Update (March 11, 2026): After years of doing nothing, I finally got the blog site up. Here is the link: https://ckshobbies.wordpress.com. It has a new name. That site will not be updated as much as here, so do not expect much. More information is on that site if you are interested.
Original Post below
If you go back to my old posts (& I mean WAY back), I had written about how I would find a new home for my original site CK’s Anime & PSP Games site. If you are new here or don’t want to look up some history, here’s the gist of it. Basically, my old/original site keeps getting taken down due to free web hostings going down or out of business. As a result, I need to keep finding a new home for the place & reuploading my pages while relearning on how to use certain programs/apps to do it.
After many months (or years to be precise), I decided to give up & turn it into a blog site instead. Finding a new free web hosting site & relearning the process of using it is too much time & hassle. Although the main goal of doing the site originally was to learn about making websites, the standards & tools to make sites evolved so fast that it became too complicated for my small brain to keep up. Once I kind of got the hang of using 1 tool, it becomes obsolete. When I try to learn the new tool, another one pops up. Plus, I got stacks of CDs that haven’t been opened yet.
On my main site, I got a section called CD Scans where I had scans of the CDs/DVDs cover, booklet, & inserts. To make the scans look good, I have all these CDs (& probably more laying around somewhere else) unopened for a long time. Which leads to another hit for me: the loss of a scanner. Because I got an old all in one printer & Mac, I couldn’t use the machine anymore cause it wasn’t supported with the newer OS. Buying a new scanner just to scan CD stuff is just a waste of money & I’m not making money doing these sites.
Basically, it’s just too much work to start again & lose it later on. I should just cut my loss & make it a blog instead which is pretty much what the internet runs on now. The contents will be transferred to the blog & reformatted to fit the blog format. It will not be on this blog as I will make another one just for it. I want to keep the 2 different & adding everything here will fill too much space. I will put more information about it on that blog later on the future & mention the link to it in the future.
Making this a bit quick as I’m doing this before going out for a dinner meetup.
As I was continuing my Mac Mini update setup (yes, I know that a M6 version is coming very soon, but prices today & the noticeable power difference between M6 & M4 isn’t too big for a normal user), a new keyboard was in consideration. When Rakuten had a 25% cashback for Aliexpress, I decided to buy a keyboard that I was researching on.
This is the Nuphy Air 75 V3 keyboard. I got the white version for a clean look & the blush nano switch for the quiet sounds. There is a lot of up & downs about this keyboard, but there was enough positives for me to get this. I got no time to try it today, but I’ll see if I can use it sometime this week.
Bonus haul! Along with this keyboard, I got some other stuff as well due to the large cashback. One of those things is this.
A tempura plush clothing for 10cm dolls. Why did I get this? To do this:
So as I have got my Mac Mini & Dell monitor all set up, I was going back & forward on whether to get a new keyboard & mouse. As I was debating on this & doing research, I came across this mouse somewhat on sale at Amazon. Price was decent, so I decided to buy it.
This is the ProtoArc EM11 Pro mouse. It’s a vertical mouse that is suppose to help reduce wrist and arm fatigue. As I do have issues with my arm, I decided to try this out. It does feel weird holding it, but somewhat natural. However, using it is a different story.
The gripping on the mouse is a bit too smooth as it feels slippery as I use & hold it. As the EM11 Pro is designed for large hands, it is somewhat a tad large for me. There is the EM11 NL which is for small to medium hands, but I went for the Pro version. Aside from half more functions and works well for macOS, I didn’t want to risk getting getting mouse too small for my hand. I usually wear medium gloves & sometimes they can be a just perfect fit. I feel large can be a more relaxing fit. This mouse does feel a right without my wrist or pinky dragging the table. But it will need some time getting used to.
However, I’m running into problems using it on my setup. It is causing interference with my Bluetooth speaker setup. I’m currently using 2 Sony SRS-XB12 speakers in stereo format. It is causing some cutting/drops. My Magic Mouse 2 didn’t cause this issue, but I assume because it is on an older Bluetooth device on an older version as well as the speakers. I switched to 2.4GHz mode & it seems to have solve that problem.
