Somedays, your heart is heavier.

Sorry for the three week long hiatus, but I'm back from my recent overseas venture. We returned a much earlier time (about a week earlier, actually) than what we had initially planned due to some errors.

We were supposed to head to South Korea for about eight days after Japan, but we had to skip that entirely and come right back to Singapore after our two week stay in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Not the way I planned my belated grad trip to be but... Everyone has their fair share of travel drama right? I was really stoked for the 3-4 weeks getaway and was gushing to all of my friends about it, but luck was clearly not in my favour when we had to cut our trip abruptly short. Just thinking about it makes me want to rip my hair off because all these errors were so careless it's really not a Mirabelle thing, especially considering how much I do travel. Not to mention all the unnecessary money I spent to cover mistakes after mistakes...
I thought that losing my debit card in NZ or getting a lame parking fine in Perth were the biggest travel screw ups I would ever face but oh hell no life has other plans for me. I guess this is a painful lesson I should take in my stride. You can never be too cautious. If anything, I think I now mastered the art of handling stressful situations with a cool head a whole lot better (and believe me, this is no easy feat for someone as hot-headed as me). Also, I couldn't have done it without Han's help so if you're reading this, thank you :')

Okay, I may seem to have made our trip sound like a total disaster but it wasn't. The mistakes and disappointment (for having a shorter holiday) aside, the two weeks in Japan were still so damn amazing. I visited Japan last year during its cherry blossom season (late March - early April) and was dying to revisit Japan again. I managed to fulfill my wish this year in early Autumn, and I still. Haven't. Had. Enough. I need to go back again next year!!

There's just too much to love about Japan - its food, technology, scenic views, rustic homes, quirky marketing and most importantly, its people. In both trips, I've come across altruistic citizens who graciously offered to help me (and my travel companion) whenever we appeared to be struggling. In my encounters, the locals always went out of their way to help us through our ordeals without expecting any form of repayment, even when the apparent language barrier made communication difficult. I am sincerely humbled and for someone who doesn't have much faith in humanity (sometimes), the people here restored it for me. Certainly I should start practicising a thing or two from them.

Anyway, I can't wait to blog more about the places we've visited in the next couple of posts! However, unlike all my other travel posts before, this time, I'm just going to focus on the various locations instead of writing out our day-by-day itinerary. I think that that will be more helpful!

Also, I'll be working the trip's visuals and the video this entire week! Yessssssss another video. Till then, keep your eyes peeled hehe.