Life, Lately: Autumnblings and November

Hello and welcome back to my little space on the www! ♡ I have been quite active (I think) here recently and I felt so accomplished putting up two posts in a month! That's already a feat for me since I kinda struggle with scheduling (even though I have lots of planners lol). But yeah, thanks for sparing  this virtual humble abode of mine some time, I really appreciate it. *hugs*

Autumn colors, Mitsugi Park 

So yup, November! One of my Instagram posts' caption reads, "my favorite color is November". And it truly is. I never thought I'd love autumn this much cos there's no autumn in my home country. I don't know why, probably the gorgeous reds, yellows, oranges, browns are to blame. 

At Itchiku Kubota Museum, Yamanashi

Also, as weird as it may sound, I love the "gloominess" that the autumn season brings, if there's such thing. Who here feels the same way? Or is it just me? 

Somewhere in Omotesando

Gloominess aside, November this year was quite nice but too fast, at least for me. I had a lot planned though I wasn't able to really tick all of them off my list but that's okay. Sometimes we can't do the things that we wanna do due to a myriad of reasons and that's alright. I only went to two major places which I wrote about: Anata no Warehouse and Yamanashi, in contrast to a lot of places I wrote on my planner.  In return, however,  I felt ~rested~ unlike the previous months and I was able to take care of the Christmas postcards I was thinking of sending to friends. Sometimes we really need to stop and rest so we can recharge, come back stronger, and do *other* things that make us happy/good even if those weren't on the list. 

Yamanashi trip: https://alyssashimode.blogspot.com/2019/11/yamanashi-2019-momijigari-x-kimono-days.html

Anata no Warehouse visit: https://alyssashimode.blogspot.com/2019/11/hello-bye-anata-no-warehouse_17.html

November proved to be a month of great impulses, too. I know I'm an impulsive person to begin with but I was too impulsive this time that I even surprised myself. Like one minute I thought of watching Frozen II and the next minute I'm on my way to the cinema... or I was just chilling at home and the beau asked if I wanted to go to the Philippine Festival in Yoyogi and off I took a bath and went. I'm a planner person and I ditch my planner and do unplanned things? I mean, who is she? Lol. Guess people change, and it's just that mine was abrupt and the level was unexpected. But hey, I had fun so I think it's alright, right?

Autumn afternoons in the city~

I feel like this blog post's coherence is meh. Like how my thoughts are scattered everywhere on the floor likespilt milk. But heyyyy, it's done and I'm excited for what lies ahead for me in December aka the last hurrah of 2019! I hope that it'll all be fun fun fun (and that I could write coherently by then) lol! Do you have any plans for the rest of December? Mind sharing them with me below?♡

'Til my next post! Keep warm, friends!♡

Life, Lately: Crossroads

July. 

Halfway through the year. 

Funnily enough, I'm stuck in the narrow hollow of decisions, if there's a physical space associated with it. I probably was stuck earlier but I was too preoccuppied to notice. I mean, this life? It's great. Who would not want to stay where they seem to have things going on for them? But eventually, no matter how glittery and pretty things are going, me being stuck won't go unnoticed, unless I purposely do it and then it's just going to be this viscious cycle of ons and offs and then I'll blame myself for not addressing it earlier when I had better chances of making my stand better. But then, isn't that human nature? Or I'm just too quirky for this world lol.

Enough of the vague introductions which I think I failed at doing- preparing you for my dilemma this month, I'm just gonna spill it. I don't want you to think that you're required to help me nor give me a sound advice (but if you want to, please, thank you). You listening rather reading, is enough.

I graduated as a Biology major though I ended up in the education field. I found teaching tiring but very rewarding. My current work is near my house and gives me paid leaves that allows me to go for long vacations if I want to and salary that lets me afford going on a few trips throughout the year, on top of all the bills I have to pay while living here in Japan. So you'd probably ask, what the hell is your problem even?

Quite a lot and tricky, I may say. You see, the scenario above is my current comfort zone. And I feel like I'm stuck here though I know I can just go out of it. But I'm scared to actually go out of it  and I don't really know... I've been weighing my options for a couple of times already. I've been talking to other people, especially those older than me just to get their insights. In spite of those, I'm still lost. And scared. I have come to a conclusion (for now) that I have a lot of things on my plate- a lot of things interest me, it's in my nature, but I thought of those being hindrances to knowing what I really want. And maybe, just maybe, letting go some of those would help me. But will I be happy letting those things go even if they make me happy and sane? Quite like a double-edged sword lol. Anyway, for now, I'm thinking of doing these things:

- finally studying Japanese in an actual school (to help with more career choices in the future but how long will it take me to  actually know enough to shift careers? )

- delving deeper into education by earning a TESOL or a Master's degree in Education (but then this will narrow my career options into education and related ones)

- diving into a completely different field, like I actually thought of studying International Business Communications offered in one of the schools here in Tokyo 

Ahhh this whole career thing is driving me insane which makes me not to want to do anything and just stay right where I am now. But where's the growth in that? I owe this to myself, at least to try, I think.

