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.

めずらしいけいけん

This blog post was written last March. But I just decided to post this now after a bit of thinking. So here goes. Enjoy reading! :)

"From finals, directly to spring break vacation, this prevented me to have the time to update my blog. But let me catch up by writing this.

Travelling Half of Japan on a local train. Beat that.

This spring break, I travelled Kansai and Kyushu with my fellow foreign exchange friends. We went all around Kansai from March 8th to 18th. Our Kyushu trip was supposed to be from the 19th to the 28th, but in the middle of our Kyushu trip, an emergency went out and had to let me go home to Tokyo asap by March 23rd. Since Fukuoka (The place where we were staying for the duration of the trip) was nowhere near Tokyo (Fukuoka is on southern Japan, Tokyo is on central Japan), and I had no money to afford a bullet train, overnight bus, or plane, my friend sold me her used 5-day unlimited train rides all over Japan to me. 

So there I was, planning the rides and searching for train timetables. A day was not enough to go home. The total amount of travel time needed was approximately 23 hours. So I planned my route to stop at Nagoya, then continue in the next day for Tokyo. I took the first train from Chihaya station (4:55am) on the 22nd of March, and went on to my soon to be unforgettable adventure.

Since I was only limited to ride local trains, and bringing all my things (3 big bags, with my laptop, clothes, camera, and xbox), I was expecting this travel to be dead tiring. But it was the exact opposite. Even though I had no sleep, I was wide awake from being awed by the beauty of the sunrise, the rurals of Japan, and by the people around me. My mind was afloat the whole trip, thinking about anything that would pop out of my head. I was also able to rest from the trains' comfortable chairs. As I said awhile ago, I was supposed to stop to Nagoya and spend my night there (from 3 reasons: 1.) Nagoya was in my opinion, the middle of the trip, 2.) Nagoya was a bit crowded, so its safe to say you could find a place to stay for the night, and 3.) It was one of the places where Dream High, a Korean drama, was cast. And since me and my mom loved it, I wanted to look at those exact places.). But looking back on the things I'm bringing, and remembering the reason why I need to go home, I decided to try my best to reach home, even if I would ride the last train in Tokyo (which is one thing you DO NOT want to experience. Trust me.). Sadly, a day of travel from south to central Japan is not enough. Thus, the last train led me to Numazu, which was in the middle of Shizuoka Prefecture and Tokyo Prefecture, so the travel for the following day would not be that long anymore. I arrived at exactly 12:10am. The first train for home was still in 04:55 am. So I had to look for a place to wait for 4 hours 45 minutes. My places to stay were as limited as to everything. I literally only had 1,000¥ on my wallet. So inns and hotels were out of the option (an overnight stay costs 4,000¥). So it led me to my next option: manga cafes. Looking around, I saw one near the station, but was saddened looking at the prices. Apparently the cafe was a high-class one, so my budget did not fit. I only had 2 options: wait outside the train station or stay at a 24-hour place. I was relieved to see a 24-hour McDonalds across the station. I planned to buy a coffee to be able to stay there. But as soon as I bought my coffee, all seats were taken. And it looked like everyone was doing the same thing I was supposed to do. Without any options, I was left to staying outside the train station. It was really a good thing that spring has now come, so it was not that cold anymore. To add it, there were free wifi zones around me, so I surfed the net to distract me from looking at my watch. I thought about how i'm gonna survive this night at ease. But then that's where my thought backfired.

From that night I was able to look at Japan from another view. I saw drunk people shouting around and wandering around, women waiting for their rides, people with the same situation as me, waiting for the first train, policemen doing their rounds actively, and vomits from people who drank too much. Avoiding trouble, I sat at the closest bench outside the train station and police box, and surfed the net and watched Family Guy to get me distracted. On the middle of my watching, a policeman and policewoman went up to me and asked the usual stuff (age, what I was doing, name, etc). At first I was nervous because they were shocked that I was still 18 (and 18 year olds were not allowed to be out at this time), but I was really glad they were very friendly, so they were more like chatting with me rather than interrogating (yes, chatting. Since I am now able to converse in Japanese). After I told them my situation, letting them check my bags if I was really travelling, and showing them my residence card, they told me to take care (with smiles), and went off. After that, I went back to watching, and updating my twitter feed on Super Junior (March 23 and 24 is their first day of their Super Show 5 world tour). I was enjoying myself when suddenly a middle-aged man (around late 30s to 40s) was biking near me and paused in front of me. Thinking that it might be someone who wants to ask me something, I paused the video and looked up to him. But at that moment, as soon as I locked eyes with him, he suddenly winked at me. Not the prank wink, but the you-know-what wink. As I was registering the thing he did, he was also staring at me, waiting for a reply. Being too creeped out and scared as hell, I plugged back the earphones to my ears, and went back to the video. It was a good thing that I was beside the police box, so all he could do was wait for my reply and since I brushed him off, he want back to biking, maybe to look for another victim.

The bench at the left was where I sat, and where I had this experience.

From that moment, my eyes opened of how Japan is during the night. Generally Japan is a very safe place to live in. But given these circumstances, danger always lurks everywhere. Also, before I started my spring break, my friends also told me on recent killings which happened on the middle of the night. What i'm trying to say is, even if a place would be full of security cameras, policemen, and strict law enforcement, danger will always be present. It is our task to be always aware of the surroundings and the people around us. Especially when on a foreign place, be a traveller, not a tourist. We should not be ignorant of everything. This is just an experience I had to share. Always be alert, especially when travelling alone. And keep safe. :) "