FOREO Luna 2 for Oily Skin Review (but I have combination skin 😮)

Alright, I'm aware that the Foreo Luna2 is probably an older model now that there are newer models out there, but I wanted to write about it as there wasn't enough information online at the time of purchasing.

I was a user of Clarisonic before they literally crapped themselves in the Australian market (I don't really know what happened, but stockists no longer stocking their brushes made me panic). In fact, because I couldn't find anywhere convenient that sold their brush heads, I sold my Clarisonic on marketplace for a really really cheap price. Not only that, it was a pain to clean, and I had to charge it at least once a week. Their brush heads were also poor in consistency as there was always a random strand or two that were extra long.

It was close to my birthday last year in 2019 and after having a child I really had no time to tend to my skin as most of my time went to looking after a baby. I was bored out of my mind, and found my Clarisonic - and to my dismay with all of the above, I made the decision to sell it, and invest in a Foreo as there were a few benefits at the time that while I was sceptical about, seemed a good idea at the time.

Advantages of Foreo:

• No brush heads, ever, so less on going costs, better for the environment
• Easy to clean, made of medical grade silicone
• Instructions say you only need to charge once every 7 months which is and sounds a m a z i n g
• USB charge so you can take it traveling
• Has a facial massager on the back/ massage mode so that you can combat fine lines and what not
• Comes in 4 different types for different skin types
• Cleaning mode has a timer so you know you're not washing your face too fast/ you can clean your face thoroughly without over cleaning it
• Waterproof, though the charging point/ hole gets me really paranoid about it filling up with water
• Comes with a travel pouch and USB charger cable, though it's the pouch is not waterproof and pretty basic

Disadvantages of Foreo:

• A bit hard to hold, like the button is pretty hard to press
• No such thing as a pause option (for instance you need to turn the machine off and restart it if you want to continue cleaning mode, otherwise it's like on> cleaning mode> pause > massage mode, so you cannot choose which mode, it's more like a "skip" button)
  
• Expensive to purchase (I think I got this one for about $179 AUD which is pretty expensive considering that are some el cheapo knock offs though I cannot vouch for their quality)
• If the brush part breaks, you can be sure to throw your money and machine into the bin (though we're not at this stage yet)

Now I was really cheapo at the time and a particular retailer had this particular model on special, and it was cheap compared to its normal retail price. In other words, only the Oily Skin Model (which comes in this aqua-ish teal colour) was a bargain. Problem was, I have combination skin, and I searched everywhere on Google if I could use this machine targeted at oily skin, on my combination skin. I got no results, to no surprise.

Well the answer is, yes, you can. But your skin does get a bit dry - so that's why I only use it once a day. If you have normal skin I think this one is also okay, though you might experience a bit of dryness. It's only OK because I saved a buttload of money buying this particular model. It's not okay however if you have dry skin though, the bristle parts have different designs for different skin types, for delicate dry skin, get the correct one.

I saw a huge improvement in my skin. My husband commented that he wanted a Foreo too. I told him the price and I saw him slowly walk away backwards and he never mentioned it again.

The massaging tool on the back is also quite good - I think it does actually work, but because I am too time poor, I usually skip using it and make sure I press the skip button to "off" after I finish washing my face, so that I don't waste any precious battery charge. There were some instructions somewhere telling you where to target and how to use it properly. The massage mode is probably a tad too long (or if I am not mistaken, there is no timer in massage mode, so you will need to turn it off without getting carried away).

The battery charge DOES live up to expectations. I purchased in May 2019 and I charged it in December 2019. It's now October 2020 and I still have not charged it again. Take note I only use this in the mornings, as I believe using it twice a day will probably make my skin too dry.

One of my main concerns was the brush part of the machine, as it is all built in and cannot be replaced. To my joy, the unit is well made, and high quality so the bristles are probably going to be here to stay for a good decade, unless you pick and pull at it (but why would you?). 

They also sell a Foreo cleaner (the white spray bottle in my photos) separately for about $12 or $13AU and it is sold separately. I would recommend getting it, because it makes cleaning super easy (you just need two sprays and your thumbs), and it gives you peace of mind as it probably is some sort of antibacterial cleaning agent. It is safe to use on silicone, so if you have other items (for instance, my mum has a silicone massage ball she uses for her hands), you can use this spray on them without worrying about damage.

