June 2019 in a nutshell

Life

June was fun yet extremely exhausting. I got to go to Osaka for holidays, but I also had to prepare for internship applications as well as keep up with my lessons.

I still haven’t gotten any updates from my internship employer. I do wish I got the job but at the same time I’m scared and nervous since I’ve never really ‘worked’ before.

I got sick for 5 days, got better for two days, and got sick again. That cycle keeps repeating recently and I’m concerned for my own health. I tried consuming medicine but I just never cure completely. Maybe it’s fatigue? I hope it gets better once my classes end in July.

Anime

Dororo just ended, so recently, I’ve been watching Kimetsu no Yaiba and Fruits Basket faithfully! I’m so glad they’re 24 episodes long. Both animes are really doing great right now and I keep wondering what’s going to happen next episode!

If you’re a fan of action, supernatural, and demon-like genre then I recommend Kimetsu no Yaiba! Ufotable’s animation on this series is just superb. The song and soundtracks are on spot as well!

Fruits Basket is doing fine, imo. There are several parts that are different from the old version and some people are upset that the new version didn’t include the Momiji song lol. The episodes are getting darker and darker each time, though. Ahhh, the excitement!

I also planned on catching up to Kono Oto Tomare! but I kept forgetting about the existence of that anime. Lol. I promise I’ll catch up to it somehow.

Hopes and things to do for July

To ace final exams
Wrap up group projects nicely
Decide whether I will write a thesis
Ace my mock interview in Japanese
Basically worry about life

That’s it for the wrap up. How’s your June? I hope you had a nice one.

Splurging on Muji products

I can’t believe I did it … but I kinda went crazy and splurged on Muji because they had a 20% sale for almost all items.

Apparently, the only branch in this small city is going for renovation, which is why Muji is selling off all of their products with huge discounts.

I actually went there twice. Once on Saturday and once on Sunday. I spent quite a lot on these aesthetically pleasing items. Here we go!

I have been eyeing on these two items for quite awhile now. When I discovered that the sale was happening, I immediately rushed to the store and bought it. More surprisingly, the towel was already 50% off and the pajamas were 30% off. When I checked out at the register, the 20% extra discount stacked with it, making my total purchase significantly cheaper!

Next we have this mat that I’m planning to use for meals. I saw that my friend had something like this and it’s pretty useful and convenient. If I spill something on the mat, I only need to wash the mat and not my entire table.

All of these three combined are below $10 and they’re just so aesthetically pleasing. It’s very light and feels really well made. I just hope mold won’t get on the wooden cutleries …

I’ve been using a kitchen timer from Daiso for a long time now, and the sound it makes is so loud and it’s hard to set up the seconds. But this timer is a dial type so it makes setting up so much quicker and easier! The sound it makes is loud but not loud enough to annoy the hell out of you.

Bought 2 new pairs of socks since my old one is wearing down. There were so many patterns and colors to choose from but the white and navy combination is the most basic and versatile for my wardrobe!

I don’t know why I bought these, to be honest. I thought I’d have some use for it. I tried hanging it in various places but it seems like they’re all too big for the hanger. This will be sitting in my storage for now …

There are other items that I purchased (but did not take a pic of) like a stainless strainer, water jug filter, and their instant chicken butter curry. Honestly, if I had more money I would’ve bought everything they had there, but … there are more important things than this crazy discount sale.

Or maybe I should’ve bought that stainless cooking pot that was discounted to 1500 yen from 5200 yen…

Oh well, until next time!

Osaka Pt. 3: Universal Studios Japan

Universal Studios Japan (USJ) was our destination for the third day. We came quite early before the gates opened since my friend wants to get into the newest attraction of Attack on Titan. We thought we’re quick enough, but nope, we’re actually quite late lol. We had to wait almost 45 minutes to get into the attraction. It was quite interesting, though. It’s basically watching a 3D movie of AoT with real live actors and titan mannequins. We visited the special merchandise store and of course, splurged quite a bit.

Our next goal was to visit the Harry Potter World! We had no map since we forgot to take one at the admission gate so we had to look around until we found that tiny Hogwarts castle lol.

The first thing I did was get in line and purchase a Butterbeer. I’ve never actually tried one before but my friend was raving about it, so I gave it a try. It’s actually pretty good, but a bit too sweet for my taste. I purchased the one with a mug souvenir so I can bring the mug home with me as a gift!

I and my friend got ourselves a Slytherin robe and scarf. I was originally planning to buy a Gryffindor scarf but then I thought it’s quite common and mainstream, so I went for Slytherin instead. They look badass lol. The robe was purely an impulsive purchase. I cried a little when I saw how much money we spent on it. Welp, it’s once in a lifetime.

