Being As a Tour Conductor

When I was doing a job hunting, I was so desperate.
Since I wanted to work abroad so badly, when I saw an ads of a tour conductor, I got excited and applied it.
After getting explained, I realised a tour conductor is not a full time job. Well it's understandable the system since a tour is not a constant business. There are many tours during holidays but it gets less during the other time.
Anyway I thought 'well it might be a good experience' and I started doing it. 
The summary of my opinion twrds it is that it's just too work much considering to the money and it's not my job at all.

First of all, do you guys know what actually a tour conductor is???
It's a different from a tour guide. 
A tour guide does literally a guide about historical monuments or buildings. A tour conductor doesn't do it. T/C is a person who are in charge of tours schedule. When it comes to a tour, normally up to around 40 people(around 20 groups) who just meet on the day. Basically they are strangers to each other but for the tour, they have to act and move as one group. In that case, there is a need for a person who are in charge of organising the tour schedule. For members, T/C is understood by a person who tells them the leaving time at every place. (I just have to say there are way more things T/C has to do!)
Well I hope you guys now know the difference between a tour guide and a tour conductor. 

The reason why I wanna say the difference loudly is that nowadays T/C is excepted to do a guiding although that's not their job to get good comments from customers. 
Well I think this is like a teacher. They have to study which means work apart from classes. T/C has to study as well for leading a massive group as well as for a guiding.
I'm not gonna write about exact amount of money but I just say the salary is estimated by 12 hours of work a day. I just don't know how it works exactly, cause the working hours is 8 according to a law.
Even though they have to work for a long time, they can't get any insurance from a company since they are not full time workers. 
Well for me this whole things look bizzar and I just can't take this anymore. 

Please don't take me wrong!
I'm not saying this to be against other conductors. If they enjoy it, that's a really good thing indeed. I just personally don't think that is my job. Probably I like trips too much to make it as my job. All of the sudden, travels become jobs not exciting things anymore. Well I know some people who really like being tour conductors which is a very very very good thing but it hasn't happened to me....... Well to be honest, I haven't done this job for a long time but I already hate it. Some might say you can't tell by that a short period of time but I do know how much I get stressed by it. My skin has got worst in my whole life these days!

My parents say that I've got to be thank to have this kind of experiences at least to know this world better. Well this is true! 

Coconut water/Hacienda del cielo

This coconut water is highly recommended!! 

To survive this JP humid hot summer, you have to keep drinking water! 
In JP, coconut is not that popular. Well at least for my family probably, I didn't encounter coconut for a long time. Since I didn't have enough coconut experience, I tended to avoid coconut. When I visited Langkawi last year, I had a chance to try coconut water. Well my friend and I were not quite expected about being offered it but anyway tried it. After some sips, we were like 'well this is actually tasty!' 
Having that experience, I become to like coconut itself :)
Even though I normally don't finish a bottle of drink in a day, I drunk all in a half day. 

The day I encountered the coconut water, I had a lunch at Hacienda del cielo.
That is a Mexican restaurant and we had these.

They were tasty and I really like big windows and terraces there. Since it locates in the 9th floor, there is a good view of Omotesando. (Personally I don't like JP view though :p)
Well I don't like stuffs at a front desk but I wanna go there for dinner next time!

REVIEW: Her (Movie)/Relationships

Now it's time to organise my life. I've been leading super stressful days last seven months I would say, because of a job hunting. If I feel up to, I might write a post about it.
Anyway since yesterday I was chilling my room and thinking what I wanna do, an idea of watching a movie came up to me.
The other day I watched Maleficent, I noticed 'HER' is in a cinema finally now in JP!!!!


Well this movie reminds me of a long distance relationship although the story is not about it.When it comes to a long distance, the only way to communicate is the Internet. That's why a long distance is difficult. It's the same as a relationship with AI. It doesn't have a body which means they can't have body interactions. Well it sometimes sounds sad but we humans as well as animals need body interactions. They are so important for us.
Of course I do believe and admire how two people care each other even though they are physically separated. I do know how beautiful it is. However, finally we want to touch each other physically.....
I really like the sentence at the end of its trailer 'How would you touch me?' because I think that explains well about the difficulty of internet relationships.

