Moving to Tokyo in Springtime

Cherry blossoms - thousands of them!

I realized I certainly had an interesting way of ending and beginning the year.

After working in Hokkaido until the end of the 2014 and spending my first white Christmas there, I immediately flew from Sapporo to Osaka to spend the holidays with some relatives. Joining them in visiting Universal Studios Japan for the second time and Harry Potter world for the first time was truly memorable. Afterward, I flew from Osaka to Taipei to meet and tour my family around who were visiting for the first time and spent New Year's Eve at Taipei 101. #bucketlist

I then returned to Manila and during the first quarter of 2015 that I was there, I managed to get a much-coveted and useful US visa, wrote a couple of magazine articles and pursue other interests. Oh, and in March I also got to visit Puerto Princesa, Palawan where the famed Underground River was as well as Singapore for the fifth year in a row, without having intended it. I'd say it was a pretty productive way of spending my time.

So now that it's April, I flew back to Tokyo as planned way back in February when I had already booked a ticket. I of course still wanted to make use of my valid working visa, and could not have come at a better season: spring. It seems like in the weeks before my arrival, almost everyone on my Facebook feed was in Japan to see the cherry blossoms. I'm glad I was somehow still able to see some of them, as you can see in the photos.

I have a new job; I'm looking for a new place; met up with old friends from high school and recent friends from Hokkaido all here in Tokyo. This city really is the dream - now more than ever. It always has been.

The Chinese-inspired structure inside Shinjuku Gyoen

Yellow cherry blossoms!