I'm looking at working as a tutor and have seen T&C have listed many tutoring roles on Indeed however its quite vague and I can't find much information on the company other than they are based in Mexico and its apparently retail or something, I'm based in the UK so I'm not sure what to make of it. Reviews mention plumbing which doesn't make sense.
Has anyone heard of/seen this company and can tell if its legitimate or not? It's part time, flexible and listed as £20-£40 an hour.

I had my hair transplant yesterday and wanted to share with you guys how it went since I saw very few detailed refuse I had my hair transplant yesterday and wanted to share with you guys how it went since I saw very few detailed reviews in the past. I contacted them initially through WhatsApp after I saw an ad on Instagram. The consultation process was fairly simple. They asked me to take a few pictures and they were able to give me out of estimate of the work that needs to be done. They also gave me the cost estimate and I opted to take the package that included the hotel reservation so I don’t have to worry about that. They asked me to send my flight booking for a confirmation but they did not ask for any down payment. I arrived to Cancun Sunday and they were very organized. They sent me a text message prior to my landing with the car picture and where the pick up location is supposed to be. I got to the hotel which wasn’t bad and had some restaurants urants downstairs. They texted me and asked me to relax for the day and that I will be picked up on Monday 7:30 AM. I went to the clinic on Monday morning. They performed an in-person consultation when we discussed the options and I opted to take the PRP and mesthotherapy based on the experience of few friends who did transplant in the past. Dr.Enes (who is Turkish like the entire staff) shaved my head and started drawing the hairline. I made a few minor adjustments to make it more even and once we agreed on the finalized drawing, we proceeded with the procedure. I would not lie, the anesthesia was so painful. The good news is it lasts for a few seconds only and its managable. The doctor himself did the harvesting, then I got a small break to go to the bathroom and they brought me back to numb the front which was even more painful than the back but again lasts for few minutes. When the implants started, they hooked me up and IV with painkillers and antibiotics. It was so comfortable that I think I slept for a few minutes during that part of the procedure. The whole process was done by the doctor himself. They provided lunch, but it’s cold, soggy, and tasteless so cur The whole process was done by the doctor himself. They provided lunch, but it’s cold, soggy, and tasteless so I would recommend getting your own lunch. I thought the process was easy and everything was done by the doctor and the final result looked great. I met another guy who flew from Texas and had similar experience. They will give medication bad with antibiotics, painkillers and some minor steroids. I would recommend them and I think its a bargain compared to what they charge us in the US.

My fiance and I are planning a wedding in Portugal for sometime in April - June 2025. We specifically love Queluz National Palace as a possible venue for about 100-150 guests. So far I have reached out to a few wedding planners and their rates were all so drastically different (2.5K - 10K euro). I really liked the planner who quoted us 2.5K however there are no google reviews on her and it makes me hesitant. From those who have done a wedding in Portugal do you mind sharing any recommendations/advice/average prices?
Thank you in advance!

Partner and I just booked our first big trip! Staying at RPLA and wanted some info on it. The website says it has 2 person catamarans and kayaking, but I can’t find any info on it. Has anyone done this and can attest to it? It sounds awesome but I just want to make sure there’s not a catch.
In general though, I’d love any recs and tips for our stay here!

period: april 28th to May 14th 2024.
Nights spent in: Tokyo - Sendai - Fukushima - Koriyama - Nagoya - Hakata ( Fukuoka ).
If it's really off the beaten path or not you'll decide, some destinations visited are really particular, other are way more popular even if usually not what you'll visit in your first trip to Japan. let's say i've been to japan last summer and did all the usual things one do the first time he's there, probably even something more: Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka - Nara - Nikko, Fukuoka, Matsumoto, Himeji, Miyajima. pretty much what almost anyone does for their first time if they have the opportunity.
Given the weak Yen and having still some time ( and money ) i could spend i decided to come back less than a year later, this time at the end of April up until half may in order to explore less popular destinations. I'll avoid to provide the usual tips anyone provide, like how to move from narita, how to get a Suica or how to book a train seat, how to operate a toilet and such things.
SOME TIPS
Concerning Suica: contrary to what most people suggest, i didn't buy one neither last summer or this time and frankly i've never missed not having it. I use my mastercard credit card, most places in japan accept it with zero problems and for the rest you can get Yen at any ATM machine that you can find in any combini with it and pay cash wich japanese still very much use
Concerning the period of the year: last year i went in August. I can confirm that moving around in April/May is so incredibly much better. The heat in august is some day even unbearable. This time the weather was mostly fine, got only one day of rain even if the temperatures were still a bit on the cold side overall. Unfortunately this year Sakura came early and I missed it by a week or two. But still apart from the cherry trees all the plants were blossoming and it was so nice to see flowers everywhere compared to the pain of the humidity and the torment of cicadas you have during summer.
