INSTABITS : December 2018

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

INSTABITS : November 2018

Hello dear reader (or readers, if I’m being optimistic). This is my first Instabits entry of the year and it’s from November 2018. I’m still really behind on blogging and I don’t think I would be able to catch up anytime soon. I thought I had a good chance over the winter break, but I concentrated on editing vlogs from 2 years ago and didn’t have time to write anything aside from my 2018 Highlights.

Anyway, my November started off great, mainly because my parents were still in Japan with me. If you read my October 2018 entry, I mentioned that they arrived around the end of the month for a quick visit. We couldn’t really go sightseeing during the weekdays because I had to go to the lab, but one of the things I love about having an apartment close to the university is that my parents can drop by during my lunch break so we can have a meal together. Or if they don’t feel like going out, I can go home to have a quick lunch with them.

Here’s a photo from when they visited me at the university so we can eat at the nearby Yoshinoya (my parents love their gyudon).

That afternoon we decided to do a bit of sightseeing. My parents haven’t been to Gion yet so we took a train to get there. It was a spontaneous idea so my dad didn’t have his camera, and our phone batteries were dying, but we decided to make the most of it anyway. Thankfully my mom brought her selfie stick and I had some juice left on my powerbank, so we were able to take a few photos.

We dropped by Yasaka Jinja and I saw this scene which screamed “Japan” so I had to take a touristy photo

One of the places my parents and I went to during their visit was the Arashiyama Takao Parkway. This was early November, so the trees in the city haven’t fully changed colors yet. I thought it would be nice for my parents see some bright red trees so Ray and I took them up here.

Obligatory portrait with the momiji (Maple tree)

I was actually here in October too because Ate Shirley wanted to see the Cosmos flowers. Unfortunately there weren’t a lot of them then (but we still took photos, like this one:)

This time when we visited the field was covered in them! Of course we had to take photos again:

INSTABITS : October 2018

Hallu everyone! I had a bit of free time again so I figured I should update this blog. Also, my parents have hinted that they’ve been waiting for this entry because they know it will include them (especially the IG stories video at the end), lol.

On the first week of October I went on a lab trip to Biwako. It’s only about an hour away from Kyoto, and a lot of people go there to relax because of the scenic view. Our lab goes on a trip every year but I’m told that this year was extra special because it was Sensei’s 60th birthday. We stayed at the Biwako Ryokusuitei Onsen, which was beautiful. I heard they have great onsen facilities but I wasn’t comfortable being naked in front of strangers so I didn’t go in. I just spent the afternoon exploring the hotel.

My tutor and I are the only girls in the lab so we had this entire room to ourselves. It was nice to have all that space 🙂  Although now I’m thinking about how lonely I will be next year after my tutor graduates. That means I’ll be the only girl and I would be in a room by myself. I’m praying that another girl will join our lab in April 🙂

For Sensei’s birthday dinner, we had a traditional Japanese feast. It was so fancy, I’ve never had anything like it before.

The first course. I think we had about 4 or 5 more courses after this. I was so full I could barely move by the end of it. My favorite was the grilled beef and the fish.

October 8 was a holiday so Ate Shirley’s family invited Ray and me to go to Arashiyama Takao Parkway to see the cosmos field. Unfortunately we were a bit early so they weren’t in full bloom yet. That didn’t stop us from taking photos though:

Thanks to Ray for these shots. I love them~ They have a very “spring” feel to them (even though they were taken at the start of fall).

This month I played badminton for the first time here in Japan. Ate Mariyah booked a court and invited us 🙂 I don’t have photos of us actually playing, but here’s one we took outside the gymnasium:

Hope we can play again soon!

INSTABITS : September 2018

I’m really behind with these posts, but my schedule was packed for the past two months. I moved to a new apartment, started doing longer experiments in the lab, and had a few visitors. My parents visited me again here in Japan, so of course I wanted to spend all my free time with them. Also I had to deliver my first lab seminar, which was pretty scary so I spent a lot of time preparing for it. Now that it’s over I have a little bit of free time again. I drafted this entry a few weeks ago but now I can finally finish it.

