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https://preview.redd.it/z82bw5gtaz2b1.png?width=972&format=png&auto=webp&s=a939d6e8c61af798fbfdc67f40fc3a64d65d7aec
VANCOUVER, BC / THENEWSWIRE / May 30, 2023 – Element 79 Gold Corp. (CSE:ELEM) (OTC:ELMGF) (FSE: 7YS) ("Element 79 Gold", the "Company") announces that, further to its November 17, 2022 release announcing that the Company had entered into a non-binding letter of intent (the “Valdo LOI”) with Valdo Minerals Ltd. (“Valdo”), the parties have mutually agreed to a 60-day extension to the exclusivity period to enter into a definitive agreement for the sale of three properties from its Battle Mountain Portfolio located in the northeastern Nevada, US.
The other terms of the LOI, as announced by the Company on November 17, 2022, remain unchanged.
Proposed Transaction Highlights

• Valdo to acquire 100% interests and obligation in:
  
  • The North Mill Creek Project - comprised of 6 unpatented claims located at the margins of the Goat Window in Lander County, Nevada, an exposure of lower plate rocks beneath the Roberts Mountains Thrust, the preferred carbonate host of Carlin-type gold deposits.
  • The Elder Creek Project - comprised of 23 unpatented claims, which cover the historic Elder Creek open-pit mine in Lander County, Nevada, hosted in upper plate rocks where the mine area is believed to represent leakage from the deeper lower plate of the Roberts Mountains Thrust.
  • The Elephant Project - comprised of 197 claims located at the foot of the mine dumps at Nevada Gold Mines' Phoenix operation hosting a covered pediment target with various depths of cover based on the displacement of fault blocks.
• Valdo to issue 3,750,000 common shares at a deemed price of $0.30 CAD per share representing an aggregate value of CAD 1,125,000.
  
• According to the revised exclusivity period, the transaction is expected to close by July 15, 2023.
  

“As we progressed toward the initial term of the LOI, Valdo expressed a desire for an extension as they finalize their project structuring and capitalization plans,” said James Tworek, Element79 Gold Corp CEO. “Our collaboration with Valdo holds great promise, spurred by their continued interest in how the optioned portfolio synergizes with their other regionally adjacent projects, we are confident that this extension will pave the way for a successful closing and strong Valdo story in the future.”
Element79 Gold’s Battle Mountain Portfolio
The Battle Mountain Portfolio was originally comprised of 15 separate projects totaling over 44,478 acres across 2,203 unpatented claims in five counties: Elko County, Eureka County, Humboldt County, Lander County, and Nye County. Most of the Battle Mountain Portfolio is located within the Battle Mountain Trend, with several projects close to globally reputable gold deposits including Nevada Gold's Cortez Mine.
The Battle Mountain Portfolio is comprised primarily of early-stage projects. While drilling has been completed at some projects, such as Elder Creek (155 holes) and Clover (104 holes), many have only surface sampling and geophysical surveys completed. Of particular note are the Long Peak, Elephant, Elder Creek, North Mill Creek, Clipper, Pipeline South, West Cortez, and Walti Projects, which are interpreted to lie along the northwest trending fault that hosts the high-grade Pipeline deposit, which is included in Nevada Gold's Cortez Mine.
Qualified Person
The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Director of Element79 Gold and a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
About Element79 Gold
Element79 Gold is a mining company focused on gold, silver and associated metals and committed to maximizing shareholder value through responsible mining practices and sustainable development of its projects. Element79 Gold's main focus is on two core properties: developing its previously-producing, high-grade gold and silver mine, the Lucero project located in Arequipa, Peru, with the intent to bring it back into production in the near term; and its flagship Maverick Springs Project located in the famous gold mining district of northeastern Nevada, USA, between the Elko and White Pine Counties. Maverick Springs hosts a 43-101-compliant, pit-constrained mineral resource estimate reflecting an inferred resource of 3.71 million ounces of gold equivalent "AuEq" at a grade of 0.92 g/t AuEq (0.34 g/t Au and 43.4 g/t Ag) with an effective date of October 19, 2022. The acquisition of the Maverick Springs Project also included a portfolio of 15 properties along the Battle Mountain trend in Nevada, which are non-core to its primary business focus. In British Columbia, Element79 Gold has executed a Letter of Intent and funded a drilling program to acquire a private company that holds the option to 100% interest of the Snowbird High-Grade Gold Project, which consists of 10 mineral claims located in Central British Columbia, approximately 20km west of Fort St. James. The Company also has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Dale Property, 90 unpatented mining claims located approximately 100 km southwest of Timmins, Ontario, Canada in the Timmins Mining Division, Dale Township. The Company is analyzing the non-core Nevada projects, The Dale Property and Snowbird Property for further merit of exploration, sale or spin-out.
For more information about the Company, please visit www.element79.gold
Contact Information:
James C. Tworek, Chief Executive Officer E-mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
For investor relations inquiries, please contact:
Investor Relations Department – Dylan Anderson
Phone: +1 (613) 879-9387
E-mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

VANCOUVER, BC / THENEWSWIRE / May 30, 2023 – Element 79 Gold Corp. (CSE:ELEM) (OTC:ELMGF) (FSE: 7YS) ("Element 79 Gold", the "Company") announces that, further to its November 17, 2022 release announcing that the Company had entered into a non-binding letter of intent (the “Valdo LOI”) with Valdo Minerals Ltd. (“Valdo”), the parties have mutually agreed to a 60-day extension to the exclusivity period to enter into a definitive agreement for the sale of three properties from its Battle Mountain Portfolio located in the northeastern Nevada, US. The other terms of the LOI, as announced by the Company on November 17, 2022, remain unchanged. Proposed Transaction Highlights Valdo to acquire 100% interests and obligation in:

• The North Mill Creek Project - comprised of 6 unpatented claims located at the margins of the Goat Window in Lander County, Nevada, an exposure of lower plate rocks beneath the Roberts Mountains Thrust, the preferred carbonate host of Carlin-type gold deposits.
  
• The Elder Creek Project - comprised of 23 unpatented claims, which cover the historic Elder Creek open-pit mine in Lander County, Nevada, hosted in upper plate rocks where the mine area is believed to represent leakage from the deeper lower plate of the Roberts Mountains Thrust.
  
• The Elephant Project - comprised of 197 claims located at the foot of the mine dumps at Nevada Gold Mines' Phoenix operation hosting a covered pediment target with various depths of cover based on the displacement of fault blocks.
  

Valdo to issue 3,750,000 common shares at a deemed price of $0.30 CAD per share representing an aggregate value of CAD 1,125,000. According to the revised exclusivity period, the transaction is expected to close by July 15, 2023. “As we progressed toward the initial term of the LOI, Valdo expressed a desire for an extension as they finalize their project structuring and capitalization plans,” said James Tworek, Element79 Gold Corp CEO. “Our collaboration with Valdo holds great promise, spurred by their continued interest in how the optioned portfolio synergizes with their other regionally adjacent projects, we are confident that this extension will pave the way for a successful closing and strong Valdo story in the future.”
Element79 Gold’s Battle Mountain Portfolio The Battle Mountain Portfolio was originally comprised of 15 separate projects totaling over 44,478 acres across 2,203 unpatented claims in five counties: Elko County, Eureka County, Humboldt County, Lander County, and Nye County. Most of the Battle Mountain Portfolio is located within the Battle Mountain Trend, with several projects close to globally reputable gold deposits including Nevada Gold's Cortez Mine. The Battle Mountain Portfolio is comprised primarily of early-stage projects. While drilling has been completed at some projects, such as Elder Creek (155 holes) and Clover (104 holes), many have only surface sampling and geophysical surveys completed. Of particular note are the Long Peak, Elephant, Elder Creek, North Mill Creek, Clipper, Pipeline South, West Cortez, and Walti Projects, which are interpreted to lie along the northwest trending fault that hosts the high-grade Pipeline deposit, which is included in Nevada Gold's Cortez Mine. Qualified Person The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Director of Element79 Gold and a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Element79 Gold Element79 Gold is a mining company focused on gold, silver and associated metals and committed to maximizing shareholder value through responsible mining practices and sustainable development of its projects. Element79 Gold's main focus is on two core properties: developing its previously-producing, high-grade gold and silver mine, the Lucero project located in Arequipa, Peru, with the intent to bring it back into production in the near term; and its flagship Maverick Springs Project located in the famous gold mining district of northeastern Nevada, USA, between the Elko and White Pine Counties. Maverick Springs hosts a 43-101-compliant, pit-constrained mineral resource estimate reflecting an inferred resource of 3.71 million ounces of gold equivalent "AuEq" at a grade of 0.92 g/t AuEq (0.34 g/t Au and 43.4 g/t Ag) with an effective date of October 19, 2022. The acquisition of the Maverick Springs Project also included a portfolio of 15 properties along the Battle Mountain trend in Nevada, which are non-core to its primary business focus. In British Columbia, Element79 Gold has executed a Letter of Intent and funded a drilling program to acquire a private company that holds the option to 100% interest of the Snowbird High-Grade Gold Project, which consists of 10 mineral claims located in Central British Columbia, approximately 20km west of Fort St. James. The Company also has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Dale Property, 90 unpatented mining claims located approximately 100 km southwest of Timmins, Ontario, Canada in the Timmins Mining Division, Dale Township. The Company is analyzing the non-core Nevada projects, The Dale Property and Snowbird Property for further merit of exploration, sale or spin-out. For more information about the Company, please visit www.element79.gold Contact Information: James C. Tworek, Chief Executive Officer E-mail: [email protected]
For investor relations inquiries, please contact: Investor Relations Department – Dylan Anderson Phone: +1 (613) 879-9387 E-mail: [email protected]

Hey fellow Roovians…it’s been so long! This will be similar to my last post from 2022 as usual!
I’m still working as an associate attorney for Mitchell & Mitchell, and have been practicing almost 2 years now doing exclusively criminal work.
I am really excited to carry on the tradition of helping this community of wonderful Redditors by giving information…and I’ll answer what questions I can! I believe that I can be a voice for your questions and concerns, as well as the voice and contact person for my LOCAL firm here in Middle Tennessee.
In my 2022 post, I mentioned that I am a long-time attendee of Bonnaroo. This will be my 12th consecutive year! As a somewhat newly licensed attorney, I can answer most of your questions, and if I cannot I have been given explicit permission from the managing partner of my firm to relay questions that I am unsure of directly to him and give you the best and most accurate information. Although I am new as an attorney (2 years officially last month), I’m in an extremely unique learning and working situation, as my supervising attorney, Jack Mitchell, has been practicing locally in criminal defense for over 30 years. That’s in addition to having a great working relationship with the district attorney assigned to Bonnaroo cases.
I wanted to continue the tradition of this post because I do believe that people on this sub get some good benefit from it and share details of the process for handling charges that can change from year to year. This is a place to ask questions you may have, and I will try to answer everything that I can (and if not, I will do my best to get the answer for you). As someone who loves attending Bonnaroo and being part of the community there, I hope you don’t need this information, but it is here in case you do.
The current elected District Attorney brought changes to the way criminal charges resulting from the festival were handled. In years past, criminal citations and charges were treated differently during Bonnaroo. Those who caught charges (defendants) were sent a letter from the District Attorney’s Office and the Court Clerk indicating that with the payment of a fine, the charges would be dismissed or retired after a certain period of time. The more serous the offense, the larger the fine assessed.
The last several years, criminal charges resulting from Bonnaroo were supposed to be treated the same as every other crime in Coffee County. However, what we found is that the process for festival offenses is still much different than the process used the rest of the year, and we expect more of the same this year.
What does this mean for you? If you are arrested or cited for any criminal offense while you are in Coffee County for Bonnaroo, you will have to make regular court appearances (REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE CITING OFFICER TELLS YOU) or have a licensed attorney appear on your behalf, and you will be prosecuted through the justice system. It’s annoying, for sure, but if you don’t show, and don’t have permission to not appear, the penalties could increase.
Probably the best advice we could give you when dealing with law enforcement is to exercise your right to remain silent. Along with this, you should not willingly consent to the search of your person, bags, vehicle, or campsite (other than when you enter the tollbooths). An officer may go ahead and search anyway, but giving consent immediately removes any chance of suppressing the contraband they find.
We understand that sometimes unfortunate things happen, and at Bonnaroo it is usually a case of bad luck and timing rather than bad people or actions. If you find yourself in this situation and need the assistance of an attorney, you can contact us through Reddit, at (615) 896-4211, [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), or through our website at mitchellattorneys.com. We can work with you on fees and will try to minimize travel and costs for out of state clients.
The major benefit of retaining an attorney with knowledge of the system is most of the leg work and negotiation can be done prior to the first time you are required to be in court. For most of our clients in past years, they were only required to make one court appearance, and for others (depending on the charges and criminal history) we were able to completely avoid the need for their appearance in court. Almost everyone we represented in past years was able to keep the conviction off their record and have their charges expunged.
Every situation is different, but our knowledge of the local judicial system and professional relationship with the District Attorney’s office will help ensure the most favorable result for your individual case. I will be on the farm experiencing the festival as always, and I’ll have koozies and business cards with me, lol! Enjoy your time in Middle Tennessee and at Roo. Also, look for our sign prior to entering and, like the sign says, take a picture JUST IN CASE.
TLDR: while this whole post is informative, basically this is about Coffee County’s Bonnaroo citation procedures and helpful information.

Hi everyone! I posted earlier about my decision to buy a Toyota Tacoma to replace my S (I have not traded the S in, I got the Tacoma yesterday and I'm currently waiting on repairs from Tesla before I sell the S).
I suggested in the comment thread that I'd do a post about EVERYTHING that went wrong with that car. So let's buckle up because here we go.
I bought the car CPO from Tesla in June of 2019, it is a 2016 75D/"Standard Range" S. The car is a relatively rare build because Tesla upgraded to Autopilot 2 hardware in October of '16 and removed the free unlimited supercharging perk in January of '17 (or roughly around that time). My car came down the line in November of '16 so it's one of very few Ses that has both these features. The first time I took it into the Service Center I was told by a technician (who does not drive a Tesla as his personal vehicle) that this particular run of Ses was one of the best batch he'd ever seen. Oh boy let's see how great this batch is.

Heated steering wheel

The first thing that went wrong with the car was actually broken from the time I bought it, but I didn't notice for a few months because it was the heated steering wheel. Winter '19/'20 set in and I realized the steering wheel wasn't warming up. I took it in for warranty repair and they found it was simply unplugged, this was free.

Trunk latch

In the summer of 2020, amid the COVID lockdowns, one day the trunk failed to latch and was stuck open. I tried pulling the emergency release but that did nothing. I scheduled a mobile appointment (which I will give Tesla credit for, very few car companies make housecalls), and the technician was also unable to get the trunk to latch. So I scheduled a service center appointment and had to drive with the trunk open for a couple weeks, this made an annoying beeping noise and prevented me from using ANY cruise control, let alone "Autopilot" (or "Full-Self Driving", I actually got grandfathered into the offer to upgrade from EAP to FSD for $3000 so I pulled the trigger on that, I have not requested the FSD Beta because it looks like a death machine to me).
Amazingly during my drive to the service center the trunk magically fixed itself. I wasn't about to turn around and go home since I figured the part could still be faulty, so I asked them to look at it anyway. Since they didn't see anything wrong they charged me over $500 to replace the components. This was my first repair bill.

First collision repair

A couple months later I was rear-ended by a teenager and she did a bunch of damage to the back of the car, this was one of my most seamless issues with the car, I took it to a local collision repair shop and they had it back to me within 3 days, all of these costs were paid by insurance.

MCU2 Upgrade

At some point I took the car in for them to replace the MCU (the 17" touchscreen) with the newer one so I could get Netflix and YouTube on my center screen. This was an optional service center visit, though the original MCU was REALLY starting to chug on newer Tesla software. The replacement cost $1600 and they did not put in a new AM/FM radio (that would have been an additional $500 and I don't listen to the radio much anyway). I was actually kind of happy that I could have the option to upgrade this tech, but if MCU2 winds up being as sluggish as MCU1 was when it was just 4-5 years old this seems like an extra non-optional cost.

12V Battery Replacement

In the summer of 2021 I got the error "12V BATTERY LOW SCHEDULE SERVICE NOW". That seemed really urgent, so I went on YouTube and searched for this error and found out that James May got the same issue. TL;DW the 12V system is powered primarily by a DC-to-DC converter from the main battery, but when the main battery disconnects there's a small 12V (like one you'd use in a motorcycle) that is needed to power on the actuators that connect the main battery. If the 12V goes flat the car is bricked and, because the 12V is under the frunk and the frunk is electronically actuated, the only way to get to the 12V to trickle charge it is to partially dismantle the car.
In fact, I was lucky to get a warning at all some Teslas have had this happen with no warning and in fact it was a software update that even added the warning. And in fact a lot of early Teslas failed within a year because for some reason they charge and discharge the 12V like mad. I hope they've improved this since this blog post, but anyway this is a serious design defect.
Tesla did the right thing here and got me into service the next day AND I got the car back within 90 minutes. This is the fastest turnaround time I've ever seen from them, however I'm fairly certain that if my car was no longer under warranty (meaning they would not be responsible for paying to tow it to the service center) I would not have gotten such white glove treatment.

Suspension issue

In 2022 I read the book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors by Ed Niedermeyer. From this book I learned about whompy wheels and learned a rumor that many Teslas were built with cheap aluminum suspensions that tend to fail. China forced Tesla to do a recall on cars built in the US and exported to China.
I frantically drove to my local tire shop and asked them to look at the suspension, they reported that it looked to be in good condition but that there was a leak in the hydraulic fluid that Tesla should repair under warranty. I took the car to Tesla and they had it for SIX DAYS during which I had to rely on their Uber vouchers (Tesla only recently started doing loaners in my area, it might be because I live in a very obscure remote place called New York City /s). They reported to me that nothing was wrong with the suspension and returned the car, completely filthy since they'd left it parked under a tree.

Windshield replacement

In late 2022 I decided to save some money by replacing my wiper blades myself. While the blade arms were out one of the springs came loose and smashed into the windshield. It took me about a week to get the wiper back on, I tried every tool in my toolbox and eventually just took it to the tire shop where they put in a vice and got it to reconnect. They did this for free. Over the winter of '22/'23 however the damage to the windshield escalated into a crack. This is mostly my own stupid fault, I probably could have prevented this crack from growing with a cheapo Amazon glass repair kit, but none of the other cars I've ever driven have had something this nuts happen.
I took the car to a local glass repair shop and the owner told me I needed a full new windshield. He called Tesla to confirm the part number and order it, they did not pick up the phone. I was out of the country for about a month so I left this to pick up when I returned. I just went to SafeLite since I assumed they had more staff to pester Tesla to send them the windshield. Dropped off my car, they called me and said they had to wait a couple weeks for the windshield to ship. About a week later I dropped off the car AGAIN and they replaced the windshield.
This cost me another $500 out of pocket and the rest (about $700) was covered by insurance.

Door replacement collision repair

On March 7th 2023 a kid jumped a stop sign and crashed into my driver's side door, he put a huge dent in it and the door handle got stuck in the presenting position. Because he was not the policyholder* his insurance could not establish that he had permission to drive the vehicle and said they would not pay for the repair, so I again had to go through my insurance meaning I couldn't get a loaner.
It took Tesla TWO WEEKS to ship a new door to the only local Tesla-certified collision repair center in my area (this was about a 30 minute drive and I had to Uber both ways since there was no nearby public transit). When I got the car back there was an obnoxious amount of wind noise, I found they had misaligned the new window with the weather stripping. I brought the car back to them and they tooled around enough to get the wind noise down to a lower level, but it is still not gone. I did find I could jam some paper into the weather stripping and shim it up to prevent a little bit of noise.
This was a $500 out of pocket cost (which I may get back through insurance arbitration) and the cost to the insurance was a whopping $4700!

The HVAC filter, radars, and AC

Now we come to the straw that broke the camel's back. I noticed in the manual recently that my car is due for a replacement of the HVAC filter. They're fairly cheap on Amazon, so I figured I'd try doing it myself again. My wife talked me out of this due to what happened with the wiper blades. Additionally the HVAC system has a desicant bag that needs to be replaced periodically (like one of those sillica gel packets), and that requires a special machine.
So I scheduled a service center visit, they informed me my car was also eligible for a free upgrade to the autopilot cameras. I dropped off the car and for the first time in FOUR YEARS they gave me a loaner, a lease-return Model Y that presumably they couldn't find a buyer for (this car was a complete shitbox but that's a whole other story).
They said they would take FIVE DAYS to do this quick 30 minute job of replacing the HVAC filters. I also tried phoning them to ask if they could take a look at the wind noise from the previous repair, there was a message on the phone that told me I need to do all communication with them through the app. I messaged in the app, they did not respond.
Amazingly I got the car back after just FOUR days, but I was informed they did not look at the wind noise because it wasn't on the original list of things, and I would need to book ANOTHER appointment and wait ANOTHER two weeks for that. Replacing a $30 HVAC filter and a dessicant bag cost me a whopping $460!
After I got the car back, however, I realized that they did not merely "upgrade" the Autopilot cameras. They removed the Autopilot radar. I know they did it because now my follow distance bottoms out at 2 and I now have an 85mi/hr Autosteer speed limit. By the way, unlike the 3 and Y the Autopilot follow distance control in the S is a physical click-knob. So I can click it to 7,6,5,4,3,2 and 2. Like they replaced the bottom position with a second "2".
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
The HVAC is now blowing hot air. Every time I turn on the AC the car blasts me in the face with hot air and the compressor goes nuts. I assume this means the coolant is low (since it seems to have some ability to cool but is struggling a LOT).
So that's the end of our story. That's everything that's happened to this car so far. And where are we now? I have an appointment with service to fix the remaining problems and YESTERDAY I bought a 2020 Toyota Tacoma which GET THIS has a radar adaptive cruise control! No fancy "Autopilot" or "Autosteer", but it has lane departure warning which is enough to keep me awake on a long nighttime drive.
The biggest open secret about "Autopilot" and "FSD" is that they're mostly off-the-shelf components. Rather than building a self-driving car what Tesla actually did was take standard driver-assistance cruise control features and mash them together pretending they're something magical.
*This was a frankly ridiculous claim on the part of his insurance since his mother was the policyholder and the police report documents that she was sitting in the passenger's seat at the time of the collision. So I guess their position is that she was in the process of being kidnapped.
If you ever get into a crash like this make sure to take out your phone, take a video, and say "Do you have his/her permission to drive this vehicle?" If they say no just turn to the police and say it's a stolen vehicle and it needs to be impounded.

Welcome one and all! Some of you may remember me mentioning the idea of this series a while ago in the Daily Discussions, and now, many moons later, we’re finally here. Worldbuilding is one of my passions and one of the things that keeps my brain playing with fanfiction, so I’m here to share my dubious expertise. Remember though that these are just my methods and preferences, and if you can find something different that works for you, that’s great! I hope at the very least this series of posts will provide a decent basis for people to develop their own skills and style of worldbuilding.
The goal of this first post is to get you acquainted with some fundamentals of worldbuilding, things that apply to both original fiction and fanfiction, and we’ll to expand on how to apply these ideas in the next post.

First Principles

Back in my younger days in uni, I spent a while exploring the interaction of history and anthropology, which meant I learnt a little about anthropology as well. I’m far from an expert, so if you have actually studied anthropology in any depth, you may have to hold your nose through this section, but I want to stress that this is not necessarily a commentary on anthropology as a discipline, but on what I took away from it as a useful way to think about fictional societies.
Okay, disclaimer done. Broadly speaking, we can talk about two major approaches to analysing the rituals and practises of societies: as symbolic or functional. A symbolic understanding of a society will take the approach of focusing on the, well, symbolic meaning of rituals, essentially having them stand in for something bigger. Functional analyses, meanwhile, will focus on what purpose a certain ritual may serve in a society, which may not necessarily be what it appears to be on the surface.
(“Ritual” is another bit of anthropology speak here: rituals aren’t necessarily religious or virgin-sacrifices-under-the-full-moon (that’s only the fun ones), but can just be shared traditions. For example, singing ‘happy birthday’ could be considered a celebration “ritual” in our society.)
Now, “symbolic” and “functional” reasons can overlap and even be different ways of understanding the same thing. For our purposes, we want to remember that every bit of detail we introduce about a society should serve at least one of these functions in order to feel realistic. If you’ve ever seen an obvious Bad Guy Nation that worships Evil God Bob who regularly demands human sacrifices and puppy kicking and rolled your eyes, it’s probably because these rituals failed to establish symbolic or functional meaning, and thus society felt shallow and unrealistic.
What purpose do the human sacrifices serve? Perhaps those sacrificed are symbolic methods of bridging the gap between the people and their god: by spilling innocent blood, the people grow closer to their god’s power and incorporate some of it into themselves. Or, perhaps those sacrificed are criminals, and thus the function of the ritual is punishment and as a focus for the community’s anger against those who have transgressed social norms or broken laws. Just because a nation is full of bad guys doesn’t mean their society can’t have sensible meaning in it’s rituals.
Symbolic or ritual or both? This question is worth asking yourself as you build your society. Of course, you should feel free to work backwards if you come up with some really cool shit. This is fiction after all: “because it’s cool” is half the point.

