oooookay, i'm supposed to be studying for JLPT that's next sunday but.. i just don't feel like. haha so i'm gonna blog about some day trips i went in spring. i found a new hobby, and i guess you can guess what it is. that is, travel + photography I don't like travelling much, in terms of travelling i mean, in some form transportation. I have motion sickness so i hate taking the plane and especially boat/ship and even long bus ride. but i like going to new places, especially artsy places. and i like to take my time there taking photographs and have myself taken in the photos as well xD Best person to go with, well.. my housemate :D Kobe (One Saturday with sadie and earn) Kobe is a place well known for Beef and European street. That day, we went to this place, about 15minutes from Sannomiya Sation, and used this passport called "Tour de Kobe" that allow us admission to few "houses" that are like museums. The passport is valid for one entrance only per house, but it doesn't have a time limit, which means you can come back anytime you want, to visit the houses that you haven't been to in the first day. One of the houses allow us to try on Western dresses and take photos in the antique-looking room. Sadhna's black hat i bought for her bday :D I had wanted to continue but realised my media storage is full... -_-l|l and i might have to move my blog again... That's all for now then. A japanese friend of mine once told me, "Japanese are fond of sakura. But, they love sakura especially when the sakura petals are falling down, dancing, rather than just seeing the flowers bloom on their trees." "Why?" I curiously asked. "The sakura flowers are just special. They don't wilt when they fall. Instead, they are in their best and most beautiful condition when they dancing fall from the tree." This is so true. the scene of falling sakura is so beautiful you should never miss when u come to Japan in spring. and I'm glad my family witness it too (: On 28th of March, my family and sister's bf, gates, arrived Osaka in the morning. We had Mcdonald's breakfast and surprised the elder sis with a birthday cake. After leaving their luggage in the hotel, i brought them to Kobe to have Kobe Beef for lunch, and to visit Rokkosan, which is within Japan's top 3 night scenery. I thought the destination wasn't very far away and it would be nice to have a walk in the nature but.. wrong choice. totally. TOO FAR lol should have taken the bus. actually the distant wasn't that long but we were walking up hill and it becomes hot and cold as we climb and sweat. but the air was really clean and fresh, it was still a nice walk with my family. though everyone was getting tired haha (: when we reached the top, it was still bright. but no matter what i wanted to wait till the sunset. だって~night view is the 重点 right? haha. but it was VERY windy and cold and everyone wasn't wearing proper clothes coz under the mountain it's spring but on top it's like winter lol. Only me and my elder sis tahan until the sun sets and the city lights up while the rest went indoor to hide from the cold. it was beautiful. but a pity we couldn't wait till it's totally dark. me and the younger one, she just came to rush us home. haha. The next day.. god i was having serious menses cramp and it was raining shits. (just raining lol) i let my family shop around DONKI first before i go and find them. but it was too painful. i took a rest at starbucks and dad bought hot chocolate for me (; After lunch (okonomiyaki), met up with sadie who brought panadols for me (,: we went to Nagai Park together. There is this Museum of Natural History, the first time we came to one like this.. look below. And the flowers in the park are blooming very prettily. Love tulips and this big one. Of course, the sakuras too! it's spring~~~ Glad that the rain stopped (: On the 3rd day, we went to Osaka Castle, Museum of Housing and Living, and Umeda Sky building. On the 4th, Nara park, Osaka Aquarium and sushi :D I think my family really enjoyed interacting with the deers. and it's the first time we went to a aquarium together. wanna go to more places for family together. Day 5, Kyoto city tour Day 1. Fushimi Inari Shrine. Sanjyusangendo Kiyomizu Temple Nanzenji Temple (which 2 of them i have not been before) Day 6. Kyoto city tour Day 2. Arashiyama we actually went to a place not worth going (wasted time walking for about 1.2km, money for the entrance fee and energy climbing up the hill) because there was a signboard saying best view ahead so we went out of curiosity.. oh well.. the view on the way there was pretty nice and as my family were saying "just treat it as an exercise" but it wasn't as nice as the one that i went (which is free and open to public) below: after that, we went to the bamboo grove, i'm sure you have seen those pictures in one of my blog post last year, and then i gave them some time at Monkey Park.
