Blog Post #4, Kyoto!!

Konichiwa, readers! I apologise for not writing for the last three days! As I think said in the last post; I had no time whatsoever to write!!! I found internet connection, but until this morning was not able to write due to a hectic schedule and a slight addiction to 'Bloody Monday' (I shall explain this later on).

DAY 1 in KYOTO
So. The first day in Kyoto. After a 15 minute Shinkansen ride from Osaka, we got off at Kyoto and checked-in to Hiiragiya Bekkan: a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn/hotel/room). It had a beautiful garden, fantastic rooms and several anxious (and nice) staff. Soon after, we quickly headed to Gion (the Geisha district), hoping to catch a glimpse at a geisha, and the firy colours of autumn leaves. Unfortunately, we didn't see any geisha, and the leaves were mostly on the ground. But! With the remaining few trees that still had leaves on them, and rows of beautiful, old houses along the river, Gion was truly lovely.

We had a very, very large dinner that night in our rooms, of various Japanese dishes that were autumn-y (if that's a word), and I was at bursting point at the end of it! During the night-time, Huixin and I took a soak in the ofuro (that belonged to the ryokan), which is like a private onsen-like thing. For those who don't know what either are; they are just large, hot bathtubs. It was sad leaving the ryokan, but I was looking forward to seeing lots of temples and shrines the next day!

DAY 2 in KYOTO

Lots of fun!! We rode bikes across suburban Kyoto, to Ryoanji Zen Temple, The Kinkakuji Golden Pavilion and one other temple whose name I have forgotten. It was HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY difficult for me to ride around on the pavements and sidewalks of Kyoto, especially the tiny ones on main roads in the suburbs. I managed to dodge walls, other bicycles, unaware old people and small pot plants by bashing into an average of 1 lamp-post p/two hours. After going to the temple whose name I have forgotten, we parked our bikes in an awesome bike park (like a car park for bikes) -many people ride bikes in Kyoto- and travelled by train to Arashiyama. This is where tourists and locals alike take trains to a mountain-y/hill-y type place and stuff their faces with food.

Just when we could hold no more, we took the train back to the station near the temple whose name I have forgotten, and biked back to the guesthouse in which we stayed. Day 2 in Kyoto was the first time I ever tried a convenience store meal!! Because we got back quite late from Arashiyama (it took lots of energy to transport ourselves back), nothing was open except a few dodgy bars, so we popped into a convenience store to buy a microwaveable meal. The convini (short for convenience store) food is absolutely scrumptious!! They are little ready-packed meals that come in plastic containers that have sauces, salads, ready-made rice/noodles and meat all good to pop in the microwave!

Whilst eating the convini meal, we watched an interesting Japanese drama series which had several actors we knew from other dramas. Curious to find out more, I googled them, and found out this awesome new drama was called "Bloody Monday"; about a computer hacker who has to save the world from terrorism... Hehe! Google it! It's cool!!

DAY 3 in KYOTO

Day three in Kyoto was spent cycling to Kyoto station, taking a train to Fushimi Inari and biking back again. The early-morning ride to Kyoto was very peaceful, as the busy office-working people had either left for work or moved over when we came through.

Fushimi Inari, for those who don't know, are the 10,000 red gates that stretch out for about 2km. It was really spectacular, and I shall give you a photo here! Heehee! Anyway, when we got back, it was dark (around 5 o'clock) and raining, so we stayed inside the station and did some shopping. The intense heating inside the building eventually drove us out of it, and we cycled in the pouring rain trying to balance an umbrella on the handle of the bike. Eventually we stopped under some shelter and decided to wait till the rain lessened.

I have to head to bed now, so I'll keep posting later about Tokyo so far. :D See you!

~Ying

P.S.
2 days till Christmas!

Blog Post #3 (Super short entry)

Hi again, everybody! for the next few days I probably won't be writing much due to the fact I will be in Kyoto, where the hotels we live in don't have any internet. We probably won't even have time to use it... *tear*

i'll be leaving in a matter of hours, so, see you soon!!!!!

~Ying

Blog post #2, Osaka (Still in the hotel lobby)

おひよ！

Hello everybody!! I'm getting used to this!! Heehee! Sorry I didn't post yesterday; I was probably dying on a bed due to over-walking in Shinsaibashi!! I hope to be able to get images up soon!!

The whole of yesterday was spent shopping in the Shinsaibashi area and various train stations. We bought bucket loads of junk including cheap toiletries,　gachapon (little capsules in mini vending machine type things),　scarves, hats, random jewellery, other gangly dangly stuff, and of course, food!　It fascinated me that everyone spoke Japanese (well, duh) and wrote it and things, but I eventually got used to it, and stoped gawking at passersby.

Today Huixin and I ran around Hiroshima and Miyajima, famous for the A-Bomb and the floating gate respectively.

