A Very Special Spring in Japan

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00:00 – Intro
00:21 – Updates
01:37 – A Day at USJ
05:28 – Uh oh! Someone let me rant about Japanese banks again
07:25 – Thanks Klook for solving the problem
08:52 – Cherry Blossom Season begins!
09:42 – Jurin-ji
10:43 – Shobo-ji
11:56 – Vegetarian Cafe Ren Shijo Omiya
12:08 – Former Prefectural Government Office Kyoto
13:17 – Maruyama Park
14:47 – Making my photography dreams a reality
16:21 – Lake Biwa paddle boarding time
17:40 – Swimming under the cherry blossoms
18:00 – A very special day 🙂

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#currentlyhannah #japantravel #sakuraseason

I’m kind of thinking I need to swim… Back to the  
old stomping ground… Sakura 
season has officially arrived.
Well, everyone, the best season of the year has 
finally arrived, thank goodness. Why does it feel  
like winter just gets longer and longer every 
year? And with the warm-up weather comes like  
this newfound motivation. Like, I just want to be 
outside all of the time, doing all of the things,  
seeing all of the flowers. So, yeah, I figure 
it’s probably like a perfect season to do some  
vlogging because there’s like a bunch of little 
little mini trips that Chris and I want to go on,  
mostly just in Kansai region. Because, I mean, 
one of the first big updates – I don’t know if  
I’ve actually ever said it on my YouTube channel 
before, but, uh, yeah, this year Chris and I are  
moving to Tokyo, which is very exciting but it’s 
also like, as we’re about to move, I’m like, oh,  
there’s actually, there’s so much that I love 
about living in Kansai. So, all of the places that  
we want to see this spring are all in Kansai. The 
only other major update is that I am brunette now,  
thank goodness. I don’t, I don’t know, every time 
I look back at like me with blonde hair and then  
me with brunette hair, I’m like, what? Why do 
I even try to be blonde? I’m like, "I want to  
have a blonde phase." No. No one should let me be 
blonde because dark hair just looks so much better  
on me. Anyway, the cherry blossoms are really late 
this year, so, uh, yeah, tomorrow we’re actually  
just going to go to USJ. Which is very exciting. 
Haven’t been there in a really long time. Woohoo,  
USJ, USJ, USJ. Back to the old stomping ground 
on a weekend like an absolute noob! "Why would  
we do that, you ask?" Well, it’s one of our 
friend’s last days in one of the shows that  
he’s performing in – the show that we used to 
perform in together. He’s been doing it forever,  
so we’ve come to see his last show. Yeah, 
we make a day of it, something like that.  
Chris still has a sore foot from the marathon, 
so we’re slow walking today.
Such a good ride.  
Where to next? Spider-man? Spider-man 
isn’t open anymore.
*gasp* You didn’t know? I feel  
like I just told you Santa Claus isn’t real. Oh 
my gosh, that’s so sad.
I have so many memories of when I used to work at USJ and 
then I auditioned to be in the Harry Potter show,  
like one of the Triwizard shows. Yeah, yeah, 
yeah. It was at the start of when Harry Potter  
first came to USJ. I was so excited. I was like, 
I want to be a Triwizard Beauxbaton. And then  
I auditioned and I didn’t get it. I got into 
another show, which I was excited for, but I  
remember walking through like kind of like the 
entrance that all of the employees have to walk  
through to get through to the backstage area and 
they would play the Harry Potter music and they  
had like Harry Potter posters everywhere on the 
wall. You’d just start crying? Dude. I was so sad.  
Like the envy was like so intense. I wanted it 
so bad and I didn’t get it. I was really sad.  
So then every time I walk into Harry Potter, I was 
always like, wow, this is great. But then there’s  
that little part of me that’s still like a little 
bit bitter about it. I’m like, I should have been  
a beauxbaton. To be fair though, I don’t think I 
would have been a good beauxbatons because it’s  
like very ballet based and I’m not super strong 
at ballet, but oh boy, the upset was so strong.  
