Japan Vlogs & Experience!

By Unknown - 6:56 PM

Hi everyone! How's it doing? I've got a couple of fun news and updatesabout my life, and then this post is all about my Japan trip (Day 1 specifically) and what's to come on this blog. I've just started full-time work, which is pretty crazy. Those first steps into adulthood are an incredible learning experience, but also extremely tiring. I can't imagine spending everyday going to work, then going home to sleep, then getting up the next morning for work again!! I really see now that you have to love your job to keep going, or you'll probably just get really depressed. Time is passing so quickly though and I'm almost left with no time to blog or make videos or do anything at all~~ I'm actually typing up this post right before work, as I ponder about my life haha. Surprisingly though, my pageviews have really risen these past few weeks, up to around 600 per day!! So thank you all so much for reading my posts and continuing to support me, even when I'm a bit AWOL all the time. In other news, the winner for my Christmas giveaway was contacted by email ~ congratulations!!

So, JAPAN. I had the most amazing time in Japan with my friend Sacha. Luckily I managed to vlog pretty much the whole thing~ partly because I wanted to share the experience with you guys, and partly just because I wanted to keep those memories for myself. Though, I have to say, I really need a proper vlogging camera because I took my DSLR and my arm was killing about half the time. I swear my right arm is now bigger than my left, just from holding that fat cam up in selfie position LOL. I will be releasing an 11-part miniseries of my Japan Days! Pretty much did a little of everything~ shopping, food, anime, exploring nature, theme parks, skiing etc etc. so it's going to be a really great series of videos. Just editing them is the difficult part because I'm such a slow editor, but hopefully I'll improve for you guys. In my opinion, this was one of the best vacations I've had to date. I was with my best friend, in one of my dream countries, doing all the things that I am obsessed with. I'm pretty sure I mentioned to you guys ~ food, theme parks and shopping are the top 3 excitements for me hahah ~ I spent around 5k for the entire trip, including everything, which isn't so bad, but we luckily got to stay at Sacha's friend's apartment, so we didn't have any accommodation fees, but the skiing was super expensive as well. These Japan blog posts are going to consist of the video plugin, and also a photo diary of each day, just as extra incentive to read the posts as well as watch the vid on my Youtube! The first day to Japan and then, in Japan was really exciting and a bit scary. Neither of us spoke Japanese, so we were really worried about getting around, especially since the first transit off the plane involved an hour and a bit train ride (with transfers) to our accommodation. But what was incredibly usefulwas this app called Tabimori and also the Japan tripview, which you can find in the app store. These were our GODS! They helped so so much throughout the trip so if you're going to Japan soon, I'd recommend downloading those. But first ~ let's start all the way from the beginning of this Japan story AHHAHA (I tend to go off on tangents a lot!!) So it all started after our trip to Falls Creek for skiing, that Sacha and I decided we wanted to ski again soon in the summer. So we needed to go international for this one. Japan seemed like the natural choice, because I had been there the previous summer and it wasn't too far from Australia. So we started doing heaps of planning, contacting travel agents, talking to our parents etc. Once we got the bookings sorted, we were ready to go!

We went to the airport at around 6pm for a 9:30pm flight. Good travel guideline to stick by is getting to the airport 3 hours early in case something goes wrong during check in - once, my parents lost a passport before our flight!! The flight itself was very long and gross, as flights generally are in the economy seats. We flew with ANA, which had a direct 9 hour flight to Japan, so actually, it could've been a lot worse. ANA had amazing service and a good selection of in-flight entertainment. But since we had an overnight flight, it was quite difficult to get some proper sleep. So by the time we arrived in Japan at 5am in the morning, we were craving a nap. We bought a PASMO card, which is similar to the Opal transport card in Australia. It let us recharge onto a card and use that credit to take the Japan metro. Another good thing to do in preparation for a Japan trip is also getting portable Wifi, or Vodafone offers $5/day data roaming, which is pretty great. This just makes it so much easier to get around the city.

So our morning pretty much consisted of getting 'home', taking a looong nap and then waking up refreshed and excited to explore Japan. We started by walking to the local grocery store for some fresh fruit and vegetables and supplies for a stir fry. Then we had a really great ramen right next to the station for lunch. Our first proper meal in Japan was so memorable and yummmyyy~~!

At night, we decided to go to Akihabara, the electronic city. If you're a tech lover, anime lover or overall otaku, I'd definitely recommend going here. This place is stocked full of gadgets, wires, anime, arcades and there are a couple of fun maid cafes as well, to try out. Naturally, I was in my element! We spent ages just wandering around looking at everything - there's so much to take in. I loved just being in the moment, with all the people surrounding me and there's hustle bustle all around. We had a lovely curry dish for dinner and then headed straight home for an early night, since it was all a very tiring day ^_^