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Tracy desu yo, pessimist and world’s worst procrastinator. Uni student with still a lot of things to learn. Interests include otome games, Naruto and Japanese.
: Loves pink, food, ice-cream.
Summer is my eternal love. ![]() Waiting for:
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Happy 3 years!
written on Sunday, November 29, 2015 @ 10:52 PM ✈
To my blog (◍•ᴗ•◍) 0 comment[s] | back to topやっと終わった
written on Monday, November 23, 2015 @ 10:23 PM ✈
So exams finally finished two days ago on Saturday and now I am free to live my life doing nothing. It's satisfying. Also the kbbq we had after exams was great. Saturday morning just felt like a heavy burden (exam was in the afternoon). They ended up asking the ten strains of mice question as one of the five questions. Thankfully I remembered the names but I'm not 100% on how I wrote their origins. Mixed feelings on the fact that we didn't get asked the gene therapy and gene engineering question. On the one hand, I would have written it well since that's the one I know most about but at the same time there's way too much to write for that question. More than 5 pages of content for sure, but no way that could be done in 24 minutes. Anyway the exam supervisor totally felt for us, saying things like "aww don't look so sad, at least after this you'll be done for good!" and so on. And "I wish that the question you guys get is one you know!" And since there was 10 minutes reading time everyone was just staring into space with nothing to do like 4 minutes in (after you've read the 5 questions what else can you do?). And when there was still 3 minutes of reading time left she was like "You guys seem like you have nothing else to do, plus 10 minutes is too much isn't it? You guys might as well start then!" and let us start early woot. 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 25th and 26th (END) - Tokyo -> Seoul -> HOME
written on Sunday, November 22, 2015 @ 10:33 PM ✈
※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. So after packing and such I got in bed at 1:13 and pretty much conked out. Woke up at 7:05 (and eventually woke up rosemary like 7:40 or something) and finally I finished packing at like 8:05. We had plenty of time to kill but rosemar insisted on leaving early so we left at like 8:20 and brought out our stuff to the taxi. We got to Akihabara in like 10 mins or less, and the station was relataively "empty" considering for once I didn't have to walk through throngs of people and could actually SEE floor space omg. Anyway, we got on our train and it was decently non-crowded so minimal problems and we managed to get to tokyo and find the platform for the NEX and we legit waited there since 9:05 until our train which was at 10:03 so yippee pretty much an hour doing nothing. Anyway the NEX got to the airport at 10:58 and we got our boarding passes, picked up the obnoxiously heavy rice cooker and we cleared security checks etc and were wandering around duty free by before 12. Bought caramel tokyo banana, matcha, tea whisk and boarded at 1:25. Just as I'm about to board after handing them my ticket the guy tells me to wait and turns to his workmate and says stuff in korean (cause korean air) and then turns around to me and says it's okay for me to go. Ugh what's that about, don't mess with me and the heavy rice cooker X_X Plane was meant to leave at 1:55 but delayed cause foggy and in the end I was so tired that I fell asleep and missed take off (but "felt it" even while sleeping, cause I'm a light sleeper) and by the time I woke up we were in the air and it was 2:49 lol. We landed at 4:23 and the system is dumb and we had to do security checks again (even though we don't even step out at all??) which is SO fun what with my heavy backpack, extra carry on of foods and the rice cooker. Anyway in the airport there was some royal family walk of the Jonseon(?) family re-enactment going on with people decked out in costumes and traditional music playing. Ofc rosemary needs pics but anyway we got to our gate at like 5 and I surfed net before boarding at 6:18. Plane once again slightly late since at 6:40 still sitting in plane and it finally took off at 7:20. 26th Finally actually got my chicken dinner for once hah. Tried to watch suits but was so tired by 11pm (still kor + japan time) that I decided to go to sleep but it was very uncomfortable for some reason no matter the position and tossing and turning. Also used the slippers they give for the first time lol (the koreans love it, basically everyone on the plane is wearing them). Anyway yeah, woke up many times and finally at 3:30-4 they flicked the lights back on which meant we had to wake up... cause breakfast... Choice was either porridge or omelette. I didn't really like either and porridge is probs best if I'm actually sick but went with omelette which was great choice cause it had fried potato on the side. Also they had ume jelly and grape yoplait which was weird cause even though the packaging showed purple grapes, the stuff inside was green grapes and I've never seen something green in yogurt... Also for dinner the lady offered us wine LOL and I just said yeah why not so first time having wine on the plane... Which for some reason made my elbow creases on both arms red and itchy (maybe it was already dry) but weirdest of all is that even though I didn't do anything, my old cat scratch (from doing work experience as part of my course) on my hand FLARED UP AND WENT CRAZY RED, JUST THAT LINE!!! We landed in Australia at approx 6:20 (Sydney time) and you know, I had ONE JOB. Which was after scanning my epassport, to keep the ticket safe while grabbing my luggage and to go through customs. But nope, somehow as I held onto my passport while I grabbed my luggage (cause not safe to leave it on cart) it must have dropped out cause no other explanation. And when I went through customs the guy looking after the line asked for it and I apologetically told him I just had it (otherwise you can't get through the barrier to there so obvs I'm not lying) but I couldn't find it. He just kindly tells me to go to "aisle 1" and the guy will help me. The next guy I get to asks for it again, I tell him I can't find it though I just had it and he jokes that "sorry, but we can't let you through without it and you'll have to stay overnight" and I joke "oh that's alright, I don't want to go to uni tomorrow anyway." Then he's just like "I'm joking" LOL. He tells me to check my pockets and carry on again (cause yeah I did shove my passport in my carry on food bag briefly) but I tell him it's really not there but nonetheless I pull everything out (and it's really NOT THERE) and he's like "wow you got a lot of food there" hahaha. Anyway he leaves with my passport for a while as I continue fruitlessly searching and after a while he comes back and says "It's alright, I called them up and you can go. Just head down to that -welcome to sydney- sign there and exit!" Whew, they're so kind and I bet he was kinda trying to comfort me cause he probs thought I was freaking out but he did say "these things happen" ^^ Anyway so cool he just let me leave towards the sign and no customs check for me! Btw this whole time rosemary just got processed neatly elsewhere cause she didn't lose her pass > > We got out at like 7 and called dad and had to wait for him to come. We were in the car at like 7:30, went to rosemary's place to drop her off and pick up my korea things and I got home like 9-ish. Went to sleep at like 10:30am and was meant to wake up at like 12 but didn't wake til like 1:30pm ke. And that my friends, is the end of my trip If you actually read everything up til now, please pat yourself on the back then come to my house and ask me to make a dessert dish of your choice as a reward :)))))))))))) 0 comment[s] | back to topwritten on Friday, November 20, 2015 @ 11:05 PM ✈
Five long responses in 120 minutes? I swear to god if she expects 1000 words per question some heavy stuff will go down... Given that 120/5 = 24 minutes each and if you assume the average speed is 25 wpm (writing) and that there are no losses in time spent thinking or jotting extra side notes (or dying of a hand cramp) then the maximum is 600 words. 10% for every 600 words. Ugh. Tomorrow I can be free at last. 0 comment[s] | back to topI want to be free like everyone else
written on Thursday, November 19, 2015 @ 11:30 PM ✈
