My trip to Osaka in Christmas/New Year - WEEK 3

On the morning of New Year's Eve, me and Yuto took the train to Senrichuo station, and then the Osaka monorail to Banpaku-kinen-Kouen, or Expo '70 Commemorative Park~ The park itself was unfortunately closed, but we still walked around the area around the park, since the weather was really nice and it was 8 degrees~

Osaka monorail tracks


"Taiyou no To", or "Tower of the Sun" which is a monument inside of the park. It's really big and illuminates at night~ Yuto told me that it is also the symbol for his hometown ^^


Then we took the monorail into Dainichi station, and went into a shopping complex called AEON. We walked around and did some window shopping, and I even found a Liz Lisa store and Cinema Club! ^^ We also looked at cute kittens and puppies in a pet shop there and had ice cream at Baskin & Robbins~

In the evening, we went back to Shin-Osaka and just took it easy. We went for a New Year's dinner at a family restaurant called ガスト(gasuto), I got a chicken steak with kabocha(Japanese pumpkin) and eggplant. And the steak was shaped like a heart! :D It was delicious!!


Since it was New Year's Eve and all, we had dessert :3 Japanese matcha green tea fondant with red bean paste garnish. Both me and Yuto loves matcha *w*


When we ot back to the hotel, the annual New Year's show had already started! It's a music show featuring the most popular artist in Japan and this year's hosts were Arashi and Inoue Mao!

Various artists performed, among them TVXQ, Kara, AKB48, Arashi, SMAP, SNSD, Ashida Mana and Lady Gaga!! There were also many Enka performers(Traditional Japanese folk music), it was very fascinating~ There were also many touching performances dedicated to the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011.

After the show, the countdown began with a live concert by lots of Johnny's Entertainment groups!! It was so cool!!!!! :D

Just as the clock struck twelve, me and Yuto did a jump into the new year~! I never did that on New Year's Eve before, it was fun! Then we said "Happy New Year" to each other in English, Japanese and Norwegian :D

We didn't see any fireworks except on the Johnny's Concert, which lasted just about all night. After the new year had started, we went out and bought instant soba noodles(it's traditional to eat soba on New Year's in Japan), which we ate at the hotel~ It was yummy!


It was a very fun and interesting New Year's Eve, even though I missed my family and friends back in Norway, I am so happy to share that day with Yuto ♥♥♥

A couple of days after Christmas Eve, it seemed like all the Christmas decoration and illuminations were just gone with a *poof* and been exchanged by New Year's decorations overnight! I was amazed. Here are some traditional New Year's decorations outside of my hotel:






On January 3rd, I went into Kyoto together with Yuto for some bargain shopping! In Japan, there's bargain sales EVERYWHERE at the start of the new year! We thought that maybe it wouldn't be so crowded in Kyoto, but we were wrong. haha

We walked around and talked, looked around and shopped a bit. I bought a cute long skirt from Spinns(one of my favorite clothing stores!), and a cute rucksack from a stand in one of the shopping streets in Kyoto~

I also bought a Starbucks cup from Osaka~ I have kind of made it my goal to collect Starbucks cups from different parts of the world~

When we got back to Shin-Osaka, we decided to have a dinner at Gasuto again, but this time we got a bit lost. But that didn't matter so much, it was really nice to just walk together like that ^^ And we found the place eventually ;)


The 4th was our last day together before I had to go back to Norway. After a delicious omurice for breakfast, we went into Umeda and we went into the HEP FIVE ferris wheel, just like we did the first time we ever met~ It was nostalgic and very romantic. ♥♥ I got the memorial photo this time~

Afterwards, we bought couple's keychains from the Disney store in HEP FIVE and we shared a Matcha green tea parfait~ Despite the crowdedness, we had a romantic last day together. Saying goodbye was so bittersweet. T___T

The wonderful memories I've made during this stay is something that will always be precious to me~♥


The trip back to Norway went very smoothly. No delays, however, SAS airlines had changed their rules without me knowing, so I had to pay overweight for one of my bags. I had to pack in two bags because of all my shopping XD Also, there was little space in the first place, since I did bring way too much from Norway... Next time I'll bring less things from Norway! haha
I didn't need to pay much in overweight, so it was alright, really.

