03/02/16 - Jūso

For the lack of adventure, George and myself decided to do some exploring. We've realised we don't really see different places so much anymore. I think it's because we have gotten used to living here so - maybe it's lost some buzz? Either way, we weren't going to let settling in take such a negative effect on us. Before going out, we had decided a time and that we were going to do something. However, we didn't really know what we would do. Ideas were thrown around while we waited for the train and eventually we just decided to get off at Juso and explore the neighbourhood.

We had literally no knowledge of anything in Juso so it was kind of exciting to see what it's about. However, upon arriving we realised there wasn't much there. We walked around for maybe 5 hours? Found some really weird stores and had strange interactions with shop owners. One of the strangest was walking into what looked like a second hand store, and then no one greeted us - this was a first in Japan. Instead we heard babies crying and felt we needed to leave very quickly. In the end our adventure lead us back to Umeda where we ate omurice for dinner. I liked seeing new neighbourhoods, but I think mostly what we got out of our day at Juso was that there wasn't much there.

27/01/16 - Grimes

I spend a lot of off time in my room, and lately I've really enjoyed just listening to music and relaxing. I'm the type who would usually rather watch TV by myself, but I think I've felt so energetic lately that music feels better. So, my friends one day mentioned that Grimes was doing a concert in Osaka sometime in January ages ago. While I hadn't really listened to her before, I really wanted to go to the concert. So, I started listening to her and I found out that I love her! Her new album is literally so fun to listen to. So, I started getting really pumped for the concert. 

On the day of the concert, I got ready at home and headed over to Kazu's house to "prepare." Obviously, what I mean is, to pre-drink and watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians before the concert. Since it was Kazu's birthday, we ate some cake and sang Happy Birthday too. About a week or so beforehand, all of us going (Rhiannon, George, Kazu and Misaki) decided that we would spray paint our hair weird colours on the night! I went with pink and the others decided to do multiple colours. Spray painting your hair in a tiny enclosed bathroom with no air filters is not something I would recommend in the future. It's like the oxygen left the room and spray paint replaced it! 

We finally left and we were so pumped. On the way, me, George and Kazu met up with Misaki and Rhi. I think we sang Grimes the whole way there. Just before heading to the concert (which was all the way in Shinsaibashi), we went to the park so Rhi and Misaki could spray more colour into their hair. Our main priority was finding a locker before going in, knowing that there aren't many. But, while trying to find a locker we bumped into a seriously rude Irish person. She apologised, but we still gave her looks whenever we walked past her. It didn't matter in the end because there were lockers inside, but we honestly were put off by her comments.

The venue was quite small, but still there were way more people than I expected to be there. We had to buy a drink while entering, but Kazu and George decided to buy out the entire shop. They probably had like 15 Smirnoff Ice's with them - some were stashed in their pockets because they couldn't hold them all! Regardless of how much they were holding, we all managed to get near the front. 

Before Grimes, her supporting act played. She's from Taiwan I think? Since she's featured in the song Scream by Grimes, it seemed appropriate that she was playing with her. I think her music is... Interesting. But, we could get down to it, anyway! 

When Grimes arrived, I swear we all lost our minds! She came on so strong, and we were just so excited. All of us talked about what songs we wanted her to play. We all wanted her to sing Kill V Maim, but I really wanted her to sing California. Since Kazu and George were very drunk - they didn't seem to realise how loud they were. During one of her speaking breaks, they started singing California. It was so embarrassing! Appreciate the effort to get the song played anyway. It didn't, but not a big loss. She played so many off her new album and they were all good! But, hands down the best song was the encore, Kill V Maim. I've not danced so hard, and sang so loud in a really long time. I'd give a lot to be able to see her sing that set live again. 

On the way out, we got dinner at a place nearby. It was really yummy but I definitely ordered too much food! Lots of regret, but at least it was good food. All in all, the night was amazing. Made us all really want to see more concerts, and have more nights like that. Perhaps next time we will get something a little easier to wash out of our hair, though! 

26/01/2016 - Australia Day

Since coming to Japan, I have really missed classic Australian things. So, since I am friends with another Australian here, we decided to celebrate Australia Day! For all of our European friends, it wasn't a very interesting celebration. They didn't really know/understand what it was, but they came to celebrate with us anyway.

Georgia (my other Australian friend) had decorated her entire apartment in Australian flags. She gave us all tiny flags which we put on our clothes and it was cute. The food tried to be Australian. However, in Japan there are literally no normal sausages - at least, none like Australia. I think people just don't eat them here, so there's no need for them. But, we made them work for our fake sausage sizzle. We also had fairy bread and vegemite, so it was basically like being in Australia. The whole day was spent watching Summer Heights High and listening to the greatest Aussie hits - it was really fun!

