So last year I celebrated a big birthday. I’m not going to say which cause it makes me sad, haha, but it was a big one. This entry will be fairly short but the next one will be longer and hopefully later this week. I’m on summer break now, so I technically have more free time. Let’s finally get caught up!
So first up, on my actual birthday, I had to go to work cause I nearly always do. It’s funny because in Japan we have Silver Week, which is a cluster of national holidays in the middle of September. The days usually fall on September 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. My birthday being the 24th means I usually get the days off preceding but, unless it’s on a weekend, I’m always in on my actual birthday. So yes, I was in work, though I don’t mind much because it’s a good excuse to get the kids to sing happy birthday to me, haha. This year I was very happily surprised at lunchtime with a card signed by a bunch of teachers and a birthday cake made by Heidi. It was delicious!
After school I met Shyam in Shinjuku and we went to HaiDiLao for dinner. I think I posted about this restaurant before. It’s a Chinese hotpot restaurant, which is kind of gimmicky. For example, a guy dressed up as a samurai walks around scaring people, there is a guy that makes noodles in front of you with this amazing dance routine, and if it’s your birthday you get the craziest song and dance done for you. Thank god Shyam didn’t arrange that last one for me! You can order off a tablet all kinds of meat, tofu, and vegetables to cook in the hotpot at your table. There are also various side dishes, desserts, drinks, and a fun salad bar where you can experiment to make your own sauces. I ordered an amazing strawberry drink, which was sadly limited edition only. I want to drink it again so badly!
So we ate tons there and I feel like I waddled all the way home. Then I get in, open the fridge, and find a huge lemon meringue pie in there. Shyam had very obviously listened well to me saying multiple times how much I wanted a lemon meringue and he had delivered! I’m pretty sure I had to wait until the next day to eat any though because, as I already said, I was thoroughly stuffed! It was a funny moment though, opening the fridge and seeing that.
I was lucky enough to get a second part of my celebrations a few days later. Shyam took me and some of my friends out for dinner at this nice restaurant in Omote-sando called Cicada. It’s a Mediterranean restaurant with inside and outside seating and really nice decor. We shared various appetizers and I chose, by the looks of my photo, a steak main dish. It was delicious!
Then, of course, I got the birthday plate with candle treatment, and a truly terrible attempt by my friends (led by Morgan) to sing to me. It was hilarious and very much appreciated!
It was a really lovely evening and I’m so thankful to Shyam for organising it and my friends that joined us and made it so special. We even managed to get together at the end of the night for a really lovely photo together.
Okay, I will try my best to be back later this week with my next entry.
I’m finally back with part 2 of last year’s epic summer vacation trip back to the UK (and Poland). So last time I left us on our return back to the UK from a wonderful few days in Poland. We flew back into Stansted airport and from there Shyam and I traveled together up to Norwich. I was taking him to see my childhood home for the first time. He was most excited about meeting our dog, Oskar, haha. We were picked up from the train station and Shyam got instantly scared about how inaka (countryside) the surroundings became, haha.
So we did a bunch of stuff over the next few days. On the Saturday, Shyam and I went with my brother, Henry, and his girlfriend to see a pre-season football match at Carrow Road. It was Norwich v Breda and it was super fun! Norwich won 2-0 and we enjoyed the party atmosphere. After the match we went back to my mum’s house and my stepdad got the pizza oven going in the garden. Something that Shyam had wanted to try, lol. It was super yummy!
The next day we took Oskar for a walk at Felbrigg Hall. Oskar had a great time and we enjoyed the lovely weather. I, however, did not enjoy the swarm of wasps when we stopped in at the cafe for a drink. The worst thing about British summers! I hid in the bookshop whilst everyone else went into the cafe, haha. I bought a book or two of course! In the evening, Shyam showed off some of his culinary talents with some traditional Indian food. It was lovely, of course! Shyam was only staying for the weekend, so the next day we took him back to Norwich train station, but I think he enjoyed his short stay in the middle of nowhere, haha.
I had a couple of days just chilling with my mum and stepdad. Then they had a short break away booked, so I was pet sitting for a few days. It was nice. I just relaxed, watching TV, reading my book, and hanging with my dog and my cat. Henry and his girlfriend came over at one point and we took Oskar to the beach for a walk, which was super nice!
A couple of days after my mum and stepdad got back, I headed up north to Manchester to see my friends up there for a couple of days. It was a bit tricky because the train prices were ridiculous! But eventually Shyam managed to find me some that didn’t break the bank too much. I was also lucky enough to be able to stay with my mum’s friend, Meg, whilst I was up there so no hotel fees incurred! I got to see nearly all the people I wanted to see. I was also very surprised by the sudden appearance of two huge Korean supermarkets in the centre of Manchester.
