I was humming a completely different tune before my flight to Australia, but upon the recommendation of a friend, I watched The Greatest Showman onboard. The musical’s soundtrack got stuck in my head for several days since the flight. In fact, while we were in Brisbane, my friends and I would randomly burst into song,…
TOKYO, 2017. When my sister moved to Tokyo for work 5 years ago, it was as though I won the lottery. Suddenly, I had another reason to travel to Japan and a place to stay for free. True enough, I found myself on a plane to Tokyo twice a year, exhausting all the days that…
FUKUOKA, 2018. In Japan, there is a saying that goes, “ikkai ichi dousa,” which translates to “one thing at a time.” I learned about this when I mentioned to a Japanese friend that I could count in one hand the locals I had seen eating while walking. “We take food seriously,” he said. When asked…
I’ve been organizing my travel photos over the past couple of days, and I realized: I HAVE VERY FEW PHOTOS OF MYSELF. 😱 Okay, fine, granted, I don’t have the most photogenic fez 😆 but still. On average, I have 1 photo of myself per destination. In many cities that I visited, I didn’t have…
FUKUOKA, 2018. Finally finished the screenplay for a horror film that I had been writing for days. And I feel relieved. I am a huge horror fan, but I realized this: It’s one thing to watch a horror movie; to write it is another. It didn’t feel good to be constantly imagining demons, spirits and…
BIRI ISLAND, NORTHERN SAMAR, 2012. Our last stop was the site where Magasang and Magsapad rock formations stand. My friend Ces and I climbed to the top of the cliff and watched the sea slam the rocky shore with one giant wave after another. Biri Island lies where the San Bernardino Strait meets the Pacific…
It’s easy to underplay Christina Aguilera as a singer or an artist. To many, she’s just a pop star or a former The Voice coach, or that overly sexual, dirrty ice princess from the early 2000s.
Whenever a friend — often, someone who is in Japan for the first time — posts a picture of a bowl of ICHIRAN ramen, I always find a comment that reads, “MEH, OVERRATED! There are better ramen places!”