Well, at some point I need to figure this out, ね? For now, here are some July snippets, minus the heavy dilemma above. And as always, thanks to the people around me who help me with serious thingamajigs and also help me breathe when things get too tight. I appreciate you all.♡

Tanabata Festival at work~

Bar Zingaro aka Takashi Murakami's bar/cafe in Nakano

Cafe-hopping and catch-up with Kaila

Visited the beau and I's favorite Korean chicken place, Shinchan and did some roaming around K-town.

Washi Tape Museum with stationery lover friends! We had so much fun shopping around for tapes and stickers that we were the last customers to leave- the store shutters were already closed so we had to wait for the store staff to open it lol! 楽しかったです〜

 

Friday on a Monday with these girls from work. I love how we roll- from venting out stressful things to purikura real quick haha!

Anyway, half of the year already passed by. Let's hope for more happiness and blessings to come our way but let's not forget that we can make our happiness and work for more blessings, too! *wink*

xx, 

Alyssa

Life, Lately: Celebrations and Realizations

Every June the past years, I get busy getting into everyone's schedules to celebrate my birthday. And I am thankful for those people who have shared their time and energy with me. This year was a complete turn around and I did not really plan on doing anything grand cos I'm saving up for something and well, I'm just tired and getting old that I somehow don't want to do anything, ya know, stuff like that. But the universe still made ways, as if it's a dear friend pulling some strings to make things work. It worked. And for that I'm forever grateful.

I welcomed my birth month with a weekend trip to Shizuoka with my family- probably the first time in a loooong time that I celebrated my birthday with them. It was a much-needed breather for me and I guess for my family, too. We went to this cabin in the middle of the woods somewhere in Kannami, had BBQ for dinner, dipped into the private onsen, and breathed in the view of Mt. Fuji through the window. The next day, we roamed around Atami (the beau and I's second time) and Mishima. It was a fun trip and to be honest, I did not expect it to be. But it was. This trip will forever be in my heart and memory.

First time to see an alpaca in person! Omg! Haha!

If you are in Mishima area, definitely go to Mishima Rakujuen Park!

On my actual birthday, I had a very interesting dinner care of the beau. Everything was great, the raclette, the edible jelly lipsticks, ahhhh the dessert table! I loved this night! And when I got home, I got a birthday cake my Mama ordered for me. Ahhhh a million times yes!

I was also lucky to have tutees-turned-friends and one decided to have our conversation lesson while celebrating my birthday at Shinjuku Mitsui Club.  ありがとうございました。

Since there was a Detective Pikachu campaign at Pokemon Cafe, we went of course. Though this was our second time at the cafe, we still enjoyed how cute the food were! 

Pokémon Cafe

〒103-0027　東京都中央区日本橋二丁目11番2号　日本橋髙島屋Ｓ.Ｃ.東館　５階電話番号　03-6262-3439

Last but not the least of my birthday celebrations... indoor skydiving! My childhood friend and beau joined me and I could not have asked for better companions. I loved every bit of this day.

Fly Station Japan 

Nearest Station: Koshigaya Laketown Station, 12 min walk

For details and reservations, visit https://flystation.jp.

As if all those celebrations did not exhaust my energy and my pocket, I went to Chiba to see one of my favorite flowers- hydrangea/ajisai with my cousin and beau and I did not regret nor I ever will. Just look at these beauties! 

Read more about my hydrangea heaven escape here:

 https://alyssashimode.blogspot.com/2019/07/hydrangea-heaven-at-hattori-farm.html

Since my cousin is here for a limited time, we also decided to go to Shiota Chiharu's exhibit, something I've been looking forward even before it opened. It was a  great ending to a great day and a great month that was June.

Celebrations aside, if there's something I've learned this month, or have re-learned rather, it was focusing on who is important, on what is important. I've had my fair share of distractions this first half of 2019, I was blinded by things I deemed as gold but were only rocks, and I've compromised things I should have not even compromised in the first place. Thankfully, I was given another year which means more time to re-align. And that, for me, is the best gift my 28-year-old self has received this year. 

Hope your June was beautiful. Moreover, I hope July has been treating you well. 

xx,

Alyssa

Life, Lately: May Day(s)

Hello, hellooooo~

 It's been two months since I've written something re: my life. Not that I'm saying you're interested nor you've missed anything grand about this mundane, humdrum existence of mine, but yeah... let's say I just missed "talking" to this blank space on the www. Also, March and April were a blur- those two months happened so fast and it's just now that I got to pause and calm down even for a little bit.