My dad didn't go up though.. i felt kinda surprised and disappointed when he said, "what's there to see, they're just monkeys." i thought he likes nature and animals so i wasn't sure if he's being sincere when he said that.. could be because i said i'm not going up and i'll wait down there so he wanted to stay with me. The next day, i brought them to Utsubo Park (which is near my school) and cherry blossom there were especially beautiful as the wind was strong that morning and sakura petals were falling. The scene was, indescribable beauty. (just refer to the first paragraph of this blog entry) 美しい After lunch, i took dad and elder sis to SpaWorld at Tennoji, there are swimming pools, hot springs, gym, etc but our purpose is to enter the hot spring (their first experience) It was actually my first time there. Female & Male hot springs are divided into different storeys and the theme (Asian/European style) changes alternately every month. (unfortunately younger sis was having her period so she went to walk around elsewhere with gates) At night, we had teppanyaki for dinner. Most expensive meal ever. maybe. haha. On their last day in Japan, they checked out the hotel and came over to my place. We chilled and watched movie on my laptop [Life of Pi], quite interesting but i wouldn't say awesome. Raining that night Dinner at Torikizoku Sent them till the airport station and bid goodbye. Miss them the moment they left, of course. Sad that they are gone now but happy that they came, happy to see them, happy to travel with them, and happy to be able to quality spend time with them (: my heart feels sour sometimes when i look at my dad and realised how much he has aged.. plus, he has parkinson which made his hands and legs not as active as before. He loves photography, so it makes me sad when he said he couldn't take pictures properly because his hands were shaking ),: it was his hobby, you know, he still has his old film professional cameras (just that it has moulds in them now coz he doesn't use it anymore lol) it's a situation where you can't do anything about it and it feels really sad you can't do what you enjoy doing. because of a fucking disease. SO I REALLY WANT EVERYONE TO APPRECIATE THEIR GOOD HEALTH, I know most of us are still young and in good condition so we don't really take care of our health and diet but i want you to know, YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT, I'M SERIOUS. the effect only comes later. SO PLEASE, be careful with what you eat everyday. and take care alright? Felt so lonely that night, especially when sadhna has to stay out just that night. Called up Jiahuey. Felt better talking to someone back home. Then, what can i do? Sleep. I bought the cheapest flight tickets i can get from Osaka to tokyo, and here i came, alone by myself! the 2 main reasons for coming here is.. to see my friends again, (Yoshi, Eing, Jinny, Gara, Nova, Daniar, Duya, Debbie) and to go to DISNEYLAND/SEA! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° I actually wanted to go to Ghibli Museum and see the night view of Tokyo Tower and to Odaiba to see the Gundam but in the end i couldn't (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥`) Yoshi came to Narita Airport to pick me up and I spent the first 2 nights at Jinny and Eing's apartment (: I miss Eing and her hugs, she hugged me a lot when i was there lol I'm glad she's happy to see me. and guess what, she had been talking to me in full Japanese the whole time! i think she forgot her English already lol. (on the contrary, yoshi never speaks to me in Japanese lol) Hang around Ikebukuro with Eing on the first day and went to Maid Cafe with Nova it's kinda different from what i imagined so i was a lil disappointed. I wished they could be cuter and provide better services like the typical Japanese good service. After that we went to Tokyo Sky Tree (which was built recently) the night view was nice but i didn't think it was worth it to go up cost a bit pricy haha. The next morning i had to move to the indonesian's place. and i had brunch at a bakery cafe at the station. I have to say i really like Asaka station! around it there is this bakery which is sooooo good i love it and there are family mart, bookstore, fashion shop, cake shop, florist, and a really good italian restaurant! and when u go down the escalator to the streets, there are Burger King, Baskin Robin, Starbucks, Coco ichibanya, Karaoke, etc etc!! It's so convenient and has all the shops that i would visit!! Makes me wanna stay there but their house is like 10minutes walk away D; you might think it isn't that far but i came back "home" late every night and it's a chore to walk that far. Bought too much coz all looked so good!! (of course i couldn't finished it lol) Then, in the afternoon, I went to 埼玉鉄道博物館 with yoshi and daniar. I knew about this Museum when i was studying in school and i wanted to visit it. Was so happy Daniar is interested in trains too! haha. I'm not so much of a train otaku but i find trains really cool especially the old steam train which is called locomotive (i just found that out lol) i want to ride on it one day. maybe in Europe or somewhere keke. i had wanted to go see the night Tokyo Tower after that but it was raining quite heavily so i went home with daniar in the end. and i watched the disney movie, FROZEN with Gara hehe. The next day, we went to DISNEYLAND!! I have been wanting to go to Disneyland since i know of it, like secondary school? but didn't have enough money when i first came to Japan so this is my first time. Although already at the age of 23, i'm still excited and happy to come here! I like all the rides we rode on even though they are not the usual exciting rides that i love in theme parks.. coz i love disney characters as much!! even though they don't look real, they look SO ALIVE. that's why it feels like I'm really in a fairytale world. and they are soooo cute!! from the Peter pan, to Snow white, to Winnie the pooh, to Monster Inc, to Stitch musical and Pirates of the Caribbean, all of them amazed me and it was just so WOW. I remembered watching Snow white countless times when i was young and i was afraid of the witch haha, and when i told Gara about it, she said, no, the witch is not scary at all~ and when we got on the ride, there was many times the witch appeared and we both screamed lol. it wasn't that scary but just for the fun of it as the atmosphere was good. so we were like screaming and laughing hahaha but really, children should beware lol. if there is a shop that sells disney fashion, like mickeys and donald ducks are common but if they have like stitch, the witch in snow white, peterpan, pinocchio etc.. i want to buy them!! It was a really tiring day and we were both really hungry and my waist hurt (getting old) but we had a lot