I also managed to tick off one of the items on my list that I needed to take back to Japan. My friend’s daughter had requested a giant gobstobber, so whilst in Stockport with Cez we went into a sweet shop and the ladies in there were super helpful! They showed us two sizes and I ended up going for the smaller one because the big one would have used up half my luggage allowance, haha. It was very appreciated when I successfully delivered it upon our return to Tokyo.
After a nice few days in Manchester, I returned to Norfolk yet again, lol. I spent the next week there hanging out with my family and various friends. At one point I found mum’s unused rice cooker and decided to cook a bunch of rice and attempted to make kimbap and onigiri. I was semi-successful ^^; Mum and I also made two Battenburg cakes together, following the recipe I got from the baking class I went to. We cheated a little bit though and used shop bought marzipan. We also had fish and chips (Or, in my case, battered sausage and chips) by the sea as per my request. Unfortunately it was supper windy so we ate inside the chip shop. But I still got a super rubbish pic to show my students.
On August 22nd, I said a bit of a teary goodbye to my family and headed down by train to London, where I met Shyam and some of his friends. We went to a board game cafe called The Arcanist’s Tavern, which had some cool themed toasties and pizzas on the menu and had a very atmospheric interior. My friend, Shabz, also joined us after she finished work and we played a few different games. It was super fun! Then we went to a cool food court nearby called BOXPARK, which had a variety of different cuisines on offer in a night time feel food court style.
After dinner, we all said our goodbyes, and Shyam and I got on a train down to Brighton. I got to suffer the delights of noisy trains that I’ve become so uncustomed to since being in Japan. This guy sat opposite me was video calling loudly nearly the whole way. Made me miss Japan’s quiet trains so much! We spent our last few days in Brighton with Shyam’s family. There was sofa shopping, more board game playing, Brighton Pier strolling (we were shocked to see you had to pay to go on the pier now!). One day we also went to Arundel with Shyam’s mum. Its a beautiful medieval market town with a fabulous castle! We had a full English breakfast in a pub there, walked a bunch, and found an art event where we bought a beautiful fox picture to put on Shyam’s bedroom wall.
The last day or so was all about packing and buying last minute bits to take back with us. Then it was some more sad goodbyes and we had to catch an early coach from Brighton centre to Heathrow airport to begin the long journey back home. We were flying back via Kuala Lumpur again, so it was a long journey! There was a bit of delay getting on the first plane but luckily we had a fairly sizeable transfer so we didn’t miss our connection. The landing in Kuala Lumpur was traumatic though. The weather was so bad it took us three attempts to get down. I’ve never been in a plane that had aborted landing twice like that before. Terrifying! But we made it and got to chill a little bit before taking our second flight onward to Tokyo. All in all, it wasn’t too bad of a journey.
And that brings this epic two-partner to an end! It was mostly an amazing trip back. You really learn to appreciate seeing your family and friends when it is limited to once a year or less. I hope we can go back and see them again soon.
Last summer, Shyam and I had a pretty epic, lengthy trip back to the UK, which also included a trip across to Poland to see our friend. This post will be the first half of our trip, taking us briefly back to the UK and then across to Poland.
On July 21st we took a late flight out of Narita airport with Malaysian Airlines. It was not the most direct route but it was one of the cheapest, which is important, haha. Our first flight took about seven hours down to Kuala Lumpur. I was very impressed by the safety video, which was a full on music video. I highly recommend looking it up on Youtube. The turbulence was not fun though. I think it’s always extra bumpy in that part of the world. We then had a two to three hour stopover at Kuala Lumpur airport. We landed at something like 4am though, which was a bit annoying. Luckily there were, surprisingly, one or two places open. So we poked around a shop and sat down for a drink. There was also this actual rainforest contained inside the airport. It was very cool!
After our little stopover, we got on a bigger plane for the 13 hour flight to London. I think I tried to watch The Fellowship of the Ring but was exhausted and kept falling asleep and missing huge chunks of the film. I believe the flight was okay, if memory serves. We landed at Heathrow in the middle of the afternoon and got to ride the new Elizabeth Line for the first time ever. Very posh! Haha. There Shyam and I parted ways for a few days as we went in opposite directions to go see our respective families. I had to take the long, arduous coach journey up to Norwich. I seriously don’t recommend it after you’ve already been travelling for over a day, but needs must. I got picked up at Norwich bus station by mum and Adrian, just like two years before, and made the final part of the long journey by car.