Society Load-Bearers

Now that we’ve considered our intellectual starting point, it’s time to consider our pragmatic starting point: the shit that actually makes up “a society”. You could probably make an argument for multiple things to be included here, but I have boiled this section down into what I believe are the three most important elements to consider. These three are: landscape, religion/beliefs, and people.
#1: Landscape
To a certain extent, this list is in priority order, not necessarily because one is more important to consider than the other, but because certain things on the list will necessarily limit what you can do with other parts of your worldbuilding. Nowhere is this more true than with the landscape of your society. The land your people are in will dictate what kinds of foods they can eat, what methods of travel they most commonly use, weather patterns… unless of course you use your Author Fiat Wild Card and declare an exception because of Reasons(tm), but we’ll get into that later.
Let’s say you want to write a pirate story. This means that you have excellent taste because pirates are awesome, but it also means your story necessarily takes place on islands or the coast: the rhythms are a sea are going to be a major part of your characters’ lives, and therefore of your story. Sea travel means you need to think about the preservation of food and water on a ship, hazards that could overcome your characters, and the space on the ship itself, cramped cabins, et cetera, and this will be where you want to focus your research in order to make the “landscape” around your characters feel realistic, even if they’re fighting mythical sea monsters.
In general, knowing the “landscape” of your story is very important, and I recommend having a map, or several maps depending on the number of locations in your story, for your own personal reference. This doesn’t mean you need an epic fantasy style map with detailed illustrations and every river, wood and village named. But having a rough sketch of the area your story takes place in won’t hurt and allows you to keep the areas of your world consistent. This applies to contemporary or science-fiction worlds too! Whether it’s planets in a system or the bus route your main character takes to work, just knowing how your characters move through “their” landscape will make your story feel more real, and allow you put in road blocks (maybe literal, in the case of the bus route) that your audience will understand all the better because of how this landscape has already been established.
#2: Religion/Beliefs
The next most critical element is what people in your society believe. This will guide social norms, relationships, character motivations, systems of government, all of that jazz. This sounds like a broad and complicated category, and it is, but you can simplify development in this area by focusing on one (1) major guiding principle for your society, then adding nuance as you expand through the other parts of the world. You can also, as with the previous example, work backwards from what your end goal to be.
Let’s say for example that you want to build a pseudo-medieval world, but one where gay relationships are completely normal and accepted. To make this work for your society, you might say, okay, let’s set up a society which values individual freedom. The god(s) of your medieval tech society value freedom and love, giving you a culture which puts emphasis on free choice in marriage, regardless of anyone’s gender. Since freedom is a staple of the culture, you probably don’t have a monarchy in this medieval world; instead, perhaps you have something more like the early democracy of some of the Greek city states, with limited numbers of citizens who can vote for representatives. This, again, would play into the individual freedom that was your starting point.
So we have our basics of this society down. But this sounds a bit happy and low on conflict. Here’s where we add the nuance. A society which places a religious emphasis on love puts pressure on people to be in relationships, which is bad for ace and/or aro folks, or for those who simply don’t want to be in a relationship—there could be a character story in this! Similarly, perhaps a society which values freedom also struggles to find reasonable limits on that freedom, meaning that blunt honesty (and hurt feelings resulting) are a norm. People who are more sensitive may find themselves looked down on for not being able to meet societal norms of tolerating others’ freedoms. And a democracy in a low-tech society may be slow to respond to crises (because speedy transport options are limited, slowing communication before you get into group discussion) or troubled by corruption (because it’s difficult to make tamper-proof voting methods)… not to mention those who may not get to vote.
There you go! From a really simple premise we built a pretty decent society and thought of ways its norms might pose problems to characters, whether as internal conflict in character arcs, or external conflict with plot issues. More detail, such as in specific rituals, days of celebration, and so on, will add more depth to this society, but if you’re stuck on this point, you can always go back to your central premise: what sort of things would a society that values freedom celebrate? What religious festivals might there be if their gods that value freedom and love in all forms? (You can try this as a worldbuilding exercise by leaving some ideas in the comments!)
#3 People (or: Movement)
I went back-and-forth on what I wanted to call this part, but in the end settled on ‘people’ because that expresses what I mean better, I think. Anyway, the main point of this society is to remember that your society is made up of multitudes of different people, hundreds or thousands of individuals. You can generalise about values your society might have, just as you can with any modern society – but just like the world we live in today, no society is a monolith. People will push back against their cultural norms in various ways, and even folks who accept cultural norms may participate in norms to different extents, with varying levels of enthusiasm.
As a parallel, think of people who take part in religious festivals like Christmas as a part of their religion, and people who do it as a cultural norm without serious religious elements, or without actively believing in Christianity at all. Those people are participating in the same cultural norm, the same “ritual”, but they aren’t all doing it in the same way. To make the world of your society feel truly alive, you should attempt to show something similar.
Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t have to be something that you dedicate masses of space to. In fact, generally it’s more realistic if there isn’t one “counter-cultural” character who all questioning or negativity about aspects of the culture is pushed onto. I’m talking about things such as, people who leave a cheering crowd because they’re not interested or disagree with a public speaker, a store owner who doesn’t ask questions about these strangers whilst others in the street blatantly stare at them, various levels of enthusiasm in the major religion, the presence of religious or ethnic minorities. You can tie this into your main story by using it as part of character arcs or subplots, too, to get characters to question their prejudices, beliefs, or generalisations they’ve made because of past experiences.
Another thing to remember about building a society of various individuals isn’t just how they “move” through the space culturally (...you can see why I felt “movement” didn’t really work), but how they move through the space of your world physically.
This is partly covered under ‘landscape’ for things like travel (if you have to teleport people around your continent, keep it subtle, yo) and what food is readily available, but it’s worth thinking about more specifically too, how your society will show, physically, that it has a multitude of people living in it. For example, if your character goes to a city, they should probably see signs of different periods of architecture, rich and poor areas of the city—and if they’re not seeing that, there has to be some reason for it. (There could be an interesting story in that idea!)
Think about the ways people will live in a period of your tech level and how that will make the space around your character feel ‘lived in’. Are the city streets clean? Where do children play? What do people do to celebrate festivals? As a modern example: even though I don’t really follow football (soccer), I always know when England are playing, because people start putting England flags in their windows… and then flags of other nationalities start appearing as well, because no society is a monolith! I hope this example also shows that worldbuilding doesn’t have to be complicated or about elaborate rituals. You can add lots of depth to a society with really simple touches like this, things that you may not even think of as “worldbuilding” because it’s so normal. But adding touches of normal is precisely what makes a fictional society feel natural!
So, that’s u/holliequ’s three major points to remember when building a world. My area of expertise, and hence most of my examples, is in (pseudo-)historical societies, but this doesn’t just work for building pre-modern or pseudo-historical societies! Let’s say that the “society” you’re building is a more modern neighbourhood instead: you can go through the list above in order in a similar way.
For “landscape” here, you’d want to think about urban vs rural communities (or a place where those communities mix, such as at a school), which country or area of the world they’re in (weather, basic patterns of life). Let’s say you want a ‘fish out of water’ story with classism themes, so you pick a rich urban neighbourhood for your main character—someone from a poorer, rural background—to move into.
Now depending on the area of the world you’re in, the urban neighbourhood may not be very religious, but they may have certain sets of beliefs already, such as homeowner’s associations which expect certain standards in the neighbourhood, or just shared assumptions about what ‘people like them’ do and how they act: for example, maybe in this affluent neighbourhood they’re used to hiring people to do housework for them, and so when they see the main character working in the garden, they assume the MC is ‘hired help’.
Lastly, people: even if your character encounters classism or snobbery from some of their new neighbours, not all of them are going to be the same kind of classist. The neighbour who mistook them for a worker, not someone who lived in the area, for example, may have made an honest mistake because of being raised with certain classist assumptions. Other characters may be explicitly hostile to the newcomer, whilst still others might be genuinely friendly and welcoming of different perspectives. In a smaller-scale “society” like this neighbourhood, which of these attitudes is dominant depends on exactly what kind of story you want to tell and there’s a bit less room for generalising than there is when developing a whole country, but as you can see, the principles work basically the same.

On using your Author Fiat 'Get-Out-of-Jail-Free' card

The above is a rough guide to building a society which functions more-or-less on the same principles as our own. But what if you don’t want to build a society that functions like our own? What if you aren’t working with humans, but aliens? Or your society has magic? Or it’s set in the future with some cool science-fiction technology?
This is when you pull out your Author Fiat card to handwave away any of the issues we’ve talked about. (This is also for occasions when you want something to just Be and don’t want to explain it, like “yeah this medievalesque society isn’t sexist. why? it just isn’t ok” but you know… this is a worldbuilding post, so we’re gonna assume you want to do some explaining here.)
For example, you probably need to think about how your characters move around the world, roughly how long it would take to get them from place-to-place with various methods of travel, the distance between stars, etc. Unless you Author Fiat declare there is an element which can make ships travel between solar systems in almost no time at all. (Hello, Mass Effect!) Unless you Author Fiat declare that giant birds can quickly taxi people around the country. (Hi, Pokemon!) Unless you Author Fiat declare that magic lets people teleport, or create gateways between different parts of the world, or… you get the picture, you always have a special ability to say “yup, it is that way because of magic and/or science”.
That said, there are consequences to using your Author Fiat card. If you have a world in which teleportation magic is a thing, then you need to think harder about ways to explain why your characters can’t get to a place: you will lose your audience if you have to resort to explanations like ‘they forgot about teleporting because they were so panicked!’ or ‘this never-before-established way of blocking teleportation magic happened!’ and erode the willing suspension of disbelief.
This is when it becomes necessarily to build probably THE most famous bit of worldbuilding… a magic system! jazz hands Or a sci-fi piece of tech. (A tech system? I guess tech systems can be a thing too.) At its most basic, the idea behind a magic/tech system is to give the audience an understanding of the rules so that things such as “magic that can block teleporting” don’t appear to come out of nowhere. By delivering these explanations early, and keeping to them consistently, you can use them to create tension later when the audience realises that a critical system in the starship is about to fail, or the main character doesn’t have the ability to cast the teleport spell right now, or whatever.
There are two approaches to building magic/tech systems: hard or soft. (Stop that smirking. Stop it now!) You may already know about the distinction between “hard” (scientifically realistic) and “soft” (scientifically plausible-ish, mostly, sometimes) sci-fi, but this can also be applied to magic systems, “hard” magic systems being popularised as a concept by Brandon Sanderson. Essentially, a hard magic system is simply one with more detailed explanations or formulas for how the magic works, giving concrete limitations, whereas soft magic systems may rely on more vague limitations such as “lack of energy” or “magic supply depleted”.
Neither of these is necessarily a better approach than the other, and mainly it’s about what kind of story you want to tell. If you believe Sanderson’s First Law, it’s easier to get your audience to buy characters solving problems with magic if they can understand, as it were, how the magic trick was done, but you may not need this sense of detail in your magic system if the issues faced by your characters are personal, or plot problems that can’t be solved with magic.
There’s not really room in the scope of this post to discuss building magic/tech systems (it’s long enough already!) but in general, unless you really enjoy making these things for their own sake, I recommend building your system backwards, starting with a vague idea of your plot and what kind of issues your characters will need to run into, and then building flaws or limitations into your system that facilitate that. For example, limit the time the character can be in the mech suit without taking brain damage, heightening the tension of the long finale you have planned, or invent some kind of magic rock that blocks teleportation magic, so your villain can have deposited a bunch of it in Plot Critical Location to prevent your heroes just teleporting there to stop them.

Resources

One last thing I did want to discuss was, in my opinion, the best way to improve your confidence and ability to worldbuild your own societies: learn about other societies! So to that end I’m going to discuss a some places where you can increase your knowledge and help your worldbuilding :D
The first one is probably an obvious one for writers, which is read widely. Fiction stories are a great resource for improving your writing, especially ones that have in-depth worldbuilding themselves. Some of the books I’ve enjoyed most over the past year from a worldbuilding perspective are Judy I Lin’s A Magic Steeped in Poison, These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong, and The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal, respectively a China-inspired fantasy setting, 1920s Shanghai with supernatural elements, and a sci-fi alternate history of the 1950s and 60s—so quite a wide range! A Magic Steeped in Poison also has one of the freshest and most interesting ‘soft’ magic systems I’ve encountered if that’s to your interest as well.
If we want to learn about societies, though, there is an entire profession that have dedicated themselves to learning about past societies! I keep telling everyone that my history degree comes in very useful for writing >D However, I do realise that getting into historical non-fiction can be a bit intimidating if you don’t have the degree, as history books are not always accessible. What I recommend if you do want to read more non-fiction is to look into books aimed at a popular audience rather than academic works. Two particular accessible recommendations I’ve read over the past year would be Ian Mortimer’s Time Traveller’s Guides series (particularly useful as they cover all kinds of elements of historical life, from religion to clothing to how people greet each other) as well as The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, which goes into great detail about working class Victorian life through the lens of biographies of the five victims of Jack the Ripper.
If you are willing to tackle more academic sources, when it comes to specifics, I recommend Jstor which allows you to make a personal account and access free articles each month. Trust me, some historian has DEFINITELY written something very specific on your area of interest at some point. Outside of that, I would suggest looking for books that are collections of multiple authors, since these are often designed to give a broad overview of the period from multiple historians’ specialities/perspectives. For example, I finished relatively recently Japan Emerging edited by Karl F. Friday, which was a great introduction to Japanese history from the perspective of someone mostly completely unfamiliar with the topic, and the bibliographies of books like this are an excellent starting point for doing more detailed research.
Apart from these “edited by” collections, series that are designed to be a comprehensive history on the topic can be very useful. I’ve been making my way through the Penguin History of Britain series and two books in particular, Britain After Rome by Robin Fleming (covering c. 400-1070AD) and The Struggle for Mastery by David Carpenter (1066-1300ish), stood out for their excellent attention to detail and the amount of ground they managed to cover.
(If you want any other recommendations, feel free to ask me! My best areas of knowledge are probably early modern and modern Britain and Europe, but I’ll see what I can do for any other periods or topics of interest!)
Non-fiction books are not the only way you can learn about societies either, especially for those of you who struggle to find time for books. Historical documentaries can be a great and accessible way to find out more about a particular era – my favourite documentary of all time is Victorian Bakers which is a BBC series available on DVD where bakers from the modern day try out different methods of baking throughout the Victorian era, starting with stone ovens and all the way up to industrialisation. Since bread has been a staple food for most of European history, it’s a really valuable perspective, as well as fun! (And yes, I am the kind of person who has a favourite documentary of all time, lol.)
There are also plenty of youtube series out there talking about history, but do try to find reliable perspectives if you can, particularly people who actually share their sources with you (and even if you don’t want to read the source itself, you can google it to check out the reviews). Some historians are now putting their work online to try to reach a wider audience, and one historian’s blog in particular which has been useful for me is A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry by Brett Deveraux which even has an entire section for resources for world-builders, looking at things such as what do pre-modern cities look like, how do people make clothes, etc.
Now I really have talked for long enough, so I’ll leave it there. I hope you all learnt something from this post, even if it’s just “I don’t like this, so I’m going to do everything the opposite way”. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback in the comments as I may consider posting a revised version of this on AO3 at some point.
There is one more post planned in this series. The next one will cover how to apply these worldbuilding concepts to fanfiction in a more direct way (i.e. when you’re not building a world from scratch, but expanding around existing concepts) and how to actually put all this worldbuilding into your story. Look out for that some time in the next week or so!

Please, feel free to add any events below! Check out the Visitor's Guide for more things to do around town!
Looking to meet up with people? Check out Meetup St. Louis.
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Be sure to continue scrolling past the Weekly Events for Trivia Nights, Live Music, Sporting Events, Local Comedy, and more!
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• Bellefontaine in Bloom
  • Spring 2023
  • Join others for a brisk spring walk through Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum! In the months of March, April, and May, Bellefontaine offers a two-hour walking tour of the cemetery and arboretum. This 2-hour walk will be led by one of their Master Guides who will convey highlights of the cemetery grounds, horticulture, and a variety of intriguing figures who call Bellefontaine their last address. Particular attention will be paid to the Horticulture side of the cemetery while in different levels of bloom during these spring tours.
• Chess at the Brewery
  • Every Wednesday
  • Local meetup group of chess players that meet at breweries on Wednesday nights. They rotate locations each week.
  • See their Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/chessatthebrewery/) for the location this week.
• Chihuly in the Missouri Botanical Garden
  • Running until October 15, 2023
  • The work of world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly is coming to the Missouri Botanical Garden in a stunning exhibition uniting art and nature. With thousands of pieces of blown glass forms in 20 dramatic installations throughout the Garden’s grounds, Chihuly in the Garden 2023 presents these artworks on a grand scale
• Confluence Music Festival at World Wide Technology Raceway
  • June 2 - 4, 2023
  • The 80,000-plus fans projected to attend the upcoming Enjoy Illinois 300, a NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, will be entertained at every turn.
  • In its second year, the Confluence Music Festival will showcase innovation, talent and live entertainment. The festival will feature 30 local, regional and national acts, including headliner Dierks Bentley, performing on multiple stages over the weekend.
• Family Night with Fredbird
  • Wednesdays
  • Join others at Cardinals Nation Restaurant & Bar for Family Night with Fredbird on select Wednesday evenings this off-season! Bring your family down for games, prizes, and meet Fredbird from 6:30-7:30pm.
• Ferguson Farmers’ Market
  • Every Saturday
  • Enjoy live music and special events in a festive family atmosphere, and discover a wide variety of edible delights, including homemade jelly, farm fresh eggs, honey, spices, and meats. You’ll also find an ever-changing array of gift and specialty vendors, selling everything from cut flowers and bedding plants to hand-painted artwork and small-batch soaps.
  • If it’s homemade, handmade or fresh and tasty, you can buy it at the Ferguson Farmers’ Market.
• First Friday at the Contemporary Art Museum: Queer Revolution
  • June 2, 2023
  • Start the first Friday of the month with art, music, and culture in the Grand Center Arts District. This month, join others for an evening celebrating queer revolutionary action and performance.
• First Friday at St. Louis Science Center: Star Trek
  • June 2, 2023
  • Star Trek returns for discovery at the Saint Louis Science Center’s First Friday, focusing on LGBTQ+ voices in the Star Trek universe during Pride Month.
• Green Living Festival at St. Louis Art Museum
  • June 3, 2023
  • Help your family, friends and coworkers live green! The Missouri Botanical Garden’s annual Green Living Festival will host a series of pop-up events during its “Summer of Sustainability,” with the first event taking place at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
• Jackie Joyner Kersee 5K
  • June 3, 2023
  • Don't miss the fun and excitement of the inaugural JJK5K Race June 3 at World Wide Technology Raceway as part of the 2023 NASCAR weekend. This marks the first-ever race named in honor to benefit hometown champion Jackie Joyner Kersee.
  • Jackie will award the medals herself – this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to run on the track and be photographed crossing the finish line, cheered on by our hometown Olympic champion!
• Karaoke Wednesdays at HandleBar
  • Every Wednesday
  • Browse the catalog and find your favorite songs to sing! Songbookslive.com/stlredcarpet
• Karaoke Wednesdays at Mack's Bar & Grill
  • Every Wednesday
• Lafayette Square Summer Concert Series
  • June 3, 2023
  • As part of Lafayette Square’s free summer concert series, Power Play Band will perform in Lafayette Park on June 3. Spanning genres such as jazz, classic rock, R&B, swing, Latin and pop, Power Play does it all! Gather friends and family, pack food and beverages, and don’t miss this lively event.
• Landmarks Downtown Walking Tours
  • Every Saturday
  • Landmarks Downtown St. Louis Walking Tours: History, Culture, Architecture, and Exercise: What could be better on a Saturday morning?
• NASCAR Cup Series: Enjoy Illinois 300
  • June 3 - 4, 2023
  • Enjoy Illinois 300, a NASCAR Cup Series race, returns to World Wide Technology Raceway on June 3 and 4.
• Open Mic Night at Schlafly Bottleworks (Maplewood)
  • Every Wednesday
  • Join others every Wednesday evening and showcase your talents with our Open Mic Night! Open sign up begins at 6:30PM with music starting at 7:00PM. They welcome original material, covers and spoken word! Grab a beer, then play and listen every Wednesday! There are no cover charges and no drink minimums to attend.
• Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night
  • May 31 - June 25, 2023
  • Often regarded as William Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, Twelfth Night is bursting with romance, music and high times.
  • Shakespeare in the Park is free to attend; no reservations are required. Just show up with your blankets, chairs and picnics and find a spot on the lawn. Shakespeare Glen opens at 6:30. Food by Steve’s Hot Dogs is available for purchase, and drinks by STL Barkeep.
• Soccer Pre-Match Street Party at Schlafly Tap Room
  • June 3, 2023
  • Join others before every City SC home match for a Street Party with the St. Louligans Soccer Supporters Group. They will block off the street next to the Tap Room (now known as Louligan Street) so fans can enjoy good beer, great food, music and fun before they march over to the stadium together.
• Soulard Farmer's Market
  • Wednesdays - Saturdays
  • Soulard Farmers Market is located at 730 Carroll Street in St. Louis, Missouri, a half mile north of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. The market is open Wednesday through Saturday, year round. They feature locally grown and shipped in goods, including: produce, meats, cheeses, spices, gourmet kettle corn, flowers, baked goods, and general merchandise. There are also several different eateries that have many food options, which allows customers the convenience to grab a quick bite to eat and a drink while shopping.
• Sunrise Yoga at Kiener Plaza
  • Every Tuesday
  • Awaken your body and bask in the morning sunlight! This gentle yoga practice is designed to energize and align your body and mind through movement and breath. Bring your own mat/towel and water bottle.
• Thursday Nights at the Museum
  • Every Thursday
  • Kick off your weekend at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park! Each Thursday Night at the Museum will be the most fun, engaging, uplifting, thought-provoking, perspective-shaping night of your week. And there are drinks.
  • Join others starting at 5:30pm for happy hour and pop-up activities, such as brief tours, games, and performances. The main stage comes to life at 6:30pm, light appetizers and drinks are available for purchase until 7:00pm, and the Museum’s exhibits are open until 8:00pm for you to explore!
• Tower Grove Farmer's Market
  • Every Tuesday & Saturday
  • Join others every Saturday of the 2023 Tower Grove Farmers Market Season. They'll have over 100 vendors with local produce, meat, flowers, eggs, honey, prepared foods, art, jewelry, live music, and so much more.
• Whitaker Music Festival
  • Every Wednesday until August 2nd
  • The Missouri Botanical Garden is an idyllic place to listen to live music. On Wednesday evenings throughout the summer, the garden hosts free, open-air concerts as part of the annual Whitaker Music Festival.

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Sporting Events This Week	Attractions Around the Area	Comedy This Week
St. Louis Cardinals schedule	Anheuser-Busch Brewery	Funny Bone Comedy Club
St. Louis Blues schedule	City Museum	Helium Comedy Club
St. Louis City SC schedule	Gateway Arch	The Improv Shop
St. Louis Battlehawks schedule	Missouri History Museum
St. Louis Billikens schedule	National Blues Museum
Gateway Grizzlies schedule	St. Louis Aquarium
Gateway Motorsports Park	St. Louis Art Museum
St. Louis Ambush schedule	St. Louis Science Center
	St. Louis Zoo

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Trivia Nights
Location	Date/Time	More Information
Anheuser-Busch Biergarten	Tuesdays 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm	Trivia Details
Bar K	Tuesdays at 7:00 pm
City Foundry	Thursdays 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Joey B's on the Hill	Mondays 8:30 pm - 10:30 pm	Trivia Details
Nick's Pub	Mondays
Felix's Pizza Pub	Tuesdays at 8:00 pm	Trivia Details
Schlafly Brewpubs (Any Location)	Tuesdays 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm	Trivia Details
Rockwell Beer Co	Tuesdays	Trivia Details (Reservations required)
The Mack	Tuesdays at 8:00 pm	Trivia Details
The Pat Connolly Tavern	Wednesdays at 7:00 pm
The Post	Wednesdays 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm	Trivia Details
Pieces Board Game Bar & Cafe	Wednesdays	Trivia Details
HandleBar	Thursdays at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm	Trivia Details
Steve's Hot Dogs	Tuesdays 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm	Trivia Details

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Live Music This Week
Music Venues	Live Music Around Town
Blueberry Hill Duck Room	1860 Saloon
Chesterfield Amphitheater	BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups
Delmar Hall	Broadway Oyster Bar
Enterprise Center	City Foundry
The Fabulous Fox Theatre	Gallery Pub
The Factory	Game 6 Honky Tonk
Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre	Gaslight Lounge
Off Broadway	The Heavy Anchor
Old Rock House	Jazz St. Louis
The Pageant	Joe's Cafe
Red Flag	The Lot on the Landing
The Sheldon	McGurk's
St. Louis Music Park	SoFar St. Louis Secret performances around town
St. Louis Symphony Concert Calendar	Venice Cafe
Stifel Theatre	Yaquis on Cherokee

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Recurring Outdoor Activities
Big Muddy Adventures – STL Riverfront Adventure	Big Muddy Adventures was established in 2002. They are the first professional outfitteguiding company providing access to the wild wonders of the Middle Mississippi and Lower Missouri Rivers.
Gateway Arch Events	There are a variety of things to do along the Mississippi River.
Hidden Valley Ski Resort	Ziplining, scenic chairlift rides, and hiking trails opened during the summer. Skiing, snowboarding during the winter.

Hello! I am very new to taking care of plants. These were planted in the spring of 2021, it looks like someone may have trimmed them in the fall of 2022.
Here we are in the spring and we are getting growth from the bottom, but not on any of the branches.
Should the branches have been cut down? And if so, where?
In Minnesota, if that matters to this question.

