Throwback Thursday: Osaka and Kyoto 2021 Itinerary

We’re back with another short trip to Osaka, and this time, it’s in the summer!
Moreover, we decided to allot an entire day in Kyoto and visit some of its famous landmarks.

Here’s our itinerary:

Highlights:

• The Universal Studios Japan (USJ) was awesome. I had a great time here. There were a only a few people when we visited, so we didn’t experience queuing for hours. I think, the longest we waited in line’s around 20 minutes.
• My favorites in the USJ were the following: Harry Potter (Hogsmeade), New York, Jurassic Park, and Jaws. The food was also great.
• Kyoto. Everything about Kyoto was fantastic. Again, there were only a handful of people in the touristy areas, so we basically had these places to ourselves. I’m glad that I was able to visit and enjoy these places before international tourism starts again.
• My friend and I bought street food near Arashiyama to help the store owners who’re struggling with the lack of foreign tourists in the area.
• There was a Starbucks that had tatami floor somewhere in the Kiyomizudera area. It was a great fusion between modern and traditional.
• One of my favorite things to do when in Osaka is buying Krispy Kreme donuts and taking them with me back to Kagawa. I envy huge cities because because international fast food chains are more common there than in the countryside.
• My friend and I also met with our other friends! One was our friend from Kagawa who went to Osaka separately and another was from Akita. We had such a good time and spent hours talking along the river in the Dotonbori area.

Not so Highlights:

• I guess I expected too much, but I was disappointed with the lack of things to buy at the Pinoy Store. I wasn’t interested with most of things they had for sale.
• Hiking up the Kiyomizudera and the Fushimi Inari Taisha during the summer was dreadful. My friend and I drank so much water because we were so exhausted from the heat and the humidity.
• I mentioned the Starbucks earlier, and the thing that I didn’t like about it was that there were no A/Cs inside the store. It was an uncomfortable experience. It was good but uncomfortable.

Throwback Thursday: Osaka 2020 Itinerary

My friends and I had a quick trip to Osaka in autumn 2020. We only had one and a half day of exploring the area, and we made do with the limited time we got.

Here’s our itinerary:

Highlights:

• I’ve been living in the countryside here in Japan for more than year during this trip, and I was quite worried that I’d be confused with the train system in a huge city like Osaka. Fortunately, it wasn’t confusing at all.
• We stayed at a hotel in Namba, so we always had Dotonbori as our first and last itinerary for the day. Even during the third day, before departing Osaka, we strolled along the river before going to the bus station.
• I was ecstatic upon seeing Lush in Shinsaibashi!!! I bought two bath bombs that smelled like candies.
• I loved vising the Osaka Castle and the Osaka Museum of History. You haven’t been to Osaka if you haven’t visited them, especially the castle.
• The elevator going up the Umeda Sky Building was gorgeous. We’re lucky that only a handful of people were there and that we had great photos as a result.
• I’ve always liked ferris wheels. Riding the Tempozan Ferris Wheel, one of the tallest in the world, was a great moment for me.
• Since we went during the fall, we saw the autumn foliage. I especially liked the ginko trees near the Osaka Castle. They were so yellow that the trees and the fallen leaves on the ground contrasted my all-black ensemble.

Not so Highlights:

• Osaka is famous for octopus-based dishes as such takoyaki and okonomiyaki, but I exercised caution for fear of getting allergy attacks while on the trip.
• Also, just having okonomiyaki for dinner wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to eat more!

That’s it! I barely have anything to say because it was such a short time. Short but fun.

Favorite Books Read in 2021

I know that this post is six months late, but it’s here now!
As always, I’m excluding rereads in this list. Books 1-5 in the list are definitely the best out of the bunch. I’ve tried condensing the list a bit more, but I couldn’t decide which books to remove. So here’s my favorite books of 2021.

1. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – I’m actually in the same age group as of the protagonist in this book, and I’ve definitely related to her many “What ifs…?” in her life. Fun fact, the reason why I decided to move to another country is because I had the same “What if…?” question for myself, and I knew I’d regret it if I hadn’t tried living abroad. So yeah, while this book is classified as fantasy/mental health/science fiction, the overall premise still is anchored in reality.
   
   
   
2. Orwell Collection (1984 and Animal Farm) – Had I read the actual book, I might have DNFed the 1984 part because it was quite verbose and I would’ve suffered from information overload. I’m grateful that I chose the audiobook version narrated by Stephen Fry because his narration kept me engaged and made the story really come to life. It’s scary to think how the events in 1984 could still be seen in today’s society. Some are in a smaller scale, while others are in a larger scale. The brainwashing, the tampering on documents, the lies… such events really spoke volumes to me.
   
   
   
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – Hands down, this is probably one of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. Period. There is not a single lull moment in this book, even during Grace’s alone chapters. Everything was action-packed and somewhat emotional. I can’t believe how this made me mushy. Yeah, mushy is how I describe his relationship with Rocky.
   
   
   
4. Winnie the Pooh series by A.A. Milne – Never in a million years did I think that I’m going to love this series so much. Beautiful, beautiful book. It’s a children’s book series, but it made me smile, laugh, roll my eyes, relate to the characters, and even cry a little at the ending. Definitely appreciated this way more as an adult reader. 
   
   
   
5. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King – Horror is not my genre. I rarely read horror books (except for children’s books “Goosebumps”), but I have three Stephen King audiobooks in my Audible library for quite some time now. Why I bought them, I had no idea, but they’re there. Well, surprise, surprise! I actually liked it! It’s way too engaging. It made me think and sympathize with the characters. It also made me fear for their lives. So yeah, this is great piece of work.
   
   
   
6. 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman – A lot of the things written here are mainly for couples, but they’re still applicable to every type of relationship there is. Reading this made me think of myself and of the people around me and how each of us express our love and appreciation towards each other differently.
   
   
   
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald – I’ve seen the movie version starring Brad Pitt when it came out in cinemas. This is a short book, and I see myself rereading this in the future.
   
   
   
8. The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit – This is a children’s book. It’s fantastical, weird, and magical all at the same time. It was a bit scary in some parts, too.
   
   
   
9. Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone – This is a feel good romance audiobook. I love me some non-toxic love story without the overconfident and snarky female character and the overly macho and rich dude. It’s a perfect listen for reading slumps.
   
   
   
10. The Way of the Househusband series by Kousuke Ono – I started with the Netflix anime adaptation. I liked it, and I wanted more.
    
    
    
11. The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec – Out of all the books in this list, this is probably the one that shouldn’t be here. Some parts bored me to tears, but the last few chapters redeemed this book for me.
    
    
    
12. The Stand-in by Lily Chu – Like Sweet Talk, this is also a feel good romance audiobook. The story is light-hearted and cute, too.
    
    
    
13. Arsenic and Adobo by Lia Manansala – This was written by a Filipino American. It’s not a perfect book, but I love Pinoy representation in books! It’s also well-written, so this book deserves to be here.
    
    
    
14. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – I read this because I had learned that this was going to be adapted into a movie. Well, I did enjoy liking this book so much that I read it again immediately after finishing it just to catch the clues that I’d miss the first time. As of making this post (June 2022), I have already seen the movie version, and to say that it was a disappointment is an understatement.
    
    
    
15. The Baby-sitters Club books 1-4 by Ann M. Martin – Cute children’s book!