I spent the next few days hanging out with my family and eating all the food I’d missed for the last two years, haha. Lots of Oskar and Ben cuddles, jam doughnuts (seriously, you can’t get them in Japan, it’s so sad) and Yorkshire tea! Also went to see a ballet with my mum and did some shopping on one day. Then on another day we went to the Alysham Show. Lots of tractors, classic cars, farm animal shows, and food trucks (and therefore sadly too many wasps! >.<). Of course it tried to rain a bit, but for England standards, it wasn’t too bad.
6 days into our trip, Shyam and I met back up again at Stansted Airport. We took a Ryanair flight to Warsaw, where we were met at the considerably smaller of the two airports in Poland’s capital city by our friend, Magda. She drove us back to her parents’ house a few miles outside the city, where we would be staying for the next few days. It was already quite late but Magda fed us some pierogi and something sweet (I forget what it was exactly) that she and her sister had made earlier. Then it was time for bed before the exciting exploration of a new city began the next day.
On the first day we had a general overview of the city. Magda stayed with us for the whole day and showed us all the must see sights, explaining everything so well to us. It’s been nearly a year so, unfortunately, I have forgotten most of the details. We saw the old town, and we saw lots of interesting buildings, plus gardens and fountains and the huge river that bisects the city. We also went into this cosy little restaurant in the old town that served up Pyzy, which is a super traditional Polish delicacy that has been a popular street food since medieval times. It’s basically potato dumplings served in a jar with various other ingredients. I had one with bacon and cheese and nuts and other items I forget. It was very filling and I unfortunately couldn’t finish it all. Then we visited a Polish supermarket for the first time, which was fun! The mascot of the supermarket is a ladybird! And then chilled at Magda’s in the evening, playing some board games and chatting.
The next day Magda was busy for most of it, so Shyam and I explored very casually on our own. We walked a lot and found lots of interesting places, including this huge repurposed building that housed shops and restaurants. The restaurant area was really cool as it was laid out in sections with food from all over the world. We ended up at a Greek place as we both love halloumi. It was delicious! We also found a lonely looking kids roundabout that I had to test out, of course! And snacks in a convenience store that reminded us of Japan!
The next day, Shyam and I went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It was a very informative place and very well laid out. I learnt a lot more about a subject we only touched on very briefly at school. I 100% recommend this museum if you ever go to Warsaw. We then tried a Polish McDonald’s, cause you just have to, hahaha. It was okay. Better than Japan because they had a vegetarian burger for Shyam. Then we went to the Warsaw University Library Garden, a stunning rooftop garden. It was a beautiful day, so I think we saw the garden at its most vibrant. We went to another park after that (I can’t for the life of me remember which one, sadly) and saw a red squirrel up close! It was a super fun day.
On our last full day, we tried pączki, which is a Polish doughnut. Similar to our jam doughnuts but also distinctly different. I forget what flavour I tried, but it was delicious! We then found some more beautiful nature (Warsaw seriously has a lot!), and then Magda took us to a traditional Polish diner style restaurant. It was a bit like a canteen and the food was ridiculously cheap! We went full on Polish cuisine in here. We tried strawberry pasta, apple cinnamon rice, bright pink beetroot soup, and of course some pierogi. I really enjoyed the sweet/savoury options. Not surprising considering how much I love pineapple on pizza, haha. It was a great experience!
In the evening we met up with some of Magda’s friends at a bar with outside seating in the centre and had some drinkies and nice chats. It was a nice way to spend our last night in Poland.
We didn’t go into Warsaw on our last day in Poland. Instead, Magda took us out on a long bike ride around her local area. It was quite challenging! Magda is a very fit and active person, so what she thought was a short bike ride very nearly killed Shyam and I, haha. But we had a lot of fun and saw some super nice more rural parts of Poland. Plus we got to practice saying hello in Polish a few times to the people we met along the way. I love friendly countryside people! In the early afternoon Magda took us back to the airport and we had to say goodbye. It was a really lovely few days in a brand new city for us.
Okay, part 1 is finished. I’ll hopefully be back with part 2 of our epic summer vacation from last year soon.
In April and May last year I attended two very different cultural classes. The first, on April 26th, was a cooking class to make the classic British treat, the Battenburg Cake. Then around three weeks later, on May 17th, I attended an Ikebana class. That’s the Japanese tradition of flower arranging.