- Why do we die?
- The dead are never truly dead. Maybe they’re not here, now. But everything that once lived, lives on forever. In the eternity of time.
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https://preview.redd.it/it4z1ilj703b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d664bf9674f6810a3fd7273ec44ed7a8c59947f6
If there is something that matters in Dark, it is time. But not only because of the trips made through it... There is an aspect related to time that has gone unnoticed and is more important in the story than we might think at first: The time frame in which events take place.
In the narrative, two main periods can be distinguished (without taking into account the years): the week from June 20 to 27 and the week from November 4 to 12. We also have a period of three days in September (21, 22 and 23) and several individual days (it is not possible to determine exactly when some of them happen)
Of these periods, there is one that is special because of the symbology it hides and that can be key in the narrative. We refer to the time in which the first season takes place: November…
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https://preview.redd.it/sz2zbe1m703b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0b4d78b4fd0710a64f42ed5556c0a2837f931f8
MIKKEL'S OUTFIT
One of the things that really attracts attention in the first episodes is the skeleton suit that Mikkel is wearing. Taking the dates into account, it is inevitable to associate it with a festivity that has been gaining importance in Germany since the 1990s: Halloween.
In addition, in southern Germany (also in Austria), Catholics extend the celebration from October 30 to November 8. They call it “Seleenwoche”, which means “Week of all souls”. These days serve to remember deceased relatives and attend religious services in honor of the saints.
However, in Dark these celebrations are not explicitly alluded to, despite there being subtle indications, such as: Mikkel's costume, Jana's visit to Mads' grave, or various details throughout the series refering to "ghosts" or the "beyond" (see link)
reddit.com/DarK/comments/13td7r3/spoilers_s3_ghosts_and_beyond_in_dark/
This omission may not be accidental, but Jantje is using it as a narrative resource called "paralepsis" with which, offering half information, as a clue, she intends to call attention to precisely what is omitted. It is a “relevant omission” with which she subtracts details from the work that are apparently uninteresting and, nevertheless, they constitute indications hiding and revealing at the same time the story to which they refer, configuring the work as an enigma.
To understand the importance of this "relevant omission" regarding the moment in which the first season of Dark takes place, we have to immerse ourselves in the culture from which the symbol of the triqueta comes from, since Halloween has its origins in a Celtic holiday: the Samhain.
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THE CELTIC EIGHT-FOLD YEAR
Celts did not understand time as a finite line. On the contrary, in their understanding of the Universe, it was considered as an infinite cyclical process. Celtic time is conceived as a circular path that always returns to the same position.
In the past, Celtic communities only observed two seasons: winter and summer (light and dark, life and death). Their year was divided around four lunar festivities that celebrated agricultural and livestock cycles: "Imbolc", "Bealtaine", "Samhain" and “Lughnasa”. There were also four solar festivities corresponding to the equinoxes (spring - "Ostara" and autumn - "Mabon") and the solstices (summer - "Litah" and winter - "Yule"), although these were of lesser importance.
The lunar festivities are also known as "cross-quarter day" as they are located at the midpoint between the equinoxes and the solstices. In this way, the eight festivities mentioned above (known as "Sabbats") mark the astronomical milestones of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
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https://preview.redd.it/yc2ejyeu703b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=247c31b97c12c4287f0c9cfb1ebcf91b4661d186
SAMHAIN
Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the descent of the herds to winter pastures. It marks the start of the "Celtic New Year", separating the "light half" from the "dark half" of the year.
Currently, it is usually celebrated on November 1, although, according to some sources, formerly it lasted nine days, grouped into three blocks of three days each and in the center of all of them the day of Samhain. In addition, it would not coincide with a specific date because it was celebrated on the new moon closest to the astronomical midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. Earth reaches this midpoint on November 8.
Samhain is believed to have been the pagan Celtic festival of the dead, and over time Samhain and All Saints' Day influenced each other and eventually syncretized into the modern Halloween.
The origins of the celebration date back to the Celtic peoples who inhabited pre-Christian Ireland over 2,000 years ago, and it is associated with many important events in Irish mythology. In the earliest literary records of the holiday, Samhain was characterized by large gatherings and parties and was the time when the ancient burial mounds, which were considered portals to the “Otherworld”, were opened. Some accounts suggest that on Samhain bonfires were made and offerings or sacrifices were made.
Samhain was a liminal or threshold festival, in which, according to Irish mythology, the border between this world and the other was diluted, which meant that supernatural beings such as spirits or fairies, called "Aes Side" (considered by scholars, remnants of pagan gods and nature spirits) could more easily enter our world through portals opened to the "Otherworld".
But also the souls of the dead relatives returned to visit their homes, just as those of the deceased during that year traveled to the "Otherworld" during that night when the veil between the present, the past and the future disappeared.
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THE “OTHERWORLD"
With the name of "Otherworld" ("Orbis Alia") reference is made in Celtic mythology to the fairy world that coexists with that of human beings. It has been interpreted as an expansive world with numerous domains and kingdoms within it, and is home to many beings (gods, fairies and spirits of all kinds, along with the souls of the dead)
In the Irish mind-set, the "Otherworld" is neither Hell nor Heaven in the sense in which we now consider it. Rather this "Paradise" is a land of eternal youth and bounty, and a place accessible, with difficulty, to the living.
Many of the ancient tales tell of humans gaining access to the "Otherworld". Sometimes they were invited or summoned there by some god or spirit, sometimes they were kidnapped by one of the Otherworlders, and some people entered the "Otherworld" of their own accord during those times of the year when the walls between their world and "Otherworld" were lowered (as during Samhain and Beltane)
The portals to the "Other World" were found in nature and they used to be in caves or at the base of hills, on cliffs... It is also believed that the patches of mist could have some opening to the "Otherworld" within them.
One of the best-known portals is the Oweynagat cave (known as the "Gate to Hell"), near Rathcroghan (Cruachan), the oldest Celtic archaeological complex where the first legends related to Samhain are located. What's more, many people believe that this "Gate to Hell" could be the place where Samhain originated.
The entrance to the Oweynagat cave
The "Otherworld" is sometimes located under the burial mounds, dolmens and other megalithic monuments. Thus, we have the "Sídhe": underground worlds located under mounds of earth or ruins that serve as a refuge for fairies. In this way, stories circulate throughout Ireland about Knocks (from the Irish "Cnoc", meaning "hollow hill") inside which live extensive fairy communities ruled by a king or queen.
In many Old Irish manuscripts, the "Otherworld" is located beyond the Western Sea.
One of the great treasures of the Irish "Otherworld" was a ship that moved across the sea under the power of its pilot's thoughts. This mythological object was called "Ocean Sweeper" (Aigean Scuabadoir) and was brought from the "Otherworld" by the heroic Lugh, later becoming the property of the ocean god Manannan Mac Lir (first ancestor of the human race and god of the dead). He was responsible for transporting the dead heroes to "Tir Tairnigiri" (The Promised Land), where they would find their final resting place in the "Otherworld" located somewhere in the West.
Likewise, according to Gallic myths, once the souls had left their bodies, they went to the northwestern coast of Gaul and there they embarked towards ancient Britain. When they wanted to cross the sea, the souls went to the houses of the sailors, at whose doors they knocked insistently and desperately. The sailors then left their homes and took the dead to their destination in ghostly ships.
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https://preview.redd.it/mjoxf845803b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec5c147212dbb26a75dcdf93de3dcbecfdd90a4e
APPLES...
Apples and hazelnuts played an especially important role for the first Celts, which is why they were considered foods from the "Other World". The apple symbolized life and immortality, it was the talisman that allowed access to the "Otherworld" and gave the power to predict the future.
In Celtic mythology, the apple tree is the quintessential "Otherworld" tree. It is believed that an apple tree grows in its center whose fruit has magical properties.
Additionally, apples serve as a graceful food offering that helps spirits travel safely as they pass through the veil between the mundane realms.
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https://preview.redd.it/p7wxdsp8803b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4034bcc356bff5f15ee34e50eafa11b6aa633d0
ACORNS....
For the Celts, trees were of great importance, but the most sacred of all was the oak, which represented the "Axis Mundi". The oak was a symbol of connection to the spiritual world, its roots piercing the subterranean realms of the "Otherworld" while its branches reached the heavens.
The oaks also provided an important food: Acorns. The acorn, being a seed, contains both the memory of those that have passed and the promise of those to come, symbolizing the cycle of life and the seasons. They were considered a symbol of growth related to life, representing longevity, immortality, rebirth...
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https://preview.redd.it/h4djcpn9803b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80acfe70585a47d2da3da7a81626787bd7882802
...AND BIRDS
Birds are a powerful force in Celtic mythology, often symbolizing the flight of spirits or the guiding for souls in their transit to the "Otherworld."
The Celts thought that birds were the reincarnation of the souls of the dead, so they could be messengers from the "Other World".
The female characters, especially the witches, are very often associated with birds.
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THE SYMBOLS IN “DARK”
Next we are going to detail the existing analogies between this Celtic mythology and the story of Dark:
- The title of the series is related to the moment in which it begins: Samhain, the entry into the "dark time" of the year.
- Characters travel to "another world" through a cave.
-When Mikkel enters the cave, he does so guided by a Jonas who comes from another time.
- Mads, Erik and Yasin are kidnapped by a Helge who comes from another time.
- The members of “Sic Mundus” live underground, under the orders of Adam. After, their lair is in the ruins of the nuclear power plant (Remembering the "Cnocs")
- The "sacrifice" is mentioned by several characters.
- We can see apples in many places: it appears in the intro of the series, on the wallpaper in the bunker, with Noah on several occasions, in various fruit bowls (at Ines Kahnwald's 1986 house, at Egon's 1953 house, at Bernard Doppler's house, at Adam's lair, at Alt-Martha's house, at the attic room of the Tannhaus factory…)
- Acorns and birds are also very present elements in the narrative.
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EPILOGUE - Death and astronomical events
Curiously, although it is not mentioned in the series, three astronomical events take place during the story: the summer solstice (June 21), the autumnal equinox (September 23) and the last "quarter-crossing" (November 8)... Three of the " Sabbat” of the Celtic year…
June 27 is also a special date as it is the day the sun sets the latest.
All these dates are important in Dark: Mikkel's death takes place on June 21 and Katharina's death on September 23. The Apocalypse happens on June 27 in Adam's world and on November 8 in Eva's world.
Finally, all the characters in both worlds “vanish” on November 8, the day Sonja, Marek and Charlotte should have died. Exactly the "quarter-crossing" day of Samhain...
https://preview.redd.it/tijpcsnc903b1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59ee9fa2f719d4c298ca4667dec6a77d71ce79d9
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THE QUESTION...
So, it is inevitable to reach this point without asking the question... Could we understand the story of Dark from a supernatural perspective? Are the worlds of Adam and Eve the "Otherworld" of the origin world? Would Jonas and Martha be "angels" as Marek says?
"Why do we die?..."

We're out of season, but it's never too early nor too late for a Christmas thread. Credit goes to u/CleverHarwood who started the Christmas saga and then followed it up based on tips from fellow puzzlers.
The aim of this post is to create an easy-to-maintain Ravensburger Christmas resource linked to our Wiki. I will carry on updating this post, so don't hesitate to comment and point out any missing bits (even if you stumble upon it weeks or months after its original publication date). Thank you.
The focus is on Limited/Special Christmas editions: 500-2000 pieces (but I plan to add smaller counts eventually). I have hyperlinked the completed puzzle if it was posted on the sub and avoided external links. Multiple external links have lead to my post removal by reddit spam filters.
A very special thanks to u/hyperkid137 for sharing the Ravensburger link and the redditor who first shared the Puzzles by Lisa website link. eBay (active and sold items) and Puzzlelink are the other two resources that were useful in the data collection.
Last updated: May 2023
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Christmas/Limited Edition with the yellow star on the box Please note some of these puzzles were released by Ravensburger USA. I have provided this information if located/available
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Title	Artist	Pieces	Year on the box	Notes
Here Comes Christmas!	Ingrid Slyder	500	2023
Rockefeller Center Joy	Pierpaolo Rovero	1000	2022
Enchanted Christmas	Demelsa Haughton	500	2021
Christmas Songbirds	Ingrid Slyder	500 XL	2021	Sold in the Christmas Edition and 'standard' Ravensburger box
Christmas Eve	Zorina Baldescu	1500	2020
The Christmas Shop	Janet Kruskamp	500	2020
Christmas in The Square	Victor McLindon	1000	2019
Cuddly Christmas	Dominic Davison	500	2019
Packing the Sleigh	Liz Dillon	1000	2019
Playful Christmas Day		1000	2019
White Christmas	Dominic Davison	1000	2019
Christmas on Pet Street	Ingrid Slyder	1000	2018
Christmas Village	Marcello Corti	1000	2018
Christmas Wishes	Barbara Behr	1000	2018
Countdown to Christmas	David Krustkamp	1000	2018
Snowy Village	Barbara Behr	1000	2018
Christmas House	Steve Crisp	500	2017
Festival of Festivals	Roy Trower	1000	2017	Released as Santa's Christmas Party in the UK
The Joy of Christmas	Connecticut Community Foundation	1000	2017
Winter Wonderland	Ingrid Slyder	1000	2017
Christmas Joy	Interlitho (Stock art)	500	2016
Santa's Ready	Ingrid Slyder	1000	2016
NYC Christmas	Steve Klein	1000	2015
Santa's Final Preparations	Roy Trower	1000	2015	Released under the same title in the Limited Edition in the UK
Americana Christmas	Medana Gabbard	1000	2014
Christmas Train	Roy Trower	1000	2014	Released as The Santa Express in the UK
Mapping the Course	Elaine Maier	1000	2013
Idyllic Village	Debbie Cook	1000	2013
Santa Needs Directions	Roy Trower	1000	2013	Released as Which Way is Santa? in the UK
Joy of Christmas	Roy Trower	1000	2012	Red box edition
Santa's Sleigh Ride	Roy Trower	1000	2012	Released as Santa's Flying Visit in the UK
Santa's Caught	Simon Mendez	1000	2011
Snowy Day	ddfa (Stock art)	1000	2011
The Christmas Shop	Tricia Reilly Matthews	1000	2010	Ravensburger USA. Modular box
Holiday Baubles	Caroline Valeureuse	1000	2010
Not a Creature was Stirring	Nicky Boehme	1000	2010
Santa's Arrival	George Schriemer	1000	2010
Santa's Story Time	Gilberto Marchi	1000	2010
Santa's Flying Visit	Roy Trower	1000	2010	Ravensburger USA. Modular box; released under the same title in the UK - standard box
Two Angels	Alessandro Scanziani	1000	2010	Ravensburger USA. Modular box
The Christmas Market	Roy Trower	1000	2008	Released under the same title in the Limited Edition in the UK
Joy of Christmas	Roy Trower	1000	2008	Blue box edition
Santa's Christmas List	Roy Trower	1000	2008	Released under the same title in the Limited Edition in the UK
White Christmas	Rolf Bunse	1000	2008
It's Christmas	Roy Trower	2000	2005
It's Christmas	Roy Trower	1000	2005
Santa Claus	Ute Thonissen	1000	2005
The Christmas Village	Roy Trower	1000	2004	Released under the same title in the Limited Edition in the UK
Christmas	Ute Thonissen	1000	2003	Comes in a metal tin box

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Limited Edition UK puzzles
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Title	Artist	Pieces	Year on the box
26: Santa's Workshop	Roy Trower	1000	2022
25: The Christmas House	Roy Trower	1000	2021
24: Christmas is Coming	Roy Trower	1000	2020
23: Home for Christmas	Roy Trower	1000	2019
22: Let's Visit Santa	Roy Trower	1000	2018
21: Which One's Santa?	Roy Trower	1000	2017
20: Santa's Christmas Party	Roy Trower	1000	2016
19: Santa's Final Preparations	Roy Trower	1000	2015
18: The Christmas Farm	Roy Trower	1000	2014
17: The Santa Express	Roy Trower	1000	2013
16: Christmas Shop	Roy Trower	1000	2012
15: Which Way is Santa?	Roy Trower	1000	2011
14: Santa's Flying Visit	Roy Trower	1000	2010
13: Santa’s Christmas Supper	Roy Trower	1000	2009
12: Santa's Christmas List	Roy Trower	1000	2008
11: The Christmas Market (Santa's Secret Visit)	Roy Trower	1000	2007
10: The Christmas Fair	Roy Trower	1000	2006
9: A Country Christmas	Roy Trower	1000	2005
8: The Christmas Village	Roy Trower	1000	2004
7		1000	2003
6		1000	2002
5: Christmas Carols	Peter Bradshaw	1000	2001
4: Christmas Traditions	Kevin Walsh	1000	2000
3: The Ivy and the Holy	Carol Lawson	1000	1999
2: The Twelve Days of Christmas	Carol Lawson	1000	1998
1: Victorian Christmas	Gale Pitt	1000	1997

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Christmas Disney Puzzles
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Title	Pieces	Year on the box	Notes
Disney Snow Globes	1000	2021
Disney Princess Christmas Celebrations	500	2017
Disney Pixar Christmas	1000	2016
Disney Christmas Train	500	2016(?)
Disney Christmas	1000	2015
A Disney Christmas	1000	2011
Winnie the Pooh. Christmas Fun	1000	TBC	Developed in the UK

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Movies! Here are options for downloading or watching You Hurt My Feelings streaming the full movie online for free on 123movies & Reddit, including where to watch the anticipated Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicole Holofcener team up for a new comedy movie at home. Is You Hurt My Feelings 2023 available to stream? Is watching You Hurt My Feelings on HBO Max, Netflix, Disney Plus or Amazon Prime? Yes, we have found an authentic streaming option/service.

Watch Now🔴You Hurt My Feelings Online Free

A new comedy by A24 is coming our way this summer! You Hurt My Feelings was written, directed, and produced by Nicole Holofcener. The film is also produced by Anthony Bregman, Stefanie Azpiazu, and Julia Louis-Dreyfu.
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Romantic comedies are always about finding your true love, but Nicole Holofcener has stood out in her career because her movies often focus on the struggles of maintaining or rediscovering love later in life. That once again looks to be the case in her new movie, You Hurt My Feelings, where she teams up with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
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While the movie is written and directed by Holofcener, it also has another big name in Hollywood right now behind it — studio A24. The producedistributor has long been known for its acclaimed entries that offer something different than the typical superhero/franchise fare of many other Hollywood studios. A24 has been on a particularly hot streak of late, with its 2022 movie Everything Everywhere All at Once winning Best Picture, as well as a slew of other movies earning awards and strong box office numbers. Will You Hurt My Feelings keep that momentum going?
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Already intrigued? We know you are, and we also know you're wondering how you can watch and stream You Hurt My Feelings from the comfort of your own home. Luckily, we did some research and have an idea of when this will happen.
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Fasten your seatbelt, because here's where you can watch and stream You Hurt My Feelings online.
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You Hurt My Feelings release date
After premiering at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in January, You Hurt My Feelings arrives in theaters for US audiences on May 26, which is the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
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The comedy is going to be an alternative to the usual summer blockbuster fare, including in its opening weekend, going up against The Little Mermaid and the broad comedy About My Father.
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You Hurt My Feelings is also just one of many A24 movies set to come out in 2023, joining Beau Is Afraid, Past Lives and Talk to Me.
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Where To Watch You Hurt My Feelings:
As of now, the only way to watch You Hurt My Feelings is to head out to a movie theater when it releases on Friday, May 26. You can find local shows on Fandango, IMAX, Regal, AMC Theatres, Cinemark, Cineplex, Landmark Theatres, Alamo Drafthouse and Harkins Theatres.
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Watch Now: You Hurt My Feelings (2023) Online Free
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Otherwise, you’ll just have to wait for it to become available to rent or purchase on digital platforms like Paramount, Vudu, YouTube and Apple, or become available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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Is You Hurt My Feelings streaming?
No, You Hurt My Feelings isn’t streaming right now. It is exclusively available in cinemas after its wide theatrical release on May 26, 2023.
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Since A24 is set to share a digital release date, we can only speculate as to when it may be available to watch at home.
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Looking at Aster’s previous movies, both of which were also backed by A24, Hereditary had a wide theatrical release on June 8, 2018, while it became available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video and other platforms on August 21, 2018.
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Meanwhile, the director’s cut of Midsommar dropped in cinemas on August 30, 2019, before streaming on September 24, 2019.
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Aside from Aster’s projects, A24’s Oscar-winning hits Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Whale had a wide theatrical release on April 8, 2022, and December 21, 2022, respectively.
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The Michelle Yeoh-starring movie became available for streaming on June 7, 2022, while the Brendan Fraser-led drama didn’t come out until March 14, 2023.
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If you put all of these together, this averages out to just under two months – but it’s likely set to follow Aster’s previous flicks, meaning the wait might not be quite so long. We’ll be sure to keep you posted when updates roll in.
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Is You Hurt My Feelings Streaming on HBO Max?
No, You Hurt My Feelings will not be on HBO Max since it is not a Warner Bros. movie. Last year, the company dropped its movies on the streamer the same day they premiered in theaters. However, they have since stopped and like many others, started allowing a 45-day window between the theatrical debut and the streaming release.
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Is You Hurt My Feelings on Netflix?
No, You Hurt My Feelings will not be on Netflix. However, it is possible that it will make it to the streaming giant eventually seeing as it’s home to other A24 movies like Uncut Gems. Until then, you’ll just have to head out to theaters or wait until it becomes available on digital.
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Is You Hurt My Feelings Available On Hulu?
Viewers are saying that they want to view the new animation movie You Hurt My Feelings on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free episodes of this series streaming at this time. It will be exclusive to the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service.
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Is You Hurt My Feelings on Amazon Prime?
We hate to tell you that ‘You Hurt My Feelings’ is not included in Amazon Prime’s library. But you can still make the most of your subscription by turning to other alternatives that the streaming giant houses, such as ‘Prisoner X‘ and ‘The Prison.’
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When Will You Hurt My Feelings Be on DVD and Blu-ray?
As of now, there is no set date last to when You Hurt My Feelings will be available on Blu-ray and DVD, but we'll keep you updated once we know more about when the film will be available on physical media.
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How to Watch You Hurt My Feelings Online For Free?
Most Viewed, Most Favorite, Top Rating, Top IMDb movies online. Here we can download and watch 123movies movies offline. 123Movies website is the best alternative to You Hurt My Feelings (2023) free online. We will recommend 123Movies is the best Solarmovie alternatives.
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There are a few ways to watch You Hurt My Feelings online in the U.S. You can use a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. You can also rent or buy the movie on iTunes or Google Play. You can also watch it on-demand or on a streaming app available on your TV or streaming device if you have cable.
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You Hurt My Feelings cast
Julia Louis-Dreyfus headlines You Hurt My Feelings as novelist Beth. This is a reunion for Louis-Dreyfus and Holofcener, as the two previously worked together on the 2013 movie Enough Said. Of course, Louis-Dreyfus is best known for her TV roles as Elaine on Seinfeld and Selina Meyer on Veep, but she has also starred in The New Adventures of Old Christine, Downhill, You People and has a recurring role in the MCU as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
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Playing Beth's husband Don is Tobias Menzies. Many viewers will likely know Menzies from either his role as Prince Philip for two seasons on The Crown or in Outlander, though he has also appeared in big-name shows like Game of Thrones, Rome and The Terror.
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Other members of the You Hurt My Feelings cast include Michaela Watkins (Enlightened) as Beth's sister Sarah, Owen Teague (Mrs. Fletcher) as Beth's son Elliot, Arian Moyaed (Succession) as Sarah's husband Mark and Jeannie Berlin (Succession) as Beth's mother Georgia. Also appearing in the movie are David Cross, Amber Tamblyn, Zach Cherry, LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Sarah Steele.
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What Is You Hurt My Feelings About?
Nicole Holofcener has distinguished herself in her career by centering many of her works that deal with the challenges of sustaining or rediscovering love in later life. This appears to be the same situation for You Hurt My Feelings which tells the story of a woman and her husband, focusing on their relationship over the years. The couple’s apparent happy life takes a hit when their little white lies are revealed to each other.

I had never visited the small town of Shirljohannes before, somewhere on the border of Germany and Switzerland, despite my fairly extensive travels for work around Europe. These continental small towns, they are so charming and picturesque, the literal scenes of The Sound of Music and shite like that. However they do end up being a bit “samey”- and I wasn’t expecting my overnight stay at Shirljohannes to be much different. It was an unplanned stop, I had found myself somewhat tired and drowsy after an exceptionally good meal, and decided to check in a local inn and get some much-needed sleep.
The pretty inn with blooming spring flowers at the window sills and such like certainly didn’t belie the horror of the next day. It was only the obvious confusion of the otherwise polite young clerk upon laying eyes on me that gave me the inkling that I had made a terrible choice to break my journey in Shirljohannes.
I couldn’t help noticing the large bright posters hanging in the lobby. Depicting small crowds of people clearly of non-European descent, such as Arabs, Middle-Eastern, Far East, and South / South Eastern Asians, they all bore the words “Lotteri Dag 2023”. Some kind of artsy “United Colours of Benetton” ad, I naively assumed.
The clerk, himself clearly of Middle-Eastern origin, greeted me with a startled look which he could not hide. He asked for my name and then exclaimed “Mr. Abbas? You are Mr. Abbas? And you’re staying here?”
I was irritated. “Yes indeed, I am staying for one night. This seemed a good a place as any for a stop, I was too tired to drive on”.
“Can I see your ID please? Do you have European ID sir?” To my ears, he sounded very suspicious.
I am of course used to a certain amount of low-level, poorly-concealed racism traveling in Europe, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed that this clerk, whose parents if not himself would probably have shared a similar heritage to mine, would act like this. I offered my passport. “No, but I have the correct visas” I responded sharply.
The clerk said nothing more, and checked me in. My mood soured, I went to my room, and soon fell asleep.
The next morning, two officers approached me at the breakfast table, where I was enjoying some amazing pastries, already checked out and my suitcase at my side.
“We entered you in the Lottery sir” they said in heavy accents. “We ran background checks on you- you are waiting for your Canadian citizenship and thus eligible to enter. Canada entered an official agreement with our government just last week. You can look up the articles.”
I stared at them, completely confused. “What are you talking about?
They returned my stare with bland official courtesy. “The Lottery sir. You will be entering the Passport Lottery held periodically at Shirljohannes, to celebrate the citizenship of our hardworking foreign worker population. You were found to meet the official requirements for entry. We entered your name. You will present yourself at the town square in precisely 43 minutes, when the name will be drawn.”
The other continued “And sir, please do not even think of leaving Shirljohannes or calling anyone outside the town. It will be much better for you to complete the Lottery. The odds are, you will be on your way within the hour.”
They left.
With a shaking hand, I pulled out my phone and began googling. Within seconds, I realised I do not have access to the world wide internet, but only some weird local Shirljohannes intranet. I hastily clicked on the bizarre English translation.
The Lottery was the (almost) last step on the long, convoluted journey for Foreigners in Shirljohannes applying to become Citizens. After years of filling and sending in forms, paying fees, waiting, waiting, interviews, more forms, changes to family composition, more waiting, Foreigners who were eligible for citizenship and the cherished passport of a European country would have to enter the Lottery.
The Foreign community would choose one person, who would be sent by ambulance to the local hospital, where they would be administered a painless, lethal dose by professionals. The final step, necessary to prove their loyalty and dedication to their new country.
I clicked through the convoluted intranet text, sun streaming on the beautiful breakfast setting. A cuckoo jumped out of an ornate old cuckoo clock and declared time. The young clerk from last night came up to me as I was reading.
“Mr. Abbas, it is time to go. The community- it’s better to go- they don’t like it if there are delays.”
I looked up at him, terror gripping me. “I don’t understand… how is this happening, how is this legal?”
The clerk shrugged. “It is legal. The municipal councils voted it in a few years ago- and the elders of the community support it. There were so many hate crimes, so much violence against foreigners. It is better now. I heard North America will be adopting similar laws soon. Of course it is very silent now- but if you looked, you would have found the information- and of course, the dependents of the sacrifice will be supported- very humane- but come, let’s go. We cannot keep them waiting.”
Propelled by fear, I got up, and followed him outside. The sun poured through the clear Alpine air into my eyes. In the glare, I could see knots of people, in twos and threes walking down the scenic mountain streets, all towards the city square. The clerk and I joined the flow.
Walking by us was a small group of women, dressed in ornate decorative ethnic clothing I would associate with India. The sunlight struck off the brilliant spangles in their clothes. I then noticed many people were dressed ethnically, while others wore plain western style clothing. Several women wore the hijab. There was little subdued chatter. I heard a woman in a sparkling robe say in a dialect I recalled from my childhood, “I prayed and prayed all night it would be me- I can’t bear my children- “ before the other women said “shhh Tasneem, do not talk of it. Do not go welcoming sorrow.”
As we drew closer to the town square, the crowds grew larger, and quieter. There was a moment of pure silence. Then everything began happening very fast.
A middle-aged man who looked to be some authority figure went up on a platform before a small splashy fountain which held the statue of naked white Venus and some other Greek deity. I just noticed the device set up on the platform.
The man operated the device. My heart was beating so fast as it spit out a paper that I thought it would burst out of my chest. The man held up the paper and he read out a name. “Tasneem-”
I didn’t catch the last part of the name in the rippling sigh which broke through the crowd. I saw the women fall away from the one whom I had earlier heard talking about praying. In the same movement, paramedics moved up to her, and started guiding her towards a waiting ambulance, at the edge of the town square.
The silence continued, although small murmurs could be heard. Tasneem did not struggle - her demeanour seemed one of submission .
The knots of people broke away from the crowd. A certain festive mood was undeniable. My young companion was no longer at my side, and I caught sight of him running over to young folk closer to his age, releasing a whoop of joy and relief.
I looked around. The two officers approached me and smiled grimly. “Very well Mr. Abbas, the Lottery is over. Congratulations on your upcoming citizenship. You may depart now without any further delays.”
I nodded. It was clear they expected me to leave right then. I could not disobey. I quickly walked to my car, and got in.
Within twenty minutes, I was well on my way to my destination, Shirljohannes behind me. May I never set foot in that terrible town again.

The Chelsea FC Women May round-up - champions Chelsea complete the triple Double, in a perfect May

Welcome to the final Chelsea FC Women monthly round-up of the 2022/23 season. This post is a long read, so feel free to skip to the end for a brief overview!

Introduction

It was a mixed April for Chelsea, in which we won one semi-final, and lost the other.
A spirited, but in the end, painful two-legged defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League meant our European dream came to an end. We were still left fighting in two competitions, however, having beat Aston Villa to advance to the FA Cup Final for the third year in a row.
As well as facing Man United in that banner occasion in May, we were also locked in a tense title fight with the Red Devils in the WSL - both the league and cup were to be decided in the final month of the season, meaning Chelsea had seven games to determine whether we made it a third Double triumph in three seasons, or finished the season empty-handed.
Chelsea’s congested fixture list meant we started the month seven points behind leaders Man United in the WSL standings - but with three games in hand. That meant it was in our hands - win out, and we would win the league.
Seven games to define the season - one cup final, and six in the WSL. Chelsea would be playing two games a week - whilst our rivals benefitted from a lighter schedule. The Blues had been heavily hit by injury this season - it was confirmed ahead of the run-in that Fran Kirby and Millie Bright would be out for the end of the season, although we were boosted by the return of Pernille Harder and Kadeisha Buchanan.
This has been one of the most gruelling and challenging seasons in recent memory for Chelsea - both on and off the pitch. Emma Hayes’ team are used to making the ends of seasons glorious ones - and that experience and champion mentality could be key to making the difference.
It was not going to be easy - but when the calendar turns to May, Chelsea come out to play, saving our best for when we needed it the most. It was set to be a tense month, of hoping that history would be repeated.

