29.12.2012 - Christmas in Kyoto.

Hello all!

Firstly, sorry for the total lack of blogging, I've been spending every waking minute with my family and totally ignoring the internet honestly.
But! We're going to Kyoto for Christmas and its only right to blog about that.

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Day 1 (24th)
Got on the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station, spend about 2 1/2 hours on the train. Brief horror when we went through a very very snowy patch, which we weren't even slightly prepared for. Luckily, there's no snow here.

Also finally got to see Mt. Fuji!

Took a taxi to our hotel and then my family went to walk about the Imperial Palace Gardens and I relaxed for the afternoon. I haven't had proper downtime in so long!

For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant called Avocado, which was delicious.

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Day 2 (25th. Christmas!)

Da and I woke up early and went and did an hour and  a half of aikido at Aikido Kyoto.
Sensei Yoko Okomoto (who's dojo it is) is good friends with my father's Sensei, so it was really nice to meet her properly. I also went to her class in Tokyo when she taught at the IAF back in September.

Came back and the 4 of us went to do a walk called The Philosopher's Path and see some temples.
The walk wasn't outstanding, but the temples were really beautiful!

On the walk we saw a bunch of cats, apparently there's a massive Cat Cafe around there which was closed so they were all just hanging around the path.
What can I say? I love cats.

this photo is from my parents camera, props.

The last temple we went to, Ginkaku-ji, was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!
Unfortunately my camera was on the verge of dying the whole walk so I was much more sparing than usual with the photos.

Da and I came back and read our books in our respective rooms for an hour or so whilst mum and Magnus wandered about this arcade near by.

For (christmas) dinner we went out for traditional Nepali food, which was so so delicious!

Walked around the aforementioned arcade for a bit, found an awesome vintage store that I will go back to, and may give all my money ever to. Plus Magnus said there's an army surplus store right next to it (it was already closed) which I must go to because I'm looking for something.

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Day 3 (26th)

Well, so far not so great. I woke up an hour ago with a slightly sore throat and terribly congested sinuses. I''m hoping if I get some food and a walk I've feel better, maybe it's just the stuffy hotel air.

We went to Fushimi Inari-taisha which is the head Inari shrine in the world.
Meaning it's dedicated to foxes.
There are thousands and thousands of Torii gates which you walk through for a few kilometres which is really beautiful.

Really nice walk all in all, a lot of steps though.

For dinner we went out for pizza which was lovely, I love spending time with my family.
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Day 4 (27th)

Woke up, Magnus and I are both so ill. Poor us!
Anyway. We went out to Arishiyama vi the cutest little street tram.

Once there we went to the bamboo forest, which is ok to walk about but not exactly mind blowing.

From there we walked 15 minutes or so to the Arishiyama Monkey Park, where there are heaps of wild monkeys.
So goddamn awesome! You can go into this room thing ('human cage') and feed them, or hang out outside with them (without food!) and there was even an awesome view of Kyoto. Really really good.

the poor Beatles...

I feel safer in the human cage.

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Day 5 (28th)

Yuck, me mum and magnus are all still sick!
Went to a museum for a while in the rain, I watched a half hour documentary on various techniques for dyeing kimonos, pretty interesting.
Went out for lunch.

Got the train back to Tokyo.
Thrilling.
I'm sorry but I'm ill and cannot think much more.

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Hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

18.12.2012 - my family is here!

Hey guys,
On the 14th my family arrived, which is bloody outstanding.
Unfortunately for you, dear reader, I'm half living at their apartment, which is making blogging difficult.
I'm going to try to update soon, but for now just now I'm having a spiffing time with some of my favourite people.

have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

10.12.2012 - turning japanese

It's funny, I was walking around Shibuya tonight (not a single decent photo came from the evening, though I really wasn't prepared.) and I was thinking about how even though I've been here for a short time how much more japanese my style is.
There's so many 'cute' things here, it's infectious.
I mean, grown men in business suits can have fluffy phone charms and rock and roll people still have hello kitty merch. It's not looked down upon at all, it doesn't make you a princess, it's just a way of being.

