Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Week 12

Tue 7 Dec

KOBE ILLUMINATION

went with some friends to the Kobe illumination in Sannomiya which started after the Hanshin earthquake i heard. it`s apparently a really big event here and lotsa people come crowding up near LV and camwhore at all the pretty lights.

then we had some italian for dinner before going home.


Wed 8 Dec

jigged Coffee Hour (which nobody knew about until late yesterday arvo) and went to Harbourland with Erica for some shoes for the party on Friday =]


Fri 10 Dec

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT PARTY

went to Takarazuka hotel with host family for the KGU international student party. it was fun to go out dressed up nicely for once and to see everyone else dressed up.

pigged out on the food (where you had to be quick otherwise there`d be none left) and camwhored.

then some of us went for allnighter k for an afterparty. we k-ed in our beloved (it seems) shidax cos it was much cheaper than the jankare in tsukaguchi and k-ed till 5am. then we went to nishikita hoping to bum in maccas for a bit to learn that it was still closed. so we went to the maccas in kotoen and sat there eating and chatting for a couple hours till bout 9 something AM.


Sat 11 Dec

slept through the whole day till 9PM something. so in order to fix up the body clock i decided to just stay up all night studying before going out the next day


Sun 12 Dec

USJ!!!

slept in from a power nap from the day/night switch day and got to USJ an hour later than everyone else. kudos to Hiroki for the USJ ticket!

the day was spent predominantly in lines waiting to go on the rides but BOY were some of those rides worth it. we went on the:
- spiderman ride (thumbs up!)
- jurassic park ride (thumbs up!)
- terminator show (thumbs up!)
- hollywood dream (thumbs up!)
- jaws ride at night (thumbs up!)
- and the backdraft show

and then we went to the shounen jump shop and i just had to get this

=D

and then for dinner we went to the takoyaki museum and ate some takoyaki before heading home

note: photos to be uploaded later...

week 11

Thu 2 Dec

HOLY CRAP I CANNOT BELIEVE IT DECEMBER ALREADY!

it`s been exactly 3 months since I started this adventure and it continues....

today we had to go visit the KGU primary school and talk with little kids. surprisingly it was fun and i kinda wished i got to stay back for lunch with them but i had political economy class (which i ended up sleeping through it again).


Sat 4 Dec

volunteered to go to the exchange information session to help the japanese student(s) coming to Sydney next year to help them out life in Sydney. it was fun and got to make another japanese friend but sooo friggin early at 9.30am on a Saturday....

and then....

HEIDI CONCERT

..... WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!

SOOOO much better than the Scandal concert i went to earlier in the semester, but then i might be biased cos at least with this band it was not only good music, good performers but lotsa eyecandy as well, compared to seeing a bunch of girls around my age in school uniform on stage.


Sun 5 Dec

went to Osaka Castle with the good ole fellow SGs who were in Japan for holidays. kinda felt like a mini reunion hehe. THANK YOU GIRLS FOR MEETING UP!!! it was really nice to see some familiar faces =]

then we went to Shinsaibashi where they shopped, and then i had to go home for dinner and do some homework that was due the next day.

week 10

okay now this is just grossly late but anyways...

Tue 23 Nov

PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!
went to the Mitsui Outlet Park near Tarumi (which is another 20mins west of Sannomiya on the JR), which is like a DFO much 50 times better. there were 3 shopping centres full of clothing, shoes, bag stores ==> shopping heaven

i bought a nice navy overcoat for half price =]

and the place is quite nice by the water. you can see awaji bridge and awaji island and a bit of shikoku int he horizon.

Fri 26 Nov

HIROSHIMA TRIP!!!

caught the midnight bus from Osaka to HIROSHIMA!!! =D

Sat 27 Nov

arrived in Hiroshima at about 6.30am and had maccas for brekkie (since it was the only place open with food until 7.30am). then somehow found our way to the K`s House (since we left through the wrong exit). then we trekked it to Hiroshima Castle. instantly felt the memory of the atomic bomb with the marked out patches of where things used to be and remnants of trees that survived the bomb. we also went into the castle tower (nb: FREE entry for foreign exchange students!) and checked out some old stuff and tried on some old traditional Japanese garments for FREE =]

then we bought some bread and iced latte along to the way to Peace Park. AGAIN you instantly feel overwhelmed by the damage the bomb had caused upon the city. it`s just simply amazing how the A-bomb dome managed to survive it as well as the shinto gate (which has been moved to hiroshima castle). we bumped into some guy from Sydney as we were listening to some Japanese survivor guy talk about the atomic bomb and the consequences of it. then we went into Peace Park Museum (only ¥50 entry peepz!). again felt all depressed and shocked at the amount of ruin the bomb had caused, especially the juxtaposition of the two dioramas of the before/after models of hiroshima city. the life-sized diorama of children with singed hair, melting skin drooping off of them and ragged clothes made an impression, as well as the spooky shadow of the guy on the Sumitomo bank staircase that remained from the time of bombing.

afterwards, we parted ways with guy from Sydney and went into the local shopping centre for some gloves or whatever people people wanted. then finally at bout 9.30pm we went to eat dinner. really wanted to eat hiroshima-style okonomiyaki but we were too hungry and ended up in this really cheap teishoku ramen restaurant.

Sun 28 Nov

slept in till 8.30, 9am packed up and checked out from the room but we left our luggage with the reception to go to miyajima. we took the more expensive but faster route by taking the JR train to miyajimaguchi station, then got on the JR ferry to miyajima. once we got there, we saw wild deer again (this time they dun have spots on their bodies). camwhored a bit throughout the day. checked out the red torii in the water, and tried to make it to momijidani park. spent most of our time in the omotesando (main shopping street), which can be summarised by rice scoops, momiji manju and KAKI (oysters)! dunno why but the kaki in miyajima is just soooooo friggin GOOOOOOOOOOOD

then we went back to the red shinto gate to take sunset photos then made it back to hiroshima and finally got to eat the famous hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. it was GOOOOOD. highly recommended =]

then we got on the 10.30pm bus back to osaka, arriving at 5 something AM. went home, showered, dumped my crap made my way out again to school for 9am class