Key headlines

Injury updates
The ongoing injury epidemic - especially serious knee injuries - has been one of the storylines of the women’s football season. This has been especially concerning for many players and teams, with the World Cup looming in July.
Another of Chelsea’s own joined the unfortunate ranks this month, with young defender Jorja Fox having torn her ACL whilst out on loan to Brighton. The 19 year old has returned to the club for her treatment.
It was also confirmed that Fran Kirby would miss the end of the season, and the World Cup, in another cruel blow for a player who has been so blighted by serious injury and illness. Our two-time Player of the Year will be back in pre-season, having undergone knee surgery.
Millie Bright, meanwhile, is expected to be fit for the World Cup - but would not feature again for Chelsea this season.
Harder and Eriksson depart
It had been long expected, but that did not make the news hurt any less. Club captain Magda Eriksson, and forward Pernille Harder - who joined Chelsea in 2020 for a then world record fee - confirmed that they would be leaving Chelsea upon the expiry of their contracts this summer.
The couple are likely off to Bayern Munich. It has been known for a while that the duo would be taking on a new challenge - announcing it before the end of the season gave the opportunity for fans to see goodbye at Kingsmeadow, and then again in the final game of the season - and to give two icons of Chelsea the send-off they deserved.
It was an emotional farewell for all involved - and their contribution, especially that of Magda, in her six years at the club, will always be a part of our history, and never forgotten.
Awards
With the season drawing to the close, it’s the time of the year that the end of season accolades are handed out.
Sam Kerr was voted the FWA Women’s Football of the Year, for a second year in a row. Despite her contribution to our success this season - it was something of a surprise, with many thinking that Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly should have won.
Nonetheless, it was deserved - we would not be where we are without Kerr.
First signing
Chelsea are getting their business done early, having already announced that Sjoeke Nusken will join the club this summer. The 22 year old German midfielder joins from Frankfurt, and can play in either a deep-lying or box-to-box role.
With rumours of some other big signings to come, it could be a big summer…
Fran Kirby extends her contract
It was not all bad news for Kirby this month - following her knee surgery, it was also announced that the club have activated an extension on Fran’s contract, meaning she will stay at the club until 2024.

Now - to the action!

Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool (WSL)
First up in May was the rearranged WSL home game from January, against Liverpool. The match had been abandoned after just six minutes due to a frozen pitch. The truly farcical scenes drew much criticism of how the matter was handled - with fans inconvenienced and players put at risk.
Liverpool had gotten Chelea’s season off the a shocker of a start, when they upset us 2-1 on the opening WSL weekend - but we have gone on to beat them in the FA Cup since. Former Chelsea boss Matt Beard’s side sat seventh in the standings ahead of this one, meaning they had avoided relegation in their first season since returning to the top flight.
Despite the exertions against Barcelona, with nearly a week’s rest after that energy-sapping exit, Emma Hayes felt she only needed to make the one change. It was an attacking one, with Lauren James coming in from the start, and Maren Mjelde dropping out - meaning Eve Perisset dropped into a back three alongside Magda Eriksson and Jess Carter.
Any thoughts of a straightforward evening were rapidly dissipated, when Liverpool took a shock lead after just two minutes.
It was a goal of our own making. The aforementioned Perisset gave the ball away, and Liverpool pounced, with full back Emma Koivisto meeting a Natasha Dowie cross at the far post.
The Chelsea response was a good one - setting about the task of overhauling the Liverpool lead well, by dominating possession and laying siege to the opposition penalty area.
Unfortunately, Liverpool were equally up to their task, and defended with a determination and energy that had been entirely absent from their 4-0 defeat to relegation-threatened Leiecester in their previous outing. Based on our encounters this season, it seems like Liverpool have already developed a penchant for getting it up against Chelsea, on their return to the top flight. Maybe the presence of ex-Blues boss Matt Beard in their dugout has something to do with that…
Highlights of their defensive effort included a superb last-ditch block from former Chelsea player Gemma Bonner, to deny Sam Kerr what seemed a certain goal. Debutant keeper Faye Kirby also pulled off a series of superb stops - and when you have a goalie playing like that on her first senior appearance, it is easy to fear it may be “one of those days”.
Eventually, however, the Chelsea pressure told. Niamh Charles, who joined Chelsea from Liverpool in 2020, flicked home an equaliser from a Perisset corner - the latter’s assist making up for her earlier error.
With the score now 1-1 at the break, it felt like the Liverpool resistance could be at an end - with Chelsea having 45 minutes to find the winner.
The Reds’ heads, however, did not drop - and they set about their task of fierce rearguard action with the same focus as in the first half.
Emma Hayes moved to a back four, and used the full strength of her bench by bringing on Jelena Cankovic, Pernille Harder and Rytting Kaneryd. Harder in particular looked a threat - illustrating how much she had been missed in her long injury absence, since November.
Sam Kerr had gone close on a few occasions in the first half, but her threat had seemed to fade and frustrations grew as the game wore on.
It was however, the Aussie who in the end did what she does best.
Jessie Fleming was desperately unlucky to see her excellently-struck shot ricocheted off of the upright, in the 86th minute - but then immensely relieved (along with all Chelsea players and fans) to see the rebound find Kerr, who finally was able to beat Faye Kirby.
With that, Chelsea had found a way to secure a crucial three points - and ensure our title challenge marched on.
Chelsea 7-0 Everton (WSL)
Next came a home game against Everton, where Chelsea would be hoping for a more straightforward 90 minutes than in the previous game against the red half of Merseyside.
With the Sunday evening kick off slot, each of our title rivals had already played. Arsenal squeaked out a 1-0 win vs relegation-threatened Leicester, whilst Man United eased to a more comfortable 3-0 win against Spurs - maintaining their lead at the top. Man City, however, suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, meaning their title hopes are effectively over.
That meant Chelsea needed to do our bit - and keep on winning. Everton, sat comfortably midtable ahead of this game - well clear of any relegation trouble, and with no prospect of breaking into the top three to qualify for Europe. The last meeting between the two was the reverse WSL fixture, back in October, where a Niamh Charles wonder goal and a brace for Pernille Harder saw Chelsea win 3-1.
Emma Hayes rotated her XI, making five changes - with Chelsea still contending with a gruelling schedule of two games a week. The aforementioned Harder started from the bench - still to make her first start since returning from long-term injury.
Buchanan, Svitkova, Bright and Kirby remained unavailable - with the latter three now having been confirmed as out for the season.
Despite not having much left to play for this season, Everton started well, and had Chelsea on the back foot. The Toffees are a side who look good in possession, and had the Blues working hard off the ball early on.
What was to come, therefore, could not have been expected. The Toffees quickly melted in the early May sunshine, in the face of an absolute onslaught from Chelsea - who scored five sensational goals in the first half, from just five shots on target.
The Blues have made a habit of winning games whilst playing short of our top form this season - but this first half was Chelsea at our ruthless and scintillating best.
The first came from nowhere. With the Everton defence distracted by the movement of Sam Kerr, they allowed Guro Reiten far too much space in her wide left position - who unleashed a rocket to raise the roof at Kingsmeadow, and ignite the crowd. It was her tenth of the season - the first time our assist queen has reached a double digit goal tally for the Blues.
With Chelsea now with a spring in our step, a second came soon after. Sam Kerr had spent the day before representing Australia at King Charles III’s coronation - but this goal involved a different Charles, with Niamh delivering a superb cross for Kerr to nod home.
Unfortunately, that was to be Kerr’s last action of the afternoon - having rolled her ankle in the landing after her goal. She was able to walk off, giving hope her substitution was just a precaution.
Pernille Harder had replaced Kerr - and with her first touch of the game had put Chelsea 3-0 up. It was the Dane’s first goal since her brace in the reverse fixture against Everton - and another goal of the finest quality. Reiten cut the ball back for Harder to curl home, and put the win beyond doubt.
Chelsea were not done yet, however - Sophie Ingle next in on the action with a caressed finish, her first WSL goal of the season. There was still time for one more before the break - and this one was assisted by Harder, who laid it off for Jessie Fleming.
That made it 5-0 to Chelsea, in a truly five-star first half.
With a midweek game to come - and the FA Cup final the next weekend - Hayes made two half time substitutes. Lauren James replaced the superb Reiten, and Alsu Abdullina on for Eve Perisset for some rare WSL minutes.
It was a relaxed second 45 for Chelsea, who with big fixtures left to come and the three points already secured, did not need to take any risks. More could have been added to the tally, with James and Rytting Kaneryd going close - and a blatant penalty on James also turned down.
Erin Cuthbert and Jess Carter joined the party to complete the full complement of five substitutes, and just when it seemed the bunting was being put away for the day, Cuthbert and Harder produced a final flourish for a sixth Chelsea goal. The Scot surged from the halfway line into the Everton third entirely unopposed, and squared it for Harder to emphatically finish.
Cuthbert even had time to add a seventh - just minutes after Rytting Kaneryd had hit the post - to make it 7-0 to Chelsea, in arguably our best performance of the season.
A thoroughly brilliant win for Chelsea, which moved us into second place - four points behind Manchester United, with two games still in hand. The seven goals were a big boost to our goal difference too, although the Red Devils still had the advantage in this.
The only downside was the potential loss of Sam Kerr to injury - which also meant the two goals from Pernille Harder, signalling that the Dane is well and truly back, after her long injury absence, could not have come at a better time. If we were to go without Kerr, we would need Harder more than ever.
Chelsea 6-0 Leicester (WSL)
Chelsea were next in action midweek, fulfilling one of the two games we had in hand over Man United. That also meant our title rivals would benefit from three extra days' rest ahead of our FA Cup final clash at Wembley, on the upcoming weekend.
The opponents, Leicester, were fighting for their WSL lives - sitting 11th in the table ahead of this fixture at Kingsmeadow, two points above bottom side Reading.
Despite their lowly position, they had had some good recent results - including a 4-0 win against Liverpool, and had performed well in a narrow 1-0 defeat to Arsenal the weekend prior to this game.
Chelsea had earlier thrashed Leicester 8-0 in the reverse league fixture, but ahead of kick off Emma Hayes referred to them as “the most improved side in the WSL” - as they have made noticeable strides forward under manager Willie Kirk, since then.
Hayes also confirmed Sam Kerr was available for this fixture, with the issue that forced her into an early substitution against Everton only minor.
With the cup final looming, Kerr was not risked however - starting from the bench. Also starting from the bench were Katerina Svitkova and Kadeisha Buchanan on their return from injury - a welcome sign ahead of the run-in. Hayes made six changes to the line up that had started against Everton - including Pernille Harder starting for the first time since her own injury return.
Despite the changes, Chelsea very much started where they left off against Everton, pinning Leicester back from kick off - and had a deserved lead inside ten minutes.
The scoring was opened by the same player who had gotten the party started on the weekend - Guro Reiten storming in to finish a low Harder cross with aplomb.
The situation already looked ominous for Leicester, and the impending sense of doom deepened when another of Sunday’s goalscorers, Erin Cuthbert, made it 2-0 on 18 minutes. The Foxes were caught playing out from the back - a mistake engineered by the intensity of the Chelsea press, which had been relentless from the off.
Harder herself was then in on the goal scoring act with a brace, her second in two games The first was opportunistic - converting a rebound after Lauren James had had her shot saved. The second was some individual brilliance, capping off her own mazy run with a confident finish.
That made it 4-0 at the break, and meant that as against Everton, the game was already done at half time. Chelsea had made short work of Leicester, showing exactly the efficiency and ruthlessness that is needed at the crunch time of the season.
James added a fifth in the second half, to end a run of games without a goal. She did so with what is already becoming a classic of her repertoire - shimmying her way into a dangerous shooting position, then unleashing a rocket from range. Having got her goal, Hayes then brought James off in a series of changes made with Wembley in mind - Cuthbert, Reiten and Harder all also making way.
Jelena Cankovic made it a tennis score, and as a final positive note, Hayes was able to bring Buchanan on for Eriksen to get some minutes in the Canadian centre back’s legs for the first time since the injury she picked up in the April international break.
The six goals in this game, on top of the 7-0 win against Leicester, meant Chelsea had entirely erased Man United’s previously weighty goal difference advantage in the space of three days - now both locked on +42, and with Chelsea just one point off the leaders, still with a game in hand.
Chelsea’s form and confidence could not be better heading into the Wembley showcase - where we would take on our title rivals Man United in the FA Cup final. The return of Harder and Buchanan to fitness - and with Harder notching four goals in two games - brought even more cause for optimism, in a thoroughly excellent couple of fixtures for the Blues.
Then, onto Wembley.
Chelsea 1-0 Man United (FA Cup Final)
There is no bigger fixture in the women’s domestic game than the FA Cup final - and for the first time ever, Wembley was sold out ahead of kick off, meaning yet another attendance record would be broken in a season of milestones for women’s football.
It would be Chelsea’s sixth final since the showpiece fixture has moved to Wembley - and we had only lost one before. Victory against Man United would also make it a hat trick of FA Cup triumphs for Chelsea, having also won the 2021 and 2022 finals.
Standing in our way were a Man United team in brilliant form, who are also seeking to stop Chelsea winning the league title. It was Man United’s first ever final - and hence their chance to win their first ever trophy since forming a women’s team in 2018.
Man United had the sense of underdog and destiny on their side, whilst Chelsea had the experience and nous of knowing what it takes to win the biggest games. With the Chelsea players still amongst a relentless schedule, and missing key players like Millie Bright and Fran Kirby - there was a good argument for either side to take home the trophy.
The big selection news was Pernille Harder starting from the bench - a surprise given her back to back braces - with Hayes opting for Kerr, Reiten and James as her three primary attackers instead. This would mean Chelsea had a very dangerous game-changing player, lying in wait…
The game got off to a very notable false start - or two. First Chelsea tried to kick off before the pre-match music had finished - and then Man United had the ball inside the net within a minute, only for the Blues to be reprieved by the offside flag.
That would have given Chelsea the unwelcome record of having conceded the fastest goal at an FA Cup final for both the men’s and women’s competition, after Louis Saha outdid our own Roberto Di Matteo’s previous record, in 2009.
You might have thought this would have woken up Chelsea - but Man United looked in control, and Chelsea on the edge defensively.
Man United’s first-time-final nerves appeared to affect them in the key attacking moments third though - they were on top in the game, but looked scared to pull the trigger, and so despite a few shaky moments, did not hugely test Berger.
Emma Hayes decision not to use Harder from the start gave Sam Kerr a lot of work to do - she was tasked with keeping the Man United defence busy all on her own. Chelsea employed a similar strategy to that which had been successful in the game at Kingsmeadow earlier this year, in a 1-0 win where Man United had dominated but lacked a cutting edge, and were undone on the counter.
Lauren James looked lively whenever she was on the ball, and made ex-Chelsea full back Hannah Blundell work very hard in the sweltering heat. James also had a header tipped onto the post by Mary Earps - a reminder that even whilst Man United appeared to have the better of it, Chelsea would always be in the game.
With the score 0-0 at half time, there was a definite sense that was a much better score line for Chelsea - and that Man United might regret not finding a way to make the most of having the Blues on the back foot.
And so they did come to regret it. Hayes introduced Harder on the hour mark, as it was always expected she would - and the impact was immediate. Marc Skinner similarly tried to affect the game, but there were no players like Pernille for him to turn to - and his decision to take off Nikita Paris looked to be the wrong one, with United losing much of the impetus when she exited.
As well as taking an arm to the face that appeared to go completely unnoticed by the referee, Harder combined with Kerr to get in behind the Man United defence - and twice Chelsea failed to capitalise. With two such attacking threats to contend with through the middle, Man United all of a sudden looked rattled.
The third time was the charm.
Of course, it was Kerr who found the decisive finish. The Aussie treated the record crowd at Wembley to one of her trademark backflips, after having steered Harder’s low cross past Earps -
A double flip, even - hopefully a sign of things to come… .
The goal had a disheartening effect on the opposition. You got the sense that it had sunk United’s maiden voyage in search of their first ever trophy - and that Chelsea’s experience would now see them through.
However, including an agonising six minutes of injury time, there were still a few scares - in particular a late goalmouth scramble that left two Chelsea players collapsed on the deck, alongside the blue half of the Wembley crowd collapsed in the stands.
It was soon only the blue half that remained, however. The full time whistle blew, and the Man United exodus was matched by the Chelsea explosion. Jubilation greeted yet another trophy for Emma Hayes and her Chelsea side.
A third FA Cup win in a row. Another piece of history on another hallmark day for the women’s game - nearly 78,000 at Wembley in a record for the cup final, and any women’s domestic final.
There was still more to play for, of course. Chelsea had three games left to play in the league - where we remained locked in a gripping title race with the cup final’s defeated foes.
Whether this galvanised or deflated Man United remained to be seen. It was still in our hands - and after a reminder like this of the machine Chelsea are at the business end of the season, you would have been unwise to bet against Blue.
West Ham 0-4 Chelsea (WSL)
There was not much time to celebrate for Chelsea, with the team back in action just three days after the FA Cup final triumph at Wembley.
The Blues travelled away to West Ham, to make up our final game in hand on WSL leaders Man United - knowing three points at the Chigwell Construction Stadium would move Chelsea back on top of the WSL for the first time since March.
Paul Konchesky’s side have been in woeful form - having just the one win in the past 10 games, and you had to flip the calendar back to December last year to find their last WSL win.
Nonetheless, Chelsea could not be complacent, given the shocks, twists and turns this WSL season has already thrown up - and it was imperative to remain fully focused on the task at hand.
With this game following the cup final, and a huge game against Arsenal to come just four days later, rotation was a necessity - and Hayes made seven changes to the XI who started at Wembley.
These changes did little to disrupt Chelsea’s impressive recent form, who looked like they meant business from the off.
Niamh Charles deservedly opened the scoring for the Blues after 11 minutes - being quickest to a rebound to finish from close range. It was a goal that was extra special for the defender, as it came on her 100th appearance for the club. An impressive milestone, given she is still only 23.
It felt like similar score lines to Everton and Leicester might be on the cards, but West Ham - to their credit - dug in, and were able to push to dampen the Chelsea fire, and keep it to 1-0 at half time.
However, Pernille Harder soon had a second for the Blues shortly after play resumed - and Chelsea were comfortable from that point.
Sophie Ingle - who like Harder had been a substitute at Wembley, and in from the start in this game - slid the ball into the Dane in the box, who made no mistake with the goal at her mercy.
It was another excellent display from the bang-in-form Harder, who since returning from injury has now scored five goals, and three assists - including a game-changing contribution off the bench in the FA Cup final. Her return to fitness and form really could not have been better timed.
Ingle was then herself on the scoresheet, nodding home a rebound from close range, after the West Ham keeper could only tip it onto the bar.
Erin Cuthbert put a sensational cherry on top with a fourth goal in injury time - which was easily the pick of the bunch.
The Scot had come on as a substitute, and twice before gone close with long range efforts. At the third time of asking, she was able to find the net - an absolute pile driver of a strike, hit with all of the ferocity you would expect from our midfield dynamo.
In all, it was another impressive performance. Chelsea were comfortable, dominant, and ruthless in dispatching yet another foe in our quest for a fourth consecutive league title. .
The 4-0 win made it 17 goals in the past three WSL games for Chelsea - completely obliterating Man United’s prior healthy goal difference advantage.
The win also means for the first time in many weeks Chelsea and Man United have played the same number of league games - and the Blues on top of the WSL, holding a two point lead in the standings with just two games left to play.
The upcoming weekend would likely be absolutely crucial in deciding the destination of the title, with two huge games on the cards.
Chelsea would be hosting Arsenal at Kingsmeadow, whilst Man United would be at home to local rivals Man City in the Manchester derby. Neither City or Arsenal had any realistic chance of winning the title themselves at this point - but both would relish the prospect of having a major say in who does, especially if at the detriment of their respective rivals.
Following this result, Chelsea were back in charge - but that could all change in the next 90 minutes.
Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal (WSL)
It was a fixture that has been circled in the calendar all season long, and as expected, Chelsea's final home game of the season - against Arsenal - was set to be pivotal in determining who would be crowned champions.
However, it was not Arsenal that Chelsea were competing with to be crowned champions - as many expected - with Man United instead the team who sat just two points off Chelsea heading into the final round of games.
Whilst Chelsea would be taking on Arsenal at Kingsmeadow, Man United would host Man City in the evening kick off - 1st vs 3rd and 2nd vs 4th, WSL weekends do not come much bigger.
Win our game, and Chelsea would be all but there. Drop points - and it would be advantage Man United. This was huge.
The Blues had been in sensational form - stepping it up when needed to, as we so often do. Every game in May so far had been a must-win - and a Chelsea squad depleted by injuries and weary with fatigue had risen to the occasion. The Blues had won five in a row coming into this fixture, and in doing so had completely erased Man United's goal difference advantage with a series of thumping victories.
Our perennial rivals, Arsenal, still needed to confirm their spot in the top 3 for Champions League qualification next season - although their goal difference advantage means a win at Aston Villa on the final day would likely see them qualify regardless of the result in this game. There is no love lost between Chelsea and Arsenal - and although the Gunners and Jonas Eidevall would likely not be able to win the title this year, they will love nothing more than stopping the Blues and Emma Hayes from making it four in a row.
Arsenal have been plagued by injuries this season - Lia Walti was ruled out for the season in their mid-week win vs Everton, to add to the earlier losses of Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Leah Williamson and Kim Little. Chelsea continued to be without Millie Bright and Fran Kirby, key absences of our own.
Emma Hayes named an attacking line up - with all three of Guro Reiten, Pernille Harder and Lauren James starting in support of Sam Kerr. Magda Eriksson continued at centre back alongside Maren Mjelde, with Hayes not disrupting the partnership that has done so well whilst Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan have been out injured - despite Buchana now being fit again.
This meant both Harder and Eriksson would be starting what was a very special game for the pain. It had been confirmed in the days leading up to this fixture that the duo will leave the club in the summer, this therefore being their last game at Kingsmeadow.
Chelsea started like a team who knew what this meant.
Arsenal barely had a kick in the first 10 minutes, their back three pinned back by a flying Chelsea team, who pressed high and kept the ball with focus and intensity.
Guro Reiten - arguably our player of the season - deservedly put the Blues ahead midway through the first half. Eve Perisset found the Norwegian with a delicious cross, after Arsenal had failed to clear their lines following a set piece - and Reiten’s smart finish was enough to beat Zinsberger.
This first half was Chelsea at our best - we looked better in every aspect than the Gunners, who just could not match the performance.
Despite the dominance, Ann-Katrin Berger was called upon on a few occasions - but when the second goal came it was for Chelsea, and the 2-0 scoreline was no more than the Blues deserved.
The goal scorer was one who sent the Kingsmeadow crowd into raptures.
It came from another set piece - Sam Ker headed across goal, where captain Magda Eriksson was first to react to prod past Zinsberger, meaning she would mark her final game at Kingsmeadow with a goal that could be crucial in Chelsea’s march to the title.
Arsenal, despite their injuries, are still a good team - and had proved that with their response to seemingly endless adversity this season, where they have kept getting results that may well see them in Europe next year, and nearly put them into this season’s Champion League final.
Their response in the second half, therefore, was not unexpected. The introduction of Steph Catley gave them fresh impetus, and not long after the resumption of play they had struck the Chelsea bar.
A penalty for Arsenal - with Sophie Ingle penalised for handball - gave them a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit. Stand-in penalty taker - and captain - Katie McCabe put it wide though, in a let off for Chelsea. Ingle had dominated the middle of the pitch for Chelsea - and it would have been cruel to see this tar her exceptional performance.
Chelsea needed to wake up, and Emma Hayes did her bit by bringing on Jess Carter for Lauren James, in an attempt to settle proceedings.
Berger had made some important interventions in the first half, and became increasingly important in the second 45 as Chelsea rode out the Arsenal storm. The Gunners, for all their improvement, still lacked a cutting edge, and too often wasted good opportunities with a poor final ball. The game gradually settled, and the introduction of Buchanan and Fleming helped the Blues to see it out.
The latter also meant there was the opportunity for Kingsmeadow to rise as one to show their appreciation for the departing Harder, who left the pitch for the last time in a home game for Chelsea.
A game which showed two of the best sides of Chelsea - who Emma Hayes in the pre-match build-up dubbed as “hybrid monsters” for the squad’s versatility. In the first half we showed our quality when playing on the front foot, dominating Arenal to take a deserved 2-0 lead. In the second half we showed our resilience when defending a lead - and professionalism and nous in being able to keep what we had, even with the assist of the penalty miss.
Taking all three points meant Chelsea went five clear, having played one game more than Man United - and effectively put one hand on the trophy.
If Man United had failed to beat Man City in the later evening kick off, then it would have been confirmed before the final day. However, despite 10-player Man City equalising in the second half - and for 20 odd minutes it looking like Chelsea were already champions - United found a stoppage time winner to ensure it did go to the final weekend.
Chelsea would travel to Reading knowing that a win would see us crowned champions for the fourth season in a row. The Royals are all but relegated following their loss against Spurs in their penultimate game - and given the challenges Chelsea have overcome to put themselves in this position, you would back the Blues to see it through… but would there be one last twist in the title race?
Reading 3-0 Chelsea (WSL)
It all came down to this.
After what has been the best WSL title race in years, the champions were to be decided on the final day.
Chelsea were in pole position. Since the March defeat to Man City, the Blues have won every single league game. The Red Devils had topped the table for most of the season, but mainly by virtue of the fixture list - as they had always been ahead of Chelsea in terms of games played.
A busy May has seen the Blues make up those games in hand - and completely erase United’s goal difference advantage - meaning that we headed into the final day with a two point and five goal difference lead.
In the blue corner, Chelsea were looking to make it a fourth WSL in a row and three consecutive Doubles. In the red corner, our rivals were looking to win their first ever league title - or trophy of any sort - since reforming as a club in 2018.
A win for Chelsea would confirm it, regardless of what Man United could do at Liverpool. Given the goal difference advantage, a draw may also be enough - but memories of the painful loss of the title on goal difference, on the final day in 2014, meant Chelsea would not want to chance it.
Our opponent faced a battle of their own. Reading were rock bottom of the WSL - and needed a win to avoid relegation, meaning this game was as big for them as for Chelsea.
The Royals form had been as woeful as their lowly position would suggest. However, they are something of a bogey team for Chelsea, having beaten us in this same fixture last season, and fought back well to a credible 3-2 loss at Kingsmeadow back in December.
Chelsea, meanwhile, were flying into the game - having scored 22 goals for the loss of just one against, in our six months in May so far.
It would also be the final game in Blue for departing captain Magda Eriksson, and her partner Pernille Harder. Magda marked her final Kingsmeadow appearance last weekend with a goal - and both would want to end their career at Chelsea on the ultimate high, and a goodbye that two such iconic and beloved players deserved.
In a rarity for Chelsea this season - given the fixture congestion and injuries we have had to contend with - Emma Hayes was able to name an unchanged XI for the final game of the 2022/23 season.
There was only one way for Reading to realistically play - try to frustrate Chelsea, and sting on the counter. As such, they set up with a back five, and within a few minutes it was clear that this was going to be a matter of attack vs defence.
Chelsea would need to keep patient, and keep calm - and did determinedly set about their business of breaking down the Reading wall.
Sam Kerr blazed the first good chance over, after some excellent build up from the Blues. Erin Cuthbert then hit the bar - and there was a growing sense the opener was coming.
The link up which has been so prolific this season proved fruitful again. A Guro Reiten cross from the left, a Sam Kerr header - and a Chelsea goal. Reiten has in many people’s views been our Player of the Season - the ‘Assist Queen’ added another to her tally of 19 for the year in all competitions, and her contribution has been crucial in a season where we have missed Fran Kirby and Harder for most of it. Reiten and Kerr have at times carried our attack this season - and so it was fitting they combined for the breakthrough here.
That made it 1-0 to the Chels, inside 20 minutes , and if this result held, the title would be staying at Kingsmeadow. Reading could have equalised not soon after, but Justine Vanhaevermaet could not convert a free header from a free kick. This was enough to remind Chelsea that we could not rest on our laurels, after having taken an early lead.
Royals forward Deanne Rose went off injured shortly after - a major blow for Reading, as one of their danger-women, and meant their chances of coming back in the game had taken a major hit.
Reiten further illustrated her contribution this season by getting the second goal, shortly before half time. The Norwegian capitalised on a poor back pass from Easther Mayi Kith to find herself one on one with the Reading keeper, and coolly nutmegged the unfortunate Maloney.
With that, Chelsea now had one (and a half) hands on the trophy - and it meant the second half would likely be a procession.
And so it was. Chelsea were never truly troubled in this game - having had nearly 80% possession, and 23 shots in total. This was always in Chelsea’s hands - the game, and maybe even on reflection, despite the season-long drama to get there - the title was always in our hands too.
Kerr got her second of the game late on by finishing off her own rebound to give the scoreline the resounding feeling that the dominant performance in the Berkshire sunshine deserved. A fitting way to end a storming run through the business end of the season - Chelsea took it up to a new level, and nobody else could match it.
Elsewhere, Man United did their part in beating Liverpool 1-0 - but it mattered little.
Magda Eriksson had been substituted off to enable the travelling fans to give our departing captain an enormous ovation - nothing less than what a genuine legend of this club deserves.
The only thing more fitting was what came next. For the tenth time as Chelsea captain, Eriksson lifted a trophy. She did so in front of the jubilant fans who filled the Madejski Stadium - meaning there were more Chelsea fans than Reading there to see it.
A fourth WSL title in a row - a third consecutive Double. Chelsea were champions.

