November 22nd, Tuesday :
I met up with Yoshi for lunch at about 1pm near Shijo station, we went to a vegan cafe and it was surprisingly good. I haven't seen Yoshi for more than a year, the last time I saw him was in Singapore last year when he was still a part of PALM. It was much easier to talk to him now because I can speak pretty decent Japanese, haha.
After lunch, we headed to the Bengal Cat Cafe that was just 5 minutes away. It was pretty small but I was pleasantly surprised that the cats were so friendly. I've been to a couple of cat cafes in Japan but the cats are never friendly. I'm pretty sure they get sick of people wanting to pet them all day, so I don't blame them. But at the Bengal cat cafe, several cats came to me as soon as I sat down.
Two of them actually climbed onto me and there were a couple more cats sitting around me. Happy. The cats at this cafe had cute names as well, they're named after the horoscopes. I thought it was a cute idea.
This is Orion, the most popular cat at the cafe.
We didn't spend too long at the cafe, only about half an hour and decided to go for some sightseeing. Even though Kyoto has a lot to offer, it's always so crowded with tourists. Yoshi wanted to go to a temple but the number of tourists really turned us off. So we only made it to one and I checked into my Airbnb apartment after that. Luckily Yoshi was with me because I had some problems with checking in.
It'll be nice to have a photoshoot at this bridge if it weren't for the people.
Yoshi and I chilled at Starbucks until 7-ish in the evening and I met up with another friend, Yamako at 8. He was starving because he had exams for the entire day so we just went to eat. Most of the restaurants were full that evening since the day after was a public holiday. In the end, Yamako and I went to an Okonomiyaki place that he really likes. We still had to wait for a while before getting a table.
To be honest, I have never had Okonomiyaki in my 3 years in Japan. I'm not a big fan of it but after going with Yamako, I changed my mind. The food was really good and we were just drinking and eating non-stop till 11-ish. It was fun talking to him since we both like music and travelling. I've always admired his devotion to bands because he travels so frequently (and far) to go to shows.
In the past, I used to think that I was crazy because I would be the only one out of all my friends to travel to attend shows. I felt really alone, but ever since coming to Japan, I've met so many people who are even more devoted than me. It feels nice to have people not call you crazy or tell you you're wasting your money on something that you really love. Music is still a huge part of my life, without it, I wouldn't have met so many amazing people that I can now call my friends.
November 23rd, Wednesday :
The next day, I headed to Nagoya and arrived at lunch time. KH was waiting for me at Nagoya station and we went for lunch before heading to his band's rehearsal. It was nice being back in Nagoya after two years. I waited for him to finish up and we went for dinner at close to 8. We had miso katsu for dinner. The good thing about meeting all my Japanese friends is that I get to try so much food, haha.
It was our first time hanging out alone, so it was pretty awkward in the beginning. Whenever I see KH, there would always be a lot of people around. In the past, I used to think we wouldn't even be friends but I was wrong, we got along really well. I like how straightforward and honest he is. We ended up talking about so many things, not only about work but music, our personal lives and everything in between.
It was nice to finally spend time with him after knowing him for so long. I got back to Tokyo the next day and was greeted by the heavy snow. It was freezing when I got back and the roads were all covered in snow. I'm surprised I didn't fall sick because of the difference in weather in Kansai, Nagoya and Tokyo.
These couple of days were so fun because I was able to hang out with my friends who I haven't seen in a long time. It made me think about a lot of things. My life in Japan is so different from my life in Singapore. Even though there is a language barrier, I do enjoy my life here way more. I like my friends here more. Singapore has never made me happy and I wish people there would stop telling me Singapore is my home because it is not.
* Lately I have been both lazy and busy to blog, but I hope to finish up all the entries for this year because so many amazing and exciting things happened just in one month. I can't believe there's only 11 days left for 2016.
