Recollections: Shin-Okubo, Tokyo

     Since I am currently on rest from the semestral break we're having, lemme try to write down all the experiences I can recall on my travels during my 1-year stay in Japan. For now, its on to Tokyo's Korea Town, Shin-Okubo!

      Being a fan of K-pop, I decided to visit Tokyo's Korea town, Shin-Okubo. It's a station north of Shinjuku when you ride JR's 山手線 (Yamanote line). Together with my friend who was also a fan of K-pop, as soon as we stepped out of the station we were already anxious of going around. Even inside the station you could already see posters of K-pop and K-drama artists on their advertisements. You will be greeted with stores selling K-pop merchandises, korean skin care products, Korean food, everything Korean! We were spazzing over the overflow of K-pop goods! 

Some pictures of Koreatown:

From CDs

To Calendars

And Posters

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Autographs of Artists are put along Store walls

     Since we were both ELFs (EverLasting Friends),  a name for fans of Super Junior, we were looking for the famous Super Junior Town somewhere in this area. After minutes of GPS searching and walking along the alleys, there it was! Hidden in an alley was our long-searched Super Junior Town! Even from its sight I was already dying to get in. We tried to keep our calm to avoid eyes at us. But as soon as we went inside, the fans inside us literally tore through our control. Everything, from the walls, music, decorations, accessories, even to the food, everything was filled with Super Junior goods! I think the waiters are accustomed to customers like us, since no one minded us losing our minds inside. We ordered the store's special: Super Junior Kimchi Cheese. While we waited and ate our food, We were entertained by the showing of SJ's Super Show 4 concert in Tokyo. Even other customers were enjoying everything. And we were giddy when our biases would show up on the screen. After eating, we chatted for a while, and even if it breaks our hearts, we left, but swore to come back often as much as possible.

Some pictures of Super Junior Town:

They even have an Ikemen bar. Wonder if they're as good looking as the real SJ

Name an album? They have all

Sapphire Blue Lights!

They even have their twitter account!

And they have each member's pic on the wall and customers can freely post their feels lol

Their Mr Simple posters

Enjoying SS4's Oppa Oppa Performance

SJ Kimchi Cheese! <3

SJ Posters from all albums!

Id wish for frequent rain if I'd use this!

Precious mementos!

     After lunch, we had to separate since we both had other appointments. As for me, I had to make use of the 1-day train pass, a pass that gives you unlimited rides around Tokyo for a day, that I bought. After Shin-Okubo, I walked around Hamamatsucho and Roppongi to stroll around the Pokemon Center and take a nice walk around Tokyo Tower. The tower looks beautiful when the sun sets. After that, I went to Shinjuku to stroll around and be amazed on its illuminations. 

     Here are some photos of the trip. Enjoy! :)

Tokyo Tower in a distance 

Amusement below the tower

From a lower perspective

Light up!

A starry night 

Music and City Lights

To The Pristine Waters of Moalboal

After brain-draining days and sleepless nights, finally, the semester is over! 

Since our finals ended last friday, I wanted a day to relax at the beach. A good beach is always a good place to relax and think on the things that happened to your life. And since I've only been to the beach twice since I came back from my exchange program in Japan, my tropical instincts are still craving for the waves (apparently you can't go the beach every time you wanted to in Japan haha). So I decided to go there within this two weeks of break.

But I never thought that I would be going to the beach the next day. It was just an impromptu decision. So on the next day I disturbed my friend by calling her at 6am in the morning to be able to go to the beach. Since this was an impromptu trip, we decided not to swim, just stay at the beach and have fun. So I brought my laptop, camera, money barely enough for the trip, lunch, and water, and left. We met at the bus terminal around 9, and left for Moalboal, one of Cebu's famous beaches. 

A bus trip to Moalboal takes around 3 hours. Basically, the farther you go from the city, the more beautiful the beach becomes. To make use of the time we watched Tokyo Sonata in my laptop. After watching the movie, we realised that we were already nearing the destination. We were enjoying the trip since the scenery, from the mountaintops to the seaside, were all beautiful. 

Arriving at Moalboal, we had to travel a tricycle to be able to get there, which takes around 10 minutes. Arriving at the place, we had to pay an entrance fee to get in the beach (maintenance fee or something). Since we literally have enough money for the trip (because it was impromptu), we weren't able to rent any cottage, so we just sat along the beach. We just arrived in time for lunch. As we were having lunch, we noticed that there were quite a number of foreigners present. It was quite crowded than usual since its the festival of the town, and people are celebrating along the beach. After lunch, we took a few pictures, talked, and just had fun. After that, we left around 2:30pm to be able to arrive back to the city before nightfall. 

Despite all the calamities that happened (the recent strong earthquake and storms), its calming to know that the beaches are still as beautiful and calm as they were before. Here's some pictures from our trip. :) 

out in the open

A sight of Negros island from the beach

Most of the times I wished I lived closer to the beach

Working leisurely? Only in the Philippines

It's indeed nice to take a walk here

Thank you Edilyth for coming with me! 

Selfie on the bus

A last selfie before setting back for home

A Year Forward

August 29, 2013.

One year has passed

A year ago, I embarked on the biggest adventure of my life. A year ago, on this same day, I left for Japan. A new place. A new experience.  Ever since, a lot of things happened. Good or bad, memorable or not, it was all worth experiencing.

On the month of June, on my last few weeks in my stay in Japan, I tried to make a summary, reflection, and somewhat my message of thanks to important people in my stay there. I never realized that it was impossible to reflect and give thanks when youre still on that experience. So I decided to just finish giving a summary and write the later two while I think about it after I go home.