First, as I said, in late April last year, I attended a cooking class to learn how to make the incredibly involved Battenburg Cake. In the middle of Tokyo, there is a bakery owned by a British lady. It’s called Mornington Crescent. She primarily runs cooking classes there, but also, once a month, she hosts an open bakery where she bakes up loads of goodies and sells them from 11am until she is sold out. I went to ones of her classes the year before with Shyam and another friend. We made scones that time. I asked her then about Battenburg classes and she told me she held them once a year. So I kept my eye on her website for several months and finally the class appeared and I quickly signed up.
The class size was limited to six, and when I arrived I realised I was the only non-Japanese participant. I immediately felt a little bad as the classes can be done in English, Japanese, or both, depending on the participants, and with my presence she had to do English too. But of course she was fine with it and, I think, enjoyed being able to share some British anecdotes. She demonstrated what to do in the the kitchen area, and then we worked, in pairs, in the front shop area.
So the basic process was making the sponge first. Of course you have to make a yellow sponge and a pink sponge, which is why we were working in pairs. When she demonstrated she kind of awkwardly made a partition in the pan to bake the pink and yellow sponges side-by-side, but she said making two at a time in two different pans was much easier. As the sponges baked, we then got the delightful job of making the marzipan. This was tedious and I would not recommend, lol. In fact, when I made Battenburg at mum’s last summer, we cheated and bought readymade marzipan, lol. Basically there is a whole lot of regimented stirring involved and having to get the mixture at a certain temperature. The lady I was paired with was a bit older and a bit stuck in her way of doing things too, so it was kind of hard.
Once the marzipan was finished and the sponges baked, they were left to cool. We took the opportunity to have a tea break and sample what we were making (a classic here’s one I made earlier’ trick). It was delicious and the tea was so refreshing after the torrid time we’d had with the marzipan.
After the cake and tea was gone, it was back to work. It was time to assemble the cake! We had to cut the sponges and arrange them in the right way to make the classic checked pattern. Then we had to glue them together with apricot jam. Very messy! After that it got even messier! We had to coat the sponges in jam and then carefully wrap the marzipan all the way around. It was difficult! But I just about managed it. It didn’t look as neat as the one I’d just eaten from at the tea break, but it was definitely passable.
We wrapped our cakes up in clingfilm and put them in boxes to take home. If anyone has had a shop bought Battenburg before, just know that these ones are huge in comparison! Enough to feed about ten people probably. We all thanked our teacher very much and happily marched out with our gigantic cakes after a fun few hours.
Okay, so part one was a very British experience (though primarily taught in Japanese, lol). Part 2 is a Japanese experience primarily taught in English, haha. The area where I live has a nice community spirit. It has a big foreigner presence, so there are a lot of English language initiatives. This Ikebana experience was one such of these. It was a heavily subsidized class (usually Ikebana classes can be quite expensive to attend), so I felt very lucky to be able to participate.
It was held in a community space only 15 minutes walk from my apartment. I arrived in good time and found out I was part of group A. There were two groups and one would do whilst the other watched and then swap over. So I was in the group that would do the flower arranging first. We had a professional Japanese Ikebana lady there to show us what to do, plus many volunteers helping. I found this class kind of hard too. I don’t have the greenest fingers in the world, so cutting stems and choosing flowers, etc. felt very foreign to me. We watched her demonstration first and then we got stuck in at our own work benches.
Ikebana is basically about choosing your centerpieces (the flowers), angling them in the way you want, and then adding the greenery around them. It is definitely something that takes a lot of practice to get good at, I think. We all had a fair bit of help constructing our pieces. But it was super fun to see what everybody came up with. After we finished, they helped us take some fairly professional photos of our pieces. I was pretty happy with how mine turned out.
We then switched over to the B group. I then got to just amble around, looking at what they were doing. They had different flowers to us, so it was interesting to see the new designs they all came up with.
After they finished, we did a little survey thing at the end. Then they wrapped everyone’s flowers to take home. It unfortunately did not look nearly as pretty squished into the vase I have here, haha. But I really enjoyed the experience and recommend everyone to try Ikebana if they can.
I’m back with another blog. This one will be a bit weird as I’m going to talk about two concerts I went to, but one was in April last year and the other was in July. But it just makes sense to me to put them in a post together since they are both solo concerts of BTS members.
In April, my friend Alice and I were lucky enough to succeed in the lottery to see J-Hope’s concert in Saitama. Actually, we somehow even managed to get VIP tickets! So on April 19th, Alice traveled up here and stayed with me. We went to the Hope On The Stage pop-up shop, which was being held in Shibuya. We didn’t really buy anything, but it was fun to go in and have a look around and take some photos.
