Miss-Becca

six months into my first year of teaching, and it’s unreal. they said that this is the hardest semester to get through, and added to the masters course full of assignments and being so far away from home, it hasn’t been a stroll in the park.

today though. today was one of those days that reminds me why i do it. it’s the second last day of term 2, and i did feedback sessions with two of my classes.

at all different times all over the world today, the clock ticked over to midnight. 2018 is here! happy new year everyone! i wonder what this new year will hold for us all? but no matter what it has in store, for me the first day of january is the perfect time to just stop and feel hope. 2017 was a rollercoaster. two months of exchange and then a hurricane of goodbye emotions before trying to…

for a year, i wrote very little of how i felt and very much about what i did. now i don’t do so many exciting things, and i don’t know how to write the feelings that swim and swing and float and drop more than any rollercoaster i ever rode in usj, and it’s a whole other description of terrifying.

everything is different and everything is the same, but more significantly, everything i see is slightly discoloured by my post-exchange glasses that i can’t seem to take off. and at times i have really tried to.

i’m fairly sure those glasses have melded in and combined with my eyeballs.

so, i hear you ask eagerly, what HAS been happening since then? well, my friend, let me sum up the highlights for you with some happysnaps!

graduation and the arrival of sunflower yellow (woooo~) : 卒業式と新しい車は来たんだ！（うぃ〜！）

flowers from mumsy for wearing a square shaped hat

thanks mum and dad ❤

newcastle (april 22-25) : ニューカッスルに行ったんだ！

our beach ❤

the time when dolphin watching became friend-making with the crew!

sunset and harbour = perfection

the view from the top of some sanddunes

stinky camels D:

our beach at dusk

homemade key lime pie with elaine and kana ❤

anzac day couldn’t have been spent with better company! from our cosy beach house to the gorgeous weather to the best home-cooked korean food (minjoo and eunbi, thank you!) and endless nights of boardgames and hang outs, everything was perfect. our dolphin watching cruise was spectacular and so was sand-boarding! although i don’t think i ever want to have so much sand in my underpants ever again.

to all of you who were there, thank you for another set of memories i’ll always smile back on. ❤

sydney (july 14-16) : シドニーも行ったんだ！

somehow during a whole day of wedding fun, i managed to take a total of two photos from my camera. neither of them were selfies, and they were both during the reception pack-up. but what a beautiful day and a beautiful couple and i am so excited to see the amazing things God will do through them! ❤

and what a wonderful weekend full of catch-ups and meeting new friends! i’ll be back soon, i promise. ❤

@sampson: thank you for meeting me for breakfast after the wedding!

tapioca pearls in muesli makes me happy

brissy (july 20-24) : ブリスベンも！

hooray for sibling reunions, even if they include funky tasting beetroot and fetta dumplings from the night noodle markets. highly recommended if you want a snack with a side of laughs.

at the night noodle markets

not noodles baot so good

beet and fetta dumplings

unicorn hot choc at san churros

a great big thanks to chris for putting me up for the night and for the beauty that was day two! a wake-up tea from mt. coot-tha’s lookout, and then a roadtrip to mt. tambourine to walk the pretty shopping streets =  \(^_^)/

from mt. coot-tha

‘struth

mt. tambourine

then came the day which was the reason for the whole trip. happy halfway to fifty, my favourite brother! 😉 woohooo! shoutout to the lam fam for taking us to a beyond lovely winery during the day, and then for recommending us delicious hosokawa for dinner. このレストランのメニューは日本語で。。すごく懐かしいけど、店の刺身とか天ぷらとかはめっちゃめっちゃ美味しかったよ！

the sirromet winery

little roo with a little roo

刺身だよ！

てんぷら！

no brissy trip can feel complete without a bush turkey sighting, so it was only right that we got just that on day four. we walked around old petrie town for hours, and australia charmed me again. something about dirt roads and yellow-green grass and sunbaked wooden houses and yard sales and spotty chickens on the loose.

breakfast with these cuties

hello turkey-chan

mum discovering potato batteries was a priceless experience

trinkets at old petrie town

hidden away craft store

dinner: korean fried chicken

saying byebye to brissy was pretty sad, but canberra also has it’s perks. the following is a shameless plug for my city haha.

下の写真はキャンベラだよ。見てください！後、来てくださいね！;)

from autumn to spring : 秋から春まで

autumn leaves in isaacs : オーストラリアの紅葉だよ！

by the himalayan cedars of the arboretum

by the arboretum pond

my neighbourhood

kingston foreshore

桜ひらひら舞い降りて落ちて〜 (^o^)v

towards tidbinbilla

some important buildings : 有名なビル

the flag on parliament house from the garden cafe

the national carillon by the lake

i realise i ended up just writing about what i did again. oops.

so here we go. the final chapter of my exchange as documented on this blog. i’ve been procrastinating this for 24 days. i’ll do my best to pick up where i left off and limit my overly nostalgic feelings haha.

mid-january marked my first japanese snow experience. strolling out of a store with そうき, we spotted white-capped cars, and with great excitement (on my part, at least), we drove out of the parking complex into a snow-sprinkled wonderland.

i think i spent a good fifteen minutes iterating variations of すごい and きれい

vince stayed with me for most of the rest of the month, and we alternated between going to sightseeing hotspots and just hanging around in warm places. basically all the photos i have of this month are food, but that pretty accurately describes how we spent those days. (for extra captions, hover your cursor over the photos!)

double birthday party bowling! ビンスと陽介誕生日おめでとう！楽しかったよ！

the lead-up to v day could be seen everywhere <3 <3

special trip to kobe just to eat some of this glorious beef

and then dessert and the hardest i’ve laughed in a quiet public place ever

guess who’s is who’s! ;)

最後のご飯うううう

dessert became an integral meal

more special beef for our last lunch

we also had the pleasure of touristing around osaka and the surrounding regions with all our fellow australians who were holiday traveling :D somehow, i have no photos of the big group trip to usj though…

sorry for taking the only gudetama with a visible butt!

hello kitty cafe with cute cakes

and cute drinks (and the most ear-destroying song played on repeat for the whole 45 minute duration that we were there)

tempura after a day traveling kyoto!

saying bye to vince was pretty tough, but そうき made it better with a lovely evening spent playing with his dachshund  アンディ (andy <3), homemade food and then an annual mountain burning night in nara. そうきありがとう！その日はめっちゃ楽しかったよ！（ううう）

めっちゃ美味しかった！そうきありがとう！！

奈良の若草山焼き (wakakusa yamayaki – the burning of wakakusa mountain)

shiga february 3: 大学の授業全部終わった後、そうきと陽介とあいかと一緒に雪山に行った！天気めっちゃ良くて皆んなベックにボードの方法を教えたし、楽しかったよ！皆んなと一緒に遊んだの時間、いつも覚えてる！ありがとう！<3 <3 <3

after my classes finished, soki, yosuke and aika took me to the snow! the weather was fantastic and everyone patiently taught me how to manage myself on a snowboard, and the day was spectacular! plus, yay for onsen at the end to ease us out of the cold. ^_^