of fun! it was satisfying and i think there isn't someone who wouldn't like it. (there probably is but haha i love it, totally!) On Saturday, Yoshi, Nova and Daniar accompanied me to tokyo city, Shibuya and Harajuku!! Above are me, nova and daniar, and we are the Osaka Obaasan haha (partly bcoz we are the oldest among the scholars 国費生 and our characteristic kinda matches with aunties lol) Below are yoshi and nova, coincidentally in matching outfits, from top to shoes. wanna laugh looking at this pair, see nova stepping on yoshi's foot lol. I really like HARAJUKU coz it's like a shopping paradise for me the first time i went there, we didn't have enough time to shop around because i was having meses cramp and this time.. i didn't exactly complete harajuku area too because.. actually Harajuku is not their style and they were waiting outside the shops for me most of the time and i wasn't intending to buy anything coz i didn't have money so i was just doing window shopping. so they wanted to go home early and i could have stayed back by myself but i wanted to spend more time with them instead so i went home with them. Maybe when i have money for shopping i would come back for harajuku again! and Ghibli Museum and Disneyland maybe? hehe and all the things i missed. Soooo.. Nova made pineapple fried rice (first attempt) (indonesian version) lol. and some simple dishes and we ordered PIZZA HUT!! weeeeeeee it's my first time ordering pizza hut since i came to Japan coz we had always ordered Domino coz it's cheaper. so i'm happy and Nova's homemade food were delicious so i felt really 幸せ〜 The next day, i went to Hakone with Jinny, it's a prefecture next to tokyo, named 神奈川 in that prefecture, people often visit Yokohama or Kamakura but i didn't have enough time and money and i thought Hakone is more interesting and so, off we went (: it was a 2D1N trip, on the first day, we went to the Glass Museum and the Little Prince Museum as well as Yunessen, which has very large scale of pools and hotsprings. The Glass Museum was really beautiful. i'm thankful it was a sunny day because if it wasn't, we wouldn't be able to enjoy this art. hard to show it in pictures so i'm trying to upload a video hope it works. if it doesn't, here's a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mVSuS3djMw it's really beautiful isn't it? I wasn't very interested in the Little Prince Museum because you know, we read this story during our lower secondary literature class, do u remember? anyway i don't even remember the story except that elephant in the snake stomach and it looks like a hat from side view. but i quite like the Museum when i was there, coz it looks very stylish like the streets in france? オシャレが好きからさ After that, we went to Yunessen and we only had about 2~3 hours but it was enough hehe. it was pretty cool like there's Chocolate/Rose/Coffee/RedWine/GreenTea/Sake/etc pools around. i thought that it wasn't strong/thick enough but still, it was quite interesting and we enjoyed it pretty much, especially when we could admire the full moon from hot spring/pools. I realised that i have always went to hot spring at night, probably because night time is the best time because you can relax at the end of the day and that you would be cleaned and ready for bed. but i really wanna go to hot spring in the day coz i think it would look beautiful. On the 2nd day, we went to Hakone Open Air Museum, 彫刻の森美術館 the one i had studied in class I like this kind of Museums, those that we went on this trip. not those kind that has art pieces hang on the wall but stuff like this, i find it very interesting. This one is like a maze. looks cool isn't it? but you wouldn't get lost in it coz it's pretty easy to figure out once you know the shape of this lol. after that, we took cable cars and ropeways to this place called 大涌谷 it is the source on hot spring water and it stinks a lot. like rotton eggs. freaking smelly. really. i bet no one can stand in the smoke for more than 5 seconds. haha. if you can see what we were pointing at, it's MT. FUJI! hehe I was so happy to see it coz the last time we went to Mt Fuji it was in summer so there was no snow cap on the mountain and this one has it of course! it still feels like winter. One of the reason i wanna come to Hakone kekeke. When we go back to Tokyo it was still early so we went to this Korean town at Shin-Okubo station. I like it sooo much more than Osaka's Tsuruhashi coz there was more lively and seems to have more shops and restaurant that attracts me haha. So we ate Korean food which i had been craving for, but still not satisfied, haha still craving! xDD That night, i moved from Daniar's place to Yoshi's place, which is 5 minutes walk away. Unfortunately or fortunately, Lucas went back home so i have a place to sleep. but i don't like his bed, though it's very comfortable.. it's TOO SOFT and it makes my left neck and shoulder ache the whole day the next day. and not just that day, even until now DDD; anyways, the next day is the day we go to DISNEYSEA! (actually i planned disneyland/sea on thur/fri but it was going to rain so i changed plans) have to take this cute mickey tram to disneysea! Together with Yoshi and Jinny (: People said that Disneyland is more cute and more for kids, while Disneysea has more exciting rides and more for adults. I understand why they said that but.. i couldn't decide which one is better. haha I like both Disneyland and sea, i would say, more than Universal Studio. maybe because i like disney? haha. Or I'm still a kid inside of me. I feel that disney put us in a whole different world and the whole atmosphere was just amazing. Kids definitely love this. no doubt. and i keep thinking those kids who were there.. they don't know how fortunate they are. especially those who were dressed like princesses. to enjoy such luxury. In SEA, there's Toy Story, Indiana Jones (which we couldn't ride it in the end), Little Mermaid, Aladdin, etc. I met Ariel in a musical show! they did a performance with crews using wires and stuff to make them look like they are underwater and it's really cool. i really like the Tower of terror ride, it's like sitting in a lift and it would drop but not like those typical drop rides, pretty cool and the atmosphere was good because kids there were already shouting before it even starts dropping lol. and i like the 2nd last ride we took too. we queued SUPER LONG for that i think about 3 hours. i thought i was going crazy we just kept going round and round and no one could see the entrance we had no idea where we were heading and there seems to be no end. The 3 of us played Ji Go Pa until we get sick of it and because it's nearing the end of the day we got so tired and sleepy AND HUNGRY. but when it was our turn, i enjoyed it a lot. it was going slow and showing aliens and pretty lights inside a cave or something and it started to go fast.. the tracks like suddenly became roller coaster and we went outside the cave and in again and was going really fast like WHOOOOO!! it was SO COOL!! especially when it came out we could see the night view it was so beautiful and i wasn't expecting this at all so it was really good and i love it. i just wished that they shorten the front part and make the back part was longer haha. Finally, we came to the last ride, (actually this is the very first fast pass as we reached there and the timing was so late because this ride is so popular!!) It was fun but requires a lot of strength so, bad choice as the last ride! it's like shooting game and u have to wear 3D glasses so the ball u shot into the screen seems real. really damn tired that day.. so tired i would say fucking tired. i wish i could teleport home, which is impossible. taking a cab home has the same impossibility rate lol. i think it would cost some hundreds dollars. それでも楽しかった!!