When I got back to my school, almost everyone in my class came to the bus stop to pick me up!!! I was greeted with a warming group hug from more than 10 people, they had been waiting for me in the middle of the night in minus degrees and they even helped me with carrying my luggage! I was so grateful~ It made me feel better about having to leave Yuto... :)

My trip to Osaka in Christmas/New Year - WEEK 2

Christmas in Japan was very interesting and definitely very different from the Norwegian Christmas traditions! I was really happy to be able to experience what the Japanese culture is like during Christmas!

On the morning of Christmas Eve, I went to a market which is held every Saturday in front of Shin-Osaka station. I bought a tare-panda teddy bear for 50 yen!!

Since I had heard that Japanese people often eat Christmas cake on Christmas Eve, I wanted to try it, and so I bought a really tiny one at Lawson convenience store. x) It was tasty~ 

I also wanted to try the traditional Japanese Christmas fried chicken! It was really tasty too, and very different from the Norwegian Christmas dinner!

After eating, I went to sing karaoke. I sang a lot of Christmas songs~ It was fun!

This Christmas was definitely different and very interesting! 

On Christmas Morning, I went to an internet-cafè with Yuto~ We watched "tři oříšky pro popelku"(Three nuts for Cinderella), which is a Czec version of the Cinderella story. It's a big tradition in both Norway and the Czec Republic to watch this movie at Christmas, and I had brought the Norwegian dubbed version with me on DVD. I explained the story and the lines to Yuto during the movie, but the movie is easy to understand even without knowing the language~ Since I watch it every single year, it felt extra special to actually watch it in Japan! I bet there aren't many Japanese people who have watched this movie, especially not all in Norwegian! Yuto was very good at imitating the lines. xD It was so much fun!

Afterwards, we had a nice dinner together before he had to leave for work~

I found that the Christmas time in Japan is a very relaxed time. There is no Christmas stress to buy presents or anything. They really do go all out with Christmas illuminations and decorations, though, which truly gives the surroundings a very romantic touch♥ Since here in Japan, Christmas Eve is couple's day~

On the 27th, I met Yuto again, and we went on a Umeda-date ^__^  We went to the movies and watched "New Year's Eve" ! It was so romantic and sweet~ We also went to karaoke and did purikura again :D 

On the 28th, I went into Namba for some shopping, and I found a really nice hair salon, where I cut my broken edges an got a wonderful hair treatment and even shoulder massage!! The salon is called "Prete" and is located in the street leading to Ebisu-suji walking from exit 14 of Namba subway station. I think I will go there next time I'm in Osaka too~ I got a discount card there! XD

Here's the result~

Namba at night

Here's a vitamin jelly drink which I used to drink while in Japan. I figured that since the vitamins I brought from Norway last time gave me an allergic reaction, I'd try some local products. This seemed to work well, I didn't get any allergic reactions, and I felt overall better after drinking it a couple of times. :) It costs around 200 yen at the convenience store.

My trip to Osaka in Christmas/New Year - WEEK 1

I realize that I haven't updated this blog in some time. Well, I spent this Christmas and New Year in Osaka, Japan together with my boyfriend~ To say the least, I had a wonderful time! I was there from December 19th to January 5th.

Traveling from Norway to Japan turned out to be a longer trip than expected, since it turned out that when I got to Frankfurt airport to change planes, my flight to Shanghai airport was delayed! But not only by a few hours, it was delayed until the next day!!! Luckily I got a free night at the airport hotel and a free meal and my luggage had already been transferred to my next flight, so all I had to do was wait. I had to to a whole lot of waiting in Shanghai airport too, since I arrived in the middle of the night and I had yet to get my flight to Osaka rebooked. After sleeping for a few hours on a bench near the Check-in area, I could finally check in my luggage again and finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, I was on the plane to Osaka!!! IT FELT SO GREAT.

