2025 in Review
This year felt so long but also felt like it was short too. Many things happened and it was tough to go on too, but in the end things will turn out fine, hopefully.
…Journal
Japan 2025
So I visited Japan again in the later half of October 2025. Unlike my previous trip in 2024, this trip was kind of booked without much plans in mind. Back when booking the flights, I only knew I wanted to explore Kansai region and maybe visit Tottori & Hokuei, the Detective Conan’s author’s hometown. But during the planning, things happened and I followed where the train lines took me and ended up exploring many parts of Chūgoku region. In a way, I loved going to places where it was less travelled by foreign travellers, since I was forced to use my Japanese language skills.
My travel plan started at the least populated region (Tottori) and slowly went to more and more dense areas and ended at Osaka. In the process, I found appreciation to many places that I had never even heard about before the trip, such as Matsue, Izumo, Kurashiki, and Okayama.
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2024 in Review
Last year in 2023 in Review, I picked that the yearly theme would be “Year of Experience”. Indeed, this year I experienced a lot of things. Experience came in different forms, from travelling, events, meet ups, and many more. In this post, I’ll share several memorable experiences.
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Japan 2024
I finally went to Japan! It was really nice. I found myself enjoying through both the ups and downs. Many things happened in the planning and execution of the trip. In this post I reflect on what happened, what I enjoyed and not, what I learned, and what I hope to do next.
Ideation
The initial idea was sparked many years ago (maybe it was 2019?), thrown around occassinally when chatting with Leo or with the Unyu group. But that idea stuck at being just an idea as there was no more concrete planning that happened since then. Also the Covid travel restrictions happened so I couldn’t really act on it int the past few years. Then last year around August, after more deliberations and encouragements, I took the risk and booked the flight tickets.
Once I booked the non-refundable tickets, the journey started becomnig real. I even thought of a quote from the anime A Place Further Than The Universe:
…If you can still turn back, it’s not really a journey. When you hit the point of no return, that’s the moment it becomes a journey.
Hinata Miyake
Best Anime I Watched in 2023
When I wrote Seasons of Anime, it was just middle of the year. Since then, I watched a lot more anime titles. I decided to use MyAnimeList to keep track of the titles I’ve watched and its ratings. Here, I will list some titles that are really exceptional to me in no particular order.
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2023 in Review
Welp, it’s the time of the year again to review the year.
This year, I definitely didn’t post much. In fact, it was the lowest number of posts per year since I started the blog. It can’t be helped I guess, since I had filled up my free time on many other stuffs.
Last year during 2022 in Review, I picked year of authenticity. However I’m not sure if I achieved that. I felt that without deep trust, it was scary and can be dangerous to do so. At times, I did open up and I was thankful that I did.
There were a lot of things happened in 2023, and most of them are not planned very far ahead. In a way, that’s not a bad thing, as I got to experience things that I normally won’t.
…Five Months Into Learning Japanese
Earlier this year, after having gone on a vacation (in February), I found that my habit of listening to podcasts and reading books had been broken. During my commute, I didn’t feel like listening to podcasts or reading books anymore. Most of the time, I spent on just listening to music. However, after a few months, I felt like I could put in something more productive. That’s why on a fine day in April, I decided to learn Japanese.
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