Overall I am pleased with this product, and it seems like a worthwhile investment. If I was given the chance to, I'd probably buy the CORRECT one for my actual skin type - it'd probably give me better results. At the same time though, it was a bit of an experiment, and you can use it, though I don't really recommend it 100%. But the product lives up to expectations if not more, and I can see myself using it for a long time. Worth the money, delivers results, and fits well into a busy lifestyle by making things convenient and time efficient, especially with charging the battery.

Do you have a Foreo? Or have considered getting one? Let me know in the comments if you liked it as much as I did, or if you believe that their website needs more information to explain their products more. I mean, their products are great and are well designed, but I don't think their website information does it justice.

Yours,

I was not commissioned or paid to write this review, everything in this post only reflects my own personal opinion.

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5 Myths Debunked! on Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Some ideas thrown out there online are so wrong they're not even funny bad.  

1. Hitting a villager, complaining to Isabelle and fencing them in makes a villager want to leave

Absolutely false and a waste of time. Firstly, hitting a villager only makes them upset, and they get mad. Under no circumstances is it even funny - and if you find it funny, I suspect there are other games out there that suit you better... like GTA.

Complaining to Isabelle about a villager's way of speech or about the way they dress was always something strange in my mind. When I first started out I had no idea what it was even for, and I complained about Octavian about the way he talked because he was quite rude ("Don't go knocking my stuff over" - excuse you!). I then later only realised that it was because some players might have a second resident on the island who may have taught villagers a catchphrase - inappropriate or not - that the main player may not have wanted. Complaining about attire is only useful for removing custom designs (best when you have never gifted the villager clothing), and will only temporarily reset in-game outfits (like that horrible lacy red tank that Beau kept wearing as it was a gift from Raymond to make up for some silly argument - I never delivered any presents after that).

Last but not least, villagers actually have some kind of funny superhuman tele-transporting powers... so even if you fence them in an area, such as their home, they will spawn elsewhere on their island. So it doesn't matter. Save your time. Let them roam. They did nothing wrong so please don't keep them a prisoner in their home.

2. Isabelle's daily announcement about having good luck means it's good to bury 99K bells in a glowing hole

A lot of players have actually mentioned and tested out this theory... it's only Isabelle's luck. And it's not guaranteed. Sometimes it works... sometimes it doesn't. For me, the only fail proof way to get a good amount of bells is by selling turnips. I'd just save the money trees for decorations, and I only bury 10K to get a guaranteed 30K growing on the tree.

3. Wearing a certain set of clothes will make your chances of encountering a certain villager easier

This is really the luck of the draw. I think this method works in a limited way (for instance, I wore a chick backpack and looked like a kid and got Molly the duck... and when I wore blue I would encounter blue villagers... and red I got Ketchup...) but in the end it doesn't really mean anything.

If anything though, I think wearing a custom design does help scramble the data a bit and I significantly get almost zero repeats when wearing a custom design. But I think you're better off just resetting your cache and restarting the game if you are getting lots of repeats. I still don't have any recommendations on what to wear though, because what you wear = what you encounter is still largely unproven.

Or maybe I shouldn't really say it's a myth, and would classify it more as superstition instead, if that sounds better.

4. Cataloguing gold tools means you won't get them

So there was a time if you catalogued goods from the mermaid set and Pascal would not give you the DIY for them - pretty sure that was patched, but I've read so many stories about best friends unfriending each other because they believed that by cataloguing (in other words, "owned/ had in your pocket at one stage") a golden watering can, they would tick off the Nook Mile Achievement and say bye bye to ever having the golden can recipe. Huh?

Yeah, even that sounds farfetched. No, you will eventually get the golden tools, and cataloguing them doesn't make it easier or harder or affect your progress at all. You just unlocked the Nook Mile Achievement sooner, and that's it. So relax, if you win a set of golden tools or a friend lends you a golden tool to use, it won't affect anything.

5. You can control turnip prices, somehow

I think this is a really big myth because a lot of players seem to ask the question "what am I doing wrong because the Nook brothers are never offering high selling prices for turnips?"

The answer is nothing.

No feng shui, nothing will affect your turnip prices - it's all to do with luck. However I have noticed that usually you do end up with a high price (by this I mean over 500) usually when you have not purchased turnips - but this is again, the luck of the draw. 