23/01/16 - Gay Club

My friend George really wanted to show us the gay club he went to with Kazu previously. So, since it was our last weekend with Misaki before she went to Europe, we decided to check it out. Personally, I was excited to see the drag queens that perform there. I didn't know what to expect from a gay bar in Japan. This is mostly because of how silent the Japanese tend to stay on the topic. As in, they don't really mind but would prefer not to talk about it. I think that's the biggest difference between Australia and Japan - I feel that most Australian's would speak up if they have an issue, but here they do not.

When we arrived, I found out that the club was actually underground. We walked downstairs and almost instantly after entering I could only breathe cigarette smoke. The door man gave us glow in the dark stamps and we handed our belongings to the cloakroom attendant.

The club wasn't exactly my style. It was seriously crowded and there were tonnes of rude white people there. I think the highlight was the drag queens, definitely. However, they were not very stylish if I'm being honest. Overall, it was fun to dance with my friends, but I don't know if I want to go back. Afterwards we went to sushi at around 5am, sincerely hoping for the first train to arrive because it was beyond freezing.

22/01/16 - 24/01/16 - Saying Goodbye

Since 5 months have passed, the exchange students who are only here for one semester are leaving. On the 22nd we had a formal going away ceremony, where students read speeches and we got dinner together afterwards. It was a nice ceremony, and I hope that mine is like that in the future! However, while I was upset at this ceremony, nothing had prepared me for the going away party the following Sunday. 

At first, I wasn't looking forward to the party because I was hungover. But, I wanted to go just in case it was the last time I could see everyone who was leaving. Going downstairs, everyone was running around trying to still set up the remaining chairs. But, they ended up getting moved aside for the food anyway. I'd already eaten pasta, so I wasn't very hungry. However, I personally couldn't resist nutella balls. 

After about an hour and a half, we sat down in chairs in front of a projector. The RA's had prepared a video for us to watch of the past couple months. It was honestly so funny but at the same time really sad. It hit me so hard that all the people in the video were going to be leaving soon, and I probably won't see them again. I, and everyone else, cried a lot. I think no one was quite ready for that kind of video. After that, we stood up with the people in our floors and took photos. Some people spoke and lots more cried. Saying goodbye is so hard, and I didn't want to say goodbye to the really good friends I had made here. I think it's going to be even worse when I and all my friends have to go back to our own countries. I'm definitely not looking forward to it. 

08/01/16 - オレンジ

My friends and I had seen posters for the film Orange (オレンジ) for a few months. Since it was almost about time for it to leave cinemas, we decided to go see it. The film is based off a manga (like many Japanese films) and I think it was pretty popular. I didn't know anything about the movie, but I said to myself that even though it's in Japanese, I'll be fine as long as there is nothing to do with time travel. However, since I am a terribly unlucky person, it turned out the entire movie was about time travel. I managed to work out most of the things happening in the movie, but had to get some clarification on the time stuff. It was a really emotional movie, and all of us cried. I definitely would see another Japanese movie.

31/12/15 - New Year's Countdown Party

Finally, it came to the last day of 2015. Most of my friends were in Tokyo, so the few of us that remained talked about what we could possibly do for New Year's. In the end, we decided to go to Universal Studios and go to the countdown party. The countdown party involves DJ's and performances, and gives people the opportunity to stay in the park overnight!

Before entering the park at around 4pm, we stocked up on food and heat packs. However, when we got to the entrance we found out that we had to buy a special pass for the countdown party, and couldn't use our year pass. It was really frustrating, but we weren't going to let it ruin our day. So, we bought the tickets and waited until 6:30pm to be let in (after eating a hearty meal at Saizeriya).

The countdown DJ set didn't start until 9pm, so we used this opportunity to go on as many rides as possible. We started the day strong and it was so much fun. I felt a little sick on some of the rides at first, probably because we had just eaten, but I enjoyed them anyway. The highlight rides of the whole night were definitely Jaws, Harry Potter and Spiderman! Despite it being absolutely freezing when we went on the water rides, they were some of the coolest (especially because it was night time).

The DJ set started and so we decided to head over around 10pm. We had seen a bit of it while trying to get to different rides, but didn't really stay for very long. We (me and Kazu) really wanted to see Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's producer perform. We really hoped that she would come out as a surprise guest! But, unfortunately it was just the lead singer of the producer's band. For a good 10 minutes, though, we swore it was actually Kyary and got really excited, but she just looked super similar. It was kind of disappointing! When the countdown started, the projections on all the buildings went crazy and everyone was dancing. It counted down and while we were all shouting along with the numbers, I barely felt like I was in reality.


