An Afternoon in Little Tokyo

I've been meaning to go to Little Tokyo for the longest time and finally, today, I had lunch there with some high school friends. [Pardon my photos, I forgot to bring my camera.]

I took this while we were going out.

Here is the nice walkway that leads to the shops inside.

I went inside to wait for the guys and the place was almost empty. There weren't many people even if it was Saturday (but maybe it's because of the holidays).

The place is beautiful and is actually very reminiscent of Asakusa in Tokyo.

We ate at Hana Restaurant because I've heard a lot of good reviews about the place.

Here's how Hana looks inside. There's a bar area, three normal dining tables and one Japanese-style  table (a low table on an elevated area) at the back.

I ordered a yakisoba.

Yakisoba (PhP220)

I also ordered takoyaki.

Takoyaki (PhP120 for six pieces)

I also ordered melon kakigori (shaved ice with flavored syrup, a typical summer treat in Japan). It's very basic (I mean, as I mentioned, it's just ice and syrup) but I wanted to try it at least once. However, after ordering, I suddenly remembered that I have actually had melon kakigori before in Sweets Paradise in Tokyo! (I think I forgot about it because I ate a lot of dessert in Sweets Paradise haha.)

Kakigori (PhP70)  + PhP10 for milk

Hana isn't exactly the most affordable place (our bill totaled PhP1,130 and there were only three of us although we actually had a lot of food) but I don't regret going because it was a great experience and the food was good!

Anyway, Eric also shared with us some green tea cheesecake made by Gregory Guy (pronounce "Guy" as "Gi"). It was pretty expensive (PhP550 for a six-inch cheesecake) but it was really really good and creamy!

And here are the guys. (Yeah, it was everyone's first time in Little Tokyo so we were all fascinated by the place hence all the photo-taking.) Some people were not able make it (due to work, due to vacation) but I'm still glad that we were able to hang out.

These people, like me, love to travel.

After lunch, Eric handed me the postcard set that he bought for me during his Taiwan trip last November. I'll write about that in my next post!

The Turnover

I was practicing with watercolor yesterday and painted this:

I didn't know what to do with it until I saw my Moonleaf planner. (Yeah, I bought the Moonleaf planner this year because the weekly layout and the allotted space for each day are exactly what my busy academic life needs. However, I really didn't like the random photos of so many people inside the planner so I'm gonna do something about that.)

I didn't cover the planner with plastic yet because I didn't want to carry a planner with an almost plain black cover so today, I ended up with this:

I used the thing I painted and some washi tape. I also covered the back of the planner with one of my practice paintings. Now it looks very personal (and it should be because I'll be using it for a year!) :)

2012 in Photos and Bullets

Now it's time for a year-end review. It's been a roller coaster year once again-- super stressful, bordering on insane but full of adventure.

ACADEME (Teaching, Studying, Research)

• We finished one research project and then started with another.
• I presented a paper at an international conference in Tokyo.

• I started my first year as an MS Energy Engineering student.
• I joined a summer course regarding Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation with participants from all over the world!

• I joined an international shaking table competition in Taiwan with three of my co-faculty members and we won third place!

• Our paper from the summer course got accepted in the Hiroshima University IDEC journal. This means that we're getting published in an international journal!!!

TRAVEL

• I went to Taiwan two times-- one for sightseeing (January) and one for the shaking table competition (September)

• I went to Tokyo by myself for a conference. First solo travel abroad-- to one of my dream destinations, no less! I was able to meet Filipino friends there too. :)

• I went to Batangas for a summer outing with my co-faculty members where I was able to try riding a jetski!

• I went to Coron, Palawan (one of my local dream destinations) with my family. 

• I went to Puerto Galera with my friends. It's our first out-of-the-island trip. :) Maybe next time we should go out of Luzon or something.

• I went to Boracay (my first time) with my co-instructors where we tried flying fish and parasailing.

HOBBIES AND OTHER THINGS

• I had the TMJ splint removed and then got braces.
• Quarter-life crisis strikes.
• I joined Postcrossing.com and started seriously collecting postcards. So far, after nearly 8 months, I have spent ~PhP2,000 for mail-related things like postcards and postage stamps (yeah, I keep track of my expenses) and I have 70+ postcards from 24 different countries and 70+ different stamps from 23 different countries.

• I started trying to paint with watercolor just a few days ago.