(it's in CAPS form lol) I slept for about 10 hours and walked to the indonesian's place next morning coz yoshi's at school and i was so hungry, didn't eat dinner at SEA. Gara was home so i cooked instant noodle and chatted with her till noon. then went to the italian restaurant at Asaka station to meet Johnel and Akemi (: They are the scholars in Tokyo and they came to Osaka once. Akemi is brazilian so Dani and her know each other and that's how we met. I thought i wouldn't have time to meet them but they took time to come all the way to Asaka for me for a while. i know it's really far from their house, maybe 1 hour train ride. For that, i'm touched and happy to see them (; and theeeen, Karaoke session with the tokyo peeps!! Duya wasn't there because she had graduation ceremony to attend (which was a lie that was caught on the spot coz yoshi goes to the same school as her lol) and it became a joke we kept using later on haha. u know what, the song Let it go from FROZEN is already in the karaoke box!! even though the movie isn't even out in Japan's cinema yet. anyway all of us really liked it and we kept singing it even when accidents happened lol. had CocoIchibanya for dinner (many of them can take spiciness) i'm the weakest so i took level 2 haha. Jinny and Debbie took 3, Yoshi (had tried 10 lol), Daniar and Duya took 5 and Gara (who could tried 10) took 8 and she said it's just nice for her. For my last night in Tokyo, Gara, Duya and Debbie gathered at Yoshi's place and we played TruthOrDare with poker cards, actually just Truth coz everyone was too lazy to move haha.
I was quite tired but I'm really glad that i get to spend time with them. i just like having small funs and talks that make us go LOL (: Although i had to come to Tokyo by myself, (because bestfriends had other plans) i had lots of fun thanks to you guys!! ♡♡♡ it's always comfortable to hang out with u guys and i can be myself (not like when i'm in school) i hope we still meet up even thou me and Nova are going back to our countries next year. Lots of loves and misses, Shin P.S. Many many many thanks to those who let me stay over at their place. hontou ni arigatou gozaimashita! nomu nomu kamsahabnida~ ♡ saranghae~ You know why I've been looking forward so much to this spring vacation? 1) It's gonna get warmer and there'll be sakura all over the place ^^ 2) My family coming over!! 3) travelling around Japan (高知、広島、島根 and most importantly, 東京!!) Well, it's not my first time to tokyo but, it'll be my first time to DISNEYLAND!! weeeeeeee!! like a finally okay, have been wanting to go since young and the first time i came to Japan 6 years ago but didn't have enough money. super excited :DD okay soooo spring break started from 21st actually but i skipped the seminar on 20th so i had a day earlier :p on 24th, i went to 高知, one of the quite rural area in Japan, with about half of the people in my class and one teacher. it was better than i thought! haha. we had a walk in the forest, especially with leftover snow and good sunny weather and fresh air, it felt refreshing and cooling (: and then with the elderly we made dinner together. I seriously envy Japanese old people who live long HEALTHILY. how did they do that man. old people near 70/80 and they can be healthier than us, youngsters. and i met one old lady who's turning 100 this year. congratulations. This fish is super yummy. it's only BBQ-ed with salt i duno why it taste so good. we home-stayed at the local's house and went to 桂浜 the next day. it was beautiful but no swimming allowed. the pacific ocean. it was awesome and i totally love the weather! u know how important weather is during travelling, it just affects your whole mood. also went to the city of 高知 before going back to Osaka. it was stylish like any street in the city. i like it (: wished we had more time i wanted to enter some shops and there are some tourist attractions that i wanted to go too >_< wonder if I'll ever come to back to kouchi again.. before i move on to the next trip, i'm gonna talk about.. the last few week of school was fine except for 就職活動 which is the job hunting period where preparation takes place. There are many practices, tests, and seminars to go through it's really troublesome especially when it doesn't concern me because i'm not going to work in Japan. You see, Japanese people treat this very seriously and the interviews seems to be very serious and competitive. Unlike Singapore, most Japan companies carry out job interviews and employment before April (which is when students graduate from school) so students from university or specialised training school, us, already start looking for job during the end of first year!! and most of them will have their job found/decided around the beginning of second year. and their interviews are like, few interviews to few interviewees at one go, like they will compare each of us and we have to know how to "sell" ourselves. 1 March 2014 A short trip to Hiroshima and Shimane with 5 of my classmates, Ikumi, Ran, Manami, Aya, and Eri. finally i get to see the famous 厳島神社 u know, the shrine gate that stands in the middle of the sea? This is it. just that it's low tide now so we get to walk to the gate (: wanna see it when it's high tide! but didn't have the chance. see i brought an umbrella with me coz the weather forecast said it's going to rain that weekend. fortunately it didn't! we stayed over at a pretty good hotel, room with sea view! heheh and onsen was good too, enter the sauna after a while, felt so good sweating haha i know, i should work out. On the second day, we went to another famous shrine in Japan, maybe not very well-known in SG. it's called 出雲大社 (izumo taisha) the god of love/fate i like this huge knot a lit hehe.it rained a little so we couldn't explore the place a lot.