Ray, Mandy, Anna and I kicked off September by visiting another TeamLab exhibit. We were supposed to go Universal Studios that weekend but Mandy pointed out that the exhibit in Osaka would be ending in a few days so we grabbed the chance to go. I’ve only been to one other TeamLab exhibit before (pictures can be found in last month’s INSTABITS), and I can say that I like this one better. It wasn’t as crowded and it was easier to take photos with the exhibits. Most of it consisted of colorful animated creatures and plants projected on the wall:

Like this one. So makulay ❤

Here’s another one:

The projections move around the room, so getting a good photo with decent lighting was mostly trial and error. The key is to take as many photos as your memory card can hold and choose one later XD (Which is partly why it took me so long to post these).

As some of you may know, September is my birth month. My churchmates helped me celebrate it by surprising me with a little get together after the Filipino service that Sunday.

Thank you Ray and Ate Shirley for the cake and carbonara. Thanks Gil for the puto and the impromptu writing of my name (using cheese 😂). And thank you Ate Kathy for the biko! 😚😚😚

The cake was so yummy~

It also said “Congratulations” because I received the notice that I passed my Kyoto University entrance exam 2 days earlier.

I posted this portrait on my birthday. It was actually taken about a week earlier, during the church’s BBQ party.  My caption was pretty long, but I’ll share it here:

My birthday this year was pretty special – it happened on the same day that Typhoon Jebi hit Japan (supposedly the strongest typhoon Japan has seen in 25 years). As such, I spent my birthday hiding out in my dorm, to keep safe from the storm.  This is also the first year that I am celebrating my birthday away from both my home and family. I was worried that I would be extremely lonely on this day, but God is kind and He has provided me with friends and brothers/sisters in Christ who take good care of me here. Also, my friends and family back in the Philippines prepared a little surprise for me. They gathered together at my mom’s office to celebrate my birthday with me through video-chat. I definitely did not expect that, and I am extremely touched ❤

Perhaps the best birthday present I received this year was the confirmation that I will be able to stay in Japan as a PhD student. PhD life will be hard and challenging, but I know that God will guide me every step of the way. Leaving my comfort zone was not easy, but studying in Japan has been a dream of mine ever since I was young. Even after 5 months here I still can’t believe that it’s finally happening.
Living in a foreign country away from my loved ones hasn’t been easy, but God continues to bless me daily with everything I need to thrive in this new place. His provisions have kept me going and He has lead me to paths I didn’t even know existed. He has answered all my worries and prayers with much more than I expected. I know that my hardest days are still ahead, but I look forward to how God will get me through them 🙂

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you” – Psalm 32:8

This month Mandy invited Anna and me to visit him at Doshisha University. He’s always going on about how fancy it was so of course we had to see for ourselves:

It was beautiful indeed. He called it the “Ateneo of Kyoto” 😂

INSTABITS : August 2018

August was a pretty confusing month for me. It was relaxed, scary, exciting and stressful at the same time. Classes were over and summer break had begun, so I had a lot of free time. There was even a week when the entire university was closed for the Bon Festival (sort of like the Japanese version of Undas). The freedom I had was great but at the same time I was quite stressed the entire month because my entrance exam was scheduled on the 23rd and the 24th. Even though I had a lot of time to enjoy myself, at the back of my mind I knew I needed to study and prepare for the written test and an oral presentation/interview. I spent most of the one week break locked up in my dorm, reading as much as I could.

Despite all this, I still made sure to enjoy myself and take occasional breaks for the sake of my mental health. August taught me that although I must work hard and concentrate on my studies, I shouldn’t neglect to connect with people and sometimes have a bit of “me” time. I learned this the hard way. There was a short period when I started going crazy because of all the studying and the isolation. Sure there were people around me, but I wasn’t taking the time to really connect with them because I was so worried about my exam. I think this month was the hardest for me so far here in Japan. I had my first minor breakdown, and this was the month when I first started to feel really homesick. But I’ll talk more about that later at the end of this entry. For now, here are my Instagram posts for August:

Sir Taps visited Kobe University for work and I was able to meet up with him despite his busy schedule.

We had dinner together with Oshita sensei in Osaka. Sir Taps and I realized that even though we’ve known each other for so long, we’ve never been outside of the Philippines together, since we’ve never attended any conferences together.

