Video Courtesy of KSL.com
okinawa =D just lovely.
YAY!! Okinawa was so pretty =D I'm glad I went. We left Wednesday morning and flew to Okinawa Naha Airport from Tokyo Haneda Airport. Our schedule was ridiculously packed. Wednesday we went to this Bingata Warehouse to make our own Bingata, which is Okinawa's best known dyed product in Japan. Look it up if you don't know. After that we went to explore the Shuri Castle, and then straight to our hotel. The view from our room was amazing! First night there we all bought Beer / Sake and drank on beach.
The next day we got to make our own Ryukyu Glasses. I messed up a few times on mine so I had to redo it. But I was wearing flip flops so I was kind of preoccupied trying to make sure nothing hot fell on my feet. After that we headed over to Okinawa World. It started raining while we were there =( SUCKS. But luckily the weather cleared up before we had to leave so we all got to play on Emerald Beach for a while. SOO SOO SOOOO PRETTY!
@ Emerald Beach 
Me attempting to shape my glass work. Not working unfortunately. 
At Okinawa World Aquarium. That whale is huge! 
Other events worth the mention.
The Manzamo Cliff. Beautiful =D Okinawa World to see this pretty awesome cave =D too bad camera can't function properly in the dark. Sigh. We also went to a Peace Memorial Museum which focused on the effects of World War II with regard to Okinawa and it's people.
The last day in Okinawa, we went to Kokusai Street for some shopping. We were there around 10:30 am and I already knew what I wanted to get. So I hit up a few sake stores looking for the perfect omiyage (souvenir) for my dad. I asked the lady at the second store I went to if a particular bottle of Okinawa sake, called Awamori, tasted good and the next thing I knew she was shoving a sake cup at me. I think she let me taste like 3 or 4 different ones. It was so strong. Awamori usually has 15-60% alcohol in it. Holy Crap. So my friend Yumi asks if there is a sweeter tasting one since the ones she gave us were bitter. So she pours another cup and we drink. So Gross and Strong. She was like.. sweet right? We were like.. no. not sweet at all!!
I ended up buying three different Awamori bottles, all around 30% alcohol. Got some for my uncle as well. Oh yea.. the third store I went to I asked if I could taste a bottle of Awamori. The lady asks how old are you, so I tell her. Then she goes.. uhh can I see your ID. LOL. Makes Me SMILE!! I was going to buy this snake venom sake, but the snake inside the bottle kinda freaks me out. And I don't think my dad or uncle would drink it.
Snake Venom Bottle 
...
The next day we got to make our own Ryukyu Glasses. I messed up a few times on mine so I had to redo it. But I was wearing flip flops so I was kind of preoccupied trying to make sure nothing hot fell on my feet. After that we headed over to Okinawa World. It started raining while we were there =( SUCKS. But luckily the weather cleared up before we had to leave so we all got to play on Emerald Beach for a while. SOO SOO SOOOO PRETTY!
Other events worth the mention.
The Manzamo Cliff. Beautiful =D Okinawa World to see this pretty awesome cave =D too bad camera can't function properly in the dark. Sigh. We also went to a Peace Memorial Museum which focused on the effects of World War II with regard to Okinawa and it's people.
The last day in Okinawa, we went to Kokusai Street for some shopping. We were there around 10:30 am and I already knew what I wanted to get. So I hit up a few sake stores looking for the perfect omiyage (souvenir) for my dad. I asked the lady at the second store I went to if a particular bottle of Okinawa sake, called Awamori, tasted good and the next thing I knew she was shoving a sake cup at me. I think she let me taste like 3 or 4 different ones. It was so strong. Awamori usually has 15-60% alcohol in it. Holy Crap. So my friend Yumi asks if there is a sweeter tasting one since the ones she gave us were bitter. So she pours another cup and we drink. So Gross and Strong. She was like.. sweet right? We were like.. no. not sweet at all!!
I ended up buying three different Awamori bottles, all around 30% alcohol. Got some for my uncle as well. Oh yea.. the third store I went to I asked if I could taste a bottle of Awamori. The lady asks how old are you, so I tell her. Then she goes.. uhh can I see your ID. LOL. Makes Me SMILE!! I was going to buy this snake venom sake, but the snake inside the bottle kinda freaks me out. And I don't think my dad or uncle would drink it.
trouble in shinjuku..
so.. today i had to go to my internship (field placement) to make up for the day i was sick and couldn't come in. i'm walking towards the train platform that i need to transfer too and someone taps my shoulder. i'm walking up the stairs so i thought i had dropped something. i pull of my earphones and turn around.. and a police badge is flashed in my face. hmmm.. so police dude motions me to the side of the stairs and starts speaking in japanese. the situation was kind of weird so i wasn't really listening and he keeps talking. finally i force myself to focus on what he's saying and i caught gaijin something and passporto.
so i'm like.. err.. ryugakusei or exchange student, and something along the lines of my passport and foreign identification card is at the dorm. i forgot it. i don't speak a lot of japanese. LOL. anyway he asks what school and i tell him, even show him my drivers license from the states. And that's probably when he decided to leave me along. I'm guessing he thought i was some sort of illegal resident.. probably based on the fact that I'm dark and definitely don't look japanese and probably also due to the fact that there are supposedly a lot of Filipino illegals in Japan.