May results in brief

Fixture	Result	Competition	Goal scorers
Liverpool (H)	2-1 W	WSL	Charles, Kerr (Perisset assist)
Everton (H)	7-0 W	WSL	Reiten, Kerr, Harder x 2, Ingle, Fleming, Cuthbert (Rytting Kaneryd, Charles, Reiten, Fleming, Harder, Cuthbert assists)
Leicester (H)	6-0 W	WSL	Reiten, Cuthbert, Harder x 2, James, Cankovic (Harder, Carter, Perisset, Charles assists)
Man United (N)	1-0 W	FA Cup final	Kerr (Harder assist)
West Ham (A)	4-0 W	WSL	Charles, Harder, Ingle, Cuthbert (Ingle, Rytting Kaneryd assists)
Arsenal (H)	2-0 W	WSL	Reiten, Eriksson goals (Perisset, Kerr assists)
Reading (A)	3-0 W	WSL	Kerr x 2, Reiten (Reiten assist)

UTC!

The Chelsea FC Women May round-up - champions Chelsea complete the triple Double, in a perfect May

Welcome to the final Chelsea FC Women monthly round-up of the 2022/23 season. This post is a long read, so feel free to skip to the end for a brief overview!

Introduction

It was a mixed April for Chelsea, in which we won one semi-final, and lost the other.
A spirited, but in the end, painful two-legged defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League meant our European dream came to an end. We were still left fighting in two competitions, however, having beat Aston Villa to advance to the FA Cup Final for the third year in a row.
As well as facing Man United in that banner occasion in May, we were also locked in a tense title fight with the Red Devils in the WSL - both the league and cup were to be decided in the final month of the season, meaning Chelsea had seven games to determine whether we made it a third Double triumph in three seasons, or finished the season empty-handed.
Chelsea’s congested fixture list meant we started the month seven points behind leaders Man United in the WSL standings - but with three games in hand. That meant it was in our hands - win out, and we would win the league.
Seven games to define the season - one cup final, and six in the WSL. Chelsea would be playing two games a week - whilst our rivals benefitted from a lighter schedule. The Blues had been heavily hit by injury this season - it was confirmed ahead of the run-in that Fran Kirby and Millie Bright would be out for the end of the season, although we were boosted by the return of Pernille Harder and Kadeisha Buchanan.
This has been one of the most gruelling and challenging seasons in recent memory for Chelsea - both on and off the pitch. Emma Hayes’ team are used to making the ends of seasons glorious ones - and that experience and champion mentality could be key to making the difference.
It was not going to be easy - but when the calendar turns to May, Chelsea come out to play, saving our best for when we needed it the most. It was set to be a tense month, of hoping that history would be repeated.

Key headlines

Injury updates
The ongoing injury epidemic - especially serious knee injuries - has been one of the storylines of the women’s football season. This has been especially concerning for many players and teams, with the World Cup looming in July.
Another of Chelsea’s own joined the unfortunate ranks this month, with young defender Jorja Fox having torn her ACL whilst out on loan to Brighton. The 19 year old has returned to the club for her treatment.
It was also confirmed that Fran Kirby would miss the end of the season, and the World Cup, in another cruel blow for a player who has been so blighted by serious injury and illness. Our two-time Player of the Year will be back in pre-season, having undergone knee surgery.
Millie Bright, meanwhile, is expected to be fit for the World Cup - but would not feature again for Chelsea this season.
Harder and Eriksson depart
It had been long expected, but that did not make the news hurt any less. Club captain Magda Eriksson, and forward Pernille Harder - who joined Chelsea in 2020 for a then world record fee - confirmed that they would be leaving Chelsea upon the expiry of their contracts this summer.
The couple are likely off to Bayern Munich. It has been known for a while that the duo would be taking on a new challenge - announcing it before the end of the season gave the opportunity for fans to see goodbye at Kingsmeadow, and then again in the final game of the season - and to give two icons of Chelsea the send-off they deserved.
It was an emotional farewell for all involved - and their contribution, especially that of Magda, in her six years at the club, will always be a part of our history, and never forgotten.
Awards
With the season drawing to the close, it’s the time of the year that the end of season accolades are handed out.
Sam Kerr was voted the FWA Women’s Football of the Year, for a second year in a row. Despite her contribution to our success this season - it was something of a surprise, with many thinking that Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly should have won.
Nonetheless, it was deserved - we would not be where we are without Kerr.
First signing
Chelsea are getting their business done early, having already announced that Sjoeke Nusken will join the club this summer. The 22 year old German midfielder joins from Frankfurt, and can play in either a deep-lying or box-to-box role.
With rumours of some other big signings to come, it could be a big summer…
Fran Kirby extends her contract
It was not all bad news for Kirby this month - following her knee surgery, it was also announced that the club have activated an extension on Fran’s contract, meaning she will stay at the club until 2024.

Now - to the action!

Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool (WSL)
First up in May was the rearranged WSL home game from January, against Liverpool. The match had been abandoned after just six minutes due to a frozen pitch. The truly farcical scenes drew much criticism of how the matter was handled - with fans inconvenienced and players put at risk.
Liverpool had gotten Chelea’s season off the a shocker of a start, when they upset us 2-1 on the opening WSL weekend - but we have gone on to beat them in the FA Cup since. Former Chelsea boss Matt Beard’s side sat seventh in the standings ahead of this one, meaning they had avoided relegation in their first season since returning to the top flight.
Despite the exertions against Barcelona, with nearly a week’s rest after that energy-sapping exit, Emma Hayes felt she only needed to make the one change. It was an attacking one, with Lauren James coming in from the start, and Maren Mjelde dropping out - meaning Eve Perisset dropped into a back three alongside Magda Eriksson and Jess Carter.
Any thoughts of a straightforward evening were rapidly dissipated, when Liverpool took a shock lead after just two minutes.
It was a goal of our own making. The aforementioned Perisset gave the ball away, and Liverpool pounced, with full back Emma Koivisto meeting a Natasha Dowie cross at the far post.
The Chelsea response was a good one - setting about the task of overhauling the Liverpool lead well, by dominating possession and laying siege to the opposition penalty area.
Unfortunately, Liverpool were equally up to their task, and defended with a determination and energy that had been entirely absent from their 4-0 defeat to relegation-threatened Leiecester in their previous outing. Based on our encounters this season, it seems like Liverpool have already developed a penchant for getting it up against Chelsea, on their return to the top flight. Maybe the presence of ex-Blues boss Matt Beard in their dugout has something to do with that…
Highlights of their defensive effort included a superb last-ditch block from former Chelsea player Gemma Bonner, to deny Sam Kerr what seemed a certain goal. Debutant keeper Faye Kirby also pulled off a series of superb stops - and when you have a goalie playing like that on her first senior appearance, it is easy to fear it may be “one of those days”.
Eventually, however, the Chelsea pressure told. Niamh Charles, who joined Chelsea from Liverpool in 2020, flicked home an equaliser from a Perisset corner - the latter’s assist making up for her earlier error.
With the score now 1-1 at the break, it felt like the Liverpool resistance could be at an end - with Chelsea having 45 minutes to find the winner.
The Reds’ heads, however, did not drop - and they set about their task of fierce rearguard action with the same focus as in the first half.
Emma Hayes moved to a back four, and used the full strength of her bench by bringing on Jelena Cankovic, Pernille Harder and Rytting Kaneryd. Harder in particular looked a threat - illustrating how much she had been missed in her long injury absence, since November.
Sam Kerr had gone close on a few occasions in the first half, but her threat had seemed to fade and frustrations grew as the game wore on.
It was however, the Aussie who in the end did what she does best.
Jessie Fleming was desperately unlucky to see her excellently-struck shot ricocheted off of the upright, in the 86th minute - but then immensely relieved (along with all Chelsea players and fans) to see the rebound find Kerr, who finally was able to beat Faye Kirby.
With that, Chelsea had found a way to secure a crucial three points - and ensure our title challenge marched on.
Chelsea 7-0 Everton (WSL)
Next came a home game against Everton, where Chelsea would be hoping for a more straightforward 90 minutes than in the previous game against the red half of Merseyside.
With the Sunday evening kick off slot, each of our title rivals had already played. Arsenal squeaked out a 1-0 win vs relegation-threatened Leicester, whilst Man United eased to a more comfortable 3-0 win against Spurs - maintaining their lead at the top. Man City, however, suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, meaning their title hopes are effectively over.
That meant Chelsea needed to do our bit - and keep on winning. Everton, sat comfortably midtable ahead of this game - well clear of any relegation trouble, and with no prospect of breaking into the top three to qualify for Europe. The last meeting between the two was the reverse WSL fixture, back in October, where a Niamh Charles wonder goal and a brace for Pernille Harder saw Chelsea win 3-1.
Emma Hayes rotated her XI, making five changes - with Chelsea still contending with a gruelling schedule of two games a week. The aforementioned Harder started from the bench - still to make her first start since returning from long-term injury.
Buchanan, Svitkova, Bright and Kirby remained unavailable - with the latter three now having been confirmed as out for the season.
Despite not having much left to play for this season, Everton started well, and had Chelsea on the back foot. The Toffees are a side who look good in possession, and had the Blues working hard off the ball early on.
What was to come, therefore, could not have been expected. The Toffees quickly melted in the early May sunshine, in the face of an absolute onslaught from Chelsea - who scored five sensational goals in the first half, from just five shots on target.
The Blues have made a habit of winning games whilst playing short of our top form this season - but this first half was Chelsea at our ruthless and scintillating best.
The first came from nowhere. With the Everton defence distracted by the movement of Sam Kerr, they allowed Guro Reiten far too much space in her wide left position - who unleashed a rocket to raise the roof at Kingsmeadow, and ignite the crowd. It was her tenth of the season - the first time our assist queen has reached a double digit goal tally for the Blues.
With Chelsea now with a spring in our step, a second came soon after. Sam Kerr had spent the day before representing Australia at King Charles III’s coronation - but this goal involved a different Charles, with Niamh delivering a superb cross for Kerr to nod home.
Unfortunately, that was to be Kerr’s last action of the afternoon - having rolled her ankle in the landing after her goal. She was able to walk off, giving hope her substitution was just a precaution.
Pernille Harder had replaced Kerr - and with her first touch of the game had put Chelsea 3-0 up. It was the Dane’s first goal since her brace in the reverse fixture against Everton - and another goal of the finest quality. Reiten cut the ball back for Harder to curl home, and put the win beyond doubt.
Chelsea were not done yet, however - Sophie Ingle next in on the action with a caressed finish, her first WSL goal of the season. There was still time for one more before the break - and this one was assisted by Harder, who laid it off for Jessie Fleming.
That made it 5-0 to Chelsea, in a truly five-star first half.
With a midweek game to come - and the FA Cup final the next weekend - Hayes made two half time substitutes. Lauren James replaced the superb Reiten, and Alsu Abdullina on for Eve Perisset for some rare WSL minutes.
It was a relaxed second 45 for Chelsea, who with big fixtures left to come and the three points already secured, did not need to take any risks. More could have been added to the tally, with James and Rytting Kaneryd going close - and a blatant penalty on James also turned down.
Erin Cuthbert and Jess Carter joined the party to complete the full complement of five substitutes, and just when it seemed the bunting was being put away for the day, Cuthbert and Harder produced a final flourish for a sixth Chelsea goal. The Scot surged from the halfway line into the Everton third entirely unopposed, and squared it for Harder to emphatically finish.
Cuthbert even had time to add a seventh - just minutes after Rytting Kaneryd had hit the post - to make it 7-0 to Chelsea, in arguably our best performance of the season.
A thoroughly brilliant win for Chelsea, which moved us into second place - four points behind Manchester United, with two games still in hand. The seven goals were a big boost to our goal difference too, although the Red Devils still had the advantage in this.
The only downside was the potential loss of Sam Kerr to injury - which also meant the two goals from Pernille Harder, signalling that the Dane is well and truly back, after her long injury absence, could not have come at a better time. If we were to go without Kerr, we would need Harder more than ever.
Chelsea 6-0 Leicester (WSL)
Chelsea were next in action midweek, fulfilling one of the two games we had in hand over Man United. That also meant our title rivals would benefit from three extra days' rest ahead of our FA Cup final clash at Wembley, on the upcoming weekend.
The opponents, Leicester, were fighting for their WSL lives - sitting 11th in the table ahead of this fixture at Kingsmeadow, two points above bottom side Reading.
Despite their lowly position, they had had some good recent results - including a 4-0 win against Liverpool, and had performed well in a narrow 1-0 defeat to Arsenal the weekend prior to this game.
Chelsea had earlier thrashed Leicester 8-0 in the reverse league fixture, but ahead of kick off Emma Hayes referred to them as “the most improved side in the WSL” - as they have made noticeable strides forward under manager Willie Kirk, since then.
Hayes also confirmed Sam Kerr was available for this fixture, with the issue that forced her into an early substitution against Everton only minor.
With the cup final looming, Kerr was not risked however - starting from the bench. Also starting from the bench were Katerina Svitkova and Kadeisha Buchanan on their return from injury - a welcome sign ahead of the run-in. Hayes made six changes to the line up that had started against Everton - including Pernille Harder starting for the first time since her own injury return.
Despite the changes, Chelsea very much started where they left off against Everton, pinning Leicester back from kick off - and had a deserved lead inside ten minutes.
The scoring was opened by the same player who had gotten the party started on the weekend - Guro Reiten storming in to finish a low Harder cross with aplomb.
The situation already looked ominous for Leicester, and the impending sense of doom deepened when another of Sunday’s goalscorers, Erin Cuthbert, made it 2-0 on 18 minutes. The Foxes were caught playing out from the back - a mistake engineered by the intensity of the Chelsea press, which had been relentless from the off.
Harder herself was then in on the goal scoring act with a brace, her second in two games The first was opportunistic - converting a rebound after Lauren James had had her shot saved. The second was some individual brilliance, capping off her own mazy run with a confident finish.
That made it 4-0 at the break, and meant that as against Everton, the game was already done at half time. Chelsea had made short work of Leicester, showing exactly the efficiency and ruthlessness that is needed at the crunch time of the season.
James added a fifth in the second half, to end a run of games without a goal. She did so with what is already becoming a classic of her repertoire - shimmying her way into a dangerous shooting position, then unleashing a rocket from range. Having got her goal, Hayes then brought James off in a series of changes made with Wembley in mind - Cuthbert, Reiten and Harder all also making way.
Jelena Cankovic made it a tennis score, and as a final positive note, Hayes was able to bring Buchanan on for Eriksen to get some minutes in the Canadian centre back’s legs for the first time since the injury she picked up in the April international break.
The six goals in this game, on top of the 7-0 win against Leicester, meant Chelsea had entirely erased Man United’s previously weighty goal difference advantage in the space of three days - now both locked on +42, and with Chelsea just one point off the leaders, still with a game in hand.
Chelsea’s form and confidence could not be better heading into the Wembley showcase - where we would take on our title rivals Man United in the FA Cup final. The return of Harder and Buchanan to fitness - and with Harder notching four goals in two games - brought even more cause for optimism, in a thoroughly excellent couple of fixtures for the Blues.
Then, onto Wembley.
Chelsea 1-0 Man United (FA Cup Final)
There is no bigger fixture in the women’s domestic game than the FA Cup final - and for the first time ever, Wembley was sold out ahead of kick off, meaning yet another attendance record would be broken in a season of milestones for women’s football.
It would be Chelsea’s sixth final since the showpiece fixture has moved to Wembley - and we had only lost one before. Victory against Man United would also make it a hat trick of FA Cup triumphs for Chelsea, having also won the 2021 and 2022 finals.
Standing in our way were a Man United team in brilliant form, who are also seeking to stop Chelsea winning the league title. It was Man United’s first ever final - and hence their chance to win their first ever trophy since forming a women’s team in 2018.
Man United had the sense of underdog and destiny on their side, whilst Chelsea had the experience and nous of knowing what it takes to win the biggest games. With the Chelsea players still amongst a relentless schedule, and missing key players like Millie Bright and Fran Kirby - there was a good argument for either side to take home the trophy.
The big selection news was Pernille Harder starting from the bench - a surprise given her back to back braces - with Hayes opting for Kerr, Reiten and James as her three primary attackers instead. This would mean Chelsea had a very dangerous game-changing player, lying in wait…
The game got off to a very notable false start - or two. First Chelsea tried to kick off before the pre-match music had finished - and then Man United had the ball inside the net within a minute, only for the Blues to be reprieved by the offside flag.
That would have given Chelsea the unwelcome record of having conceded the fastest goal at an FA Cup final for both the men’s and women’s competition, after Louis Saha outdid our own Roberto Di Matteo’s previous record, in 2009.
You might have thought this would have woken up Chelsea - but Man United looked in control, and Chelsea on the edge defensively.
Man United’s first-time-final nerves appeared to affect them in the key attacking moments third though - they were on top in the game, but looked scared to pull the trigger, and so despite a few shaky moments, did not hugely test Berger.
Emma Hayes decision not to use Harder from the start gave Sam Kerr a lot of work to do - she was tasked with keeping the Man United defence busy all on her own. Chelsea employed a similar strategy to that which had been successful in the game at Kingsmeadow earlier this year, in a 1-0 win where Man United had dominated but lacked a cutting edge, and were undone on the counter.
Lauren James looked lively whenever she was on the ball, and made ex-Chelsea full back Hannah Blundell work very hard in the sweltering heat. James also had a header tipped onto the post by Mary Earps - a reminder that even whilst Man United appeared to have the better of it, Chelsea would always be in the game.
With the score 0-0 at half time, there was a definite sense that was a much better score line for Chelsea - and that Man United might regret not finding a way to make the most of having the Blues on the back foot.
And so they did come to regret it. Hayes introduced Harder on the hour mark, as it was always expected she would - and the impact was immediate. Marc Skinner similarly tried to affect the game, but there were no players like Pernille for him to turn to - and his decision to take off Nikita Paris looked to be the wrong one, with United losing much of the impetus when she exited.
As well as taking an arm to the face that appeared to go completely unnoticed by the referee, Harder combined with Kerr to get in behind the Man United defence - and twice Chelsea failed to capitalise. With two such attacking threats to contend with through the middle, Man United all of a sudden looked rattled.
The third time was the charm.
Of course, it was Kerr who found the decisive finish. The Aussie treated the record crowd at Wembley to one of her trademark backflips, after having steered Harder’s low cross past Earps -
A double flip, even - hopefully a sign of things to come… .
The goal had a disheartening effect on the opposition. You got the sense that it had sunk United’s maiden voyage in search of their first ever trophy - and that Chelsea’s experience would now see them through.
However, including an agonising six minutes of injury time, there were still a few scares - in particular a late goalmouth scramble that left two Chelsea players collapsed on the deck, alongside the blue half of the Wembley crowd collapsed in the stands.
It was soon only the blue half that remained, however. The full time whistle blew, and the Man United exodus was matched by the Chelsea explosion. Jubilation greeted yet another trophy for Emma Hayes and her Chelsea side.
A third FA Cup win in a row. Another piece of history on another hallmark day for the women’s game - nearly 78,000 at Wembley in a record for the cup final, and any women’s domestic final.
There was still more to play for, of course. Chelsea had three games left to play in the league - where we remained locked in a gripping title race with the cup final’s defeated foes.
Whether this galvanised or deflated Man United remained to be seen. It was still in our hands - and after a reminder like this of the machine Chelsea are at the business end of the season, you would have been unwise to bet against Blue.
West Ham 0-4 Chelsea (WSL)
There was not much time to celebrate for Chelsea, with the team back in action just three days after the FA Cup final triumph at Wembley.
The Blues travelled away to West Ham, to make up our final game in hand on WSL leaders Man United - knowing three points at the Chigwell Construction Stadium would move Chelsea back on top of the WSL for the first time since March.
Paul Konchesky’s side have been in woeful form - having just the one win in the past 10 games, and you had to flip the calendar back to December last year to find their last WSL win.
Nonetheless, Chelsea could not be complacent, given the shocks, twists and turns this WSL season has already thrown up - and it was imperative to remain fully focused on the task at hand.
With this game following the cup final, and a huge game against Arsenal to come just four days later, rotation was a necessity - and Hayes made seven changes to the XI who started at Wembley.
These changes did little to disrupt Chelsea’s impressive recent form, who looked like they meant business from the off.
Niamh Charles deservedly opened the scoring for the Blues after 11 minutes - being quickest to a rebound to finish from close range. It was a goal that was extra special for the defender, as it came on her 100th appearance for the club. An impressive milestone, given she is still only 23.
It felt like similar score lines to Everton and Leicester might be on the cards, but West Ham - to their credit - dug in, and were able to push to dampen the Chelsea fire, and keep it to 1-0 at half time.
However, Pernille Harder soon had a second for the Blues shortly after play resumed - and Chelsea were comfortable from that point.
Sophie Ingle - who like Harder had been a substitute at Wembley, and in from the start in this game - slid the ball into the Dane in the box, who made no mistake with the goal at her mercy.
It was another excellent display from the bang-in-form Harder, who since returning from injury has now scored five goals, and three assists - including a game-changing contribution off the bench in the FA Cup final. Her return to fitness and form really could not have been better timed.
Ingle was then herself on the scoresheet, nodding home a rebound from close range, after the West Ham keeper could only tip it onto the bar.
Erin Cuthbert put a sensational cherry on top with a fourth goal in injury time - which was easily the pick of the bunch.
The Scot had come on as a substitute, and twice before gone close with long range efforts. At the third time of asking, she was able to find the net - an absolute pile driver of a strike, hit with all of the ferocity you would expect from our midfield dynamo.
In all, it was another impressive performance. Chelsea were comfortable, dominant, and ruthless in dispatching yet another foe in our quest for a fourth consecutive league title. .
The 4-0 win made it 17 goals in the past three WSL games for Chelsea - completely obliterating Man United’s prior healthy goal difference advantage.
The win also means for the first time in many weeks Chelsea and Man United have played the same number of league games - and the Blues on top of the WSL, holding a two point lead in the standings with just two games left to play.
The upcoming weekend would likely be absolutely crucial in deciding the destination of the title, with two huge games on the cards.
Chelsea would be hosting Arsenal at Kingsmeadow, whilst Man United would be at home to local rivals Man City in the Manchester derby. Neither City or Arsenal had any realistic chance of winning the title themselves at this point - but both would relish the prospect of having a major say in who does, especially if at the detriment of their respective rivals.
Following this result, Chelsea were back in charge - but that could all change in the next 90 minutes.
Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal (WSL)
It was a fixture that has been circled in the calendar all season long, and as expected, Chelsea's final home game of the season - against Arsenal - was set to be pivotal in determining who would be crowned champions.
However, it was not Arsenal that Chelsea were competing with to be crowned champions - as many expected - with Man United instead the team who sat just two points off Chelsea heading into the final round of games.
Whilst Chelsea would be taking on Arsenal at Kingsmeadow, Man United would host Man City in the evening kick off - 1st vs 3rd and 2nd vs 4th, WSL weekends do not come much bigger.
Win our game, and Chelsea would be all but there. Drop points - and it would be advantage Man United. This was huge.
The Blues had been in sensational form - stepping it up when needed to, as we so often do. Every game in May so far had been a must-win - and a Chelsea squad depleted by injuries and weary with fatigue had risen to the occasion. The Blues had won five in a row coming into this fixture, and in doing so had completely erased Man United's goal difference advantage with a series of thumping victories.
Our perennial rivals, Arsenal, still needed to confirm their spot in the top 3 for Champions League qualification next season - although their goal difference advantage means a win at Aston Villa on the final day would likely see them qualify regardless of the result in this game. There is no love lost between Chelsea and Arsenal - and although the Gunners and Jonas Eidevall would likely not be able to win the title this year, they will love nothing more than stopping the Blues and Emma Hayes from making it four in a row.
Arsenal have been plagued by injuries this season - Lia Walti was ruled out for the season in their mid-week win vs Everton, to add to the earlier losses of Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Leah Williamson and Kim Little. Chelsea continued to be without Millie Bright and Fran Kirby, key absences of our own.
Emma Hayes named an attacking line up - with all three of Guro Reiten, Pernille Harder and Lauren James starting in support of Sam Kerr. Magda Eriksson continued at centre back alongside Maren Mjelde, with Hayes not disrupting the partnership that has done so well whilst Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan have been out injured - despite Buchana now being fit again.
This meant both Harder and Eriksson would be starting what was a very special game for the pain. It had been confirmed in the days leading up to this fixture that the duo will leave the club in the summer, this therefore being their last game at Kingsmeadow.
Chelsea started like a team who knew what this meant.
Arsenal barely had a kick in the first 10 minutes, their back three pinned back by a flying Chelsea team, who pressed high and kept the ball with focus and intensity.
Guro Reiten - arguably our player of the season - deservedly put the Blues ahead midway through the first half. Eve Perisset found the Norwegian with a delicious cross, after Arsenal had failed to clear their lines following a set piece - and Reiten’s smart finish was enough to beat Zinsberger.
This first half was Chelsea at our best - we looked better in every aspect than the Gunners, who just could not match the performance.
Despite the dominance, Ann-Katrin Berger was called upon on a few occasions - but when the second goal came it was for Chelsea, and the 2-0 scoreline was no more than the Blues deserved.
The goal scorer was one who sent the Kingsmeadow crowd into raptures.
It came from another set piece - Sam Ker headed across goal, where captain Magda Eriksson was first to react to prod past Zinsberger, meaning she would mark her final game at Kingsmeadow with a goal that could be crucial in Chelsea’s march to the title.
Arsenal, despite their injuries, are still a good team - and had proved that with their response to seemingly endless adversity this season, where they have kept getting results that may well see them in Europe next year, and nearly put them into this season’s Champion League final.
Their response in the second half, therefore, was not unexpected. The introduction of Steph Catley gave them fresh impetus, and not long after the resumption of play they had struck the Chelsea bar.
A penalty for Arsenal - with Sophie Ingle penalised for handball - gave them a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit. Stand-in penalty taker - and captain - Katie McCabe put it wide though, in a let off for Chelsea. Ingle had dominated the middle of the pitch for Chelsea - and it would have been cruel to see this tar her exceptional performance.
Chelsea needed to wake up, and Emma Hayes did her bit by bringing on Jess Carter for Lauren James, in an attempt to settle proceedings.
Berger had made some important interventions in the first half, and became increasingly important in the second 45 as Chelsea rode out the Arsenal storm. The Gunners, for all their improvement, still lacked a cutting edge, and too often wasted good opportunities with a poor final ball. The game gradually settled, and the introduction of Buchanan and Fleming helped the Blues to see it out.
The latter also meant there was the opportunity for Kingsmeadow to rise as one to show their appreciation for the departing Harder, who left the pitch for the last time in a home game for Chelsea.
A game which showed two of the best sides of Chelsea - who Emma Hayes in the pre-match build-up dubbed as “hybrid monsters” for the squad’s versatility. In the first half we showed our quality when playing on the front foot, dominating Arenal to take a deserved 2-0 lead. In the second half we showed our resilience when defending a lead - and professionalism and nous in being able to keep what we had, even with the assist of the penalty miss.
Taking all three points meant Chelsea went five clear, having played one game more than Man United - and effectively put one hand on the trophy.
If Man United had failed to beat Man City in the later evening kick off, then it would have been confirmed before the final day. However, despite 10-player Man City equalising in the second half - and for 20 odd minutes it looking like Chelsea were already champions - United found a stoppage time winner to ensure it did go to the final weekend.
Chelsea would travel to Reading knowing that a win would see us crowned champions for the fourth season in a row. The Royals are all but relegated following their loss against Spurs in their penultimate game - and given the challenges Chelsea have overcome to put themselves in this position, you would back the Blues to see it through… but would there be one last twist in the title race?
Reading 3-0 Chelsea (WSL)
It all came down to this.
After what has been the best WSL title race in years, the champions were to be decided on the final day.
Chelsea were in pole position. Since the March defeat to Man City, the Blues have won every single league game. The Red Devils had topped the table for most of the season, but mainly by virtue of the fixture list - as they had always been ahead of Chelsea in terms of games played.
A busy May has seen the Blues make up those games in hand - and completely erase United’s goal difference advantage - meaning that we headed into the final day with a two point and five goal difference lead.
In the blue corner, Chelsea were looking to make it a fourth WSL in a row and three consecutive Doubles. In the red corner, our rivals were looking to win their first ever league title - or trophy of any sort - since reforming as a club in 2018.
A win for Chelsea would confirm it, regardless of what Man United could do at Liverpool. Given the goal difference advantage, a draw may also be enough - but memories of the painful loss of the title on goal difference, on the final day in 2014, meant Chelsea would not want to chance it.
Our opponent faced a battle of their own. Reading were rock bottom of the WSL - and needed a win to avoid relegation, meaning this game was as big for them as for Chelsea.
The Royals form had been as woeful as their lowly position would suggest. However, they are something of a bogey team for Chelsea, having beaten us in this same fixture last season, and fought back well to a credible 3-2 loss at Kingsmeadow back in December.
Chelsea, meanwhile, were flying into the game - having scored 22 goals for the loss of just one against, in our six months in May so far.
It would also be the final game in Blue for departing captain Magda Eriksson, and her partner Pernille Harder. Magda marked her final Kingsmeadow appearance last weekend with a goal - and both would want to end their career at Chelsea on the ultimate high, and a goodbye that two such iconic and beloved players deserved.
In a rarity for Chelsea this season - given the fixture congestion and injuries we have had to contend with - Emma Hayes was able to name an unchanged XI for the final game of the 2022/23 season.
There was only one way for Reading to realistically play - try to frustrate Chelsea, and sting on the counter. As such, they set up with a back five, and within a few minutes it was clear that this was going to be a matter of attack vs defence.
Chelsea would need to keep patient, and keep calm - and did determinedly set about their business of breaking down the Reading wall.
Sam Kerr blazed the first good chance over, after some excellent build up from the Blues. Erin Cuthbert then hit the bar - and there was a growing sense the opener was coming.
The link up which has been so prolific this season proved fruitful again. A Guro Reiten cross from the left, a Sam Kerr header - and a Chelsea goal. Reiten has in many people’s views been our Player of the Season - the ‘Assist Queen’ added another to her tally of 19 for the year in all competitions, and her contribution has been crucial in a season where we have missed Fran Kirby and Harder for most of it. Reiten and Kerr have at times carried our attack this season - and so it was fitting they combined for the breakthrough here.
That made it 1-0 to the Chels, inside 20 minutes , and if this result held, the title would be staying at Kingsmeadow. Reading could have equalised not soon after, but Justine Vanhaevermaet could not convert a free header from a free kick. This was enough to remind Chelsea that we could not rest on our laurels, after having taken an early lead.
Royals forward Deanne Rose went off injured shortly after - a major blow for Reading, as one of their danger-women, and meant their chances of coming back in the game had taken a major hit.
Reiten further illustrated her contribution this season by getting the second goal, shortly before half time. The Norwegian capitalised on a poor back pass from Easther Mayi Kith to find herself one on one with the Reading keeper, and coolly nutmegged the unfortunate Maloney.
With that, Chelsea now had one (and a half) hands on the trophy - and it meant the second half would likely be a procession.
And so it was. Chelsea were never truly troubled in this game - having had nearly 80% possession, and 23 shots in total. This was always in Chelsea’s hands - the game, and maybe even on reflection, despite the season-long drama to get there - the title was always in our hands too.
Kerr got her second of the game late on by finishing off her own rebound to give the scoreline the resounding feeling that the dominant performance in the Berkshire sunshine deserved. A fitting way to end a storming run through the business end of the season - Chelsea took it up to a new level, and nobody else could match it.
Elsewhere, Man United did their part in beating Liverpool 1-0 - but it mattered little.
Magda Eriksson had been substituted off to enable the travelling fans to give our departing captain an enormous ovation - nothing less than what a genuine legend of this club deserves.
The only thing more fitting was what came next. For the tenth time as Chelsea captain, Eriksson lifted a trophy. She did so in front of the jubilant fans who filled the Madejski Stadium - meaning there were more Chelsea fans than Reading there to see it.
A fourth WSL title in a row - a third consecutive Double. Chelsea were champions.

