looking forward to the 2nd bearful sleeves Tully's Coffee is going to release next year. Next time, I'll definitely get them at my favorite Tully's Coffee locations.

I'd say some people wonder why I didn't drop by Tully's Coffee shops earlier in the day ... Well, I went to Fullmetal Aｌchemist Collaboration Cafe that day, haha. In Japanese, Fullmetal Alchemist is 鋼の錬金術師, Hagane No Renkinjyutsushi.

I had these three items.

And I decided to wear a red sweater that day because Ed, the main character of Fullmetal Alchemist, wears a red coat. I actually don't like red color that much, and at first I thought I'd wear a blue one instead. Mustang, Liza, and other soldiers in the manga wear blue uniform, and I prefer blue to red in addition to this. But I changed my mind. After all, red is a warm color and it's good for winter, I think. On top of that, red and green are famous Christmas colors. I know many Christmas trees use white and blue colors instead of them, though.

This pose ... Ed poses like this when he uses alchemy. It's like a pose Japanese people do when praying. After that Ed places his hands on the transmutation circle appearing on the ground.

As I wrote last month, my favorite characters are Olivier Mira Armstrong and Roy Mustang, and I forgot to mention Shaomei, this character. Yes, she (maybe she) is a panda ... and she always mimics her owner's pose ... I should say her friend's maybe? Shaomei and Olivier don't appear in the live-action movie, unfortunately.

All the three items I had were good, and especially Shamei's Panna Cotta tasted really good. It has bananas and chocolate parts as well. It seems to be a popular item at Fullmetal Alchemist Collaboration Cafe.

In the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, there is a country like China in the 17th century in our real world, and several characters from the country come to a country which the main characters, Ed and Al, and the other characters including Mustang live in. So that's why there are Chinese-style items like these.

The collaboration cafe doesn't have Olivier's item, but it seems they are going to change some items of the menu and add new ones for their 2nd season, so they'll add Olivier-themed drink or dish, I think. The current menu will be available until December 25.

1 beverage coaster for 1 item. I ordered a stew, panna cotta and tea, so I got three beverage coasters for free. Also, I got a place mat. I heard a place mat has some designs and place mats for lunch and ones for dinner are different. Customers can get free giveaways while they last. ... I guess some people think it's just a simple stew and it has nothing to do with Fullmetal Alchemist. Well, please read its 6th volume. It's one of my favorite volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist.

At Fullmetal Alchemist Cafe, each customer uses each tablet like this when ordering food, drinks or goods. Oh, staff said it's okay to take photos of a tablet, just in case. But I didn't ask whether I can post a photo of it or not. I hope it's okay. I was surprised to find Ed's Silver Watch sold out. It's cool anyway though it's expensive.

Though Mustang has black hair and eyes, Ed's and Al's are gold, and many of the characters are like European people, so I thought Japanese people couldn't play roles if Fullmetal Alchemist, Hagane No Renkinjyutsushi, would possibly become a live-action film. To tell the truth, I did think so before I went to see the movie yesterday. It was good. It was better than I had expected. The casts of the characters are not so bad. They are all good. The sceneries are especially beautiful. After seeing the film, I read a special comic I mentioned later and found they shot the film in Italy while they use CG a lot.  

I've seen some English trailers before on the official website of "Fullmetal Alchemist," or "鋼の錬金術師" in Japanese, but I couldn't find them anymore on the website or You-tube, either. So, this is its Japanese version.

While seeing the film, I thought many times; "Wow, Yasuko Matsuyuki is so sexy ... and she has beautiful skin.  I can't believe she is in her 40s. And she can do anything ... like Hula Girls, the Devotion of Suspect X, and Detroit Metal City. She's great." Yasuko Matsuyuki is a famous actress in Japan (I use a word "actress" in terms of gender equality), and these three are titles of the films she played an important role in, and one of them is a comedy.

The comic is a special gift to visitors seeing "Fullmetal Alchemist," and it will be offered while supplies last, I guess. The two buttons are what I bought after watching the movie. They are Mustang's charms ... strictly speaking, the left one is transmutation circle he uses (he is called Flame Alchemist) and it's different from Ed's one, and the left blue one is crest of the military he belongs to. The film has other official goods too, and I think jigsaw puzzles produced by Sanrio are cute though I didn't buy them. There are two patterns, Ed, Al & cats, Mustang, Riza & her dog, and both designs are very cute.

This is the theme song of the film "Fullmetal Alchemist," and recently I've been listening to the song. Misia collaborates with Fullmetal Alchemist and she makes the same pose like I do in the photos, and after that places both hands on the ground, see?

Misia, who is a famous singer in Japan, is also my favorite singer. She has a good singing voice. My sister likes her songs and she lent me her album "Love is the message" when I was a teenager, and I came to like her music too.

In the first place, my sis gave me Fullmetal Alchemist's manga and recommended I read this. And Fullmetal Alchemist, Hagaren in short, sometimes reminds me that my sister may have passed away many years ago. We watched the final episode of its anime at the hospital while my sis was hospitalized for a few months. There are two versions of Hagaren's anime and we watched the second one. Before moving to a room with televisions, she was in ICU. I can't believe now she has babies.

Well, in the manga, Ed and Al tried to raise their mother from dead. And ... well, it's a so-called spoiler warning, so I won't mention the story anymore.

These are full volumes of the original edition of Fullmetal Alchemist, or 鋼の錬金術師. The manga has complete version as well.　Check them out.