I really like movie and definitely recommend you guys to watch.
It pictures all about our life indeed. Love marriage divorce friends job and technology

Since I have a secret memory with this movie, I cried a lot because of nostalgia. When mum saw my face after crying with a stain of eye lines and makeups, she said 'oh finally you're feeling good enough to watch movie and cry! I'm glad that!'
Well thanks mum but did I look that much sad these days...???? Hahaha
Anyways I love you mum and hope I feel happier from now on!!!

And finally if you are suffering a broken heart, you are not the only one and you can suffer it as long as you finally can say youre ok from bottom of your heart.
Nobody really knows what exactly happened between you and the other one. It's you who actually accept him or her and step forward. I'm saying it because I'm still suffering and I still cannot say I'm ok even though my friends often get surprised 'Oh haven't you still got recovered yet?' Well I wish I could be fine and forgets everything about the memory, but I just can't delete my beautiful memory.... I kinda conclude that I should accept myself being not able to handle the situation quickly. So I've decided to suffer until I would be totally fine and accept myself feeling sad. What I wanna say is that if you're kinda same situation like me, you are not the only one. You don't have to hide your feelings at all! X

Viking Adventure/ヴァイキングアドベンチャー

I joined Viking Adventure in JP with my friends.

I have to say something beforehand about a registration procedure.

First of all, when I registered, everything was just tooooooo much. When I click 'register' on a web site of this event, two choices appear. I don't know the difference and i could only use one. Secondly, it's super bizzar about a group entry. Because of security or safe reason, we have to fill all the information about us and also emergency contacts. Well if this event is that much dangerous, how do they accept costumes? They say there is a costume competition. When it comes to fill all the information even others, it just nightmare. 
Secondly, since they ask everyone's info, they can't accept changes of members. Whata business!
Well I do know and  accept the fact that there are so many rules when it comes to public events.
So this is just my opinion as a participant. 

Anyway as I imagined, the event itself was pretty fun!!!

We didn't wear costumes but many people did. My friend and I were talking to take a pic with costumed people but we totally forgot about it hahahaha

It was easy to climb but it was a bit scary to get down after that... 

This one as well

The last one was a bubble pool (?)

This bubble looks beautiful and fun from the outside but once you get in, it's just a nightmare! haha Especially when you get bubble inside your eyes. Well I got it and all my makeup had gone.

Since I went to only girls school so far apart from elementary school, almost all my friends are girls which is amazing and I really like all of them. Today, I joined this event with my malefriends and girlfriends. The atmosphere was bit different than a only girls group and I can say I could enjoy today from a different aspect. Such a nice day!

I do think there is no big gap between women and men, but I can say we need both aspects!

It was not a sunny day but a perfect day for running and activities outside. It was kinda miracle to have heavy rain after the event!

Besties snuggle stay over

The other day I visited E's brand new home! Well I have to say how much I miss this kind of visiting or stay over. 
When I was in Bristol, I visited my friends flat and also I invited my friends to mine a lot. It was just amazing to do daily stuffs together like cooking, watching videos or whatever. If I can't invite my friends, we've got to pay money to be together.... I really wanna do a share house when I start working but that looks too much money for me in JP....

Anyway I visited hers and cooked together. 

She already cooked egg pudding and egg soup. Thanks to them, our dinner looks just awesome and of course it was yummy!

She introduced American drama called 'Girls Guide to Depravity' to me. 
Well I'm hooked although I don't necessarily agree with all the rules in it. Oh! I'm surprised American women's aggressiveness. Maybe it's just normal in the state but with my JP point of view, it looks aggressive and I don't think I can be like that. Anyway funny drama!  

Recently JP summer started to show its true face. Sooooo humid hot!
I just wanna get out of here :( :(

青森県津軽じょっぱり親父の黒にんにく/Black Garlic

Recently mum kept talking about black garlic. The other day, she decided to buy one finally.