After dinner we spent some time at the Hankyu Building which offered a great view of Osaka

Ray and Kuya Ryan joined us after a while. Kuya Ryan lived in Kobe too so he was able to go back with Sir Taps while Ray and I headed back to Kyoto.

A few days later Sir Taps and I met up again at the Kansai International Airport, right before his flight back to the Philippines. We did a bit of shopping there and had breakfast together.

After saying goodbye to Sir Taps, Ray and I headed to Kobe to catch the fireworks festival that evening.

There were a lot of people there

We had a great view

The fireworks were great, but somehow I feel that these shows lack something when there is no music. (Or maybe there was music somewhere, but it can only be heard in certain parts of the city?)

During the Bon Holiday, my friends and I went for a daytrip to Torihama Beach in Fukui.

Obligatory group selfies 😀 

INSTABITS : July 2018

Summer break is over, and the semester has started once again. My time as a research student has ended and I am now an official PhD student (or D1, as they call them here in Japan). Before things get too busy, let me finish up this post for my Instagram uploads from July.

My parents (along with Adrian and Ninang Zeny) attended a conference in Hokkaido. They decided to swing by Kyoto before heading there so we could spend some time together. We’ve only been apart for 3 months but I missed them so much and was so happy to see them again.

One of the places we visited was of course Fushimi Inari. My parents had been here before but it was Ninang Zeny’s first time. It was raining that day (there was a typhoon the weekend they visited) but that didn’t stop us from sightseeing and taking photos.

I also took them to Teramachi Dori – a popular shopping street in Kyoto. It was one of the first places I visited when I arrived in April, and I really like it. I enjoy walking around here even though I rarely buy anything.

Of course we took them to see the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. Again, my parents had been here before, but it was nice to go back and see it again.

We also stopped by the Kimono Forest since they weren’t able to see it last time.

“Daming camera, san ako titingin?” 😋

There was a music box shop near the Kimono Forest and we saw these cute Japanese doll toppers. You can choose the song you want in your music box and decorate it with these.

Since it was a Sunday, I invited my parents and Ninang Zeny to attend our church service at Assembly Kyoto Church. They were able to meet my churchmates here, which made me really happy because my church is my family here in Kyoto.

After their conference in Hokkaido, my parents returned to Kyoto to spend another weekend with me (Ninang Zeny and Adrian went back to the Philippines). Since my parents love aquariums, I took them to Kaiyukan, an 8-storey aquarium in Osaka. The typhoon had left by this time and it was extremely hot in Japan, so this was perfect since it allowed us to escape the summer heat.

Our favorite exhibit were the jellyfish of course

INSTABITS : June 2018

Hello hello!

I’m taking advantage of my short break by catching up on my blogging. Some of the photos I will include in this entry were actually posted just a few days ago, because I haven’t been able to update my Instagram in real time these past months. (But I am pretty consistent with my IG stories :D)

June was pretty busy, both in terms of school and with personal stuff. This was the time when I started doing experiments in the lab, and my Japanese class started getting harder in terms of grammar, vocabulary and kanji. And since my dorm is so far, I get home pretty late everyday. By the time I’ve finished showering and cooking/eating dinner, it’s almost time for me to go to bed. I made the most of my weekends by going out with friends and using the time to recharge. School can be pretty draining, and having activities planned for the weekend gave me the motivation to push through the challenges presented to me so that I can reward myself after a week of hard work.

I started the month off by watching my second movie here in Japan with some friends. Anna, Mandy, Ray and I went to Aeon Mall to watch Deadpool 2. We had some time before the movie was supposed to start so we took some photos with the purikura machine in the arcade. I’ve always wanted to try this because I think it’s hilarious how the machine contorts your face and automatically applies makeup on you to make you look “pretty” according to standards set by society.

Look, aren’t we adorable? We don’t look like aliens at all!

One exciting thing that happened to me in June was that my friends and I took a weekend trip to Hiroshima and we stopped by Okunoshima (AKA “Rabbit Island) on the way there. For those who don’t know, I love rabbits, and ever since coming to Japan I’ve been missing my bunny (Mochi) terribly. I know he’s in good hands with the ladies I left him with, but I really miss him. So I was extremely excited to visit Okunoshima

Gateway to Rabbit Island. You have to take a ferry to get to the island, but the ride is only about 15 minutes long.