and i felt like we were just travelling on bus the whole day boooooo. it can't be helped since we went with tour and it's not very near Osaka so travelling time takes up a lot. still prefer planning and travelling by ourselves of course, but this trip was cheap and i think i wouldn't have enough money to travel to these places before i leave Japan (coz i have other plans keke) so i decided to come with my jap friends. You know, i know i'm really lucky to be here and i'm grateful to receive this scholarship which gets me here and let me meet so many people and received awesome/precious/rare experiences, especially, this money allows me to travel so much around Japan. what i actually wanna say is, i realised many scholars came here not because they love Japan or they have passion which relates to Japan but, they just 1) wants to get out of their country (maybe experience something different/study abroad/live a different life) 2) to receive free education and scholarship fee OR visa in Japan so they can work and send money back home (as Japan is expensive, of course the salary is higher too) this applies not only to scholars but the foreign students living in Japan. Many students came to Japan not to study but to earn money, which i feel so... for that, i can't find the right word. but i mean it in a bad way. they are not wrong in trying to earn money here which they can earn a lot more than in their country. but.. just that, their main motives are wrong. getting a study visa just to work here, that's just.. wrong. anyway, maybe i just felt unfair, i mean, for those who had really wanted to come to Japan but couldn't afford to, like me, and couldn't because such people took away their opportunity because they are smarter/better in education/have a better family background, maybe not family background. oh well, that's life. Everyone has a different motive and purpose in life and it can change with time. as long as, coming here changes their life for the better, and, let them experienced and learn something they wouldn't have, i think it's good. if they have thought, 日本に来てよかった, that would be fine. because actually i have a chinese classmate i don't even know why she came and it seems like she regretted coming, half the time she talks to me, is ranting, complaining and cursing lol. "Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do; Accept the past as past without denying it or discarding it; Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others; Don’t assume that it’s too late to get involved." I just wanna quote this again, to be myself and to remind myself that it's fine to go at my own pace even if it's slower that others. I drew that randomly because i didn't think words would be better than pictures. haha. came to rmb how much i enjoy drawing (,: wanna do some real art some day. anyway... I'm feeling healthy recently! heheh.Dani taught me to eat tomatoes (cherry tomato lol), and sadie taught me to eat carrots (raw carrots lol) and usually i don't buy fruits because when i buy them, i leave it at home till it rot. the spoiled me doesn't eat fruits unless people cut them for me lol. so pan taught me to eat mandarin oranges. don't have to cut. hehe. so i've been eating those as snacks/salad/dessert (: also started my daily yoga and exercise again kekeke. I'm determined to slim down this year. (DON'T SAY I DON'T HAVE FATS, JUST BCOZ U JUST DON'T SEE THEM) * * * * * * actually today is my first day of schoooool
and i feel that i'm still very lacking. がんばるぞ! just one and a half months more to Spring Vacation!! WHOOOOOO! AH GO GO GO! Let's fast forwardddd- - - - - -- - - -- - - -- - 皆さん〜明けましておめでとう!! Happy New Year!! As i wished for, i experienced a typical Japanese way of spending new year (: I went to a famous shrine on new year eve before midnight and did "countdown" with the crowds. with inverted commas because, it wasn't an official countdown so people were not that excited as there were no fireworks whatsoever. but the shrine was full of people, and we had to wait for our turns to get in and that takes more than an hour. Look at how huge the coins collection thingy is compared to the normal one. lol. people just threw their coins in all the way from the back. also did 恋みくじ and it was 吉 haha. by the time i reached home it was already 4am. thank you dani for sending me home ^^ feel somewhat nostalgic for coming home so late and having someone to send home feels good heheh. On the first day of new year, i went to host family place and made cookies! it wasn't what they usually do of course, i just wanted to do something. and we had new year meal like this: and this at the grandparent's place the next day other than eating, we just watched special new year TV programs, just like Singapore CNY ya? They are not rich family so it's all very simple but i like it. Not the food heheh, i like the experience and i'm grateful they let me join their new year (: Alright, this year's Resolution! 1) Pass JLPT N1!! 2) Pass all the exams i'm going to take in school! 3) Do yoga and exercise weekly and eat healthy! 4) Save money for trips to Tokyo, Korea, Okinawa and next year graduation trip! 5) Lastly, become a better person. (i never have this before but this year i want to include it!) Next, sharing my Christmas trip with sadhna to... 金沢>>>白川郷>>>名古屋>>>長島スパーランド>>>なばなの里 My first white Christmas!! <3 It was a lot of fun, but travelling with just 2 of us feels kinda lonely a little. Even at the Amusement park, haha. We actually rode on the Japan's HIGHEST ROLLER COASTER and Japan's BIGGEST wooden roller coaster in Nagashima amusement park, there are like 5 ROLLER COASTERS, 3 PIRATE SHIPS, 3 SWING CAROUSELS, 3 FREE FALL RIDES and blablabla! it wasn't as scary as i thought and very exciting! just if not for my motion sickness, i think we would enjoy much more. sorrrrry! This free fall isn't very high at all. but surprising it scares me the most. more than the highest roller coaster which i was afraid to take at first haha なばなの里 is famous for its illumination and this is of Mt Fuji. very prettttty~ it's a pity i forgot my camera battery (how stupid) and it was raining that night ):
