It’s been a little around 2 months since my last blog post. I’m sorry about that. It's not that I’ve given up blogging. When I made this blog, I made a small pact with myself to always post something at least every other week – no matter how random or adventurous it would be. I wanted it to be my goal to just keep writing, find things that would make my day-to-day more interesting, keep my “creative spirit” fueled. Two months in and I already failed. Yeesh.

If you know me, you’d know that I rarely go out of the house. If I’m not at the university, there’s a 99% chance I’m curled up in a hole at home. I’ll spend half of the day sitting in front of my desk, either going through the rest of my university stuff or browsing the net, and the other half I’ll be switching between eating, sleeping, and binge watching YouTube videos, anime, and  Korean dramas (Be warned: it’s very addicting).

I know what you’re thinking.

This fine specimen must be the pinnacle of a 21^st century lady.

When they look back at history books centuries from now, you would see that exact same image – a 20 year old woman in her natural habitat. Sitting in front of a desk with mountains of paper on the floor, hands on her keyboard, black-framed glasses sitting on her nose, hair on a messy bun, one foot up on the chair and the other just dangling down, all whilst drinking her sparkling water and eating the finest grapes and Doritos cheese the land has to offer.

Fancy.

But that’s not what this blog post is about. Where have I been these past 2 months?

Well, if you must know, I finally went on that Japan trip I’d always wanted to go to. I can’t believe Kyoto looks ten times better than what I’d seen in anime! Seriously, if you had the time to, you have to see the -- is what I’d want to say.

I didn’t go to Japan. I didn't even do anything remotely adventurous. I mean, I want to, but I don’t have the means yet. These past few months I’ve been studying my brains off like I’d normally would. Go ahead and throw all those Asian stereotypes at me. 

Overachiever.

Nerd.

Why-you-no-doctor-yet?! (for those who don't get it. It's a Family Guy reference).

I know it’s an underrated opinion, but I really like studying. To think that after almost 15 years of waking up at 7 am, eating my breakfast, brushing my teeth, and going to school every day, it’s literally pretty much all I’ve ever known, and now, I have to say goodbye to it. I mean, I could go to post-graduate school to continue my studies, but it wouldn’t be the same. It feels like a part of my childhood innocence will graduate with me as I march through graduation.

Oh. If you’re lost in all these gibberish I’m talking about, this term is supposed to be my last term at Uni. I’ve been studying Accountancy for 4 years and now, I’ve finally reached the end of the line. I’ve been wanting to graduate for so long, but now that I think about it, it’s kind of scary that I’m finally “here”. 

Well, that’s something for another time. For now, we’ll talk about what I did for two months (other than studying. No one wants to hear about that). 

For one, I won an Instax Mini at a raffle/contest my previous organization held! I’ve been contemplating on getting one of my own Polaroid-like cameras before but I never really had the chance to. I’ve always been on the fence about it. The actual unit itself isn’t that expensive but the films are. So my biggest dilemma was whether it would be more practical (and economical) for me to just have photos printed at photo stations. Anyway. I wouldn’t make any reviews on it because I’m sure there’s a ton floating around the internet already – plus the product’s been around for quite some time –, but for now, I’m just really happy I won it! I don’t know why but I’ve always had luck with these kinds of things. Maybe I should try betting on the lottery soon. 

I haven’t used any of the films yet, other than that one picture I took of my parents as a test shot. I’m thinking of starting a scrapbook and fill it with photos I take with my Instax when I travel or do something worth “remembering” in the future. I just love going through those old-school photo albums that I rarely see nowadays. Plus, I could imagine it would feel very nostalgic when I reminisce my old memories. I have so many ideas on what I could do with it. It’s so exciting! Anyway, I’ll keep you posted about that. 

