Her Campus Waseda’s 2015 in 15 Things (2)

Part two of our Her Campus Waseda’s 2015 in 15 Things (1) article! This week, contributors Yvonne, Rosie, and Amy share their lists! 

My year in 15 by Yvonne Chan

1.     Abura soba: My guilty pleasure.

2.     Okuma garden: For picnics or just to hang out with friends and even a place to study.

3.     Crunky chocolate: My go-to chocolate for those horribly long days in school.

4.     Bailey’s Irish cream: I add this to milk or hot chocolate for a good night’s sleep. It’s especially rewarding after a long day and it’s also good for the night before an exam or big presentation.

5.     Magokoro soondobu: Possibly one of the few places in Japan which sells spicy food that’s actually spicy. I love getting soondobu on cold days

6.     Ineya bento: I love the cute old couple that runs the store. They have pretty decent karaage too.

7.     Tea: I drink about 4 cups of tea a day and sometimes it’s the only thing I drink the whole day. I can’t express how much I like tea, especially black tea.

8.     VPN: I studied abroad in China and Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram are banned there. I had to use a VPN to get past the firewall to keep up with what’s happening in the world!

9.     Vine: One of the few apps that wasn’t banned in China. I can sometimes spend hours on this app even though the videos are only 7-seconds long. It’s that addictive!

10.  WeChat: Because LINE was banned in China, this chat app was how I communicated with friends. It’s awesome though, because it has so many functions that I’m not even sure if it’s just a chat app anymore. You can do online shopping, post to your “moments” (functions like the Facebook timeline), pay your friends back using credit and much more!

11.  Family: After I entered Waseda, my family made the decision to move to Beijing and I spent my holidays in Singapore (where I grew up) so I didn’t really get to see my family. It was nice being able to live in the same city with them again. Even though we were on different sides of the city and my parents still travelled for months on end, I still got to see them more than I ever did for the past 2 years.

12.  Friends: Being given the chance to study abroad, I’ve a made a lot of new friends with students from Waseda, my host university and other exchange students as well and I can’t be thankful enough for this.

13.  Steps: A particular bar near Peking University (where I studied abroad) that I frequented with my friends. It holds special memories because it was where I beat a guy at beer-chugging for the first time!

14.  Great Wall of China: I went on a hiking trip with the Western Students Union at PKU and instead of taking the usual tourist-y route we hiked the unrestored sections of the Great Wall. Our initial plan was to set up camp at one of the watch towers which was actually illegal but a few of them had done it before the previous year so we thought it would be okay. Unfortunately, these guards came to chase us off the wall and we had to make a very precarious hike down the hill in complete darkness. It was an amazing experience nonetheless. We also got to see a lunar eclipse!

15.  Travelling solo: In February this year, I went on a solo trip around the world and it was an awesome experience. I feel that I’ve gained and achieved a lot from this trip including getting in touch with myself and growing personally from just spending time alone and forming connections with strangers.

15 Tracks of my 2015 by Rosie Roberts 

2015 was a year of discovering new music genres for me as well as meeting new people through similar music tastes. Looking back at myself one year ago, I would have never imagined that I would ever be listening to most of the tracks that I chose for my list. I was never a huge fan of EDM in the past, but thanks to my friends (who clearly know better than me), little by little I began to enjoy some different music, especially dubstep, and I instantly fell in love with drum’n’bass as soon as I first heard it. 

For most of you, these tracks may not be your cup of tea, but it may also be a new musical awakening like it was for me! So give it a chance, you’ll be surprised at how much it grows on you ;) 

*The list is in no specific order of preference*

1. One Out of Two – Breakbot

2. Wasteland – Phiso

3. Rise Up – Trampa

4. Youth Group – Slow Magic 

5. Blue (Phiso, Defkon & Subject 31 Remix) – Eiffel 65

6. Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz

7. Parental Advisory (Kill The Noise Remix) – GTA

8. After Life (feat. Stacy Barthe) – Tchami 

9. Kyoto (Habstrakt Flip) – Yung Lean *The original version of this track is really good too!

10. Brest Bay – Stand High Patrol

11. Valentine’s Mix 2013 – Sam Tiba

12. Je Reste Au Centre – Les Sages Poètes de la Rue

13. Spitfire Riddim with Madsonik (feat. twoton) – Kill The Noise

14. Contemporary – Mefjus & Icicle

15. Wiggle (Borgore Remix) – Jason Derulo

This year I… by Amy Yonemoto 

1. Spent New Years stuck in bed with the flu. 

2. But got better in time for Electrox! 

3. Held hands with Matty from the 1975 and managed to leave the concert with one of George’s drumsticks!!

4. Danced with Alexa Chung at the AC for AG Tokyo launch party at Le Baron.

5. Watched the sun set and had a bonfire in Santa Cruz. This used to be a normal weekend for me, but now I only get a few weeks once a year to visit home (The Bay!)

6. Jumped off a cliff into really, really cold water.

7. Missed the first two weeks of school for Coachella.

8. I shaved the lower back of my head, dyed my hair purple, and I currently have bangs. For anyone who knows me, they know that I don’t like to make great physical changes, so any change is a major change for me. 

9. Went to Singapore. Reunited with Shalyn who I saw for the first time in 7 years. She moved to North Carolina after the 6th grade and visited once or twice before I came to Japan for high school. We’ve always kept in touch, but it was hard to find a time and place that worked for the both of us since our school schedules clashed. She studied abroad in Hong Kong over the summer, so we met halfway in Singapore. She also came to visit me in Tokyo! 

10. Zip lined for the first time. 

11. Started interning at block.fm. This may be obvious, but internships are important because it’s how you learn from mistakes that prepare you for when you enter the work industry. I’m lucky to be interning somewhere that’s fun too. 

12. Fell asleep in a lobby and was woken up by an angry worker. Even though it was probably one of the most terrifying experiences I’ve had, it’s also one of my favorite memories that I share with a friend I met over the summer. 

13. Visited a best friend in Seoul, South Korea. I met Yujae my freshman year of high school, but after the earthquake in 2011 she switched schools to one in Switzerland while I stayed in Japan. After that we made a promise that we would visit each other at least once a year and we have for the past 5 years. We usually meet in Tokyo or Seoul, but we also once met up in Lyon.

14. Turned 21.

15. Became the campus correspondent for Her Campus Waseda!