Oh yeah forgot to mention yesterday that I needed 100% in the marine bio exam today to get a HD which I just laughed at the mere thought of. At 11:11 I was like dad! Quick make a wish it's 11:11! And he said he wished I could get a HD lol. Pretty pissed off with the exam. You could have asked about marine mammals, how terrestrial mammals adapted to living in water, terrestrial systems vs marine systems, marine protected areas, ocean layers, diel vertical migration, overfishing, ocean acidification, optimal escape theory, optimal foraging theory, anything ANYTHING ALONG THOSE LINES. But no. NO!!! You seriously had to go with questions about algal growth and barnacle attachment on bays vs peninsulas? And more ridiculous ones?? I wanted to table (and computer) FLIP SO BAD. Why do people always pick the stupid questions that nobody knows, especially the ones mentioned in a mere one liner on a slide. You had the potential to pick such nice questions especially ones you taught forever on but no. NO. Why do people never ask my strengths? Now what do I do with all this useless information. Well at least I was already going to pass without doing the exam so whatever. Anyway genetics on Saturday ugh. How to study for a unit in which we were taught zilch the whole semester in just one day? Everyone else has already finished exams and I'm still struggling here. I resent the fact that we do genetics every semester. Sure, the discoveries in the field are definitely something but the subject is not for me. I cannot deal with subjects that have buttloads of words that are absolutely meaningless to me and pointless memorising is just nope. 0 comment[s] | back to topwritten on Wednesday, November 18, 2015 @ 10:23 PM ✈
The only upside is that tomorrow I won't be breaking my wrist because the marine bio exam is on computer (y) If there's one thing I have confidence in, it's my typing speed so there's no way I'll run out of time with my written responses. The only problem? Will I even know enough to be able to type non-stop anyway? HAH! Probably not, probs just going to sit there staring into space instead. 0 comment[s] | back to topwritten on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 @ 11:17 PM ✈
I envy my friends because they can just read their notes a couple of times and then be able to spout basically exactly what is required to get marks in an exam. On the other hand I can read something tens of times but if I don't understand it, it won't stick and it will be meaningless. Also I screwed myself over hard, picking up all sorts of things to procrastinate on, more than during any other exam period. I really just can't be bothered exerting myself anymore. That logic when I spend a couple of days studying for marine bio final worth 26% while I'm only going to study genetics for one day but it's 50%.... Marine bio being worth 26% is a result of having to do so many assignments throughout the semester... don't know if that was good or bad. Just because it's "only" 26% doesn't mean you can even underestimate the test. Not only are the questions phrased in a VERY tricky manner, with very suspicious wording of all the answers, but in the "match word/phrase to answer" questions, the number of options available is double the amount of words you need to match to (so there could be 4 questions but 8 answers to pick from). WHO DOES THAT. Ugh Thursday will be interesting... not. 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 24th - Yokohama (Minato Mirai 21)
written on Monday, November 16, 2015 @ 8:44 PM ✈
Went to the doctor about my persisting skin problems and this time it's not the usual suspects like allergies or water. He said it's highly likely that I'm stressed and there's not much that can be done since I'm a "born worrier." I never realised this. Am I? Hmm maybe. ※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. Slept at 12:30am cause I was so dead. Woke up at 8:20 and throat felt worse and I thought today I'd be all cough-y. Felt a little better than previous days but had lightheadedness and also blocked nose still. Anyway we left at like 9:40 or something and I stopped by tully's coffee near the station and had breakfast which was french toast set with iced tea (while Rosemary went off to eat at yoshinoya for the umpteenth time). We got on a 10:45 train and arrived at Sakuragicho (Yokohama) at 11:34. Spent time taking pics and looking around World Porters, Rosemary and I got some accessories like at the 300 yen shop there (and somehow I didn't pack them in my suitcase or I lost them cause when I got back to Australia I couldn't find them?? UGH). Walked around more and found ABC mart there which is where dad bought his shoes last time. The mission my parents gave me was to buy dad some shoes so I thought I'd go to where he went last time. Unfortunately after chatting with mum and dad for a while and deciding on a shoe, when I asked if they had the size the lady was so blank and said "nai desu" and that's it when I asked. Ugh. So we ran over to Queen's Square where the info desk told me it was in Queen's East so I went there and thankfully the guy there was more helpful and when I asked for the size (it was same as the one on display), he said (in japanese) "is this okay?" and packaged it up for me. After that I had lunch at a grand time of 3:15. Still don't have much appetite and ate a salmon and avocado bowl at this place which did ochazuke. Felt conflicted because I wanted to eat it raw but if you eat it the ochazuke way then the hot water cooks the salmon. Rosemar seemed to have caught my symptoms and didn't feel good either and didn't eat but then she ate melon kakigori later (the one thing she will eat). We didn't do much after but we did go to the little amusement park and went on the galaxy ride, and later went to the arcade and played the crocodile game and somehow got the high score of 153 o_o Also since we got >120 we won a prize (rosemary picked a red snoopy bag). After that, went to the other side (ferris wheel side) and played at the arcade for a bit where rosemary played DDR and drum game, and a game like cytus. We then went on the ferris wheel at 6:55 and it was about a 15 min ride and ended at 7:10. It wasn't pitch black it was just getting dark and it was nice with all the lights. Ooh also got to ride on the see through gondola with no wait (unlike the tempozan). We left and on the way got a little lost so rosemary asked the nearby passerby lady like "where.." and I filled in with "sakuragicho" and briefly paused before I said eki (station) but luckily the lady said "Eki? Station?" and I said yes and she told us it was just straight ahead ^^ (as I thought, but Rosemary tends to freak and ask people even if we don't need help) and then she looked at me and was like "日本語うまいね!" (your Japanese is good!) and I was like noooo (how does she gather that from just one word loooool. Maybe my accent?) Anyway yeah took a 7:38 train back, got back about 8:25 (keep in mind Yokohama is a good hour away from Tokyo) and wasted time in akihabara cause rosemar went to animate and then afterwards we took purikura one last time. Also stopped by convenience store to buy dinner (not too hungry) which consisted of gyoza (omg my first time having gyoza this trip, last time I had it like 3+ times), yaki onigiri and kiwi coolish and tomorrow's breakfast which is karaage onigiri and inari. Anyway got home like 10:20 and now it's 11:04 Ugh good luck getting up early tomorrow for plane :( 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 23rd - Kyoto back to Tokyo
written on Sunday, November 15, 2015 @ 10:29 PM ✈