First off, I finally finished my Beautiful Bicol series, a three-part write-up on my recent trip somewhere in  my home country, Philippines. 

If you haven't read them, you can access the following links:

Bagasbas Beach x Around Daet https://alyssashimode.blogspot.com/2019/04/beautiful-bicol-bagasbas-beach-x-around.html

Calaguas x Balagbag Island

https://alyssashimode.blogspot.com/2019/04/temporary-backup-beautiful-bicol.html 

All About Mayon

https://alyssashimode.blogspot.com/2019/05/beautiful-bicol-magayon-mayon.html 

You might have also heard that Japan  changed its emperor and along with it comes a change in the name of the era. From Heisei, it's now Reiwa, which I turned to like because of the petty reason that its kanji characters are easy to write for a kanji noob that is *drumroll* me lol~ So yeah, this year's Golden Week in Japan was a whopping 10-day  vacation (for some lucky ones, yours truly included) because of that so  I was able to spend a few days in Yamanashi with the beau's family. It was quite fun and I'm planning to make a proper post on our Yamanashi trip (once I get the time and the will to write it lol) so doncha worry~

Also, I went to iKON Fan Meeting 2019, something I've been eagerly waiting for this month. Well, I love iKON to death, need I say more? Heh~

One random night, I answered a personality test online (again, after three years) and me being "shocked" with the results is an understatement. I am INFP-T (The Adventurer). Since when did I become an introvert??? I mean, I always thought I like people and being with people- that I'm an extravert/extrovert. I had the surprise of my life from an online test *much wow* lol. I was an ENTP-T (The Debater) before. 

Guess, people really change over time huh~ 

Here is the link if you wanna try out for yourself: 

https://www.16personalities.com

Shocking personality tests aside, the beau and I had a little Narita exploration after we brought his parents and relatives to the airport! I've always associated Narita with well, Narita Airport. But then there's more to it being an airport- go out and you'll see. I did that and I'm glad I did. Another proper post about that coming soon. *wink*

Last but not the least, Roppongi Art Night 2019 which I enjoyed better than last year's. I'd have to give the curators a very big round of applause for this! I enjoyed a lot!

Ahhh quite a lot of things happened, huh? But I guess there's gonna be more cos June is my birth month!

So yup! Until then, www friends!

xx,

Alyssa

Life, Lately: Oh February, You're So Fine

And just like that, February ended. I can't fathom how fast this year has been going for me. How did those 28 days go unnoticed? I guess I was the only one who didn't really pay attention... my camera roll says otherwise. 

Continuing January's theme of *lay-lowing on life*, here were the things that made it hard for me to stick to that theme lol

⎡Valentine's Day⎦

An excuse to have dinner at La Boheme Qualita in Shibuya a.k.a. our go-to date place. I've lost track of the celebrations Kenji and I shared in this place (or rather in this restaurant chain, they have other branches where we have gone to before) but ya get that idea that it's "that" place for us heh~ Since we both grew up in the Philippines, we still have not accustomed ourselves to how the Japanese celebrate this day when girls give chocolates and whatnot to the boys. Kenji and I sorta exchanged gifts but we stood away from chocolates (I'm not really fond of them lol)

⎡K-pop Dance Classes at Otoya⎦

If you know me from college, you'd know I love k-dramaaaa! And later on, learned to love k-pop as well. I started listening to that genre back when people still cringe at it, now I don't care anymore if they still cringe- to each his own ha~ But yeah, now I'm into it more than ever, to the point of wanting to dance to the songs lol. I started random dance lessons summer last year and it was something I'm glad I started doing because the stretchings are great. Stretchings before the dance lesson proper are the only stretchings I do (I'm lazy af) haha. The catchy songs and cute steps are just bonuses! This month I got to go to three dance lessons! Still not good at it but I sure had fun!

⎡Onsen and Chill⎦

Went to an onsen somewhere near Shimmura-Sakaue Station and stayed the whole day dipping in the numerous baths, eating, being massaged by uhm massage chairs haha, and sleeping. Such a chill way to spend time and heal!

⎡Setagaya Ume Matsuri/ Setagaya Plum Festival⎦ Hanegi Park, Setagaya

I took a day off for the sake of using my paid leaves cos I haven't used one throughout the year. With that said, I tapped my childhood friend for some catching-up under the pretty plum trees. Glad we were blessed with a very fine day; Totoro even joined us~

So yeah, that was February for me (okay, those above plus work)! Can't wait for the second half of March! Why? You'll see in the next Life, Lately update! See ya! ♡

xx,

Alyssa

*****

Follow me on Instagram for more Japan travel and life photos and stories: 

@alyssashimode