めっちゃ天気よかった <3 this weather though

the top of my first slope T_T (みんななんでこれは最初の…）

あいか〜 コーヒーありがとう！

nagoya february 10-14: my very last trip inside of japan, spent with the very best company and i couldn’t have loved this city more. we spent our days roaming around, enjoying the vibrant atmosphere, オシャレ cafes and pretty shopping streets. at nagoya castle, i had my first voluntary guided tour from a lovely man called sho, who gave us (in english!!) the history and stories of the structure as he walked with us through the grounds. on our way out, we caught the castle ninja (sora-san~) and he pointed us to visit the world’s largest planetarium, somehow hidden away in humble nagoya. added to the magic of city lights and stumbling across fairy-light heaven, i fell far more in love than i could have ever expected <3

味噌カツ！the must-have nagoya specialty: miso katsu!

pretty city

making fake meals at an art expo

goodnightmare bear

cake #1

cake #2

nagoya castle

the only one with a dry moat

reconstructions

world’s largest planetarium (though we arrived a few minutes after closing time…)

味噌カツ#2

stumbling upon pretty lights is love

didn’t find cindy but…

<3

cake #3 (of many)

i discovered a weakness for city lights

nagoya tower <3

my first omikase sushi!

dessert at pablo’s

i chose to stay in osaka for the remainder of my time in japan, hoping that everyone would have a little time to catch up on more time. i’m forever thankful to everyone who accommodated my unorganised schedule so that we could meet again, and to everyone who did their best even if it didn’t work out in the end like we planned. here’s a photographic (food-centric) ode to those days. ;) (bonus points if you can identify which photo is from our date based on the food i ate! and sorry if i forgot to take a picture of my food and our date isn’t represented here..)

just had to add this brutalised guitar in

and the creepiest coat hangers we found in a dingy cafe

speaking of last times, there were a lot of inwardly teary moments as i realised the year was truly wrapping up.

1. my very last day of undergraduate uni (if credit transfers go okay…)

from my favourite on-campus cafeteria

past the gym

the front gate (took me a solid 5 minutes to get this panaroma without butchering people’s passing cars)

the top of my morning struggle hill

my least favourite red light to wait at

i’ve run through this ground so many times on late mornings (also, the skyyy)

ただいま！tadaima!

and walking home for the last time from suita campus

2. my final (and fifteenth) visit to usj

and somehow we scored a day which was simultaneously stunning (that evening sky..) and empty. for a moment, it felt like we were the only ones there. also, hooray for parfaits.

3. my final wall mural

which was built up over the year, inspired by the desire to cover my overly yellow door. taking this down was probably one of the hardest things i had to do over the year.

4. my final glimpse of osaka

and then i found myself in my beloved hong kong; surrounded by family and family-cooked food. <3

my favourite restaurant in this whole country is my uncle’s house

the feast that mum and my aunty cooked for me <3

mum’s special dish <3 <3

i never truly appreciated the beauty of hong kong before, but this time the skyscrapers somehow had me speechless. and of course, the dimsims.

here again, i was thankful to the people who met me in my few free days for quick catch ups!

earl grey waffle with my cousin

green tea lava cake also with my cousin

super spicy fish with paul! ^_^

round two

a walk along the harbour to digest the food

before round three ^_^

not the usual view from victoria peak

pretty walk near cuhk

the view from cuhk

some cute streets nearby

then, my final travel spot: taiwan!

かおりちゃん、ありがとう！

goose! <3

of course, taiwanese night market is a must

not-too stinky tofu

pretty rock structures at yehliu

waterfall near jiufen

this place smelt like very rotten eggs

but it was pretty!

my first volcano visit!

beautiful kaohsiung

愛河！the love river <3 <3

cijin island with my bby!

accidentally finding this place

kaohsiung railway museum

pier 2

snoopy exhibition

if you look carefully, it’s actually the leaves that are pink!

lotus lake and the famous dragon tiger pagodas

after one more night in hong kong, spent not packing my bags (to my mother’s dismay), i boarded my plane back to the homeland.

this made me look forward to being home more

and australia really did give me a heartwarming welcome me back. <3

chicken skewers

chicken salt potato on a stick

custard bun

projected portraits on the back of the australian national portrait gallery

cloud of fairy lights and lightbulbs

on my first weekend here, canberra’s annual enlightened festival was finishing up. i was reminded of how wonderful my friends are when three phone flashlights backed me up so i could take that photo of the chicken skewers (please take a moment to appreciate it). <3 thanks guys <3 :3 i am happy here. so to end this joyously, here are some of my happysnaps of my week and a half back in one of the places i’m glad to call home.

sticky rice mango with mum

tacos with my dizz

pretty new university buildings!

oh the beautiful sky

4th november: machikane festival

the biggest annual(?) festival of osaka university, i was super impressed by the level of effort which the students dedicated to this event. from the big entrance arch to the signs of the food stalls to the performances of jugglers, singers, dancers and bands, right down to the smaller details of everyone’s energy and smiles, my own university’s orientation week event really seems lacking in comparison.

following up the pleasant day by walking ishisbashi with a friend (thanks for coming all the way out!) and then eventually ending up roaming the streets of umeda was perfection. uptown osaka never ceases to surprise. who knew there could be a shrine (temple? oh dear..) hidden right in the middle of the shopping street?

5th november: kifune jinja

what a beautiful place, and it would never have been possible without our local tour guide (thank you for inviting us!). the kifune jinja is located up in the mountains, not too close to the city area of kyoto. though most famous for the steps out the front of the shrine, it was the lead up to that climax which made the experience. it was freezing cold, but the water-top lanterns and restaurant lined streets were just wow. worth.

13th-14th november: hiroshima and miyajima

coming back here as a school trip was really a nostalgic rollercoaster. missing the friends i’d visited hiroshima with before but trying to be in the moment was a difficult balance. however, there were new things to be experienced this time. my attention was shifted away from my wallowing self-pity when we had an atomic bomb survivor share her story.

the effects of the bomb were further and wider than i had imagined. when i visited the museum last time, i was choked up by the sight of the remnants of children’s clothing or bento boxes or even hair and nails put on display. there were stories of people who had died years after the explosion from leukaemia or other cancers caused by the radiation. what i didn’t think of was that people could possibly still be suffering directly from it. that children of the survivors could be carrying health problems caused by a war they didn’t fight. that people would discriminate against them. that there would be shame in admitting where they were from and what their parents had gone through.

it’s humbling to see the city now, a memorial of those who were harmed and a people who stand up for the banning of nuclear weapons.

miyajima was exactly as i remembered it, with an extra dash of colourful leaves. the oysters were fresh and the company was fresher.

hall of remembrance

view from our tatami room

dinner

miyajima again

the reddest tree i saw all season

miyajima’s famous oysters

thanks for the ice cream and beer!

lunch

20th and 23rd november: kyoto trips for days

november is the season for seeing japanese momiji (the red leaves), and kyoto is apparently the place to be. so we went again, once to the fushimi inari and another time to (almost) settsu-kyo. ;)

fushimi inari

so much of this

and so many steps

outside settsu-kyo

this was my favourite

and then kyoto city

25th-28th november: tokyo disney

this heading speaks for itself – その週休み、本当にありがとう！一緒に遊びはめっちゃたのしかった！the theme parks are so aesthetic, and i adore the fast pass system they have going.

disneysea

the aesthetics of this place was really something else

and the food was really not bad either

perfectly christmassy too

nabe for dinner to counter the freezing cold

disneyland

breadcones. what a world we live in.

aiba from arashi’s family restaurant was closed when we got there…

tokyo skytree

cake with kazuma and soki to end the trip!