So we're nearing the end of the diaries. I was sure I had a lot more tips to put in but I basically forgot them all during the long break I took. I guess if I remember them I'll add them to a separate end post. ※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. Tip #11 - Pack as light and as small as you possibly can. You'll definitely be grateful for it during shinkansen trips, and walking to and from your different "homes." Rosemary and I changed "homes" 7 times throughout our trip and every time we had to pack and move filled me with such dread (because I hate packing and also due to the associated arm pains). Went to bed at like 2 ugh and got up 8:05. Yesterday I was feeling better but today no. Nose super congested and at times runny and left side of nose is permanently blocked. Went down for breakfast at 9:20 ish then we didn't do much in our room except pack some last minute things again til like 10:30 and finally left the place at 10:40. Btw, was still raining when I woke up == but luckily the rain let up by the time we left so we could walk in peace (even after I tied my poncho over my suitcase already). We got there and it was probably couple of minutes til 11 and our shinkansen wasn't even on the board yet so we chilled in the waiting room til like 11:20 then went to the platform and got on our 11:33 shinkansen back to tokyo. Only slept for like the last hour and got there at 2:10. We took a train to akihabara and then found our way to the apartment and played with the dogs. Anyway we left at like 3:40 and got a train back to shinjuku (which takes 30 mins) and literally made it just in time to meet Hiroshi's mum at 4:30 and first thing she notices is that I'm sick x_x everybody knows sigh. She bought me some meds T^T then rosemar and I went to kinokuniya to get our naruto volumes and she said bye to us outside after leading us there D: We then went home straight away to drop off all the stuff we dumped with them last time (another 30 min journey) and by then it was like 6 when we got to akihabara, more like 6:20 when we got home so I had nothing to do for an hour while rosemary went to wander akihabara (honestly I was feeling way too weak and sick for anything). So I just watched suits and did other things until 7:30 and naruto was on!!! Been kinda behind the last couple of eps so didn't even know they changed the ending song and also they played the boruto movie trailer. It was fun to watch it live on tv rather than on a comp. Also no subs so got to really test my knowledge. At like 8:15 I left to go outside and eat dinner but honestly not really hungry. Went to a nearby place selling soba and when I went inside it was all like middle-aged salarymen and not a single female in sight. Ordered on the ticket machine and went to the counter and was too out of it to realise guy asked hot or cold soba and I answered hot cause sick but cold would have been nice... Honestly didn't finish til like 8:50. Feeling pretty unwell at this stage and didn't really want to eat and so light headed. Left and went to nearby 7-11 and bought a 3 pack of bananas and kiwi coolish. Went home at 9:17 and the owner of the apartment was home and we talked a little before I watched suits and rosemary came back like 9:40 and she also got me a naruto keychain and told me there was a naruto billboard in akihabara T^T I was really touched she bought the keychain for me, because it was the one I really wanted from the gachapon but all I got was shikamaru instead. It's 11:21 and I have yet to shower and my head hurts a lot and nose still giving me grief. Goodnight End note: As you can tell it was a pretty chill day of just moving from Kyoto back to Tokyo (I purposely left our schedule free). Of course Rosemary was more than happy to get extra time in Akihabara. 0 comment[s] | back to top風を引くことじゃない
written on Saturday, November 14, 2015 @ 10:27 PM ✈
So the test gave me incredible wrist pain. I'll admit I have weak hand stamina. Only wrote a page for the fourth long response, going to be lucky if I get 2/10 for that one. Question 1 was a choice between life table calculations (and explanations and question answering on the side) or a long response. I could have technically done either of them, but I'm too lazy to do a long response and I wouldn't be confident in getting a good mark on that so I went with the life table. Turns out that there was a really obvious error (well to me) in a part of the info they provided. It's hard to explain but the basics is this: they give formulas and some given values that are the result of those formulas, but then you have to use those answers and apply it to other formulas to find the final "answer." The problem is one of the given results was clearly wrong so I was like... well do I use your answer or do I recalculate it and do it properly? Because then there are carry over errors and it won't match what the answer sheet will say. So I spent the last couple of minutes writing a note about how it was wrong and they should mark accordingly hah. Apparently my friends didn't notice the error in the table. I also emailed the lecturer that set the question afterwards and she replied to me in 10 minutes wow. She just said that it was correct on her version but the one that got printed was wrong and she thanked me and will consider it when marking. Hmm. Also the pain has escalated to a 24/7 dull pain, no longer just a pain when I sneeze, cough, laugh, take a deep breath. Had it looked at after work and she said that it's a chest infection(?) which could have been the result of a pulmonary embolism which could have been fatal. These are the actual words she said and I was like whut. And she also told me not to look it up so that I don't "scare myself." Umm okay, but I see a lot in my course you know... She also said if it doesn't clear up in a couple of days I should go to the hospital... I highly doubt it'll come to that but I hope it doesn't otherwise my exams would get screwed. 0 comment[s] | back to topoh it's Friday the 13th
written on Friday, November 13, 2015 @ 7:57 PM ✈
The weird pain in my chest is still there. Hmm. Can't wait til ecology is done tomorrow. I can sum up everything I know in ten mere sentences. I don't see how I'm meant to write 4 long responses with that. And also usually I'd be cramming until the last conceivable moment and here I am doing not very much. I just can't be bothered with this anymore. Can't wait til I can move on to studying for marine biology because at least that unit has more structure. Also I found the two short movies played during the Naruto exhibition I was talking about!! Found them on youtube. Of course it's the quality you'd expect (low quality, not the full thing, from a phone probs) because after all you weren't allowed to record during the thing. It also doesn't look like the manager/organiser will ever upload an official version given that the exhibition ended months ago. So for now this more than suffices! Glad I got to see it again, brings back the feels. They're good, so please watch them! The first one is the one where I was talking about how at the end the screen becomes the あん gates and opens up to the Hokage monument! It's filled with the memorable quotes of various characters. I think I could read and understand 90%? 95% of it? Which is pretty good in my opinion given how fast the quotes were moving and how little they stayed on the screen for so yay ^^ And the second one was actually much longer and the person who recorded it obviously couldn't get the whole thing but still better than nothing! It's the one with most of the memorable fights and you can't really tell from the video but the images were projected from behind a sort of transparent screen. 0 comment[s] | back to topwritten on @ 12:02 AM ✈
For some reason whenever I sniff, breathe in deeply, or cough my entire chest cavity hurts with this sort of crippling pain. I have no idea what's going on there. Also for that 25% marine bio report due last month... today I found out I got 97/100 for it and I am so surprised. Of course they still had some criticisms but I thought this one was worse than my other 25% report... I also thought maybe they marked this one easier but nope, the average was still 71 like the other reports. I don't know. And when I told my dad about it he said he was reminded about how in a parent teacher interview with my OC teacher she said that "academics is important but you need to balance that with social life." Ugh you really can't win them all can you. It's practically midnight so I'm just going to say tomorrow (Saturday) is show time for ecology. I hate people who set dumb exams. What's a dumb exam? Having four lecturers for this unit, and having only four questions in the exam. That's right. With one question per lecturer. Whether you can answer the question or not doesn't prove a damn thing. All it means is were you lucky enough to study that one tiny topic in depth enough? You basically have two choices. Either study everything, but know every point only briefly so that's not sufficient for a decent long response. Or, learn a few concepts in depth, but not know much about the others (and heh, bad luck if you get asked your weak ones). There's no way you can know everything, and at the required detailed level as well. So what exactly do you want me to do? When people set pointless exams I feel even less motivated to do work for it because it seems very futile whichever way you go. 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 22nd - Kyoto -> Nara and Osaka (NARUTO EXHIBITION!!)
