Bye For Now, Henry

As it was announced, Henry of Super Junior-M chose to not renew his contract with SM Entertainment. I'll be honest, I am sad. Sad because I will miss him with the Super Junior boys. I will miss seeing him in Super Shows. I will miss him being the English translator of Super Junior. I will miss his "Laudest" comments to Filipino ELF.

It was at Super Show 3 in Manila when I first saw you and your amazing talents. You were definitely one of the best things that happened to Super Junior and the Super Shows. I also saw some clips of you in the show "Real Men" when you helped rebuild houses for my fellow Filipinos who were affected by the typhoon Yolanda. I was touched on how sincere you were with the tasks and how friendly you were with the kids.

My photo of Henry from Super Show 3 Manila.

Now I realized why recently there were things that reminded me of you. When I attended Super Show 7 in Seoul, you weren't present and it broke my heart knowing that you and Zhoumi weren't performing in the concert as you both did in the past. I always look forward to your performances because undoubtedly, you are the most talented Super Junior member. I also saw a big banner of you in a Crocs store in my city and I even took a photo of it as I was ecstatic just seeing you in a banner.

I saw @henryl89 in the mall yesterday modeling for @crocs 😍😄 #HenryLau #SuperJuniorM #SJM #Laudest

A post shared by Chrisma Joyce (@chrismajoyce) on Mar 10, 2018 at 10:00am PST

But I know this is for the best. Henry, I know this is a decision you thought very well and I will still support you. I will always be proud that you are a part of Super Junior. I wish you all the best Henry. Fighting~!

Bon Odori 2018

It's Bon Odori time again. For this year, the venue isn't that far so it was easy to travel to and from the venue. I was kind of worried of the new location though since it's not as big as the previous venue and the event really needs a spacious area but I guess the organizers were able to pull it off.

For my fourth Bon Odori attendance, I chose to wear my pink cherry blossoms designed yukata which I first wore in the US during Halloween three years ago.
Here are some photos of my yukata ensemble this year:

Also, I met some friends during the event which is always fun:

with my coworker friend who I invited :)

with my Otaku friends :D

with my previous coworker friends who I always bumped into events like this :)

And guess what I bought during the event:

Anpanman!

Barbecue and ramen with Kirin beer for dinner.

I bought Sapporo because Kita Kita feels. I gave this to my parents. :)

The jam-packed program included karaoke, yukata, and cosplay contests, with Japanese guests especially the comedian trio Hapon3, the Bon dance, the fire dance, and of course, the fireworks!

Hapon3

Bon Dance

Fire Dance

Fireworks

I absolutely enjoyed the event. Hoping for more fun Bon Odori in the future!

Sunday Fun in Aloguinsan

My college friends and I planned another weekend getaway since there was another Monday holiday. This time, we chose to visit Aloguinsan, which is located east of Cebu, specifically Bojo River and Hermit's Cove. To get to our destination, we hired a van as there were 15 of us, including some friends of friend's so I got to meet new friends.

We first stopped by Farm House where we registered for our Bojo River cruise. We initially paid a downpayment for the reservation days ago and paid in full when we arrived, which I think was P600 in total. We were served with Filipino snacks upon arrival and we get to have a short tour at the Farm House.

Your typical Filipino snacks.

With the whole gang in the Farm House.

Then we made our way to Bojo River where we were greeted with necklaces made from seeds and flowers and a band singing a Bisaya song for us. How cool is that? I only have videos taken on this part so I'll be sure to put the videos together.

We were also served refreshments here, particularly buko juice in the nut adorned with a gumamela flower.

Before the river cruise, we were brief about the history of Bojo River and how the tourist spot helped the community as it was managed by the local government. After that, we got ready for the river cruise!

Here are some photos of us during the river cruise:

A sumptuous lunch was then served after our river cruise.

The next stop was Hermit's Cove. It is a beach resort in a secluded area in Aloguinsan. Getting there was kind of difficult as the roads are rough, steep, and narrow but the van driver seems to know how to drive around the area. There was an entrance fee but I'm not sure how much was it, I think it was 100 bucks.

I was amazed on how strong the waves are in the beach! Like I can't swim or stand against these waves so me and my friends were having fun going with the flow with the waves instead.

I really enjoyed this Sunday getaway. It was fun to do activities like this knowing you are off from work tomorrow so you'll have enough rest. 😅

Until my next fun adventure!

Otakufest and bless4

For this year, UP Otakufest has been rebranded to "Otakufest" since for the first time, the event was held outside of UP Cebu campus. The hobby event was held in Cebu Business Park field which was still attended by a lot of Cebuano otakus. The competitions leveled up with Cosplay contest being associated with World Cosplay Summit. Some cosplay guests are from outside the country and for the first time ever in Cebu, a J-Pop group was invited. When the announcement was made that bless4 was the J-Pop guest, I was ecstatic as I have known the group for many years now. I know them because of their songs from Genesis of Aquarion, Amagi Brilliant Park, and Ancient Magus Bride.