2nd-5th december: okinawa

  okinawa airport greeted me with an aquarium

the bay by my airbnb room

nearly got hit by a car taking this but yay pretty street

okinawa soba – looks really chinese

shuri castle

this tree needs to teach me how to lay down roots

the view from the top

had to take this 20 times to get it somewhat right

hi duck

mango and cherry softcream

accidentally walked all the way down this path and had to consequently walk all the way back up

but there were pretty flowers!

got lost and walked down this pretty road too

the bay at night

kokusaidori – biggest shopping street in naha

taco rice and a live performance as background music

streets were somehow dead by 8

visited the pottery museum with my airbnb host

pottery street

the hole at the top of the vase is in the shape of okinawa island

meow

last meal before leaving naha

first meal with bae and the fam

first time i enjoyed eating goya (bitter melon)

also ate some raw horse

heading to the most famous aquarium of japan!

hello mr. lobster

wishing i was 12 again so i could jump on this beauty of a playground

this boasted being the biggest viewing glass of 2002 hahahah

super needy fish clinging onto a turtle

goya farm

pineapple farm – look at the tiny pineapples thoughh

literally sashimi for days

pretty rock formation

the sign nearby said beware of venomous snakes, but the view was nice

display of the old kingdom of ryukyu

8th december: kobe luminarie

神戸ルミナリエ was an event i somehow heard about right at the beginning of this exchange year, so naturally i was pretty stoked to go. because of sickness (post-okinawa blues), i thought i’d miss out on it, so i was ecstatic to have a friend in kobe agree to meet me and see the lights (yay thank you!). somehow, the evening was beautifully warm and uncrowded, and the show greeted us with some sweet, sweet music too. ;)

from a nearby skyscraper

10th december: christmas usj

this was by far the most crowded day of usj i’ve been to, and oh my word there were so many people i almost couldn’t breathe. we didn’t go on any rides, and only saw one or two shows, but we won a giant snoopy plushie!

yay tree!

tree at night!

dinner at one of my favourite restaurants and snoopyyy

14th december: my first jazz gig

this was. amazing. i was a little nervous walking into a tiny bar alone, but damnnn. misa’s incredible voice (thanks for inviting me!) and the most amazing jazz pianist ever, all wrapped into a lovely christmas night, with a bonus of being able to touch the piano at the end too. :D

23rd-28th december: reunions in the philippines

admittedly, this trip to the philippines entailed very little time spent actually seeing the lovely city of manila. instead, i was spoilt left, right and centre by my hosts (thank you so much for having me!), attending christmas dinners (and just a lot of food related events in general) and meeting families who have now become like family to me. and oh my word don’t get me started on the festive light displays. we spent hours touring neighbouring streets, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the wonderland which we somehow found ourselves in. as facebook has kindly informed everyone, leaving this country was tough and tearful. there’s so much more i want to see, and so many more people i want to meet, and so much family i want to spend more time with – somehow in 6 days, this country transformed from foreign into another kind of home. <3

dawggggg

so many pretty lights in this city

and a casual venice replica

dinner with my new bear family

29th-31st december: mie, ise and kyoto

i was saved from my post-philippines blues by vince coming to see me from korea. ending the year with a road trip to somewhere new with him and my very first friend in japan was absolute perfection. we hit up the nabana no sato illuminations in mie before traveling down to the ise jingu, and finally stopping by the kyoto aquarium on the way to our new year countdown in karaoke bar. めっちゃ笑った、めっちゃ寝た、めっちゃ楽しかった！そうきありがとう〜！嬉しいだよ！

なばなの里

yay reflected trees!

and the light tunnel oh my..

a movie made up of thousands of strings of led lights

the autumn tunnel

outside the ise-jingu

scored front seats to this show outside an udon store

the front of the jingu

somehow booked out the cutest log house for the night

the interior is even cuter

sleeping in the loft

nabe to help us through a cold night

yay kyoto tower

all the joyous in-betweens

then there were uncountable precious moments just in my darling osaka which made the school times more than bearable even when tiredness was overwhelming.

my favourite andyy

tart date #1

after uni/work dinners with soki :D

minami senri park – autumn edition

tart date #2

saizeriya tiramisu :D

care package from melbourne (THANK YOU NUG)!

more after uni/work dinners

and desserts

pie date with the tart date girls <3

gudetama cafe date with my fellow canberrans

first nabe and kotatsu experience ever! thank youu! ^_^

truly the last two months of 2016 were filled with magic and ever-more love from the people around me and not around me. i saw so many places i didn’t expect to see, and spent time with people who i can now count among my most treasured humans. exchange is infinitely more than i could have ever expected, and if so many things could have happened in the last two months, then so much more is also waiting for me in the next two. sometimes i have to remind myself of this to rescue myself from the weight of the impending ending (oops that got a little too real).

but anyhow, this brings us to 2017. it will be the year of returning, of (hopefully) hard work and some australia travels and (more hopefully) out-of-australia travels. i’m scared and excited and sad and super looking forward to the new joys and memories and friendships which are waiting to be experienced!

happy new year! 明けましておめでとう！新年快樂！may we all look forward to a 2017 filled with abundant blessings! <3

the last three weeks have been incredibly uneventful, especially in light of the summer. they consist largely of class, meet-ups, an average of two karaoke sessions/week and my 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th trips to universal studios.

practically visiting this school more than my own.

i’m still discovering new things though! or rather, the lovely locals of osaka are still tour guiding me around places which i thought i knew inside out. for my birthday, soki took me to an alice themed restaurant. from walking in through a huge book-shaped door, to the card-themed cushions on our seats and the singing waitresses dressed up as alice, the queen and the mad hatter, i thought the restaurant couldn’t have been better. until i was presented the five course meal.

i hope this pumpkin soup didn’t make me shorter

photo credits for most of these shots to soki. thanks for letting me enjoy the experience without my camera!

also, i don’t know about you, but i’m feeling as if 22 pretty much feels like 21. hur hur. hur. gomen ne.

another place i’ve walked past a million times and never looked at, is this hidden mini-floriade in umeda. thanks for a lovely afternoon, yoshi!

some more happysnaps.

finally a sweets date with angie!

pretty views on the way to the supermarket

a chance to play piano again at church hoorayy!

the other day, i began organising my return flight. in my mind, i know it’s a little too early to call this the home stretch for my year abroad, but that’s how it feels. there are still a million things i want to do, and yet i also want to just live here and enjoy the mundaneness of going to uni and hanging out with people. maybe i just want to pretend like i’ve truly settled here, even if it’s just for another few months.

as the last of the tsukumodai fam moved out of the dorm, i also packed my bags. and flew off to korea!

we were welcomed into the country by two of the coolest fellow backpackers we could hope for, and were stoked to discover they had similar travel plans. shout out quickly to vince for taking so much time out to hang with us as well! :D

we kicked off the ten day adventure with 10000won all-you-can-eat kbbq, and followed it up with sul bing bingsoo.

this stuff puts かき氷 to shame. sorry japan.

blueberry and cream cheese…

the following day was spent wandering the streets of myeong dong with our newly made friends. :D the somewhat messy roads of korea are kind of refreshing and so was the big western-styled cathedral which took us way too long to find. i’m sure the water feature could have been refreshing too, but our trip didn’t offer enough sunlight for us to justify trying.