written on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 @ 10:10 PM ✈
My copy of the eight Naruto guidebook zai no sho came last week, and only 200,000 copies were made which were given out to people who watched Boruto the Movie in Japan. I can't be bothered taking an actual picture so I'll just take one off the net: It looks like the promo posters but I assure you it's the book hah... Anyway the person I bought it from left their movie ticket in there! I feel like that was an interesting touch. ※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. went to bed at like 1 or something, and woke up 8:05. Got down for breakfast like 9:15 and didn't leave til like 9:35. We headed to Nara and you know, it was raining when I woke up and still raining at nara == Rain never seems to end. Thankfully wearing sandals so no danger of having soaked socks and feet. Got the 10:05-ish train to Nara and arrived 10:50. We got to the park and kind of took pics and petted some deer then eventually bought biscuits and ofc the deer immediatey swarmed me (like last time). And so I just started to feed them in front of the vendor and she was saying "hiroi toko, hiroi toko!!" telling me to go to a wide place haha (she sounded like she was having a mini panic I swear). Anyway more and more kept coming up to me and eventually I got "trapped" between deer in front of me, and fence behind me and as I struggled passersby laughed and one time when I looked up there was even a man who chuckled and then brought out his ipad to take pics of my struggle > > We did that for a while and didn't go to any temples and then went wandering down those shops on the side street of kintetsu nara station. We didn't really do lunch, we just went to the lawson there and bought omurice to share (cause appetite still not that good but okay), some yaki onigiri and teriyaki burger. We ate it in the lawson's cause they had seats yaaaaay After that, wondered the side street (I bought a small usagi plushie to add to my collection) for some more until we left to walk all the way back to JR station which we left at like 2:32. Made it to Osakako station (tempozan) around 3:30 or so and walked over to the cultural art hall place. Btw, was also raining in osaka. Even though we only left Osaka 4 days ago, it felt like we had come "home" because everything was still so fresh in my mind. I think I like Osaka more than Kyoto? Maybe. Anyway NARUTO EXHIBITION TIME!! Definitely one of the biggest highlights of the trip. Immediately got overwhelmed with feels and we took pics of the posters and teasers before going up to the main place where pics and videos were not allowed :( (Beware: Everything I'm about to say sounds lame because it's definitely a "you have to be there" thing. Also since pictures were not allowed I'll never have visual evidence of how good it was, you'll have to make do with my words D: Also note everything inside was in Japanese, and only brief English descriptions were written at the start of each "room.") Update: Found some videos -- > here I'd say we started there about 4 or so. IT WAS SO COOL AND SO FEELSY THERE I HAVE NO WORDS FOR IT. First when you go in, is the big pic of kishi saying thanks for walking along on this long road of 15 years, please enjoy naruto for a little longer and it has panels spiraling out of it. Next, you go in and watch a short film with no talking but shows many characters and their quotes. Sounds lame but it was really good and soundtrack A+ T^T I wish they would upload that somewhere because it really left an impression. After that, there are lots of "rooms" with just panels of chapters and such and every room has a description of what's in it, like the will of fire, people who have endured a lot, bonds, minato and kushina to naruto :(, naruto to boruto etc. Anyway yeah first part was the zabuza haku arc, then quotes from people like sasuke's "I only exist to kill you", or "you are the leaves in the light, and I'm the root in the dark" etc type quotes and in that room they had a cool thing where you look through the warped/curved glass into the box and see obito holding rin saying he wants to create a world where she's alive (it was like a hologram). Just so you know, Kushina is my ultimate weak spot and the room dedicated to Naruto's parents hit me so hard. There are many more panels and then there's also the valley of the end where you can walk through like the stringy things that block flies, which have lights cast on them to make it look like the running water falling down the valley. Then you have frames of naruto and the main characters all put on the walls (also note that a lot of the rooms with panels of the manga also have cover/dust jacket illustrations, so pretty!) and the frames are all "3D" like. Anyway there's the section on the development between naruto and sasuke and their friendship etc and there's another "short film" (just words and no voices) that literally summed up main fights of shippuden and ugh so many feels like when asuma dies, shikamaru "yells out", the whole chiyo arc, naruto vs kakuzu, shikamaru vs hidan, when konan did the rainbow thing, when naruto fought pain, when sasuke fought deidara and then the third raikage etc ugh so good then the end is when team 7 take on the juubi with their big summonings. Once again I wish they'd upload this, had such an impact I watched it twice. Also the exhibition goes upstairs and as you walk up the stairs there are many silhouettes of sasuke, sakura, naruto from pre-shippuden to shippuden, ending with a naruto silhouette with rasen shuriken. There's a section with kakashi kneeling in front of a gravestone and also when you watch the short film it ends with the あん gates of konoha opening and then the MOVIE SCREEN OPENS TOO WHILE THE PROJECTION IS ON IT and when you walk through you see the hokage monument. Also there's a place where there's a statue of sasuke, and around him are long sheets of those clear hard papers you can use for projecting with many sasuke related panels printed on it. It's so funny cause rosemary went and saw it and left it before I so unfortunately we didn't both react to it at the same time but it turns out we did the same thing. Which was literally stand there shocked, staring at him and realising just how good he looked. Once again, I cannot back this claim and the picture does not do him justice. You just have to see it in real life. Like I've always acknowledged lots of people like him and in the Naruto universe he's supposed to be good looking but seeing him as a 3D model and almost looking life-like really made me go oh damn... Being beautiful in anime doesn't mean you'll look good in real life but nope, he really does. Anyway there's a section of kushina and minato and when they meet naruto again and legit feels everywhere. Totally not okay. The last part is future naruto with the new generation basically, as well as the 700+ chapters (like boruto and sarada arc) as well as kishi's desk, and the nagi library he used to draw at. There was also a video playing with eng subs about what he wanted to achieve with the exhibition. Anyway finished it at about 5:30, got our 2 special books at the end and went downstairs to the merch... they had stickers, forehead protectors, a naruto coloured bear (orange + yellow) and sasuke bear (black, blue), posters (but random), keyrings, clear files, $10 prints of certain panels of the book but none I liked, playing cards, naruto printed cookies!!!!!, cream rolls covered by ninja scroll wrappers, random "can" badges and more. I spent just over 3100 yen there.... (which is nothing compared to what Rosemary bought btw). Bought the narutokuji (it's random, wanted kyuubi charm but got katsuyu :/ And obito sticker but at least my fortune has my favourite naruto line ever - まっすぐ自分の言葉は曲げねぇ!!), the 1600+ yen figurines of both naruto and sasuke, a postcard sticker set and ticket clear file. Also once you leave the shop you can't go back in without having to pay for the whole exhibition again. There's also a max purchase of 5 of any one item. Rosemary and I are also super dumb, we looked at those limited edition figurines (made for the exhibition only) and only bought a box for ourselves (one each obviously). BIGGEST FACEPALM MOMENT. Those things are worth $50 minimum and we should have bought more to resell. Though to be fair we had no suitcase space anyway