☆ November in a Nutshell.

Well, it is ALMOST December, so I'm going to round up November as a whole. It also prevents me leaving the apartment; and trust me, I do not wanna go outside in this weather. Hot and windy? UGGH. However I've not been outside in a few days now, totally a hermit!

Mt Fuji in the distance during sunset.

   I am finally settled into our new home. Albeit a few things I am nitpicking at like storage boxes, and I avoid one room here like the plague, which I am basically leaving it up to my partner to rearrange. Men and their gizmos!! For someone who suffers from OCD it's rather difficult setting a new 'routine' with someone who just... likes to destroy any order I have created. (_ _ ||)
 
We celebrated D's Birthday a few weeks ago, actually D is the 'last' of the Birthdays this year - in Japan - because my Father's is next. So I hope to send him something back home on time! There was a large-ish earthquake during the celebrations, and everyone seemed keen to see my reaction. I'm strangely never phased?

   My Partner and I have been congratulated endlessly over the month, and finally was the end of my visa application which had been granted! (*^ω^*) It was difficult, but not impossible? I will write a more detailed blog about the entire application etc soon!

Disney GOAL!! Christmas Stitch!

   After finding out Yokohama has a Disney Store I pretty much demanded we went to find it. Traffic was insane for a Sunday which always seems to be deemed a holiday. I'm glad we have a car now.. even if I have to put up with One Direction. (￣□￣;) But the shopping center is full of Christmas spirit which I love! We visited a couple "Import Stores" as there is a current mission to find... gravy? We ended up with chocolate and C-R-I-S-P-S. It's (unwisely) agreed we learn British English and not American English, thus it's crisps not chips.

   We also went out one evening and I was introduced to a couple more Friends and I was actually the youngest in the group. ( ´艸｀) We ate okonomiyaki which was my first time eating it and then we went to karaoke which was horrible because due to health reasons (another topic) I can't drink, so while EVERYONE else was drunk I was just so quiet and timidly on the verge of an anxiety attack.

I post photos often to my Instagram, however my account is currently private.

My ID: PINPIKO

★ Kanazawa Zoo ♫

We went on a day trip to Kanazawa Zoo in Yokohama! Wehh~ Zoo! The weather was amazing for it too, and we went with my Boyfriend's Mother and his Sister, so it was a fun drive there. I realised that Kanazawa Zoo is situated in the same area as the BBQ we had last year. So it was nice to be in an area I was familiar with.

The Zoo itself is really scenic and to be honest, you wouldn't feel like you were in a Zoo with how green it was. Nothing like rows and rows of cages like some of the Zoos I have visited. The only disappointment; NO FISHES. I love aquariums and I was sad to not see one here. They did have a Bug section however, uggh those Japanese rhinoceros beetles will carry me away captive! Like most, if not all Zoos, they have a sign, naming the animal, where it is from originally as well as a couple fun facts. Thankfully they provide signs in Japanese and English too! It was fun learning the Japanese names, but sadly nothing has stuck; aside from 'Ramu' for Ram, uh.. Anyway! The Zoo itself was split into four areas: America - Eurasia - Oceania and Africa. It's pretty hilly, built in order to preserve a natural habitat for some of the Animals living there, but don't worry there are drinking water fountains on every corner and occasionally you come across a Cafe or food vendor. (I cried for shaved ice but Japanese eating + walking rules make me sob more)

Here is the link to the OHP in English! http://www2.kanazawa-zoo.org/english/
It gives you a full description of the Zoo itself! Location, travel and prices. It's super cheap, considering prices in the UK I've seen. Oh and because it was Golden week, and a bunch of other Festivals happening; there were giant fishes, or 'koinobori' which are used as decoration during Children's Day.

ただいまー！

みなさんこんにちはー！

ε＝(ﾉﾟдﾟ)ﾉﾀﾀﾞｲﾏｰ

I've been in Japan officially a week today. It feels so good to be back. (* ^^ *) My flight was rather smooth, I managed to make use of my German language since the Airline I used was German. I made a stop over in Frankfurt too, although I didn't really plan to spend much time looking around, actually; Germany airport was hard to navigate and customs was INCREDIBLY slow? I had just come off your airline, why the hell did I need ANOTHER bag search? People went through one by one, literally and if it beeped, you had to wait until they had completed a pat down. UGGH annoying, it was by far worse than China.. I kinda have to add, the passengers in front of me were incredibly rude, even the Japanese sat beside me kept sighing. Basically they remained silent during German announcement - then incredibly fucking loud during English and Japanese announcements. Anyway I kind of ranted like hell then, but I probably not use this Airline again.. but I had no problems really, just I wasn't fond of them and the food was gross. Okay stop.