After that we raided Daiso (a 100 yen store) for supplies to make signs and ‘freebies’ for the concert. K-POP concerts are famous for both things. This was actually my first ever K-POP concert, so I was learning all the ins and outs from Alice. We got back to mine and started getting creative with our signs. We then also packed a whole bunch of freebies. Basically, you give out (and often exchange) freebies with other concert goers. Usually at your seat and in queues. We made ‘Hobi money’ and also added throat sweets to aid after all the screaming and singing, haha.
Then we got a goodnight’s sleep in ready for the concert the next day. It was a Sunday late afternoon concert and because we had VIP we also had access to the soundcheck, so we had to leave quite early. We arrived in plenty of time to scope out the arena (the Saitama Super Arena). The place was packed out of course! We had to go through some pretty rigorous security checks since VIP is a big deal, lol. But eventually we got our wristbands and were able to go join the queue to get into the arena. We were entertained as we waited by a Hobi advertising lorry circling around the arena.
We got inside eventually and it was huge! The VIP section was by the stage, of course, but it was a huge section and we were right near the back of the side of the stage. It was still a decent view though and we were sitting with some super cool people. We gave out and exchanged many many freebies as we waited for soundcheck to start. There was even a fellow Brit sitting behind me. She was a fortunate non-resident who had managed to get a ticket to tie in with a trip she was already making in Asia (I believe she hopped across from Singapore, lol).
So you can’t actually take photos and videos at K-POP concerts in Japan. It’s 100% banned, which I love! No sea of phones in front of you! I took the above photo and then put my phone away until the end. Very liberating, I tell you. The soundcheck was really chill! Hobi was delightful and played three of his songs in his casual attire, as they do during soundcheck. It was really cool to experience. He then went off and I raced to the loo before the general audience was let in, haha. Then it was a bunch of waiting around until the actual concert started.
The concert itself was amazing!! It had everything! Singing, dancing, pyrotechnics, VCRs on the big screen. He did his solo stuff and he did his BTS solo songs and he also did a BTS medley. It was a really super concert. I’m sad I didn’t write this sooner because the details really escape me with it being nearly a year round. That’ll hopefully motivate me to keep more up to date with this once I’ve caught up. After the concert we left very slowly and also decided to stop in a family restaurant near the station (Jonathan’s maybe) to grab a bite in the hopes the trains wouldn’t be as busy if we waited a bit (it worked). Overall it was an amazing time!
Okay, concert number two. So this was Jin’s concert in July at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. So it was Alice and I again. She came to stay with me and this time we coordinated outfits. A perfect homage to Jin’s song Super Tuna, haha. We didn’t hand make signs this time, instead using Jin fans that Alice had got in Korea. We did put together some freebies but nothing particularly exciting. I think I shoved salt tablet sweets in mine since it was July and Japan is bloody hot in July.
We went in the other direction, compared to the Hobi concert, to Chiba. Makuhari Messe is a huge convention center that divides down into several exhibition halls. Jin’s concert was held in the biggest available space they had, I think. No VIP this time, so we were quite far back, but we could see the stage in the distance and there were, of course, plenty of screens up. When we arrived, the first thing we did was queue up to collect the merch we had pre bought. We both went for the Chiba specific pin badges. They were so cute, how could I not! Then eventually we went inside. I tried to use the toilet in there before the concert, but it was a nightmare! I queued for ages and didn’t get anywhere near the front before the show was about to start, so I gave up. I strategized and went during the longest VCR break half-way through the concert.
So, again, there were no phones allowed during the concert. But we had our Army Bombs (the light sticks we’re holding in the above photo). I forgot to mention earlier that these get synced up during the concerts. It’s so cool watching everyone’s Army Bombs coordinating with each other in a sea of everchanging colours. Jin put on an amazing show! While J-Hope’s concert was all phenomenal dancing and rapping and pyrotechnics, Jin’s was a charming mix of comedy, bops, and heart-wrenching ballads. He also stayed true to the name of the tour, ‘#Run Seokjin_Ep.Tour’, and made it a variety show. We had games and skits on top of the amazing singing performances. It was honestly one of the best shows I’ve ever attended. I had so much fun! Though he did mange to make me cry during the ballad section when he was playing the piano. Jin’s voice is just hauntingly good live.
I don’t actually remember the aftermath of the show for some reason. But we would have left and made the long journey back to mine. The next day (a Sunday) we went to the tour’s pop up store in Harajuku and, similarly to the J-Hope pop-up, just looked around and took photos, haha. Then we had Mexican food for lunch, before heading back to mine to get Alice packed up and ready to head back down south. It was an amazing weekend!!