The game was intended so that you make lots of friends, or visit other people's islands to sell your turnips. The game never intended so that you buy turnips and sell them on your own island (that's a gamble). Selling your turnips elsewhere each week at a decent price is guaranteed if you put the time and effort into it.

And on a related note about myths and turnips in regards to time travel, you can only travel forwards (but not past a Sunday), and never ever backwards - if you ask me, I wouldn't time travel at all, because the game, again, is all about chance - so nothing is definite in this respect.

What other myths have you heard in regards to Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Let me know in the comments below, but these are just 5 I keep coming across.

Yours,

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How to obtain villager photos on Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I have read a lot of "guides" and watched videos about obtaining villager photos - it was all super confusing at first because I had no idea that there was such a thing in the game (yes, try playing the game organically as I did at first, with minimal online reading... it gets daunting). Even after reading a whole heap, I still didn't understand what was going on... hahaha. Well, here's a guide for dummies... or at least I'll try to cut out the unnecessary stuff, because it was too much information in one go.

Basically someone did an experiment or looked into game data (I'm not too sure how), and figured out what actions would add bonus points to an invisible friendship meter. Look, I can care less how many points is equal to what, but I can tell you what you can gift them (foolproof), and when to expect a photo in return. I think if you think of it this way, it will make your life easier.

But firstly though, the question is do you wish to keep your villager ungifted?

An ungifted villager means they do not have anything extra or changed from their original interior of their home, and no other clothing apart from their original default set of clothing (ie. their favourite outfit - they also have their own training, rain and seasonal outfits, but these are default if you do not gift them clothing). Usually ungifted villagers are desirable as they are almost as good as picking them from a mystery island, and you can get a good number of Nook Mile Tickets from another player if you choose to go down this avenue. 

Some people might argue that you if you really liked the villager you wouldn't care if the villager was gifted or not - true, but for a classic example like Julian's lovely zodiac room, some players had massive regrets gifting random things like a "we're open" neon diner sign which replaced his lovely furniture, starry garlands missing from the wall, and well, you get the idea. For my personal experience, I tried super hard to get Ozzie's photo, and his house was a complete mess and I really felt sorry for the person who invited him when Ozzie was in boxes, because his house was destroyed. In hindsight, you do not need to gift them that much to get a photo. And as such, I keep my villagers ungifted, and if I do gift them anyway, it's clothing I want them to wear (not clothing they like - there's a difference).

Things villagers like to receive, regardless

This is a fool-proof, no-brainer list that will guarantee a return gift that is an item of clothing, furniture, or a photo.

• Non-native fruit, wrapped - I usually wrap two or three together - you can shake a tree and wrap whatever falls from it, or you can organise a stack of two or three in your pocket and wrap it - whatever is easier for you
• Coral, giant clams, summer shells, gold nuggets - wrapped.
  One wrapped is enough for the gold nugget as it is high value. For the others you can just wrap one, or you can wrap a stack of two. It really depends on what your mood is.
• Large assessed fossils, wrapped. What I mean by large is when you place the fossil, you can see it has a wooden base. If it's a tiny lil rock like a trilobyte, they have a chance of displaying these, so I'd say no.
• Furniture, wrapped. I try to avoid gifting furniture, as I do like to keep my villagers as ungifted as possible. You also do not need to gift them furniture, as the above three are pretty much free and don't require bells to purchase. If I do gift them furniture, I try to gift them a door wreath in their favourite colour (just as a reminder, a gold or blue rose wreath is worth 20K bells and make for a great gift if they like yellow or blue respectively... try avoiding the cheaper wreaths such as the stick wreath,  but all flower wreaths are OK), 2.0x2.0 piece such as a hearth (DIY furniture I think is better than non-DIY furniture), or like a double bed (especially if they already have a double bed in their house - gift them the same one they have) - and they will not display it. But having said that, if you gift too much furniture, they have a certain amount of storage space and will start dumping their furniture... so their furniture starts disappearing.
  A lot of posts online suggest gifting iron wall lamps... which is all good because they don't display them, but they probably will start getting rid of their furniture...
• Gold roses, wrapped (though they will display them)
• Flower/floral crowns in their favourite colours, wrapped (though they will wear them)

Not all villagers like the clothing you gift them. Even if it's in their favourite colour or style, they still might umm and ahh.

