FerlynYoshimi

(JAPAN) Naeba. Niigata Snowboarding Vacation PART 2

2012-01-31T23:29:00.004+08:00

SNOWBOARDING VACATION NIIGATA (PART 2)

Lord i know i'm really late on this.
Been a little lag with things lately.

Let's get straight to it

Drinking games after a hard day of snowboarding

罰ゲーム　penalty game

"Do a MACHO pose"

Naoki's version of a macho pose. not that manly....

the main hotel with tons of stuff to do

How cute!! Yuki otoko~ Snow men

Look at me snowboarding!
Granted... not the best photo but i'll take it! since its me first time and i'm proud of me!!

Fell with grace!!! but makes for a great photo anyway

Peace!!! how cute is the purple rabbit neck warmer! its Mirei's ~ borrowed it from her
LOVE it

We had to do this the
"Lets gather a pile of snow and throw it in the air" picture

we took the gondola up to the second highest peak of the mountain.
before we went down the hills, we stopped by the mountain top diners for a good cup of coffee and hot soup

Took a break with "Georgia"

CUTEST EVAAAAAA!!!

For REAL?! ice cream Crepes on the snow mountain??
Dayum people are freaky. i'm way too cold to put ice in my mouth

POSING IN THE SNOWWWWWWYYYYY

THANK YOU to Ilie, Naoki and Mirei for being the best buds one can ever ask as a complete noob in snow sports! had the best first time snowboarding and we planning to go again end of February, NAGANO this time round.

Thanks for sticking out with me yall

LOVE
Ferlyn

Hatsumode初詣 Tokyo 2012

2012-01-16T17:35:00.005+08:00

Hey Y'all

Before i continue on the Snowboarding vacation post, i wanted to do this first.

Usually done on January 1st, Hatsumode 初詣 is the first visit to a shrine of the new year. Though most folks do it on the first week, the first few days can be quite the terrible experience especially with the more famous shrines.

I went Hatsumode a few days back with my sista Hitomi~ She's back from San Francisco and its a great year for both her husband and her. she's PREGNANT! she already at the 5month mark but i can still remember the day i found out. nothing beats news of pregnancy

We went to one of Japan's most prominent Shrines in Tokyo, Meiji Jingu (Located in Harajuku)

古神札納所
This is where you leave your old charms/amulets and get a new one for the new year, if not you'll be packing up loads of charms from previous years.

Barrels of "Sake" for celebrating the new year

Highly baffled by this but they seem to have wine and quite the display as well

Before entering the main temple, one must first purify and cleanse themselves.
There will be a cleansing basin at every shrine, one must purify and rid of the impurities and cleanse the body/spirit with the water.

Entering the main temple through the south gate

Meself and Hitomi~
behind us is the place where you offer your offerings to the gods and pray for health, happiness, love etc. i didnt do it because i'm catholic but it was awesome seeing everyone else.

Omikuji
(fortune telling by choosing a random strip of paper with predictions written on it)

Familiar scene from various animes
"Ema" with wishes written on them and placed in the shrine grounds.

Omamori (Charm/amulet)
one can buy various omamori for different purposes. Health,wealth, love, safety, studies etc

check this out.
these are all HAND written by elementary students. how pretty is the handwriting.
i can never do something like that.

After we walked all the way out of the entire temple grounds, we went across the road to Takeshita dori and got ourselves crepes.
I've got some major sweet tooth and crepes are one of my guilty pleasures, even in dead of winter.

We walked passed the newly (well not that new but) open AKB48 STORE in Harajuku.
it overtook the Lotteria that was the "landmark" meeting point which i kinda missed.

we went over to shin okubo for dinner afterwards which was awesome!
i cant express how much i love korean food, spicy and oh-so-good.

Well i'll be back with the part 2 of the niigata snowboarding vacation in a day or 2.
i have tons of assignment to catch up on thanks to a whole weekend of DOING absolutely nothing at all.

Love
Ferlyn Yoshimi

(JAPAN) Naeba. Niigata Snowboarding Vacation PART 1

2012-01-11T22:27:00.012+08:00

SNOWBOARDING VACATION NIIGATA (PART 1)

Hey everyone

I just came back from a snowboarding vacation with a couple of friends, we went to this place called Naeba in the Niigata prefecture which is famous for being a ski/snowboard destination in Japan.

here's the cover shot for the vacation.
The members of the trip:

From left: Ferlyn (me), Ilie, Naoki and Mirei (bottom)

We left on a friday morning and came back sunday night just in time for the manchester derby between Manchester united and Manchester city which ended with a UNITED win of course!
~~Glory Glory Man United~~

Naoki and Ilie came over the night before, which was the day i got back to japan.. imagine the rush i was in. I had to unpack my luggage from singapore, clean my apartment and pack another luggage for the trip.

