Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Winter Vista Illumination 2013

I've been living in Tokyo for seven months now and ever since I set foot here, I'm looking forward to going to a lot of places I've never been to before whenever I come here for vacations. However, there's one in my list of to-go-to places that I've already been to but I still want to visit: Showa Kinen National Park. Why? It's because I want to witness one of the main events held in the city of Tachikawa during December, the Winter Vista Illumination. And I'm glad I was able to see it for the first time this year! Here are a some snapshots I took before my camera's battery got drained out. :-)

Park entrance

Christmas tree made of glasses

Look! In the glasses were written notes, probably by Japanese children

Breathtakingggg

Live band


Ramenya

More pop-up food stores


Light Maze


Illuminator Tree

Fantasia Train
300 yen per ride


I really enjoyed this night despite the numbing of my fingers and toes due to the cold December breeze. I'll definitely go back next year. ♥

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Heartbreak Library

I ran out of series to watch so I randomly browse the movie collection of a site and came across with Heartbreak Library. I read the plot and since I love books and libraries, I decided to give the movie a try. Funny thing is, I found a similarity in Eugene's character's thoughts with mine these past few days.

When someone leaves you, it's not just in body but in soul as well.

There's no good reason for liking and for disliking something. So it's simple, she just came to dislike you.

Thoughts, anyone?

P.S. A few days more and it's 2014! Happy New Year in advance, everyone! Cheers! :-)

My Life According to Imagine Dragons

For the past week, my Facebook news feed was bombarded with notes of friends and in it goes something like: "Using only song titles from one band, answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My life according to (band name)."

And since it's been ages that I last made a Facebook note, I can't find the notes tab and decided that I'll just post this here, instead. As you may have noticed, I chose Imagine Dragons, because their songs are a huge part of my playlist this year. I've included the songs' respective videos, too. :-)


ARE YOU A MALE OR A FEMALE: Selene


DESCRIBE YOURSELF: Underdog

HOW DO YOU FEEL: On Top of the World

DESCRIBE WHERE YOU CURRENTLY LIVE: Tokyo

IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: Amsterdam

YOUR FAVORITE FORM OF TRANSPORTATION: Tiptoe

YOUR BEST FRIEND IS: Working Man

YOUR FEAR: Demons

WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU HAVE TO GIVE: It's Time

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: My Fault

HOW I WOULD LIKE TO DIE: Fallen

MY SOUL'S PRESENT CONDITION: Round and Round






Saturday, December 28, 2013

MIND-FART#8

I just finished reading the first book of Colleen Hoover's Hopeless series and some lines just get through me even though my life was, is and will not be the same as that of Sky.

On endings:
It's real, Six. You can't get mad at a real ending. Some of them are ugly. It's the fake, happily ever afters that should piss you off.

On hate:
When you aren't sure what it is you hate or why you hate it, it's hard to hold on to the details... you just hold on to the feelings.

On choices:
Sometimes, you have to choose between a bunch of wrong choices and no right ones. You just have to choose which wrong choice feels the least wrong.

On defeats:
And while I could sit here and feel sorry for myself, wondering why all of this happened to me, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to wish for a perfect life. The things that knock you down in life are tests, forcing you to make a choice between giving in and remaining in the ground or wiping the dirt off and standing up even taller. I'll probably get knocked down a few more times before this life is through with me, but I'll guarantee you, I'll never stay on the ground.

I even wrote these lines on my 2014 planner so that I can be reminded that whatever I may be thrown with at in the coming days or months, I need to get a grip of myself, always.

Now, my hands are on to the next book. Yaaaaay.❤️

Friday, December 27, 2013

MIND-FART#7

I got a lightbulb moment while in the ofuro.

Maybe, just maybe, the people who "romantically" hurt me in the past didn't really mean to hurt me. Just like me and billions of others, we search our whole lives for The One. And maybe, I'm not that The One for him and a couple of others. Just as he and a couple of others wasn't the one for me. 

I call it quits.


Monday, December 16, 2013

MIND-FART#6

Okay, tinatanggap ko na na nasstress na ko. Pwede bang huminga lang muna at walang isipin kahit isang araw lang?

Sunday, December 15, 2013

MIND-FART#5

Why does it seem like no one appreciates the things I have done and am still doing and instead they keep on pushing me to give more when I already gave them my all. 

I have never felt so drained like this.

Monday, December 2, 2013

MIND-FART #4

I know I'm okay. I've been okay after that doomsday. But why am I having that familiar ache once again?