Concerning golden week: one of the two weeks i was there was the golden week. I didn't book anything in advance but, maybe because of the fact i was moving off the beaten path, i almost never had problems booking trains or hotels during golden week ( i said almost, more details later ). Cant tell what's the effect when trying to book hotels in places like Kyoto.
concerning planning: my usual planning method goes the following: i book the plane, obviously. I buy JRP ( yes i still bought it even after the price increase ) and i book two days of hotels. The rest of my trip i have an idea of what i want to do and where i want to go but i book hotels and such, while going along. This gives me the flexibility to change my itinerary or react to bad weather ( last summer i run away from a typhoon with this trick ) or unexpected problems ( last summer i got food poisoning and i had to delay my program booking an hotel for three more days than expected: had i booked all nights in advance it would have been a huge problem ). I only book hotels using the booking website app and i can only say good things about it. I travel alone, maybe for couples or families this isn't as easy as it was for me.
Warning: I like to walk and I walk a lot. So if you need tips to move around, I’m not probably the right person because what you might want to do using a bus or a taxi I would probably do by walking. I’ve walked on average of 20 km a day and probably more and if a place is like 3-4 km from where I am I walk there without even looking if there’s a better option with a bus or something else.
I will give a vote to the places I’ve visited according to two parameters:
How off the beaten path it really is, judging by how many foreign tourists I met there. And an overall vote telling how worthy I feel the place is to visit. To make it short I will call them “OTBP VOTE and OVERALL VOTE”

SO LET'S START WITH THE ACTUAL TRIP REPORT:
Day 1: landing in Tokyo at midday in Narita. After finishing all the immigration process i moved to my hotel. This time i decided to book it for two nights in Omiya/Saitama. The place is less than half an hour from Tokyo Station and was the opportunity to see something different. I haven't seen much of the place but the area around the station was very lively, lots of restaurant and lots of people moving around. It was full of decoration with squirrells and a football team, i guess they were either promoting it or they won something cause decorations were everywhere, honestly didn't ask about. Well apart from checking in, recovering from the flight, looking for something to eat and checking a bit the areai didn't do much.
day 2: in the morning i took the train to Ashikaga Flower Park. I've seen picture of it online and according to the informations i gathered i might have been late for the sakura but the Wisteria were in full bloom and they had a lot of them in this park.
So i took the train, it was around an hour ride and Omiya was strategically on the way. I realized my trip plan was proably a good one when, once reached the Ashikaga flower park station ( there's a train station dedicated to this park ) all the people on the train got off. A little walk, ticket and i was in. The place, given the right time of the year, was AMAZING, UNBELIEVABLE. I can't begin to tell you how cool and how huge the wisteria plants were. they were in full bloom, and was something out of this world, it looked like something you see in the movie avatar. Like three or four wisterias as big as a basketball field if not even more, of different colours and kinds, plus a lot more of regular sized wisterias and a lot more flower plants of all kinds. Had to say, for some reason with all the flowers the air wasn’t at all full of their scent. I even got a wisteria flavoured ice cream, wich was probably a wisteria coloured ice cream cause it didn’t have any real particular taste. The place was packed with Japanese people and foreigners like me you could count them on the fingers of one hand. I arrived there early, so by early afternoon I was satisfied with my visit and moved away. A quick check on my train app and google maps and realized I could reach Kawagoe from there fairly easily.
ASHIKAGA FLOWER PARK OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 10
When I was on the train it stopped at the Tochigi station, it looked nice from the train so I decided to jump off and check the area a bit, because sometime I do that kind of things, and the idea wasn’t bad at all: the town itself doesn’t look anything special but there’s a canal wich was very picturesque, plus it was fully decorated with paper carps because of the time of the year and Japanese people were doing boat rides on the river on traditional little boats while singing songs. I won't say to go there specifically to see the place, but if you're on that train route or still around it, it might be worth a stop. So, once I finished checking the area I jump back on the train and finally reached Kawagoe.
