Christmas Eve in Japan - Ghibli in Laguna Gamagori

Merry Merry Christmas! Have been wanting to do this blog for the longest time and I'm missing my boyboy and the blue sky of Japan so what better time than now?

Cheese fondue has become a tradition food for us to have when xw comes over for winter. One day I will cook him a proper romantic candlelight dinner but today's not the day! Scallop is the BEST to the go with cheese fondue and it's freakin' cheap during winter.

And AND AND

THIS IS MY CHRISTMAS PRESSIE (*∩ω∩)ﾃﾚ

The packaging already so damn pretty. Fyi Uno Kanda is a famous model in Japan who has her own line of products. Didn't know her before as I almost never read fashion magazines and the only programs I watch on Japan TV are variety shows.

deng dedeng～～ my first proper wallet. 

Cannot believe I used my rm9 fugly wallet which I hastily bought in KL Sentral for 3(?) years. But thank you for serving me well.

Love the insides and the little details like the heart on the zipper.

On the way for our christmas eve date. Christmas held zero meaning for me before dating xw but it's something I look forward to every year now ^^. This particular Japan culture is almost enough to make up for the girls having to give guys presents on Valentines Day instead of the other way round. Almost.

Ponyoooo～

Sweet bf did most of the checking so that everything would remain a nice surprise for me. If you want it to be a surprise for you when you come here then it's time you stop reading this post! YOU ARE FOREWARNED! 

We decided to just buy entrance ticket without including the rides because I wanted it to be a relaxing date without having to worry if we are going on enough rides to make the ticket worth. Which, fyi, was the right choice because the rides there were really kiddy and normal.

We are so adorable *zilian*

The first thing we did was a mini treasure hunt quest by ghibli which I loveeeed. We had to locate cats hidden all over the theme park to find clues that would lead us to Baron. Perfect way to check out laguna.

The whole place isn't that big and as you can see there weren't many(or any) people in the photo even on Christmas Eve...as expected of a water theme park in the winter. Yay!!

jiji's whole family (// ▽//)

have seen this dog before but cannot remember from which film

みっけみっけ！

hey there, handsome～

 Our prize for finding Baron.

After completing the maze we finally went to the ghibli solid exhibition.

This was eerily beautiful with the rain coming alive in the background. Was the scene from the anime this sinister-looking too? 

xw helped me took this one. wish I had more time to do trial and error with the pose but people were queuing behind. 

If I get another chance to go Laguna Gamagori, imma gonna wear this outfit and bring a fat mouse with me. 

We played another game - Finding Makkurokurosuke!

There were around 6 rooms and you have to find the right makkurokurosuke in every room. This one was a breezeee and it took less than 10 minutes. The rooms were very interesting and I'd love to explore each room slowly but with people waiting for you to get out of the room so they can play the game... fat chance.

Our prize for solving the game.

Many little ghibli details waiting to be discovered in the theme park!

Here comes one of my favourite part of christmas celebration - xw always brings me to a very nice restaurant and treats me to a full course dinner. This one was a very yummy italian buffet with many dolce! 

 Extremely original Christmas trees at the harbour nearby. Ro-man-chik-ku 

Very impressed with Laguna Gamagori's Christmas fireworks. Got music, dancing, fountain, fire display, fireworks, laser display, a gargantuan blown up egg-balloon.. they really used up any element there is.

Spent my New Years at boyboy's home. Can earn a lot of money if do intensive part-time job during the year end/new year holidays but this year I really wanted to just relax. You know la, old age catching up.

Ciel looks so gentle and meek here. But this damn poodle was responsible for me not being able to go down fetch drinks or to go down to brush my teeth in the morning because he would bark his head off and wake the whole household whenever he sees me. In the photo he was trying so hard to run away but I held him with my deadlock arm. Ha! Who's the boss now??

 Won xw at the first round. 

Then lost all others.

Finally went to this classy looking cafe in Kobe... inside a mall !

Tata for now! Happy New Year to you!

Linz

And so folks, this is Linz, the city I am staying for the next 2 months.

It's a choice I made by myself to do my required internship overseas instead of Japan or Malaysia. Yet I really felt dreaded to part from my comfort zone when the time neared for me to go Austria. Mainly because I was unprepared... or 気のせいfeeling unprepared, nah who am I kidding, I really was unprepared... luggage, exchanging money to euro, school things that must be settled before I leave. It's not like I try to bring all this hastiness upon myself. This time I especially set aside 4 days to get things done. But what am I to do with everything closed for New Years in Japan and only reopening on the day I fly?

FYI le conclusion after hours scouring through the internet is that compared to exchanging in Japan, the rate is better if you exchange money at the destination country with the exception of usd and euro. You're welcome :)

City center of Linz, 15 minutes of tram ride from my uni.

 And no, not every building in Europe is so European like this. Just the city center for Linz.

 I am pleased to inform you that the only adventure during my journey to Austria was missing the bus to Toyohashi station by 3 minutes which I must get on in order to reach the airport in time. I  somewhat manage to avoid a mini disaster by a combination of bullet train and normal train. You wouldn't get it but it really was a decision silently praised myself for my quick wit afterwards. 

I am a insecure girl when I am alone. I kept having thoughts like 'omg what if I reach Vienna Airport and the custom demands that I need some sort of unknown visa and I get sent back to Japan?' 

Ophi offered to fetch me from Vienna airport and brought me to Westbanhnof where I can catch my train to Linz. It's not impossible to navigate alone but with a friend around, this part actually becomes fun instead of stressful . I hope to talk to her another time before I leave. Her stories were hilarious XD.

She also helped to arrange for a guy to bring me to my dorm when I arrive in Linz. All these arrangements were made on the spot and up till I arrive at Vienna Airport, I was like  'omggg I still have no instructions whatsoever on what I am to doooo. Do I somehow find my way to the dorm by myself and just waltz into the research lab the next day??' Too comfortable with Japan's しっかりness.

 

My big room. 

Not as cozy as I imagined it would be but am satisfied.

I have my own kitchen which is both good and bad actually. Normally cooking at the common kitchen is how they meet new people here.

 

The Science Park of Johannes Kepler University Part where I am doing my internship. 

My own office! 

The internship here is everything I imagined it to be. Similar to what I am doing back in Japan.

Free to come and free to go, stress-free (for now anyway), reading research papers...

One of the happy moments when I managed to apply for an Aktivpass, which allows me to use trams and buses in Linz unlimited for just 10euro per month.  I didn't think I would get it easily because my friend who tried to apply it was bombarded with many questions and had to bring documents like student proof, salary slip blablabla. But when I went to apply on the next day the person in charge was a young sweet lady instead of the usual aunty and she made it easy for me. 

This kind of reminds me of the rpg games I play. Sometimes you just need to repeatedly go to the same place and wait for the right person to show up to trigger some event.

More photos on the city center coming up next!