Travel Plans

Posted by lisamarie on 2014.01.13

It’s slow season at work, so I took Friday off and had a nice three day weekend, the first one in a long time. No OT for a while, so that means I have more time to study for my testing and have some much needed me time. As much as I like OT pay, it’s nice to be able to relax a little more.

On the subject of my title, Katie and I have decided to go down to Florida on her Spring break, mainly to see my mother and our friend. I’m not fond of Florida at all, but that’s where most of my family is, so I’m doing my daughterly/grandaughterly duty. It’s close to my mother’s birthday too, so she wants to take us and our friend up to Disney like she did last year.

The above picture is actually from last year, but I haven’t gotten around to posting all of those pictures yet (soon! I promise!). As I mentioned in a previous entry, there were a lot of photogenic birds that day! This one was another one of them. He was perched on Mickey’s nose, just watching everyone watching and taking pictures of him. I took three pictures of him before I went on my way to Tomorrowland. I would have tried to take more, but Disney is a busy place in the middle of the day, so I didn’t want to be in the way. I’ll post the other two shots of him later.

I’m off to bed now, so good night!

[BGM: n’DooL – special thanks]

Osaka – 13.11.02

Posted by lisamarie on 2014.01.06

Backtracking to the trip again. This time Osaka! Sadly, I didn’t take many pictures, but I at least made sure to take one of the giant Glico man because everyone takes a photo of that. It’s just something that you do.

We only got to spend a day there (a late afternoon to the next morning, so not really a full day), but we still had a lot of fun walking around. Katie had been there once before, but this was my first time visiting. Since we didn’t have very much time to spend there, we chose a nice capsule hotel that was very close (about 5-10 minute walks) to everywhere we wanted to go to. The first place we went to was Pure Sound and ended up getting a lot of older CDs that we’d been wanting and a few band goods. Next, we went to McDonalds for dinner and to chill for a bit since we were still sort of tired from traveling from Sendai to Osaka. After that, we went in search of a Baskin Robbins. Before our trip, I’d made it a little mission of mine to have one of the cute Halloween treats they’d had to offer, but Sendai and Tokyo were out of the makings for the one I wanted. However, Osaka still had it, so I was happy!

It’s pumpkin cake with a scoop of pumpkin pudding and devil’s food ice cream, topped with two very cute white chocolate ghosts and a purple ghost cookie. It was delicious and worth my searching! With it came a set of pink and purple gel pens, a sheet of stickers and a set of stickers to use on the LINE app.

After we were done there, we had some time to kill before a bar that we wanted to go to opened, so we went to ZEAL LINK and looked around a few other places while we waited. Finally, it was time for Visual Bar Seven to open, so we made our way there. It’s a small and nice bar owned by two bandmen that we were familiar with and it’s a neat place for those who like visual kei to go to. They play band videos all night and the thing I liked most about it is no one trying to make me do karaoke! HAH! (I cannot and will not sing in front of people. I did it once and that was it.) We stayed there for about 2 hours drinking and chatting with the owners and then went back to the hotel to get some sleep because we had to leave at 6am to make it back to Sendai for an event we were going to attend.

Next time, I definitely want to stay longer (and take more pictures!), but I enjoyed my short time there.

Snow and Ice

Posted by lisamarie on 2014.01.05

As expected, we woke up to tons of snow. At least 5 inches to start with and it didn’t quit snowing until the evening. As much as I wanted to go out and take a lot of pictures, my body can’t handle the cold weather like it used to be able to. I stayed inside all day, only cracking the door now and then to snap a picture and quickly closing it after I was done.

It’s too dark for me to check the yard stick that we put outside, but I believe we got well over 10 inches of snow total. This mess of snow is just what’s outside our front door on the 3rd floor of our building.

And these lovelies are hanging from the top. It would be a bad time for anyone who happens to be under those if they break.

It honestly feels like we’re encased in ice and snow. Here’s hoping it melts soon and doesn’t start up again, though, I think there’s more on the way..

Tokyo Disney

Posted by lisamarie on 2014.01.03

Flashbacking to my trip for this post.

All the times that we’d visited Japan before, we never made it to Tokyo Disney, so we decided that we needed to go to there at least once and what better time than Halloween! Also, it’s Tokyo Disney’s 30th anniversary, so there were double the decorations. We ended up going with a friend of ours and her friend and, since we went in the evening, it was half off the ticket price! I don’t think Disney World and Disneyland have that sort of price special, but it would be awesome if they did seeing as the full price tickets are so expensive anymore. Anyway, as far as rides go, we only rode Space Mountain. I think it took us nearly two hours to actually ride it because the line was so long, but we had fun.