TOCHIGI: OTBP: 10 OVERALL: 6 ½
Kawagoe is a small place north of Tokyo, not very far, wich is know for a small neighbourhood with old Edo houses. That neighbourhood is more far from the station that I expected, but still nice and worth a check. There’s a very cool bell tower there and one of the coolest Starbucks I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t spend a whole day in Kawagoe if you ask me but If you’re in Tokyo and have an half day available that you don't know how to spend I’d say it’s totally worth a train ride. Had my dinner there and then moved back to Omiya where I would spend my last night.
KAWAGOE: OTBP: 7 OVERALL: 7
Day 3: woke up early, jumped on the train and moved to Sendai where I had planned to stay the next three nights. Once again Omiya was a good choice cause I could take the shinkansen right from there without having to move back to Tokyo.
Arrived in Sendai, left my luggage in the hotel where I couldn’t check in cause it was still to early and hopped on a local train in direction of Matsushima. By midday I was already in Matsushima. This is another very famous destination for Japanese people, one of the most known panoramas in japan. Have to say, the town is a typical sea town, definitely welcoming. I had one of the best Sushi I ever had in japan in a local restaurant ( check matsushima sushi kou if interested ). Visited Zuiganji temple and then walked a bit on the coast, crossed the Fukuurabashi bridge, the long red bridge that you probably have seen in some picture, and walked around Fukuurajima. Here you can have a walk around the island it’s not small but is small enough that you can walk it all fairly quickly and it has some nice spots to discover. You have to pay a small fee to cross the bridge. Then went back, checked the Godaido of Zuiganji and it’s worth mentioning that when walking along the coast I’ve stumbled across a couple of signs giving instructions on what to do in case of a tsunami and what happened back in 2011, wich I didn’t even think about up until that moment and suddenly the memories went back to what happened there more than 10 years ago. Last thing, my advice is to walk down to Oshima island. This little island is less crowded, you can reach it crossing a little red bridge and honestly to me it’s the best spot to admire Matsushima. I didn’t went for the ferry ride across the bay cause the weather wasn’t very good and I was starting to be a little short on time, so I moved back to Sendai.
MATSUSHIMA: OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 8 ½
Once back in Sendai, I went to see the sunset from the panoramic floor of the AER building near the station, wich is totally free even if finding the right elevator that takes you up might be a bit tricky, but the view is totally worth it, you can even see in the distance the big white shape of the dai-kannon and from the other side of the floor you can easily see the sea.
Talking about Sendai, I didn’t dedicate to the city the time that should have been necessary because I was always on day trips and I spend there mostly the late evenings, but my impression is that Sendai is a very nice city that should appear more often in peoples itineraries. The city is particularly vibrant and alive, lot of young people, lot of things to see and do, a covered shopping street that is almost endless full of restaurants and shops, way more green than many other Japanese cities. I’d recommend anyone who had the time and the opportunity to spend a little time here. Also it has a very distinctive identity and everything proudly revolves around the image of its founder Date Masamune who is everywhere in senday, even the penguin of the local DonQuishotte mall was dressed up as Date Masamune.
So after the panorama, I went in the hotel, finally checked in and then moved back to look for food. Walked down what I think is called ichibancho street, wich as I said before is an endless downtown road full of shops and restaurant and stopped to have a try at the most famous local dish, Gyutan, wich is grilled cow tongue. Never had tongue in my life and have to admit it, it’s not bad at all, I quite enjoyed it. Had a little more walk around then called it a day.
SENDAI: OTBP: 7 ½ OVERALL: 9
Day 4: today trip is to Hiraizumi, a UNESCO world heritage site, where you can admire some historically significant buddhist sites. You had to catch a coincidence in Ichinoseki but the whole ride is pretty straight forward and doesn’t really take much time. At 9 am I was already ready to explore. As I sad I’m a walker, so I walked the walk from the station to the Chuson Ji temple wich is around 2 km and I totally recommend it cause the town is quite nice to walk through, very small village, very cozy and intimate. Chuson Ji it’s a very beautiful complex to explore, it’s inside a forest, kinda reminds a bit of Nikko atmosphere if you’ve been there even if the buildings aren’t as spectacular. The whole wood was full of blossoming plants and here and there I was able to spot some late cherry tree still full of flowers, giving me an hint to what sakura must really be.
You stumble in the temple buildings one after another while you go deep into the wood. I reach the main building and there’s a ceremony in progress. I discovered later that the next day was planned the Fujiwara festival where all people dress up like in Edo period and do a parade in the city. The day I was there instead the children parade was planned, so it was full of kids dressed up and judging by how proud and elegant their parents were I tend to think it was a pretty big thing for them. I enjoy the situation for a while, then went back to exploring, till I reached the main attraction of the temple wich is the Konjikido, a golden pavilion that dates back to the XII century wich is amazing to see in person.