My tale of two concerts is over. I’ll be back with a much shorter blog update soon!
I’m back! A bit later than planned, but you know life happens sometimes. I shall endeavor to get back on schedule with catching up to the present day. Today’s blog is about my trip down to Izu in Shizuoka last spring.
I headed down to Izu on March 22nd last year to spend a couple of days with my friend, Alice. It’s always nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo every now and then. I’m not sure if I’ve written this before, but this area is fairly easy and cheap to get to from Tokyo. You can take local trains down there and it only takes around two hours (or faster on the more expensive shinkansen). And it is a truly beautiful part of Japan. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
So on that first day I arrived around lunch time and we went to eat first. I’m afraid I don’t remember the name of the place we went, but we had nice hamburg steak lunches. Then we went to Banjo Falls. This is a fairly quiet area with two impressive waterfalls and a restroom that is in the shape of a beetle, which I found very amusing!
After that we stopped by a wasabi cultivation center. It was a huge area with so much wasabi growing! Then we went to Tofuya Bakery & Table, a bakery with a foot spa next to the river that we had been to together before. We grabbed a drink and ice-cream from inside and then sat at the foot spa. It was soooo nice! After this the photos dried up a bit and I don’t remember what we did ^^; We might have gone to an onsen but then again we might not have. We definitely stopped in the supermarket on the way back to hers to get something for dinner. We had a very healthy salad for dinner, I remember that much.
The next day Alice drove us down to the Futo Coast, which is on the west side of Izu. We parked up right next to the sea and went into this cute hamburger restaurant for lunch. It’s called 2nd Cafe and it was so nice! The staff inside were lovely and the food was delicious. Plus the view straight out to sea whilst eating was amazing! After eating we had a good walk around the area, before moving onto the next area not too far away. Here we went on a death defying walk up onto a cliff edge (I may or may not have had a slight panic attack up there – thank you for looking after me, Alice ❤ ). But the views were worth it!
This was in a place called Dougashima. There is a cave there that you can tour, but we only ended up seeing it form above (though it was still very cool!) Dougashima itself is a cool place. They even have a trick museum there, which we did go into. It was my first time to go to a trick museum and it was super fun!
We headed back down the coast after that and found a rock shaped like a horse, which is actually marked on the map as ‘Horse Rock’, lol. We also went to a place called ‘Lover’s Point’. It had a cute sculpture and a bell that lover’s have to ring, of course. Plus amazing views out to sea. We then stopped somewhere a little further up for an ice-cream and souvenir shop break (I can’t find it on the map sadly).
Our second last stop for the day was a hotel with an outside onsen. Alice had found out you could go in there without being a guest at the hotel. I don’t remember the location or name of the hotel right now. If I find it, I’ll come back and edit it in. It was really nice though! There was an outside onsen, which we timed perfectly to be in at sunset. At first there was a family of three different generations in there with us, but then they went back inside for dinner and we had it to ourselves for the actual sunset (so we might have snuck a phone in quickly to take a pic of the sunset >.> ).
We rounded out the day by going to a Korean restaurant. We feasted on samgyeopsal because walking plus onsen makes you very hungry, haha. Then we went back to Alice’s for a well earned sleep.
The next morning we had a light breakfast and then Alice took me to the train station, via a souvenir shop so I could get some local Izu goodies to take back with me. I didn’t go straight home, I met Shyam in Numazu (very close by) and we hung out with our friend Audrey and her two small boys for the day. It was a super nice end to a really lovely weekend. Thank you again, Alice, for being an amazing tour guide/chauffer/friend! 😀
I will be back very soon with the next installment!
There is a theme park on the western side of Tokyo called Yomiuriland. It’s a fairly large park that has thrill rides, kids rides, and a waterpark that’s open in the summer. You might have seen it in the news lately since there is a special Pokemon themed area opening there next month. In the winter, however, the waterpark (and various areas of the rest of the park) are lit up for an event called ‘Jewellumination’. This is what Shyam and I primarily went there for in late February last year.
So we arrived at around 3pm because we wanted to see the park in daylight a bit before the illuminations started. It’s the type of theme park where you can pay a basic entry fee and then ‘pay as you go’ on the rides or you can buy a special ‘all you can ride’ wristband (with a few restrictions). We went for the former because we didn’t plan to ride a lot. It was about 1,800 yen. If you enter from the Keio Yomiuriland station side, you can take the sky gondola into the park. It costs 300 yen one way or 500 yen return. We got a return and hopped onto a gondola to go into the park and get our first bird’s eye view.