I'm lazy to blog already hahahahahaha, till the next time, byeeee! :p it has been a while~ the above picture was taken on my bday, me and my Japanese clique went to take cosplay neoprint after school! xD it was my first time and kinda fun! haha and cheap too keke. An-chan wasn't there because she said she couldn't join us and she keep apologising before leaving. that day i didn't make any plans with anyone because i thought someone will plan it for me. but after that, they said they have something on so we parted our ways and i went home, wondering if there's any plan for me and what i should have for dinner, worse come to worst cook instant noodle haha. My housemate didn't even reply my message then. When i reached home, there was no one at home, but i smelled food. and i saw balloons on the walls so i thought, okay~ at least i dun have to cook, we are eating that for dinner right? hehe. so i waited and waited till she came back, and she said we are having that for dinner. YAY. and the door bell rang. well i tried not to expect too much. haha and there i got my surprise! With An-chan and the girls, and almost all the ex-dorm-mates!! surprised to see Eling too! coming from Nara (,: These are all the girls and there were dani and frisa too. THANKS ALL (: I seriously thought it would be a lonely bday. thanks to u guys, i had a very happy one kekeke The next happening event, should be our school trip to Kyushu! There were 2 choices, the other one was Thailand but it was too expensive and i would want to go by myself and stay at my thai friends house so.. that was OUT. but actually, i have been wanting to leave Japan, like for a short getaway. travelling within Japan doesn't feel like travelling anymore since Japan already feels like a second home. super like this picture hehe. Spent the night on a ferry that brought us to Kyushu! First experience, not so bad. Although Kyushu is at the Southern side, hello it was still freaking cold, especially in the mountains we saw snow on the way!! It may look fun but an we were freezinggg like seriously, even in the house the floor, i felt like i was walking on ice, even with my socks on. On the first day, we lodged in a guest house of a old couple in the countryside of 大分県 and listened to a very interesting and dramatic story of the granny younger days. If you want to know about her story, here goes.. it was about a senpai of hers in high school who went off to tokyo (very far from kyushu ok) for work after graduation, they were exchanging letters at that time and he even sent money to her though they were not even dating!! and think about this, it was during the olden days. they didn't even make any promises or anything. kinda romantic but a little stupid. of course, granny didn't use a single yen of those money. maybe it was a hint for her to visit him in tokyo. lol. but because he didn't say anything to her, granny didn't think much about it. soon after, she was introduced to a nice person and was married to him. saded. she regretted not thinking carefully about it and not even telling him about it. maybe if she had talked about it she wouldn't have marry a man she doesn't love. Of course, that guy was super heartbroken and almost committed suicide if someone hadn't saw and stopped him!! OMG. damn dramatic. but in the end he got married too but never had any children. that's not the end. Right now, after 50 years (estimation) they are still seeing each other, secretly. OHMYGOD. it's amazing how they still see each other like once a year. apparently, the husband knew about this and he let her do what she wants, well she bared children for him and did what she should as a wife already. no one else actually know about this other than the 4 OF US! OMG. just somehow, we came to this topic and she told us about it. seriously, i can't imagine how i would feel if one of my grandparents OR MY PARENTS had a story like hers. i think i wouldn't be able to forgive her but i wanna wish her happiness, it's too sad for her and the guy. such a tragic. this kind of thing actually happens in real life man. it's true story she showed us pictures. oh wow. Can this still be a sin? Second day, tour around an old street of Japan and visited 九重"夢"大吊橋 which is know as Japan's highest and longest pedestrian Bridge,the wind was so super duper extremely strong i was scared i'll get blown off, seriously. and then we went to 熊本県 for hot spring!! which is, the highlight of the trip is of course, 黒川温泉! we entered 4 different hot springs in a day, interesting, fascinating, fun and shiooook :DD I really like the ryoukan bed too!! the whole bed is like when u lie on it, your body shape will come out. it was my second time sleeping on such a bed. very shiook and i slept well, compare to the past few nights where i woke up a hundred times in the middle of the night. The last day, to be honest.. was a waste of time, so dun wanna talk about it.