I don't know whether to be offended or whatever but it was kind of surreal. Then he goes ohh take care and walks away. WTF was that?!?!?...
This weekend was super amazing =D My Friday class was canceled so I was finished by 1pm. Since I basically had nothing to do, I hung out at Makuhari for a little bit with Elle. We went to the CitiBank to see what the rate was.. and its CRAP. So sad =( So I didn't take any money out, I'm hoping by Tuesday it will go up. I need to get money out for my Okinawa trip. Supposedly it's the start of the rainy season, but I hope that it's nice while we're there. I tried to buy a mask while we were in Makuhari but it was sold out. I guess everyone wants to be prepared just in case the H1N1 strain comes to Chiba, except they call it Influenza here.
After that I took Melanie, another girl from the IES program, to Okubo. We went to this cafe that I've always wanted to go to.. just not by myself.
It turned out to be super cute. So I'm definitely going to be there a lot. Then we went to Tsudanuma where we ate Mexican Food for dinner. Yea Yea Yea I know I'm in Japan.. but when you crave something.. On Saturday I met up with TERUI =D We met up at Shibuya and had lunch, went to a karaoke place, and took some purikura pictures. HAHA. It was soooo soo oh sooo nice to see her after so many months. I'm going to break her bones hugging her before I leave. I'm gonna miss her.. or you (Terui) if you read this. LOL.
Then on Sunday I went to the Kids Club in the Yatsu dormitory for an English Party Event for little kids. They were so cute. Their like... My name is... Soccer. It was only 2 hours but we got paid a lot so it was pretty cool. Lunch was at this Sushi Restaurant, the ones that have the conveyor belt. You could also order something specific and they come to you in a little train =D It was delicious.. but of course I didn't eat anything raw =(
Last Weekend.. since I'm a bad and random blogger, I went to the Marines Chiba Baseball game on Friday. I went with Shalivia and Elle and we had okay seats for the price we paid =D The two teams wore the same color uniform so we didn't know we were cheering for the wrong team.. until I noticed people booed when we cheered. Ooops. We bought in cheap beer and McDonalds food to the game. On Saturday I went to the Design Festa Vol 29 at the Tokyo Big Site in Odaiba. That was so cool. They have all of there artists that come to showcase their work and I got a ton of free postcards. The majority of the stuff they were selling were postcards for 100 yen, and some were weird as hell. I also got to watch two fashion shows by aspiring designers. Pretty cool stuff.. I got to sit in the front row =D It's been pretty chill for the past two weekends.
Next Wednesday though we get to go to Okinawa =D Can't WAIT!!...
My throat has been hurting since Monday and I'm pretty sure I've got a cold. So Tuesday night I took some medicine that knocked me out for a good 10 hours, which made me miss work today =( Crraapp. So now I have to make up the day that I missed for work during some weekend otherwise my grade is affected. I also had no food in my room so I had to go out and buy some. The weather forecast for today said clear and bright skies, but it rained on my way home.
But no worries there's a lot of things that I'm looking forward to during this month. Tomorrow since I only have first period, I'm going to Harajuku and Akihabara with some of the girls in my class. This weekend is the Design Festa at the Tokyo Big Sight that's supposed to be really good =D Terui also comes back to Japan next week, and from May 27th to May 30th I'll be in Okinawa =D Vicky is also coming during the first two weeks of June and we'll be going to Kyoto for some sightseeing.
There's so many things to do and my time in Japan is passing by really quickly. I'm currently in the process of making a list of things that I MUST do before leaving this country. I'll post it later once it's been edited =D I just realized I never really mentioned what courses I'm taking here in Japan.
So first off I attend Kanda University of International Studies which is located in Makuhari (near Chiba). The majority of the students here study English and there are also a lot of International Relations majors. There are two programs that teach Japanese in Kanda. One is IES which is the program I'm in, and the other is this program called BEKKA. Aside from Japanese Language Classes, I also take a Sociology and Anthropology course that deals with the society of Japan. I only have them once a week, but they are three hours long =( and also conveniently after lunch. FOOD COMA.