that evening, the group indulged my boys over flowers obsession and we headed up again to the beautiful n tower.

almost missed the sunset because we were inside the tower taking selfies in the hello kitty store and trying to find bubble tea. no ragrets.

vince took us around the night markets in myeong dong for dinner and dessert, and we gorged ourselves on some of the most incredible food i’ve had in korea. mashisoyo! ;)

in our final days of being in seoul, we were taken to a buffet (dongha-oppa gomawoyo!) and then vince and curt spent a day with us at the beautiful palace and a nearby hannok village.

so. much. food.

best ddeokbokki.

gwanghwamun?

hipster patterned walls

learnt what they use the water wheel for hahah

they used to be able to drink this water..

a library/cafe in the palace grounds!

wouldn’t mind studying here for a day in my hanbok

samgaetang is probably my favourite korean dish. cheers juri!

does anyone remember the city hunter scenes from here? ;___;

debuted my hanbok in these beautiful streets (thanks curt and vince for being my photographers!)

and of course, dessert.

and more dessert.

and then we were flying off to jeju island, where we proceeded to spend most of our time stuck in our cute airbnb apartment, as the clouds mourned for us from above.

the biggest tragedy, is that this was our doorstep.

the one day we managed to go for a walk.

safe to say, we hurried to make the most of the one sunny day we had.

alternated between ‘swimming’ and sleeping on the warm sand.

cutest street running parallel to the shoreline

lunch.

and then there was the sunset.

this trail took us to a lookout where we could see our beach <3

thankful for one day of what we had envisioned jeju island to be like, we hopped back onto a plane, and zoomed over to busan.

from our plane window, we were able to sneak a peak at the mountain we had hoped to visit 

strangely, having come from jeju, we found busan to be even more couply.

street art

and more

too many plates, not enough cake.

coffee booth for two

found my cake.

but it was here that i was finally able to meet a friend from australia who had been in japan for THREE WHOLE MONTHS and somehow we didn’t have time to meet in all that time and then SUDDENLY SHE WAS IN KOREA AND I GOT TO SEE MY MITA WOOOOO. <3 <3 <3 although we might have spent an incredible amount of time sitting on various chairs in a furniture store, i couldn’t have been happier about our busan stay.

and then, as always, my homesickness for osaka kicked in and the plane home became my best friend.

japan from the sky

the next episode of adventure was the long awaited family visit. my preparation largely included finally cleaning up my room from august’s mess (ew. i know.) and checking out usj’s halloween event with my remaining time.

one word. zombies.

western zombies.

japanese.. not zombies, but they might as well be. *shudder*

i think i screamed more than the first time i tried the flying dinosaur ride. why is this even legal.

and then they arrived! mum, two aunties and two uncles and my uncle’s selfy stick, all in one city with me. it was a lot to manage and i’m glad to say i only lost them a few times in the city. somehow, everyone has made it home.

our first big stop was kyoto. we visited the fushimi inari, kiyomizu temple, nijo-jo, and arashiyama where i became dinner for a thousand mosquitos.

the best shot we could get of the fushimi inari lol

bamboo forest arashiyama!

waited for a painful amount of time to get a clear shot of this shrine which i don’t even know the name of

finally getting my veggie intake cause yay thanks mum

at night, i was able to meet the girls from our korea trip again, and some cute japanese girls let us play with fireworks with them by the river. ice cream, pudding, and maccas fries made for a pleasant catch-up before they headed to the capital, and i headed back to osaka.

perhaps one of our most precious days together was thanks to the ramen museum in ikeda. with free entry and then just 300yen to design our own cupnoodle cups, the fam was able to bond over the lack of artistic ability which seems to run in our genetics.

the best kind of men. ;)

giant cup ramen model

a timeline of ramen

sadly, THIS was the best out of all of them…

the area of ikeda had more to offer than i could imagine, but since it required a lot of walking, we chose a cute shopping street to explore. there, we found an adorable coffee shop with an adorable lady who made us coffee, brought us cake, let us take photos of all her decor, and then eventually photos with her, and then she indulged us with random photos on her phone as well. i’m still feeling mild regrets that we didn’t straight up invite her into the family.

i’ll never get sick of this look

kobe was our next day’s destination, and we were greeted by rain and a gigantic line outside my favourite kobe steak restaurant. although the steak was a little overcooked, our stomachs were happy by the end of lunch, and we slowly made our way to the coffee museum in minamikouen. the ramen museum set the bar a little too high, but we still enjoyed some complimentary south american coffee.

free coffee for a non-coffee drinker

timeline of coffee cups

mega-sized coffee cup

coffeesaur

as we exited the building, heavy rain led us to IKEA, where we managed to spend two hours looking at things we had no intention of buying. and of course, eating meatballs and cake.

my uncle and his kids curry, box fruit drink and cup jelly included.

the next day was a much needed break, spent hanging around the dorm with an old friend before we headed to another friend’s place for some home-cooked shabushabu and fifa. :D

ありがとう、あやと会長！<3

the remainder of my family’s trip was split between shinsaibashi/namba trips, nara and a lovely trip to wakayama, thanks to the wonderful soki.

calbi icecream is somehow just as nice as calbi chips haha

more bingsoo, with kinoko-yuzu toast to boot

took pictures of this pretty cafe in nara, but not of the deer oops

pretty street in wakayama

watched this man destroy a huge tuna

wakayama seafood = <3

european styled theme park

紀伊風土記の丘 (kii hu doki no oka)

they are literally everywhere.

cute olden style house

hiked up a huge mountain…

but this <3

and a botanical garden with more stairs than plants yep

my last few days have been a peculiar combination of meeting new people and farewelling the few people left from the semester before. it’s probably as close a feeling to time travel as i have ever come. but i’m glad for the new noise in the dorm and i’m ready as ever for another semester in osaka!

july 19: biwa-ko and bbq

i’m so grateful for this day. the sun shone bright and i was spoilt by seven amazing people who showed me how the japanese do bbq picnics. amazing. so much food. and then there was the lake itself. okay so the sand felt like daggers on my feet, but the water was beautiful and clear and there’s nothing quite like playing volleyball in the water, followed up with watermelon and s’mores. soki let me sleep for most of the drive home, but the view which i caught before my eyes drooped was stunning.

my feet weep when they see this, but everything else is perfect

西瓜大好き！

improvised s’mores hahah

そきありがとう！

july 23-27: yay vini!

after a crazy rush to make the last train home from the airport with vini, one of the best weeks here began. it was rather unfortunately my exam week, but we somehow managed to fit in a few trips around the place regardless. pictured below, there was our kobe visit (ft. kobe beef steak and kawai neko), and a fishing restaurant where you fish your own fish and then they cook it for you (totally worth it for the experience, but the fishing is really just taking the rod and trying to hook the fish onto it by force).

but it wasn’t the food that made this week amazing (although watching him devour 18 plates of sushi was quite spectacular). from the tenjin matsuri fireworks down to the rainy walk from the dorm to uni to study, there was just something wonderful about being able to share a new life with an old friend. thanks for visiting! ^______^

july 31: suita matsuri 

my first time wearing a yukata out, my second time seeing my beautiful host sister, and my third matsuri in japan. my host grandmother spent the afternoon perfecting us so that we could twin our way into the event, and i’m surprised i still fit in the outfit after all the food we ate. japanese festivals are simultaneously bustling, loud and extremely orderly. i am gobsmacked every time. the dance parade was on point, and so was the band that serenaded the gorgeous sunset as we headed back to my host home. <3

rina and me

parade!

