Summer Vacation 2014

Last summer was very eventful. I went to Korea, my mother came to visit for a while, and I went to Tokyo and more! This summer, I also did a lot of things, but overall, it was a lot more laid back than last year. This year I didn’t have any visitors, so I had more time to myself to chill. Since I just went to Hong Kong in spring and am planning to go to Taiwan in November and America in May, I couldn’t afford to do any overseas travel during the summer vacation. I did however visit a few places and had a lot of fun! So let me tell you about it!

My main big events include a BBQ, the Kobe firework show, the Toukae festival in Nara, a sushi party, the Balabushka day trip, Summer Sonic, and a trip to Tottori. Besides these main things which I will describe in more detail, my normal days and free time was spent watching tons of TV online (my new internet is so awesome!), relaxing, spending time with Shinya, having dinner with friends, and drinking at bars…every day.

Ken's birthday.

Gina was in town.

Lisa's birthday.

Dinner night with the girls.

First I’ll tell you about the BBQ with my friends. We gathered (the usual group of people) at a big park in Sakai, Osaka. It was the first time for Shinya to meet my friends which was exciting. This park was well equipped for having BBQs. We cooked all sorts of meat, and veggies, and lastly we made yakisoba. It was really hot that day. We were all pretty tired from the heat and waking up early, so after the BBQ, we all went our separate ways. Shinya and I stopped at a local café for coffee on the way home which was a nice finish to the day. Perhaps one of the nicest things was that we saw a huge, full rainbow on the way home.

BBQ.

Yuki was crashing our girl picture.
So we decided that he is a girl too.

Rainbow!

The next event was the Kobe fireworks show. I went to it last year with my mother. This year I was excited to go with my boyfriend since it’s something that couples normally do together. I wore a yukata and everything! There was one bad thing about this day though…it was raining the whole time until like 5 minutes before the fireworks began. Yes, I am really grateful that the rain let up miraculously right before the fireworks, and the show didn’t have to be canceled…BUT we were soaked and bummed out. It wasn’t quite the romantic experience I was hoping for, but when the fireworks began, the joy I saw on Shinya’s face gave me so much energy. J He hadn’t seen fireworks since he was a little kid and had no recollection of them. He was so impressed.

Yukata.

Kobe at night.

Best shot.

Fireworks,

A few days later, I went to Toukae (燈花会) in Nara. It’s a big candle festival that takes place at night. It was my first time to attend this festival. I went with one of my coworkers. Before the festival, we had one of the most gorgeous Italian dinners I’ve ever had at a restaurant called Borgo Konishi. The place sat only about 10 people or so. Everything was in small courses, and by the end, we were full! I had such a nice time! The festival itself was very pretty. It had a romantic feeling to it.

Wine.

Fish.

My first glimpse of candles.

Pretty!

The following day, I went to my first sushi party! It was at the restaurant that is like a 2 minute walk from my home. I had met the owner of the restaurant at White & Cigar. That’s when he invited me. Also, his two sons are my students. I had no idea what to expect really before I went to the party (except to eat sushi lol). I didn’t know anyone who would be there. There ended up being around 30 to 40 people, and most of them were quite young! I ended up having a really nice time! I ate a ton of delicious sushi, drank, chatted with everyone, participated in a janken tournament, met the owner’s wife, kids, and their German home stay student, and saw the chefs carve 2 fish into sashimi.  The last part kind of freaked me out, but I was ok. I’m actually going back for another sushi party soon! I can’t wait!

Preparing the food.

Carving a katsuo to be eaten.

The next event I went to was the Balabushka day trip. Balabushka is the bar in Shinsaibashi that I often go to. On the day of the trip, I woke up super early and went to Namba. From there, we rode a charter bus. Maybe there were about 40+ people. We went to an athletic park in Osaka. Still, it was kind of a far ride. We watched Frozen on the ride there and did karaoke on the way back.

At the athletic park, we had a really nice space reserved. It was in the forest with a rushing stream nearby. We drank a lot, had a BBQ, swam in the stream, fished, and played games and so on. I was so exhausted by the end of the day that when I got home around 9 pm, I took a shower and went straight to bed haha! *Interesting point: At the athletic park, I saw a little elementary school girl with a T-shirt that said “Fantastic F*uck 69” on it… probably the worst Engrish shirt I’ve see lol.

Playing in the river.

The group.

Me trying to smash a watermelon lol.

This year I went to Summer Sonic in Osaka rather than Tokyo. I got to see some pretty cool artists like Krewella, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Avenged Sevenfold plus more. I also saw my first K-pop group, CNBLUE. By far, Krewella was the most exciting! I really like Avenged Sevenfold, but I had already seen them before. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a Japanese metalcore band, shocked me with how awesome they were, but I didn’t know them at all before Summer Sonic. Krewella is an EDM group I’ve listened to a lot and like very much. Since I had never seen them, I was so excited! They rocked harder than any metal band at Summer Sonic in my opinion! Usually there are 3 people in the group, but at the show, it was just the two main girls. The other guy is kind of a back up person, so I didn’t really care. Those two girls are drop dead gorgeous and from Chicago. I was totally star struck. Despite the fact that I was sun burnt and thirsty and it being super hot, sweaty, sunny, I danced my heart out to their music in broad daylight. It was a different experience, but it was awesome!

Badass crew.

CNBLUE

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Krewella.

Avenged Sevenfold.

One bad thing that came out of Summer Sonic this year was that although it wasn’t as hot as it was in Tokyo last year, for whatever reason, I got horribly sun burnt this year. Like the worst I’ve ever been burnt in my life. I used sunscreen twice, but it wasn’t enough I guess. Probably because I sweated it off. This sunburn was so bad that I could barely walk at the end of the day. It was so painful. I actually cried when I took a shower (in cold water) because the water hitting my body hurt so badly. For the next few days, I couldn’t walk well when I got out of bed in the morning. I was on painkillers for about a week and was rubbing aloe on my body 3+ times a day. My skin peeled on my back, face, chest, and shoulders, but the worst were my calves. The whole back of my calves were completely covered in blisters. When they broke, my skin came off in huge pieces. It was disgusting. The new skin underneath was raw and painful. I’m writing this blog 3 weeks later, and my skin is still peeling on my legs slightly. Ughhhh. I have learned my lesson. From now on, I’ll apply sunscreen every hour!

Where my wristband was.

Disgusting blisters. :O

The last main event of the summer was my trip to Tottori Prefecture with Shinya, but I will write about that in a separate post. So that concludes my summer vacation! Some parts of me wish I had had more money to do some bigger traveling, but on the other hand, although sometimes it felt like a waste, I think it was good that I had time to just chill. It’s been a long time since I was able to do that. Who knows what the next summer will bring?