We wore the robe around HP world and the store and attraction staffs always gave us special treatment. It makes us feel good lol. We took lots of pics around but unfortunately couldn’t get into any rides since most of it is not suitable for people who get nauseated easily.

Boo-hoo.

This post ends the Osaka trip post. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Osaka Pt. 2: Kyoto

We visited Kyoto and the second day of our holiday. It’s only around an hour of train ride from Osaka, so it’s not bad. Our main objectives were to visit the 3 famous temples in Kyoto: Kiyomizu, Ginkaku, and Kinkaku.

Kiyomizu-dera

As usual, there are a lot of visitors for Kiyomizu. The weather was especially hot that day. I had to purchase an extra umbrella since I left the one I brought at the hotel.

Kiyomizu temple is so big that most of the pictures in my camera are pictures of this temple. The main temple where people pray is deeper inside and no camera or videos are allowed. Moreover, it’s also dark and it makes it difficult to take any clear images.

When you purchase the entry ticket, they give you a long piece of paper which also works as a charm for your house!

Ginkakuji (Silver temple)

To me, Ginkaku is the ‘plainest’ temple within the 3 temples I mentioned. It was built to mimic Kinkaku. The paths inside the temple were mostly flat and they have a lot of paths that require you to climb or anything. So it was a fairly smooth journey, I guess? I didn’t take any appropriate picture for this temple since nothing interesting caught my eye lol.

The soba that we got just outside of Kinkaku

We missed the bus headed for Kinkakuji since we had to search for an ATM to withdraw money. While waiting, we discovered this small cafe and decided to enter. We ordered a coffee-flavored shaved ice. It was superb.

Kinkakuji

The beauty of Kinkakuji blew me away. It looks so majestic and beautiful from far away. The temple is in the middle of the lake, so no one can really go inside it. Taking this picture was a huge struggle since there were a lot of tourists lining up to get their pics as well. Once we got our spot, we took our time and shot a lot of pics lol.

Near the entrance of Kinkakuji, there’s a famous skincare / cosmetics brand named Yojiya. I saw posts about this brand all over the internet and souvenir recommendation sites so I gave several of their products a try.

Their number one bestseller is oil blotting paper.

Never would’ve thought that I’d spend almost $10 for oil blotting paper… I must be insane lol.

I also purchased a body care line of Yojiya called Mayugomori. I originally tried their body milk and the scent smells divine and lingers for quite a long time. Body soap, shampoo, and conditioner are included in this set. I can’t wait to try it out!

To be continued Pt. 3

Osaka Pt. 1: Umeda and around

My friend and I visited Osaka for our short break. It’s been 10 years since I visited last time. To be honest, I don’t even remember what it looked like a decade ago lol.

We stayed at the center of Osaka. Naturally, Umeda became our playground when it comes to shopping and exploring the city. What’s nice is, everything is connected by train. This is one of the reasons why I love Japan so much lol.

While Japan train stations tend to also be a huge ass shopping mall, it’s very crowded and it’s hard to navigate around it if you’re not familiar with it. I had my friend guide me for the whole trip. This udon restaurant, which is a 10-minute walk from the station, is the first place I was brought to after we arrived.

The soup has a peculiar taste since it’s infused with yuzu peels. I like yuzu tea but yuzu udon? Uh, not so much. The tempura’s good, though.

We got this katsudon for dinner on the first day. To be honest, it’s not the best. There’s not much taste for the katsu itself. But then again it’s cheap compared to other restaurants, so we can’t complain lol.

This gelato shop is pretty famous. There are always people eating inside even though the space is very small. The price is in the middle to high range. I would come back if I were given the chance to!

These two pictures are famous tourist spots to take memorable pics. There are a lot of shops at Dotonbori. Exploring everything didn’t take us that long, though., since there were only several shops that we were interested in. Just beware that there are a lot of people here, so people like me who hate crowded places, better avoid this one lol.

To be continued Pt. 2

Catching up from April 2019

Welcome back to my blog, I guess? Lol. I was finally able to get this blog running again after it went down almost two months ago. It was really hard migrating a dead blog. I almost thought that it couldn’t be salvaged anymore. Bless Ofblue.org customer service for helping me to get it up again!

Anyways, I thought I’d post some things I did in April. As usual, it’s spring and cherry blossom time. I went 花見 (hanami) with three other friends and ate pizza. The weather was really nice but still kinda chilly at that time.

Walking under the ‘tunnel’ of sakura trees

Apparently the hay fever was really bad this year. I was lucky to not be affected as much, but I’ve read somewhere that you’re more susceptible to it as you age. 😦 I hope it doesn’t happen to me in the future. It would suck having to constantly sneeze and have watery eyes because of the pollen lol.

