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