Naoki and Ilie "like a boss" pose brushing teeth on my couch.

we ended up not sleeping the entire night after a round of karaoke till 3am and talking the night away. we left my place at 6 in the morning, took a taxi to Ikebukuro bus terminal which was a 3min by taxi from my place (hence the sleepover).

Tons of people at the terminal going on ski trips. one reason being there were plenty of bus tours and the other being that it was a 3day weekend (monday being a national holiday).

Mirei checking our bus time and number

Different ski destination by bus.
our bus was filled with teenagers and young adults, mainly guys (^_^) but there is a surprisingly number of female snowboarders/skiers. always good to see competitive females around.

Stop-over at Gunma which is roughly a 2 hour drive from Tokyo.
Beautiful scenery aint it. we dont get this in Tokyo.

Almost at Naeba which means we're at the mountains!!
SNOW!! yay~ god i'm such a kid. Picture taken from inside the bus but came out great! love the white blanket of snow. gorgeous aint they.

once we got to the ryokan we were staying at, which was so homely by the way. Loved the obaasan inn owner. she was so cute and talkative! I really like the street lamp right outside our ryokan. it was sooo lovely at night with the orange hue light reflecting the snow ( it snowed throughout the trip)

Being a first timer and all. i dont got my own gear and rented all from the ryokan which had rental services. We got straight into our gears and head out to Mt.Naeba
Ground view

After a few practices which i failed miserably... my fear of falling and the board being so slippery against the snow and all didnt help. But we headed straight for the ski lift anyway!
First time and i got straight to the lift, i'm glad i'm still alive! thank you lord!!

Ilie was our teacher the entire time, he was the only one with snowboarding experience.

Clipping in our shoes to the board.

Naoki and Mirei
Naoki like myself is a first timer while Mirei has been skiing her whole life, she's the ski professional but its her 2nd attempt at snowboarding but the woman learns so fast! probably because the snow is second nature to her.

Myself and Ilie
The kid had the balls not to wear a snow hat. well its not his fault... Naoki forgot his and since its Naoki's first time Ilie gave his to Naoki.

After a few attempts at the slope it was time for lunch, our favorite place the entire trip was this little cafe restaurant called the "Whistler Cafe" which from the name you can guess that its theme is Whistler, Vancouver. With the Canadian flag everywhere and the likes of Justin Bieber on the radio.

Check out what the two kids wanted to do....

Even with my hands freezing i cant not check my twitter and leave my phone alone.
Way to go ferlyn!

The day went by really fast and before we knew it, it was dark and we head back to the Ryokan for dinner. I love the meals that was provided. full on japanese meals completed with miso soup and green tea. tonight's dinner was karaage with mayonaise accompanied with saba (i think) and french beans with a serving of orange on the side

Well i shall end part 1 here~
have yet to upload and resize the other photos yet. i hoped you enjoy the pictures as much as i did taking them and the trip itself.

Be back with part 2 in the next 4days

Love and stay safe

Ferlyn Yoshimi

Backdate: Halloween in tokyo part 2

2012-01-09T18:46:00.005+08:00

This is a super backdated post
but i promised to update the Halloween part 2, so here it is if your interested.
it'll be a short post with pictures.

Day 2 (Halloween)

Day 2 of Halloween was designated for Booze and Music.
First stop: Karina at Roppongi for a few drinks

Karina claims to be a mime that day~

DO I LOOK LIKE THE ASIAN (not so slutty) VERSION OF SNOOKI OR WHAT!

Karina and her bunch of friends from the other International Colleges in Tokyo.
mainly Sophie and Temple.

Karina was sooo wasted that day. she started spitting alcohol on her friends, i actually felt bad for them. oh and she lost her cardigan when it was freezing outside.

I left them a little after 12 to meet my other friends over at muse in
Nishi azabu juban.

Me, Miyu, Yuusuke and Delcie.

We were in a club so the pictures was a class rate crap.
this is the only picture that you can actually make out the faces. lol

anyway, the night ended with almost everyone either pissed drunk or really high.
I ended up going back by taxi which cost like 80 dollars but my dear brother Toshi paid for. he insisted that i take a taxi back.. thank you Toshi!

well there you go... short and sweet
but posted like i promised!

PART ONE OF THE NAEBA SNOWBOARDING TRIP WILL BE UP in 2DAYS!

Love
Ferlyn Yoshimi