I arrived at Narita supposedly at 8:30am however we reached around 9:00 and horribly luggage was delayed by another hour or so?! (T__T) So I did panic and try to connect my phone to tell my Boyfriend I was late. I pretty much flew through customs after I filled out ANOTHER sheet (I was given a Japanese customs pass, logic.) Once I was through the gates I started to panic again because I was so late, but I spotted my Boyfriend and it was such a relief I wanted to scream. (T 3 T) He explained later he was late because of traffic, which sums up his parking ticket being so small this time haha!

We got stuck in traffic coming back, but we decided to play a game: 勉強GO!GO! basically I was pointing out kanji for him to translate.. since I can read some hiragana and katakana I was easily reading the back of trucks. Well it easily passed time and kept me awake. One word I learned that day: 引越のサカイ  it was on the back of a moving truck with a cute Panda, although I haven't memorised the kanji.

It's really nice here, the temperature rarely dips below 10 degree, which is nice since England isn't even reaching close to 10! I will slowly update once I've finished the housework. I'm home alone today and I feel very poorly. (.___. ) Not fun.


I'm pretty sure my readers are like: eh? she's in Japan again? But of course. Where else would I be?

★ Happy Happy Birthday ★

Oct 7 2012: It was my Birthday! I received a sweet mail from my Boyfriend exactly at 00:00am Japan time. Even though we were sitting in the same room, however the mail was completely in English so I was really happy he is trying hard for me.
Once morning came we slept in until 11am and I used some time to reply to messages, mail and comments from all over. Thank you. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ Finally I had to talk on the phone to my Friends, and they too wished me  happy birthday, in Japanese and English. The second Friend turned it into a comedy call.

Me: moshi moshi?
Him: HELLO
Me: hello!
Him: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Me: Ah~ thank you!
Him: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Me: .. ah.. Merry.. Christmas!? (；´Д`A ```

Afterwards we made plans to meet in the evening for purikura. Kanako had asked a couple times in the past, and when we once were to head that way, it was full of Students. So I asked my Boyfriend if we could all take it that evening. Yay!

We planned to go to 横浜赤レンガ倉庫 (Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse), which is an AMAZING building here. It's actually where the Miku Hatsune live was held near the waterfront. Before we went to 横浜ランドマークタワー  (Yokohama Landmark Tower). It is home to the fastest elevator in Japan, and you travel 69 floors in 40 seconds. The location of the building is pretty much right outside the train exit. It's very easy to locate too!
On the 69th floor, you get a huge view of Yokohama, once again it was overcast so we weren't able to see Mt. Fuji.

   

It had a fantastic view! It was similar to the one in Sunshine City, however I felt the one in Yokohama was far better (not being biased, at all) but the view had a lot more to offer, maybe because the water breaks up the concrete jungle appearance? I also managed to get a photo of Yokohama Baseball stadium, I believe.
We could see the Red Brick Warehouse from the Sky Garden, and noticed there was a festival.

Yokohama Oktoberfest 2012 

 

We went to look around shopping first inside, though I only returned with candy since the shops were packed out, it was incredibly hot and -- well, Lush has an over powering frgrance, and it seemed they were competing with the Coffee Shop next door. So once the candy was obtained we went to buy tickets for the Oktoberfest, much to my little Beer Monsters delight.  ヾ(*゜、ω゜*)ノﾟ+.
This was the only time I had seen so many foreigners in Yokohama, and they were all American too. One guy to say the least was trying to liven everyone up. "Why is everyone so quiet!? Come on, make some noise!" and then 'whoo-ing' at everyone. Uh..

We had beer in a boot! So cute. I had a fit when I saw the total price, it came to 6,600yen. Seriously. But then I realised if you took the glass back you got money back! I would have hit my Boyfriend for spending that much on a beer. If he wants to drink out of a boot he can use mine. (」ﾟДﾟ)｣ｵｵｵｵｫｫｫｫｫ!!!

