I was so incredibly excited for my trip to Hong Kong, not only because it's somewhere I have wanted to go for a long time but also because my best friend is currently on her year abroad there! As you can imagine therefore, it is so great when we get to see each other and even better when we can be tour guides for one another. I had very little knowledge about the geography of Hong Kong (or any geography really for that matter!) but after spending a week there I feel as though I've learned a lot and been lucky enough to experience different ways in which people live there. Usually when you think of Hong Kong you think of the big city, the skyline and the business world. However there is ... read more

So my 21st birthday began with 2 amazing nights in a 5 star hotel in Bangkok followed by a weekend in Fukuoka going out and going for dinner with all my friends here and it finally came to close with a weekend in Tokyo. As far as 21st birthdays go, I'd say it was a pretty spectacular celebration! I've managed to get the nickname Princess Ella here in Japan after everyone realised just how much of a big deal I make about my birthday haha. I began planning our Tokyo trip before christmas as I knew we wouldn't have much time after i got back from Thailand and so the first task was finding accommodation that was central enough for us to get to everywhere easily but also affordable, as after all, we are students! I ... read more

Before coming to Japan, travelling to Korea was never something I'd really thought about. However, I made a friend here in Japan who was from Busan and one who had spent a month in Seoul, the capital city and from their stories I suddenly became curious and wanted to see for myself what it was like. Fukuoka sits just a short 3 hour boat journey away from the beautiful city of Busan so it was perfect for us to take a trip there and since we had a friend who lives there, we also bagged ourselves a free and very experienced tour guide! There were 9 of us in total and our first challenge was to get ourself to Hakata Port by 7am in order to catch our boat. A few people had entered Japan through ... read more

One of the best parts of my year abroad is the chance to travel so I was so excited to be spending the weekend in Osaka! The flight from Fukuoka was only an hour and getting a domestic flight in Japan is very much like getting on a train! There was no ID check and very limited security as we went through departures in the teeny tiny domestic terminal of Fukuoka airport. We arrived at Kansai airport on Friday evening and it was then an hour coach (or limousine, as they called it) journey into Osaka city centre. I later found out that Kansai airport is actually on an artificial island which is pretty cool. We were staying with a friend of one of the girls I have met here at university so after arriving and ... read more

I am a massive lover of fancy dress and hence a halloween enthusiast! I will always try to go all out and get annoyed when others don't do the same. Before coming to Japan I was worried that they did not celebrate halloween but little did I know just how serious the Japanese take fancy dress, and halloween as a whole. Thus this halloween was definitely an unforgettable experience for me! Since the beginning of October there have been little signs of halloween all around Fukuoka. In canal city there were big spiders webs hanging from the the ceilings and a huge pumpkin in the middle of the 'canal' going through the mall. One thing that made me laugh and something I noticed rather than 'Trick or Treat' they often had other sayings that didn't really ... read more