I has apartment. And there's pictures this time!

So last weekend I visited my apartment (that I'm paying for without living in yet...) for the second time. My mattress was SUPPOSED to be delivered but there were problems with finding the correct model, and long story short, I'll be getting a more expensive version for the same price instead.

And this time I brought my 18-55 lens! Less sharpness but hey, at least I was able to fit whole walls into frame. And it's not like I was trying for actual photography here anyway.

So without further adieu, here are some photos of my empty apartment. Try to contain your excitement.

Main room/bedroom/livingroom/hallwayishthing:

Kitchen:

Bathroom:

Coat Closet Mylinh's new house (modeled by my lovely mother):

I love it, probably because it's MINE. But the one thing I wish I could change about it is the doors. They're this strange orangey color...But I guess every apartment has SOMETHING.

As we were leaving I was walking down the steps with my arms full of bags and boxes, my mom tired and not feeling well, but my artistic side kicked in and I decided I had to try taking a long exposure night photo.

It's outside in the courtyard, which is taken care of and managed better than any other apartment I've lived in.

Now I just need to find furniture...

盆踊り2011

It seems like I was just at last year's bonodori festival, which my friends convinced me to go to for the first time in years. We ate, we laughed, they danced. Oh and of course there were the beautiful lanterns we put in the water only to have the wind blow them back towards us.

But this year's festival rolled around quicker than I expected, and of course I had to go because Davic and I decided to make it a tradition. This time we brought his little brother Alex, and I came equipped with camera in hand. :)

But before the festival, we decided to take a little walk around the Capitol.


Don't let this fool you, it took a few tries to get him to actually hug me...




According to Alex, these are for climbing.








The brothers used this place to run around and jump from ledge to ledge


While I stayed on the ground and squinted so beautifully.


Again with the beauty! How do I do it?







Davic took this shot, and I'm pretty sure he just randomly snapped it, but I love how it turned out.

I don't even know.


Superhero?




Our beautiful city. Oh wait ignore the gross water...


I had no idea these little tomatoes were growing up there on top of the hill.



And by then the festival had already started. Although there still wasn't much happening quite yet, so what did we do? Got food of course! I wanted yakitori, but they were somehow out already...even though the festival was just starting. So instead I settled for:


It was underwhelming...if only our humble little bondori had more than one food booth.




So after watching some taiko and martial arts, Alex was getting bored. Like he always does. He wanted something more "actiony" so he told us he was going to go run around in the parking lot. Like literally, he went and ran in circles.


THIS is what will happen if you create a video game addict from a young age.

I was EXTREMELY disappointed that there was no lantern ceremony this year! I mean, isn't that the whole main point of bonodori?? The lanterns to guide the spirits?? And I was so looking forward to taking some awesome night pictures of the lanterns in the water.

But as a replacement, they had a tree set up where for a dollar (which was to be donated to earthquake relief in Japan) you got a strip of paper on which you could write a wish or prayer. I wasn't that excited over it at the time, but I ended up getting some of my favorite photos EVER out of the deal. :) Take a look...







And towards the end, what could possibly be considered the highlight of the festival happened. The dancing.



Last year most of my friends danced while I and another friend laughed and took pictures. Fun enough for my low standards. And this year I had full intentions to take video footage of Davic Making a fool of himself. But instead something else happened. Something unusual.

I donno if it was the hostess' speech about how everyone is stupid either way, "so you might as well dance", or Davic's strange ability to get me to do things I normally wouldn't. Or maybe it was my resolution to care less about what people think, but whatever it was, I danced. And I liked it.

After dancing the night away and letting a 6-year-old use my $700 camera that I'm WAY overprotective of, bonodori 11 was over.


Bye until next year obon festival. <3
If you like my photos and want to see the entire set, make sure to check out my flickr

Baby Update + An Apartment Of My Own

Also, I officially have an apartment now. I brought my camera expecting to take magnificent realestate-quality photos to show off my new place. But then I realized my 50mm lens is cropped waaay too closely for that and the most I could get was portions of walls at a time...so instead, here's a picture of my new mug from Daiso. :)