so I guess nothing could be done. (Side note: Also rosemary breezed through the exhibition faster than me, cause I stopped to read as much as I could but since it was in Japanese Rosemary couldn't and just looked at most things at face value instead). So yeah left there at like 6:30... and immediately outside is the naruto cafe selling food with a sort of naruto theme to it. I got the blue rasengan tonic and rosemar got shannaro punch (pink) and we drank that before going to naniwa again where we split up for dinner and I got dinner at about 7:30? Still feeling kind of bad, so just got tendon which had tempura prawn, tempura eggplant and beans with miso soup. Afterwards it was like 8:10 and I went on the tempozan ferris wheel which was blue in colour, indicating rain tomorrow :/ (colour forecasts the weather). We left osakako at about 9 and made it all the way back to kyoto at about 10. Afterwards we headed back to our place and had to wash our hair and do other random things then it was like 11pm. I went down to the kitchen myself to eat my orange and bananas. Now it's like 1am thanks to the usual routine of photos, planning, etc. (Btw if you didn't gather from this post, the day went Kyoto -> Nara -> Osaka -> Kyoto. Lots of travelling cause the cities are like all one hour apart in a triangle. Fun!) goodnight 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 21st - Arashiyama Area and North-west Kyoto (Ryōan-ji and Kinkaku-ji)
written on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 @ 11:03 PM ✈
I'm beyond hope now. Even thinking about not knowing what to write in the exam doesn't force me to study. No motivation whatsoever, none. I think this is the lowest I have ever fallen. ※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. Went to bed at 1:30-2? Also had no alcohol. Woke up at 7:05 and unfortunately yesterday when I got a runny nose, the problem continues over to today and also sore throat even worse. Made it down to breakfast at about 8:20-8:25 and left at like 8:35. Unfortunately we were too late for the 8:44 bus at Kyoto station but made it for the next bus which came like 10 mins later. Took the bus for like a 50 min journey to arashiyama area. We went to go visit the monkey park and the lady told us it takes 20 mins to get to the top but really we started at 10 and got up there at 10:25... We made it in time for the 10:30 monkey feeding and also there was a good view of the city up there. There were two park staff at the top, and the guy also said bye and bowed as we left. The path isn't too steep but it's not exactly non-tiring either. Also my boots broke yesterday on the right heel and today they broke on the left toe :( Anyway we went down the slide there which is super narrow and burning hot cause metal+sun. We left the place like 11? 11 something? And walked towards the bamboo forest but stopped to think about food and bought matcha usagi manjuu. Probs made it to bamboo forest 11:35-50 and wandered around but it's really short and it's just time consuming taking photos. Walked around and decided to stop for something cold (for lunch). I got a houjicha parfait which was good at first, tastes like green tea but better (cause houjicha has a burnt taste) and had shiratama, houjicha ice cream, herbal jelly on the bottom, fruit and chestnut, hot houjicha on the side, but unfortunately struggled to finish the very end cause today I was feeling "sick" (but no real coughs) and have extreme lack of appetite and honestly felt like vomiting at thought of food sigh. Left to get to ryoanji, which took about 25 mins bus ride cause we got to the bus stop and it had left like 5 mins ago and had to wait like 15 mins for next bus (1:50pm??) and we took that bus to yamanakagoe which incidentally is the bus depot I ended up at back in 2013, when we took a bus going the wrong direction (and the nice man helped us get back home by giving us the right bus T^T and telling us the right stop). Anyway waited a short while for our transfer bus, then probs got to ryoanji at 2:14. The actual place isn't that big cause a lot is blocked off but we walked around the whole lake once and missed the turn off for the zen garden x_x and we ended up back at the start gate without seeing it = us being super unimpressed and going "wait what... is that it?". Got it right the second time and there isn't much to the rock garden it's a bit meh. There was some school excursion happening and I heard the teacher tell the children there are meant to be 15 rocks but you can only count 14 from any one point of view. Supposedly you will see all 15 once you have reached "enlightenment." We left super early, like 3:20 and watched as the 59 bus just left lel.. But thankfully it was only a short wait for the next bus (10 mins) and kinkakuji is just like 3 stops down the road. However keep in mind it's SUPER hot and humid like yesterday, still sweating profusely but a lot more shade this time and less need for fan. Handkerchief once again came in handy, the most I have ever used one in my life. Anyway yeah we got there and rosemary stopped for lemon kakigori and I got matcha dango from the shop outside kinkakuji. Actually got into the place like 3:50, took pics and left at like 4:30 and walked down the street for the bus. Got to kyoto station, rosemar bought some onigiri and we also bought 100 yen mcdonald's apple pie and got home like 5:34. Stopped by at the bar at our hostel. This was like the earliest we had ever been "home" in ages o_o Basically sat at the bar with Rosemary making me watch some anime and my condition just felt worse and worse. Got back into our room at 7 and attempted to "sleep" til 7:30 except as usual I couldn't. Watched suits then called dad who said to go to the doctor's but I said it wouldn't be of any use... He also said to eat fruit so at the grand time of 9:20, we ran to Kyoto station to look for a supermarket. Eventually ended up at the basement floor of yodobashi camera which has a place called "Grand Kitchen" and we bought a hand of small bananas and a bag of oranges. Also got kiwi coolish from familymart!! Came home and it was like 10:20 and just sat in the lobby (in front of bar area) eating the fruit while planning for tomorrow. Eventually went to shower at about 11:20 or so, it's now 12:20 bye 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 20th - Hiroshima --> Kyoto
written on Monday, November 9, 2015 @ 10:39 PM ✈
I feel like I've broken my wrists. Spent the last 3 days typing from 12pm-9pm summarising my damn notes. My mind is also broken. This cracks me up every time I see it. It's gold. It's too bad I can't find it all in just one gif so :/ Also you can't really see it but all the passers-by are like wtf and one kid even says "get a load of that guy", hah! ※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. Went to sleep at like 1, and woke up at 6:48. We both literally speed packed by chucking everything into our suitcase, and I didn't have time to sort it out nicely or protect valuables. Anyway basically flew out the door at 7:08 but rosemary was still packing or something and I was waiting for her down at reception.. And when I got to the lift another lady got on and looked at me with my suitcase and said something like "hayai ne" (like its so early right now) and I agreed. We went down the street and caught a bus to Hiroshima station. Arrived about 7:35. Had time to go buy a drink from 7-11 (100 yen mugicha ftw) and a strawberry cream ring from mister donut. Had ample time (like 15-20 mins) waiting on platform before the 8:14 shinkansen. We get to shin-osaka at 9:46 ish and oh, to spin the shinkansen chairs around to face the other way, press down on the pedal underneath the chair and push a little. Anyway shin-osaka to kyoto shinkansen was at 10:16 so we had plenty of time to wait. Got off, and our hostel is a short walk from the hachijo east exit (about 6 mins according to google). Got there but you can't go to rooms til 3pm so left our suitcases with reception. We checked in and paid and it was probs like 10:40 or so, we put on sunscreen and did general things like checking where to go and then eventually left like 11:15. Tried to find a place for rosemary to exchange money etc. and wandering around kyoto station being a little lost and finally after all was done we caught a bus for kiyomizu dera. Didn't get off at kiyomizu michi, got