Week in Review: Easter's Magic

Happy Passover! I hope everyone had a properly wonderful Easter. Matt and I celebrated in our usual quirky hipster fashion: Thursday was sessions at our tattoo parlour for some colouring; Friday we took in beer and burgers at the Sherlock Holmes pub and cheered on The Rock in the new GI Joe movie; Saturday was a day of rest; Sunday we had sushi and saw a Studio Ghibli movie at the local independent theatre; and yesterday we went to the zoo! In between all this excitement, Matt finished Bioshock Infinite (I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ending) and I played Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (which is a JRPG with graphics and animations done in cooperation with Studio Ghibli).

I feel like we were that couple that everyone is secretly a little jealous of. And I wouldn't blame you if you were. Our philosophy is that, if we don't have any family to celebrate the holiday with, we celebrate it the way we want. So, like Thanksgiving supper was the traditional East Indian buffet, this year's Easter dinner was the classic sushi and tempura.



Opinions!

• The Sherlock Holmes pub was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to get fancied up and go try Moriarty's, the bistro and wine bar next to it. 
• The Rock was classic The Rock. It was a fun movie that didn't need to be in 3D but was full of action and also Bruce Willis.
• If you are looking for a locally owned small business to support and happen to enjoy sushi, definitely visit Kabuki. It's just off Whyte in the Garneau Theatre building. The service was good and the food was great.
• The Ghibli movie we saw was called "Ocean Waves". Apparently, it's rarely ever shown outside Japan, so it was a treat to see it in the original 35mm. It was a coming-of-age story that I was secretly also hoping would be a coming out story, but they went for the staid boy-loves-girl ending instead. However, I am just thrilled to be able to check it off of the Studio Ghibli roster as "watched". Next month they are showing another hard-to-find film called "Only Yesterday", and though Matt will be in Wainwright, I am going to head down the theatre for that one too.
• The Edmonton Zoo was smaller than I thought but they are currently in the middle of doubling the size, and there were quite a lot of very cute animals to see, including a tiny baby Goeldi's Monkey and the adorably fluffy Red Pandas. The day was beautiful and it was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon for a very reasonable price.
• Bioshock Infinite will blow your mind. My brain hurt after it was finished. I'm still not totally sure of what actually happened, but my grasp of quantum mechanics is tenuous at best. Totally deserves a replay through as a trilogy.
• Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is just making my inner fangirl squee in delight. I feel like I'm playing a Studio Ghibli movie. The scenery is like that of Howl's Moving Castle and The Cat Returns. The characters could be extras from Porco Rosso or Castle in the Sky. The actual story is simple and heartwarming. As a teen, I played Final Fantasy VIII for years (honestly), just playing it over and over because I enjoyed it so much. Now I have Ni No Kuni. I'm gonna play this disk until it is unplayable. And then I'm going to download it from the PlayStation store and play it some more.

Oliver and Drippy make some magic

I  hope everyone had a great Easter. I am off to Ontario for three weeks in a couple of days, so I will be updating again on Friday with my Flat-Out post about travelling. Now go watch Studio Ghibli movies! You all might learn something.