For those who haven’t heard of Rabbit Island before, basically it’s an entire island in Japan populated by wild rabbits. They have grown used to people visiting the island and usually associate visitors with food (since guests usually bring vegetables to feed the rabbits when they visit). It’s pretty common to see rabbits running after people, asking to be fed. It’s like a dream come true for me!

Of course I bought several types of vegetables and even rabbit pellets with me to feed the little furballs. I had fun looking for them everywhere and feeding them.

My favorites were the baby bunnies of course. They’re harder to feed because they’re not that used to people yet and are typically more aloof, but occasionally I would be able to lure a few out to feed them.

Aside from the rabbits, there were plenty to see around the island. Okunoshima is a beautiful place, so we took lots of photos:

These “bunny ears” amplify the sound of the ocean

Since it was an island, we had a great view of the ocean

Lost in the jungle XD

After Okunoshima we dropped by Miyajima Island, popular for the Itsukushima Shrine. It’s a lone torii standing in the middle of the water, giving it the illusion that it’s floating:

We arrived just as the sun was setting, which was the perfect time to take photos ❤

INSTABITS : May 2018

This entry is almost 3 months late. Things have been pretty busy, especially these past weeks since I was preparing for an important exam. It’s been years since I’ve been a real student so it felt a little nostalgic having to force myself to study until my brain felt like it was going to bleed. But now that the exam is over, I can take a little time to relax until the results are out. There’s really nothing I can do at this point to change the outcome, and technically it’s still the summer break until the end of September. I still go to the lab everyday to study since I’ve got A LOT of catching up to do, but at least there’s a huge burden off my chest now (soon to be replaced with a new, and perhaps heavier, challenge). But until then, I’m taking advantage of this chance to give myself a short break.

The photos below are from my second month in Japan. It was a time when I wasn’t too busy with my Japanese classes and lab work. Golden Week also took place this month, which meant I had about a week off from school to spend with my new friends.

Cheetos are my favorite chips and I was a little disappointed to learn that the grocery store near my dorm doesn’t carry them. But I found another store that sold all these different flavors ❤ I haven’t had the chance to try them though … I’ve been cutting back on junk food since I’ve gained 2kg ever since I came to Japan 😣 I blame yummy Japanese ice cream

During Golden Week I joined a retreat that my church put together. I had a great time and since it was a retreat for Filipinos, I felt like I was back home. I didn’t take that many photos during the event but here’s some photos of our food:

Salads

Japanese curry and fried chicken

And here’s a photo of me roasting marshmallows during the bonfire we had that evening:

It was pretty cold that night so the bonfire and the gooey marshmallows were perfect ❤

In May I went to my first rotating sushi restaurant here in Japan. It was an interesting experience.

I posted this photo of my mom and me for Mother’s Day. This was taken in Korea last October when I went there with my colleagues to attend a conference and my parents came with us.

During one of my morning runs here in Japan I finally got the chance to visit Kyoto University Uji Campus. This one’s only a 10 minute walk from my dorm. Unfortunately my lab is in Yoshida campus, which is over an hour away 😂

The ladies at my church had a fellowship at the Arashiyama Kimono Forest:

We had our fellowship outside Tully’s Coffee. I ordered the Berry Berry Royal Milk Tea

Selfie with Ate Mariyah and Ate Shirley 😚

After our fellowship we walked around the Bamboo Grove and took lots of photos

INSTABITS : April 2018

Hello everyone! I’ve officially been living in Japan for over a month now. I have no idea where the time went, I feel like I just moved into my dorm the other day, and yet so many things have happened this past month that I feel like it’s been a lifetime since I landed in Japan.

This entry will consist of my Instagran posts for April. My flight to Japan was on April 1 (which happened to be Easter Sunday) so basically these are all pretty much photos from my move here.

My flight was in the evening so I was still able to spend time with friends and family during the day.

Sir Taps, Dustin and Amie came over to say goodbye.

Dustin and Amie even went with us to the airport to see me off 😊

My parents came with me to Japan to drop me off but they had a different flight. I was worried about having to find my dorm by myself, fortunately our lab secretary and my tutor met me in Kyoto station and they helped me move in.