First, we took a Hikari Shinkansen (the second fastest bullet train) that went very, very, very fast from Shin-Osaka station to Hiroshima. At Hiroshima, we took several uncomfortable trams to the Peace Memorial park, where we saw the ruins of a dome-shaped building and fat crows. This was pretty cool, and we took lots of otaku (nerdy) photos!

Next, we went to the museum, which is one of the nost depressing places I have ever been to in my life. There was everything there from burnt, blood-stained, ripped and mutilated clothing and homeware to gruesome pictures to fingernails and skin that had been preserved and horrible descriptions to accompany them.

Utterly grossed-out, we left the museum to take the tram, train and ferry to Miyajima island. This part was super fun! We arrived at around sun-set, and were able to take beautiful photographs of the floating gate that sat in the middle of a river.　There were lots of stray deer that hung around everywhere and we had a great time taking pictures of them and patting them (I think they were clean).

Shortly after, we transported back to Hiroshima to have a lovely dinner of Omu Rice (omelette on rice) and back to Osaka, where I stand now.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip, and I hope you have a lovely holiday season!!

~Ying

Blog post # 1... in osaka!!

Hello everybody! Its me here, trying to figure OUT how to use the Japanese keyboard!!! very tricky, and as you can see, i am not using too many punctuation marks and i am making many punctuation errors. please forgive me.

Huixin and I took a stopover flight to gold coast, where we spent 3 hours yelling at gold coast, where we spent 3 hours yelling at each other and bumming around with aioli and fries. The 13 hours flight to Kansai International was rather odd... and so far, my 7 hours spent in japan have included grape soda, scented glue sticksm, babies saying "Denschh" (which is similar TO the japanese word for train - densha), curry, several convenience stores and more screaming babies.

Unfortunately, i am using a rather sad-looking computer with free internet in the hotel basement, which is kinda hard to use... So i will be brief and hard to use... So i will Ｂｅ brief and I shall hope i can aquire a LAN cable in the coming days.

From kansai airport, we took a fast train to Shin-Osaka station (one of the main stations in osaka). The first meal i had in japan was a lovely feast of beef and vegetable curry (japanese style), washes down and vegetable curry (japanese style), washed down with a 100yen can of grape soda. We then explored the vast wonderland of japanese convenience stores, in which we spotted and bought cheap milk and fragrant glue for scrapbooking with. after making our way through a very very busy train station with a suitcase in hand, we headed on foot to this very basement in which i communicate with you.

well, tomorrow i will go to den-den town (electronics galore!) andI will try to ｆｉｎｄ a means of purchasing a LAN cable in which i can use internet in my room with. :) i hope to see you soon!!!!!!

~Ying

Counting down days till Japan!!!

Hello Readers! :D

Ok, finally the time to actually start counting down days till Japan! From now, I have about 4 days and several hours till my take-off at Tullamarine Airport! :)

It is currently time for a soda (if I had one right now), so after this blog post, I shall raid the cupboard for something of the sort!! It is now time for me to introduce you to my new phases!!! I hope I have officially recovered from the Fahrenheit disease, as I now have become vaguely obsessed with British television.

Why, when, whom and how, you may ask? Well, I haven't the foggiest (please take note that that is a very Brit phrase XP)!!! Current things I seem to be crazed upon:

~Merlin
~Casanova? Nah, not really, I just sorta find it hilariously weird...
~The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (not so much the first one, but it's okay...)
~Various episodes of Torchwood, Robin Hood and Doctor Who

Heheh... I think Walt Disney (or whoever made the first two Narnia movies) should make 'The Magicians Nephew' after they finish making 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader', which is in pre-production :) Leave comments on what you think. I also honestly think some nice movie-making company should adopt the idea of making a Monster Blood Tattoo movie. Bah.. Humbug.

Anyways, I'll be posting more often (did I forget to mention the last day of school is OVERRRRR?), and updates on my pre-Japan stress and Japan trip will be put on here.

Gahhh, I just HAD to remind myself about the fact all my beloved friends including Sophie, Alice, Pamela and Alisha are leaving Korowa. Hmph. I was looking forward to graduating Korowa with them. I'll certainly miss all the girls leaving KAGS next year; of course for different reasons, but I will *tear* *sob*.

Oh goshhhh its nearly Christmas! About the soda....

~Ying

My Newest Obession!

Haha! I have a new obsession! Apart from Pi Li MIT, I have found a new short phase!! Some of my other short phases have included: Hana-Kimi, Fahrenheit, Ouran High School Host Club and Various Taiwanese and Japanese dramas. This newest one however, is a brand-new highly un-educational and violent one.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Haha. Scared yah didn't I? You would've guessed like James Bond or something, but no! Prince Caspian ROCKS! It was actually my least favourite book of the Narnia series, but the movie was awesome.

It appears I have to leave now, I promise to come back ASAP! Also, I'm seriously looking forward to the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie!

~Be back later, Ying