off at gojo something cause the english announcement said you could get to kiyomizu from it. Basically just ended up following the many tourists LOL and found the place. FYI, today was SUPER HOT (as well, but Hiroshima still the hottest) and I constantly wiped sweat off my face with my new handkerchief and back was soaking wet pressed against my backpack and even bag straps are gross from my sweat. Anyway we wandered kiyomizu for quite a long time, also drank the water at the fountain. Also on the street leading up to kiyomizu I bought a mixed berry soft serve which fit the weather so well and was so good and rosemar got melon. After finishing walking around the temple we stopped at the little food place (lunch at 2:30 LOL) and I got ichigo milk kakigori while rosemary got hiyashi soba and god both were good so when we both finished, I got the hiyashi soba while rosemar got melon kakigori. After that, we browsed the street shops for a LONG TIME until like 5pm cause rosemar was looking at incense and sake cups and bottles, snacks etc. I bought matcha, so expensive but the tin was pretty. Btw, I don't know what happened but I started feeling really awful (and by that I mean super sniffy, and nose being runny even though it's damn hot outside) during this whole ordeal of following Rosemary around to those shops for the last couple of hours. I thought it was cause of the incense but the symptoms persisted for the whole day.. Only left at like 5 something, caught a bus back to Kyoto station and took a train for two stops until we got to inari. Walked right outside the station and legit, inari taisha right there (and yet google said it was a 5 min walk whut). Some sort of drum performance was on, we watched then later climbed the mountain following those red arches. It's seriously tiring no joke, walked for a long time until it was like 7 ish and then I called it quits cause it was seriously hot (still wiping sweat from everywhere), shoulders hurt from heavy bag carrying while moving "house." Also I somehow broke my shoe, like the "heel" came off but I didn't notice til I got home :( Also gave up cause I saw a sign saying it'll be another 40 mins til the top and also cause imagine how long it takes both up and down. Went back down and all the typical natsu matsuri stalls like okonomiyaki, takoyaki, fruit juice, kakigori (super popular + long line), yakisoba etc had stalls, even the goldfish game. We wandered around for a long time and like 8-9% of people were wearing yukata and many many people had kitsune masks on. (Side note: While climbing up the mountain steps I saw some people wearing high heels. Insanity much?) Eventually decided to get yakisoba (also had long line) for dinner (lel it was like 8:20 by then) while rosemar got yakitori. We caught the 9pm train back to kyoto, went to the supermarket we visited early and bought the raspberry kit kats and finally went home. Arrived home at like 9:48 and went into our room. It's now 12:20 orz and already showered and transferred photos, just gotta plan for tomorrow 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 19th - Hiroshima and Miyajima
written on Saturday, November 7, 2015 @ 11:26 PM ✈
Having a lot of unpleasant dreams lately, with people I don't want to see in them. Wish my subconscious would stop screwing with me. Also I keep waking up in a lot of pain because lately it appears I've been having scratch fests in my sleep. Not sure if due to stress, eating things my body disagrees with or just general eczema. Half of my lower left leg has been completely swallowed by a rash, and not only is it red, it's actually swollen (a very noticeable "raise") and it BURNS too. Why. ※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. Tip #10 - Feel free to go all out at onsens. Bring shampoo, scrubs, cleansers, everything. When we went to Dragon Hill Spa in Korea, Rosemary and I literally brought nothing but ourselves and felt so outdone by the koreans who literally brought everything. They are also hardcore when it comes to cleaning... with me seeing ahjummas doing OTL and scrubbing each other... In Japan it's less intense but they still bring lots of stuff (thankfully I learnt from Korea and brought a few things this time). But of course, if you can't be bothered they'll have shampoo, cleansers, leave-in conditioner, peeling gels, etc. for you to use. Went to sleep around 2 and had to wake up at 5:15. Had ample time to pack remaining items and eat "breakfast" (only could eat half of the bagel, which by the way tastes like bland bread, not enough sugar. I knew I'd hate bagels). We were already at the station by about 6:45 and got to shin-osaka at 7:14 or 7:20 which was super early, as the shinkansen was only at 8:14. Just sat around on the platform and couldn't even sleep. By the way was sunny today until when we were about to get on shinkansen it started raining == and lasted rest of ride but thankfully stopped when we were at hiroshima. Shinkansen came, fell asleep pretty much straight away but kept waking up legit every 10 mins to make sure I wouldn't miss the stop (it's only 1.5 hours from shinosaka to hiroshima). We arrived at hiroshima at 10:58 and it was a little confusing to find the "streetcar" to our hotel, cause it's legit just a tram. Finally found it and took it to our place, where luckily our hotel is literally just a walk down the street, turn a corner then walk a bit more. The sign is in katakana though, and we totally missed the big sign at the very top of the building (who looks there?? It's literally 20+ storeys up). We checked in and it was probs only like 11:20-11:30 even though check in is meant to be at 2pm or something.. We're on the 11th floor! Since it's a big chain, the room is really nice and the bed is bigger than my bed at home. Anyway yeah not sure what time we left cause we chilled for a short while in our hotel before heading to nearby peace park which is like 10-15 mins walk. Saw the A-bomb dome, the cranes, the eternal flame and more. Afterwards, walked to hiroshima castle but didn't actually go in cause lazy and probs similar to osaka castle but took pics outside. Also after both rosemar and I took pics of each other before people came in and out of the castle ruining the shot we were about to go but then a large group of guys older than us/men came and rosemary walked off but they stopped by me and asked in japanese if I could help them take a pic. Even before they asked I could hear them talking amongst themselves contemplating to ask us or not cause they called us the "saki blah blah 2 onee-sans" LOL (also cause no one else around). Except it was super awkward cause sure, I can take your pic but they didn't even offer me a phone/camera so I was staring awkwardly at them and the phone in my hand like am I supposed to use mine?? Like how are you going to get your picture? Finally they handed me one and I took photos while rosemary did the same with another person's phone and yeah I took multiple shots and I think it was my best work ever @_@ Got the castle, blue sky and their giant group in. And the guy also said it was very well taken @_@ Then they asked if we wanted a pic but it was awkward cause we already did all ours and my brain failed me and I couldn't explain the situation and barely said "nah, daijobu desu" ah fail. Afterwards we stopped shortly before leaving cause there was some show going on but then left. Also the two main guys/actors walked past me towards the show and were kind and were like "konnichiwa." BTW I HAVE TO SAY THIS, THE HUMIDITY/TEMP TODAY WAS INSANE OR SOMETHING. LIKE LEGIT SWEATING PROFUSELY AND TWO DROPS OF SWEAT EVEN CAME OUT OF MY KNEE CREASE (HOW GROSS). BACK AND BAG WAS DAMP, EVERYTHING. Find it ridiculous when it's not hot in osaka and tokyo everyone is fanning themselves but super hot in hiroshima and no one fanning. Okay I have no idea how hot it was since I didn't keep a record and you probs think I'm making a big deal of it but I LOVE hot weather but this day was actually insane. All other days of Japan were cold in comparison (esp those stupid rainy days) and I would say it was even comparable to the hotter days of Australian summer. Just look at Rosemary's sunburn in the pics hah. Tried to find the free maple (meipuru) sightseeing bus and stopped in front of a bike rental place and the owner came over to us (thought we were interested). Asked