Anyway these were just some of the pictures taken today from around my neighborhood, before the weather turned crappy....
so i'm like.. err.. ryugakusei or exchange student, and something along the lines of my passport and foreign identification card is at the dorm. i forgot it. i don't speak a lot of japanese. LOL. anyway he asks what school and i tell him, even show him my drivers license from the states. And that's probably when he decided to leave me along. I'm guessing he thought i was some sort of illegal resident.. probably based on the fact that I'm dark and definitely don't look japanese and probably also due to the fact that there are supposedly a lot of Filipino illegals in Japan.
I don't know whether to be offended or whatever but it was kind of surreal. Then he goes ohh take care and walks away. WTF was that?!?!?
happy weekend =D
This weekend was super amazing =D My Friday class was canceled so I was finished by 1pm. Since I basically had nothing to do, I hung out at Makuhari for a little bit with Elle. We went to the CitiBank to see what the rate was.. and its CRAP. So sad =( So I didn't take any money out, I'm hoping by Tuesday it will go up. I need to get money out for my Okinawa trip. Supposedly it's the start of the rainy season, but I hope that it's nice while we're there. I tried to buy a mask while we were in Makuhari but it was sold out. I guess everyone wants to be prepared just in case the H1N1 strain comes to Chiba, except they call it Influenza here. After that I took Melanie, another girl from the IES program, to Okubo. We went to this cafe that I've always wanted to go to.. just not by myself.
It turned out to be super cute. So I'm definitely going to be there a lot. Then we went to Tsudanuma where we ate Mexican Food for dinner. Yea Yea Yea I know I'm in Japan.. but when you crave something.. On Saturday I met up with TERUI =D We met up at Shibuya and had lunch, went to a karaoke place, and took some purikura pictures. HAHA. It was soooo soo oh sooo nice to see her after so many months. I'm going to break her bones hugging her before I leave. I'm gonna miss her.. or you (Terui) if you read this. LOL. Then on Sunday I went to the Kids Club in the Yatsu dormitory for an English Party Event for little kids. They were so cute. Their like... My name is... Soccer. It was only 2 hours but we got paid a lot so it was pretty cool. Lunch was at this Sushi Restaurant, the ones that have the conveyor belt. You could also order something specific and they come to you in a little train =D It was delicious.. but of course I didn't eat anything raw =(
Last Weekend.. since I'm a bad and random blogger, I went to the Marines Chiba Baseball game on Friday. I went with Shalivia and Elle and we had okay seats for the price we paid =D The two teams wore the same color uniform so we didn't know we were cheering for the wrong team.. until I noticed people booed when we cheered. Ooops. We bought in cheap beer and McDonalds food to the game. On Saturday I went to the Design Festa Vol 29 at the Tokyo Big Site in Odaiba. That was so cool. They have all of there artists that come to showcase their work and I got a ton of free postcards. The majority of the stuff they were selling were postcards for 100 yen, and some were weird as hell. I also got to watch two fashion shows by aspiring designers. Pretty cool stuff.. I got to sit in the front row =D It's been pretty chill for the past two weekends.
Next Wednesday though we get to go to Okinawa =D Can't WAIT!!
failure of a day
My throat has been hurting since Monday and I'm pretty sure I've got a cold. So Tuesday night I took some medicine that knocked me out for a good 10 hours, which made me miss work today =( Crraapp. So now I have to make up the day that I missed for work during some weekend otherwise my grade is affected. I also had no food in my room so I had to go out and buy some. The weather forecast for today said clear and bright skies, but it rained on my way home.
But no worries there's a lot of things that I'm looking forward to during this month. Tomorrow since I only have first period, I'm going to Harajuku and Akihabara with some of the girls in my class. This weekend is the Design Festa at the Tokyo Big Sight that's supposed to be really good =D Terui also comes back to Japan next week, and from May 27th to May 30th I'll be in Okinawa =D Vicky is also coming during the first two weeks of June and we'll be going to Kyoto for some sightseeing.
There's so many things to do and my time in Japan is passing by really quickly. I'm currently in the process of making a list of things that I MUST do before leaving this country. I'll post it later once it's been edited =D I just realized I never really mentioned what courses I'm taking here in Japan.
So first off I attend Kanda University of International Studies which is located in Makuhari (near Chiba). The majority of the students here study English and there are also a lot of International Relations majors. There are two programs that teach Japanese in Kanda. One is IES which is the program I'm in, and the other is this program called BEKKA. Aside from Japanese Language Classes, I also take a Sociology and Anthropology course that deals with the society of Japan. I only have them once a week, but they are three hours long =( and also conveniently after lunch. FOOD COMA.