Monday, October 21, 2013

MIND-FART#3

Dati hiniling ko na maging focused ako sa buhay ko, sa personal growth ko. Dinala ako sa lugar na bago para sa'kin ang halos lahat. Ngayon ko lang napagtanto na dininig pala yung hiling ko.

 

Ginusto ko pala to. Para sa'kin din pala to.


Okay.

Monday, October 7, 2013

MIND-FART #2

I feel the salty waves come in, I feel them crash against my skin. And I smile as I respire because I know they'll never win.

These lines from Panic at the Disco!'s New Perspective never fail to lift my tired and tattered spirit up.

I won't let the waves win. 

They'll never win.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Monday, September 16, 2013

Before Sunset

I've been MIA here for so long, I know. I haven't had the urge to write these past few months and now I'm busy with my first ever (legit) work in my new home country. But for today, since it's a holiday here, I have time to go out a little, well, as far as our veranda (haha) and just breathe. 

The sky looks so glorious, ain't it? 



*Photos taken by my iPhone 5 via InstaFishEye


There really is good in goodbye.

*America by Imagine Dragons playing on the background
America, don't you cry. Lift me up, give me strength to press on.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Hello Goodbye, Spring!

Cos I had some minutes to spare before my Nihongo class at the third floor of Shibasaki Gakusyuukan, I decided to drop by the exhibit at the lobby. And tadaaa, beautiful works of art!











What a perfect way to end my most favorite season! Summer's just around the corner! :-)

Monday, April 1, 2013

Good Ol' Days

Roughly two years ago, I was with two friends at a local karaoke place in Los Banos, singing my sad heart out with beer in hand, cos that night my favorite Irish trio's concert's ongoing at Araneta Coliseum. I wasn't able to come cos the tickets were already sold out and I have summer classes then.

When I learned that they're coming back again to Manila, I checked for tickets online just in time to get myself a general admission ticket before the site posted a "Sold Out" announcement. I wish I had a nearer seat and brought a better camera along (cos the venue guidelines said DSLRs aren't allowed) but that didn't stop me from enjoying the concert last night! :-)


Bought binoculars from an Araneta boy for Php 75.00!

While waiting for the doors to open! Hello concert-mates, Janina and BJ! :)

Danny! <3




Confetti all over! So so magical! :)

The very happy kid! :>

Job well done, Danny, Glenn and Mark!

I thought The Script won't give in when the crowd chanted "We want more!" cos they've already had two encore songs, You Won't Feel A Thing (my favorite The Script song ever) and Hall of Fame.  But the then dark and empty stage lit up once again as the band played and sang Good Ol' Days, hence this post's title. Euphoriaaaa! I felt like crying! Fortunately, I managed not to! Haha!


Still high from the concert!
L-R: Macky, Janina, Danielle, yours truly


Thank you for coming to Manila, The Script! And thank you for your brilliant songs, they helped me through my dark days (if you know what I mean haha) in 2010.  Ahhh, definitely one of the best nights of my life, so far! <3

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Beautiful Strangers

During my flight to Tokyo last summer, I met Rina (if I remember it right); she occupied the seat on my right. She's working in a cruise ship in Venice and she's on her way there. I even became her watchman when she slid the airline's pillow into her bag. Haha crazy, I know.

Then when I was in Tokyo Tower, I met a fellow Filipino who's touring with his American bosses. He said they're in Tokyo for a seminar and that day was their free day.

When I was at the boarding gate for my flight back to Manila, I met a twenty-something Filipina in black, whose reason for filing a leave in her school in California was her father's death. I was dumbstruck. I can't find the right words to say, so I just gave her my condolences. She even told me, "See you na lang, whenever. Enjoy your flight." with a smile cos we needed to part ways for our seats were far from each other. 

During the flight, I had a forty-plus woman for a seatmate. She was from Canada and she said the airport where she came from was very cool. We had a little chat while eating the complimentary ice cream from JAL; she was like my mother in the plane haha. And she was amazed that I was a college undergrad then; she thought I was a brave high school student who's travelling all by herself.

A typical Monday afternoon, I was travelling to Los Banos cos my classes for that certain semester don't start until Tuesday. I had a seatmate and he started telling me stories when he was still studying in UP Diliman. We even talked about frats. He had one at law school.