Going to have to use this mouse for at least a couple of weeks as suggested by ProtoArc in order to get used to. Hopefully I will like using it & feel less pain.
I have 2 computers that I use. A Mac desktop & a Windows laptop. The laptop is a Lenovo that I brought almost a year ago from a Black Friday sale. I don’t use it much as it’s my secondary computer. I mainly got it to help me get back into Windows properly & in case I need something that requires Windows.
My main driver is MacOS & I have been using it on an iMac. However, the Mac that I have been using is Intel-based from 2017. Although it runs fairly well when you boot it up, it gets laggy very fast. I don’t have much running on it. Aside from running Firefox on it with around 10 tabs open & a cheap steam deck I got from Temu, it just drags. It drags so hard that I get frustrated at times of waiting for it to load or wake up from sleep mode. Main reason is the 8GB RAM.
Because of AI now, the minimum requirement for RAM is 16GB. With YouTube running as 1 of my open tabs that takes up the most resources, AI is pretty much running on everything & making my computer slow. Because of the slowness that is driving me crazy, I have thought about getting a new iMac. But I dragged it for so long as my iMac is still technically good that I finally made a move.
This is Mac Mini with a M4 chip. Although there is a OB sticker meaning Open Box, this is actually a refurbished computer. I brought this off the Best Buy Marketplace & the seller is OpenBox. They said that this is refurbished & the condition is “good”. I assume this is below the “like new” condition. As new Mac Mini M4s are hard to find (aside from my nearby Apple store) due to people buying them before the price increase, I managed to find this one at a good price. It has a 512GB SSD & cost me the price of a 256GB model at a slightly cheaper price from the current market.
When I took a look at the physical condition, it’s actually not bad as I thought. It’s like brand new. No scratches or dents. I was prepared to find a body decal for it, but I guess I don’t need to now. But performance is another thing. Since I can’t use my iMac as a display due to Apple changing the system from 2014 & on, I need a monitor in order to see how this mini runs. So I have brought one and waiting for it to be shipped to me. I have no problems getting refurbished items as my current iMac is a refurbished computer too. Since things don’t last forever & will get replaced eventually, most refurbished items don’t bother me much if the price is right.
I have thought about getting an iMac originally as the mini was not on my mind. I figured getting another iMac is cheaper than a mini as I need to get a monitor for it. Plus, I’ll have another item sitting on my desk. But having an all in 1 computer would be problematic. If the monitor or computer itself only broken down, I would have to throw out the whole thing. That happened to me with a previous iMac. The monitor was fine, but the GPU (I think) died. So I figure to go with the mini. Plus, the customization on it is better than the iMac.
Although costly right now since I have to start everything from scratch, this is probably the best method in the long run as the M4 is suppose to last very long. The M1 chips are still powerful today from what I heard. I just hope that this mini will last me longer than my current iMac. But I can’t use it now until I get my monitor.
You know the drill. See Ado stuff on Mercari via Doorzo? Like, buy, & pay!
So, these are acrylic keychains from the Ado X Adidas collaboration. Basically when you buy an official Adidas Japan soccer jersey, they randomly give you a keychain. I don’t think these comes in blind packaging.
I think this comes in a set of 6. Half of them are Ado & the other half are actually Japanese soccer players of the FIFA 2026 squad. There are 3 different sets, but they mostly have the same images.
So from the left is Ado in the Japan Samurai Blue jersey, then you have the Japan away jersey, then lastly you have the Ado from the Kira PV. The Kira one is the rarest one from my experience. I rarely see it for sale.
Because they are kind of like bricks, you see some sort of double image with the Samurai Blue & Kira ones. It’s basically a flat image sheet sitting at the bottom in the rectangle block which creates that multiple image effect.
Originally I was iffy on these keychains & preferred the other sets. But after getting these in my hands, these are actually pretty nice. Since these are acrylic, these will be prune to scratches easily. So I need to figure out if I will actually use them as keychains or put them on display instead.
Anyways, more Ado stuff? Nope. Not for a while I think.
Ado is quite popular. So popular that she has a lot of stuff that fans can purchase. But when you stop & think about it, you realize it’s a lot of crap. She had a frying pan for sale. I guess a lot of dumb fans like me would eat up a lot of stuff. Like the stuff I purchased from Mercari via Doorzo.
