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.
The day started off really nice but then it began to rain so we had to cut our visit short. Before we left we took a picture of the deer hiding out from the rain under the trees.
My professor wanted Kanika to experience Japanese culture, so he asked me to accompany her to the Gion Matsuri that was taking place that week. I was excited because this was actually the first (and only) time I took part in this event. I’m not really a fan of crowds and the summer heat, so I’m thankful that it rained a lot the day before so temperature was not too bad. My professor even paid for Kanina and me to rent a yukata while we walked around Gion. Afterwards we met up with the rest of my labmates so we could have dinner together.
It’s quite common to see ladies walking around festivals wearing yukatas. They’re a little uncomfortable to wear, especially around the midsection, but they’re so lovely. They use a lot of padding and tie the obi tightly and hold the yukata in place. The lady at the shop tied mine so tight that I could barely eat during our lab dinner. But I don’t get that many opportunities to wear them so I sucked it up and just ate as much as my obi could hold.
These are the Gion Matsuri floats, called Yamaboko. They are displayed along the streets for 5 days before the big parade. Inside many of these floats you can find musicians playing their instruments. Some of the floats even allow visitors to go inside. Unfortunately we didn’t get the chance to do that so we just admired them from afar.
The floats looked even better in the evening when all the lamps were lit up.
That concludes my Instagram photo dump for July 2019. I made a lot of good memories this month, despite being busy with lab work. My conference may have had ended but I still had to write my paper which was due at the end of the month. Thankfully I was able to complete everything in time and my paper even got published a few months later.
As usual, I’ve compiled my IG stories into a video. I posted more updates on my stories so if you’re interested you can watch it below:
What I have shown you is reality ... 