A few weeks ago I bought a pink dress that I'd have laughed at before I moved here and this evening I got a necklace that is insanely girly, so so much more than I'd have ever been comfortable wearing in the West.

In fact, here it is. And I'm obsessed!

Not much of a point in this post, just something I noticed tonight.
I don't scoff at pink and bows and adorable things here, the way I absolutely did at home.

I'll be sort of interested to see if I continue dressing like this once I'm home, or if it'll suddenly seem far too doll like and I'll never wear any of it again.

Speaking of my new pink dress, I was actually wearing it today when I made my Q&A video with questions from my Tumblr followers. Please enjoy some HD Signe.

I'm planning on making a video everyday for a week as a bit of a personal challenge, so look forward to heaps more of me!

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Started watching Torchwood yesterday, which is a spin off of Doctor Who starring one of the best DW characters, Captain Jack Harkness, and his alien fighting team based in Cardiff.
Because where the hell else would you be based?
Anyway, it's good.
Cool story, right?

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I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

8.12.2012 - my ongoing obsession with t shirts

Well,

Firstly, let me just say congratulations to my lovely friends Josie & Dave, who's daughter was born yesterday! I've very excited for them :)

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Secondly, I finally added a proper header to my blog which makes me feel like a real blogger now. Phew.

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Thirdly, tomorrow is my last day of work for almost a month & on Friday (!) my family is arriving, excuse me while I jump for joy.

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And now for something completely different.

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I have a deep obsession with t shirts.
I especially love ones from movies or t shows, the nerdier the better.
Since I started selling my photos on RebBubble (buy things from me here!), I've been spending  a lot of time on the site, exploring it.
I've come across about a bajillion shirts I want very much, which since I don't have a heck of a lot to write about today I figured I'd share.

extra points for you if you can identify the origin! 

 

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 (this says 'bicyle', and is the sign for a bike lane on the roads here)

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one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven.

I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

6.12.2012 - bit of an update

Hello all,

Well, things went a little mental there for a minute. I spend all last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in bed absolutely sick as a dog. Monday I felt better and went back to work, but I've been feeling so... sort of weak since then. I suppose fighting strep throat for almost 3 months takes it out of a girl.
Still haven't been back to the dojo, I'll be going on Saturday night. I can't make tomorrow night and I've been having a really hard time sleeping lately, so the morning classes are a bit too much right now.
Been eating well and making sure I'm getting plenty of electrolytes back in my system, so hopefully I'll be good as new soon!

I only working tomorrow and the weekend, and then I'm off for nearly a month, which is so lovely!
I can't believe I've been working here for a whole school term, time is odd.
Clearly been watching too much Doctor Who because every time I think about time at all I just think it's all wibbley-wobbley timey-whimey.
(Sorry Magnus.)

It's currently Thursday night and in exactly 8 days I will be having dinner with my family for the first time in almost 4 months. Oh my god I am so excited. I love them, I'm so excited to show them Tokyo... Everything is fantastic!

Aaaaaand the washing machine is finally fixed, after two weeks of it being broken.
I still need to have someone translate the controls before I can use it, but still, it's here in the house!

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Been working on a new project since I got here, it's a series who's working title is 'lost', but I'm not 100% set on that.
I was originally thinking about waiting until I left Japan to unveil it (so far only two people have seen any, and they haven't even seen the same ones.) but now I'm thinking considerably earlier, like maybe next week?

Honestly I'm really nervous about showing people because it's one of the most personally meaningful series of photos I've ever made, so the response is much scarier than for most of my work.
I suppose that's the sign of good stuff though.

But it's definitely scary, I'm afraid people won't like them, or won't somehow understand the importance.
I know that not everything is important to everyone, things that are my heart and soul can seem boring and snapshots for me can change someone's life.... it's just hard to remember that sometimes.

Anyway, you'll probably be seeing some or all of the photos sooner rather than later.

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To finish this post off, have a funny Wes Anderson flow chart.

I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!