us where we were from and I said it "o-sutoraria" and he's like "OH! You know Japanese?!" (in japanese ofc) and I was like chotto... (though truthfully I get you, I just can't reply decently). It was probs cause I said it the Japanese way, and not just "Australia." Then I asked him where the bus was and he gave us a long explanation OTL We got to the place and it was 1:50 and we just missed the 1:40. Waited for the 2:10 which really got there like 2:15. Went back to our hotel to reapply sunscreen, get our handkerchief for sweat (this is literally the only thing we actually used our handkerchief for, so it did come in handy in the end) and get a fan (rosemary also got sunburnt thankfully I didn't cause I'm smart and put on sunscreen everyday without fail, though the sun was so intense I now have a heavy sandal tan). Took a while for us to actually get home though cause the bus dropped us on other side of the peace park which we didn't really know well but we found the peace gates! Left hotel at 3:08 and caught a bus to Hiroshima station. Arrived at basically 4, got on the wrong platform TWICE (the signs are SO BAD compared to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo), thankfully asked the driver of the train and he told me it was platform 1 @_@ Finally got on the 4:19 train, arrived at Miyajima Island at 5:10 by ferry. Wandered the island, bought some specialty (mikan and lemon) kitkats, they have deer there too which are so hungry for people food and paper :/ Ate ikayaki which was really good, had the sticky sweet shoyu kinda sauce. Walked around by the ocean a lot (near the tori gate), got my feet nice and wet in the sandals because you have to walk through water to get to the gate (oh btw, I also walked a little in the water at the lake by peace park). Lots of seaweed and little crabs there. Also bought pocari sweat from a vending machine and it's gross, tastes like watered down calpis at first then freaking tastes salty like sea water at the end. I don't think it's a drink I could ever like. Wandered around til we left on the 8:42 ferry, when we got to the station some guy was running like mad so I followed him and we made the 8:55 train (otherwise it would be 9:25) back to Hiroshima. Btw it started raining again when we left the island and also on the ferry. Really just really == Went to buy spaghetti from lawson for dinner, as well as beef curry pan and inari tofu for breakfast/brunch. Got home at 10:09, it's now 11:13 and still gotta pack and shower. Another day spent sober cause lawson didn't have my beloved suntory :( Random note: accumulated mosquito bites in the last two days = 4. Something about the mosquitoes here, tiger balm doesn't work and they stay red and grossly itchy forever. 0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 18th (last day in Osaka) - Osaka Castle, Spa World, Umeda
written on Thursday, November 5, 2015 @ 10:04 PM ✈
Why is my blog getting hits from google.co.jp... Mum's birthday today and it's chocolate cheesecake... As usual I ate my obligatory piece and I'm going to leave it to the rest of the family to demolish it. Cheesecake is okay but not chocolate. I literally cannot stop laughing every time I seen this gif:
What he really says is 何を着ても格好いい which is literally "No matter what I wear, I look cool/good" but honestly, props to the translator for this because they gave us just that much more of a hilarious punch and I'm still cracking up.
Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them.
Probs slept around 2 again and woke up at 8. We left the house about 9:30 or something and made it to Osaka castle at 10.
By the way first thing that struck me when we left in the morning was that IT WASN'T RAINING!!! It actually stayed like that the whole day and didn't even need umbrella. That feeling of being dry though seriously. But imagine if gion had been today instead of yesterday ==
There were HEAPS of people there and also there were stalls selling kakigori, soft serves, takoyaki and things like that. Walked around the park to get there (cause it surrounds the castle) and went into the actual castle at 10:35. We walked around all the levels and also to the top (we went from top down) and there's a lot of historical artifacts and descriptions.
We left at basically 12 and it took a LONG time to walk to JR morinomiya station. Stopped at lawson's to buy my beloved milk churro and fried beef curry pan since I didn't have breakfast. Train was meant to come at 12 but was delayed til 12:30 == Got to the station at like 1:05 or something and bought our actual spa world tickets about 1:14. It was only 1500 yen!! Website is a lie and there's no time limit omg wish we could have stayed longer. We didn't wander the floors, only went to the Europe zone on 4F.
Went into things like herb sauna (lemongrass), rome (they even had the mouth of truth thing there haha), atlantis, greece, finland, mediterranean, dr oxygen bath thing, normal saunas, salt saunas, cold bath (not sure how many degrees, didn't say), cold bath at finland was 19.3°C, foot bath at spain and a lot more I forgot. OHHH the individual tubs at finland were great, the temp was perfect, warm not too hot or cold and the bubbles felt like soda, you could lift your arm out and feel them popping on you (but not sticky or smelly at all). God I loved that one the most. The germanium foot bath in spain was weird, cause you sit on chairs and can buy food and eat too while your feet were in the bath (with nice round rocks to move your feet around on) but you're just doing all that in the nude lol. I also even fell asleep for a very short while on the "sun chairs" (no actual sun or tanning) in greece...
We showered at 4:40 and left the place at 5:20 ahh it was soooo good. Caught a train from JR shinimamiya station to osaka (rapid) and only took 16 mins. Bought a bagel from bagel and bagel which we randomly walked by in the station. I got a choc chip bagel(?) cause even though blueberry is popular (and the standard flavour), not sure I'd like blueberry.
We went to go reserve our stupid shinkansen tickets and there was a long line for it, probs took til like 6:50. Went by to the souvenir and convenience store right opposite it and bought pancakes with whipped cream.
Went to Umeda sky building which was hard to "navigate" to cause even though you see it in the distance you don't know how to cross the big road for it. Really, you go underground the train tracks and pop up at the other side. The line for it was pretty long but it moved quickly (like snaking down the building). Note, was pretty hungry for dinner cause whole day only ate the curry pan while waiting for the delayed train and didn't even eat my churro. Went up and took lots of pics, and sat at an edge seat eating some of my jelly beans and churro. Went up the highest deck (floating garden) which was on the outside of the building and took more pics, and there are love locks there too. We probs got up in the building like 7:40 or so after all the waiting and ticket buying.
We got someone (chinese) to take a pic of us with rosemar's camera but it was too dark and she suggested flash but we were hesitant then her two friends LIT UP THEIR PHONES TO USE AS LIGHTS FOR US. And then she took like 10 pics cause she wasn't satisfied with her shots!!! Oh my god she went to so much trouble and they were all really cool T_T People probs thought wow why these kids so overboard and fancy lol. Felt bad they did so much for us so we offered to take a pic of them but we didn't have to use lit up phones cause they were happy with flash.
Left at about 9:30, bought a sakura handkerchief purely cause the design was nice (nobody even uses handkerchiefs in Australia anymore). Lots of walking to the station and got there at like 9:56 arrived home at 10:38. Also osaka station is really cool and has shallow water out front and has a circle platform in the middle which is just crying out for people to walk through the water to get to it == Anyway we were like whatever and waded through the water even if we were kinda stared at. No explicit signs saying not to do it so *shrug* plus when we passed it the first time to get to umeda sky building there were people (though tourists) in the water too.
It was cool cause I had sandals so didn't really care, esp after getting so wet yesterday in kyoto. It's now 11:30 still gotta budget, pack and map ugh.