So, these are acrylic keychains from the Ado X Adidas collaboration. Basically when you buy a Japan soccer jersey, they randomly give you a keychain. They come in a foil package so you won’t know what you get. This is common with stand Ado products that are blind selections.
There are 12 types in 2 different sets of 6. Half of them are Ado & the other half are actually Japanese soccer players of the FIFA 2026 squad. I know what I brought & it is the 3 Ados.
So from the left is Ado in the Japan Samurai Blue jersey, then you have the Japan away jersey, then lastly you have the Ado from the Kira PV. These keychains are smaller than I thought. When I saw pics of them, I thought they would be bigger. Big as the usual Ado keychains. But these are surprisingly small. Not hating, but it was pricey to get some of them as each one cost me about 1500 yen. There are sellers out there that are selling them around the 5000 yen range which I now think is insane.
After a long experiment on online dating sites & deleting my accounts, I figure that I should not bother with them. Lately every time I go into my Facebook, I see a lot of ads on the side about stuff like dating. Feeling curious what they are, I tried one of them. Clicking on the ad & going through some “filtering” questions, I ended up on a site called SakuraDate. Putting very minimal stuff on my profile & getting access, I took a look what’s there.
As one would expect, a lot of female profiles to look at. Because I left my age requirements from 18 to 99, I got to see everything. However, I found myself getting letters & chat messages from a few females from the age range of 25 to 61. I got so much than what I had from all the online dating sites on my experiment combined. I can’t really see what the difference between letters & chat message is. Both can send messages both ways. Only difference I saw was putting a “like” to someone’s profile in the chat message.
The messages I got are very strange. One I got was asking me if I was in Canada right now so we can meet up. Another was asking what type of woman I’m looking for in some poetic fashion. It was all over the place that doesn’t seem to match up the character of some of the sender’s profile. I got one asking me if sending nude pics was acceptable.
What’s more mind bogging was the use of English. It’s too perfect for someone born & living in Asia. By the way, SakuraDate is kind of misleading. You would think Japanese, but the site is actually all of Asia which includes the areas outside of Russia.
This lead me to a lot of questions as I had 2 females constantly messaging me through both chat & letter. But a 61 woman sends me the most messages with pics & videos of her that isn’t found in her profile page. I found this really strange as SakuraDate makes money on messages sent.
There is no membership tier. It’s all based on a credit system. Sending a message on either on chat or letter costs credit & it’s not 1 credit per message. It’s a fairly large number & the site gives you 20 free credits to start. Credits is also used to view pics or videos. It’s also used for opening letters. But these actions didn’t remove any credits from me personally.
The cost of using credits range from 10 to 50. So, 20 credits can only send 2 messages. If that is the case, why do these females send so many messages to me when I don’t reply a single one back to them? Wouldn’t it cost them a lot of money as they would be probably sending messages to other people besides me?
Seeing some reviews about SakuraDate, it’s mostly negative. The biggest part is the the credit system & how people have spent hundreds of dollars on it with no results. Another problem was the girls themselves. People are reporting that they are not real as the girls are always online 24/7. In other words, AI. Also, the pics & videos are said to be stolen somewhere off the web where some of the girls are saying that they didn’t register to SakuraDate. Seeing all this, I decided to try something.
With a bare profile that only shows my location, username, gender, my search for a woman, & age, I decided to add something that would confirm who is talking to me is real. It’s something off topic & based on the current meme happening right now. I wrote that if they want my attention that they should write “Hatsune Miku Custody War” in their message. That’s it. If a real person read my profile, they would write that down in their messages. Since we are in a “Japanese” dating site, this is something that they should be familiar with.
Surprisingly, the number of random women messaging me dropped significantly. Very close to zero. From almost 3 a day to nothing. The only one still messaging me is that 61 year old woman. But her messages doesn’t have my Hatsune Miku requirement there. So, the one behind the pics & videos is not real. Possibly AI. The other women from past messages have stopped & I haven’t got any new ones lately.
So, moral of the story: You are pretty much certain that you will not find anyone on SakuraDate that is real nor have a connection with unless you want to talk to an AI. But there is a number of free AI girlfriend apps out there that you can use instead. Saves you a lot of money.