I didn't cosplay a character for this year but I dressed up in a red checkered Lolita outfit. Here are a few photos by my photographer friend:

With another Lolita girl 😊

Before bless4's performance, I got the chance to meet them and took a photo with them. They were friendly and the best part is they speak English well so no need to use my limited Japanese skill haha.

With bless4. I even made a placard to show my support. haha 😍

Bless4's performance was definitely one of the best I have seen. I can feel their passion in performing. The sister Akino has a really good voice and I can't believe I just heard her singing live. One funny moment I will not forget during one of their performance is that Akashi oniichan said that Japanese wave their hands forward during concerts and he said something like "let's do it like the Japanese people, I know it's strange but let's just do it anyway" haha. I can totally relate on what he said since I saw some Japanese concerts on the internet and yes they do that weird forward waving. It was such a wonderful feeling to hear bless4 performing their anime songs. For the first time ever, I saw a J-Pop group mini-concert weee~! 😄 Bless4 also held a short fansign event after so I bought one of their albums and magazine so I can have their autographs.

bless4 during their ment (J-Pop style)

Otakufest was truly a blast this year with bringing the bar higher for hobby conventions in Cebu. I am looking forward to the rest of the conventions this year and the next Otakufest. Until my next hobby event! 😉

Spring Hopping in Catmon and Sogod

Since February 16 was declared a holiday, me and my college friends planned a day trip to a couple of towns in northern Cebu, Catmon and Sogod.

Call time was 6am at the North Bus Terminal. We decided to take a v-hire to Catmon which I think was not a good choice as it was uncomfortable inside the van. We arrived at Catmon almost two hours after and then we took those motorbikes we call as "habal-habal" to take us to Esoy Hot Spring and Katinggo Falls. It was quite a long motorbike ride with lots of round turns but I am glad the weather that day was nice. We arrived at the spring entrance and paid P350 for both the cottage rental and trekking guide to the falls. The hot spring was developed in such a way that some pools are hotter than other pools. Here are some photos in the hot spring:

with my college friends :)

in one of the hottest pools

Then we started our falls trekking by walking to a hanging bridge. It was by far the scariest hanging bridge I have tried but I was still able to make a smile in the photo below.

super hanging bridge

The trekking experience was fulfilling as the trail was quite difficult and at some points, the water from the falls were deep with strong currents.

Far behind me is the falls.

After the trekking, we headed back to Catmon's highway and had lunch in Duko-Duko, one of Catmon's famous Filipino restaurant.

We took a tricycle to get to the next town, Sogod, to visit Binaliw Cold Spring. There we chilled and relaxed at this public cold spring. It also has a huge grotto of Mama Mary.

After the long day, we stopped by a house where they sell Toarta and then headed back to the city in a bus.

This is another activity you can enjoy when you want to escape the city for the day. Until my next city escape! ;)

Winter in South Korea

For our annual December getaway, my coworkers and I booked flights to Seoul. For Filipinos, we needed a visa to enter the country. We started processing our visas on November with requirements you can check on South Korea's embassy website. The only requirement that was kind of a hassle for us was the stamped ITR (form 2316) as our company does not give a stamped one. To accomplish this, we had to go to BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), buy stamps, fill up an online form, print, go to an accredited bank, pay fees, and had our ITR stamped in the Bureau of Internal Revenue Large Taxpayers District Office (LTDO). We got our visas a week after submission.

Since I was going to deviate from the first day of the itinerary because of the Super Junior concert, I had to buy my own mobile data sim. I bought mine online in http://roaming.kt.com/rental/eng/main.asp and chose Prepaid Data SIM Data only.  For our accommodation, we chose D.H. Myeongdong.

We arrived in Seoul at around 10:30pm, bought a T-money card and had dinner. Since it was already late, Incheon subway's last stop is in Digital Media City so we had to go out at this stop to find taxis and behold, we were welcomed with freezing cold outside the station. It took us a little while to find some taxis that would take us to Myeondong maybe because it was already around 1am and most of the drivers cannot understand English so we had to show the address. We managed to arrive in D.H. Myeongdong with our bodies trying to adjust with the cold temperature.

Inside Seoul's subway.

For our first day, we chose to visit Hanok Bukchon Village. I was only able to explore a little on this area since I needed to be in the concert in the afternoon. My coworker friends were able to dress up in hanboks while roaming around the traditional Korean village.

We passed by Constitutional Court of Korea on our way.

Hanok Bukchon Village

Enjoying unlimited kimchi for lunch before heading to Super Show 7!

For our second day, we went to the famous Nami Island. It snowed almost the entire day so we had to be very careful with our steps. 

The famous Kang Joon-sang and Jeong Yoo-jin from Winter Sonata.

At night, we visited Myeongdong's shopping district where we bought our souvenirs and my Super Junior albums (bought them in Buruttrak).

Shop all you can in Myeongdong. :D

With the huge Brown from Line at LineFriends Store in Myeongdong.

For our third and last day, we went to Namsan Tower. It is a popular spot in Seoul for TV series and movies especially the romantic ones due its famous love locks.

It was a short trip but I'm still thankful it was short since it was too cold in Seoul, with temperatures around -2C to -11C. I still enjoyed the trip and would love to visit again, hopefully with a better weather. Until my next random international trip!