We touched down and began our first walk around the park. There is a huge rollercoaster there called ‘Bandit’, which takes up a large portion of space near to the entrance. Also a big ferris wheel and a stage area for random performances. As you walk around you see various restaurants, food vendors, and merch shops, as you’d expect. There is also this whole area called ‘Goodjoba!’. It has a bunch of attractions where you can experience working in various vocations. I think it’s mostly aimed at kids, so we didn’t partake in any of it, but they had a whole section themed on Nissin soba noodles, which was pretty eye-catching.
We took a break in Starbucks at some point because it was really cold! And even after that it still wasn’t dark, so we decided to go on a ride. We really pushed ourselves and went on the carousel, haha.
Then we decided to walk up to the waterpark area where the main illuminations are. We stoped at a shooting game on the way so Shyam could try to win me something. I believe we got… something, haha. Then we had our first look at the illuminations, which had been turned on, though the sun was still setting and it wasn’t nearly dark enough yet.
The waterpark area had various sound and light shows. The lower pool, which is the first two photos above this, had a very catchy tune playing as the lights whizzed around. We were mesmerized by the song and the lights, haha. Then if you go up a level, there are three different pools and at one of them there is a long, very well thought out fountain show, complete with lights and music. It was really cool to watch! The Good!Joba area was also nicely lit up, so we had another walk around there to see the lights.
And, of course, there was a big tunnel of lights, as there always seems to be at illuminations these days. We enjoyed a nice walk through there and then ended up back at the waterpark for a final look at the lights in complete darkness finally. It felt really magical!
We then headed back to the park entrance, bought a couple of souvenirs in the shop, took a few last photos, and got on the gondola to go back. We were able to get some nice night view shots from the gondola. Overall, it was an amazing experience that I highly recommend. The Jewellumination runs from the end of October until the end of March, so plenty of chance to go there if you’re in Japan during the, in my opinion, best months!
Another blog added! Be back soon with more. I feel like I’m properly on a roll this time! 🙂
So, January 15th 2025 marked Shyam’s big 30 birthday. I plotted for weeks and weeks on what I could do to make it as special and memorable as possible. So let’s start this post with the actual birthday day.
So his actual birthday landed midweek, so after work I took him to an Indian restaurant in Roppongi he really likes called DIYA. We arrived and were shown to our table and I think I really casually mentioned to the waiter that it was his birthday (important detail for later). We had lots of delicious food. I always defer to Shyam in Indian restaurants because he knows the cuisine best of course. Then as a lovely surprise (to both of us) our waiter bought out a lovely complimentary birthday dessert plate for him. It was so sweet of them! Excellent restaurant!
Oh and worth a mention, for his birthday one of the things I gave him was a crocheted Lily of the Valley (his favorite flower). Teaching myself crochet has really opened up so many doors for creative gift giving!
So that was his actual birthday, but the main event was to happen on the following Sunday evening. I managed to gather several of his friends together and hired a room out in the middle of Shinjuku. Unfortunately this room wasn’t as advertised and there were a few um… teething problems, but we made the best of it! I also arranged a special cake to be made. That was kind of fun as I picked it up from Kawasaki and then had to carefully negotiate getting it from there to Shinjuku in once piece. It was difficult but I just about managed it.
We had some kitchen facilities in there, so just about managed to make some tacos between us, despite the aforementioned teething problems I had to deal with. After the cake, the main event was the other big project I worked on. I made a video with a bunch of old photos and videos I had procured from his sister. There were lots of cute little Shyam moments, followed by more recent moments of us in Japan together. Then I followed it up with a bunch of video messages from family and friends not in Japan. It took some organising, and I’m not good at editing videos, but I was very happy with the result! I was glad to see how much Shyam appreciated it.
Okay, one more post done. I think with this one I am now within one year of catching up again ^^; I’ll be back soon!
On January 5th, Shyam and I went to Enoshima for a well earned night away. Enoshima is about an hour and forty mins from us on the train. The primary reason was to see the winter illuminations on the island, but we also treated ourselves to a few hours in the Enospa.
So after the train ride down, via Yokohama to buy swim wear, we checked into our accommodation, which is the hotel connected to the spa. It was a fairly basic room but the window had a pretty nice view striaght out to sea.
We freshened up a bit and then headed back across to the spa. This was my second time here as I came with my mum in 2019, but it was Shyam’s first time. It’s a very foreigner friendly place, especially since they have an extensive ‘swimsuit okay’ area for anyone a bit too timid to try out the full on ‘sans clothes’ onsen experience. There are pools/baths inside and outside. There’s nothing like being in a heated pool outside on a cold January afternoon, honestly. Plus we timed it perfectly to see the sunset behind Mount Fuji. The following photo was taken from the upper floor outside pool (Shyam diced with fire keeping his phone out of the water, haha).