Although I switched to Doorzo for my Japanese proxy shopping needs, there may be times where I would use CDJapan’s proxy service if I can something cheaper that way. A combination of coupons & points can make things cheaper as it wipes out the fees & probably lead to a discount. So, I decided to use CDJapan for my next Ado purchase from a Mercari seller. However, I should have waited a bit since the price was a bit high which later came down a few days later. But I think I made the purchase due to a coupon expiring.
Coming from Ado’s Ao 2026 concert tour, this is Ado Stay Indoors! plush keychain pouch set. This is a fairly recent release, so there are no worries in getting fakes.
This is basically an Ado Birthday Commemoration Type A plush shrunk down in size with a slightly new pose. Her right arm raised up & her left hand holding a megaphone. The pouch is basically used to carry Ado around in even though you can carry Ado herself with the ball chain. The pouch is suppose to reassemble a closet where she makes her recordings. It even has drawings of it being a closet inside the pouch. Hence the Stay Indoors! label.
When this was first put on the reseller market, prices were fairly high for this set. It is possible to get Ado herself, but the pouch isn’t sold separately. Although prices have come down a lot (I overpaid an average of 2,000 yen with the current reselling price), the set isn’t very cheap when comparing to buying the keychain itself. The set was resold on the official Ado web store with a late August shipping date for 4,800 yen, but order placement have stopped.
Although I admit it is kind of cute, this plush keychain almost looks similar to the good fake Type A plushes out there when you look at her face. There will probably be some fake versions of this out soon. As I am currently working on a Real or Fake posting on my second blog site for the Type A plushes I have, the fake keychain will probably start hitting the market when I publish my postings.
If you were watching the Fifa World Cup this morning between Brazil versus Japan, you will know that Japan lost. In Japan, Ado & Adidas teamed up where she was working as the creative partner for the national jersey “Horizon” theme. Now that Japan goes home, wearing one of their current jersey during the FIFA tournament won’t be ideal. But what can you do when you use a proxy shopping service & have it shipped from Japan?
This is the Adidas replica Japan home jersey for 2026. The Ado collaboration version. Although it has the #24, this number isn’t really reserved for her. That number is (or has) been used by Kaishu Sano, the midfielder that scored for that round 32 game that will probably be well known for awhile. The reason why Ado has 24 is because of her birthday October 24.
Football fans of the Japan team would say that #24 is suppose to be Sano. You can’t really get away from the name “Ado” to “Sano” due to wear. You could say the “S” came off, but you can’t change a “N” to a “D”. But you have to ignore the extra add ons thought. I hope that people know #24 as Sano & not Ado.
If you are wondering, I brought it at a reseller price using Doorzo. I got this before it reached double the retail price. I got it about over 3,000 yen the retail price. I brought this when this was just about to release for sale as new & hasn’t reached “sold out” status yet.
The jersey is basically the replica version (not the performance) with a higher price tag due to the Ado collab. If you get something like this in a bag & are not sure if you are getting the Ado version, you will need to look for the product code.
The Ado version has the code KN0769. Although you cannot get this jersey outside of Japan, some people will just get the replica version & try the Adidas personalize request to put the number 24 & name Ado. I have heard cases where Adidas would reject that request. But some have gone through. Probably because the employee looking at the order doesn’t know about Ado. I assume the ones that get rejected is due to employee following some sort of Adidas restriction.
Now that I look at the colour name, I’m a bit surprise with the first 3 letters. Usually this is considered an offensive slang to the Japanese.
By the way, I got a Japanese size M. Unlike the other Japan jerseys sold internationally, this follows the Japanese sizing system. In this case, this is equivalent to US size S which is what I wear. I haven’t tried it on yet, but it should fit. But the slim fit design might pose a problem.
What makes this is a special edition aside from Ado’s name & number is 2 images. The back is an image of Ado in the Horizon jersey & the Ado trademark on the front. As this is my first football/soccer jersey, I’m not too familiar with the materials.
The name & number lettering has a smooth feel. The 2 extra images looks like they have been ironed on due to the rough feeling. Kind of like those DIY iron-on emblems that you iron on yourself. It makes me nervous how to wash this jersey without having the images fading out.