Afterwards we headed back, but decided to stop for purikura. Of course planned journeys never turn out as planned. Heading back to the train resulted in, stopping for purikura, but first stopping at Kiddyland to buy a Stitch figure, and then stopping at every UFO catcher before FINALLY getting purikura. Oh I won a giant Stitch too.. I was pleased with the amount we spent on getting him, because in the stores I'm sure he'd be well over 3,000yen and we spent less than 1,500yen. Plus my competitive side kicked in when I saw another young couple eyeing the game waiting for me to give up in defeat Σ(-`Д´-ﾉ；)ﾉ?!

Eventually we left and went back home to meet everyone at another Game Center. Everyone was late, but Hiro arrived first and we wandered around the Game Center for a little and he won me another figure, and a cute plush toy. Eventually Kanako came running in to see us and finally everyone else arrived so we headed in for purikura. It was so fun, though I was nervous too. ｡：ﾟ(｡ﾉω＼｡)ﾟ･｡ Kanako had wrote all of our names on the purikura, including 'Ari Birthday' it's so cute.
We were all super hungry, so we headed for food and beer~ and they sang me Happy Birthday in English. Kanako handed me a gift from her (and perhaps her Boyfriend). It's part of the Super Lovers Halloween set - and I absolutely adore it!! I want to write her a letter to thank her, but my Japanese handwriting is bad. I also need to exchange Twitter names with her and mail address. The night was so fun, I got to talk to Daiki slightly with help from Kanako. He doesn't seem so shy any more, and I even managed to get a high five from him during his burst of hyper activity from my Boyfriend playing chase with him. Yeah, a bunch of 20 plus year olds playing in a park at 11:30pm, yet Daiki insisted he wasn't sleepy.

Once we got back home I had a Skype video call with my Mum, she put everyone on, Dad, Brother, Uncle and even my Great Grandma. I miss them a lot. But it was good to see them via video call, even though now my spoken English is TERRIBLE, I said 'nani' and 'daijoubu' so many times FAIL. ヽ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉ My Boyfriend resisted going on camera a couple times, so I had to speak to him from the side, in Japanese, so my Mum was asking me what I was saying. So complicating switching from one language to another.

（´∀｀） Fun Times

Shopping + 飲み会

Aug 3 2012: So today I went shopping with the Boyfriends Sister, she arrived at the apartment around 10am and this was my first official day out in Japan. I annoyingly over dressed myself in mostly black and regretted it while walking to his Parents house for breakfast. His Mother cooked us breakfast - it was delicious, but so many dipping sauces! I wasn't sure which to use but his Sister demonstrated which ones go where. I finally got to meet his dog too, a little chihuahua called Chibi. Who kept begging for food under the table. チビちゃんはとてもかわいいね〜
Afterwards we headed out to go Shopping in Yokohama, she was going to show me where she got her ghost harem pants from! We arrived at a clothing department store and I almost instantly picked up two new shirts for less than 1,500yen each!!

What makes them even more amazing, they came as a "2 Set" piece, the shirt on the left is a two shirt piece. The next shirt included leggings, of one leg black and the other with grey stars, cute~! They are both 'batwing' style so they were extra loose and comfortable. Some of the English on the shirts were rather amusing too. Calling your spouse a 'House Boat' wouldn't go down so well back in Europe.
We continued on to the next shop, after deciding Japanese girls have teeny-tiny waists and the shorts on the clothing rail were like XXS. Weeh. The clothing stores were a little like TKMAX back home, but it was still organised and presentable, not like the chaos at TKMAX usually. I managed to pick up another shirt, I was torn between this one and a similar with two crosses on, but obviously I chose the skull one, since my current skull shirt is actually a sweater, and I'm doing enough sweating - euugh. Again another batwing shirt!! But it has cute little diamante detailing on the straps.

Eventually we headed back home and she walked me back since I wasn't 100% sure of the way back yet. So I was thankful for that as my mobile doesn't work here unless I get a WI-FI connection. OTL