Once I finished exploring the whole Chuson Ji complex I went looking for a restaurant and had a nice ramen set, because the visit took the whole morning, then moved to the second stop wich was Motsuji Temple: as much as Chuson Ji impressed me, Motsu-ji disappointed me. The thing is, you pay to enter and in the end what you see is a place mostly empty, where the only building there are reconstructions and most places are just a bunch of rocks with signs saying “here once was this building” “here once was that building” and the main thing you’ll see there is a pond whose importance is that it dates back to the time when Japanese gardens were kinda dull compared to what they’ll become centuries later. So it’s kinda a pond that you would completely ignore in a different context. I mean, I totally get the historical importance of this place, but, honestly from the ignorant eyes of a tourist it’s really nothing you would invest your time visiting, according to my opinion.
Another place that would have been worth visiting was Takkoku-no Iwaya Bishamondo, but isn’t really that easy to reach, it’s a bit far to walk to and I was once again out of time, therefore I decided to skip it and went back to the station and to sendai where I again went to look for something to eat and had a little night stroll, nothing worth mentioning.
HIRAIZUMI: OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 8
Day 5: today I decided to go to Kakunodate. The town is a easily reachable by train from sendai but a bit far compared to the day before. Went off the station and once again started walking. The place is known mainly for its many samurai houses, all indications point to them so it’s not possible to miss them. The town itself for the little I’ve seen doesn’t really seem to offer much apart from that but the samurai distict it’s nice. Many of the houses have been converted into small museums, that you can visit paying a small fee. I entered one of them, there was a little tour showing the history of the city and the history of the family of samurai living there. Among the things you could do you had the chance even to hold a real katana ( it felt quite a clumsy and top heavy sword compared to what I had imagined ). In fairness, to my taste, there isn’t much to do apart from visiting the samurai district, yes you can visit the local museum, do some craft shopping ( I bought a very nice box made of cherry bark there wich is a typical local craft ) therefore after a late lunch I was back to Sendai. In my opinion if you want to see a Samurai district you can also go to Kanazawa and there’s much more to see there overall compared to Kakunodate, but if you like the atmosphere of a smaller village instead of a big city and you like something more “off the beaten path” then I’d say go to kakunodate.
KAKUNODATE: OTBP: 8 ½ OVERALL: 6 ½
Given i was back to sendai relatively early, that gave me the opportunity to walk ( yes I walked even there ) to see the dai-kannon. The walk was nice, it took me through some very quiet neighbourhood that you wouldn’t normally visit. When I reached the statue It was too late to go inside it but I still had a good view of it. That is a quite impressive sight, you almost have difficulty to grasp the actual size of it. The area around the statue has really nothing to offer, therefore my honest suggestion is take a ride with the sightseeing bus and use that to reach it and once you’re finished with the statue move to a more interesting spot.
And this was my last day in Sendai. My plan at this point was to book two nights at Koriyama but probably because of the golden week I wasn’t able to find a hotel to my liking there therefore I decided to book one night in Fukushima and the next night in Koriyama. These were the two more expensive nights of all my trip and still ended up spending only around 70 € a night.
Day 6: plan for the day: leave the luggage in the hotel, visit Yamadera, go back to sendai, pick up the luggage and move to fukushima to spend the night. Yamadera is truly easy to reach from Sendai and a very recommended destination if you happen to be in Sendai. The place is mostly known for a temple that is reachable walking an abundant number of steps up a hillside. You reach the town, wich Is a very little and cozy village in the mountains west from Sendai and the temple is very close to the station so it’s not possible to miss it. You can tell the whole village revolves around the temple but it still maintain an authentic spirit. Lots of restaurants and little shops to visit on the road that brings to the temple. The temple itself is very “vertical” : sets of stone stairs will lead you up the side of the hills, till you reach the main building and a couple of satellite building where you’ll be rewarded by an amazing view on the village below. If you don’t mind stairs you’ll be rewarded with a very relaxing atmosphere. Here too given the latitude and the altitude I’ve been able to enjoy a couple of late blossoming cherry trees. The weather was amazing that day and all the gardens where full of flowers, this made the whole trip particularly enjoyable. Luckly I’m an early bird because later in the day the place was really packed with visitors. Once I was finished I had a nice set of Yamagata Dashi Soba in a typical restaurant with Tatamis low tables and a beautiful view on the river that cuts in half the village.