May results in brief

Fixture	Result	Competition	Goal scorers
Liverpool (H)	2-1 W	WSL	Charles, Kerr (Perisset assist)
Everton (H)	7-0 W	WSL	Reiten, Kerr, Harder x 2, Ingle, Fleming, Cuthbert (Rytting Kaneryd, Charles, Reiten, Fleming, Harder, Cuthbert assists)
Leicester (H)	6-0 W	WSL	Reiten, Cuthbert, Harder x 2, James, Cankovic (Harder, Carter, Perisset, Charles assists)
Man United (N)	1-0 W	FA Cup final	Kerr (Harder assist)
West Ham (A)	4-0 W	WSL	Charles, Harder, Ingle, Cuthbert (Ingle, Rytting Kaneryd assists)
Arsenal (H)	2-0 W	WSL	Reiten, Eriksson goals (Perisset, Kerr assists)
Reading (A)	3-0 W	WSL	Kerr x 2, Reiten (Reiten assist)

UTC!

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and if you weren't in any of the big crowds for Blink 182, Paramore, Taylor Swift/Phoebe Bridgers, or the musical festivals happening on along the east coast, you might itching for some live music this week. June means beach season is here and that means beach shows, with Rippers opening this weekend. Plus, Paramore is still in town, playing a pair of shows with Bloc Party, not to mention tour stops by AJJ, Thrice, Panchiko and Young the Giant, and yet another sellout for Bill Joel, who returns to make up December's cancelled show.
If you're new to this sub or just passing through, each week I try to highlight the "best" upcoming rock, punk, indie and alternative shows. I scour the web and social media for concert announcement, booking, rescheduling, etc., and then pick which shows are vying for my time and money (or which would've been if they weren't sold out). This is not intended to be an exhaustive list as there are other non-reddit resources that cast a wider net on live shows, including pop, hip hop and comedy shows, but feel free to add any missing shows using the comments (especially for other genres).
As usual, listed times are approximate start times (not door); prices are estimates for door tickets, and do not include online fees and taxes.

TUESDAY MAY 30

Brutus + Trixie Whitley @ Gramercy Theatre, 7pm ($20)
^LPR15 Panchiko + Horse Jumper of Love + LSD & the Search for God @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Paramore + Bloc Party + Genesis Owusu @ Madison Square Garden, 7pm ($185+)
Voice of Gowanus Fundraiser @ Public Records, 7pm ($50+) feat. Yo La Tengo + Marc Ribot + The Martin Bisi Collective
Peppermint + Sheer Curtains + Scout Gillett @ Purgatory, 8pm ($15)

WEDNESDAY MAY 31

Mega Bog + Mary Jane Dunphe + Shallowhalo @ Baby's All Right, 7pm ($15)
Cinema Stare + Leisure Hour + Good Looking Friends + Fear Not Ourselves Alone @ Bar Freda, 8pm ($15)
Leor Miller's Fear of Her Own Desire + Mt. Worry + Fat Trout Trailer Park + Bedridden @ The Broadway, 8:30pm ($15)
Unwed Sailor + Caravela + Spa @ The Kingsland, 8pm ($15)
^LPR15 Panchiko + Horse Jumper of Love + LSD & the Search for God @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Paramore + Bloc Party + Genesis Owusu @ Madison Square Garden, 7pm ($185+)
Heart Attack Man + Super American + Arm's Length + Photocopy @ Racket, 7pm ($20)
Bridge City Sinners + Crazy and the Brains @ Saint Vitus, 8pm ($20)
Michael Ian Cummings^{EP release show} + Alex Orange Drink + CUTTTERS + SUO @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($17)
Pons + Dolly Spartans + Consumables + Bosco Mujo @ Union Pool, 8pm ($15)
AJJ + Oceanator + Gladie @ Webster Hall, 8pm ($25)

THURSDAY JUNE 1

Jelly Kelly^{album release show} + Skorts + Le Big Zero + Brodeo @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($12)
Pride Month Kickoff Party @ Brooklyn Made, 8pm ($20) feat. partygirl + Laura Danae + Monarch + Tula Vera + LEONE
Big Wreck + Mick's Jaguar @ Gramercy Theatre, 7pm ($30)
Atlas Engine + Diary + Lukka + Endearments @ Rubulad, 8:30 ($12)
Tristen + Colatura + BenBen @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($15)
Thrice ^{The Artist in the Ambulance 20th Anniversary tour} + Holy Fawn @ Terminal 5, 8pm (SOLD OUT)

FRIDAY JUNE 2

Massa Nera + Trophy Hunt + Common Sage @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Onesie ^{"What You Kill" single + music video release show} + Nite Music + The Roulettes @ East Williamsburg Econolodge, 9pm ($5)
Dreamers + Robert DeLong @ Elsewhere - The Hall, 7pm ($25)
Billy Joel @ Madison Square Garden, 8pm (SOLD OUT) ^{Rescheduled from Dec. 19, 2022}
Fenne Lily & Christian Lee Hutson + Why Bonnie @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, 8pm ($25)
Climates + No Kill + North by North + AK & the Hallucinations @ Our Wicked Lady, 8pm ($15)
Wince + Bleary Eyed + Screenager @ Trans-Pecos, 8pm ($12)
Jeromes Dream + Elizabeth Colour Wheel + Venus Twins @ TV EYE, 8pm ($15)
Gorgeous + Gold Dime + Fred Cracklin + Free Casino @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

SATURDAY JUNE 3

The New Colossus Festival presents Summer Saturdays @ 18th Ward Brewing, 1pm (FREE) feat. The Big Easy + Abby Jeanne + Sara Devoe + Telescope Club
New Pope + Tiers La Familia + parlor walls @ Mama Tried, 4pm (FREE)
Bueno ^{single release show} + Zero Point Energy + Rebecca Ryskalczyk + Scarlet @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($15)
Monarch + The Poster Child + North By North + Amalia Juliane @ Berlin, 7:30pm ($12)
L.O.T.I.O.N. + Multinational Corporation + Abuso de Poder + Abism @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Miracle Sweepstakes + Phantom Handshakes + Harper Love @ East Williamsburg Econolodge, 9pm ($5)
^{LPR15 - IN THE ROUND} Pissing Jeans + Carnivorous Bells + Shop Talk @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm ($20)
Wunderhorse + Glom @ Mercury Lounge, 9:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Young the Giant + Milky Chance + TALK @ Pier 17 - Rooftop, 6pm (SOLD OUT)
Blue Note Jazz Festival Presents Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers + John Scofield + Kenny Garrett + Christian McBride @ Town Hall, 8pm ($60+)
^{Fear City Presents} OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS! - Night 1@ TV EYE, 8pm ($20/30) feat. Baby Shakes + Natalie Sweet + Josephine Network + The Out-Sect + The High Kinks + Civil Rats + Sweat + The Dracu-Las + The Wanderers
Semaphore + Velvet + Percocet @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

SUNDAY JUNE 4

Young the Giant + Milky Chance + TALK @ Pier 17 - Rooftop, 6pm (SOLD OUT)
^{Fear City Presents} OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS! - Night 2@ TV EYE, 8pm ($20/30) feat. Mel Machete + Killer Kin + Vixen 77 + Soraia + Revelatours + Loretta + Tits Dick Ass + WifeKnife + Not All Heroes

Today's anniversaries are:
2006

• Cheval de frise - Fresques sur les parois secrètes du crâne (Rock)

2008

• Opeth - Watershed (Rock)

2010

• Omar Rodríguez-López - Sepulcros de miel (experimental rock)

2014

• Artifact Implication - Motions (deathcore, metal, djent, melodic deathcore, progressive deathcore, progressive metalcore, Moscow)
  
• Fire! Orchestra - Enter (Jazz)
  
• Killitorous - Party, Grind (death metal, metal, thrash metal, technical death metal, Canada)
  

2015

• Anairë - Eldritch Sanctuary (ambient, ambient, bloodborne, cinematic, dark ambient, drone, drone ambient, electronic music, fantasy, field recordings, soundscape, Poland)
  
• Cyclamen - Humanise (ambient, experimental, metal, post-rock, Japan)
  
• Cyclamen - Tales (ambient, djent, experimental, metal, post-rock, tech metal, Japan)
  
• Naumachia - Machine of Creation (black metal, death metal, metal, norway, hate, machine of creation, naumachia, sceptic, via nocturna, Opole)
  

2016

• Jason Rubenstein - Four Named Narratives (jazz rock fusion, rock, fusion, hard rock, heavy, heavy piano, heavy prog, heavy progressive, heavy rock, instrumental, prog rock, progressive metal, San Francisco) Read our review.
  
• Visions - Shake the Earth (metal, hardcore, progressive, rock, tech, Peterborough) Read our review.
  

2017

• Cauldron of Shit - Mysterious Fortress (metal, death metal, deathgrind, grindcore, groove grind, hardcore, mathcore, slam, speed metal, tech grind, technical death metal, technical grindcore, Perth)
  
• Omni Optometrist - Atomic Throne (avant-prog)
  
• Panic Error - Doppelgänger (alternative, electronic, usa, alternative rock, avant-garde, drone, electronic, electropop, experimental, harsh noise, improvisation, industrial, noise, psychedelic, Italy)
  
• Sheen Marina - Travel Lightly (adventure rock, rock, surf rock, acid, california rock, experimental rock, math rock, noise rock, psychedelic, punk, surf noise, New York)
  
• Té - 擢 (Kai) ()
  
• The Vomit of the Universe - The Vomit of the Universe (doom, drone, experimental, metal, Adelaide)
  
• Vola - October Session (expermiental, rock, experimental rock, progressive metal, progressive rock, Copenhagen)
  
• Yoink - Yankee Oscar India November Kilo (rock, calypso, experimental rock, instrumental, jingle house, juke, loop, math rock, mathrock, post-rock, progressive, vampcore, New York)
  

2018

• Dysmorfectomy - Disembodied Anomalies (metal, slamming brutal death metal, Carhaix Plouguer)
  
• Ladybaby - ホシノナイソラ (Hoshinonaisora) (Asian Music)
  
• Oh, Adeona - Oh, Adeona (rock, jazz, math rock, prog rock, punk, New York)
  
• Rytmigeneraattori - Ikiliikkuja (world, didgeridoo, didgeridoo music, drums, ethno, organic dance music, organic trance, world music, Tampere) Read our review.
  
• Wollongong - 40,000 Hippo Handshakes (experimental, Wollongong)
  

2019

• Room to Spare - Room to Spare (experimental, jazz, groove based, new music, piano, violin, Boston)
  
• The Gloom in the Corner - Flesh & Bones (metal, metalcore, concept music, deathcore, down-tempo, hardcore, metalcore, nu-metalcore, post-hardcore, Melbourne)
  
• 鬼否 (Guǐfǒu / Griffo) - 通用计箕 (Tōngyòng jì jī / Neo Eniac) (rock, instrumental, math rock, Hangzhou)
  

2020

• Jargon - The Fading Thought (progressive rock)

2021

• Charnel Grounds - Molecular Entropy Examined in the Bowels of a Great One (avant-garde death metal)

2022

• Crowning & Naedr - Rayau (blackened hardcore)
  
• David Binney - Tomorrow's Journey (modern jazz)
  
• Jack - Lobotómia (grindcore)
  
• Reverb on Repeat - Demo 2 (post-rock)
  
• Thierry Maillard - Paris-New York (jazz fusion)
  
• Тишина (Tišina) - Увод… (Uvod…) (blackened doom metal)
  

I just had my honeymoon (originally scheduled for Jun 2020). My wife and I are in our early thirties. It’s my wife’s first time in japan while it’s my fourth. I’ve benefitted immensely from stalking Tokyo travel reddit and would like to return the favour. I’ll provide some of my tips and observations to the end (skip to the end if the itinerary doesn’t interest you), some of which I think haven’t been mentioned before.
Thank God pretty much everything went to plan, and my wife thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We spent 12 days in Japan, most of it in Tokyo and 2 nights in Kawaguchiko. Many people were surprised to know that we’d be spending most of our trip in Tokyo, but I thought it was just fine because Tokyo had a lot to offer. My wife and I aren’t big on visiting shrines or ticking tourist hotspots off a checklist. We don’t shop much, but we did a lot of it simply because it’s Japan and we bought lots of quality-of-life items (not fashion) for ourselves and others. Given how much my wife really enjoyed the trip, I think others with similar interests could find something helpful too.
Pre-trip planning

• It was out first leisure trip in years, and my wife's first trip to Japan. I wanted to show her my favourite parts of Japan, and took months trawling through reddit posts and trip reports, watching youtube videos, and just soaking in all the things before deciding on an itinerary that I thought my wife would enjoy. It was almost exclusively planned by me, and I would consult my wife along the way.
• Other than the hotel & flights, I booked the highway express bus to Kawaguchiko one week prior.
• Decided on the airport limousine bus to bring us from the airport to the city a few days prior.
• Studio Ghibli tickets booked one month in advance. There's a good guide available on reddit already. International tickets were quickly sold out, so we used a free VPN to get onto the Japanese site which had more tickets & timings available. Simply Google translate the entire page.
• Booked a cooking class on cookly months prior.
• Did Visit Japan QR two days prior. It takes some time, so do it earlier rather than later.
• Added all places of interests in a Google list, and all food places in another Google list. I tried the custom Google maps at first but didn’t feel the UI was easy to navigate.
• Planned itinerary based on location proximity, and also highlighted parts that were interchangeable in case we wanted to switch it up (which we did).

Planning during the trip

• The Google maps foods list was always just for consideration: if we had time or were craving something. We didn't hard-code food places into our daily plans. But when food was the primary activity (e.g. visiting Tsukiji market), we'd determine to visit particular food stalls. Otherwise, just needed to do a cursory Google review check on whether a random food place is worth eating it. As a principle, we didn't want to spend time queuing >20m for food.
• I'd plan the next day's itinerary the night before, considering fatigue, interest, and proximity. I would create a brand new Google maps list for the next day, including potential food places.

Day 0 (Wed) 17 May - Arrival at Haneda Airport to hotel in Shinjuku
Arrived in Haneda late, about 11pm. Clearance was quick but baggage took 30mins. As I wouldn't make my stipulated airport limousine timing, I had no choice but to cancel my airport limousine and take the metro to our hotel in Shinjuku. I tried Apple wallet’s Suica at first. It worked seamlessly but I felt that a physical metro card was just faster so I eventually switched over. We reached after midnight, so do let your hotel know in advance if you anticipate arriving at odd hours.
Day 1 (Thurs) - Shinjuku exploration
Originally planned to visit Tsukiji on day 1, but given that we arrived late the previous night, agreed with my wife to change the plan and spend the first day doing the Shinjuku itinerary.

• Walked to a popular Tsukumen place at 11. Queued for 20mins and it was an interesting experience as there were lines of people standing right behind watching you eat. Wife said it was her best Tsukumen ever!
• Sekaido for art & stationary supplies: My wife does art so it was a haven for her. We spent a few hours there!
• Tokyu Hands Shinjuku: Wanted to look at more stationary/home/fashion stuff but two floors were under renovation.
• Omoide Yokocho: A quick walkthrough of this famous street for salarymen which comes alive at night. Many tourists.

Day 2 (Fri) - Kappabashi St., Fabric Town, Akihabara

• Kappabashi Dougu Street: looked at kitchen supplies aimed to find a nice nakiri knife! (If you want to buy a knife, do research on what knife you need beforehand).
• Fabric Town: My wife just passed a seamstress exam so she eagerly anticipated visiting fabric town, we spent a few hours in Tomato.
• Akihabara (Animate, Bic Camera, Gyukatsu Don): It was drizzling the entire day so it was not the most comfortable lugging that many bags around a wet Akihabara in the evening. Wife wasn’t interested but I wanted to let her experience this unique culture. Had dinner at a popular gyukatsu don (beef cutlet that you’d have to cook yourself). It was our first time eating gyukatsu. It was so tender and juicy and mmm. But it was a long one hour wait. It was after this episode that we decided we were not going to queue this long for food again.

Day 3 (Sat) - Cooking class in Shinjuku, Shibuya

• Private cooking class in Shinjuku: Our host was great! We were invited into his cosy house and he taught us how to make Okonomiyaki, Yakisoba, and a Japanese salad. I paid careful attention to the menu beforehand as I wanted to learn dishes I could easily recreate back home (i.e. not choose dishes that depended on seasonal Japanese ingredients). My wife absolutely loved the experience of getting to know a local and understanding his life story, Japanese culture, and hearing some of his horror stories of foreign guests. We got more food recs from him to understand where the locals really ate at.
• Shibuya 109: Paid $5 for a drink to have a bird’s eye view of the Shibuya crossing. It was Saturday so the crossing was at its full force. Even if you think this is touristy, it’s amazing to see that many people like little ants crossing a street. There are several nice locations here to take some artsy shots.
• Ishibashi Music Shibuya: absolutely loved the vibe in this music store. Back home, I’d been thinking about getting a particular keyboard but never got a chance to try it. I was able to play this particular one undisturbed and feel like I could go on for hours without any pressure from staff. Bought a few Japan exclusive guitar picks as gifts.
• Shibuya Tokyu Hands: This was amazing. I thought Shinjuku Tokyu Hands was the flagship store. So I only stumbled into this because I urgently needed to pee and someone said Tokyu hands had toilets. We were confused as its name was rebranded to simply "Hands" with a new logo. If you only have time to visit one Tokyu Hands, visit the Shibuya one. Each floor had 2 sub-floors so that’s a ton of floors! Lots of quality-of-life improvements one could get from this store. My wife got a buckwheat pillow.
• Shibuya Loft: After Sekaido and Tokyu Hands, I didn't think there was much daily life products/art/stationary to look at. But Loft was very different. Similar to Tokyu hands but seems more modern and fashionable. Worth visiting together with Tokyu hands! It also had packaged food available! It was late and my wife and I concluded that we didn’t have to to explore all the floors and that we’d return to Shibuya again.

Day 4 (Sun) - Komazawa Church, Harajuku, Shibuya

• Church in Komazawa: not a tourist activity, but we linked up with some partners from our home church and attended service at a little church held in a nursery. It was an amazing and encouraging experience to hear the gospel preached in a foreign language.
• Harajuku: Way too crowded. I had anticipated this as it was a Sunday, but thought to just try. Takeshita street was so packed my wife feared there would be a stampede risk (it wasn’t that bad). We did queue 20mins for pretty tasty crepe. After checking out all the recommended streets (e.g. cat street, uru-harajuku), my wife simply felt that she couldn’t stand the Harajuku crowd and the vibes. So we decided to go back to Shibuya again!
• Shibuya JINS: I didn’t mention this but previously in Shinjuku and Shibuya, I had been checking out recommended optical shops in the vicinity for a particular style of glasses. Japanese-made glasses are highly-rated, but I couldn’t find something at the right price-point. At JINS, I found a design I liked. Though not made in Japan, it cost me less than 5000 yen. Took them 1 hour to make it. For some reason I loved the vibes at Shibuya, and I earmarked it to return again later.

Day 5 (Mon) - Tsukiji Market, Ginza Muji/Uniqlo, Tokyo station

• Tsukiji market: wanted to arrive before 8 but arrived at 8.30am. Thankfully the crowds weren't that bad yet. Everything we tried was lovely. Potato/corn fishcakes, strawberry mochi, tamago, wagyu beef, uni inarisushi (my first time trying uni - wife loved it but I didn't like it), unagi. But the star was Masa burger (thanks to Paolo from Tokyo), which we waited till 11am to try. By then, the tourist buses had come and the streets were packed. But Masa burger was in a corner and we were their first customers. We tried fried codfish burger + homemade ginger ale. Both were was so well done and the fried cod was so crispy yet fresh and tender. It was also nicely completed with very refreshing salads! It was soo good we had it twice.
• Ginza Uniqlo/Muji: we wanted to take a look at some of Uniqlo’s exclusive items. Apparently they do have exclusive t-shirts for each region (e.g. Harajuku, Shibuya, Ginza), which tend to be collaborations with well-known food places in the area. However, they were always white in colour (cheap to produce) and not made-in-Japan-quality. Muji @ Ginza was a disappointment, not a lot more than the usual.
• Tokyo Station Ghibli store & Tenugui hunting: Went to Tokyo station to check out the Ghibli store and to look for a particular traditional tenugui (Japanese towels) store as my wife were hunting these down to give as gifts.
• Shinjuku Ichiran & Mister Donut: We returned to Shinjuku for Ichiran ramen, specifically at 5+pm. No crowds at all. Yummy! We then saw a Mister Donut, and recalled news in our home country that when it had its first opening in my country, people queued 5 hours for it. We thought to try it to see what the fuss was all about. Cash only, but the donuts were wonderfully textured and not too sweet. My wife doesn’t like sweet stuff, but mister donut really hit the sweet spot (no pun intended).

