As I was writing this entry, it surprised me how many Instagram posts I had for August 2019. This post is definitely photo heavy, so I hope you’re ready. Then again, I guess I should have expected it. After all, August is when we get a week off from work/school because of Japan’s Obon holidays, so it makes sense that I had more adventures this month. Especially since I didn’t get to enjoy my one week summer break the year before (2018) because I was stressing out about preparing and studying for my PhD entrance exams. I remember I spent almost that entire week holed up in my dorm room just reading and watching lectures online while I enviously scrolled through my friends’ summer adventure posts on social media. I also remember promising myself that I would definitely enjoy myself the next summer and make the most of the short break.
My first post for the month was actually a late post from July. It was some pizza, donuts and fries from Pizza Hut and Mister Donuts. Ray and I got some take-out one Saturday night and ate them while watching Grimm on Netflix to unwind from a stressful week. (I was obsessed with that show back then. I was sad to learn that it’s not on Netflix anymore.)
One thing that Japan’s summers are known for are the fireworks festivals. The previous year, Ray took me to Kobe to watch one, and I enjoyed it so much that I told him I wanted to go again. This time we invited some friends to come with us.
花火. Fireworks are definitely the symbol of summer in Japan. Ray managed to get this great shot during the event.
I saw a lot of people wearing a yukata the previous year. It looked like fun so I decided to dress up this year.
I told Anna that I was planning to wear a yukata, so she decided to dress up too. Ate Pinky didn’t have time to prepare her yukata, because she only decided to come with us about an hour before we left for Kobe.
We met up with our other friends while we were there. Here’s us with Princess Yehlen (who also came with her family to watch the event). It’s good that we had friends who were there too, because they were able to save us a spot. The previous year Ray and I arrived really early so we were able to secure a good spot. This year we made it about an hour before the start of the show, so it was already super crowded. Thankfully Ate Ricca and Kuya Nick were already there and saved a space for us. We dropped off our bags with them and went to buy some food. By the time we were done, the crowd was so intense that we barely made it back to the rest of the group 😵 The fireworks started while we were fighting the crowd and looking for a way to get back to our picnic mats, but thankfully we didn’t miss much.
Here’s another great shot that Ray took
I really liked these ones. I’m not sure if they’re supposed to be planets, or flowers, or something else. But they looked really interesting.
Another summer adventure we had that year was our visit to the Fukui Dinosaur Museum with Ate Elaine and her family
Ray and I woke up at 2am and headed to Ate Elaine’s house. We left the car at their house since we decided to just ride with them. It was a 4 hour trip to get there, so it’s good Ray didn’t have to drive.
There were lots of interesting things to see inside the museum and it was a good way to escape the summer heat. (Unfortunately a lot of people had the same idea so it was really crowded inside.)
As promised, I will continue my Instabits series on this blog after my 2-year hiatus. My last Instabits entry was for June 2019, so I’ll just be picking up where I left off. I’ll do my best to remember key events from each month, but since this was 3 years ago I can’t make any promises. I considered just skipping writing about all the missed months and re-starting my Instabits series from 2022, but each year is filled with so many memories that I want to catalogue, and the thought of just leaving them out made me a bit sad. It may seem silly to be writing about something that happened 3 years ago, but I know future me will appreciate the effort I made when I re-read these entries and remember all the good times.
Alright, let’s get started!
While tidying up my apartment, I found my Instax printer which I haven’t used in a while. I also found this adorable Instax Minion film pack at Don Quijote and thought it was the perfect way to preserve the USJ photos we took with Amie when we visited the park the previous month (since we tried to dress up as minions that day). I gave Amie copies of the photos and I stuck the rest to my fridge so I can see them everyday. Three years later and they’re still on my fridge 🙂
In my June entry you may recall I mentioned that my parents were visiting Japan that month. While they were here, they joined a one-week cruise which took them to Korea. When they returned to Japan, they had a bunch of pasalubong for me. They were all make-up or skincare related – that’s what’s Korea is known for after all. Back then, it was really difficult to find Korean cosmetics in Japan so I was very happy with this haul. (These days, however, you can easily find most Korean products at Don Quijote.)
I didn’t get to spend as much time with my parents before they left for their cruise since I was busy preparing for my conference, so I’m glad I had another week with them after their cruise. Ray and I took them to Keihanna Park one Saturday afternoon.
They really liked these giant rocks for some reason. I guess they are pretty.
There were also some ponds in the area where we could feed the fish (and take more photos).