久しぶりの日本語。

最近ままが黒ニンニクに大変な興味をしめしていて、この間ついに彼女は買うという決断をくだしたようです。

To be honest, I was not that much into black garlic. For me, it was hard to imagine to eat a piece of garlic only. 

個人的にはあまり興味がなかったんだけど笑
にんにくをそのまま食べるなんて、にんにくは好きだけど考えられなかったの。

Surprisingly, it tastes like prune. Actually it's yummy!!!! I guess just because it was slowly fermented.

Mum keeps asking me 'Aya-chan are you feeling better?? more energetic???'
Well mum, I'm not sure hahaha
But seems like this is good for my health :)

実際食べてみると実はとってもおいしかった！プールンみたいなの。
たぶんじっくり熟成されたからだと思う。
なんか、青森の食べ物メインの居酒屋さんでかったんだけど、もしも気になる人はこのにんにくを売っているケイエス青果のホームページへ！
ままがしきりに、「元気になった？」って聞いてくるけどそれは謎笑
まあ、体にはきっと良いでしょう。

Electric Run in Japan

Did you guys have a good weekend???
I had a great one :)

I joined Electric Run in JP with my friends. Since it was a bit far away from where we live, we booked a hotel. This time, our hotel was Apa hotel Tokyo Bay. We could see a beach even though it was not that much a clean and beautiful one. After we arrived at a hotel and chilled a bit, we prepared ourselves for the event. We bought different colours of tutu beforehand as our costumes. I really like this colour variation :)

Since it was our first time (Colour Run was held in JP for the first time anyway) we didn't know how much we should have put our effort on our costumes. Actually I thought ours would have been stuck out a bit. However, it turns out so many people dressed up a lot. Personally I was quite surprised by that JP people actually put effort on this kind of things. (I know this is a bit fixed idea) We wore T-shirts we got for free as a prize for participation. Can you spot glasses? They are glow-in-the-dark sunglasses! They don't fit my head actually so I decided to hang them on my shirt. Some clever people wore them by making them as rabbits ears.   

We booked our tickets a quite long ago like two months before?? The tickets were sold out quickly. I did imagine many people would come but actual number of people were just beyond my imagination. Sooooooo many people!!! Basically you just can't run properly. Yeah it's just impossible for normal people to run through 6 or 5 km in row but you could only run like 500m in row because of the crowd. I'm not good at walking very very slowly so I tried so hard to run more often when it was possible. (Thanks my girls to follow me! Haha) I guess in the end, we did a great job and could enjoy both of running and walking. 

There were some what's so called lands like this pics.

This is called Neffmau5's land. 

I tried to film a bit about this wonderful run. Well it was not a good quality.... I was really jealous of people with GoPro....

After the run, there was a after party. For us, to experience Japanese party like this was the first time. We're kinda fascinated by DJ's calls in Japanese like 手をあげて!(raise your hands)、しゃがんで(crouch down) Well it was funny. 

After went through all these in a humid Japanese summer, I sweated A LOT! We were lucky enough to have a hot spring in our hotel. It was really nice to bathe in it after the run.

Thanks again and again for my friends!
It was really a great weekend :) X

REVIEW: Maleficent

Finally on 5 July, a movie Maleficent has come to Japan!




Since I failed to be Maleficent on last year's Halloween day, I was so curious how professional people make it possible. 
Well I have to say costumes and makeups are just amazing.
I really like young Maleficent. She's so cute!

Before watching it, I was told by my friend that he won't watch it again.
I just cannot say that's a bad movie. Well it's better than 'Oz the Great and Power' but I just can't help agreeing with him. It's not a movie to repeat watching.

As Frozen, Disney finally has started to focus on different aspects of 'true love.' The society has been changing. Many people think there is no what so called 'true love' or life is not that much easy to conclude that meeting a 'prince' or a 'princess' and marrying  is a happy ending. 

Well I can understand this Disney's shift but I personally don't like it.
I want to watch typical Disney's magical true love stories although I do understand life is not that much easy.
I think from the beginning the reason why Disney was welcomed by people is that they are allowed to dream whatever and wherever Disney creates. They needed some relief and escapes from facing the reality. 
So for me Disney's recent shift is a bit sad thing. I kinda lost the only place I can completely dream.