Now to understand how to get a photo, you must also understand the mechanics behind what kind of conditions forces them to return an item, with the chance of it being a photo:

• The gift must be of a certain value, and something they like
  So yes, that cheap 600 bell tshirt from Ables will NOT warrant a return gift
  And maybe that 1200 bell shirt from Ables might get you bells in return
  But if you gift them something 4800, they will never gift you bells back, and you will always get an item in return, such as clothing, furniture... or a photo
  As such, my list above of what they like, always will guarantee they gift you an item of clothing, furniture, or a photo. They will never gift you bells, and they will mostly certainly not give you nothing.

• Your friendship has hit a certain level, and if it's your first photo, the chances of getting a photo is about 10%
  Usually if they ask you to buy something from them, ask you to play a game, ask you to change a catch phrase, or have a flea on them, you have a good chance that your friendship level is adequate enough to warrant a photo in return.
  But this 10% chance does not mean within the next 10 days you have 1 day of getting the photo... it means every day you have a 1 in 10 chance of receiving it. So it could take FOREVER if unlucky (looking at you Ozzie, it took me maybe 3 or 4 months). 

Ways to speed up getting a photo once your friendship level is adequate:

• Full pocket fruit stack method
  I fill up my pocket with three stacks of non-native fruit, with the rest of my slots as sticks or other strange things so I can combine them and get an empty slot if I need to gift someone who is crafting (I hate it when they force me to take DIY cards and need an extra slot).
  Gift your villager with a fruit from that stack of at least 2 (they will only take one, and it will not be wrapped, doesn't need to be). They will offer to send you a return gift in the mail.
  Usually I find this method more effective to getting a second photo, as they disregard a certain number of presents they receive before issuing a second photo. Some players find success in this method if the first photo takes too long.
• Time travel
  You can travel back and forth, or a day at a time, and gift your villager(s) every day. So you can gift them a weeks' or more worth of presents in a day... if you have nothing else to do (which is my case, I've finished terraforming, I am only waiting to finish my critterpedia and I don't do turnips). It really speeds up the process super quick.
• Force close game and reuse a chance
  If you're not a fan of time travel, you can gift your villager, and if the return gift is not a photo, close the game without saving, reload and gift again - and repeat the process until you do get a photo. The advantage is you stay on the same day. The disadvantage is that your friendship meter does not progress as you have not loaded a new day each time you restart the game. HOWEVER this method comes in handy sometimes.
  For instance, I rarely do this, but I did this once as I had Francine at my campsite, knew that Ketchup was almost at the stage of returning a photo (the rest of my villagers either came after Ketchup or are permanent residents). I didn't want any other residents to leave, other than Ketchup. So I gifted her and closed the game every time she returned something that was not her photo - a few times. I was lucky on my third attempt Ketchup gave me her photo, and I saved the game after hanging her photo on the wall. After saving the game you can repeat this process with another villager, if you meet the conditions for a photo and want it ASAP, otherwise you can leave it for another day (which I did, as my villagers usually move in at 1 week intervals from each other, so I'm in no rush for a photo from my newer villagers).
  After I received Ketchup's photo, I was again very lucky that Francine picked Ketchup on the first attempt... so I moved her out.
  Had I rolled another day, Francine would have been gone from my campsite.

After I had established the above gifts, it usually takes me about 2-3 weeks to get a photo (faster because I time travel). On average I move a villager out one every week or two weeks, because I want to rotate a few slots to get more villager photos, and have one I can "move out any time" in case I get a good camper, like Francine (I'm aiming for an almost all rabbit island, and it was the first time I had ever come across her, and I've been playing for about 6+ months). When I first started, I would usually gift them stuff that I got from other villagers (mostly weird clothing and furniture), and stuff I obtained from balloons. I mean, this is all understandable, because it's just whatever you have in your pocket at the time.

Over time though, most of the clothing is junk (because I will never wear it and it clogs up the storage - I mean, why should I gift my villagers something even I wouldn't wear?), so I just sell it to the Nooklings and order it if I ever really do need it. If you're struggling with bells, you'll need to step up the turnip game, which I might write about in another post.

And that's all it is for obtaining villager photos! It takes patience, and a bit of luck. What I do is I usually hang my photos in my upper storey wall, in order of when I received them as a hall of fame. I then save the game. Never ever go to Nooks directly after receiving a photo in case you accidentally sell it as you cannot reorder photos. Stay safe!