We stayed there until late afternoon so we were able to take some nice photos during golden hour ❤
After my parents left, I was able to spend some time with Kanika. She was a PhD candidate visiting our lab from India that month. She actually arrived a couple of weeks before but I was so busy preparing for my conference and showing my parents around that I didn’t really have the chance to show her around until mid-July. Ray and I took her to Nara to see the deer.
What’s this? An update?? After over 2 years of complete silence??? Is this for real????
Believe it or not, I’m still around and this blog is still alive, albeit barely. I thought for sure that WordPress would have shut this blog down by now due to inactivity, but thankfully it’s still up. These past few days I’ve been enjoying reading through my old entries and reminiscing about the good old days. I never thought that this blog would see another entry, but I realized that I really liked reading (and even writing) about things I did in the past, and if I want to continue to have something to look back on in the future, then I should probably start updating more.
I may have dropped the ball on this blog, but that was only because of how crazy things got over the past two years. If you look at the last entry I made, it was dated February 29, 2020. I guess I don’t need to elaborate what happened around March 2020 for you to understand what I mean when I say things got “crazy”. Sure, Japan didn’t have it as bad as other parts of the world, but it was still a very unstable time for all of us. These past 2 years had been a whirlwind of emotions as I worked to finish my PhD in the middle of the pandemic, but things are starting to settle down (or at least I hope they are) and I finally earned my degree, which means I now have some time to breathe and get back to some of my old hobbies.
However weird it may be, I plan to continue my whole “Instabits” series, picking up where I left off in my last entry (June 2019). I think this series is the closest thing I have to a diary since it documents my monthly milestones. I already started editing the video compilations of my IG stories for the series, but it seemed strange to just pick up the blog right where I left off after I’ve been gone for so long, so I figured that before I do that I should probably give you guys a general update of what has been happening in my life these past 2 years. Don’t worry, I won’t talk about everything that happened, but I want to share some of my major life updates:
(There’s only six in total, so hopefully this entry won’t be too long.)
1. Ray and I got married!
I am officially a married woman! Ray and I decided to tie the knot on our 2nd anniversary as boyfriend-girlfriend, which was on May 3, 2021. We always talked about getting married after I finished my PhD, so this was a bit of a surprise for both of us. I always pictured us moving back to the Philippines together after I graduated, and having our wedding there. However, after talking about it and consulting with our friends and loved ones, we figured “why wait?”, especially in these uncertain times. We were together most of the time anyway, and we definitely knew we wanted to marry each other, so there’s really no reason for us to put it off. The only thing we really needed to postpone was starting a family, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle being pregnant while doing my PhD experiments. Plus it would be very dangerous for the fetus to be exposed to the many chemicals and X-rays that I frequently handle in my lab. Aside from that, we realized that there was nothing stopping us from getting married while I was still a student.
Our wedding took place in the middle of the pandemic. We just had a small ceremony at our house because Kyoto was in a State-of-Emergency during that time and large gatherings were discouraged. Japan’s borders were closed to outsiders which meant that none of our family members were able to attend our wedding physically. Naturally they were sad about not being able to help us with the wedding preparations, but fortunately we had a lovely group of friends who helped us with everything. And thanks to Zoom, they were still able to attend the ceremony virtually. We were worried that they would be upset that we decided to have a wedding which they could not attend physically, but they were all very supportive and extremely happy that we were finally getting married. (But we did have to promise that we would have another ceremony/wedding reception in the Philippines once this was possible.)
Our small wedding party at home
I made a vlog about how we prepared for our wedding, so you can just watch that:
2. We’re pregnant!
Like I mentioned in #1, Ray and I really want to start our family but we had to wait until I finished my PhD because there was no way my mental health could handle the stress of being a PhD student and being pregnant at the same time. Also, we didn’t want to risk our baby’s health as I did my experiments around harmful substances. But once I passed my dissertation defense and was cleared to graduate then we were good to go!
Maybe I’ll make a separate entry about my experiences so far of being pregnant, but for now I’m just happy to announce that we’re expecting our baby bunny next year.