Day 6 (Tue) - Tokyo National Museum, Fabric town revisit, Akihabara revisit, Ochanomizu

• Tokyo National Museum: We had a good time learning about Japan’s early history, and discovered that so much that we know of Japan resulted from Chinese/korean influence.
• Fabric town & Akihabara revisit, Ochonomizu: We decided that this was likely the right time to go back for items we missed out on or didn’t have time to see. My wife went to fabric town again while I went to Akihabara’s Yodaibashi camera, which I felt to be better and with more varied things than Bic Camera. I then went to nearby Ochanomizu to look at more music and sport shops. We met up again at Shinjuku for another Gyukatsu Don before heading to mister donuts again.

Day 7 (Wed) - Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, Mori Museum, Ginza Wakamatsu, Shinjuku

• Shinjuku Gyoen Garden: lovely large garden grounds. We spent almost an hour just lying under a tree and watching clouds float by. Wife was doing some rough sketches of the garden. We had mister donuts from last night for breakfast.
• Mori Museum: Saw the exhibition of Heatherwick studios, which was inspiring and educational. Paid for the rooftop access to have a quick view of Tokyo from 50-ish floors up.
• Ginza Wakamatsu: Because of one of the Uniqlo-ginza-exclusive t-shirts, my wife was curious about this traditional Japanese dessert. So we gave it a check and realised it’s been around for more than a century. There was a short line (mainly Japanese elderly). The shop interior transported us back decades. It felt surreal eating a dessert that the Japanese ate centuries ago. Unlike modern desserts, this Japanese dessert certainly doesn’t excite and overwhelm one’s taste buds immediately. But there’s an old charm to it.
• Shinjuku Okadaya fabric: Returned to Shinjuku as my wife wanted to check out another of their famous fabric stores. Prices were more expensive than fabric town, but had somewhat different items.

Day 8 (Thurs) - Kawaguchiko

• Bus to Kawaguchiko: Packed light to Kawaguchiko, and forwarded our remaining luggage to our final hotel in Tamachi. The Shinjuku hotel staff were very helpful. I was merely inquiring on how luggage forwarding was done, but the staff picked up the phone, called my Tamachi hotel to confirm the booking, and prepared the documents for me. All I had to do was roll my luggage the next night to them and make payment. Took our 7:45am bus to Kawaguchiko and managed to catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji when we were on our way there!
• Cycling In Kawaguchiko: We lugged our bags to our ryokan and headed out again. My wife was quite hesitant about cycling overseas and I was also worried it’d tire her out too much. I debated between cycling or simply taking the sight-seeing bus. Eventually felt that it was worth trying to cycle. We unexpectedly walked by an e-bike place and decided, why not? Neither of us had tried an e-bike before and that could reduce the effort required for my wife. So we did and boy was it fun! It took a while to get used to the e-bike but it really reduced a lot of effort up the hills! I barely perspired at all thanks to the e-assist. Kawaguchiko had pretty narrow roads so it wasn’t the easiest to cycle. But I had plenty of road-cycling experience back at home so I was not daunted. We borrowed helmets from the e-bike place but saw that we were the only tourists that wore them. Yes, I'd recommend wearing helmets when cycling.
• Kubota Itchiku Art Museum: Cycled here knowing that this museum would interest my wife. It had a garden free for entry and it was really quaint, quiet, and charming! The pond had a singular vibrant-coloured Koi swimming in it. Museum entry requires tickets. On this trip, I realised that visiting museums tired me easily. It could be because I spent time reading each description. I told my wife to go ahead as I waited outside. She eventually took 45m in the museum and was so enthralled by it. She even bought a heavy hard-cover book of Itchiku Kubota’s kimono art :/
• Momiji Corridor: was just 50 meters away from the museum. Still beautiful with only green leaves, but I’d imagine it would be majestic in Autumn/Spring.
• Oishi Park: Many colourful flowers! It’s a pity that it had been cloudy the entire day, and Mt Fuji was not visible. That would have made the cycle perfect. Had a peach/plum ice-cream. Park was crowded with tourists.

Day 9 (Fri) - Fuji Q Highland, Shimoyoshida Honcho St, Batting Cage
Planning for Fuji Q & Morning Jog: I didn’t plan to go to Fuji-Q highland before the trip. Always felt it a bit of a waste to visit amusement parks overseas. That’s until I realised that Fuji Q had some of the most exciting (I mean world-record-holding) rollercoasters in the world. Maybe they don't hold the records anymore, but that intrigued me enough, because most amusement parks only had 1-2 coasters. Problem was that wife is terrified, and she said cycling on the streets of Kawaguchiko was already like a coaster ride for her. Still, I'm really thankful she encouraged me to go and said she was happy waiting and taking pictures for me. So I decided I would reach at opening time, and buy time by paying for the fast passes and try their top three coasters. The night before, we felt that we had to make decisions on our itinerary as it was our last day at Kawaguchiko. If Mt Fuji still wasn’t visible the next day, we'd go to Oshino Hakkai, if it was, we could try going to Shimoyoshida to get a nice picture.

• I went for a morning jog and as the path brought me along the river's perimeter, my jaw dropped when I saw Mount Fuji towering into view. I raced back to tell my wife (about 6am) and we both trekked up to a viewing spot to enjoy the view. This made it more urgent to not spend too much time at Fuji Q as we didn’t know how long Mt. Fuji would be visible for.
• Fuji-Q Highland: Was absolutely amazing. Yes, I blew a lot of cash here buying fast passes for the three available coasters. But they were some of the craziest coasters. Took Eejanaika, Fujiyama and Takabisha. Total time it took probably a little more than 1 hour with the express passes. It was so good, but so fast that I have little memory of it, except that there was a 90 degree climb to the top for Takabisha and I had a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji while climbing to the supposed world record of 79m for Fujiyama (this was 2 days before the news reported that Fujiyama got stuck in the middle of a ride and the people in the carts had to climb down :o). Had more time to take a few other rides, and enjoyed all the Naruto statues around for fun photo-taking. What I really enjoyed about the park was that it was mostly filled with Japanese tourists; in fact, there was a Japanese school having an outing there. It was nice to see excited students running about. If I could spend the day here, I'd take the three coasters multiple times to imprint the sensations in my head. But I'm still thankful I got to try some of the world's most thrilling coasters!
• Shomoyoshida Honcho St: This destination was simply to take the famous street view of Mount Fuji with Japanese shops lined in the foreground. It’s not easy to get to, and there was quite a walk. We noticed there weren’t much people around, and most shops were closed. But when we reached the destination, there were many tourists right at the particular traffic light. So much so there was a grumpy Japanese traffic police person managing the crowd. We saw the worst of tourists that day. People were disobeying traffic laws and just running in the middle of the road just to get a shot. We then chanced upon a hidden udon shop and it felt like we were transported back to the 50’s! It was super old school, people sat on raised platforms, and several elderly customers were watching the tele while eating. There was only one udon option available, with free cabbage top-ups. We learnt that the shop had been around for 73 years. We actually headed back to Fuji-Q Highlands to take a 4D 'plane ride' with Joe Hisashi music in the background. Since my wife actually wanted to ride something, I was happy to agree to her request. Ride was very ordinary but wife actually felt terrified at times lol. Rushed back to the hotel for a private onsen booking.
• Batting Cage: I had never played baseball/softball and my home country doesn’t have a baseball culture. Yet I had seen batting cages in Japanese drama and always wanted to try. Loved it! My technique was probably pretty bad! I did well at first but as I tried faster balls, I tired out and failed to hit any haha. Some teens beside me were knocking out 120km/h balls out of the park! We ended the day eating ramen outdoors with a view of Mount Fuji.

Day 10 (Sat) - Kichijoji, Ghibli Museum, Kichijoji Jazz bar
Woke up before sunrise for a run and to attempt to catch a sunrise picture of Mount Fuji. Streets were completely empty. Even ran to the famous Kawaguchiko Lawson for a picture. Headed back for an onsen bathe (note: we never used the room's shower, and always went for an onsen bath throughout our stay in Kawaguchiko as it was just too convenient). Took a 7am bus to return to Shinjuku.

• Kichijoji: Arrived at Kichijoji at about 10am. Wife really loved the vibes there. We tried the Tsukuba suisan fish cakes which were really tasty, and my wife was intrigued that a line had formed at the adjacent store named Ozasa. Apparently they sell traditional Japanese desserts and locals would go there as early as 5am to get a ticket. So we queued 15m and managed to get three boxes worth of the snacks! Tried the Amane Taiyaki fish-shaped bean paste snacks, another traditional dessert. It was a small lovely old shop.
• Ghibli Museum: Requires a long walk through Inokashira park. Ghibli was fantastic. Many people have been saying recently that it’s over-rated, and that it doesn’t cater to foreign crowds and most things are in Japanese. We similarly struggled with that at first. But we found out that if you asked the staff, they actually had English language exhibition booklets ready for every exhibition! That was a revelation. And we managed to understand almost all the exhibitions by asking the uniformed staff (except the short film, which had minimal dialogue anyway). I mentioned this to one foreign group and they were really grateful for that. But I saw that many other foreigners that probably came earlier were just bored or simply going crazy at the Ghibli shop. My wife bought the museum book (which also has English explanations of each exhibit), and we understood Miyazaki’s vision for the museum - to make it suitable for kids and adults, with no pre-determined route, allowing for play, exploration, to help people be inspired by the artists’ process. Through that, we saw that every thing in the museum was intentionally designed, all of the exhibitions, cafe, shop, and garden. Reading that helped me appreciate and enjoy the museum much more.
• Roaming Kichijoji and Some Time Jazz bar: My wife and I split up to roam kichijoji. I checked out some sports shops and saw that their prices were lower than Ochanomizu. We reconvened for dinner at Sometime Jazz bar. I’m picking up Jazz piano but had never been to a jazz bar. Booked it one day before, but was sad that our table position only allowed us to see some of the drummer and the pianist’s expression. Still, it was a very hip place for jazz cats and we had a wonderful time. We only sat through the first half of the performance that night. Note that there are seating charges, so that + dinner added up to quite a lot. But we rationalised that this was akin to paying for a performance. Checked into our hotel in Tamachi.

Day 11 (Sun) - Tokyo Sky Tree, Shinjuku, Back to Kichijoji, Shibuya
It was a crazy day where we simply hit the places we wanted to revisit regardless of proximity. Headed to Tokyo Skytree in the morning to check out another Ghibli store in hopes of getting another Ghibli shirt; reason was because I ended up buying one at the museum I really loved (made in Japan, beautiful colour, perfect fit. I hesitated at first because I couldn't try it). If you’re not going to the Ghibli museum, this is probably the best store available for Ghibli goods. Alas, the museum's items were really quite exclusive. Headed to Shinjuku to try curry udon, then to Kichijoji to try satou beef balls and dangos and to make some purchasing decisions on some sports equipment. Then we ended up at Shibuya (my favourite place!) to the mega Don Quijote and Tokyu Hands to shop for gifts for others. It was a lovely end to our trip!
Day 12 (Mon) - Back home
Best trip ever, says my wife.
Tips for travellers

• Spread out your itinerary: I originally planned to front-load all the must-see tourist stuff and leave the remaining days for shopping. But in May, Ghibli Museum was closed for two weeks so we had no choice but to schedule it at the end of the trip. That was a better arrangement. It felt that each day was distinctly different, and we could remember the highlight of each day. Also, be specific about where you want to go. Don’t simply put locations, e.g., Visit Harajuku, or visit Shibuya crossing.
• Plan your itinerary in consideration of weekend crowds: Places like Tsujiki market, Ghibli Museum, Fuji-Q Highlands and other stuff are likely going to be very crowded on weekends. If you want to shop in Harajuku or Shibuya, try to avoid weekends. I opted to put the cooking class and ‘less-exciting’ Museums on weekends.
• Carry more cash than you think you need: In my experience, the cash-to-card ratio was about 40:60. Considering that all metro card top-ups require cash, you'll need quite a bit of cash! Sometimes even bigger restaurants are cash only.
• Bring foldable tote bags, and use lockers where necessary: If you’re buying stuff, packing them in tote bags makes it easier to lug around. Bigger shops will charge you for bags. If you just arrived from one area with bags and are going to explore another, use the lockers. Most metro stations likely have lockers and they are really affordable and convenient.
• Travel light by planning to do laundry: I only brought four sets of clothing, and we did laundry every 3-4 days or so. It’s really convenient, about 200 yen per 30m wash, and another 200 yen for a 1h dry. It’s worthwhile to check if your hotel has coin laundry available.
• Buy discriminately: Many people say the kind of things available at places like Don Quijote or Uniqlo are mind-blowing. Fact is, most of them are made in China or elsewhere. About 95% of the items we saw in Daiso were made in China. In fact, many items in Kappabashi street were made in China. You’re more likely to get value for money by buying a made in Japan item. Sometimes the shop will highlight if a product is Japan made. But other times, you have to scrutinise the fine print. Learn to look out for these three words in Kanji: 日本製. This is where the camera function of Google translate is immensely helpful. This was not available or widely publicised when I last visited Japan years back in 2016, so use this tech to your advantage and scrutinise the fine print!
• Plan your toilet trips if possible: If you know you’re headed to low-rise areas like Tsujiki, Fabric town where it’s just shop after shop, it’s going to be hard to find a toilet. Make sure you relieve yourself beforehand at the train station. But if you still need to go, try to find a multi-storey building and chances are, there’ll be toilets available there.
• Avoid queuing for food by timing right: In general, I found that most popular food places that required queuing had queues mainly consisting of foreigners. I wonder if this is because of the reddit/youtube/google maps review effect (not a lot of Japanese review on Google I think). So if you have to queue, there's a good chance you're competing with other foreigners. Simply put, almost all food places open at 11am, so be there at 11, or have early dinner at 5pm and perhaps you may avoid the queuing.
• Scrutinise Google maps to figure out the different train types: for daily travel, there could be local, rapid, and express trains. Local trains stop at every station. Rapid skips a few, and express trains likely only stops at key location. They make a big difference to travel time, and to your comfort. When Google maps recommends a route, scrutinise the detail to ensure what kind of train they are recommending. It gets confusing at the station as the platforms on your left and right may end up at the same location, but one could be a local train and the other an express train.
• Learn just 2 essential phrases: It always felt weird for me to speak Japanese because I felt like a try-hard. But this time I did - just learn to say thank you in Japanese (arigato gozaimasu). The other essential word is - summimasen - excuse me/sorry. Useful for if you need to exit a crowded train, or if you need to get someone’s attention. We survived with just these two phrases. As our cooking teacher told us - it’s better to say something in Japanese than say nothing at all. For the rest, you can use Google translate app’s picture function.
• Other misc tips: as mentioned, bring trash bags. Some shops explicitly tell you not to walk around and eat their food. So the solution is to finish the snack in front of the shop, and say, “summimasen, can you help me to throw this trash?” That helped us avoid carrying trash around a lot. As a traveller, you’re gonna get a lot of carbs (my curry udon meal included a bowl of udon + a bowl of rice...) and fried food. To get more fiber, try the basements of shopping centres and get yourself some fruits. Also, if you exercise regularly like me, you'd be concerned about getting some exercise. I did pre-trip research on pools/gyms/parks to visit. But visited none of them. With what little hotel room space I had, I settled with a daily morning routine of 100 squats and 100 pushups. That and walking an average of 18k steps daily helped. I actually lost some weight somehow.

Observations

• Drinking culture in Japan: we saw quite a few drunk people in the streets. Some of them at the parks. I had never really seen drunkards much in my home country (it could be because I don’t stay out late). When we walked by a bar area with our cooking instructor at 10am, he told us some of the people in them had been there overnight. At Inokashira park, we saw a lady dressed in office wear face planted on the ground. Her friends tried to help carry here elsewhere but her entire body was limp and almost lifeless.
• The Japanese sleep late: when we arrived, we were still on the train to our hotel at 11:50pm. But the train was still packed with salarymen in suits and many others. In fact, it seemed the later it was, the more crowded the trains.
• Foreigner influx and how we stick out: there were way more foreigners this time than the last I visited Japan. I commented to my wife that I felt more immersed in Japan on the metro or at places like Tokyu hands as I could hear Japanese being spoken around me. But at tourist spots and some museums, I felt like I could have been in any other country. I tended to feel very uncomfortable when large groups of foreigners were around. I had to tell myself not to be hypocritical as I was a foreigner myself. But I suppose one reason is that there were many inconsiderate foreigners. Speaking loudly, making brash comments, and just not behaving like visitors. We saw a foreign couple locked in a head-to-toe embrace on a picnic mat in a park full of families. And they chose a spot right next to the footpath. Many foreigners also leave unkind Google reviews for places just because it’s not up to their expectations. I get it, we worked for our holiday and are paying customers, and there is often an innate tendency to feel entitled or complain when something isn’t up to our expectations. But I think it helps to remember that we are like visitors in someone’s home. Be self-aware, don’t speak loudly, note the traffic customs, where to stand on the escalators, how to behave etc.
• Japanese men have great hair: the Japanese men’s hairstyle feels frozen in time. I didn’t see the typical Korean-inspired center-parted hairstyles in Asian guys nowadays. And balding men were a small minority somehow. As someone whose hairline is slowly receding, I was envious to see many Japanese men have wavy long hair deep into their 60-70s! My wife commented that the women's hairstyles were more or less the same - dyed, curled etc. But the men were rocking so many styles!
• In-person shopping still matters: as the days went by and as my wife and I began to covet the "made-in-Japan" label, we realised that we hadn't done such shopping in years since online shopping became prevalent. I also recall people commenting that you could get these goods online anyway, so why bother shopping in Japan. Well, physical shopping makes comparison easy, it allows you to ask for recommendations, and enables you to know the items's size, feel, and look on you (if buying fashion items). It also makes discovery of new items possible. I'm not a huge shopper or a foodie, but in Japan, it's worth it to be one simply because the Japanese are thoughtful about their craft and tend to produce quality that's quite unmatched. I suppose it's a blessing in disguise that our honeymoon got delayed 3 years, as we are now well-aware of our post-wedding lifestyles and the items we'd need in the kitchen/around the house.
• Reading culture is strong: in a week when I read reports that leisure reading had declined in my home country, I was pleasantly surprised to see many people reading hard-copy books on the train, many of them even had personalised leather book covers. Kinokuniya was also teeming with life. As a bookworm, this is a great encouragement. And I wish English language books came in such compact sizes too, although I think that's due to the limitations of the language. As Japanese characters can be read vertically, that allows for more play on possible book sizes.
• No one culture is worth idealising: Japan remains my favourite country to visit as a tourist, but I've come to see that Japanese culture - like any other culture - has its flaws. That's simply because people are flawed. Yes, their service culture is impeccable, especially when you're served by middle-aged super helpful and super kind ladies. But on every Japanese trip so far, I've always had at least one unkind or impatient service encounter. On a day-to-day basis, people don't really apologise if they bump into you, and may not give up their seats for the elderly too. My cooking teacher says the Japanese are extremely polite in person but would rant and give very bad reviews anonymously at home. I've come to just enjoy their products, service, and their views of certain ways-of-life as a tourist, but stop short of idealising their culture. There are kind and unkind people in every culture. That said, I would still say on average, the Japanese may be more civic-minded than most. That doesn't mean they are innately kinder or warmer people, but simply that they are more self-aware of how their actions are perceived by others.

I've decided not to mention the specific food places as far as possible because I think there's more than enough recommendations available elsewhere. I also think sometimes that we get a bit fomo if we build up too many must-go spots. Enjoy the process of discovering new places! But feel free to ask me more if you like.

Just some ideas for new routes into Hoboken Terminal based off old services into the nearby Communipaw Terminal and former Erie services into Hoboken. My proposal would need the Waterfront connection & Hunter Flyer NEC Interchanges to be expanded along with some abandoned routes to restore. The Amtrak routes out of Hoboken would be modeled after the discount services that run in Europe , instead of going to the main hub you go to a railway station outside the main city at a steep discount. I have a similar reshuffling proposed for GCT which i'll post soon.
New Jersey Transit - Regional Rail

• Main Line : Hoboken – Secaucus – Paterson – Ridgewood – Ramsey – Suffern
• Bergen County Line : Hoboken – Secaucus – Fair Lawn – Ridgewood – Waldwick
• Port Jervis Line : Hoboken – Secaucus – Ridgewood – Suffern – Middletown – Port Jervis
• Pascack Valley Line: Hoboken – Secaucus – Hackensack – Spring Valley – Suffern
• Morristown Line : Hoboken – Newark Broad – Dover – Hackettstown – Philipsburg
• Montclair-Boonton Line : Hoboken – Newark Broad – MSU – Wayne – Denville – Dover
• Gladstone Branch: Hoboken – Newark Broad – Summit – Far Hills – Gladstone
• North Jersey Coast Line : Hoboken – Newark Penn – Long Branch – Asbury Park – BH
• Lehigh Line : Hoboken – Newark Penn – Raritan – Easton – Bethlehem - Allentown
• Lackawanna line : Hoboken – Newark Broad – Dover - East Stroudsburg – Scranton
• West Shore Line : Hoboken – Teaneck - Tappan – West Haverstraw – Newburgh

Hoboken Terminal – Intercity Rail

• Amtrak Lackawanna Service: Hoboken –Newark – Scranton – Binghamton – Buffalo – 4x daily
• Amtrak Southern Tier Ltd: Chicago – Cleveland – Binghamton – Scranton – Hoboken -1x daily
• Amtrak Erie Ltd : Cleveland – Erie – Binghamton – Port Jervis – Hoboken – 1x daily
• Amtrak Phoebe Snow : Hoboken – Newark – Scranton – Buffalo – Niagara Falls – 1x daily
• Amtrak Queen of the Valley: Harrisburg – Reading – Allentown – Newark – Hoboken – 2x
• Amtrak Royal Blue : Hoboken – Newark – Philadelphia – Baltimore – DC – 2x daily
• NJT Crusader Service : Hoboken – Newark Penn – West Trenton – Jenkentown – CC Philly
• NJT Blue Comet : Hoboken – Newark Penn – Red Bank - Lakewood - Cape May

Just got back from 10 days in Japan and wanted to type up a trip report to hopefully help others that are trying to plan a trip!
Our trip was 5/16 - 5/28 including travel days. This was my 2nd time in Japan (first time was study abroad for 5 weeks in May/June 2016), but it was my mom & sister's first time, so the goal was to include as many must-see activities as we possibly could in the short time we were there. Our days were packed to the brim however all 3 of us are fairly active and healthy so despite being absolutely exhausted by the end of each day, in retrospect we wouldn't have changed a thing in our itinerary.
That being said, our itinerary would be much too busy for the average person's first trip to Japan so keep that in mind if you use this information to plan your own trip. For example, we usually only had time to sit down and eat for one meal per day and had to eat on the go for the other meals in order to have enough time to go to all the places we wanted to go to. There was very little downtime in our trip.

Tourist Tips

• Luggage
  • We each traveled with 2 checked luggage since they were included in our flight. I had one full sized suitcase and one slightly smaller suitcase which both only had one side filled when I left the US. The plan was to fill the other half of the suitcases with souvenirs to bring home. Last time I went to Japan, it cost me ~$200 to ship two large boxes of souvenirs back home, so despite having to bring a lot of luggage this saved me a significant amount of money and I will be doing this for future trips as well.
  • Within our luggage we also packed a duffel bag to hold all our purchases on heavy shopping days and a daily backpack to hold things like our trash bag, hand towel, hand sanitizewet wipes, body wipes, small purchases, etc. My carry-on was a 40L backpack that I took with us when we stayed overnight in Kyoto.
• Money
  • I brought $400 cash to exchange at the airport. I had gotten a Charles Schwab debit card before leaving which has no foreign transaction/ATM fees so I planned to use my card for whatever purchases I could then use cash for everything else. I ended up withdrawing another ¥20000 which was just enough cash to last me the rest of our trip.
• Walking
  • Last time I went to Japan I survived wearing flat gladiator sandals basically the whole trip, but this did NOT work this time around for whatever reason (I guess we walked a lot more this time?). BRING COMFORTABLE SHOES TO WALK IN. I ended up having to buy sneakers on day 2 because I stupidly didn't think I would need them. I was more concerned about looking cute for pictures (ha) but I quickly realized that all the girls in Japan wear sneakers with their cute skirts and dresses, so I blended right in. I would also recommend bringing a second pair of shoes with you each day (in your backpack) to swap into if the shoes you are wearing start giving you blisters.
• Masking
  • We saw a lot of people not wearing masks, but the majority of people still wear masks. I would say the ratio of people wearing masks to not wearing masks was about 80:20.
• Trash
  • As many have mentioned on this subreddit, due to the lack of public trash bins I would highly recommend bringing a reusable trash bag to store your trash while you're out and about until you can find a bin. We found these cool black fabric ones with a waterproof liner on the inside that you could rinse out when it got dirty and could clip to the outside of your backpack so it wasn’t with your other belongings.
• Restrooms
  • Due to the lack of hand dryers/paper towels in bathrooms we also brought hand towels as recommended, but found ourselves just air drying our hands way more often than using the hand towels as it was often more cumbersome to remove our backpacks and fish out our hand towels to use.

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Accommodations

• Sakura Hotel Jimbocho in Tokyo
  • I stayed in this hostel when I studied abroad in college in 2016, so it holds a special place in my heart. You can get a single room here for cheap, and although the rooms are extremely small, I don’t travel to Japan to spend time in my hotel so when looking for accommodations price is my #1 factor, not comfort. Toilets and showers are shared in this hostel and the rooms are set up coming off of a square hallway with sinks/restroom facilities in the center. The facilities don’t appear to be very modern and pretty, but the water pressure of the showers is the BEST. They have other room types as well, like bunk-beds, double rooms, etc. They have a 24 hour cafe downstairs and breakfast is included in your stay. All their staff speak English & Japanese (and other languages as well). They host some cool events like language exchanges and walking/jogging groups if you are more of a social person. I really enjoy the location of this hostel. You are within walking distance from the Imperial Palace and it still feels like you are in the city without it being so loud and busy like if you were to stay in Shibuya, etc. They do have other locations if you’re looking for somewhere with more nightlife.
• The Millennials Hostel in Kyoto
  • This is a really modern looking hostel in Kyoto, 2 streets over from Pontocho. The facilities are gorgeous and look brand new. They are set up similar to a capsule style hotel with a bunch of rooms coming off a hallway. Your bed takes up your entire space, and you have about 18 inches at the foot of your bed to stand. You pull an opaque privacy screen down to make your room private - there is no door. You can control your bed’s incline and lights through an iPhone in your room. There is storage space under your bed and on a shelf above your bed. Restrooms are shared but the showers are in one room and toilets in another. There are a lot of shared common spaces including a full stocked kitchen you can cook your meals in, but we literally only stayed here to sleep so we didn’t explore those spaces. I was worried about other guests being noisy but that wasn’t the case - everyone was super respectful. The price and location was great so I would definitely come back here.