Sakura flowers, fish flags and a glimpse of the river

I also tried taking pictures with my Polaroid camera as usual, but it seems like there’s a problem with either the film or camera since it turned kinda … dark. I don’t know what caused it and so I had to throw away lots of Polaroid refills since most of the pictures I took turned out as a failure. 😥 But I did manage to take a lot of pictures with my Sony camera, so it’s okay.

Maybe I’ll invest in a square Polaroid printer next time …

Finding new hobbies

These days I’ve been doing nothing but self-studying Japanese and watching vlogs on Youtube. My favorite channel is 슛뚜sueddu for her cinematic style and non-dizzying vlogs (if you get what I mean). Her videos are really lovely and relaxing to watch. I feel like they have healing power lol.

Actually, her channel is the main reason why I finally got myself a camera. I wanted to try out legit photography and videomaking. Simple ones, though. I’ve taken photography as my extracurricular during middle school. But I wasn’t even that serious at studying so I forgot everything my teacher had taught me lol.

Aside from that, I also gained interest in pottery and sewing from watching other Youtube channels as well. Unfortunately, these hobbies are quite pricy to try out. There is one pottery studio near the apartment where I live in Japan but the class price is just … No. But I did find a DIY pottery clay using normal oven so I will try that out soon. Haha.

As for sewing, my mom and dad were surprisingly supportive when I told them about it and they even offered to buy me a sewing machine. The plan is mom would enroll me in a sewing class next summer when I go back. I’m excited but scared at the same time since I can’t really sew, even with hand lol. But if it works out I think it’ll be a great skill to have. 😀

‘Detoxing’, sustainable living, and relaxing

It has been a few weeks since all my classes ended and I’ve been watching some videos relating to cleaning and detoxing yourself for the past view days which got me really motivated to clean my whole space.

I cleaned my bathroom and my sink, which was super filthy from all the gunk accumulated. It took a lot of effort in cleaning all those things and I got back pains afterward from doing that. I also cleaned my wardrobe, selling 19 pieces of clothing I never really wear anymore to the recycle shop. It didn’t give me much, though, just a measly 692 yen. Then I rearranged the remaining clothes based on color and my rack looks 10 times better than what it used to be. Lol. Who knew reorganizing could be this good?

My current wardrobe (not all, obviously)

I also purchased books related to self-help or transformation (shown in the header). I got them after watching videos on recommended books to read for self-growth. Ever since the incident with the lecturer, I figured that things like this would help me lol. The first book that I am currently reading is titled The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. Though I am not half-way through, yet, the book has helped me realized a lot of things and it has certainly helped me to recover a bit from that incident. I normally do not reach out for these kinds of books but I am really glad I did. Would really recommend it for people who want to understand themselves further though I must admit it’s not an easy read. I had to reread several times before really understanding it.

I started decluttering other things as well. I’ve known about the concept for a long time but only decided to do it now. It actually feels so good to get rid of things that you know you do not need. Makes me wonder why I only started doing this now. I threw out my unused stationeries and skincare but kept some of them that I plan to bring back. I also got rid of my old papers from past classes that I have no use for anymore.

Other than that, I also decided to try to live more sustainably. I bought a reusable bag for shopping since some grocery stores in Japan charges plastic bags. Makes me feel better for not increasing plastic waste and now I don’t need to fold those annoying plastic bags in order to store them!

As I searched for more about sustainable lifestyle in Youtube, I discovered reusable cotton pads. I got them off Amazon for around 1000 yen. It comes in 12 pieces with 2 laundry nets so you can throw them in your washing machine. Isn’t that neat? Now I don’t need to worry about my cotton pads running out of stock!

Lastly, I gave myself some Me Time. I pampered myself with sheet masks and foot detox patches from time to time. I also started to write more actively in my journal to release my thoughts and emotions. It feels good.

That’s it for now and until the next post!

Feeling down and humiliated

This semester, I decided that I would take a winter session class. This type of class is held 5 days consecutively and separately from the normal schedule and the school would invite guest lecturers from outside the university. The name of the class I took was Brand Management, taught by a supposedly famous person I nicknamed L.

She is a very energetic and enthusiastic lecturer. Always seemed lively and fun. The first two classes went with no problem except for, of course, my group mates. Did I tell you that I always get the shaft in group works? Lol.

On the third day, someone asked the lecturer something regarding quizzes on the fourth day and she got very emotional on her speech about how fucked up the education system is and how we students just have it easy and constantly wants easy A+ for all our subjects. She said she’s not judging and stereotyping us university kids, but the way she phrased it just seemed that way. After her long emotional outburst, she asked if anyone had questions.