3. I finished my PhD
I mentioned it several times already, but obviously I had to include it in this list since this had been my big goal for the past 4 years. It was the whole reason I came to Japan in the first place. My PhD started off great, but just like most PhDs, it became the source of many sleepless nights, anxiety attacks and tears. This was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life (well, so far…). Doing my PhD in the middle of the pandemic was not fun at all. There were so many times that I wanted to give up. I definitely struggled A LOT. I won’t talk about everything I went through here, maybe I’ll write about it in a future blog entry if I feel like it. But just know that my mental health was at an all time low during the last year of my PhD and Ray had to talk me through several panic attacks. If it weren’t for the support and constant prayers of Ray, my family, and friends, I probably would have broken down and gone back to the Philippines. I’m just so thankful that I had that support system to pick me up and remind me of God’s plans during my darkest days.
(Just to be clear, my struggles were not a reflection of how my professors and labmates treated me. They were all very kind and supportive. I struggled mostly because of my pride and refusal to relinquish control of my life. I didn’t go through any “abuse” that many PhD students go through, but the journey is just really difficult because you feel like most of what’s happening are out of your control and things don’t always go according to plan. I think any PhD student can relate to this.)
But despite all the challenges, I finally got my degree and I’m free from both academic life and my mental health struggles ❤
My dream of wearing a hakama for my graduation was finally fulfilled
Had to represent UP too so I wore a sablay the following day for some photos
Happy leap day everyone! God gave us an extra day this year, hopefully you were able to spend it wisely 🙂 I made good use of my day by sleeping in until 9:30 am. Then Ray picked me up we could go to some recycle shops to look for Q Posket collectibles. He also took me to play at some arcades (I mentioned in a previous entry that recently this was how I prefer to unwind from the work week). We also ran some errands like going grocery shopping and cleaning my house. I was even able to give Ray a haircut and myself a DIY facial once we got home. And now I’m sitting here writing another blog entry while Ray is watching some anime that I don’t know. It may not sound like a very exciting day for some, but I’m very happy because these are things I don’t normally get to do on regular days. These kind of days are extremely rare for me, and I treasure every one of them.
Today was great, but for now let’s take a quick trip back to June 2019 for this entry. June was probably my most stressful month of 2019, but it was also one of my best ones. It was a crucial month for me, PhD-wise, a turning point of some sort. In my past entries I kept mentioning how stressed I was because of a conference I was preparing for. That conference actually took place this month, so all the pressure from the previous months lead up to this moment. On top of that, I was scheduled to give *another* seminar right before my conference (literally the week before my conference). These seminars are done to update our professors and colleagues on the progress of our research. If you recall, my last seminar was around the end of April. After that we had a 10-day break because of Golden Week. This meant that for this seminar, I only had roughly a month’s worth of data, which wasn’t very much considering the many times I failed in my experiments. Fortunately, I was able to pull it off by coming in early and staying late at the lab. I also gave up a few weekends even though I really didn’t want to since Amie was actually in Japan this month as a visiting researcher in Kobe University. I wanted to spend my weekends catching up with her, but a lot of times I didn’t really have a choice. I’ll get to that later, for now let’s get started on this month’s IG posts.
On the first weekend of the month, Amie visited me in Kyoto. Ray and I took her to some famous locations around the area.
Of course we had to show her Fushimi Inari
And Kinkakuji (Golden Pavillon)
(I already took her to see the Bamboo Forest and Kimono Forest in Arashiyama when she visited me in Febraury)
Here’s a nice shot Ray took of me at the view point at Mt. Inari
The following weekend, Amie and I both did overtime work at the lab on Saturday, but she was able to visit me again on Sunday. This time we took her to explore Kawaramachi (downtown Kyoto).
We found this milk tea place while we were walking around. During the time this was taken, there weren’t a lot of milk tea places in Kyoto yet, so we were pretty excited to try it. However, they’ve recently started popping up and I’ve been seeing more of them around. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to try most of them.
The third week of June was when things started to really heat up. I had my seminar that week, which was a huge success (praise God), however I still wasn’t able to prepare the samples I needed for my conference. This meant I had to work overtime at the lab and I had no choice but to sacrifice part of my weekend again. I don’t have a problem with working on weekends, I’ve done it willingly many times before since I started my PhD, I just really didn’t want to do it this time because I wanted to make the most of Amie’s visit. However, I also knew that this was a crucial period, and sometimes we need to make sacrifices. If only you could graph my emotions that week – you would see two huge spikes : one rising up after my successful presentation, and one pointing down because I was so scared that I wouldn’t be ready for my conference.