YAMADERA: OTBP: 10 OVERALL 9
After a late lunch I jumped back to the train, went back to sendai to pickup the luggage and moved to the next stop, Fukushima. Here I had the first disappointment of my trip. As my usual I booked a hotel that was close to the main train station, wich is usally the place where you want to be. I had a walk around there and the impression I got from Fukushima was that the place was miserable, a place that has really nothing much to offer to a tourist and not even to a citizen because compared to all the other places I’ve been in japan the impression was that even the locals weren’t as lively and enjoying life that much. I hope I’m not offending anyone and for sure I can’t give a proper review of the place after just an evening spent there, but the impression I got was of one of those town, that you can find in every country you'll visit, where young people can’t wait to get old enough to run away from.
FUKUSHIMA: OTBP: 9 ½ OVERALL: 4
DAY 7: wake up in fukushima, move to Koriyama, leave the luggage at the hotel, and then visit Ouchi-Juku and Aizu Wakamatsu. If you’re wondering, the thing is doable but you need to move early. Once you reach Koriyama you take the local train for Aizu Wakamatsu. There you jump on another local train, wich isn’t entirely operated by JR so you’ll have to pay a ticket, to Yunokami Onsen station where you end up in one of the coolest train stations in japan because it’s built in the style of a traditional house with wooden interiors and a straw roof, and it has a feet onsen right outside where you can wait the train while bathing your feet in thermal water, how cool is that?
From here you take a bus and reach Ouchi Juku. On paper it sounds harder than it actually is but you have to plan your trip properly. Ouchi Juku is a post town all made of traditional houses that reminds you a bit of Shirakawa Go, I frankly don’t know how it isn’t more popular among foreigners cause it’s truly a one of a kind place. Most probably is because it’s so off the beaten path and hard to reach. Still it’s extremely popular among Japanese people because the place was crowded and, when I left, the car traffic was stuck by how many people where trying to reach the place by car. I have to tell you in all honestly the place is probably a bit too touristy because there’s not a single house that isn’t turned into a gift shop or a restaurant. But still the place is so charming and picturesque that is totally worth a visit, plus the surrounding woods, mountains and rice field really act like a frame around the most beautiful picture. So I spend the morning here and around 2 pm I move back to Aizu, because there are really not many bus runs in the evening taking you back to Yunokami Onsen and you better reach the place early.
OUCHI JUKU: OTBP: 10 OVERALL: 9
That gives me the opportunity to visit Aizu Wakamatsu. Ive heard about the city for its castle and for the legend of the Byakko Tai. I get off to Aizu Wakamatsu main station and walk across town till I reach the castle. Keep in mind it’s Saturday and along the whole walk I might have crossed three people. The city was deserted and one thing I’ve learned is, if people on a Saturday evening flee a city like that, then there isn’t much to do or see there, and that’s the impression I got, kinda like Fukushima, probably even worse. Still, I reached the castle: the park is very nice, the castle is a beautiful Japanese castle but, to my understanding it’s a modern reconstruction cause the original castle was lost during the Meiji restoration as Aizu was one of the spots that rised against the emperor. At least around the castle there were now many people. From the castle, wich I didn’t visit inside, I went back to the train station, this time I reached Nanukamachi station and I have to admit it the area there seemed more alive and interesting to stroll around than the area around main Aizu station, therefore maybe I just walked across the wrong part of the town, I honestly can’t tell.
AIZU: OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 6
From Aizu I finally moved by train to Koriyama. I really didn’t spend enough time there to have a proper opinion but the impression I got was of a laid back place, more relaxing than sendai and definitely more alive than fukushima. If I had more time I’d probably give it a shot for a day visit, it might be a surprise.

DAY 8: by this day I ended up with a terrible sore throath that I had to endure almost till my last day in japan. I never had a fever but there was definitely something going around, I kept hearing many Japanese people coughing on trains all around japan so there was definitely something going around, maybe it’s just the season changing, it happens during this season all the times to have some cold or cough. Anyway, the day I had to wake up early and move from Koriyama to Nagoya by Shinkansen, wich was a considerably long trip but at least it gave me the opportunity to take probably the best picture I’ve ever take of mount fuji, from the train. Once in Nagoya I left the luggage in the hotel ( wich, thanks probably to the fact that the golden week just ended, I happened to book for 4 nights for a whopping 25€ a night wich was a total steal even for current Japanese standard prices ). There I immediately jumped on another train and went to visit Inuyama.