Yours,

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Catalogued Posters no longer available to order through Nook Shopping (October Update) Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Hey guys!

I wanted to talk about posters. For the Halloween update introduced in October 2020, one thing players noticed was that any posters that were catalogued are no longer popping up in search results in the Nook Shopping section. A lot of players were frustrated and upset because some players spent a lot of time and even Nook Mile Tickets cataloguing these posters, and now they are gone. 

Is it a glitch? What happened?

Well there is good and bad news.

The bad news is, according to some Japanese players who have emailed Nintendo, is that the ability to catalogue posters in itself was a glitch - and to obtain posters, you would have required the villager to have lived on your island, and take a photo of them at Harv's Island OR you have their amiibo and scan them in at Harv's Island. This actually makes sense, because any posters obtained other than through Harv's Island had to be searched up, and do not appear under the Special Goods/ Posters tab of Nook Shopping.

I need to remind myself that as soon as I get a new villager, I need to go to Harv's Island to take a photo of them. I have been rotating my villagers out really quickly lately, to the point that I keep forgetting to take them to Harv's. As a result, I don't have Bones' or Ketchup's poster! I have a physical copy of Bones' poster, but that doesn't compare to the option of being able to order his poster whenever. I'm a bit bummed, and my theory that I'll remember to take them before they move out hasn't really worked for me, because I have barely touched my Switch lately, as I don't have many tasks to complete now.

The good (and bad) news is that Nintendo has released a new lot of official amiibo cards for sale, and they are available in a lot of places, including Australia. I myself jumped onto the bandwagon, because I want to buy it for the fun and to have them as collectibles (never saw myself being this obsessed with this game, but I'll take it for now).

Why I say it's for "fun" is because each pack is sealed and the cards inside are random... I'm going to have to cross my fingers that I don't get too many repeats.

All 4 series are going to be available in Australia on the 20th November 2020. Looks like you can leave a partial deposit now (I ordered about 2 weeks ago and paid in full, as at the time the only option was a 100% deposit). 

I'm pretty excited and I'm eagerly waiting for them because I don't have amiibo cards right now, and this would be fun! I'm so happy I will have the choice to rotate any villagers out without worrying about losing them if I manage to get their card.

And that's it! All that's left is to wait. And err... my husband has NO idea I've bought these... but then again he buys random stuff all the time - haha.

Have you placed a pre-order for the Animal Crossing amiibo cards yet? Can't wait!

Yours,

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Ethically and Effectively Getting Rid of an Unwanted Villager in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

 

There are so many articles out there with guides teaching you how to get rid of an unwanted villager. I must say though, with some new updates being patched it does seem a little more difficult, but it can be done - and I'll write about how to do it - effectively.

Ethically though - I'm not sure if this will reach my intended audience, but I'll throw it out there anyway.

Please stop hitting your villagers with nets, giving them rubbish, pushing them around, pushing them into pitfall seeds, complaining to Isabelle and fencing them in. You might find it "enjoyable", or a good way to vent/ release frustration over that you perhaps didn't get to choose this villager living on your island, but I wanted to say it is not nice. And that's just saying it in the nicest way possible. Just because it's a game, it doesn't give you a licence to be a bully. 

And in case if you didn't know - doing all the above doesn't do anything.

Moreover, it applies in real life - someone might not look nice, but they can be your friend. You might not agree with me, but the game is designed so that you will eventually make lots of animal friends - you might not want to play this way and that's fine, but you need to understand it's a goal or achievement to be friends with these animals - another goal (though it is probably personal at this point) is to collect the ones you like. But there is never harm in making a friend.

Having said that, this is why the game has a reward for being besties with these animals, in the form of them gifting you their photo, which is a wooden framed collectible you can place on a surface, or hang on the wall inside a home. I know a lot of people buy these photos and collect them - I've had plenty of chances to get these from other players, but I never took them as 1. they are not catalogue-able 2. I get a better sense of achievement when I have actually earned the photo, as proof they have stayed on my island.

You don't need to gain their photo before letting them go, but if I had the chance to, I would, because as soon as they offer to sell you stuff from their inventory, they have a chance of gifting you their photo - and it doesn't really take much to get to that level. I'm not really here to judge or tell others how to play their game, I'm just trying to explain the way the game works, and to respect why it was designed that way. 