I raised my hands and asked if she has a general coverage for the quiz. She has 9 PowerPoint slides in total but most of the time, she just skips some of those slides and I got really confused whether those slides are really relevant for the quiz or not.

She sighed. Or maybe someone sighed, I couldn’t recall.

To be honest, I couldn’t even recall what she said to me afterward because everything just went so fast and I could only stay seated, dumbfounded. I remember her stating that she does not have any coverage for the quiz and all the slides are included as the quiz materials. Then she humiliated me by asking if I would be happy if she made a special slide complication that contains only the materials that would be out for quiz. Oh God, the sarcasm.

At that point, I lost all my respect that I had for her.

I do not understand why she needed to take out her anger and vent it on me. I confronted her after class and apologized to her if any of my words or questions had offended her. I do not think that I am in the wrong, but I feared that she would lower my grades on purpose, so I apologized.

She said my timing to ask the question was horrible and so, she had to go all out and say all those things to me.

I went home and spent almost the whole night crying about how embarrassing and humiliating that scene was. Did I even do something wrong? I bet half of the class wants to know the answer to my simple short question but none of them stood up for me when I was getting bashed by the lecturer. Why? I don’t know. I was speechless. I still am.

Maybe I’m just a butthurt little kid. I want someone to tell me that I did not do anything wrong, but no one did. I wanted to shout and yell and call everyone names, but then I would not be any different from her. I figured that doing all of these things wouldn’t change anything, so I at least want to prove myself that I am better and more mature than her. Of course, it still hurts when I recall the scene but I’m slowly letting all those stupid events go.

Learning to accept and take the blame is so hard. But at least I am now a bit more mature than everyone else in class? Haha.

Mini shopping at Muji

I love Muji products for their overall aesthetically designed and good quality products. They had another sale recently so I dropped by to check if there was anything that I could buy. In the end, I got myself a neck pillow, a paper shredder, a makeup brush, two cleaning tools, a nail oil, 2 glass containers, and a portable lint roller.

The insides of the pillow. Original price 1990 yen.

Muji neck pillows are really popular for their size and comfortableness. I actually have a neck pillow but it takes up so much space and doesn’t really do much for my poor neck when I travel. But Muji’s is so soft and portable. The price isn’t that expensive either (during sale). There were several colors that you can pick from but I chose the black one for neutrality. They also sell the covers only in case you want to change it.

Handy paper shredder. Originally 990 yen.

I’ve been wanting to buy this paper shredder for so long. I got sick of tearing delivery labels by hand from the boxes that I receive through online shopping. I also cleaned my documents last time and had to struggle tearing a lot of paper apart. This paper shredder saved a lot of time and effort. The only downside would be the size. It can only shred maximum two pieces of paper in one go with a width less than 11.4 centimeters. But I mainly use this for tiny delivery labels, so that’s not a problem for me.

Portable face brush. Originally 1790 yen.

I’ve been using a cheap makeup brush from Daiso so far and decided it’s time to get an upgrade. I went for the travel size one since it has a cap so I can keep it clean longer compared to my old brush that just sits in the open collecting dust. This way, I can also longer the time for when I need to clean my brush. I was pleasantly surprised when I touched the brush. It’s super soft on the skin!

Portable lint roller. Got it for 195 yen.

This is probably one of the most unexpected item. Haha. I actually forgot to include this in the header picture. It’s a super small lint roller.

I had a huge problem with lint collecting on my coats and hat when I traveled last time. So when I saw this item on sale, I had to get it. The size is so small that it’s smaller than the palm of my hands so maybe it’ll only be useful for small items. Cleaning coats would probably be a bit hard with this. They sell special refills for this, too.

Next is my lifesaver for winter, a cuticle oil. My cuticles have been really dry recently because of winter and they started peeling off to the point of it being unbearable. I tried searching for cuticle oils in Amazon but it was kind of pricey so when I saw Muji had one, I decided to get theirs since it’s way cheaper. It has a nice citrus scent, too.

I saw this on discount as well and figured it might be useful to organize my cotton pads. I usually just keep it in the box it came with but it never shuts close completely so dust always enters. With this, the problem is solved!

I don’t know why it’s called soda glass… Is it only Japan’s way of saying it? Anyways, I’m using it to hold my loose tea bags since they’re not individually packaged.

And the last item are these cleaning tools! They were only 80 yen each, which is cheaper than Daiso. They released the cleaning series recently and received a lot of positive reviews in the websites so I decided to give these guys a go. My sink looks disgusting right now so I’m thinking of using the sponge one for the edges that are difficult to reach. The scrapper is there … to scrape.

That’s it for my mini haul! I hope this would be useful reference for some people who are thinking of buying these products.