After Space Mountain, we went around the shops and the character houses. This cuteness was outside of Minnie’s house.

I loved it! I loved the expressions on the cat’s faces too! I wish I had been able to get a photo at a better angle, but this one was good enough.

After we were done with the shops, it was fireworks time! I took a lot of pictures during it that I’ll post later. Some of them came out a bit blurry, so I’ll pick out the best ones to post.

And that’s my short Tokyo Disney experience. Next time, I want to go during the day and spend more time there.

Snow

Posted by lisamarie on 2014.01.02

As expected, we awoke to a lot of snow this morning. It wasn’t a pleasant ride to work, but it could have been worse. The roads weren’t as plowed as we thought they should have been, but we’ve driven through far worse. Of course, I would have loved to have just stayed home in bed all day, but I like having money, so not going into work wasn’t an option.

Work was irritating and I’ll leave it at that. Also, I think I might be coming down with something, so that didn’t help my mood. Here’s hoping that I can ward off whatever it is.

After work, my day got much better with yummy pizza and a package from a friend of mine in Thailand, so my night ends on a happy note.

Good night!

Christmas Eve

Posted by lisamarie on 2013.12.24

Hard to believe Christmas is tomorrow (rather, in less than an hour for me). It’s felt like this year has sort of flown by in a strange way and Christmas sort of snuck up on me and I’m not quite ready. A lot of gifts from me to my friends are going to be more like New Years gifts instead. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts, right? I’ve been working a lot of OT at work since I’ve come back from Japan, so that’s delayed my gift getting. Just no time or energy to shop.

My Christmas Eve was uneventful and somewhat stressful compared to previous ones, but I did get some delicious rum to end my night on a good note.

Anyway, off to bed with me. I hope everyone has or had a happy holiday☆

Weekly Photo Challenge: One

Posted by lisamarie on 2013.12.20

This was taken earlier this year while I was visiting family in Florida. My mother took me and two of my friends to Disney for a day. While we were waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion I noticed three cute, little birds hopping around in a tree near the water. I got my camera out and took a few pictures of the three. This little one in the middle had less movement going on, so I was able to catch him the clearest of the three.

There were actually a lot of photogenic birds hopping about that day, but this one turned out the best, I think.

Niigata

Posted by lisamarie on 2013.12.18

Sharing one of the pictures I took while in Niigata. My friend and I visited a friend there during our stay in Japan. We only got to spend a few hours there this time, but next trip we’d both like to stay a day or two and have a bit more time to look around. It was a bit overcast that day, but the sea and the sunset were still gorgeous.

Another place we’d both like to spend a little more time in is Osaka. We spent a night there, but due to our schedule, we had to leave really early to catch the shinkansen back to Tokyo. It was a nice stay though! We stayed in a capsule hotel, which was an interesting experience, but we both agreed that it wasn’t really our thing, haha. We prefer the quiet and privacy of hotels. However, if you just need somewhere to sleep, I’d recommend it! The staff was extremely nice and I’ve forgotten the name of the place, but I’ll look it up when I finally write out my long trip post.

Phantom has declared it bedtime by settling himself on my stomach, so off to bed I go!

Cherry Blossoms (cont..)

Posted by lisamarie on 2013.05.09

I haven’t gotten time to get the other pictures ready to post yet, but here are three more for now. These are from the Botanical Gardens here.

Also, I have some of my photos on Instacanvas now and one is in the running to be featured, so if you like it, I would appreciate the vote!

http://instacanv.as/moecona/piece/433478864363786238_215706

Hello April

Posted by lisamarie on 2013.04.01

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ll go back to attempting daily posts starting now.

Since I last wrote, in January, my company was bought by a better company, so we’re still easing into the mindset of belonging to a new company and getting used to the way that they do things.

February was uneventful for the most part..except that my roommate and I were able to purchase our tickets to Japan~! We’re both really excited to go back and see our friends as well as go to more parts of Japan that we haven’t been to. We’ll be there mid-October to November.

March was also uneventful and snowy. I’m tired of snow and I think it’s done for the time being, but I was able to get a picture that I was especially proud of—

I’m really happy I managed to capture that cute fluffy thing, haha.

All for now. I’ll update again later!

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Category Archives: photography