Although I do like the jersey’s original design, I think that the Ado add-ons is a kind of lazy attempt. Even if it was Ado’s idea, it’s a bit too simple. Once FIFA ends, that will probably be the time to wear this as it looks street wearable in my view.
Next are these acrylic keychains. These were given out randomly with purchase of a Japan jersey from retail stores. There are 6 in total & I think you don’t get to choose. Out of the 6, 3 are Ado & the others are 1 of 3 Japanese players from the 2026 squad. The middle keychain is the home jersey that is the same image as the Ado jersey. The left one is based on the away jersey & the right one is from the Ado PV Kira, the official uniform anthem song.
With Japan going home, I wonder if all of their FIFA stuff will reduce in price in the reseller market. So far, I didn’t see any price drops yet. Or at least massive drops.
So enough on the length Ado X Adidas stuff. What other regular Ado junk did I get?
A bunch of keychains are coming up next. First is a reflective keychain that was sold to Ado’s Doki Doki Fan Club members during the Ado Live 2022 – 2023 tour. Since it is reflective, I plan to use this on my main car fob. Although used, it reflects okay in the dark.
Next is an Ado rubber strap that was from a Taito prize item. This is type E out of the set of 6. This is the pouting version. Although it say 2,900 yen as the price, I got this for 827 yen before Doorzo coupon usage. This was sold by Japanese second hand retail chain Suruga-Ya, which is part of Mercari. Originally thinking of using it as a keychain, I may have to rethink this after seeing that thin strap.
Aside buying this & the previous keychain above, I also got this from Suruga-Ya.
This is a mini cushion Ado keychain that was sold from Ado’s Zanmu Pop-up store. This is bigger than I thought. I wanted to use this as an actual keychain, but this is too big for that. Gonna have to display this instead. Looking at this used item, it looks pretty clean.
Also from Suruga-Ya but from their auction page, I got this Ado puppet. This was sold during Ado’s Mona Lisa tour. Even though this is used & a bit pricey than the other listings I saw on Doorzo, this was the safest bet in getting an authentic one.
As Suruga-Ya is a big company, they cannot risk taking & selling counterfeit products. They have to have some sort of team that checks if the products are real or not before receiving them. The Ado puppet doesn’t come with a tag when it was originally sold officially from my understanding; which makes this hard to determine if it’s real or not. Better to let it to a big retail company instead. But I might a Real or Fake posting on my other blog page for the heck of it.
For an used item, I was concerned about the condition as plush dolls tend to get dirty easy if not cared for. But it looks good & doesn’t have a foul smell. However, this puppet has seems to be used a lot as the plastic bag seal at the bottom has lost its adhesive strength. It does seal, but not too well. From my experience, buying an second hand item from Japan is not bad. They tend to be very close to new condition.
Lastly, this is an Ado Birthday Commemoration Type A plush. This time, IT IS REAL! The Mercari seller that I brought it from said so in their listing! But in all honestly, I decided to give this one a shot. It was more expensive than the one that I first brought by 6,000 yen, but I do think that this one is real. It has a lot of the things to look for that would make this real.
I’m currently working a Real or Fake posting for the first one that I got & I may include this one in that posting as an in hand comparison. When I look at the 2 I have side by side, I can really tell the difference now. Although this is used according to the seller, it has never been removed from the bag as the seller said.
And that is the last haul of the month of June. What’s coming in July? You don’t need to be a genius to know what’s next based on the trend here.
This Ado craze of mine is really getting the best of me. So much that I’ve become a shopping addict to her stuff. Knowing where to get her stuff now, I continued to look for more. But I’ve came across a different proxy shopping company & decided to use them.
CDJapan has a proxy shopping service & they charge some fees. They charge a standard fee of 1,200 yen to use it & 300 yen for each listing that you purchase from. This new company that I’m using now charges between 50 to 300 yen for each listing; depending what you are buying. That’s it. Plus, they have a bunch of coupons to use & they appear quite frequently. Not only am I saving 1,200 yen using this company, but some more with the coupons. This company is Doorzo.
