hmm... just got back from japan last night. wanted to blog about it yesterday but was simply too zonked. stayed up til 3 plus after reaching home at 12 plus, to catch up with friends, unpack, and just sort out stuff. today has mostly been quite a relaxing and slack day. until just a while ago i suddenly remembered that my applications were due and that i completely forgotten about them during my holiday. talk about total relaxation. well so just finished a bout of panic about it and started on my essay, which is proving to be a rather difficult topic to write about. but ohwell. i still have a couple of days i think. thank goodness i remembered. also not so sure i really want to go overseas actually, perhaps i'm too mired in my comfort zone. i mean i don't even really know what i want to do even, so that doesn't help. and in any case the place i want to go to i can't afford and doubt i can get a scholarship to go there. so might not apply. but this i will decide after, or if i manage to send off the first application first.
anyway... japan was great! well at least the parts i went to anyway. spent most of the time there in hokkaido, and when i said i was going there to eat and freeze and look at scenery, i was right. that's pretty much what i did haha, though i missed out the hot springs. well the food was fantastic though, most of the meals were so... elaborate. a giant trayful of little dishes, all sorts of different things, and usually one small little claypot of steaming soup and other stuff and a fire below it. great in such cold weather. and also good variety! can try lots of stuff at one go (: definitely yummy. and for someone who likes sashimi a lot, its a good thing also that there was a little dish of raw stuff too at times. oh and i got to try crab sashimi... which was absolutely fantastic... though very expensive. speaking of which, everything in japan is so expensive! everything costs so much more... bought lots of food back though, even though expensive, at least its reasonably so and not scarily extorbitant (like the crab in hokkaido and some stuff in tokyo). can you believe that a 30-50 minute taxi ride in tokyo costs like SGD$64 over dollars? goodness.
the scenery was rather pretty too! finally grasped the true meaning of a winter wonderland, for a few days there everything was white, and it was snowing fresh snow for like 2 or 3 hours straight. they even had to close a highway! but its great standing in the snow while those beautiful white crystals waft down around you. and how soft the thick layer of fresh snow on the ground is! it was very very very cold there though. i think i almost froze to death haha. was like... minus 12 i think? it was the wind that was bad tho heh. and so dry! eating ice cream in winter is also pretty cool, the ice cream doesn't melt! stays in its original shape for a long long time. tried lavender ice cream in hokkaido, quite an interesting experience. the guide said it was kinda bland, but i quite liked it, would say it had kind of a mild flowery taste that was pretty pleasant. haha. and everything in japan is just so cute.
oh yes the hot springs. went to 3 of them on 3 nights. quite an interesting experience too, quite nice to soak in an extremely hot pool of water after freezing the whole day, its very umm. warm. and comforting and enjoyable. the thing is, its like a public bath, so everyone goes around naked. that took a while to get used to -_- the yukatas were very nice and comfy tho, which are those thin and soft informal versions of kimonos which we wore to and fro from the springs and went to sleep in. spent most of the time in the hotels in slippers or socks too haha. soooo comfy. hmm. anyway i should stop rambling... just wanted to say abit about it coz it was a fairly good trip, all things considering. some minor unpleasantries can be overlooked in lieu of the rest of the positive points. and all that pocky. haha. okay back to panicking about applications. or perhaps to that interesting psychological thriller i'm halfway through reading... (argh i want to watch saw and read da vinci code too!) finished a great fantasy novel in japan while in the bus and at nights which made me cry because of the intensity of the bonds of the country and the wonderful speeches by the king and later his daughter when she became queen. sigh cried buckets on the plane too throughout the entire duration of The Notebook, it was so touching! the strength and devotion of the love is so... overpowering. and the fact that it wasn't some wishy-washy silly love story(okay just a little bit), but that it was a love which prevailed all their lives into their old age and still as strong even then. that's why it was so touching. helped alot that ryan gosling is a damn good actor(and also very cute and very hot) but well that's mostly another thing anyway. but a simple, 'because i promised you'... and the perseverance... amazing. nice ending too. okay i'm getting carried away again... shall stop now. mmmpf.
:10:52 PM: :sugah~plum
Comments:
Post a Comment