If you noticed, in the paragraph above I said I sacrificed only “part of my weekend”. It was a very difficult decision because this was the last weekend before my conference, but it was also the weekend that Amie and I reserved to go to Universal Studios. We thought of cancelling because my conference was in 3 days, but this was our last chance, since my year pass would expire that weekend. In the end we decided to push through with our plans. I made up for it by staying super late at the lab on Friday night, and even coming in to finish my experiments after we returned from USJ on Saturday night. And of course I worked all Sunday, only leaving the lab for a short period to attend our church’s Sunday service. I probably got a total of 9 hours of sleep that entire weekend. (All of us actually … since Ray and Amie stayed with me at my building while I finished up my experiments. I told them to go home and rest so they would have energy for our USJ adventure, but of course being the supportive friends that they are, they didn’t want me to be alone in my suffering.) My body hated me during this time, but it was worth it in the end because we all had a great time at USJ.
Wow, two posts in two days? I must really be serious in my efforts to catch up on updating this blog. (Or I’m just avoiding doing real work by telling myself this is important too.)
Last night as I sat down and started trying to write this entry, I realized one thing. I didn’t have a single Instagram post from May 2019. Not one! I think this is the first time this happened. *shocked face* I mean, I’m sure I posted something during the month, except they weren’t taken during the month of May itself. They were probably late uploads from the previous months. Which makes sense, because if I recall most of my May was spent at the lab, trying my best to finish my experiments and oftentimes failing miserably. I didn’t really have much time to go out and enjoy myself I suppose. So, I guess I sort of get a free pass when it comes to writing this entry. Yay.
I did post some things on my IG stories, and I put together the video compilation last night. Even this video is much shorter than usual, and more than half of it came from things I posted on the first week of May, which was still part of our Golden Week holiday. Wow…
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve had time to write one of these. And if you’re attentive, you might realize that I started my previous blog entry with this exact same sentence. However, I’d like to point out that I did have a disclaimer there that said I will be busy again once the new semester starts, and I was right. After finishing that entry, I haven’t had time to update this blog again until now. Currently, it’s spring break here in Japan, so I have a little bit of free time. I still have to go to the lab everyday, but we don’t have weekly progress reports and seminars until April. I figured it’s a good chance to log on here and post a quick update.
It’s been almost 6 months since I updated this blog. For a while I sort of gave up and figured I should just stop posting here, but I really started to miss it. And to say that I have no time to blog is not completely true. I do get some free time every now and then, it’s just that I’ve been doing a lot of other things during my free time lately. I don’t want to bore you by giving you an update on every aspect of my life, so here’s a quick list:
I am still alive, but PhD life is really starting to take a toll on me. There are days when I don’t even want to get out of bed because I feel like nothing makes sense, and I have zero motivation. I’m told this is normal, so there’s that. It’s not all bad though, I have had a few small victories here and there. Like how I managed to publish my first paper (which you can see here : LINK TO MY PAPER )
I’ve picked up the hobby of going to the arcade. It’s been a huge stress reliever for me. During the work week I motivate myself by visualizing the arcade games I would play that weekend. I love it, but it’s expensive hobby and I’ve been trying to cut back a little. I don’t want to stop going completely, but I’ve been trying to control myself since I’m not sure how long my stipend can support this newfound interest of mine. If you’re interested, I started an arcade instagram account (@Arcade.Wonderland), as well as an arcade youtube channel (click HERE to see it).
I started a new blog! It’s probably not the best idea since I can barely keep this one alive, but I wanted a separate one for all about my travels and adventures. Please check it out at www.carmijourneys.com. There’s not much on there yet, but hopefully I’ll find time to get some posts up. I debated on posting this Instabits entry there, but I decided I’d like to keep these posts on this blog since this is where I started doing these.
And I suppose that’s it? I realize that those are just basically some shameless self promotion links, but it really is what has been eating up a lot of my free time lately (mostly the arcade stuff XD). Most of my other life updates will be included in my Instabits entries.
I forgot how I used to start these posts, so I guess I’ll just jump right into it then 🙂
First photo for April was this group shot from the KAPS welcome party. This picnic marks the end of my first year here in Kyoto. I remember my own welcome party very clearly. I can’t believe how fast time flew by.
Check out those beautiful sakura trees. Our KAPS president had to arrive extra early that day so she could grab a good spot. Normally we have our picnics further up the river, but she said the place was packed. We were lucky to find this location.
This year’s hanami was extra special because these were the last sakura blooms for the Heisei era. In about a month Japan would have a new emperor and the Reiwa period would begin.