The past year has been so stressful and it hasn't been all that amazing. But, coming to Japan has given me such a new perspective on how I live my life. I can see that in Adelaide, I don't live enough. But, once I start trying to do things everyday, I am so much happier. I don't think I could stay in Adelaide merely for the lack of adventure. I want to travel and see the world, and I want to live in an exciting way. I'm so thankful that I overcame the stress of applying for exchange so that I could make it here. I have no regrets when it comes to this exchange - even if it hasn't been perfect the whole time. I've made some of the best friends and I was so lucky to spend the first minutes of 2016 with them.

After the countdown, people were in a frenzy. Some people went home, others just scattered around the park. We, however, ran for more rides. By 2am, it started raining and we decided to get pizza at the New York style pizza place in the park. We were feeling kind of horrible, but I think we all perked up after eating. Since we couldn't get back home until first train anyway, we planned to stick it out in the park for as long as our bodies could handle. By 4am I was the coldest I had ever been in my life. I had stuck heat packs to my stomach, put them in my shoes and my pockets. Nothing seemed to help with the cold burn. Once the sun had risen, it was funny to see all the people sleeping in the park. One major thing I have noticed in Japan is that people will leave their belongings in the open, and never expect it to be stolen. In fact, it doesn't get stolen. We joked about how easy it would be to just take a suitcase of a sleeping person on the ground. It's a luxury to leave things wherever and not have to worry about it.

The final ride of the day, wasn't meant to be the final ride. We thought to ourselves that we could get a nap in the Terminator 4D experience, before continuing on with our USJ adventures. But, what we didn't realise, was that the seats rise at some point, and when the finale comes they all suddenly drop. It was one of the rudest awakenings of my life. After that, we were completely done for the day. We wanted sleep more than anything. Unfortunately, whenever we have a full night out, we are always too far away from the dorm to feel good about the journey home. I'm pretty certain that if I was in Australia, I would have just caught a cab (I wish).

27/12/15 - Sky Building

Something that was on my bucket list from the moment I entered Japan, was to look at Umeda from the top of the Sky Building. Since my friends had already been, they didn't plan on going again so soon. But, then one day Rhiannon suggested it - because she knew I had wanted to go. She said she loved it there so didn't mind going again. So, we finally went to climb one of the tallest buildings in Osaka.

We had planned to get there before sundown, but unfortunately we were running a little later than expected. I'd heard many things about the view, and how it's most amazing at night - so it didn't bother me a lot that we were late. I think seeing the sun go down would have been nice, but I can always go again. Despite it being a good time to go, there wasn't a line when we got there. It was lucky, too, because we discovered as we were leaving that the line builds fast. I think there were people waiting all the way down the stairs.

But, since there weren't many people there while when we went, we could see the sky view so easily. First, we looked from the inside. We could sit on benches and stay warm, but Rhiannon assured me that the view from the top was the most impressive. She was definitely right. We walked onto the viewing deck and the only lights were from the city and blue lights near the glass wall. The blue lights made everything glow, but didn't distract from the view.

The view itself was beyond amazing. Even though I was freezing, I really felt how incredible everything was. Seeing Osaka from such a view reminded me of how lucky I am to be on exchange. I could see all the tiny details of the city, even though they were so far away. I'll never forget that. Occasionally I am hit with moments of "wow, I'm really in Japan!" But, I think it hit the hardest when i was up the building. Sometimes I miss things about Australia, but I didn't at that moment. Japan suddenly felt like my place, my home. I was really happy.

26/12/15 - Ramen Expo + Lucky Bags

While I have been to Expo City many times, I've never actually been to the Expo park which is directly next to it. It's famous in Osaka for it's "sun" statue, although me and most of my friends think it's really scary. Mostly because at night it looks like it has glowing death eyes that will kill you at a moments notice. But, because it was the last weekend of the Ramen Expo, me and George decided to go before it was over.

The expo itself wasn't very big. They had lots of food stalls that didn't sell ramen, but we really only looked out for the ramen. The ramen stalls were lined up and they had some really interesting types. They were from all over Japan and so how they were made were quite different. We ended up buying one from Osaka - it was so yummy! I think Osaka really does have the best food. 

When we were leaving, a stray cat was walking around the footpath. It was so cute I really wanted to take it home. It fell asleep on my feet after walking around my legs for a bit. I miss it!

After the expo we didn't really want to go home yet, so we went to Expo City and did some shopping. To my surprise they were already selling Lucky Bags! Lucky Bags are released once a year around New Years. They have random items inside a sealed bag and sometimes you can get really expensive products! I had always wanted to get one and I was lucky enough to find them so early. I ended up overloading on makeup lucky bags, and I have no regrets!