Anyway these were just some of the pictures taken today from around my neighborhood, before the weather turned crappy.
boredom leads to FML
So I barely found out what FML means, although I've been seeing it on a few ppl's fb status. Michelle enlightened me the other day and gave me the link. I found one that cracked me up, just wanted to share.
taken from fmylife.com
Today, my friend was pulled over and told to get out of the car. The officer motioned for me to get out of the car too so I reached behind me to get my shoes. He then pointed his gun at my face and frantically asked my friend if I had a gun. My friend calmly replied "No, but shoot him anyway." FML
HAHA... what are good friends for right.
Anyway today I went to have lunch with the Nakatsuka family in Murakami. They have two daughters, one is 14 and the other one is 8. After lunch we played a quick game of Life... the Japanese version. It's a good thing I learned how to play this game during a sorority event before I left America. It's twice as confusing in Japanese, especially since we were playing the Deluxe version.
Then we went to the park. Reika, the 8 year old is fascinated with bugs. She kept showing me all these bugs that she would randomly catch. I am not a fan of bugs and my allergies were going nuts at that time. I am also completely paranoid around areas full of trees and bushes, fearful of bugs somehow falling on me. Halfway through I feel something on my arm and swat it away immediately. It was a ladybug that I just squashed and had to hide in my hand until we got home. You see Reika loovvees ladybugs.. and I had just killed one and I had to hold onto it. Gross....
taken from fmylife.com
Today, my friend was pulled over and told to get out of the car. The officer motioned for me to get out of the car too so I reached behind me to get my shoes. He then pointed his gun at my face and frantically asked my friend if I had a gun. My friend calmly replied "No, but shoot him anyway." FML
HAHA... what are good friends for right.
Anyway today I went to have lunch with the Nakatsuka family in Murakami. They have two daughters, one is 14 and the other one is 8. After lunch we played a quick game of Life... the Japanese version. It's a good thing I learned how to play this game during a sorority event before I left America. It's twice as confusing in Japanese, especially since we were playing the Deluxe version.
Then we went to the park. Reika, the 8 year old is fascinated with bugs. She kept showing me all these bugs that she would randomly catch. I am not a fan of bugs and my allergies were going nuts at that time. I am also completely paranoid around areas full of trees and bushes, fearful of bugs somehow falling on me. Halfway through I feel something on my arm and swat it away immediately. It was a ladybug that I just squashed and had to hide in my hand until we got home. You see Reika loovvees ladybugs.. and I had just killed one and I had to hold onto it. Gross.
tsk tsk..
found something online to do when i'm bored... thnx christy for sucking me into it. i like this feature the best, really tempted to go premium for some of their cooler options though. ahhhh.. anyway these are some photos from the cherry blossoms when they were in bloom. i need a new camera, mine does not do that macro function very well.
p.s. i'm talking about picnik.com...
p.s. i'm talking about picnik.com
i forgot to mention..
We left Seoul at 10am in the morning and arrived in Tokyo at around 12:30. I got home and showered and promptly passed out. I slept until the next day when I woke up at 5am. Technically since I slept for the majority of my birthday.. thereby passing it, it doesn't count right?!?!? LOL
But here's how I celebrated the beginning of a new year in Seoul Korea...
Again... thanks for all the birthday wishes =D Made me feel not so sad in Japan / Korea....
But here's how I celebrated the beginning of a new year in Seoul Korea...
Again... thanks for all the birthday wishes =D Made me feel not so sad in Japan / Korea.
ahhh long time no update =(
I am very bad with updating.
I have been in Japan for about a month now. Golden week, which is a week long holiday for most people in Japan, started on April 29th. I left for Korea with some of the other IES students on the 28th. I had a little bit of trouble when we landed in Seoul though. Apparently with the Filipino passport you need a visa to enter Korea even if you're a tourist visiting for only a couple of days. Scary. I was held up at the Immigration Office for a good 40 minutes while the immigration officer scolded me. I think he felt bad though because he ended up giving me a visa on the spot and told me that next time I come to Korea, I better get a visa...
Our hostel was in Hongdae, very close to the Hongik University Metro Station. Surprisingly we were able to find a club that was packed with people that night. Apparently the night life in Seoul is on no matter what day of the week it is. Crazy right. The club we went to the first night was called Noise Basement. It was pretty fun =D
The next day everyone went to Busan. I stayed in Seoul and went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace as well as the National Folk Museum. I had brought my camera along for the trip, but realized that I forgot to pack the camera memory. So no pictures on the first day. I had to go and buy a 4G camera memory later that night. CRAP. Later that night I met up with Melissa and Hana to have dinner and then we went to the Cheonggyecheon Stream. The decorations from the Lotus Lantern Festival were still up. It was pretty cool. My camera has a very bad night mode option on it, so most of my pictures turned out really blurry or dark. After that we had coffee and dessert at a cafe. I forgot where exactly.
