Oh Canada!

Hi Everyone! 

I am so stoked! Today I drove into Canada myself for the very first time! YAY!!! I’ve been wanting to do this since forever because I live less than a half hour away from the Ambassador bridge and have a passport. I never have though because I was afraid to go there alone and also couldn’t see a way to do it because I didn’t have GPS or reliable transportation. But all those things have changed.

Last night I resolved to finally do it and decided just this morning where I wanted to go while on the “other side.” (lol) One of my swim instructor’s other students recently swum at the newly opened aquatic center in Windsor, Ontario and she advised that their pool is massive and has really tall diving boards. I’ve never seen a competitive swimming pool in person before so I wanted to check it out. 🙂

The Journey

The tunnel… oh the glare.

Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre

The diving blocks in particular interested me and saw swimmers use them. I hope I get to try them one day. 🙂

The dive tank is 17 ft deep. Woah!

 Exploring…

Eggsmart? Really?

Had passed this place on my way to the Aquatic Centre and walked forevers to find it! Alas it wasn’t open. Totes bummer.

Stopped here for lunch and received Canadian change. Yay bridge fare!

The Return

I  was interrogated for ten minutes upon reentry into the US. -_-|| Not fun.

Bridge fare!

Overall it was an interesting experience and I’m glad I got to see the Aquatic Centre. 🙂 They have open swim times and affordable drop in pricing however… it doesn’t jive with my work schedule and going through US customs on a regular basis doesn’t appeal… lol.

Check one! 😀

Thanks for reading!

-Anna San♥

Golden Year Project Status: 1/28

1. 2/14/2015: Oh Canada!

How do you get to Japan?

So the other night I dreamt that I finally bought my ticket to Japan!!! My sisters and I were waiting to board the plane when we realized the flight wouldn’t be leaving for six hours and went home to do something… When we came back, we found out that our departure gate changed and had the stress of locating it. Stress dreamssss…

Anywho, I found some helpful videos on getting ready for my trip to Japan! \^o^/

• Passport ✓
• Visa Exemption Program – Round-trip Ticket (Delta, Narita Airport)
• Money or credit card (in progress)
• Address and phone number of residence (???)

• Call Credit Card Company
• Get Up to date with Vaccinations

One thing that is nice is that I’m only looking at a 7 day trip = 2 days travelling and 5 days in Japan.

Internet boards suggest having ¥10,000 allotted for each day of the trip. I don’t know how accurate this is, but hey. It’s a starting point.

At this time I am unsure of when this trip is going to be made – most likely around August. The majority of the trip will be spent in Tokyo – even though I also wanted to visit all the popular anime referenced areas such as Kyoto, Osaka, Hokkaido… but I am not made of money. Boo.

Any thoughts on what I should bring with me or where I should go?

Thanks for reading!

-Anna San♥

Youmacon Artist Alley Registration

Yes. I am waiting not so patiently for Youmacon’s Artist Alley registration to open. As it is going to be my third and final convention I want to make it my best and to do that I need to know that I’m actually going to have a table there.

Another reason why I want it to be successful is that all sales at Youmacon are going to be funding my trip to Japan in 2014. I’ve been wanting to go for the past eight years which is roughly about the time I first started dabbling in Japanese. Eight years is a very long time. Very.

This trip is more plausible now than ever because I have my passport, language learning pals and travel buddies whereas before I only had a passport. (woo aloneness…) Now the main hold up is cash or the lack thereof. So… yes. I am impatiently awaiting the opening of Artist Alley Registration.