Sometime in November last year, I was walking along Greenbelt 3 on my way to my Jap school when my sandals broke. The guard from Hermes was kind enough to let me sit on his post. He even helped me fix my sandals, it didn't made it, though. A classmate from the same Jap school whom I barely knew then ( I just got her number the other day), fetch me with a pair of Hello Kitty slippers in hand she bought at Ministop cos it's only minutes before nine in the morning and the malls were still closed.

And last Monday I met new strangers courtesy of my friends from Jap school. But now they're strangers no more. We're even Facebook friends now after sharing a sumptuous lunch at Mesa and coffee at CBTL haha! Hello ex-strangers! :)




I may have no luck with boys, but I got lotsa luck when it comes to strangers coming my way. May the good heavens continuously bless my path with them beautiful strangers. :)

Friday, March 15, 2013

Step Beyond Gender

My former college roomie, Ezra, asked me to design a shirt as a requirement for their Social Science 3 subject cos she thinks I'm artistic! Haha funny! I don't even have Adobe Photoshop installed in my laptop! But since I'm bored out of my wits, I tried. TRIED, okay haha. The theme is gender equality, by the way. :-)




She chose and printed the second design, Step Beyond Gender and she'll wear it on their mini "fashion show" on Monday. Yay! This may just be a speck a naked eye can't even see compared to what others have done but for me, it's something. Even the smallest thing for me is something all the freaking time guys haha. Ahh I'm just glad I said yes to this! *dance* :)))

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Before Sunrise

I was intrigued by a screen cap in my Twitter feed. And that curiosity led me to watch a 1995 film, Before Sunrise. It took me only 30 minutes to say that I love the film. The lines are superb, I don't know, I just loved  the whole strangers-getting-to-know-each-other-in-a-foreign-place thing. Maybe the hopeless romantic in me's to blame haha! Most of the film was shot in Vienna, which for me, is a plus (cos I wanna go there someday). :-)

So here are my favorite lines and scenes:

This poem was done by a man whom Jesse and Celine met on the streets (?) in exchange of money.

Daydream delusion, limousine eyelash
Oh baby with your pretty face
Drop a tear in my wineglass
Look at those big eyes
See what you mean to me
Sweet-cakes and milkshakes
I'm a delusion angel, I'm a fantasy parade
I want you to know what I think
Don't want you to guess anymore
You have no idea where I came from
We have no idea where we're going
Lodged in life, like branches in a river
Flowing downstream, caught in the current
I carry you, you'll carry me
That's how it could be
Don't you know me?
Don't you know me by now?
Jesse: You know what's the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? It's when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that is how little they're thinking of you. You know, you'd like to think you're both in all this pain but they're just like "Hey, I'm glad you're gone". 

Celine: You know, I have this awful paranoid thought that feminism was mostly invented by men so that they could like, fool around a little more. You know, women, free your minds, free your bodies, sleep with me. We're all happy and free as long as I can fuck as much as I want.

Celine: I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood, and without making it look my whole life is revolving around some guy. But loving someone, and being loved means so much to me. We always make fun of it and stuff. But isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?
Jesse: And it's not just a fear of commitment or that I'm incapable of caring or loving because... I can. It's just that, if I'm totally honest with myself I think I'd rather die knowing that I was really good at something. That I had excelled in some way than that I'd just been in a nice, caring relationship. 

Celine: If there's any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed, but…who cares, really? The answer must be in the attempt.


I just find this scene very cute. ♥
Jesse: I feel like this is, uh, some dream world we're in, y'know.
Celine: Yeah, it's so weird. It's like our time together is just ours. It's our own creation. It must be like I'm in your dream, and you in mine, or something.
Jesse: And what's so cool is that this whole evening, all our time together, shouldn't officially be happening.
Celine: Yeah, I know. Maybe that's why this feels so otherworldly.
Jesse: And I think that's so true, I mean, all - everything is so finite. But don't you think that that's what, makes our time, at specific moments, so important?
Celine: Yeah, I know. It's the same for us, tonight, though. After tomorrow morning, we're probably never going to see each other again, right? We, maybe we should try something different. I mean, it's no so bad if tonight is our only night, right? People always exchange phone numbers, addresses, they end up writing once, calling each other once or twice...
Jesse: Right. Fizzles out. Yeah, I mean, I don't want that. I hate that.
Celine: I hate that too, y'know.
Jesse: Why do you think everybody thinks relationships are supposed to last forever anyway?
Celine: Yeah, why? It's stupid.

Ahhh. I can't wait to watch the sequel, Before Sunset, maybe tomorrow. :)