Alright so there are three ways to effectively get rid of a villager.

1. Using an amiibo

An amiibo is essentially a card or coin with a chip inside with the data of a villager. In other words, it's like having a particular villager you want, physically in a card. After you have unlocked the campsite, the Nook ATM will have the option to call an amiibo to the campsite. You will need to scan this amiibo on your Switch, and you talk to the villager at the campsite. You need to do this three days in a row.

Again, you need to do this three days in a row. If you time travel, you can simply skip to the next day, and do this for the three days you need.

On the third day, they will ask you to craft something for them (if you don't have the DIY recipe, they usually will give it to you, so check your DIY app), and when you give it to them, they will agree to move in. They will also then ask you who you would like to be replaced - with the condition you already have 10 villagers (if you have less than 10, you will need to buy a plot, so the amiibo replacement method only works when when you have 10 villagers), so this is a very quick, 100% guaranteed method of getting rid of a villager. It is also a 100% guaranteed method of getting the villager you want (with the exception of the villagers without an amiibo).

Advantages of using an amiibo:

• 100% guaranteed
• Quick
• Collect a genuine amiibo card released by Nintendo (if you go genuine)

Disadvantages of using an amiibo:

• Costs actual money to make unless you have an android phone and can do it yourself
• Cards are random (if issued by Nintendo), so it might cost quite a bit of money unless you get a bootleg one or program it yourself
• You cannot go island hopping as it is a straight replacement
• You cannot replace your villager with a villager without an amiibo
• You cannot replace your villager with another villager in boxes

2. Using time travel

Time travel simply means changing the clock on your Switch to a different time or date, and restarting the game so that you skip some time. The reasoning behind time travel is that the game is programmed so that a villager usually asks to leave every 2 weeks or so. With this reasoning, skipping 15 days is pretty adequate for this purpose, and if it's not enough, you add a day on at a time, until you find someone who wants to move out. Simple enough? There are a few factors that can complicate things. Your newest villager will never ask to move out using this method, and, you need to have talked to said villager a couple of times before (so you cannot just ignore them and never talk to them), 

Advantages of time travel:

• It's pretty quick. I mean, you don't need to wait the actual 2 weeks, so you can boot whoever you like, whenever.
• It's effective, when luck is on your side.
• You can go island hopping or invite a villager in boxes to your island when your plot is empty

Disadvantages of time travel:

• You end up with loads of weeds, but can be useful
• You cannot boot your newest villager (though some users say they have been able to, though I have never encountered my newest asking to leave, so I still stand by my original thought that the newest cannot be booted via this method)
• It can be time consuming and tricky

Ready to time travel? Make sure you don't have any turnips:

• Save and close your game.
• Skip forward 15 days, and set the time to anywhere between 12noon-4pm, as this is the time most villagers are outside of their house
• Start the game
• See if there are any bubbles over any villager. If there are none, roll forward a day, until you find a bubble.
• Look for the villager you want gone - if they are out and about with a bubble, that's great, talk to them, let them go and save the game. If it is a bubble but they are not thinking about moving, close without saving and roll forward a day. If they are at home, close the game without saving, and roll forward a day. If it's someone else with a bubble, close the game without saving and roll forward a day. If a villager comes running towards you happily to give you a gift or talk to you, close the game without saving and roll forward a day.
  
• It is important that you find "Moving out day", meaning that day is the day someone wants to move out. Once you find this date, you roll back and forth.
• As soon as you find "moving out day", you close the game without saving, roll forward a day, look for bubbles again, and if none, close the game without saving and roll BACK a day to "moving out day", and the bubble should transfer to another villager. Note that after a series of updates, I find that usually the bubble stays with a certain villager maybe two or three times (unlucky but it happens), before you get it over another villager
• Sometimes "moving out day" gets maxed out - as in, there are only a certain number of times someone will want to move out. In this case, "moving out day" usually rolls to the next day or the day after. So for instance, if you have been rolling between the 9th and 10th, you might need to check the 10th and 11th, if not the 11th and 12th.
• If it's raining, a weekend, or there's an event, roll to the next day or Monday, whichever is the closest with two weekdays attached.
• CONGRATULATIONS if you manage to get rid of the one you wanted gone! And remember, when you let the villager go, remember to save the game!
• If you want to time travel to speed things up, I suggest only going forward a day at a time, and fill your plot first, and ensure your new villager has completely moved in before time travelling back to the actual/present date. I have read some very weird stories about inviting villagers just to have the game glitch and have someone else move in, so do it a day at a time.