Aug 4 2012: My memory is vague on the entire day, but I am pretty sure we went out for Breakfast, which was cute, our kind of 'First dinner date'. It was delicious non the less! Anyway, towards the evening things got lively! My Friend Katie was in Japan also at this time, she was with Ku. I hadn't seen Ku since March this year, and Katie I hadn't seen in over a year maybe longer, despite the fact she lives in the UK. Anyway we had planned a drinking session, or 'nomikai' / 飲み会 to the Japanese. We invited a couple extra people and agreed to meet up in Shibuya at Hachiko. I arrived early with the Boy, and waited for some time before we headed off to get a drink - he got a phone call from a Friend who was waiting at Hachiko already so we headed back. Which I was nervous, I had met his Friend back in March also but I couldn't remember - but we had been speaking via Twitter since then. We arrived and said hello, but the language barrier was a little difficult so I kept quiet for the most of the time while checking on the Boys iPhone to see where Katie was.
Eventually - she jumped me, and I screamed rather loudly which is shocking coming from someone so usually quiet. Haha! We all introduced ourselves, and luckily Ku speaks Japanese also so she translated a lot. At first the Boy was rather nervous about meeting Katie, but I told him Katie was bringing 'Chibi' along with her and he only spoke Japanese also. I asked them to exchanged 'meishi' / 名刺 since they are both in the same industry.
We ended up in an awkward situation where this random girl added herself to the group. It's a common thing in Shibuya, especially if you are stood around Hachiko you get asked by people to go visit their bar or restaurant and they offer you a discount. Well, she stood for some time and it got a little annoying especially since Drummer Boy was exchanging details with her. 'Playboy' we kept shouting.  After more awkward situations and evil glares from the pretty girl, we managed to get away and find our own bar to drink in.

It was such a great night. I asked Drummer Boy to eat the wasabi from my 卵！But he only took a little bit, so I kept asking him to eat it all. We had a lot of fun talking about things, and the Boy eventually seemed comfortable with the situation that he wasn't going to be mauled by Gaijin Girls since there were five of us and only three of them. Eventually Drummer Boy had to leave, but he asked us all to go to his Live that same week. He knew I was already but I was trying to introduce Katie and Ku into the music also~
We did take a couple photos from that night, but a lot of them turned out horrendously bad because I hate using flash. After awhile we all decided it was time to head back before the last trains, but we made plans for the next day also anyway so we would all meet again soon! 楽しー！

❝PiECES❞

こんにちわー
Long time no see~! I'm sorry for the lack of Blogs, once we got home from Isle of Wight I was super busy with a lot of preparations. One of those was homing a new Cat called Sam. He is adorable, with selective deafness. Though the first few nights were horrible with him because of the fights etc. OTL

Miss! Welcome to this new flight called DREAM!

Ride on and enjoy your travel! Please enjoy your time.

Anyway~ right now I am blogging from Japan! To many peoples surprise since I kept it to myself again. I have been here since the 2nd of August. I've done so many things already and we are only just into our second week of being in Japan!
My flight landed in Beijing for a couple hour stop over, it was incredibly hot, I had left London which wasn't even reaching 25C and was wishing for my scarf, but landing in Beijing I had to find the bathroom in order to strip off my multiple layers of stockings and shirts. It was suffocating. Landing in Tokyo wasn't any better either, we had a departure delay, and baggage handling took forever and I was an hour late for my Boyfriend. Luckily he was still waiting - yes I would have died if he wasn't there. It was a little awkward because of how shy he is, and I was just muttering to him about how hot it was. (when we left the airport, I had to go back inside because the AC was like a charm, but he insisted we left) But he did purchase me bottled water which I wanted to toss all over myself. Uggh~

Once we arrived at his place, we took the car back to his Parents place, which I found out the moment we pulled up and his Mother came out with the dog. I felt so shy and looked INCREDIBLY sleepy, so I just worriedly waved from inside the car. Then his Father came back from work at the same time, oh my god. Now I know how Animals in a Zoo feel. （笑）

We went back to his apartment and I handed him his gifts rather timidly. I had come from England with a huge bottle of Vodka and I had spent the past 24+ hours traveling scared it'd break in transit. (I actually still have a bunch of gifts left to give out too)

After awhile of small talk he told me we were going to go drinking with Friends, so I kind of panicked and told him no until he said his Brother and Sister were going to be there. Which eased me, only just a little. Who would have known the language barrier was enough to make you feel a couple inches in height.
However it wasn't THAT intimidating, I met his Brother previously and saw photos of his Sister, and her Boyfriend I had met also already to my surprise! It was really nice, and really welcoming too.
I made shopping plans with his Sister the next day because her harem pants were adorable. 'Ghost pants' - seriously. I wanted them but on her they were good, but she's so much smaller than me. Ah well.

Everyone is going to ask eventually; OMG HOW IS TOKYO?! ... I'm not in Tokyo, I'm in Yokohama, which is interesting and a whole new experience to me. I'm still getting to grips with his location and the train line here, but I can confidently say now I can get to Shibuya from here, haha. Even if it costs a bomb.

I'm going to leave it here for now, the next blog will be the shopping trip + 飲み会！