hakone

Two entries in one month, what is this?!

Anyway, I have this horrible habit of not posting about things until months after or worse--and more often--never but this one gets a post the day after!

Again.

WHAT IS THIS. 

My dad hasn't been to Japan since September 2010 and I had a bit more time to plan where I wanted to take him this time. Unfortunately what I didn't have was time as he arrived Friday night and already took a bus back towards Narita to stay in an airport hotel this afternoon. :(


However! We spent a good 6 hours in Hakone and managed to get done way more than I expected!

2012.03.24 Hakone

Unfortunately, we got a late start so we didn't get out of Tokyo until 11:40 but the ride was actually really nice and well, my dad likes trains so :D

First, the train first dropped us off in Hakone-Yumoto where we got on a bus to go a little bit southwest to Lake Ashi. It was actually raining that morning but my time with my dad was limited so I took him there anyway. There was nothing you could do about the clouds so please excuse the heavy editing. Otherwise all the photos turned out way too dark.

I don't know how the sky turned out this blue, but even without PS they were like, whoa

You can see the tori gates all the way in the distance!

We basically rode a "pirate ship" modeled to look just like a man-of-war from one end of the lake to the other. Which, not gonna lie, was pretty cool despite it's campy-ness. It dropped us off here↓ at Togendai where we rode the ropeway further up the mountain.

View of Mount Fuji from the ropeway car!

The ropeway takes you all the way up to Owakudani which is famous for its sulfur vents and hot springs. And black eggs!

Easily one of the coolest places I've ever been! It was really cold way up on the mountain like this but the vents made it so warm. Literally everyone that walked by the water kept commenting on it and wondering if it was actually hot.

It's not. Warm but not hot. :D

We then took the cable back down the mountain to Sounzan. On the way, you pass over the sulfur valley and in the third photo down you can actually see all the way to the Pacific Ocean. There wasn't much to do there once we got to the bottom so we ended up getting on the cable car and riding down to Gora.

Again realized we couldn't do much--and with a lack of picture opportunity--I bought some souvenirs for work and friends and we hopped on yet another mode of transportation, the Hakone Tozan line.

Just like the bus ride up the mountain, the train ride down is equally as windy and scenic. Honestly it's worth it just to ride every mode of transportation possible for the views. Because of the steep terrain though, there's three different switch backs which is a bit disorienting at first. The photo below is from one of them!

By the time we got back to Hakone-Yumoto, my dad and I were both exhausted and had about an hour to kill before our train back to Tokyo. We started walking on the main street but nothing was really popping out at us (or me rather, Dad can't read a thing lol) until we popped down a side-alley and found this.

A super nice-looking yet affordable restaurant that served yuba-don. Basically soy milk skin and rice.

I was really excited because I actually really love eating the special food of each area that I go to. I used to do it when I traveled for lives and I'm still happy to do it now. Plus I'll try anything at least once so. :)

I may be my mother's clone to a frightening extent but I really, really love my dad and times I get to spend with him are really rare so this was a really wonderful experience for me. I've never been to Hakone either and I'm so happy my dad got to see so many things despite our time being so limited.

Next time both of my parents, and hopefully my brother, will finally come visit me here so I can't wait to take them around the rest of the country, too. There's still so much I haven't seen and done here and I really can't wait. ♥

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#69 flirt

It's been almost two months since my last update!

Which leads me to the conclusion that yes, I'm really bad at this game. Anyway, literally a million things to post about but I tend to live my life through Instagram now which leads me into this false security that that's basically the same thing as blogging. Oops.

Excuse the shameless materialism but...

Youuuu! I am so happy with you!

"#69 Flirt"

I have quite literally been using the shame shade of MAC lipstick for almost a year and while I loved it at first, a year is way too long I really needed something new. Passed the CHANEL counter on my way home from work and this one caught my eye on the wall and actually looks really nice on.

Can't wait to wear it tomorrow!♡

I miss blogging!

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kyoto day two

Almost two months late (seriously?!) but I finally had time to sit down and edit some more photos from mine and Ri's trip to Kyoto in July. I did have this ambitious goal to edit all of them but that was quickly abandoned.

For now, onto part two!

The first day that we got there we actually had a live to cover so after eating about seven different times, we decided to try to walk to the livehouse from our ryokan. Deeefinitely not as close as we expected.

The live was great and both of us kept thinking if we hadn't come for "work" that it would have been tons of fun to get down in the dance pit. Hopefully we'll be able to post more about this after our interviews etc have been posted!

The next morning we got up very early and met Ri's friend for breakfast by the station before heading out for the day.

We took the bus over towards Kiyomizu Temple and I ended up taking way too many pictures.

Kiyomizu was gorgeous and I really, really wish I had the time, money and the vacation days to go visit in the fall as well. For now, some "project" work to do, then early bed.

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music debut

I haven't updated in almost two months! I can't believe it! To be honest, ever since Ri and I got back from Kyoto towards the end of July, August got insanely busy and I barely had time to sleep or call my parents much less blog.

Most of you probably don't remember,  especially since I barely blog lately, but back in April I mentioned helping out an acquaintance's band with something and now, after almost 4 months I can finally talk about it! 

Recently I received FEAR FROM THE HATE's first full album, "Birthday of 12 Questions as a present. Want to know why? Look really closely at the names, notice anything?

If you missed it, miss wave! Vocalists MEG of ARTEMA and Taama of ROACH lent their voices to this album as well.

Okay so in my case, it's not an actual singing debut but this is certainly the first time I've ever participated in anything like this and I'm really thankful to the members for giving me this opportunity. I'm happy to have participated--even if it was just a little bit--on what turned out to be a really great album.

For those curious↓↓

FEAR FROM THE HATE is an indies post hardcore/emo-core band from Tokyo. Their music is electronic and very easy to listen to with elements of metal and screaming thrown in as well. If you're in the Tokyo area, I definitely recommend going to a show of theirs. They usually play with a lot of other really great acts as well.  The PV for their single "Paint a trip party" below.

I realize that metal or emo-core etc may not suit a lot of the tastes of my readers but I wanted to post this anyway because this was a really big deal for me and inadvertently has been gradually opening more and more doors for me along the way and hope I'll get to work with them again in the future.

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kyoto day one

I have so many things to write about but unfortunately not nearly enough time to cover even half of them.

For now though, part 1 of my trip to Kyoto with Ri! I had been planning on going in August with my family when they came to visit me but unfortunately due to various things going on in America, I'll be going back to visit my family over summer holiday instead.

Things have been kind of hectic lately and I really just wanted to pop out of Tokyo for a bit and breathe.

Kyoto Station

Kyoto Tower

We hopped on a night bus at on Friday night at about 10:30pm out of Shinjuku and arrived at Kyoto Station at about 6:00am on Saturday morning. Not nearly as tough as I thought it would be. Though I do have absolutely the worst time sleeping on moving vehicles.

Stopped for breakfast at Mister Donuts and walked around a bit before having second breakfast at a little cafe on the way to our ryokan. We were such fantastic little hobbits when it came to meals that day.

We had something to do that night so we spent most of the day walking around and...eating. A lot more.

I swear my arms aren't that skinny IRL.

This is kind of vulgar but it needed posting.

Bath house from Spirited Away, anyone?

I do kind of hate when people post only these types of Japan photos but to be honest, I've lived in modern Tokyo so long it was really nice to get out and see something different. It's taken me a year and a half to finally visit Kyoto but I'm so glad I did.

More tomorrow!

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