… too bad Huis Ten Bosch isn’t a big city.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your new year has been fun. I’ve been travelling a lot, so I have a lot of things to share with you guys. Unfortunately, I’m really busy now, with lots of reports and meetings and such, so I may not be able to blog as much.

Oh, and before I start, congrats to all of you who got the MEXT scholarship! I’m really happy for you, and I hope we get to meet someday! 😀

Ok, now back to the Huis Ten Bosch illuminations 2014. I didn’t actually plan to go, but my mom decided to book tickets at the last minute. But it was soooo worth it, because the illuminations are probably even better than last year.

And you’ll probably notice, so I’ll tell you now, but all the photos are taken with my iPhone. I forgot to bring my camera, and to be honest, I didn’t even notice it until I got home.

Like always, before I even get to the illumination, here are some other photos.

playing around with a new app.

The adventure-land, which we went to because DINOSAUR ESCAPE GAME,  had roasted pork, roasted chips (thin-cut potatoes), ROASTED MARSHMALLOWS, roasted sweet potato.

I found the escape game much harder. Neither my brother, mom or I could even finish the first stage. But the guy in charge was super nice and let us continue to the second stage. He said it was because I was helping translate his instructions, but to be honest, there were English versions of the videos, the only thing I had to translate were the things said in person. But anyway, it made my brother really happy!

Even the dinosaurs are in the Christmas spirit.

We also caught a street performance. I wish I managed to catch the performer’s name, because he was really amusing. I was laughing like crazy, and my family really enjoyed it too. It was really a lesson in how to ask for money, because if you can make people laugh, they will give you money. It wasn’t a “man, now I’m obligated and have to give”, it was like “this guy is funny, how much should we be giving?” (And he was nice to my little brother, which counts for everything)

Anyone know his name?

By the way, I’ve downloaded this new app called Brushstroke and it’s my app of the moment. For some reason, I really love it!

Here’s an example

 Ok, now is the part you’ve been waiting for. Illumination photos!

Using the brushstroke app haha

By the way, this year, Huis Ten Bosch had a glowing river. A GLOWING RIVER. Are you prepared for the picture spam?

It looks fake right?

When I first saw the poster, I was like, is this for real? So after our dinner (really good BBQ by the way, the oysters were awesome!), we went to go watch. Every few minutes, a boat passes by and a whole song and light show starts.

But it’s real!

It’s sooooooo pretty. I love it! I hope they have this every year.

And a normal video, with music attached. I didn’t get to take the whole thing, because I was also snapping photos.

Ok, we can like, finish the blog post. But I still have a few photos, so here’s the rest of Huis Ten Bosch, which is pretty, even though it’s not a glowing river.

A small village. Do you see the reindeer?

 The 3D projection mapping was as awesome as ever.

They had a tunnel as well, which reminded me of the one in Space World (I didn’t get to go this year though)

I had to wait so long for people to leave.

The rose garden became a light-up place! Sorry, I just realised I didn’t get to edit it ><

I hope that you enjoyed the photos! If you are ever in Kyushu at the end of the year, get over to Huis Ten Bosch! Sure, it doesn’t look like Japan, but the illuminations. They are pretty!