海遊館: Osaka Aquarium!!

So I've already mentioned I'm not a fan of Aquariums and zoos but in the last month I've been to the Osaka Aquarium twice! And it has actually been quite nice. I mean I still feel uncomfortable sometimes and it makes me never ever ever want to eat fish again, but this particular aquarium is a lot more animal friendly than the other zoos I've been to in Japan and I've actually had a great time both times I went.




The first time I went was at the end of Januari. We went with a group of friends as a final little trip for the two French girls that were going home soon. 

The second time I went with my parents and brother, because I knew they would like it (especially Lenny!)

I was right. He loved it!

The Osaka aquarium is huge! When you go in, you take an immensly long escalator up, all the way to the top of the building and from there, you slowly spiral down, back to the ground.



On your way down you come across the different places in the world where the different animals are from.

Great Barrier Reef

I'M IN LOVE WITH THESE GIANT SPIDER CRABS

THEY'RE FROM JAPAN

AND THEY'RE SOOOOO COOL

I CAN'T GET ENOUGH

 

So if you like the sea life and are in the area, check out the Osaka Aquarium. It's pretty darn cool!

Oh and check out the video at the top of the post

Ok bye!! ♥

Hirakata park: the cheaper (and better) version of Universal Studios?

This post is long overdue but I still quickly want to mention it. In Januari I went to an theme park called 'Hirakata park' with Kazuki. He told me not to expect much because it would be a lot less impressive than for example Universal Studios or Disneyland. I went, thinking it would be more like a carnival but it was so much more than that!! It was sooo good!!!

It has pretty much all the attractions you need. A wooden roller coaster, some regular roller coasters, a kids roller coaster, a treetrunk water ride thingy, a ferris wheel, one of them things that drops you down from a great height, an indoor (Buzz lightyear-esque) shooting game, a bunch of kids attactions, a maze,...... a lot of things ok!

The whole theme of the park could be seen as kind of childish I suppose but 1: who cares and 2: the rides themselves are definitely enjoyable for adults as well.

Think of it as a smaller Efteling or something.

And I haven't even told you the best part! There's is NO WAITING LINES!!! I swear! Waiting for 5 minutes is long!! So basically you can ride every ride as many times you want, it's amazing! The price to get into the park is a lot cheaper than most theme parks as well.

So basically what I'm saying is: Hirakata park is really cool!

Ok, that is all ^^

Bye! <3

Since it's valentine's day and all..

So hehe, this feels kind of weird for me to write about but I figured I should at least mention it, so here it goes: I have a boyfriend!

I can already hear the I told you so's from friends and family back home, haha! Honestly I'm sure I was the last person to think I'd fall in love during my exchange but I feel incredibly blessed that it happened. 

We met all the way back in September at a school event. We both came for the free pizza (just so you know our priorities are in check). After that day we kept in touch and he quickly became my closest friend here in Japan. It was around December when things developped more and we've been a couple since Januari 4th :)

That's about all I've got to say on it! ^^

What else? His name is Kazuki, he turns 22 in March, he used to be on the Uni's rugby team and he's graduating now and I'm a very very very very very very happy girl! ♥

Until next time~♥

Ulrike

Saying goodbye sucks!!

Ever since the new year set in, my mind has been sort of troubled by the idea of leaving. Some of the people I've been living with for the past half year have left for home or are leaving very soon and it really kind of breaks my heart. It's odd, how quickly people can start to feel like family when you're living so closely together and thrown into all these new experiences together. I'm lucky that some of these people live only a country away, but some of them live far across the globe and chances of meeting them often after this are incredibly slim. Right now that's a little difficult to deal with.

One person can't even make a leaving-related joke in the dorm anymore or someone will start crying. I am not kidding you. This literally happened. We all need help ><''

We had a goodbye party at the dorm for all the residents that would leave after the end the first semester the 25th of Januari. I think this set off the emotions in everyone and we haven't really stopped being emotional about people leaving ever since.

We started the party with a barbecue in the patio and we took a crap ton of pictures!

 


 Then we watched a tearjerking video we made for the ones leaving..

Lastly, we went to another one of our all-you-can-drink parties and you know, the only thing  worse than over-emotional people is drunk over-emotional people. Great night though! :)

A bunch of us went to Kansai Airport on the 31st of Januari to see off the first in a list of good friends that are returning to their home country. The amount of tears shed was embarrassing, let's not talk about it.

On the 15th I'm going to the airport again ><'' send help!

It's also now for the first time I'm realizing that in August I'm leaving this wonderful fairytale-like life to return to Belgium; the real life. Not that I don't like Belgium or my life there. I miss my family, my dogs, my friends, definitely, and I'm sad at all the things I'm not around to experience at home. But on the other hand I'm really dreading the day I'll have to hop onto that plane and leave behind my second family here.

Who ever said that going on an exchange was a good idea huh? This is painfull as heck! haha!

I'm being a drama queen, I know.

Anyways, that's about it.

See ya!!

♥*KARAOKE*♥

I thing I'd like to talk about for a bit is something that I think is pretty typically Japanese. It's become somewhat of a hobby of mine and it's something I'll for sure miss a lot once I'm back in Belgium.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Karaoke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The karaoke in Japan is nothing like the one we have at home. In Japan karaoke places are almost as abundant as regular bars. In these places you can rent a room for just you and your friends. You can rent for a few hours or just go for 'free time' so you can stay all night if you want. They are open 24/7 and it can be relatively cheap if you go to the right place at the right time. I've done all night karaoke for 800 yen (about 6,7 euros) before which is pretty good.

Usually drinks are completely free as well (no alcoholic ones though unless you smuggle it in illegally). I know one place that has free drinks AND free ice cream, which is a-ma-zing!!

There's not just Japanese songs to choose from either. They have Korean, Chinese and western songs as well. I was really surprised with the amount of songs they actually have. For example: they have almost every Disney song ever and one time some of my friends went all night karaoke'ing singing only metal songs.

Some people take their karaoke'ing very seriously. For instance, once I went with a Japanese guy and girl from our dorm who are both really good singers and I could clearly tell that they meant business once we started! They had their set list of songs they always sang and they came there to perfect their singing. It was quite intimidating but pretty cool as well.

Most of the time when I go, it's just to have fun and I don't really care about my singing accuracy, although I have, over time, subconsciously built up my own karaoke repertoire hahaha. It's just tons of fun to be in a cozy room with your friends singing and being silly!

The following video is of one night in January when a bunch of us went all night karaoke'ing at a place near the dorm. I think we stayed for about 12 hours. It was pretty intense. One guy broke his foot (02:21) and the last two minutes of the video sounds more like an exorcism than anything else. I just wanted to show what it's like to do karaoke in Japan but I think this video might be the most annoying thing you'll see/hear all day, so I don't know if this was even a good idea hahaha

anyways, that's all for now! Bye!! ♥♥♥