The next day I checked out the Changdeokgung Palace. That place is huge. They were having some sort of Hi Seoul Festival so there were a lot of things going on. On my way back to the station I ran into a protest. There were so many cops there. They were buses and buses full of them. They were holding those long shield things and kind of surrounded the protesters. It was pretty weird because the protesters were just sitting and holding up signs, and one woman was on a podium speaking. Eerie. Anyway they wouldn't let people through at first so I got stuck there waiting until they let me pass.
I met up with Melissa in Myeongdong and we had lunch there. I ate jang jang for the first time and had soju. It tasted pretty bad, reminded me of Absolut Vodka. Then we went to the Folk Village in Chungmuro. We got to try on Hanbok, that was pretty fun. At night we went to Insadong and met up with Hana to eat some Korean BBQ and then had drinks at Itaewon. While we were at Insadong I tagged the rose =D It was pretty cool. This was the coolest picture taken from my trip. It was unique. The next day we went to Hongdae for lunch and met up with Hana. Melissa took me to the Coffee Prince cafe where the drama was shot, that was pretty funny.
I met up with the rest of the group later on at night and we went out to the club all night long. Tiring. The next day I kind of just passed out for the majority of the day. The others minus Kristen went on the DMV tour. I went back to the stationary place to buy more things =P.
Trip to Korea was pretty awesome. I had a great time and I wouldn't mind coming to visit again, only this time I would take the rest of my family with. I think they would enjoy it....
I have been in Japan for about a month now. Golden week, which is a week long holiday for most people in Japan, started on April 29th. I left for Korea with some of the other IES students on the 28th. I had a little bit of trouble when we landed in Seoul though. Apparently with the Filipino passport you need a visa to enter Korea even if you're a tourist visiting for only a couple of days. Scary. I was held up at the Immigration Office for a good 40 minutes while the immigration officer scolded me. I think he felt bad though because he ended up giving me a visa on the spot and told me that next time I come to Korea, I better get a visa...
Our hostel was in Hongdae, very close to the Hongik University Metro Station. Surprisingly we were able to find a club that was packed with people that night. Apparently the night life in Seoul is on no matter what day of the week it is. Crazy right. The club we went to the first night was called Noise Basement. It was pretty fun =D
The next day everyone went to Busan. I stayed in Seoul and went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace as well as the National Folk Museum. I had brought my camera along for the trip, but realized that I forgot to pack the camera memory. So no pictures on the first day. I had to go and buy a 4G camera memory later that night. CRAP. Later that night I met up with Melissa and Hana to have dinner and then we went to the Cheonggyecheon Stream. The decorations from the Lotus Lantern Festival were still up. It was pretty cool. My camera has a very bad night mode option on it, so most of my pictures turned out really blurry or dark. After that we had coffee and dessert at a cafe. I forgot where exactly.
The next day I checked out the Changdeokgung Palace. That place is huge. They were having some sort of Hi Seoul Festival so there were a lot of things going on. On my way back to the station I ran into a protest. There were so many cops there. They were buses and buses full of them. They were holding those long shield things and kind of surrounded the protesters. It was pretty weird because the protesters were just sitting and holding up signs, and one woman was on a podium speaking. Eerie. Anyway they wouldn't let people through at first so I got stuck there waiting until they let me pass.
I met up with Melissa in Myeongdong and we had lunch there. I ate jang jang for the first time and had soju. It tasted pretty bad, reminded me of Absolut Vodka. Then we went to the Folk Village in Chungmuro. We got to try on Hanbok, that was pretty fun. At night we went to Insadong and met up with Hana to eat some Korean BBQ and then had drinks at Itaewon. While we were at Insadong I tagged the rose =D It was pretty cool. This was the coolest picture taken from my trip. It was unique. The next day we went to Hongdae for lunch and met up with Hana. Melissa took me to the Coffee Prince cafe where the drama was shot, that was pretty funny.
I met up with the rest of the group later on at night and we went out to the club all night long. Tiring. The next day I kind of just passed out for the majority of the day. The others minus Kristen went on the DMV tour. I went back to the stationary place to buy more things =P.
Trip to Korea was pretty awesome. I had a great time and I wouldn't mind coming to visit again, only this time I would take the rest of my family with. I think they would enjoy it.