dwahhh

august 1-6: vacation bible study

a full week spent with beautiful japanese children and a dedicated team from america who came to share the love of christ with this country. i had the pleasure of working in the art and craft room, watching children wrestle plasticine lumps into cute sea animals. i don’t think i’ll ever forget the dances to the theme songs which were played every morning and afternoon, and i’ll certainly always remember the encouragement and love that i received over the week.

they later painted these adorable turtles T_T

and decorated visors

my own little creation (disclaimer: i quit art class in 2009 and never looked back)

it was a tough week though. alongside vbs, there was the end of semester (and four major assignments), and the goodbyes of so many incredible people i met here. the days were a rollercoaster of emotions; joy with the kids, tears with a farewell party or dinner or karaoke and then frustration with an essay in the early hours of the morning, knowing i’d be awake again at 7 for vbs. everything was worth it, but i probably wouldn’t choose to live like that again haha.

august 7-11: the beginning of the holidays and more farewells

the first thing i did after my last essay was submitted, was eat super fluffy pancakes from ‘shiawase no pancake’ (めっちゃ幸せよ〜！) with angie. sadly, the rest of our a cappella group weren’t able to wait out the super long line, but i hope next time we can eat it together! the pancakes were cloud-like. ;__;

then there was my first confrontation with a room being suddenly empty. and so the very first person i met in the dorm packed his things and flew away. eep. </3

and then there were group farewells in the forms in the forms of a takoyaki making party (and then more karaoke).

so much 幸せ that i almost couldn’t finish it

my ocd for this unaligned photo lost out to my tiredness. sorry guys haha.

and this was just the beginning of the goodbyes…

august 12-15: shikoku

the last dormy trip, and on day 1 the nine of us shared memories of the best udon ever, a beautiful temple on a stinking hot day with a beautiful view and entirely not enough shade, and then working off the udon (and kakigori) by walking up 1300 steps for another temple with another view. also, the sunset out the van window was gorgeous.

i would go back there just for this bowl of goodness

temple 1

the view

obligatory stylistic shot

kakigori (shaved ice) with real fruit flavouring!

the first few stairs

and then a lot more stairs

and then even more stairs

but this made it worth the death of my legs

the sunset

and then began the most terrifying drive of my life, up and down a pitch black mountain road which was only just wide enough for our huge van and definitely not wide enough for us to turn back if things got too difficult and oh boy i really actually said goodbye to my family in my mind. somehow, we survived though, and made it to our accommodation, and we were welcomed in by this beauty.

the rest of the days were similarly filled with pretty scenery, good food and good company.

drove through another mountain and eventually found this

and this surprisingly inappropriate guy chilling on the top

sushi train and this delicious monstrosity

sorry station T_T

pretty castle

view from pretty castle

swimming illegally in this beach oops

more pretty castle

more view from pretty castle

probably my favourite view because of the 239829384 hawks soaring around like they owned the place

the castle (in the back right corner) that some of us forewent

because there was a matsuri selling kakigori and toffee apples nearby hahah

most serene sunset by the seaside

my favourite: ehime

naruto whirlpool, without the whirlpool, which was on the other side of the boat. but instead, there was this weirdly still water…

yay more matsuris and children in the paradeeee

綺麗ね〜

august 16: yay more visits!

this time from my churchies back from home :D yay for kaisen don and the world’s biggest kakigori, topped with cheese and tart base and mangoes. :3

who knew cheese on shaved ice could taste good? well done, pablo.

august 17-19: ieshima and si camp

originally, i was going to skip this trip. going to an unheard of island with 20 people who would speak mostly japanese, most of which i had never even met before, for 3 days while my friends back in osaka were leaving so soon.. and honestly, i’d just gotten back from shikoku and would be leaving for tokyo straight afterwards. i had every intention to back out and forget about it. i cannot thank God enough that i went. firstly, the island was breathtaking. and then the people were so incredibly welcoming that the language barrier was only a minor challenge to overcome. and the weekend was relaxing, not just physically but emotionally, as these guys encouraged me in Bible studies and prayer and chatting and games. it was like being back home, at a church camp or youth camp, and just feeling loved for the mere act of being there. thank you everyone! みんな本当にありがとう！i will never forget the sound of your voices, joyfully singing songs of praise in the moonlight on the silent pier. i may not have understood most of the words, but it sent chills down my spine every time.

the water is see-through…

the bay where our lodging was located

cute little pond nearby

the horrendously uneven stairs up to our cabins

this weather though, and our doorstep beach

cute model of the little island

august 19-25: the capital

for a six day trip, i took almost no photos… oops. tokyo was completely different from what i expected. what i’d heard about it was that it was a big city, busy, bustling, fast-paced and kind of cold. i wasn’t expecting to like it at all. all those things were pretty much true, but the buildings were beautiful and there were a million things to see and all the different parts of the city had its own charm. unfortunately, half the days we were there were affected by a big typhoon so we were trapped inside our small airbnb shack for entirely too long.

we still manage to eat well though. :3

and i’ll certainly be back to do my share of shopping. ;)

shopping wasn’t my only goal of going to this city though. it was here that i said goodbye to a few of my favourites here. drinks at a pub, a few rounds of pool and knocking on a hotel door to wake someone up to say bye.. these were the best parts of being there, but also the worst.

by the end of tokyo however, i was re-exhausted physically and emotionally, and found myself once again severely homesick for osaka. and once again, my dorm totally had my back. i returned to a huge group of beautiful brazilians ready to go out to dinner.

dwahh i love you guys more than steak. and maybe even more than all you can eat ice cream bar <3 obrigada!

august 26: usjaebae

finally. third time lucky and we finally made it to this place together. after a day of indoor rides because oh my goodness the sun is truly intense, we shared some takoyaki from the museum (that sounds worse than i expected) and headed to the city to part ways.

due to some unforeseen circumstances, we ended up shopping together, buying coffee and heading home together to find the (once again) beautiful brazilian crowd cooking up a pot of brigadeiro in the kitchen. best. night. ever.

august 28: toei eigamura

as a last time get-together for a group of friends here, we roadtripped out to a ninja town in kyoto. although the ticket in was a little pricey and we had to pay for a few of the attractions inside, i absolutely adored every aspect of this place.

from the general architecture..

to the ninjas all over the rooves

and this little nature strip with the distant kung-fu panda looking temple in the back

perfect japanese streets

and zenzai, which i’ve been itching to try here since i read about it in one of my class literature pieces

and people dressed up to fit in as well (honestly i’m not sure if i was meant to photograph these guys haha)

for the 4 or so hours that we were there, we escaped from a ninja house through hidden doors, watched a ninja fight, and took a million pictures in the trick art museum (ohmygosh these things are so clever i cannot even) and explored the general area.

also on a side note, i went full japanese this day, and matched outfits with j. just saying, but it was more fun than i thought it would be. no judgment please.

august 29-31: the breakage of my heart

if i had thought the farewells earlier in the month were bad, these last three days have been those moments rehashed over and over and over and over. dinners and small parties and small gatherings in random places near the dorms, and world war three over who stole the scales once again. and little by little, the goodbye party shrunk. now, as the end of the month has finally arrived, the lounge is a quiet hub for the survivors. just a handful of us who had set up our laptops to spend the day here catching last moments with the people who had left during the day.

two weeks more and the newcomers will arrive. i can’t wait for this room to be alive again.

and boy was this a billion times better than i anticipated! from the pretty lanterns decorating the room, to the cute yukata-donned girl speaking jap-english at the front, to the big-ass mega-comfy chairs that all but absorbed us into them, everything was just.. very enjoyable. admittedly the storylines were a little hard to follow, but the puppets were cool and it was certainly an experience i would rather have had than not.