Anyway, Harry Potter world!
$900. Oh my gosh.
"Not you. Not Hermione." Oh wait!
Nintendo World is so sick. It really is worth the hype.  
They did such 
a good job of adding so many little Easter eggs  
here or there and little things you would only 
know if you play the games. They’ve just made it  
really immersive. It’s so cool.
I may be biased, 
but I really do think that spending the day at USJ  
is totally worth the time and money. It’s such 
a fun time. But oh my God. I have a vendetta  
against Japanese websites. And I know I’m not the 
only one. If you go to buy tickets for anything,  
there’s like the whole palava about your name, 
right? It needs to be written in full width  
Hiragana or Kanji, Katakana or whatever. No middle 
names are accepted! You go to pay for it and then  
it’s like, oh sorry, this payment method isn’t 
accepted. And then you Google it and you do all  
this research and you find out that actually they 
only accept Japanese credit cards. I have tried to  
get a Japanese credit card. I’ve been trying for 
years! So I’m with Prestia bank at the moment,  
which is like an English version of SMBC. When 
I go to apply for a credit card, they’re like,  
you need to select your bank from the drop down 
menu and Prestia is not there. So I was like, "oh,  
okay. I’ll just open a new bank account and then 
start from there". I’ve been rejected twice now  
from starting a savings account. And the reason 
is always like, "oh, because you’re self-employed,  
we can’t guarantee that you’re going to be 
in a financially secure position." It’s like,  
it’s a savings account! It’s the most frustrating 
thing. I haven’t even started to apply for credit  
cards yet because I can’t even get a savings 
account. It’s so frustrating. All of that is  
to say, when I went to buy my tickets for 
USJ, it wouldn’t accept my credit card,  
even my handy-dandy wise debit card that I use 
for all of my online purchases here. It didn’t  
go through for some reason. I don’t know why. And 
so I used a service that I’ve used before in the  
past to buy the ticket. And that’s a website 
called Klook. And it was like, of course,  
it was easy as hell, and it went through straight 
away. And I was like, huh, interesting. And then,  
and then coincidentally a week later, 
Klook emailed me and they said, hey Hannah,  
we would like to sponsor a video. And I said, 
hell yes, because you’ve saved my butt so many  
times when I go to buy tickets in Japan.
I mean, I 
was just going to like film the sponsored segment,  
but then it brought up all of these emotions 
I have about Japanese banks. Yeah. Anyway,  
sorry. I don’t have a segue out of this 
sponsorship segment. So yay, cherry blossoms!  
It’s time. Sakura season has officially arrived… 
kind of. Everything has been so late. It feels  
like everyone’s just been like at the starting 
blocks, like ready to jump. Oh my God, that tree  
is so pretty! I guess this is the first time that 
both of us, Chris is here as well. "Hi." Both  
of us have actually been completely free and we 
don’t have any, you know, like sponsored trips or  
any trips that we have to go on. It’s just up to 
us… which is stressful. It’s anxiety-inducing,  
because I could go anywhere, so I want to be 
everywhere. We’ve got such a short window to  
work with and I need to see all of it. But you 
know, we’ll do our best. Anyhoo, off to Kyoto!  
Ow! It’s so short. What the hell?
Now that I can speak louder than a whisper. Hi guys!  
Hi! I’m vlogging for the next day or two. That’s 
a very, very, very beautiful tree. Oh, I’m in the  
You can watch it from all POVs at the same time.
You can watch it from all POVs at the same time.
Yeah, that’s place is amazing. That 
tree is so big and so beautiful. It’s just a bit  
small, the temple itself, you know, you’re limited 
in the kinds of shots that you can get. But still  
very, very beautiful. Ooh, it’s really nice up 
here. Damn!
Oh my gosh, we nailed it. This is  
so cool. I still wasn’t sure if this one was going 
to be blooming yet, ’cause there’s not many photos  
on Google Maps. Wow, look at that tree.