Well actually when my relationship didn't work quite well, I said a joke like accusing Disney of lying to us as if there is a true love or happily ever after. My friends and I often laugh about this fact that Disney makes movies focusing on other aspects of them.

Another thing I'd like to mention here is that I felt it's funny the reason why Maleficent became evil is betrayal by a guy. It's kinda same as Oz the Great and Power. Since I'm really influenced by relationships and guy (well I do know this sounds pretty lame but anyway) I wanna say this loudly in the name of girls like me, 'we're not that much crazy enough to be evil just because of stupid guys' hahaha

Regardless of plots and contents, it's really good to watch a movie at a cinema. It's been a bit after I went to a cinema, I remember how nice to do so! 
Well when it comes to cinema, I really miss Bristol's showcase..... Most of the time, it's not fully packed. I really liked being in a bit empty cinema, also so much memory there..... nostalgia really......

?What's your favorite movie?

河口湖ハーブフェスティバル/Fujikawaguchiko Herb Festival

The other day I went to Fujijkawagushiko Herb Festival. 

It's in Yamanashi prefecture. I think Yamanashi is located in a very convenient place from Tokyo. You can do a day trip over there. 

There are two main parks for this festival and I went to Yagizaki park.

After go through some souvenir shops, you see full of lavender!

At the opposite of the entrance, there is Kawaguchiko Muse Museum.

You can sit over there. Inside the museum, now they are doing a exhibition of a doll artist, Akae Yuuki.

His doll is basically made from cotton. This one is obviously not but you can get an idea of his dolls.

Alongside of the lavender, you can get a free pic taken. The free pic is small size. It seems like you've got to pay 1000yen to get a bigger one.

Many people take a photo using this pic frame.

I kinda feel this is a JP characteristic to make many different flavor ice cream. Since this festival's feature is lavender, you can get lavender flavor one. haha

To be honest, I wanted to try one but didn't have enough time.

There are other kinds of flowers in the park. It is nice to see and feel flowers since I can't have enough opportunity to do so in Tokyo which is really sad actually.....
Well one thing I hate about being in Japan is that you've got to pay for every leisure, even for going to a park to feel some nature. There is a relatively big park in Tokyo but they don't have beautiful scenery. Just plain green. Therefore, there is a business to bring people outside of Tokyo and have them see and feel nature.... for me this sounds really sad. Well probably this happens everywhere nowadays

Anyways it was a good opportunity to smell lavender and feel some nature :)

This is how we celebrate a friend's birthday/誕生日ディナー

Oh the half of 2014 has already gone..... Well this year is just a tough year before much harder years I guess. Recently I've been feeling 'I'm not ready! I'm not ready! I just live smiling and happily....' hahahaha Everything is getting complicated but I've got to stop postponing everything and start to struggle with them.

Well anyway I just wanted to point out how fast time flies! I just can't believe almost two days have passed since I posted the previous blog and also it's July 2014 already!

The other day my friends and I had a lovely birthday dinner for one of them.
We wanted to do a all night party but we all were busy to do so. Maybe next time!

One of them reserved a restaurant which has aquariums inside. We went to other branch on Valentine's day (this might sound a bit strange but we had an amazing girls night on that day! Well don't ask don't ask anything further :p) Since we went to both of them, we kinda complete aquarium restaurants. Hehe
Inside of the restaurant is really dark but a good atmosphere for what's so called 'girls dinner' (女子会)
The restaurant: Aquarium LIME 

We're very hungry so didn't have time to be bothered by taking pics.
This is the only food pic hahaha

They are our starters. We had carpaccio, tuna steak, beef steak, Thai taste noodles and a cake! I became really really full physically and psychologically as well. 

We got to know each other at uni and now some of us have started working. It's good to share the important shift from a student to a business person. At the same time, it's a bit strange feeling. We're not baby babies any more. We can't go travels whenever we like..... Haha
It's just getting very difficult to find a good day and time for everyone but I really hope we can catch up like this often!!!