I’ve heard of this Japanese band a little over 3 years ago. Well, not of them, but I’ve heard one of their songs on a credit scene of Ruroni Kenshin (can’t remember if it’s the first or second) and I remember thinking:

I waited inside the theater a bit longer because I was really into the song and I was trying to catch some verses to google later on. Then a Japanese verse started to kick in and I was like “wha--- they’re Japanese?!”. So I started googling them up, looked up some of their MVs on YouTube, but that was the end of it. I rarely like songs that I can’t understand (literally can’t because it’s in Japanese), so the only song I remember of them was that one song that played on the credits. When I sing it in the shower, I only sing the few English verses, then I’ll be belting out some random Japanese words in the next verses. 

Part of why I initially liked them is because I really like alternative, pop rock music (not sure if that’s the right term); the side of “rock” spectrum that doesn’t have too much of those loud screams most heavy rock songs have and yet still have those intense drum/guitar instrumentals you could sing to – kind of like the early Fall Out Boy albums.

Anyway.

Fast forward to 2016 and I had this weird urge to look back at that song for no reason while I was waiting for my night class to start. I had my earphones out then one of my friends noticed the familiar video on my phone screen. She started getting all excited, talked to me about them, asking me what my favorite song was and how she finds singer the cute, and I was just sitting there, taking in all these alien-fangirl-excitement directed towards me. 

A little backstory: I’ve never liked a band/group so much to the point that I’d actually “fan girl” over them. So to me, who was just a casual listener, it really shocked me at first and I was kind of lost since I didn’t know how to reciprocate her “feelings” in a way. 

Then she started to mellow down (probably hinting at my overwhelmed reaction), then asked me if I watched their Yokohama concert. Naturally, I said no. Then she showed me their “A Thousand Miles” cover, and I just fell in love. For one, because they’re Japanese and they were covering and English song, live, with almost 90% correct pronunciation. For another, because the drummer (who had green highlights and mid length hair) was playing the xylophone, the bassist (who had tattoos all over his torso) was playing the keyboard, the guitarist (who seems to be the most mellow of the four) just immersed in his strumming, and the singer just singing his heart out with his eyes closed and drawing everyone in. It was just stripped down, acoustic, heartfelt music. And it just felt so genuine. Knowing that they’re a band to normally sing upbeat, rock songs, with light screamos and guitar solos, they had this versatility that peaked my curiosity and made me want to watch the whole concert. And I did that night too. It was a 2 hour video and I sat through it, even though I had an exam the next day. I had no idea what the singer was screaming about 99% of the time, but I liked how they sounded so much better live than they do in recordings. Plus, you’ll be pretty amazed when you see the singer, bassist, and guitarist jumping all over the stage like ticks on the back of a dog for 2 hours (probably more since the video has cuts in it), all while performing as if it was nothing. Now I’m fangirling. Jeez.  

So anyway, in case you’re curious about what concert I’m talking about, the video’s up on YouTube (something along the lines of ONE OK ROCK-Yokohama Stadium-Mighty Long Fall would hit something up). They’re a pretty old band now since they started way back in 2005 (I think) and they’re really big in Japan too. This brings me to my next topic.

I know. Or rather. わかった [Wakatta]. Years of watching anime will finally pay off. 

It’d probably take me 2 years minimum to be able to speak and listen to Japanese fluently, another few years before I could write Japanese on a middle schooler’s level, and so on. I may stop liking the band even after then, and they’re entering the international scene by composing English songs now too, so it might make more sense to just listen to their new albums. But I thought it would be a great if I could learn a new language. With learning anything, I should start with whatever peaks my interest, right? So I’ll start learning Japanese, listen to some audio books, watch some anime to practice (aaand just because I like it), etc. We’ll see if I’m having progress in the next few months.

And that’s about it. Two months of my life revolved around the fact that I won an Instax camera and got strangely addicted to ONE OK ROCK. Well, that and I’ve been fighting the urge to just cry over all the exams lining up one after another. Now that the finals exams are over and I’m just waiting for my graduation (I’ll definitely post something about that in the future), I’ll be crying over my impending board exam next year. *Cries in a corner*.