2. my first visitor

a whole shelf of my fridge is currently dedicated to chocolate

just another day at nara

near kobe port

and again

probably one of the best ice creams i’ve had here so far

and she brought me a lifetime supply of chocolate and popcorn from everyone at home. thanks to everyone who contributed to the gifts and wrote me letters! <3 she stayed for 8 days, and to cut a long story short, we ate a lot, onsenned a lot, fed a lot of deer, ate even more, saw kobe, and slept very little.

3. koya-sanning with oussep

fun fact for the asian speakers: koya-san is not the name of a mountain, but just the town name. the -san is just there to confuse you.

beginning of the memorial walk

when japan and egypt have a baby

casual panasonic advertisement

nissan wanted to join in too

cutest tatami room, with my first yukata experience folded neatly in the back left corner

best tempura i’ve had so far

beginning of the temple walk

found a pretty rock yard behind one of the temples

this trip unfortunately coincided with J being here, and after seeing her off to fukuoka, i returned home and packed my bag, ready to leave the next morning. koyasan is a quaint little town tucked away in a mountain in (i think) wakayama. we kicked off the stay with a tofu-rich vegetarian lunch and then embarked on a long walk around the memorial site.

now to be tragically honest, i’m really not a memorial walk kind of person. i struggle in museums, and temples blend together in my eyes. i really wish i was better at appreciating them, but so far there has been no visible improvement in my attention span. however, this memorial walk was really something. something about the general aesthetics of all the structures combined absurdly with big company advertisements… the walk was a perfect combination of touching and hilarious.

the highlight of the trip, however, must have been the accommodation. we stayed in a temple in adorable tatami rooms, dressed in pretty yukatas as we knelt on cushions and sipped on green tea. boy could i get used to that lifestyle.

the next day’s temple walk was sadly more close to my expectations. two hours seemed like a long time, especially in the rain with soaking wet shoes that we had to take off and put on over and over again. but soon enough we were cozying up together in a small restaurant over a good bowl of udon before we piled back into the bus and slept all the way home.

4. spending my one free day eating a crap-tonne of food

1.5 hours of all you can eat cake at sweets paradise umeda

where the decor uncomfortably resembles a love hotel

when your friends cook so well you managed to find space in your cake-filled stomach

and for dessert too

pretty sure i’m 5kgs heavier and 20 times happier.

5. casual weekend trip to korea

had to lean over the poor man next to me to get this shot oops

first meal in korea: hangover ramen (ft. a week’s worth of pepper and meat which i still don’t really have the guts to question)

our accommodation, complete with flags of every visitor except australia T_T

our fried chicken and beer balcony

our view

first breakfast was a lot more successful than the ramen

waffles from poo poo land

poo poo museum

poo poo cafe

but the food there didn’t look (or taste, thankfully) remotely like poop

gwangjang market

food hunting

japchae

the horrific experience of watching this octopus die and then continue squirming on the plate…

kekek not gonna lie, i was thinking of boys over flowers the whole way up the gondola

so many love locks and none of them are mine T_T

kirei ne

kbbq

we spent our initial 2 days in seoul doing touristy things and eating a loooooot of food. it was kind of refreshing being in a country where the streets are a little messier, the pace a little faster and the people a little more international feeling. the biggest shame in the trip was re-injuring a ligament in my foot on the way to the airport, so from now on, imagine everything to be done with a minor limp hahah.

6. visiting the border

and i have to admit, i was surprised by the beauty of the area. our first stop was the hill of wind, and it felt like a small paradise. eventually though, we reached roads with barbed wire separating the lanes, were forced to watch propaganda videos and then we walked down a tunnel which had been dug out by the north korean military.

hill of wind – covered in rainbow coloured plastic windmills

peace cafe

barbed wire to stop people from evading the passport check point

no pictures inside the tunnel, so here’s a picture of the map instead

casual panorama of the north k

zoomed in as much as possible

7. another taste of home

visit to the cemetery while waiting

was more beautiful than expected

and then this happened

the bridge from the whale scene in the k drama master’s sun #dontjudge

korean matcha with wonah!

spiciest ddeokbokki ever

one of the highlights of korea was managing to meet up with two friends from australia. it was almost too easy to just walk around the streets of korea like we hadn’t been apart for seven years.

the end of the korea trip marked my first feeling of homesickness since exchange began, and strangely it was a strong longing to be back in the halls of my dormitory. as the plane glided into kansai airport, not even the dreary rain could wipe the smile off my face. also, here’s a quick shout-out to my dormy who welcomed me back by having sushi with me. thank you for unknowingly making my day. ^_^

8. almost all nighters for my first (somewhat) major presentation

nothing has changed when it comes to assignments here. nothing at all. 90% of my part of the presentation was completed in the early hours of the morning of delivery. cheers to vince for confiscating my phone and kicking me off facebook more than once. to my group partners, i’m so incredibly sorry.

9. more casual weekend trips, this time to hiroshima and surrounding areas

and there were so many feelings over the weekend that i can’t even begin to describe. first was the confusion and stress of attempting to rent a car in japanese from a rental place which had no available cars. then there was the seven hour car-ride to our (sweet as) hostel, and our stoic driver who seemed less tired at the end than me…

but most of all, there was the hiroshima peace memorial museum, more commonly known as the atomic bomb museum. i didn’t even have the heart to take photos after the first few minutes of being there. the exhibits included debris from the bomb, melted roof tiles and broken bricks, as well as the tattered and bloody school uniforms of high school aged victims. some glass cabinets contained blackened fingernails, clumps of charred hair and old chunks of skin which had peeled off the dying people. walking out of the building in silence, i think we all felt a heaviness on the inside. it was a hopeless, empty emotion that could only think to really despise war, and long deeply for the day when Jesus finally takes us to a place where peace reigns.

the peace park outside the museum was gorgeous though.

and later that day we made it to the famous island of miyajima.

the must-take postcard picture haha

unfortunately my ligament wasn’t feeling any better, and i regret that i may have been the reason the boys didn’t manage to do a famous hike up to one of the gorgeous peaks on the island. instead we spent the afternoon walking around the island, doing our very best to stop the deer from eating our maps.

10. bunnies

the next day we went to bunny island. i have no photos to show of it.

my hands were occupied with 39487293857205 bunnies.

11. tottori sand dunes

on our way back from hiroshima, we took a small 4 hour detour to see some giant piles of sand.

have to admit they were pretty cool though

for those who REALLY want to take their picture from 30cm higher

side view

ocean view from the top

view from further back

unfortunately, as soon as we got to the top,  shower-strength rain poured down on us, and the option to ride camels or carpet down the dune was washed away. so instead, we went to a museum.

it took me a lot of self-restraint not to snapchat every single feature there.

