My (almost) 3 weeks in Japan have come to a close and I'm back in the sweaty town of Brisbane, faced with writing a huge thesis, getting through the 200+ unread posts on Bloglovin' and a mountain of physical mail.
Speaking of which, guess what was sitting quietly waiting for me when I got home? My Valentine's Ninja book-swap! I had been waiting a torturous wait before leaving to Japan and of course it arrived the day after I left. OF COURSE. But at least I knew it A/ hadn't been lost in the mail and B/ I'd have a package to open when I got home to Australia. The Stupendous Chrissi (of Chrissi Reads) sent me a package chock full of goodies and I feel absolutely spoiled.
The photo is a little glare-y since I took it at night, but inside my package was John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things, a book I have been wanting to read for years but have never gotten around to (although I actually borrowed it from the library before my US trip, but ran out of time before starting it) and Daniel Wallace's Big Fish, which I've been wanting to read since Alley's great review of it. Non-book-wise I have more tea than I know what to do with!! Chrissi got my a HUGE bag of Tetley tea, a box of Twinings English Breakfast tea and a sampler of Green & Black's organic chocolate. and, and, and the card has cats on it! I don't think Chrissi could have put together a more perfect gift for me. So HUGE thanks to Chrissi, and sorry it's taken me so long to get around to sharing (I swear I must have thought about it every day I was away!)
So Japan was pretty great. Aside from all the awesome stuff I got to do and see and people I got to meet for my thesis, I also found time to get a little sight-seeing done in my spare moments. I got to explore parts of Tokyo I missed the first time around, and visited Hokkaido for the very first time. It was nice to pop back into winter and wear my coats and get to see snow again. I know most of you Americans are probably shaking your fist at your screen reading that. But truly, I do love winter A LOT. I'll share a longer post of pictures and stories next week, but for now I figured I'd share just a couple of snapshots from my trip (i.e. pictures I can grab off my phone that require no effort). I've also got a bunch of reviews to put up, I managed to read a tonne of books, some of which aren't books you've all read - so yay for new reviews!
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| Panorama of the Great Fountain at Ueno Koen, Tokyo |
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| Tokyo Sky Tree and Asahi Building, Asakusa, Tokyo |
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| A shockingly unclear photo of two adorable cats at the cat cafe, Nakano, Tokyo |
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| Me posing with a cupid statue near Tokyo Station, Tokyo |
I'll be back with reviews and photo diaries and maybe a rage-y post about social causes on Tumblr soon! And in the meantime, fill me in on what's been happening while I was away.