this is the only photo worth posting haha. coz it was DAMN OISHII ichigo daifuku, super freshh and the taste is so up there compare to the ones in supermarket or convenient ship haha. Missed out too many good things in Kyushu though, who the hell planned this trip for us =_= WANNA GO AGAIN! KAGOSHIMA AND MIYAZAKI!! I AM BROKE. seriously broke. for real. maji de. homma ni. chincha. jiang zhen de. because of all the trips i went and all the shoppings i did and the fact that i have to save for future trips (must save at least ¥30,000 per month) though it seems kinda difficult now.. so... in order to save, i have been cooking almost everyday for my lunch and dinner. I'm really try very hard! i should be complimented! lol. but i'm still very lacking of money T_T but there are necessary stuff to buy idk why the list keep going non-stop! so I'll continue to work hard. haha, maybe will get another part-time job. this trip, is paid by school. it's a study trip to let us know about the events/tourist-spot of this countryside prefecture for us to plan a real trip for children. That's a semester project. On day 1, as we reach there, we cooked our own lunch. some team members when to gather vegetables from the farm by themselves. made miso soup, side dishes and pizza we made ourselves! damn small though lol. After that we were divided into groups and were given job to do. and thennn, we took shower/bath and were sent to home-stay in a local's house chosen for us. For me, i was with another foreign student of my class, Ikumi, Ai-chan, Ran, Saori and Rina. Each house will have different treatment and in our case, the owner cooked very healthy food, ingredients mostly from their own farm and it's very tasty too. i like it that they take health seriously and are able to make healthy and tasty food at the same time. they really feed us a lot! fruits and dessert and juice and dessert again after meal. we tried our best to finish it lol. This is a view from inside the house in the morning. ii kanji (: And the back yard with some plantation. they have more and a huge rice field too. After that, each group were sent to gain some experience. and for me, thanks to my kind team-mates, i get to try making soba! it really is not easy but cutting into thin slice was no problem for me :D The air in country side is really refreshing and the view was good too. The other experiences were making sausage, uchiwa, and painting on a plate. Made our own lunch again and went to take a look at the beach since we are planning trip for next year summer vacation. Woah it was damnnnnn coooooold seriously plus the wind i was brrrrr..... okay, taking a group picture with the members after a long time (: just another place to consider but i dun think kids would be interested in a fish market haha. we also experienced making chikuwa, something like fish cake. maa, it was interesting but not like.. wow. and finally heading homeeeeee! This trip took away our public holiday on sunday and monday T_T
which i had intended to go on a trip to nagoya with sadie and dani to meet yoshi and lucas there. i planned out the whole itinerary already and even booked the hotel. This is the trip that made us cancel that Nagoya trip and made us miss the chance to meet. which makes me miss yoshi even more damn it. but there was nothing we can do.. idk when will be the next time i get to see him again.. けどホンマにに会いたい Hey yo. I know my blog is kinda outdated because my facebook photos are always very up-to-date. but here, i write my story. though picture speak louder than words.. they can never tell you the whole story. that's why photos deceive. haha. Alright, from my title, you should know i went to Wakayama.. and with who? my two dear friends from Singapore!! Carine and Valerie <3 YESSS they flew to Japan on 8th of October and very fortunately, i was having school holiday on that very day for some reason. So i brought them to Kyoto! It's the first time i walk around Kyoto on my own. I mean, for the past times it was Yuri or Ryosuke who lead the way so.. i didn't know it's so convenient to travel around Kyoto by bus! If you are travelling to Kyoto, i would recommend a one day bus pass. and soooo, for the rest of the weekdays the 2 girls had been travelling by themselves till my school ends. I'm very proud of them for not getting lost! Well, if u know these 2 sotongs, u know.. haha. One of evenings we visit Umeda Sky Building (which i had been wanted to go since i came here.. finally after so long..lol) we went at a time that we could catch the sunset.. BUT sadly, not a good day. it was about to rain and the wind was SOO STRONG we couldn't take a proper photo lol. Oh, and of course they were staying at my (and sadhna's) place. I apologise for the noise pollution caused in that one week. lol Thankfully on that weekend, it happens to be 三連休, which means having the following Monday as a public holiday! which means to say, good chance to plan a trip with them out of Osaka!! :D We had wanted to go to Seoul but decided on Wakayama because it's closer and cheaper? but i wouldn't say it would be cheaper. it just make people think so because it's close but guys, this is Japan, and Japan means high expenses. So, in actual fact, the expenses would be the same as going to Korea, and so is the travelling time (going to Wakayama by train/ going to Korea by plane) Where ever it is, it would be a enjoyable trip, with friends you love to be with (: Pictures to continue my story.. The first place we went, is where we will see the Panda, at the Adventure World. and then we went to 千畳敷 but we missed the sunset ): It was super windy my cap almost flew off. but it's a really nice place, i like it. we stayed until it's totally dark and needed torchlight to get out of that place lol. One of the main activity in Shirahama is of course, to try 白浜温泉 (shirahama onsen) and for that, we went to a place call とれとれの湯 (Tore tore Spa) it was really awesomeeeee and super shiooook. 