Oh, that’s 
the tree! Yeah, I think it’s definitely finished.  
Wait, is it finished or is it not started yet? 
Which one is it? I don’t know. Oh God, that’d  
be so beautiful though when it’s ready. Do we come 
back? Oh wow, this is so nice though. Wow, this is  
huge. We’re like the only people here. God damn, 
that would be so nice if it was blooming. Oh,  
what? If it’s not bloomed yet I might come back 
in a week or two when it’s ready. This is great. 
Oh damn, that’s a big one. There’s a pink one 
too.
So we’re now at a super  
random spot. It’s like… not a prefectural 
government office but maybe it was? And now  
you can go inside and just take photos and stuff 
but there’s a massive beautiful cherry blossom  
tree in the courtyard. Pat found it ’cause it’s 
got a lot of good framing of the cherry blossoms  
so you can take some really beautiful photos 
here and it’s all in full bloom. Oh my gosh,  
look at Steph. She looks ethereal.
Yeah, this one’s a good spot. This is the window for sure.  
This is the window. So pretty!
We’ve arrived at 
our final spot for the day. Just trying to catch  
a little bit of nighttime cherry blossoms. 
We’re at a place called Maruyama which I was  
like "Hmm maybe it will be kind of quiet ’cause 
I’ve never really, I don’t really hear the name  
of the park Maryama very often." Clearly it’s 
not the quiet "Hidden Gem" I was hoping it to  
be. I mean obviously. I realized once we arrived 
I was like "Oh actually this is the exact like  
main place that everybody goes to" A vlog in 
a vlog in a vlog! "What’s up guys!"
It really is just like the 
most impressive display of cherry blossoms. One 
absolutely huge cherry blossom tree and then like  
six other small ones all around it. It looks like 
it’s pretty much in full bloom as well this year.  
It’s so hard to predict! Every place is blooming 
at different times. Different trees are good,  
some trees are bad, it’s difficult. Just 
like vlogging in a crowd. Very difficult.  
Holy moly we found some blossoms.
Damn!
Last night we camped at,  
there’s a spot on the other side of Lake Biwa. 
There’s like a bunch of free camping along the  
waterside. Anyway, there’s a place that I’ve 
been wanting to get a photo at for the longest  
time. Like years ago, my friends went there and 
they did some wakeboarding photos. I don’t even  
know how they did it. They’ve got a winch or 
something and then they pull my friend who’s  
really good at wakeboarding and they did it and 
there was like some cherry blossoms hanging over  
the water like into Lake Biwa and it looks so 
beautiful! And I have this vision of doing it  
on the paddleboard. And then after that, there’s 
a spot back in Kyoto that is kind of along a river  
and there’s a lot of cherry blossoms. It looks 
like it’s in peak bloom at the moment so yeah,  
then we’re going to go there!
All right, 
we found a spot to park and I think I’ve  
seen where some of the blossoms are falling over 
the edge into the water which is great, however  
we’ve got a slight dilemma: I have some crazy 
tan lines on my back from the sunscreen video.  
I don’t know by the time this video comes out I 
think maybe the sunscreen video will come after,  
and my swimsuit options show off my back. We’ve 
got this one and it obviously has a nice deep  
low back which I think is going to look so 
nice in the photo but it’s going to be like  
-square-square-square-square-square-square- 
but then I’ve also got this top but I feel  
like it’s not going to look as good. I 
think we’re just going to go with this  
one and we’re going to have to photoshop out 
the tan lines there. They look weird as hell. 
That’s it! It’s going to happen!
The water is freezing. Oh my God!
Hi!
Hi!
Aren’t you cold in a swimsuit?
No it’s beautiful! Yeah it’s great.  
This spot is so beautiful, we took some -well Chris took some really beautiful  
photos. I’m kind of thinking that I need 
to swim. It’s so cold but it just looks so  
pretty! Where else do you get a place that you can 
actually swim? Like you’re allowed to swim here,  
There’s cherry blossoms falling over into 
the water. You can’t get that anywhere!