After arriving in Osaka, everything just went smoothly~ I claimed my luggage, bought a Japanese phone from the Softbank stand in the airport, called Yuto to let him know I had finally arrived! Then I bought tickets for the Haruka Express(which came in just as I got down to the platform!) and one hour later I was in Shin-Osaka and from there I found my hotel right away! I checked in and everything was just bliss *w*

It felt so great to be back in Osaka! And after resting for a couple of hours, I couldn't wait any longer and went to meet Yuto~ Seeing him again after 2 months felt great! I had missed him so much!! ♥♥♥

On December 21st, me and Yuto went on a two-day trip for Fukuoka! It's a city in the southern island of Japan. I had never been there before~ It was also the first time I went by Shinkansen(bullet train), it was really exciting :)

This is Canal City, a huge shopping mall near our hotel~

Me and Yuto♥

There was a Korean music-fair in one of the stores in Canal City, I found Honki and A.N.Jell XD!!

In Canal City there is also a Moomin Café! Needless to say, we had lunch in there. :D

The members of the Moomin family were sitting around the tables in the café~


I had an iced cocoa with Moomin motif on it! And with it I got a Moomin bisquit, the same kind I used to eat as a kid! It was rally cute and nostalgic~ ^^
Yuto had a smoothie named "Guroke" (The groke!!)

Then we shared a chocolate cake, also with Moomin motif~ And the forks were also Moomin-themed!


Yuto and Snufkin ^___^

After eating and walking around a little bit, we decided to go to Marine World, a famous aquarium in Fukuoka! The theme was Christmas romance, so it was a really romantic atmosphere there!♥

My shoes were killing me slowly(I had actually traveled to Fukuoka in high heels. Don't ask me why, apparently I thought that seemed like a good idea at the time. lol), so when we were walking up to Marine World, Yuto suggested that I'd take off my shoes and just walk in my socks the rest of the way. That I did, and it was like sweet salvation for my feet! But I never thought that I would ever be walking barefoot in the middle of Fukuoka XD 

It was the first time I ever visited an aquarium, so I was really amazed at everything! We saw so many interesting, cute and weird looking sea animals! There was also a dolphin show which we went to see~ I have always wanted to see dolphins!

Dolphins jumping together with a whale which obviously believed that it too was a dolphin. So cute! :D

This guy was just feeding the sharks..... O__O


This is a huge manta/devil ray which was really hungry and almost ate the guys that tried to feed it. XD It was like a big, flat dog.


This is a sea-otter. This is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen!!!! Just look at how it's eating its own hands and looking at us with those tiny eyes! ♥

We also saw seals! This one is balancing a tiny Christmas tree on its nose~

A totally chillin' sea-turtle just waving at us. :D


After a very fun and romantic time in Marine World, we returned to Hakata station, and checked into our hotel. Then we walked around and did some sightseeing. My feet were really tired, but I was happy to be there with Yuto and seeing and experiencing so many new things and places! 

When walking back to our hotel, there was a lot of taxis in the middle of the busy streets!


Our dinner was ramen! It was so tasty omg. I LOVE ramen. The smallest portion was mine, since strangely enough I seem to eat like a bird whenever I'm in Japan. xD

Since it was Christmas all around, there were a lot of beautiful Christmas decorations!!! It was very romantic~ Fukuoka seemed like a very romantic city all together ^^

Christmas illumination in front of Hakata station♥

The second day, we checked out of our hotel and took the bus into Tenjin, a popular place for shopping in Fukuoka! There we looked around, shopped a little bit and took purikura~ :D ♥♥

After that, we went to a Japanese Onsen(hot springs)! It was the first time for me to go to one, so I was really excited! Since me and Yuto obviously had to go into separate baths, I had literally no idea what to do, but I figured it out. The Onsen was so hot and super relaxing!!!
When we were walking back to Tenjin, I led us in the exact opposite direction of the station, so I'm never choosing the way again! haha XD
Well, we had each other, so it wasn't that bad, really, to walk a little extra. Except for my feet, which were dying underneath me. I really wished that my feet had not been that tired. >< But really, going on this trip together with Yuto was wonderful and really romantic and fun! 

Christmas illuminations in Tenjin~