Not only that Doorzo can help make purchases on Mercari, but also it’s sister auction site & more. You can also buy directlt from Japanese online retail shops like Amazon Japan & more. Best part about it, you can make the purchase right away. CDJapan takes 1 to 2 business days & that is risky if you come across something at a good price that could be sold out immediately. Aside from that, Doorzo has a lot of services that got me switching.
But during my shopping spree, I might had came across something that I shouldn’t have brought. But what did I buy though?
This is Ado Usseewa from the Big Plush series by Taito. This is the open mouth version. This version tends to be on the pricey side, but I got this one at a fairly good price. However, I don’t know why her boots are turned inside out. I did see the seller pics like that & never thought about it.
Fixing them I noticed how the boots were made & can’t believe it was done that why. Checking my closed mouth version as well & I see that they are done the same way. The boots are done where the back side doesn’t go up. It’s like it has a slit there by design. I guess to simulate the back side of a real boot.
Although it is used/second hand, this plush is in fairly good condition. Also, I realize how bad the workmanship is when I look this plush & the closed mouth version in detail.
Next is an Ado Birthday Commemoration Type A plush (?) I think…. This is the plush that got me concerned. When I heard about fake stuff being sold on Mercari, I was surprised. A Japanese site with sellers located in Japan selling counterfeits? Almost unheard of for me, but it’s there.
Because this plush is super popular, there are a lot of counterfeits. As I checked other listings, I did see fakes & couldn’t really tell what’s real anymore. The more I look at mine’s, the more I think it’s a fake. Although I paid a “good” price for this Ado, it was still a lot of money & I had to paid duty fees for this.
After getting a possible fake, you would think I would learn my lesson & stop shopping. Unfortunately, this old man’s brain can’t learn new stuff & kept going. Which means, MORE INCOMING!!!!
In case you are not familiar with FIFO, it’s mainly a term used in business (mostly in accounting). It stands for First In, First Out. So the first thing that comes into inventory or warehouse is the first one that goes out. In my case, this is the first item that was shipping from Japan via CDJapan, but it wasn’t the first one to arrive to me. In theory, FIFO doesn’t really apply here since it was shipped differently. Just felt like saying it here.
Using CDJapan’s proxy service for the second time & starting to get hooked on Ado, I decided to buy this plush from Mercari.
This is an Ado plush from her Hibana tour. More well known as Nadeshiko. If you have seen all the Ado hauls that I got up to now, this is actually the first Ado product that I ordered & started that purchasing train. I have seen pics of this plush, but she is smaller than I thought. Since she was sold for, I think, 2,000 yen originally, it is expected that Nadeshiko is this small.
Anyways, this is plush was only available during the Hibana tour at pop-stores at concerts & the official Ado web store. Although a high price plush, it’s not too hard to find. It’s a matter of finding a good price. And finding a real one. It was later that I learned about fakes being sold on Mercari. Even though the sellers are from Japan, I was surprised to hear fakes being sold. Selling counterfeits in Japan is a serious crime.
Because of that, I was concern that I got a fake due to the low price. Usually you can spot a fake easily due to extremely low prices, but there are some sellers that sell very good looking ones at slightly than lower market prices or the same range. Thus, making it tricky to spot fakes if you aren’t carefully or knowledgeable.
I did start a Real or Fake section on my second site with another Ado plush which is the Usseewa closed mouth big plush. I will do one with this Nadeshiko too. Probably in its packaging though since I’m trying to figure out where to put her. I don’t want to take her out of packaging until I know. Plus, if you do plan to buy a Nadeshiko, she would most likely appear in a plastic bag in a seller’s pic. Better to make a comparison this way.
Besides, Nadeshiko doesn’t stand upright. Tried it in her plastic packaging, but she face-planted herself.
On my main site, I got a section called CD Scans where I had scans of the CDs/DVDs cover, booklet, & inserts. To make the scans look good, I have all these CDs (& probably more laying around somewhere else) unopened for a long time. Which leads to another hit for me: the loss of a scanner. Because I got an old all in one printer & Mac, I couldn’t use the machine anymore cause it wasn’t supported with the newer OS. Buying a new scanner just to scan CD stuff is just a waste of money & I’m not making money doing these sites.
CK's Blog (or second site) 