My lab is in the Yoshida main campus but I was placed in Obaku International House which is about an hour and 20 minutes away if you’re commuting. It can be a little tedious but the trains are very convenient and reliable (except for the one time someone committed suicide on the tracks, which I’m told happens a lot here … yikes!) Anyway I’m pretty happy with my dorm. I love how quiet and peaceful the place is. The next two photos were taken from my room:

The sakura trees were in full bloom the day I arrived. This view made me feel like I was in a J-dorama

And on my left side we have this quiet and peaceful scene ❤ But don’t be fooled, the cars (and especially motorcycles) passing by make a lot of noise. I tried to sleep several times with the balcony door open (to save on airconditioning since it’s usually cool at night) but I always end up closing it again because the noise kept waking me up.

The following photos were taken inside my dorm:

I love that they pretty much provide you with everything so I barely had to buy anything for my dorm. (The TV didn’t come with the dorm though – my dad bought that for me since I brought my PS4 along.)

I have a mini kitchen and a fridge. I stuck some polaroids of happy memories there.

The entrance (tiny kitchen on the left, bathroom on the right)

I love that I have my own bathroom. I was worried I would have to live someplace with a shared bathroom, but fortunately that’s not the case

I’ve been taking advantage of the free water and tub by soaking in a hot bath every chance I get 🙂

I’m not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but the university I’m attending is Kyoto University. (That’s the iconic clock tower in the photo.) The city is exciting, the campus is beautiful and it’s one of the top universities in Japan. I feel really blessed to have been given a chance to study here. Right now I’m only a research student but we’ll see how things go after one semester 🙂

As I’ve said earlier, my parents actually came with me to Japan. They stayed here for 6 days to help me settle in. Since I didn’t have that many things to do at the lab yet during my first week here, we usually went sightseeing after I leave campus.

We loved seeing all the pink trees. (This was taken outside Nijo Castle. We went there to see the sakura trees but we were too late – they were already closing when we arrived)

Another place we had to visit was the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine

The iconic orange torii gates

There were lots of people there when we visited

INSTABITS : March 2018

Hello everyone! This is the first blog entry I’m typing in my new home (at least for the next few months or so).

If you follow me on Instagram and you peek at my IG stories every now and then, you might have guessed that I’m now living in Japan. It feels so weird to say that! I’ve dreamt of this for so long, way back in high school, and now it’s actually my reality *mindblown*. I’m currently a research student at Kyoto University, and if things go well I’ll continue studying here to pursue my PhD *fingers crossed*.

I moved here on April 1, so photos of my new life here aren’t going to be part of this entry just yet, but it explains why I barely posted anything last March. I was really busy preparing for this new chapter. And when I did post, it was mostly pictures of despedida parties.

My first upload for March was this group photo with some of my fellow MEXT scholars. We formed a Line chat group and arranged our schedules so we could process our visas and travel documents together. Afterwards we had lunch at Tenya. Japanese food to get us all excited about moving to Japan 🙂

The girls and I wanted to have one last get-together before I leave, so we booked a spa afternoon at I’m Onsen. We called it my “deSPAdida”:

I’m not sure who suggested the onsen, but I guess that also works to get me hyped up about my new life in Japan. I’ve never been to an onsen before this, and I was quite nervous, pero sabi nga nila – test of friendship daw XD

It was an interesting experience. Para lang kaming ulam na hinahanda para iserve. First we were steamed (steam room), then we were roasted (sauna), then boiled (onsen), tenderized (massage) and stuffed (buffet).

Of course, like a real onsen, we wore yukatas around the spa:

Yukata party 😙

Amie’s birthday was last month. We ended up having an impromptu celebration at Starbucks:

At first there was only Amie, Rona, Ma’am Ianne and me. Then people kept showing up (some knew we were there, others just showed up by chance).

We ended up with such a large group from the office that we joked that we could hold a meeting there.

Shoefie after one morning “run”. Although to be honest I spent most of the time walking. I miss running. Like real running. I’ve been plagued with ITBS since November and haven’t been able to run properly 😣 It usually starts to hurt after 2km and I have to alternate between running and walking after that until the pain gets so bad that I have to stop ☹