“525,600 minutes. 525 thousand moments so dear. 525,600 minutes. How do you measure, measure a year?”

These are the first few lyrics of Rent’s Seasons Of Love. One of my favorite songs. But moving on, how do you measure a year? How do I measure the life I spent in Japan?

Going to Japan was my lifelong and my initial dream for a higher dream. When I entered college, since I loved Japan culture and the language, I decided that this would be the first country I should visit before others. I had this dream aimed after graduation, on my masters degree. But for some lucky and God-given miracle, I got the opportunity 3 years earlier than I expected.

Before I even came to Japan, I looked like this: a young, thin, innocent-looking kid who hasnt reached puberty yet.

After approximately 10 months, I realized i've changed a lot. My hair is long, thick, color, and permed, I gained around 10 kilos, and I got the puberty that every teenager went through.

In my stay in Japan, i've had my share of all experiences: best, good, bad, worst. Ive had unproductive times, and some were so busy I cant even imagine how I was able to do those things. But most importantly, I was able to carve great memories into my mind.

Since it was nearly 5 months from the last time I posted something on my blog, I wanted to just give my whole trip a quick summary and hopefully write each experience on separate blog posts.

September and October– Adjusting process. I had to cry because the food in Japan was too expensive. Trying to adjust to the dorm life in 2^nd Men's Dormitory, living far from my family, and exploring Tokyo and making friends and Joining clubs. In this time I was busy practicing my archery and at the same time singing at the a capella club that I joined. First time at the Pokemon Center!

November – somehow got used to the life in Tokyo (you cant generalize Japan life from Tokyo life; Tokyo is a country in itself with a totally different lifestyle). Got my first part time job at a phone factory, Travelled to Nikko. Somehow adjusting again from the change of seasons (it was the peak of autumn). By this time I gained 3 kilos.

December- My 18^th birthday, alone. That was really sad. Met with my fellow Filipino Foreign exchange students and spent a good Christmas Break around Tokyo.

January and February – Basically this was mostly on improving my Japanese skills. Somehow unproductive because of winter. My first time to experience snow! Went to Disneysea with my best friend. Also did Mochitsuki and alumni homecoming of the dorm. And I don't know if its because of winter, or I just ate too much, because I gained a total of 10 kilos on that time!

March – Met with my fellow Filipino foreign exchange students again and travelled around Kansai (Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Kobe) and Fukuoka. A lot of first times (including coloring my hair). I guess the most rare experience I had was when I travelled from Fukuoka to Tokyo by local train on two days! (Refer to previous blog post: )

April – The most beautiful time of the year! The Cherry blossoms were a great sight! The dorm had new members (they call it by the year of graduation, to its 17s). I was not able to participate in the first few initiation days (since it was still vacation, and I was in my uncle's house in Saitama). Basically I was ready to go home (with my flight booked and all). But boy was I wrong. I guess my feelings of wanting to go home got disrupted when I became friends with the 17s in our dorm. I still remember it on how I got invited on a dinner together with them. I guess we got close since we were all 18 year olds (and I'm second youngest :D). Ever since, we then did a lot of things together. Got to eat Okonomiyaki for the first time, and lost at a rock-paper-scissor game for the first time (because you have to treat everyone for ice cream if you lose T.T).I was also able to enhance my Japanese skills (not to mention learn some nasty and slang words >:D). I got to know other people too from other dorms. And I lost 3 kilos in this time, probably because I started jogging since the weather was warm enough. Got in ICU Hub because I got to hang out with them often before our Korean class.

May – Probably the most unforgettable time of my stay in here. Did a LOT of first times. I don't even know where to start. The best was the Golden Week Holiday. With the 17s, I was able to go eat my first raw meal at Tsukiji Fish Market, attended at a Japanese Christian Church with my dorm mate's family, and did a homestay (technically it was that way) at Tochigi. And at that time, I also wore a Japanese high school uniform, and got to experience a kotatsu for the first time! That time, the most memorable was probably lying down in the middle of the rice fields and just staring at the sky full of stars, something you don't experience in Tokyo. Then went up Tokyo Tower on the next day. The following weekend I was with my best friends on lunch at a themed restaurant. It was great! On the last week of May, me, my previous roomate, his girlfriend, and his new room mate went and travelled together at Mt. Fuji and around it. Went to the 5^th station of the mountain, went around caves, and the famous Aokigahara Forest (Suicide forest). On a day we were able to do a lot of things. Plus, I was able to eat probably the MOST interesting meal. It was called Motsu. Guess what its made of? Cow's womb. O.o

June- I already sound like a bipolar by this time, telling people on how i'm excited to go home, and on how I still don't want to go home at times. I'm all set for home: my stuff are sent back, i'm around 20% from packing, my papers and requirements are now finished, and i'm enrolled back at my home university. Now i'm just waiting for my final exams, and then gonna meet people for the last time to say my goodbyes and thank you's.

And now I am back to my home, it’s already the third month since I came home from Japan. I have adjusted back to the climate, the school pressures, and the usual things I do here. After everything that’s happened, it was just like a dream, as if I was just sleeping the whole time thinking of these wonderful stuff that I experienced. Sometimes out of nowhere the best memories of my stay in Japan often come back randomly, when im asleep or when im doing homeworks. I guess my heart hasn’t fully adjusted yet. And I guess what they say is true, once you get out of your shell, there’s no going back in.

This experience wouldn't be the best one weren’t it for everyone. I can’t enumerate all of you here, but yes, I really mean everyone. Last year was a big stepping-stone into going forward to my future, and to the realization of my dreams.