2015 round up

Everyone and their cat is writing these posts at the moment, so I thought I'd hop on the bandwagon too.
Well, 2015 was a pretty busy year. I feel like it's gone so fast.

First up was January exams, which were hectic. I think I survived my first exam period in uni fairly well, all in all. Then, in February, I got myself a sweet boyfriend. I saw him in Leeds a lot and I went to visit him in Salisbury too.

I finished my first year in uni with a 1st overall this year (well done, me!!)

Summer was spent with year abroad prep and chilling
I went on holiday to Somerset with my family, and to Dartmouth 

I played with my hair a lot this year too, I've had it pink, and cut a full fringe again, and I've had various dip dyes too.




And then, I've spent the last three months in Japan~

The highs of this year have been:

• I've managed to keep more organised. This hasn't come naturally to me, but at least I've learned 
• how to keep to deadlines at uni. 
• Apparently, I've got better at annoying my boyfriend (His words, not mine)
• I've had a fair few adventures. Especially since coming to Japan, I've caught the travelling bug and been to so many cool places like Tokyo, and of course my favourite Osaka. 
• I've managed to blog a lot more too. I've posted around 170 posts this year, how crazy. I was daily posting for a while and it was really fun, so I think I want to try and get back into it.
• I managed to spend a lot more time with my friends, both at Leeds and in Japan. Same with my family.

I don't want to talk about lows too much, but this year I think my anxiety has been a problem for me. I need to work on it. I've also had major problems with jealousy. If I find out a good way of dealing with it, I'll write about it here because I think that would be useful to everyone. I think it's probably about improving self confidence and all the rest. I probably need to start looking after myself a little more. Let's put that on the New Years' resolutions list, shall we?

I hope everyone's 2015 was great! 
Thanks for reading! 
-Amy xoxo

Minoh Waterfall

Hi guys! I went on a Momiji (maple leaves) hunting mission to Minoh Waterfall with my friend Caro a few weeks ago. Spring and the cherry blossoms are the most famous abroad, but Japanese people also love the red autumn leaves, especially Japanese Maple. My exchange programme is even called the Maple programme! 

When we went, it wasn't quite the right time for the perfect Kouyou, but apparently the maple leaves were bad this year... just my luck. 

On the way to the waterfall, we found Minoh's mascot- Yuzuru Kun! Caro loves him, so it was fun to take photos with him. Japan does cute so so well.

Then we set off on the walk to the waterfall! It's a really pleasant half an hour to an hour walk, and even though it was a lot more crowded than usual, it was still a relaxing walk.

The maple leaves were all at varying degrees of red, some were really vibrant, some were still green, and others were almost over already.

The waterfall area was the most crowded, obviously.

Behold, the power of cropping your image:

On the way back from the waterfall, I got Taiyaki:

If you're in Osaka and looking for a way out of the city and some nature, I'd recommend Minoh waterfall for sure. You can get to Minoh Station by train from Umeda on the Hankyu Minoh line, and the walk starts really close to the station.

Thanks for reading!
-Amy xoxo

Tamba study trip

Howdy! 

Osaka Uni took everyone on the Maple programme on a free (!) study trip to Tamba in Hyogo Prefecture.

Tamba is one of Japan's six ancient pottery towns, and they have been making pottery there since the Heian period. The town was nice, but we only got a short walk around because we went with uni and everyone had to be back fairly quickly. 

And also because most of the time we had was spent making our own pottery! We got to watch a master potter make some pots on a wheel, and then he showed us the technique to make our own. Needless to say, mine looked nothing like his. I'm still pretty proud of myself for making it.

They then fired them and glazed them and we got them back in a few weeks. I chose a black glaze.

After we made our own pottery, we visited the Old Tamba Pottery Museum, but we weren't allowed to take any photos. It was pretty interesting. Then, we had 15 minutes or so to wander round the town, so I took some gloomy rainy photos:

Thanks for reading! 

-Amy xoxo

Merry Christmas~

The terrifying Snowman illumination outside Ibaraki Station, Osaka.

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas ♡

My Christmas is pretty different from usual, as I'm halfway across the world from my family. It's the first time I've had a Christmas without them, so I'm a little sad. Luckily I have friends here to celebrate it with me <3

Have a great one guys! ♡

Thanks for reading (・v・)ノ

-Amy xoxo

Pastel Pink Hair Again

Hey guys! 

Lately I dyed my hair pink again :) 

Even though it's Japan and I was a little worried about dying it pink, I figured that I stand out enough anyway, so I might as well go for it. Weirdly, I think more people noticed when I was blonde, at least more strangers comment. As the ends were still stained blue slightly, I decided to go over them with purple again. 

I used Bleach London's Rosé for most of my hair, and a mixture of conditioner, and Directions' Carnation Pink and Directions' Plum.

  20 minutes later:
The light has washed it out here, but it was a fairly bright pink.

After a couple of weeks I redid it with the Carnation Pink and conditioner. After that, I'm using Helen Anderson's method from way back of using conditioner mixed with dye every time I was my hair. 

 After that, I'm using Helen Anderson's method from way back of using conditioner mixed with dye every time I was my hair.

Thanks for reading! 

-Amy xoxo