During the picnic I was telling Anna how stressed I was about my studies. A few days before this picnic, my professor told me that I had to redo almost all my experiments because there was something wrong with my set up. Anna comforted me and suggested that we make the most of this day by going to USJ. Our year passes were about to expire and we agreed that we should make the most of them. So after the introduction of new members, Ray, Anna, Mandy and I escaped from the party and headed off to Osaka.
Unfortunately, due to traffic we made it to the park just one hour before closing. We managed to get on our favorite ride (Hollywood Dream), but by the time we were done all the other attractions were closed.
To make the most of our visit, we ended up just running to different places in the park that is normally packed with people to take some photos
Like Hogsmeade
Here’s a rare sight of Hogwarts Castle without the usual crowd of people
We also took some photos with Jaws because there’s usually a long line at this place
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve had time to write one of these. I still have a few weeks left before the new semester starts, so I have a little more free time than usual. Once the semester begins, I expect I will be extremely busy once again.
I guess I should provide a bit of an update first. I’m pleased to report that I survived my first year as a PhD student. My second year will begin this October. So far it’s been really challenging. My second semester was especially brutal. I had a conference to prepare for, two seminars to present, and a paper to write. It would have been fine, but my experiments kept failing, which meant I had no data. I was cramming up until two days before the conference. There were days when I’d just wake up and just cry in bed because I felt so lost and helpless. Sometimes I would even just burst out crying in the middle of my experiment. But thankfully I got a lot of encouragement from the people around me. I would receive messages from them praying for me, which really helped. Of course I spent a lot of time praying too, and with the grace of God I was able to hold on to hope and make it through. I know I’m not even halfway through my PhD journey yet, and I will be facing many more challenges, so I’ve been trying to prepare myself for that.
Currently it’s still summer vacation at the university, although that’s just for bachelor students. Graduate students like me still have to go to the lab everyday and do experiments. But the atmosphere’s much more relaxed so I felt that this was a good chance to catch up on blogging.
Alright, now for the photos
Started the month with a pajama party for the ladies at our church. It was also a farewell party for Ate Jo since her family will be moving to Osaka. At the party I got to play with Ken-chan, my first inaanak here in Japan.
Such a cutie ❤
I was blessed to be asked to be godmother to another baby this month:
Pretty baby Hesed. Godmother to two adorable babies, I feel so happy 🙂
This month I experienced my first boodle fight in Japan, thanks to Ate Daisy. She moved to a new house and prepared this for us during her house blessing.
As I mentioned earlier, Ate Jo and Pastor Joseph recently moved to Osaka. This photo was taken after Pastor Joseph’s last Filipino service at church:
So blessed to have been part of this group
This month I had two visitors in Kyoto. The first was Trixie:
She was here with her husband for his birthday. We were able to meet up for sukiyaki one evening and catch up.
The last time we saw each other was 9 years ago, can you believe it.
My second visitor was my kupo, Brinky-doodle. She had just finished her Masters course and this trip was her graduation gift to herself. Ray and I took her to Iga Ueno Castle, where she took this nice photo of us XD
On the way there we passed by this tea plantation in Uji and stopped to take photos.
Look are neatly the tea hedges are arranged
Brinks wanted to see sakura but she arrived a bit too early. There were only a few that had bloomed already.
We found this one tree there so we took a few photos
Ray took these pretty close up photos of the few sakura that we saw
Golden Week is over and we’re back to our regular schedules. I thought I’d finish this entry before things got too busy again.
This month Yehlen celebrated her 3rd birthday. Ate Elaine held a unicorn themed party at their house. She and Barret did a great job with the decorations. I loved all the details.
Barret designed the cake
Ate Elaine found these cute unicorn plates
And these adorable napkins
They even made a photobooth for the guests
Ray and I tried to take a photo with a birthday girl but she wasn’t in the mood to pose. There were too many kids there at the party and she just wanted to play with them.
In the end the ladies and I enjoyed the photobooth on our own
Kuya Ryan visited Kyoto this month. He brought back some ingredients for Filipino dishes and invited us to enjoy them with him at at Pastor Joseph’s house. It’s been a while since I had munggo and tuyo. I didn’t realize how much I missed it.
February 11 was a holiday so my friends and I took a little day trip to Shirakawa-go. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site popular for its traditional farm houses. Some people call it the Christmas Village because it’s especially beautiful during the winter months. It looks like the inside of a snow globe.
This architecture style is called gassho-zukuri. This region gets a lot of heavy snowfall in the winter so the houses are designed in such a way that the snow will slide off easily from the roof. The houses are aligned so that it provides shelter from the cold winter winds and shade from the harsh summer sun.