12. taking a break

  safe to say, after all that, it was time to just chill in the dorm.

our wish tree :3

one of the better homecooked meals i’ve had here kekthankyouu

it’s been about 10 days since those last photos, and somehow resting didn’t actually really manage to happen. since then, there have been movie nights, my a-cappella group’s first performance, natsu-matsuri (summer festival) at my university, a lot of karaoke followed by a lot of salad (with a side of steak), my first bible study, my fourth USJ trip, all-you-can-eat bbq meat, a ride on the biggest ferris wheel in the country, and another almost all-nighter for an assignment which i managed to forget about in the midst of everything else.

tl;dr did things, got lazy, didn’t write for a month, have mercy and forgive me please

on a more terrifying note… the day count has hit three digits. D:

thirteen kilometres, ten people, eight hours, three mountain peaks, one game of flunkyball (look it up!) and easily one of the best days i’ve had here in japan. the day was kind of cloudy (as pictured above) so the view wasn’t great and there was no famous rokko-san summit sunset to behold at the end of our journey. but it is at times like these, that we can insert some appropriately corny one…

I hate to make this a pattern, but once again I have far too many things to record here and not enough creative juice in me to write it out nicely, so photos will have to suffice..

So here are a few of the highlights of the last ten days.

#1: picnic with my host mum and sister:

with the cutest homemade bento box ever <3 thanks hiromi!

#2: surprise visit to tennoji zoo, courtesy once again, of soki and yosuke:

koala-chan hiding in a tree

chill as bat

how to do a cat walk

paint me like one of your french wolves

somehow japanese elephants smell less than the ones in australia…

swaggiest polar bear

#3: first visit to universal studios Japan:

forgot to take this at the beginning so it was kinda dark…

harry potter world (ft. hogwarts) a;lsdkfajs;dlkfj;!

and hogsmeade

hello hagrid!

bloody hell ron, not again

#4: revisit to USJ:

managed to catch the parade this time round

and some dinosaur butt

capped off the evening with oktoberfest and karaoke until early hours

The days in between were spent with the people I’ve gotten to know here. Someone told me before exchange began to expect life in general to be pretty much the same as back at home, and I think I understand what they meant now. I expected to go traveling every other weekend to all the exotic places in the surrounding regions of Japan, but to be honest, just like in Canberra, time here flies without me having to move. Pleasant dinner dates with the girls in a cute bar, or relaxing Sundays geocaching in the neighbourhood, or even just spontaneously finding myself in an acapella group, or rainy evenings eating stupid amounts of sushi train, these are the experiences that make up my daily life here and although I frequently dream of going to other cities, I wouldn’t go back and spend those days any other way.

so here are some happysnaps of the mischief i’ve been getting up to since the end of golden week. and of course, a truckload of foodsnaps.

the last night of fukuoka:

so we kicked off our last night in fukuoka with some souvenir shopping, catered towards my slightly pyromaniacal dormies

pretty canal city

actually, pretty fukuoka in general, as we walked towards our 5 course dinner

course 1: sushi

for 68yen…

course 2-5: nightmarkets

mochimochi gyoza

okinomiyaki, the kyushu edition

tonkotsu yakiramen

unfortunately, we had to leave fukuoka early and fly back to osaka, but the upside was a lazy sunday, complete with sleep-ins until noon and steak for lunch. i repeat. steak. for. lunch. *soft whimpering*

unlimited drink bar with a shelf full of different teas = 23987392 toilet trips in one hour

after a week of class, a bit of maybe sleeping in and missing class oops maybe because of a few too many rounds of late night age of empires 2 oops, we kicked off the weekend with a trip to banpaku kinen kouen. the last time i was here was for the sakura flowers, but this time we managed to stumbled on this little picture.

and the next day we went back there again for a completely different reason.

first stadium experience everrr wooo osaka gambaaaaaa

then, camping weekend. where i might have neglected to take any real photos of the campsite because i was too busy snapchatting the vending machines. yes. the vending machines. at a campsite. yes. right next to the powerpoint sockets. just in case, heaven forbid, your phone ran out of battery while you were camping. welcome to japan. but anyhow, here are some of the snaps that i did take.

field nearby

meat from our bbq

just before our hiking trip was rudely disturbed by a snake sighting

quick snap of the beautiful weather before we ran the heck out of there

so this brings us to now. woohoooo.

ijou desu.

monday:

having spent most of the day bumming through a gorgeous day, i was pleasantly surprised by an invitation to join some friends at the umeda sky building for the sunset.

there are no words to describe how i fell in love with the sight of my new home, and the pictures hardly do it justice.

i thought sunset would be the only beautiful part of this

but then this happened

and then this as well

even the building itself was a work of art.

looking up at the floating garden

what’s more fun than a fun plaza?

looking down from the floating gardens

so fun that even the ground was fun

and for a thousand yen, J and i stepped up our relationship to the official level.

the staff member who engraved this for us kept an impressively straight face as we asked for this

love forever though

making our love special and unique like the rest of the 2094857273 couples who have been here

#suchromancemuchlove

after filling our eyeballs with the beauty of osaka, we opted to fill our stomachs with some quality ramen from ippudo.

obligatory food shots – you all knew it was coming😉

might have almost dropped my phone to take this shot

we visited a six storey miscellaneous store (which i think i may have mentioned before..?) after dinner, and J saved my wallet by quickly dragging me out again by the ears. that store is a dangerous, dangerous place.

tuesday:

yet another gorgeous day – and what better way to spend it than indulging in the popular picnic culture Japan?

good food + old friends + new friends + uke + soccer ball + frisbee = happy days

a few splashes of rain interrupted us a few hours in, and we packed up and went for a stroll.

we passed by this creek…

and found this treasure of an area

there were rows and rows of these country-themed display gardens.. but the rain made us hurry past them, and soon enough we were on our way to sushi train for dinner.

i seem to be making a habit of devouring mains too quickly for my camera. here’s dessert though. japanese-italian tiramisuuuuu.

the early hours of wednesday morning were spent dancing and tambourining around in a karaoke room. singing became performing, and listening became laughing until we had stitches in our sides. 本当にありがとう as always to soki and yosuke for making good things happen, and a shout out to aika, lucas and kaori! yay new friendssss❤

wednesday was spent recovering. ijou desu.

or so i thought, until J and i realised our flight the next day to fukuoka was way too early for us to take public transport to the airport. with mild panic, not-so-mild binge consumption of wax’s smores to destress, many desperate calls and very little sleep, we managed to fly into the kyushu region.

so thursday was also spent recovering, being taken care of by von (yayayay for tehillah mummy) and james, and exploring the city a just little.

when we almost made it to ohari kouen

looking forward to coming back here to try the mochi dumplingsssss

oh, and of course, this.

authentic hakata ramen

and these prices… T____T

the holiday started officially for me on thursday at midday, and i have no better way to share it with you guys than by thousands upon thousands of words worth of photos.

friday:

a lovely organisation of elderly people set up a picnic for our dorm at a pretty park called nakanoshima kouen, and the weather was perfection (albeit a little windy). the day was made up of walking down the longest shopping street of osaka, raiding the nearby aeon for food and drinks, a super kawaii hangout on what felt like an island all to ourselves (picture on the right), a visit to handai’s very first campus, and entirely too many group photos.

