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A lifestyle blog by a London gal who loves plants, metal, bleaching my hair and Osaka

Monday 29 February 2016

More pink haired OOTDs

Another bunch of outfits today:



Boots// Dr Martens
Scarf// Handmade by my friend
Necklace// Primark
Dress// H&M
Choker//amazon




Shirt// Coldrain gig
Skirt// Topshop
Choker// amazon





Denim shirt// vintage kilo sale
choker// amazon
Skirt// Forever 21
Shoes// SPINNS
Socks// Urban Outfitters

Gyah, posting these makes me miss pink hair again... although when I had pink I was hankering after silver and blonde... 
I guess you always want what you don't have, right? 
Or maybe I'll just dye it back pink again, while I am a student with no obligations to look respectable.

Thanks for reading! 
-Amy xoxo
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Sunday 28 February 2016

5 months in Japan: exams are over~

Finally, my exams are finished (Osaka U finished pretty late). Setsubun has been and gone so it's technically Spring now. I'm starting to see plum blossom (see above) and the Sakura hype train has officially left the station, with sakura themed food and starbucks etc, everywhere. Plus, I've just come back from a holiday!
Last month was really uneventful. Just studying, and fermenting in my room, and I didn't really go out. Luckily I did end up with good grades at the end of it so I'm happy. 

I think I've put so much pressure on myself to have loads of fun, all the time, and honestly it's a little exhausting. I'm scared about wasting the year, and the fact that this month I haven't gone out or gone exploring "enough".

I haven't been giving myself enough credit for the fact that this term at uni I took 21 credits instead of 15 and had 28 1/2 hours of class a week on top of studying at home.I keep forgetting that there is "学" in "留学生" ("study" in "exchange student") and that my main purpose of being here is actually to study, and I'm fulfilling that. Hopefully it's paid off and my Japanese has improved. There's another round of tests soon for spring term so I need to hit the books again soon.

Lately I've managed some fun things too though! My boyfriend came up to visit me for Valentine's Day, and I made him valentines chocolate. We celebrated one year together by going to Kyushu and Hiroshima, and we had a fancy meal. I can't believe it's been a year already! I love him so much <3 (sorry for going all cringe on you guys).

So, next month. It's spring holiday here in Japan, so it's like "the" big chance to go travelling. Of course I want to go to more places, but I also need to look after myself a little, catch up on sleep and healthy eating, and get a little studying in too.
Hopefully I can get back on top of blogging too! 
Also, my family is coming to Japan in less than a month!! I'm so excited. Of course we'll be doing all the typical touristy Kyoto things, but I'm hoping to take them to places new to me too.

No pressure, eh?

Thanks for reading! 
-Amy xoxo

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Saturday 27 February 2016

Exploring Arashiyama, Kyoto


So I went to Arashiyama, finally, with my friends just before the Christmas break. 
Arashiyama is an area of Kyoto famous for its bamboo forest and the Togetsukyo bridge.

How to get there:

I live in the sticks, so we took the bus to Ibaraki, then the Hankyu train to Katsura and then the local to Arashiyama. It didn't take too long (and the most expensive part was the monorail to Minoh on the way home) Arashiyama is super easy to get to from Kyoto or Osaka though. 
The train station was so cute, with lanterns everywhere. 

First of all, we decided to get some sophisticated brunch from a really cute café near the station. I have a slight thing for vintage looking teacups so it was right up my street.
And then we headed off to the monkey park.
We found a super cute music box (オルゴール) shop, and I bought one that plays Kaze no toori Michi (from Totoro). They had a tonne of songs, including things like Arashi.

We headed over to the Monkey park next. I have to admit being a teeny bit skeptical of this, and didn't really want to go at first. (I don't like wild animals that much).
Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised. It was cheap, fun, and the view of Kyoto from the top is awesome!
The monkey park is at the top of a hill so there are a fair few stairs to climb

You could get really close to the monkeys, although obviously you couldn't touch them. They were eerily human like.

Inside you can buy some peanuts or sliced apple to feed to the monkeys for 100 yen.
As it was the top of a hill, the the view of Kyoto was great. You could see Kyoto tower and Hie San.

Guilty of being slightly more impressed with the view than with the monkeys... Although the monkeys were pretty cool.


The monkeys put their hands (paws?) through the grill and waited for food. 

After that, we decided to cross the river and visit the famous bamboo forest.
The shops on the way sold really good Omiyage (souvenirs).

We found a shop with 食品サンプル (plastic food) on keyrings, earrings etc. So cute. I bought a lemon for me and an orange for my sister :) (I hope she doesn't read this before I get the chance to give it to her, eek)
The shop staff there were unbelievably friendly, they even gave us free green tea and 和菓子 (Japanese sweets). Stereotypical Omotenashi (Japanese hospitality) at its finest ♡
We stopped by a temple, but we didn't go in (the regret is real)




The entryway to the famous bamboo grove. I'm gonna come out and say it, I wasn't overly impressed. It's just bamboo, and there are so so many people. Maybe it's better if you go there in the morning? My recommendation if you're after bamboo is to go on the hike to the top of Mt inari (behind Fushimi Inari Taisha, which is a must-do. There there is also tonnes of bamboo, far fewer people and also loads of old interesting torii and mini shrines. And the view from the top is amazing. Anyway, that's for another post)



The tip to getting a good picture: cut out all the tourists on the path and focus on the bamboo :p




After, we walked round to "the" bridge of Arashiyama, Togetsukyo, which was pretty. We got Kyoto ramen and waited for the illumination to turn on.



Radioactive looking ice cream drink thing. We waited in the freezing cold, but in the end we couldn't wait until it was dark enough for the illumination to be impressive. It was super cold so we decided to head on home.
Train station was cuter than the actual illumination, whoops.
Also here's the terrifying snowman decoration outside JR ibaraki.
Thanks for reading! 
-Amy xoxo
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