Oh yeah, bought a pizza pan again from the family mart near our station for dinner. Also yesterday when we were on the train from kyoto to osaka I realised I "lost" my umbrella cause it wasn't with me on the train. Probs left it behind when I apparently must have put it down to help rosemar pick up all her dropped stuff and forgot to bring it with me ugh == (how do things like that even happen)
0 comment[s] | back to topJuly 17th - Namba (Dōtonbori), Shinsaibashi, Tennōji Park then all the way to Kyoto (Gion)
written on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 @ 10:39 PM ✈
I feel like true satisfaction comes when I can understand puns made in Japanese :D Like when you read puns that have been translated from another language it just lacks punch... very majorly. Anyway!! I am picking up from where I left off. I haven't posted since 18th of September... which was like a week before mid sem break? Story was that we got bombarded with assignments that week, then it was mid sem break and I went down to Melbourne and ever since I got back til now it was a mixture of laziness and continually drowning in assignments. So yeah. So the last post was about universal studios and you can click here if you forgot. It goes without saying that the narration of the shows and rides are in Japanese. I'm in awe because literally less than a second the things are said Ling is already translating to Rosemary. Of course it helps that she is part Japanese :P I can only understand it as it is in Japanese, like it just makes sense to me as is so it would be difficult for me to translate quickly. On to the diary! (This one is a long one, prepare yourself) ※ Note: Best read in conjunction with the album photos. Today's post goes from this photo here to here --- log in to see them. Side story #5 - So Ling, Rosemary and I rode the ride Space Fantasy twice (finished it then went right back on it) and later after we had walked around USJ we passed it again and Rosemary goes "hey wait, did we ride that yet? (points at Space Fantasy)" Giving her a chance to realise that obviously we did I pointedly stared at her for like 20 seconds and eventually had to remind her that we did orz So firstly, went to bed super late at like 1:30-2 or something can't remember. Also yesterday was the first day since the 9th that I didn't drink at all during the whole day, as I was meant to come home and drink the rest of my kirin from the cosmo tower day but I forgot. Woke up at 7:54. We left at about 9 after I ate my melon pan breakfast and went to namba and shinsaibashi. Not much to do there, just a lot of eating places. Also passed by dotombori and Ebisu bridge with the iconic glico running man. Please note that today, it was raining ALREADY WHEN WE LEFT AND IT CONTINUES NON STOP THE REST OF THE DAY. You really don't understand how painful the day was. Anyway glad I wore sandals so that the stupid water wouldn't soak socks and cause that foot rash again. We spent literally forever trying to find Hozenji temple and ended up only taking like a couple of pictures there. Also while trying to find it we stopped at a place which had that drum game and it was only 100 yen each and they also had the naruto blue bird song there! (though the beat was hard as). Also played 3 gachapon... 2 naruto ones and didn't even get the naruto keychain "the last" ver that I wanted :( Got shikamaru first then sasuke (normal and not even the last ver). Well we left and had lunch at about 11:30 and finished at about 12 or something. We had lunch at one of the places in "namba walk" which is underground at namba station. The lunch was a set for 850 yen (tax included) which had rice, miso soup, pickles, tofu hamburg (which tasted pretty good really) with grated daikon on top and tonkatsu. After that we headed to tennoji and keep in mind that this whole time of walking we got wet, only to "dry off" while having lunch and then like 2 mins later while walking it just undoes all the work. Anyway it was really uninteresting, just a rainy park and we didn't go to the zoo. Still rainy and I was wearing my pink/orange short long skirt which sort of sticks out of my umbrella so it got super wet. We sussed out where spa world was and headed towards Osaka station and went to Pokemon centre briefly. Not sure when we got there but left at 3:05. Bought pokemon pocky and a memo pad. Was considering getting a pokemon headphone jack but didn't have a favourite pokemon. Also bought the osaka pokemon coin and I should have flattened it immediately after it was pressed since it's warm but it was TOO warm and now my coin is permanently deformed-ish sigh. We left and took a 3:30 train of sorts to Kyoto station, and then transferred twice to get to Higashiyama station. Please keep in mind it's raining super hard by now. We got to that station at about 4:35 and had 20 mins to make it to the tea ceremony place. Got to the place at like 4:45 and we had to wait outside in the pouring rain cause it's a one room kind of place and they had a sign on the door that said to wait until the session was done. So yeah fun times especialy since whole of left arm was wet, bag was soaked, legs from knee down were wet, and skirt from butt down was so wet if you squeezed it water would come out. (After note: I know you are rolling your eyes but only Rosemary understands how painful this day was. If you don't believe me please go run all your clothes under a tap, wring it out then wear it. This is the feeling we endured over the whole day). Tea ceremony was pretty good, 8 people in the session (though apparently meant to be 14) and 2 others aside from us were from australia too lol (but from brisbane). 4 people wore kimonos and i'm like how the hell are you guys not soaked. Anyway yeah it was awkward cause I went into the room first and so I was closest to the instructor and they told me to drink the tea freely... And only I got the cup of matcha the teacher made and honestly no matter what people say it's not bitter at all so it was weird when she asked me how it was cause I liked it and it's not strong at all. Also I only took one sip despite them telling me to drink freely cause I wanted to listen in and also I don't like people staring at me == But then later when it was our turn to make a cup each and eat our sweet the other lady came and took the cup away and I didn't get to drink it all :( They probably thought I didn't like it but I'm just awkward at drinking it.. After that (our tea thing was reserved for 5 and it finished at like 5:50) we went outside and walked down the road to where there were lots of people in their umbrellas. And no matter how wet my skirt was it actually dried after the ceremony... But literally as soon as we got out the rain WAS MUCH WORSE AND EVERYTHING WAS UNDONE IN LIKE 20 SECONDS LEGIT. And as we walked up there to walk the procession of sorts (but it was hard to see since far away nothing anything interesting happened for the first 20 mins). Then finally they walked past us and we got our pictures and videos and we decided to leave at like 6:40 or so I can't be sure. And it's really no joke that I was SOAKED from bag, left arm, legs down and BUTT DOWN OF MY LONG SKIRT IN FRONT AND BACK CAN YOU BELIEVE. SOAKING WET you don't understand that it was so wet that the whole skirt was the same shade, that the concept of a "wet patch" was long gone and also you could squeeze out water. And as I walked I even had to scrunch up the skirt in my hand to prevent it from getting more wet. Made our way back to Kyoto station then took a super slow local train back to Osaka. Left Kyoto at like 7:30 and only got back to Osaka at 8:20 or so. And it stopped many times randomly. Only reason we took the local is cause it was the next train and a lot of the train were super delayed thanks to heavy wind and rain and general typhoon weather. We were going to go to spa world but I gave up cause super late and might not be able to get home, also cause we hadn't had dinner yet. We decided to eat and ended up eating on the 10th floor of the station-y thing at the Lucua dining place. Even though it was like almost 9 there were still so many people at all of the restaurants that there are even queues outside the door. Anyway we decided on a place and I got a set with salad, an onion-y bacon soup, jar salad (pickles, lettuce, that weird black seaweed which was also in our lunch), and some sort of fettucine?/pasta with tonkatsu on top omg what a combo. Rosemar got same but instead of the last item, it was omurice with tonkatsu on top with both tomato and demi glace sauce. It was basically 9:50 when we left and got home at like 10:35. Found the carpet wet behind the bed where the aircon was and it wasn't from the rain cause ceiling was fine. It's appparently aircon's fault so yeah. Also I totally had fun (NOT) sitting on the long train ride from kyoto to osaka on my wet skirt which just caused further soaking of my underwear (y). Legit thought I was going to get sick since wet clothes pressing to your skin ain't good, got headache and also got developing cold sore on upper lip great. Well yeah by after dinner and time to go home my skirt was basically almost dry o_o (probs from stealing my body heat) Anyway It's now 11:45, haven't showered yet and I'm drinking the rest of my kirin. Accidentally didn't put my kiwi coolish in the freezer part so I can't even eat it x_x Hopefully the freezer works so I can have it tomorrow but I'm sad without my ice cream. Perhaps there was more for me to talk about but forgot 0 comment[s] | back to top |