I’ve been wanting to see this place for a while so naturally I took lots of pictures. (Well, I asked Ray to take lots of pictures of me XD)
Happy Golden Week everyone! A new era is upon us. Heisei has ended and Reiwa has begun. I have a few days off from school so I can spare a bit of time to update my blog again. I’m treating this blogging time as a reward to myself for surviving my presentation and the two weeks of anxiety it gave me. I’ve attended so many conferences and have done numerous presentations over the years, but somehow it just doesn’t get easier for me. If anything I get more and more nervous to give presentations as the years go by. But I’ve long accepted that it’s part of the career and I suppose in some teeny tiny way, I do enjoy it. Especially that rush of excitement I get after a talk/presentation is over.
Let’s get going with these IG posts then. Surprisingly there’s not a lot for January. My first few days were packed with activities since I was still in the Philippines back then, but I guess I didn’t post that much. In fact, most of these were uploaded just a few weeks ago when I realized that I was going to start writing this entry soon and I still had a lot of photos I haven’t shared. Some of these pictures are also from my FB page. I guess I posted them there but forgot to upload them to Instagram.
My flight back to Japan was on January 5, so I was pretty busy meeting friends and spending time with family as soon as the new year kicked in. Sir Taps, Dustin and I scheduled a trip to Tagaytay to eat bulalo because it had been raining nonstop for the past week and hot bulalo sounded perfect. Funnily enough, the day we went to the Tagaytay was the day it finally stopped raining.
They took me to Leslie’s, which is famous for bulalo. It was my first time there.
Their bulalo was amazing! I can’t wait to go back there and have some again.
Afterwards Sir Taps took us to Starbucks Domicillo. Usually when people invite me to go to Starbucks in Tagaytay, we go to the one in Twin Lakes, or the one along the highway. This was my first time at this branch. I guess it’s pretty new and not a lot of people go there yet because it’s a little hidden.
Chai tea with a view
On our way back to LB, we stopped by Nuvali so I could get a haircut and a much needed treatment. Hair salons in Japan are quite expensive so I’ve only gone a few times these last couple of months.
That evening we had dinner at our house with my parents and friends.
My parents really missed having these dinner parties with my friends so I’m glad we were able to squeeze one in during my visit.
The following day my parents and I visited Doc Beth at her clinic (Ocean of Youth) for a facial. This was a real treat for me because I haven’t had one since I left the Philippines. They’re expensive here in Japan so I’ve mostly been relying on myself to get rid of my blackheads and whiteheads. #oilygirlproblems
The morning of my flight I was able to have breakfast with Jason, Amie and Rona. We ate at IRRI cafeteria which I really missed.
Finally found a bit of time to blog again. I think this is the most I’ve fallen behind on posting an Instabits entry. It’s already April and here I am writing about my December IG activities. But the main reason I blog is so that I can look back on fond memories, so I suppose it still serves its purpose.
On the first day of December some friends and I went bowling as part of Tita Nenita’s early birthday celebration. She loves to bowl so we thought it would be the perfect way to make this day special for her. It was my first time bowling in probably about 10 years (or more?), so I was a little rusty. But I still had a great time.
We went to Round 1, where they had these colorful bowling balls 🙂
Around October 2018, Ray convinced me that I should take the JLPT N4 exam. Even though I wasn’t very confident, I decided to give it a try. My exam took place at Ritsumeikan University on the 2nd of December. After the test, I took some time to walk around the campus to relieve some stress.
Just like Doshiha (and KyoDai of course), their campus is beautiful.
University campuses always make me feel at home. Probably because both my parents were university professors (my mom still teaches to this day), so even as a child I spent a lot of time in a campus settings.
Ray’s birthday falls on December, and every year he holds a party at his house for friends. Since it’s the holiday season, people treat it as a pre-Christmas party and gift exchange games are usually done.
Guests were asked to wear festive colors 🙂
Anna, Mandy, Ray and I decided to use our USJ year pass again to see how the park looks around the holidays. As expected, it was beautiful.
We took photos by this giant tree
We even waited for the light up that evening
And of course no USJ trip is complete without dropping by The Wizarding World of Harry Potter:
At the Hogsmeade entrance
In front of the Hogsmeade tree, where the decorations “magically” rearrange themselves every now and then (you can see it on my stories video at the end of this entry)
Since it was quite cold, we ordered some hot butterbeer to warm up our bodies
What I have shown you is reality ... 