We both tried the ‘real onsen’ areas too. These are, of course, separated by gender. I think it was a pretty standard onsen. Shower area and maybe two different baths. I actually can’t remember because I’ve been to a few different sento/onsen since then. Anyway, we left there feeling very refreshed. I think we stopped by the hotel room to drop off our swim gear, and then we began our ascent up the island towards where the illuminations are. We passed by the lit up Enoshima Shrine first and then made out way onto the paid escalators. Yes, paid escalators. Enoshima is a very elevated island and the climb up all the steps is actual torture (I have done it!). Plus we just wanted the experience of going on the escalators, lol. I can’t remember the price but it was probably worth it, haha.
We got to the top and arrived at our illumination destination, the Samuel Cocking Garden, which houses the Enoshima Sea Candle. We had a quick first look at some of the illuminations, before giving into the growl of our tummies and going to get something to eat. We had to wait a bit as there aren’t many restaurants up there, but we sat down eventually at the Il Chianti Cafe. A nice Italian place. Pizza is always a safe bet to get something vegetarian. The food was nice, though we were just glad to sit down in the warm and eat something, haha.
After eating, we went in and up the Sea Candle. The view of the illuminations from up high was incredible. Plus getting to see all the lights out to sea from this vantage point was very cool. We also took in more of the illuminations. There were so many. It was all so pretty!
We then decided to head to the Ryuren Bell of Love. This part of the island wasn’t as illuminated but it was still lit prettily as we made our way up and down more stone stairs. We rang the bell, of course, and then headed back and made the long trek back down to the hotel (the escalators only go up, you have to use the stairs to descend).
The next morning we checked out in a leisurely manner, bought a few souvenirs, and then headed back up to Tokyo. Overall, it was a lovely night away. I will be back soonish with the next catch up blog!
I’m back after only two days this time! Let’s keep this going! This time I am finally bringing 2024 to a close. It’ll mostly be about Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, but with some other stuff thrown in.
So at the start of December we still had some autumn leaves around in our local area, so Morgan and I went for a nice stroll, as we often do. It really is nice having a friend living nearby. We walked along the beautiful green path that snakes around our ward (local area) and wandered into a nearby shrine, admiring all the colours in the trees as we went.
At the end of November I started to teach myself to crochet. I decided I needed a new hobby and crochet seemed like the perfect thing to do in winter. So I followed along with a bunch of Youtube videos and started getting my crochet on. It ended up coming in really handy when I needed a unique gift for the annual White Elephant at Morgan’s Christmas Party. I made a Christmas stocking in around two hours in the morning before the party (super last minute, I know) and then stopped in the shop on the way to his apartment to stuff it with sweet treats. It went down very well!
On Christmas Day we had some friends over and Shyam cooked a proper Christmas dinner. A very bad for you but so delicious Christmas dinner, haha. I also added Yorkshire puddings, mince pies, and apple crumble with the not-so-secret ingredient, coconut flakes, on top and covered in custard. We amazingly found super cheap Christmas crackers at an import store and bought enough to last us for about three years, haha. Oh yes, and before the main event, Shyam made a rather wonderful charcuterie board for everyone to snack on until the roast chicken and all the trimmings were ready.
My Yorkshire puddings look a bit gnarly, but it was my first try and they tasted good! Overall a very good time was had by all. I think we must have played some games at some point too, but I honestly don’t remember a year later, haha.
The time between Christmas and New Year passed in a blur as usual. One thing my camera reel tells me though is that I got to meet TATA (one of the BTS Line characters) at the Line store in Shibuya. Kudos to whoever was wearing that costume cause damn.
On New Years Eve we headed to Yokohama. There aren’t many big countdown/fireworks parties in Japan as going to the shrine is much more traditional and what people do. Yokohama, however, has a short fireworks display as the clock strikes midnight. So Shyam, our friend, Jane, and I went there is the evening, and we walked and walked and walked for hours waiting for midnight. It was tough and I wouldn’t do it again. I think we even sat in McDonald’s for a bit to recover. But the fireworks, although brief, were pretty. We did also take in the atmosphere in Chinatown a little before midnight too. So overall it was a nice night. Unfortunately, getting home was harder than expected. We got about halfway back on the train and then forked out for a taxi the rest of the way, lol.
And that ties up 2024 nicely. I’ll be back in a couple of days, hopefully, to do my first post covering 2025.
A year in Japan 