mom + japan

blog hiatus. since my last post, i have returned from my philippine summer, started up the second semester at school and had my mom visit for 12 days! 

check some photos out on facebook in my albums titled "i'm in the philippines" [ http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2259001&id=11500924 ] and "mom in japan" [ http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=11500924&aid=2269795 ] if you would like to see more of what i have been up to.

mom arrived on a wednesday evening in japan! it was so good to see her walk out of the arrival gate at the airport. we took the train into town and taxi from the main station to my litttllle apartment. i don't think mom was quite prepared for how small it really is. she had her first experience sleeping on my futon. it is *hard* but she was so tired, she slept and rested okay. on thursday, i worked and mom hung out. friday mom came to school with me. it was fun to have her meet everyone and see how my days are like here. i happened to have five lessons that day (i usually have 3, maybe 4) so we were tired at the end of the day.

i had mom come the dates she did to take advantage of a 5 day weekend. on saturday we travelled to osaka by shinkansen (bullet train) and it was awesome. we stayed at a ramada and wow! it was a lovely change from the apt. we felt like queens in a real bed and i even got to take a few baths where i could stretch my legs out! score. 

we visited the tennoji temple and i took mom to my favorite store LOFT. she didn't really seem all too impressed but bought a few little things anyway. on monday we took a 30 min train ride to kyoto to see some more temples and shrines. we met a very nice japanese lady on the train who ended up sharing a taxi with us (refused to let us pay) and toured us through a shrine. she was there visiting graves of her grandparents. she spoke pretty darn good english and it was fun to felt taken under her wing for a bit. after she had to head to another grave, mom and i jumped on a bus to see a few more things. we got a japanese lunch and took the bus around the town to sightsee. the bus system was so easy and good to use. the people in kyoto were SUPER nice as well. for instance, when we got of the bus one time and started walking along, the driver honked at me and waved me directions to go the other way for sights. i nodded and followed him, but he waved me down a few more times to be sure i was getting it. he was really going out of his way to help us.

we didn't try too much japanese food mainly because menu reading is impossible but we did have some. in osaka we also treated ourselves to hard rock cafe and that was nice, especially for me! we returned to nagoya and spent some more time in my city. mom took my friends and i out to a nice dinner the night before she left. it was nice! 

mom flew out yesterday and is home safe and sound now. it was so nice to have a visitor! i cannot wait until my winter vacation visit! counting down the days already! mom is gone but she left me some good treats from home (bagels, annies mac n cheese, chocolate covered raisins, whole wheat bread, candies, luna bars, peanut butter, my favorite red raspberry smuckers and even some tillamook cheese). i am set for a while! :)

busuanga + coron

right now i am sitting at the open air restaurant of the hotel we are staying at in coron town on busuanga island of palawan. (not to be confused with coron island, which is the whole reason for this trip.) we will day trip to the island tomorrow hopefully although we have yet to arrange our island hopping as the booking desk was closed this evening and will open bright and early at 7am.

the flight here from manila was just an hour and upon landing offered some beautiful scenery just off the main island of little islands lined with white sands and clear aqua waters. just seeing that i knew i would like it here!

what spurred the mission to coron island were a few photos i had seen in travel mags and on travel adverts in the airport. i knew i just HAD to see this place and hopefully tomorrow it will happen. if you google image search "coron island" or "cayangan lake" you will see why i had to see it for myself.

photos of course to follow! been having loads of fun testing out all the functions of my G10 and can't wait to share them soon.

hope all is well with everyone. xoxo.

puerto princesa + el nido

this week charles and i ventured to the island of palawan. it is off the southwest side of the philippines and is an amazing grouping of over 1,000 islands. the plane ride into the capital of puerto princesa was just over an hour flight. our hotel was so cute and had hot water and a/c. we were so happy. we just had one full day so we took advantage by taking an island hopping tour in honda bay for swimming and snorkeling. my fears of fish have continued. i just don't like when they get near to me, i hyperventilate and start to feel claustrophobia or something but it was such a gorgeous setting i still enjoyed the trip.

(honda bay, puerto princesa, palawan)
(bangkas of the coast of el nido town, palawan)(an island off of el nido, palawan)
(big lagoon, el nido, palawan)
(pondering a cloudy el nido sunset)

the next day we decided to skip the public bus and take an air conditioned shuttle to el nido on what was said to be a 6 hour ride. well... the shuttle was so cramped and hot it was pretty miserable. to make it even more lovely, 6'3" charles and 5'8" me (two of the tallest people aboard) were stuffed in the very back row, very back corner of the van. we had no room at all and the a/c we paid extra for didn't even hit us... but in the end the ride that turned into 9 hours was so worth it after arriving in el nido. it was gorgeous and lovely and we (sort of) forgot about the bad van ride.

after we got to town we found a nice room at a guest house, we even had a view of the bay from the balcony. the next day we did an island hopping tour and stopped at 5 different sights off the coast of el nido. it was so pretty. i took many photos although, in my opinion they don't quite capture the magnificence of it all or the scale of the huge limestone islands jutting out of the aqua clear waters. we snorkeled and swam and got plenty of sun. the tour included a fish, rice and veggie bbq lunch on a litle beach which was a bit castaway-ish. i ended up getting super burnt on my face and back but it was still so fun!

