truthfully, i don't keep all of my izaya merch all together ... because i have too many to fit in any one room. ;; so i keep most of it in my bedroom, but it's begun to spill over into my other room. in a way, my bedroom is kind of an izaya itabeya at this point lol. that being said, on izaya's birthday, i will bring all my merch together to take cute photos, so i'll showcase the growth of my collection that way.

the first time i did this was in 2019! humble beginnings... as in, really humble.

actually, this photo was taken before my first triannual izaya obsession, when i was still mainly hyperfixated on persona, so i wasn't super focused on collecting izaya merch at the time... i was still normal about izaya at this point in time. of course, i am currently writing this for a page within an entire website dedicated to izaya, so this obviously did not end up lasting.

in 2020, just one year later, my collection had grown quite... a considerable amount. despite this, i had actually run into a few issues with this setup. considering this was may 2020, and the pandemic was at its peak, a lot of stuff was getting closed down and suffering major delays... international shipping from japan included. there was a package of izaya merch i had just paid for about a week or so before his bday, and i had wholeheartedly anticipated geting in time, and then japan post issued an announcement about stopping/delaying shipments to america among other countries... i was so heartbroken. regardless, i was very happy and excited to do this setup. i went out and got a cute pink tablecloth just for the occasion. my corkboard was so barren though... it's kinda crazy how much of the cork you can still see. (lol)

honestly, despite how small this shrine was, i still really like the pics and how it looked... mostly because i still had a small enough collection to actually fit in my room. ☠

i actually didn't do any shrines for 2021 or 2022... at the time of his birthday during both years, i had been hyperfixated on other things and i had lost sight of my true calling... (that being said, i was very very pleased when all of a sudden they announced shizuo's bday kuji in 2021! i was hoping for an izaya one, and sure enough, i was blessed... i pulled on all of them btw.) of course, i was made very aware of this in late 2022, thanks to my emo phase returning after 8 years...

...and in 2023, i returned to my beautiful angel wife... 💖

i was supposed to order a cute cake from a place i had found in town. but there if you look closely there are no cakes in these images!!!! that is because just a week or so before izaya's birthday, i got my first job... which was overnight... which meant i didn't have any time to go get anything. 💔 i also had a package i shipped out really close to his bday, except this time, it came right on time! it included the izaya china kuji poster you see by the lightstrip... i really like that poster. 😊

and the towel on the couch(the one w him getting stabbed)!!! my god i yearned for that thing for YEARS. i was so happy to finally have it. as in i could not stop staring at it. (it is hanging up on the wall right next to my desk as i speak)

the one good thing about me working though was that i got to use all of my paycheck on izaya merch!!! so when i went on my break at 2am on may 4, i ran to my car, drove to the whataburger next door(i was hungry), and did a ten pull on the izaya bday kuji in the drive thru line... i was treating myself🙏 i did not win any of the s tier prizes that year unfortunately.

i was very proud of this setup, not only because i spent so much time putting it together, but because i managed to do it while also working what was basically full time overnights...but of course, izaya's birthday this year also happened fairly recently. so i had a setup for that as well.

if last year's setup was me going all out, this was like...well, i don't have a good analogy, sorry. but i went past even what i did last year.

I was so excited for this year's setup. And I know I say that every time I do these, but seriously, I was so excited. Last year, I did it in my other room, which is nice, but I like doing it in my bedroom because of the cute pink walls. I had just got a new desk too, so I wanted to use it to showcase all the little things. You can see my photocards I made in the second photo... hehe... along with my three itabags... I use the pink one as my normal bag when I go anywhere, but I love the other two as well... during the semester, I use the big one as my laptop bag. ^_^

I also finally had to get a second corkboard! My favorite things to collect are badges so I'm super happy with the first one... as for the setup itself, I put most of it together within the span of 2 days. Er, well, I did a ton in the first day after a sudden rush of inspiration hit, but then I got too exhausted and had to continue the next day. This setup was a lot harder than the last two, because I had to move a lot of stuff... the empty space beside my desk where the two tables are at is where I have this Ikea shelf thing that holds my detolf, so I had a lot of fun moving that onto the other side of my room. And the balloon poster...if you look closely, there is gap between the walls there. That is because the entrance to my bedroom is right there. So to get in and out of my room while this was up, I had to crawl under the tables and pick up the poster... needless to say, I took that part down pretty quickly after the photos.

And then there was this year's kuji... first of all, my god. That chess illustration. I'd like to maintain a somewhat family friendly persona on this website, so I won't be going into detail about my feelings on it, but just know I stare at it a lot.

I guess it was partially because of that illustration, but this year, I did more pulls on the kuji than I have ever done. I don't know what came over me. I was possessed by some sort of demon (Izaya). But it paid off. Because on May 12, 2024, I pulled an S-tier prize from a Durarara kuji for the first time.

This year's prize was being able to select from a pub mirror of the three illustrations. Of course, I had no difficulty choosing which; I wanted the chess illustration on my wall. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of the tapestries. But I did get like 3000 dupes of each charm and badge. So... I'm not sure what I'll do with all those. ;;

At any rate, that's where it ends. I'll hopefully be able to make a bday shrine next year as well... though, my room is getting too small. I don't know if I'll be able to fit everything in here by next year. Let's hope I can. 🙏

(Last updated 06/24/24)