And last but not least, some villagers are SUPER STUBBORN and will NOT go. I time traveled for a whopping three days (not in game, but in real time) to get rid of a villager and she will not go. She never had a bubble, and it was getting beyond ridiculous. She had been on my island for ages, and while I really liked her, it was time for her to go. So you might need to consider the last method...

3. Replacing your villager with a campsite villager

This might require a bit of time travel, and luck - lots of it. While doing method 2, I usually check if there are any campsite visitors (Isabelle will mention it when you load the game). I usually check if it's someone I want, and if it is, I take my chances.

Advantages of using the campsite method:

• It's free and you don't need to use any Nook Mile Tickets or amiibos
• Adding onto point one, if you are missing a particular personality on your island, your campsite is more likely to give you villagers of said personality, and may give you a villager who doesn't have an amiibo eg. Raymond, Dom, Judy so it saves you a lot of woes hunting (though this really just boils down to luck)
• You have the chance of booting your latest villager as they are not immune
• You can boot that very stubborn villager who never ever seems to have a moving out bubble
• 100% guaranteed... eventually

Disadvantages of using the campsite method:

• You might not get a camper you really like, and need to time travel lots if you're picky
• You don't get a chance to go island hopping if that's something you like, and you cannot invite a villager in boxes
• Winning the game takes a lot of time and chance if you're not lucky

Playing the games with a camper is fairly easy - even if you don't win the games, if you pester them long enough, they will eventually agree to move in as they get flattered with your persistence. When they ask you who to replace, it's the same old reasoning - close the game without saving and restart the game (do not change the time, unless it's almost 5am, then stay within that day but go earlier as the camper disappears after 5am).

• Do not say yes or no to a villager you want to stay.
• Any name you don't want to see, exit the game immediately and restart.
• Keep asking the camper to stay, until they mention the name you want, then you say YES.
• Save the game as soon as you get the right villager out.
• Optional: time travel forward a day at a time until your camper has moved in (to ensure game does not glitch), before going back to the actual/ present date. Usually I try to get my villager in boxes adopted before I attempt any time travel.

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Mistakes making a Japanese-themed Island on Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Making a Japanese themed island is almost a no-brainer when it comes to Animal Crossing: New Horizons as there are so many Japanese themed furniture and items in the game. To throw everything into the mix, there are also many custom designs you can use to jazz up your simple panels, signs and stalls. You can choose an ultra-urban setting, or you can also choose a natural or even traditional vibe. But there are a few mistakes you may be making - or not notice you are making. Are you guilty of any of the below...?

1. Not understanding the signage

A little bit of Japanese used in signage looks amazing and there are so many talented custom designers out there who have uploaded their custom stall designs and whatnot available at your Ables Sisters' Kiosk. You might go a little overboard and save a whole bunch of them, and then use them and place them around according to how you like them looking (be it in terms of colour, or variation). Unfortunately a lot of players are a bit guilty in the respect that they can't actually read the language and end up doing something like putting a bamboo steamed basket set with a stall labelled "fruit". *awkward chirps*. Yep.

It's probably a good idea to make sure that you are using the right signage and placing the correct items so that you don't do it "for the sake" of it. If you really want to have a Japanese stall, please do a little bit of research (ask if you need, there are heaps of social media platforms to do this, and a little bit of help is always available!) so that you don't place the wrong items.

2. Mixing Japanese items and oriental furniture set

I'm a little bit particular when it comes to furniture sets, but oriental is most definitely not Japanese. I mentally flip tables when I see on Facebook people suggesting Pekoe as a great "Japanese" villager when she is clearly a Chinese bear. Some items are appropriate, but not all are. For instance, the oriental screen is one I would be reluctant to be using for a Japanese theme as there are so many screens you could use instead. Another item I wouldn't use is the dining table with the lazy susan on top. That's definitely a yumcha table, and that only really belongs in one section of your island- Chinatown. Otherwise, if you are doing a Chinese theme, you can place it everywhere.

This is the same when it comes to outfits and music - please think twice.