the next day we wanted to get a sea kayak but the weather was too windy outside the main cove so we got a half day island hopping tour to get back out on the water, this time with me fully blocked from the sun in a t-shirt and hat.

the town of el nido itself was so cute and quaint. there are tourists but it doesn't feel toursity, yet. with the 9 hour ride and only expensive tiny air connections it is a bit off the beaten trail but i'm sure that will soon change so i am so happy to have seen a plain little beach town before it changes too much. a weird thing about el nido is that the power is shut off from 6am until 2pm, random, huh? a bit annoying as we paid for an a/c room to have it not work for a chunk of the day. overall though el nido was awesome.

our original plan was to take a boat from el nido to coron but we learned it was in a small 20 passenger boat and since this is monsoon season i was worried about the safety of it all so we bit the bullet and took the shuttle back to puerto princesa (only 6 hours for real this time :). we are planning to fly directly into coron from manila in a week or so because i just have to see coron. we're on a real mission now!

i posted ton more pics here:
facebook album

manila + boracay

i made it to manila last tuesday and have since had a fun-filled time in the philippines! i have been taking lots of photos and have even tried some really crazy filipino foods here (pork and chicken intestines and ox tail soup). my first impressions of the philippines were very friendly. charles family is very welcoming and friendly. everyday some one offers to take us out and show us around. my first day there charles and went to a fancy mall (where you have to pass thru security to enter) for lunch and once i saw taco bell, i absolutely could NOT pass it so it was TB for lunch and i was a very happy camper. philippines reminds me a lot of latin america mixed with asia mixed with american culture. i love it!

here are a few photos so far:

charles and i on white beach on boracay island (one of the two sunny times we got!)
the sun setting outside charles' family's house in quezon city, a suburb of manila.
white beach, boracay.
charles, me, tito boy (uncle) and cousin boom
yep, that's me eating chicken intestines! wasnt too bad really!

philippines + vietnam

tomorrow i leave for the philippines!!! i am so excited. my flight leaves from osaka at 7:30 pm and paranoid me is of course leaving with ample extra time. i catch a 3 hour bus ride to osaka at 9:15 am so i've given myself about a 4 hour cushion! charles will meet me at the airport in manila at 10:30 and the adventure begins. we will be staying with his family for the first few days and he is going to show me around, take me shopping and meet his family. a few days later we will head to boracay for some island-beach fun. hopefully its not raining so much but it is typhoon season so i am expecting rain. it's ok though, rain doesn't stop us oregonians! :) 

at some point we will buy tickets for vietnam and head over around july 30 or so and make plans as we go. i am thinking we will likely fly in to ho chi minh and catch another domestic flight up to northern vietnam hanoi and then go from there train, bussing or flying making our back down south and hopefully getting to see some mekong delta too. a few beaches will get thrown in, too. i am so excited to see everything, try the food, lounge on a beach, get an hour massage for four dollars, buy some cheap, cheap souvenirs and take a billion photos. 

there was talk of going to bali too so that is always on the back burner. we will have to see how the time in vietnam pans out. most of my friends here in japan are traveling too. some headed also the philippines, thailand and bali. i can't wait to see how everyone's trips went at the end of the summer. 

today i just have a few errands to do and final packing. as my reward (and deadline) i am meeting a friend for dinner  tonight at outback. we want steaks :P  tomorrow it's an early rise so i can not be rushed and leave my apartment in tip-top clean condition (yes mom, i cleaned really good) and head off for an amazing trip with chuck! 

yesterday i found an incredible shoe store and got myself a little prezzie: 

school + vacation

the last few weeks at school have been pretty slow. they haven't been giving me too much to do at school. lots of sitting around trying to stay cool. it has been incredibly hot! about 80 - 90 degrees which doesn't sound that bad but when you add in the crazy humidity, it is pretty unbearable. monday was sports day at my school so i spent the morning out on the field. it was blistering. it's the kind of heat where standing, doing nothing will cause a sweat. i sort of hate it. thank god for the air conditioning in my apartment and in the teachers room at school. the halls and classrooms get so stuffy, upwards of eighty degrees! sometimes i just sweat up a storm at the front of the classroom. it's embarrassing but oh well, i'm not designed for this weather!

tomorrow is my last day of school then summer vacation begins. i will spend the weekend getting ready for my big trip packing and cleaning. right now charles is en route to the philippines from LA. he will arrive on thursday and i will meet him there next week! my flight is tuesday evening out of osaka so i will take a 3 hr bus ride over in the morning, grab lunch, maybe look around osaka station for a minute and then catch a train or shuttle out to the airport. i will land at 10:30 pm in manila where charles will fetch me. we will probably stay in manila for a few days and then head to boracay, an island beach area. then we'll plan what we will do for vietnam! i am so excited to have an adventure!

happy + mac

i never knew how cheered up i could be by kraft mac n cheese. seriously, good!