and then we finished the day off with perfection.

i may or may not have come last in 12/16 races. cheers joao.

saturday:

first, there was lunch.

mos burger, onion rings and melon soda

here, i learnt that melon soda tastes like green cordial, and apparently cordial is an australian thing? someone correct me if i’m wrong..

then there was lego and an arcade.

neko-channn

and then the highlight…

kaiyukan

tribute to jimpeizame

and this picturesque bad boy

otterrssss

snuck a picture of the giant rat while jaebae was freaking out oops sorry

pingu pinguu

very headless nick

great barrier reef tank – feels like home

jellies are my favourite

seafood restaurant tank

kekek where is spongebob though?

shark foetus

me and shark *heavy breathing*

the real jimpeizame

the kaiyukan was something like 6 storeys high, and although the recommended time it takes to get through it is 2 hours, we probably took something like 3.5, and i’ll take full responsibility for that oops.

afterwards, there was udon for dinner and then my first ever ferris wheel rideee woooo

cute food street

from the ground

the harbour

everything is in perfect lines…

thank you again to soki-kun and yosuke-kun for sacrificing a day to show a couple of gaijins around! <3

kekekek

sunday:

safe to say, we were pretty wrecked by the time today began, and we cancelled plans to go to kobe in favour of attending a festival that was taking place at handai.

no regrets.

there was so much to see; from rock band performances to a capella cafes, to street dancing and endless amounts of talen. and then also the food.

i don’t even know what it really is, but i would eat it again.

then we headed to expocity for a little bit of shopping and a lot more food. >:D

crepes crepes crepes

finally found pearl tea here!

and then more food happened, courtesy of a newly discovered in-house masterchef. ;)

stir-fried veggies and ramen with a side of yellowtail

there’s exactly 1 more week of golden week, and i can’t wait.

but before i get carried away, we can backtrack to..

tuesday:

busiest day of my week, with 3 hours of sleep, 6 hours worth of class and two meet-ups afterwards.

ramen with the best buddy i could ask for <3

bible study with churchies

and dessert worthy of a king

worth every moment.

it’s finally been one month since my arrival in Osaka, and the weeks are blurring together in mundaneness. i guess it can be said that i’ve finally settled. what an awful word.

i’m no longer scouting around, discovering everything for the first time like a goldfish, i’m no longer trying every new snack that i find in the konbini, and home is now hang outs in the first floor lounge in my dorm.

that being said, i’ve actually only visted the city a handful of times since arrival. friday was the second time heading into shinsaibashi, and the first time i did so with company.

first, was the nekocafe, which was entirely too kawaii. the cafe made me a little sad though, to be honest; the cats were so bored – they were neither excited, scared nor interested in us being there.

got carried away and only took selfies at this place, so i’m breaking my own rule and showing you all my face. the cat is pretty cute too though.

we spent the rest of the day shopping around the area, eating takoyaki and then there was the welcome party on campus that evening.

after a long night, a solid 4am hang-out chat session and an hour and a half of sleep, i was on my feet, and on my way to himeji castle with the other brave students who also signed up for a 7am trip after a party night.

it took us six hours, two detours and a crap tonne of snacks from the lovely organisers to arrive at the castle, but it sure was beautiful.

the moat outside

famous for being white, this castle is far more beautiful from the outside than the inside ahah

pretty flowers in the garden

the view from the top – probably not actually worth the hike and the line to get there..

the rest of the weekend consisted of recovering, and playing with my new pal, Andy.

dogeeee

each lesson is an hour and a half long here, which is approximately twice as long as the average length of my attention span. the day begins at 8:50am, and in order to be on time, my alarm is set for 7:00am.

7:00am.

seven. freaking. ay em.

the food at uni is good though, as established last week.

finally, tonkotsu ramen

and I’ve finally ventured out to attempt non-pasta dishes.

the cheapest ingredients I could find, thrown into some soup noodles

okinomiyaki with jaebae

served with honey lemon to sooth my non-existent voice, and cake from marion!❤

the highlight of my week was my first visit to a Japanese household, thanks to a lovely girl I met at church.😀 treated to delicious spaghetti, cake and the company of her mother and brother, the evening was absolutely delightful.❤

so i have no choice but to make the most of it. >:D

the best thing about uni so far has been the food.

niku udon 肉うどん

omurice オムライス and gyoza 餃子 (ft. steph’s elbow)

sakura icecream – looks good, but deceptively has leaves blended into it.

the toyonaka campus is lovely. although the buildings are older than at the suita campus, everything is close together and the atmosphere is cheerful. plus the food is dirt cheap.

after a full week of procrastination, i finally made the walk to the closest second-hand bike store, and bought myself a sweet ride for the year.

here’s to growing massive calf muscles, courtesy of the lack of gears

before yesterday, the last time i rode a bike for more than 2 minutes was in year 10, 2010. it was in mr. w’s outdoor ed class, where we were meant to undertake a 16km cycling track around a lake in canberra. i’ll never forget that day – failing so hard i had to turn back after about 3kms, forcing mr. w to come back with me. i ate gelato as a consolation while i waited for the rest of the class to finish the ride. needless to say, i’ve harvested hopes for this year to reap great improvement in my cycling skills.

so anyhow, we rewarded ourselves for our productivity with a taste of the authentic osakan experience.

okonomiyaki, cooked to perfection by jae-bae

today though. today was the day. the last day of holidays, and a day i’ve been looking forward to for two whole weeks. my 2/10 direction sense had me wandering around suita for a good 10 minutes this morning, looking for the path to church. thankfully, i made it on time enough to catch the first praise and worship song. lunch was my first serving of takoyaki since i arrived in this takoyaki-loving city.

three flavours, all delicious

this line is a testimony to the flavour

indoor fake flower gardens to accompany our takoyaki-monching experience

i had the privilege of being tour-guided by locals (有り難うsoki-kun and yosuke-kun!), and we wound up at the lovely osaka castle. although the majority of the sakura has already fallen here, the area was still gorgeous.

the moat surrounding the fortress

dayum tall buildings are hard to photograph…

this yummy item – kinda like a red bean centred pancake

however, we probably spent about 5% of our time looking at the buildings, 5% of our time cooing at the 3972730502 dachshunds that everyone seemed to own, and 90% of our time watching children chase pigeons around the park. apparently that’s a thing here. there were kids chasing them on their bikes, kids cheekily pretending to walk by peacefully and then making sudden turns to try and catch them, kids with fake katanas trying to whack them.

when the kids went home and our entertainment was gone, we made our way to dinner.

kushikatsu 串カツ

one thing i didn’t understand was why they make share-plates that have only one of each type on it, but i guess that might keep customers coming back. this stuff was far too delicious. we shared sides of edamame, tofu and this strange wasabi octopus dish which i liked way too much, despite the consequent death of my tongue.

we finished off the evening with a good round of multi-lingual karaoke, once again featuring a lot of j-biebster and t-swagz. the guys sang me arashi, greeeeeeeen (how many e’s are there even O___O), the theme song from 1L of tears, and one of the tracks from hana yori dango. <3 <3 <3 they also put me to shame with their knowledge of disney songs.

so now, i’m in my room, exhausted to the core, throat raspy and sore, and the corners of my mouth angled upward. i’m still not ready for uni to start tomorrow, but i don’t regret this holiday at all.