3. Less is more

I know we all get excited when we have a million furniture items we'd like to place, and it looks really amazing and bustling. But apart from the first glance, what else? Maybe I'm not really an advocate for clutter-galore, so you can feel free to disagree, but when I see a takoyaki stall I don't really want to see a random traditional tea set on the table for the sake of it. The tea set and takoyaki really don't go together. It's a bit like putting a lobster at a mini diner to resemble a KFC. Okay, that was farfetched, but you get the gist of where I'm headed.

4. Not understanding the original intended usage of the item

Possibly an extension of #3 and #1 above.

While I haven't seen anything too bad yet as an example to give, the bamboo steamer is probably the game's biggest culprit as it is shaped more as a yumcha/ steamed buns steamer basket, which is something used more in Chinese cuisine than Japanese. I sold all my steamer basket sets once I decided on a Japanese theme as they literally did not belong anywhere on my island.

All the rules above actually do apply to any themed island really, but as a Japanese theme has cultural obligations, "inspired" to me just isn't really enough. You will need a solid cultural understanding rather than just a mentality that it 'looks good'. I'm not Japanese myself, but I do get a little low key offended when I see mistakes that fall into the above categories. I think I don't like to have cultures generalised as one lump - each country has their own set of customs, to assume or assimilate them lacks a bit of sensibility, and is a little insensitive to me.

Having said that, this is a laid back game and you are all free to do whatever you want, but if you do choose to centre an island on a cultural thing, please do a bit of research, use stock photos or Google maps even, and these can all be a great help so that you are on the right track.

Have you been guilty, or have similar thoughts, but perhaps for a different theme?

Yours,

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My second life on Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Hello everyone! It's been a while.

From about the end of March 2020, I got sucked into a black hole otherwise known as Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

For those who are a bit confused as to why this could possibly be relevant to my "Tokyo Time" theme, it's because the game itself has a lot of Japanese themed items. I have a background in design, and it just all made perfect sense for a bad gamer like myself to play a game you cannot possibly suck at. It was almost, and probably is, the perfect game to recreate a Japanese retreat - because I can't travel, I can bring it in a virtual setting and visit (or in this case, live) there.

At first, it was all confusing, and it was all via the instruction of a rather daunting raccoon by the name of Tom Nook (as tanuki is the Japanese word for raccoon), who would boss you around to give him (eventually) a rather obscene amount of money in a currency called "bells", to upgrade your humble tent to a two storey house with basement, and fragments of your soul to labour away and collect materials to build two shops and a museum.

It all seems quite boring, but it's actually kind of fun. You can play as little as you like, or as much as you like, and it really appealed to me because it was just that my kind of game.

The first three weeks were enjoyable for me, albeit lonely, as I didn't have any friends to play with. It was just me, churning tasks to earn Nook Mile Points, redeeming them for Nook Mile Tickets (NMT), and heading out to mystery islands to farm tarantulas that were in season at the time, and to collect various materials my island was lacking.

After the three week point, my husband told me that his high school friends were actually playing too, and eventually we directed the conversation to Whatsapp, and I was added into a Whatsapp group, dedicated to the game.

I quite impulsively purchased a Nintendo Switch Online (NSO subscription) so I could fly to different islands and visit others, and my game completely changed from there. I was promptly given the fruits I was missing, and my new friends were all amazed at how much progress I had made, as most of my time went into designing my actual island. I only then realised my friends all lived in rather bare and disorganised islands, as most of their time went into purchasing turnips (a form of a stock market in the game), and selling them in queues, so financially, they were all much wealthier than me. And here I was, still visiting mystery islands, hoping to return with a bagful of tarantulas to make a pretty penny.

I won't go into too much detail because there are literally so many things to discuss about the game, which I will write about in future posts - but getting an online subscription really changed my game so much.

I'll update my blog later on posts such as:

• How to make bells on Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• How to get villagers moving out
• How to get villager photos
• Custom Designer App

Who else jumped onto the Animal Crossing: New Horizons bandwagon? I'm still playing every day, though I admit not as long as I used to (I've finished my island, so it's just only changing my villagers, getting any seasonal DIYs and receiving villager photos. I have about 4 or 5 things left to complete my critterpedia, so there's not a lot left for me to do...). 

I'll be back real soon with another post. Thank you for reading!

Yours,

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