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Daily Itinerary

Day 1 & 2: Travel

• We flew out of Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Our direct flight to Narita was around $1600 after taxes, fees, and flight insurance. I had one layover the last time I flew to Japan and in the future I will only be buying a direct flight as I found this to be way easier than having a layover.
• Once we arrived in Narita we turned on our e-sim. We chose Ubigi after reading many positive reviews on this subreddit and I highly recommend them. We had some issues getting iMessage to work despite following Ubigi's instructions to a T, so we ended up just using WhatsApp to message during the trip, however, iMessage did start working later on.
• We decided against picking up our JR passes & seat reservations at the airport because the line was long and we didn't need them for another 5 days.
• Going through customs/immigration and grabbing our luggage only took about 20-30 minutes. There were many staff to guide you and we found the whole process to be really smooth.
• We exchanged our currency and went downstairs to buy our tickets for Narita Express at a ticket vending machine. We got round trip tickets for ¥3460 (keep in mind that the return ticket needs to be used within 14 days). We had purchased our Suica before leaving and put them in our iPhone wallets and they came with a balance of ¥2000 so we didn't load money onto our cards until the following day.
• We took the Narita Express to Tokyo Station then took a cab to our hostel in Jimbocho. We each traveled with 2 checked luggage, so we found the short and inexpensive taxi ride to be a better option than lugging 6 giant suitcases on local trains to get to our hostel.
• We checked into our hostel. The total price per person for 11 nights was ¥49500 (about $380).

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Day 3: Imperial Palace/Ueno

• We woke up and walked to the Imperial Palace/East Gardens. We got there right when they opened and spent about 90 minutes there. We walked back to Jimbocho to go to my favorite tempura place in Jimbocho. This place has gotten quite famous since I was last there in 2016. We were first in line at 10:45am and by the time they opened for lunch at 11:30, there was a line of 20+ people. Our lunch cost only ¥800.
• After lunch we took the train to Ueno and spent some time in the Tokyo National Museum and Ueno Park. We also visited Shinobazu No Ike Bentendo Temple which is a cool temple right inside Ueno Park. While at Ueno Station, we picked up our JR passes & seat reservation tickets and also put ¥5000 on our Suica. We really enjoyed the fact that you could charge your mobile suica at a convenience store using cash - we didn’t have to worry about finding the machines in train stations with the phone holders.
• After that we walked through Ameyoko and did some shopping - I bought a super cute used Coach purse for around $65. Ameyoko seemed to have a lot more products than when I was there in 2016… but I also had more money this time around so maybe I was just paying more attention!
• We took a train back to our hostel to drop off our shopping bags and change. We took a train to Shinjuku to go to New York Grill for our dinner reservation. New York Grill is on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt hotel in Shinjuku and the views were incredible. We got the Spring Harvest 5-course dinner which included wagyu and it was easily the best beef I have ever eaten in my life - so juicy and buttery. The cost was ¥23100 per person (~$175).
• 25,138 steps on this day.

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Day 4: Shibuya/Akihabara

• We woke up and took a train to Shibuya to see Hachiko, go to the Starbucks near Shibuya Crossing, and shop at Shibuya109 and Uniqlo. It was hard for me to find any clothing that would fit me at the stores in Shibuya109 (I am a US 8/10 which is basically considered plus size in Japan) however I was able to find a cute t-shirt at Punyu's in Shibuya109 and two dresses at Uniqlo. I also bought sneakers at the Skechers store.
• I also went to the Mega Don Quijote in Shibuya and spent about $102 on candy and snacks to bring home. Lots of fun KitKat flavors here but it was very crowded and hard to walk around with my extremely full baskets.
• We took a train back to our hostel to drop off our shopping bags and had a quick lunch via conbini.
• We took a train to Akihabara and bought some souvenirs and gachapon, and walked all the way back to Ameyoko where I spent another $90 on candy and snacks to bring home.
• We took a train back to our hostel to drop off our shopping bags and change. We took a train to Ginza to go to Tempura Kondo for dinner (a Michelin starred tempura restaurant). We got the Yomogi dinner which was ¥23100 per person (¥25410 after fees, ~$195). The staff were amazing - they noticed that my sister was left-handed and set up her plates/silverware as such which was really observant. We loved the dinner, however there was WAY too much food for us; the staff recognized we were starting to get full, and asked us if we would be able to eat the next course which was ten-don. I was really concerned about being disrespectful and wasting food, so I was really glad that they noticed and asked!
• 19,445 steps on this day.

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Day 5: Asakusa/Ginza/Omoide Yokocho

• We woke up and took a train to Asakusa to see Sanja Matsuri. We shopped at the small souvenir shops on Nakamise-dori and had street food at the festival for lunch. I bought an awesome goshuincho here with a wooden cover and foxes on it.
• After being completely overstimulated, we took a train to Rikugi-en Garden to escape the crowds. This garden is a little off the beaten path, just outside the big city, but it is completely gorgeous and so worth the trip.
• After the garden, we took a train to Ginza to window shop and go to our reservation at Higashiya Ginza for wagashi & tea pairing. We had 5 wagashi paired with 5 teas that were amazing. It cost ¥4500 per person.
• After this, we walked to Mitsukoshi Ginza to explore the basement food floor and grab dinner. They start to discount the food as the stores near closing time, so going for a late dinner can save you a couple yen! After eating on their rooftop terrace which was beautiful, we walked to Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris Marunouichi to grab dessert then headed back to our hostel to drop off our shopping bags.
• After we ate, we took a train to Shinjuku to walk down Omoide Yokocho. We had a drink on the third floor of Bar Albatross - highly recommend! The alleyway is a lot shorter than I imagined, and very crowded as you would expect. I probably wouldn’t go back here in the future but I am glad we visited!
• 25,002 steps on this day.

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Day 6: Harajuku

• We woke up and took a train to Harajuku to visit Meiji Shrine and got our first goshuin.
• After visiting the shrine, we walked back to Takeshita-dori to get lunch at Afuri Ramen. They’re known for their ramen with yuzu in their broth and this was one of our favorite meals during our trip. We got there about 20 minutes before they opened and were ~8th in line. By the time they opened, the line was stretching around the building!
• We walked down Takeshita-dori and shopped, then went to our reservation at Mipig Cafe (mini pig cafe). This place was so cute! You can make reservations for 30 minutes or 1 hour where you sit on the floor and miniature pigs will come and sit on your lap. You weren’t allowed to pick the pigs up and the staff were super kind and handled the pigs well. A 30 minute reservation was ¥1800 per person.
• After the pigs, we walked down Omotesando and took the train to Shinjuku to get dinner on the food floor at Isetan.
• After we ate on the rooftop terrace (beautiful once again), we headed back to our hostel to drop off our shopping bags. We took the train to Shibuya to go to our reservation at Shibuya Sky. We got the package where you get an admission ticket including a 50 minute reservation for the sofa seats and a choice of a mini bottle of champagne or 2 beers per person, which cost ¥5900 per person. The views were unreal and I recommend reserving the sofa seats so you can get amazing pictures. This was a highlight of our trip.
• 21,719 steps on this day.

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Day 7: Kawaguchiko

• This was our first travel day. We woke up early to take the highway bus from Busta Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko. The bus was ¥4400 per person. We were able to get some super clear pictures of Mt. Fuji while we were on the bus and right when we arrived at the station.
• We bought the daily unlimited bus pass for ¥1500 which ended up not being worth it for us because we spent so little time seeing things on the bus route. First, we went to the Panoramic Ropeway. We got there about 15 minutes before they opened and there was already a really long line. By this time, Mt. Fuji was already completely covered in clouds but the ropeway was really cool and we still got some awesome panoramic pictures. They have a shop at the top where you can get ice cream and sit on some swings and take pictures.
• After the ropeway we took the bus back to Kawaguchiko Station to get on the train to go to Chureito Pagoda. The gnats here were INSANE. We climbed up the ~400 or so steps to the top and got some cool pictures as well as our goshuin.
• We walked back to the station and took the train to Fuji-san Station and walked ~30 minutes to Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine. The wooded walk up to the shrine is absolutely gorgeous. We got goshuin here as well.
• After the shrine, we walked and took a train back to Kawaguchiko Station to eat a conbini dinner, do last minute shopping, and catch our bus back to Tokyo.
• 19,374 steps on this day.

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Day 8: Kanazawa

• We woke up early to catch our 6:16am shinkansen to Kanazawa. Once we arrived, we bought the daily unlimited bus pass and took the bus to Omicho Market where we bought some souvenirs and food.
• We walked from Omicho Market to visit Ozaki Shrine and Oyama Shrine and got goshuin at both places. My sister realized she lost her wallet at this point, but a kind soul had turned it in to the staff at Ozaki Shrine!
• We took the bus from Oyama Shrine to Kenroku-en Garden, where we walked around, took lots of pictures, and sat down for lunch at a local restaurant.
• After lunch, we took the bus to the Higashi Chaya district where we shopped and took pictures.
• After that, we took the bus back to Kanazawa Station to catch our 5:57pm shinkansen back to Tokyo.
• 20,192 steps on this day.

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Day 9: Kyoto Day 1

• We woke up early to pack our overnight bags and catch our 6:21am shinkansen to Kyoto, where we would be staying for one night. We decided to keep our reservation at our Tokyo hostel because 1) it was super cheap and 2) we would be able to leave all our suitcases and belongings in our rooms for when we returned to Tokyo.
• When we arrived in Kyoto, we headed straight to our hostel to have them hold our bags before we could check in later that day.
• After that, we took a local bus to the Arashiyama area. It was absolutely packed with school groups and tour buses. We walked up Saga-Toriimoto Preserved Street to Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple where it was much quieter. We got goshuin and visited the small and private bamboo grove behind the temple. We walked back down Saga-Toriimoto Preserved Street towards Togetsukyo Bridge where we stopped and sat down for lunch then continued shopping along the way. I got lots of uji-matcha here.
• We walked back to Arashiyama Station and took a train to Kiyomizu-dera where we got goshuin, then walked to a small rooftop bar overlooking the Hokan-ji temple and pagoda and got awesome pictures and had dinner.
• After eating, we walked back to our hostel and checked in, then slept for the night. Our 1 night stay cost ¥5000 per person.
• 21,545 steps on this day.

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Day 10: Kyoto/Nara Day 2

• We woke up super early to check out of our hostel and head to Fushimi Inari. Our hostel held our bags while we went sightseeing for the day. We arrived around 6:45am which was so worth it - it wasn’t crowded at all and we got lots of pictures of the shrine and torii gates without any people in them. We walked for about 30 minutes up the mountain then headed back to Inari Station to head to Nara.
• Once we arrived in Nara, we spent some time with the deer then visited Todai-ji and got goshuin.
• After that, we took a train back to Fushimi Inari to visit the souvenir shops which had not opened yet when we had gotten there earlier that day. We shopped and got goshuin, then headed to Sannenzaka/Ninenzaka to shop. We visited Ryozen Kannon to get pictures (they had closed by the time we got there) and walked down Ishibei-koji Lane and Hanamikoji Street.
• After that, we walked back to our hostel to pick up our bags. We took a taxi to Kyoto Station to catch our 7:36pm shinkansen back to Tokyo.
• 27,861 steps on this day.

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Day 11: Tattoo

• My mom and I went to a tattoo shop near Shibuya to get matching tattoos on our wrists, then my mom spent the rest of the day shopping in Shibuya with my sister while I got another large tattoo on my shoulder.
• After my tattoo was finished, we all met up in Ikebukuro to get gyudon for dinner.
• 9,879 steps on this day.

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Day 12: Yokohama/Kamakura

• We woke up and took a train to Yokohama where we walked the Minato Mirai 21 area and shopped and had lunch at World Porters.
• After lunch, we took a train to Kamakura. First, we visited Hase-dera and got goshuin. I got lots of pictures of the hydrangeas even though they weren’t in full bloom yet.
• After that we walked up the road to Daibutsu and got goshuin. We walked back to Hase Station and took a train to Kamakura Station and walked the pedestrian pathway in the center of the road to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu. We got our goshuin and were able to observe a small part of a traditional Japanese wedding that was happening at the shrine, which was really cool.
• After that, we walked back to Kamakura Station and took a train back to Tokyo.
• We spent the night packing. I ended up completely filling my suitcases with my souvenirs and had to put even more in my carry-on bag.
• 21,131 steps on this day.

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Day 13: Travel

• We woke up and headed back to Senso-ji to grab our goshuin, since it was too busy when Sanja Matsuri was happening the week before.
• We took a train back to our hostel and checked out around 11am, then made our way to Tokyo Station to take the Narita Express back to the airport.
• We arrived at the airport with plenty of time before our flight so we could get last-minute souvenirs. I found a couple flavors of KitKat and Hi-Chew here that I could not find in Donki/Ameyoko - but I could not find Beni-Imo KitKat which is the flavor that I was looking for! :(
• We flew back to O’Hare and drove home from there.

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Trip Cost

• Total trip cost: ~$5462.73
  • Total spent before I left Japan (flight, JR pass, highway bus ticket, tattoo deposit, pay-ahead reservations, suica, car rental): $2562.73
  • Total I spent in Japan (souvenirs, snacks, accommodations, transportation, meals, activities/admission, reservations, tattoo): ~$2900

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Cost Breakdown

Airfare

• Total (USD): $1600

Accommodations

• Total: ¥54500
  • ¥49500 (Tokyo hostel/11 nights) + ¥5000 (Kyoto hostel/1 night)

Transportation

• Total: ~¥64470
  • ¥33610 (JR pass) + ¥4400 (highway bus) + ¥3460 (N’EX) + ¥18000 (local trains/bus) + ¥5000 (taxis - approximate)

Meals

• Total: ~¥88510
  • ¥40000 (breakfast/lunch/dinner) + ¥48510 (meal reservations)

Souvenirs

• Total: ~¥150000
  • Goshuin, charms, matcha powder, candy, jewelry, clothing, purses, shrine offerings, postcards, etc.

Activities/Admission

• Total: ~¥9800
  • Pig Cafe, tea/wagashi tasting, shrines/temples, etc.

Tattoo

• Total (USD): $604.66

Hello! Just curious to hear any words of advice or anecdotes from individuals in any kind of similar situation to mine.
I left my ex about 4.5 years ago due to DV (never reported anything to the police unfortunately). Ex and I split parenting time M-Th/F (me) and Th/F-M (ex). We didn't go through the court systems as he wanted to keep everything out of court, and I complied. In 2020 he took a job taking him out of state for three or four weeks at a time. I told him that he needed to give me some kind of child support as he wouldn't be providing any food/clothes/etc, to which he agreed and then sporadically paid me less than he'd said he would. I filed for child support in summer of 2021. In spring of 2021 my son told me some very concerning things his dad had screamed at him, so I called for consultations with lawyers to see if anything could be done (my ex would change emotion on the flip of a dime) out of concern for the kids emotional well-being. The lawyer I spoke with at the time said that since it was essentially hearsay from a 4yo there wasn't much that could be done in court.
In Dec 2021 my ex and his mother got into a screaming match in front of our children which ultimately resulted in him physically removing her from his home. They have since become estranged and she testified in court to this (more on that later).
In Feb 2022 my ex's girlfriend called me sobbing and related several occurrences of DV that had happened to her and verbal abuse to her 2yo son(she had been with him about four months at the time, already moved in, and was pregnant). We spoke for about an hour and a half, and the result was that she decided to file a police report, move out, and have an abortion. I sought legal council and the lawyer I found to work with recommended keeping the children from ex as there was no custody agreement in place and file for allocation of parental responsibilities, which I did in early March. Initially I tried to facilitate supervised visitation with me supervising, which resulted in him yelling at me and being otherwise uncivil on multiple occasions. I ultimately withdrew my participation in any of the visitations because of his behavior.
In May of 2022 he had signed up to go on a field trip with our son without my knowledge. Son ended up home sick with a fever of 102, father decided that I must have kept him home to keep him from seeing him on the field trip so he called the police to demand a welfare check. The officer stated that there was no reason for him to follow up, to which ex began to scream at the officer. After this phone call, ex arrived at my home demanding to see our son (my 4yo daughter answered the door unfortunately, I wouldn't have opened it to him). I explained son was ill. He begged and begged to speak with daughter for a few minutes on the porch. I relented, turned to grab my phone to notify lawyer of the situation, and in that space of time he took off from our home with daughter (no shoes or daytime clothes). This resulted in a filing for restriction of parenting time.
The restriction allowed for ex to have 2 hours of supervised visiting time at a local facility offering such a service for DV victims and communications only through an app. He had many issues with the facility, on one occasion being suspended for a week, or missing a few visits for nonpayment of their fees. He absolutely hated being there and asked almost weekly that I reconsider and give him parenting time outside of the center.
We did have a CFI report in 12/22 which enumerated a step-up parenting plan including DV treatment for ex. He enrolled himself in the classes and expressed interest in devising a parenting plan between the two of us. He filed to remove the restriction of parenting time, hearing date set out in July. He relentlessly pushed against the boundary of supervised parenting time for two months, in 2/23 (against my better judgement and without seeking advice from my lawyer, this is definitely my mistake) I relented and agreed to a few hours of time with him and his gf (the one who had pressed charges initially, she ended up back with him). We had devised a parenting plan, my lawyer drafted it up, and then in March or April ex decided that he no longer agreed with the plan and refused to sign it. I refused to make the changes he asked for.
We therefore needed to go to mediation. He absolutely refused to work with any mediator that my lawyer recommended. He caps-lock emailed my lawyer multiple times regarding setting up this mediation and was short with him over the phone. Finally we found a mediator to work with and had that session a few weeks ago. He showed up 15-20 minutes late to the zoom meeting and before the end of our first hour (we were scheduled for two) the mediator came into our zoom room and stated that he would no longer mediate this case based off of the other parties behavior. At this point, I realized that ex was most likely pushing boundaries and manipulating me to get access to the kids without putting in the work of improving himself substantially so I told him that we needed to return to the court order for supervised visits at the center. I reached out to the center, they reached out to schedule with him, and he refused to return there. He's now continuing to beg and plead that we continue with visits outside the center.
A few addendums:
-Once I told my lawyer about the visitation outside of the center, he was understandably frustrated (I didn't really realize the ramifications of this decision in February) and motioned for a stipulation to the parenting time to try to get things legally in place. After the failed mediation, I requested we withdraw this stipulation.
- Since having the court order child support, including over the past year, he has paid child support intermittently. I did have my lawyer put in a motion to modify as we both have different jobs and I've had full custody of the kids for the last year with no changes to child support.
I guess, my biggest question is, how does this likely end? The judge we will be before (yes, a judge, not a magistrate) has ruled on many DV cases and has sent people to prison without parole, my lawyer assures me that she will not particularly like my ex or be moved by his statements.
In the time since my kids have been back, their behavior has improved substantially. The first two days coming home from dad's house they would be so defiant and in awful moods (they were young, 4&5 when the restriction was put into place). My son has food sensitivities and this triggered his father, resulting in son tearfully begging me to not have to see his dad again. I think that he is still a shitty guy and I don't know that them having him in their life is really in their best interests. My question is, will the court understand that?
If you've made it this far, thanks, and any words of kindness are appreciated. I'm happy to clarify things, there has been so so much throughout the years that I could definitely be missing critical info.

This is mostly a trauma dump so here we go. Im writing this just to get the story out and to recall the main reasons i decided to breakup with him. I (22F) broke up with my boyfriend (23M) a month ago. I loved my boyfriend unconditionally for about 3.5 years. We went on dates, bought each other meaningful gifts, went on vacations together, etc. To give some context, before we started dating, my boyfriend was a previous drug user and self harmed but went to rehab. I looked past this with the idea that anyone can change if they try hard enough and want to change. His mom and I bickered from time to time but we had a mutual love for each other and over the years I felt that I was accepted as family by her and my boyfriend's sister. My bf was a bit narcissistic and from time to time made sexist comments - again something that I kind of looked past. We met through mutual friends and the first 6 months was absolutely incredible. We never disagreed on a single thing and already fell in love. Within these 6 months we opened up about our past relationships, especially the trauma from his previous gfs. Within the first year, issues arised with his exes. He admitted that his 2nd ex (we will call "R") was a bit of a nut case and has been emailing him trying to get his attention. I shrugged it off and just advised him not to reply (this is important for later). Somewhere in the 6 month - 1 year period I caught him texting his 1st ex (already forgot her name tbh). He was texting her planning to meet and catch up and they were nearly setting. When I read the messages he was drunkenly sleeping after a day skiing the slopes. I woke him up to confront him. He immediately got upset saying "Why are you going through my phone?" I replied with "Why are you texting your ex?" He tried to explain that he felt remorse and needed closure from how they left off. I responded saying that if he continues to text her we are over. He calmed down and began to apologize to me begging me to stay. This should have been red flag #1 but I shrugged it off. Everything was going pretty smoothly after this incident until about 6 months to a year later. I caught him messaging R. Same as he was with ex #1. This time I decided not to confront to see if he would continue. To my then relief, he stopped speaking to her on his own within the same week I found the messages. I tried to keep it to myself for as long as I could but I couldn't hold out any longer after some months and admitted to him that I read his.messages and how this hurt me. He explained that he loved me and that's why he stopped and never wanted to hurt me like that again. Flash forward about another year. We began to disagree on some things and he relapsed a few times which caused rifts in our relationship. We would argue over his drug and alcohol abuse every few months. At some point in this time he was gifted a car by his family for his birthday. He then proceeded to get black out drunk after his p.m. classes and totalled his car by hit and running someone ahead of him at an intersection. Many months following the incident, he always laughed it off saying it was just a stupid accident. I always got upset at thus because it could have been so much worse and he could have genuinely hurt someone. Luckily for him, he was never caught and no one was injured. This incident did not stop him from continuing to get wasted and he would commonly get drunk by himself in his room. Throughout our relationship he lived with his mom and sister. There have been many instances where he would get drunk and belligerent. He's sacred his mom and sister on a number of accounts. One day during spring/summer my bf, I, and 2 of his friends were hanging out in his room drinking a bit. I must note now, that I have not and do not to this day enjoy drinking much as I tend to get anxiety from being out of control of my own body and surroundings - I especially did not enjoy drinking with my bf because I did not feel like I had someone who would keep me safe and had a feeling he was a danger to me. The 3 guys managed to down nearly 1.5 bottles of wine each which caused my bf to get blackout drunk. By the end of the night, his 2 friends decided to go home and he wanted to lead them down the steps to the front door of the building to say goodbye. His mom was against this and told him to just say goodbye at the top of the steps before he manages to fall down the stairs and break his neck. He told her to "fuck off I'm a grown man" and went down. At this point, she was already tired of his shit and ran down after him. They got into a heated verbal exchange when she slapped him and he forcefully slapped her back. He then ran off a couple blocks away which I then stupidly decided to go looking for him with his friend who lived nearby. We eventually found him and brought him to his dad who then just shrugged it off. This should have been red flag #2 because of what happened I believe to be the following summer. On his mom's birthday, we celebrated at his dad's and step-mom's house and then walked back to his mom's house which was just a few blocks away. At the celebration he, as usual, drank too much and blacked out. His dad was also and alcoholic who would push my bf to drink with him at events like this. While walking back to his mom's house, he wanted to go buy weed from his friend nearby which I told him was a bad idea because he was already shitfaced and didn't need anything more. When we got back to his house, we got into a heated argument and he began calling me all sorts of names. I proceeded to slap him when he got up, grabbed my throat, and threw me on the bed and began choking me. He laid over me, choking me until a ran out of air and flailing my arms trying to get a hit in. He finally released my throat and continued to belligerntly call me names and threaten me. I wanted to go home but his mom begged me to stay as I was crying and told me I can sleep in her bed and she sleep on the couch. Hesitantly I agreed and a night of agony ensued when he kept trying to wake me up to apologize. Later that morning I forgave him and decided to just move on. I began to blame myself for hitting him first - if I wouldn't have hit him first maybe he would've never hurt me yada yada. After some time things have died down and we eventually went on a vacation together with 2 of my friends and had a pretty good time. After the last incident though I began feeling less attracted to him and our sex life began to crumble a bit. He began to argue with me every time I refused having sex with him and would get verbally aggressive. Sometimes when I was adimant that I did not want to have sex, we just force my clothes off and have his way. I eventually started to just give in and just let him have his way so I wouldn't have to deal with the constant nagging from him or potentially just forcing me. Last summer the final red flag hit. This is a good time to remember his previous messages with ex #2 or 'R'. We had tickets to go to a music festival with some friends. I bought the tickets so that morning I was helping him set up his wristband for that day. I needed his phone in order to access his emails so I could get the link for setting up his wristband. The first email I see when I open the app is an email from R and his response. She emailed asking how he is doing and how she would like to catch up and that she missed him. I already can't remember what his response was but when he saw that I saw the email exchange he immediately apologized but said that he still felt bad with the way they left off and wanted some closure. I decided I didn't want this to ruin my day as I've already prepaid nearly $300 per ticket for the festival. We continued on with our day and had a great time at the music festival. I look back now realizing how many opportunities I had to break up with him for good reason. Since last year I have began to consider breaking up with him. My own sister (36M) and other relatives (even his own mom!) began telling me that I should consider breaking up with him. I took their suggestions seriously but ended up kind of shrugging it off. The last few months, my sister began to really try to press that I should break up with him already. (Side note: I love my sister and have always looked up to her so I always appreciated her suggestions and opinions) I have been looking for the right time to break up with him now. I kept thinking that the day will come, the perfect day. I kept being told that it will never come and I just need to rip the bandaid off. At this point I have also become a bit distant with him and wouldn't cone over as often (I would typically sleep over almost every weekend and come over throughout the week). Last month on a Sunday I came over after being at my sisters house. He wanted to have sex so as usual I just let him have his way to avoid any nagging. It was at this point - my breaking point - that I decided that I will never do this again. I will never let him force me into sex again. I will never let him put his hands on me again. I will never argue with him about his drug and alcohol abuse again. The following day, Monday, it came - the perfect time I was looking for. I ended work at 5p.m. and I knee he would be ending work at around the same time but he would be home later as he worked much farther. At work, I pumped myself up telling myself that I have to do it, just do it. So I did. I went to his house around 5:30 that day. I told his mom and sister what I was about to do although shocked they understood completely. We had our hungs, talked our shit about him, and said our farewells. When he came home I finally did it. With tears in my eyes and a stutter I explained to him that I want to break up and why. "I just don't love you the same anymore - I love you as an endearing friend and not a significant other" He put up a fight trying to talk it out but eventually he let me leave. I already took my things before he even got home. I ran to my car and cried because the last 5 years are over. All the bad memories gone... and the good ones too. A month later I am happy to say that I am doing well for myself and have enjoyed spending more time with my sister and my friends. The weight is off my shoulders. I recently found out that he now applied to a trade school so he could become an electrician and started running again. Although it hurts to know that he decided to start doing the things he said he was gonna do years ago but always put off now that we have broken up. It seems that this break up may have been good for the both of us. Maybe now he can start heading in the right direction and I can find love for myself after everything that's happened in the past 5 years. I still deeply care about him and hope he does well for himself. And I hope I can eventually find myself a motorcycle riding, car loving (like me) man of my dreams.