「熱」「流」「塩」「炎」「雪」「温」 The cool thing about this place is that there have this bedrock bath thingy like the picture above. They have like 6 rooms with different temperature, atmosphere and background music. The lowest temperature is like.. 9ºC? and the highest is around 70ºC? i don't really remember. and then there is a very spacious place with a TV for u to relax and there are Japanese magazines free for browsing as well. The hot spring was already good enough and with this, this place is like heaven lol i can just spend the whole day here slacking ごろごろ and it's not even very expensive! how lucky the residents in this area are.. imagine my weekend if i move here. Highly recommended! it's a pity we couldn't take our own sweet time in there coz were rushing for time, we scared will miss the last bus (WE ACTUALLY RAN FOR IT) if not i really wanted to spend more time there. we didn't even have the time to blow dry our hair please, just rush up the bus with water dripping lol. confirm exaggerating. Actually i had wanted to stay in one of these cute little houses. It's call the Toretore Village. Unfortunately i couldn't get any reservation so we ended up in a cheap but not so cheap 民宿 If there's a chance for me to travel to Shirahama again i definitely wanna stay here!! Day 2, we went out of Shirahama to another city, 紀伊勝浦 Iikatsuura Main point to see Nachi Waterfall (World's Heritage, not tallest fall in Japan lol) It was often mistaken. We paid for a tour bus to bring us around and guess what? to our surprised, for such a big bus, because we were the only customers, we owned the whole bus! lol. Well there's pros and cons to that. We don't have to worry about time so much because we weren't going to affect other customer. but on the other hand, the driver/bus guide is giving us too much attention which limit our freedom to do things we want or take pictures the way we want to.. The first place: 熊野古道 i was a little disappointed because in the photos the road/path were green with algae lol. i wanted green but i guess it would be hard to walk haha. Followed by the famous Nachi Fall! It wasn't that awesome or maybe i expected too much lol. Next and the Last: 「大門坂」「坂熊野那智大社」「那智山青岸渡寺」「那智の滝」which all belongs to the World's Heritage. This whole tour really made us work out. it's ALL climbing stairs and stairs and more stairs. 階段ばっかり!このおばあさんは死んでいます。 i know how weak i am, seeing old people more genki than me lol. Heading back to Shirahama, just in time for the sunset!! FINALLY able to catch my sunset after failing a few times (,: This huge rock is not a rock. lol it's actually an island too gigantic to be a rock. bigger than i thought that it surprised me. we call it 円月島(En-getsu-tou) The reason for being famous for its sunset is this. having the sun right in that hole. Must take a picture with it. haha. We ate curry cup noodle that night, wait no, we didn't, we ate on the first night, when Val ate curry for all her meals that day lol. Breakfast: Curry bun, Lunch: Fried Ebi Curry, Dinner: Curry flavour cup noodle lol cannot don't laugh at her. That night we walked our way back coz no more bus. had ramen somewhere and.. wanted to play hanabi (small fireworks) on the beach (which is what i have always wanted to do) but we gotten off at the wrong place so too bad, we did at a empty car park lol. Day 3 morning, we woke up really early to come to this place 三段壁 (Sandanbeki), really nice too! The last destination before going home (the one that one must not miss while coming to Shirahama) one reason we are so tight on time is because we had to keep up with the bus timing. and there were quite many places we want to go so.. That is the Shirahama Beach!! It's one of the most beautiful beaches in Japan and it does live up to its reputation. Just look at the super white sands and the clear blue sea. Gave ourselves about 1 hour here just taking pictures (not even entering the sea) is not enough lol.
really sorry for rushing these 2 girls throughout the whole journey, i had wanted more time too ): one reason we are so tight on time is because we had to keep up with the bus timing. and there were quite many places we want to go so.. but overall it was a great trip! I really enjoyed myself. hope u girls too! If only we had more time.. I'm happy we get to go on a trip together, our first trip tgt hehe. [ inner thoughts: To think my first trip in Japan with adeline was so relaxing, not worried about the time at all, except for that we are leaving the place and friends soon. i want to go on that kind of trip again.The trips that i had been planning now were too rushing, maybe i'm too greedy. for wanting to go too much places when we don't even have enough time. this is the problem with package tour isn't it? that's why people choose free and easy. but i want to create a package tour that is relaxing enough. how to satisfy the people? it won't be easy right? people can't take too many holidays from work and.. they want to make full use of their time eh? ] |