The area around Nagoya is a bit tricky cause it’s full of railroads operated by a company that is not JR wich are not covered by the JR Pass but there’s a JR station a bit to the north of Inuyama that will do the job. The place is totally recommended for three reason: it’s overall nice, with the Kiso river cutting it, the castle is one of the few original ones and even if small is considered a national treasure and the whole area around the castle is very nice and worthy to spend some time on. So I visited the castle, the view from the top floor is awesome and in a clear day you can easily spot the skyline of Nagoya. Outside the castle there’s an edo style street full of shops, restaurants and street food that is nice to explore, totally recommended a walk there.
INUYAMA: OTBP: 8 ½ OVERALL: 10
Coming back to Nagoya I just had energy to look for food then I went back to my hotel for a good night of sleep.
DAY 9: a day trip from Nagoya to Ise. The trip isn’t that easy, you got to take a couple of trains if you move only by JR ( and a couple of stops of one of them aren’t even JR operated wich is a little confusing honestly ) and you end up in Iseshi station. From there I moved to Ise Jingu Geku, wich is the outer sanctuary and from there you can take a bus ( guess what, I walked instead ) to the main Ise sanctuary. If you don’t know Ise Jingu is the most sacred place in the Shinto religion and is regularly visited even by the emperor given his role in the Shinto religion. Inside the main temple one of the most sacred relics of Shinto religion is preserved.
Well, being totally honest here’s my impressions of Ise: it’s not simple to reach. The city itself, for what I’ve seen, looks like it has seen better days, meaning it looks like it’s falling apart. And the temples, there’s really not that much to see: they are in a forest, and the temples are not that spectacular, plus the most interesting parts are forbidden to visit. You can go to Atsuta Jingu without moving out from Nagoya and have a fairly realistic impression of what you would see in Ise without all the issues. I know people will attack me for what I’m saying, but that is what I’ve got from it. The most fun part was the edo style neighborhood that you can find right before entering the main Isu complex, wich looks almost like a theme park. I don’t say don’t go there, I say if you are, as you are probably, on borrowed time, with lots of places you want to visit and too few days to see them all, if Ise is in your list you might want to use the day to see something else.
ISE: OTBP: 6 ½ OVERALL: 6 ½
DAY 10: I decided to spend the day in Nagoya and take a look of the city, thanks also to the weather that was a bit rainy and really not inviting for another day trip. What I’ve seen in a day is the samurai exposition in Marunouchi. It’s free and it’s totally worth it, lots of beautiful samurai armours and swords. There’s another exposition that opened not many years ago that you can go nto too far but I didn’t visit so I can’t tell about that. From here I went to Nagoya castle. You pay to enter the complex but currently the Castle is under restoration and you can see it from outside ( it’s very impressive, Nagoya and Osaka castles are massive ) but not visit from inside. But the Honmaru Palace right beside it is open and totally worth a visit. From here took the subway ( yeah today I didn’t walk much so I got a subway day pass ) to the Osu Shotengai Shopping District, wich is the usual kind of covered shopping streets nest you can find in all the Japanese cities, and then moved again to Atsuta Jingu Shrine that, as I said, to me is a completely valid alternative to visiting Ise. The day went by without even noticing and I couldn’t see all the other places I had picked, like the Toyota museum, the tokugawa museum or the science museum, but that’s what you get when you only have one day dedicated to visit a city as big as Nagoya. Still I had time to get an impression of the city and I honestly don’t get the bad reputation it has among foreigners, the city looked to me quite interesting, nice, full of things to see and the people felt particularly laid back compared to cities like Tokyo or Osaka, it’s probably the place where I’ve seen the biggest number of tanned Japanese in all the country. To me Nagoya is totally worth at least two or three days dedicated only to visiting the city.
NAGOYA: OTBP: 5 OVERALL: 9
DAY 11: my original plan was to walk the Nakasendo from Magome to Tsumago. But the weather that day was kinda shit, I wasn’t feeling particularly In the mood of a walk because of my throath and I was starting to feel a bit tired, so I improvised and went for a day in Takayama and Gero Onsen. Takayama is pretty famous. I went there around 20 years ago and I remembered it as a very nice place. Getting back now, with all the Japanese places I’ve seen so far, I would say this: the train trip to Takayama is Spectacular, is a truly feast for the eyes. The town itself, it left me a little disappointed. The Edo style streets that its famous for, I’ve seen so many of them at that point around japan that it didn’t really leave a significant impression on me. And it was honestly smaller than I remembered it. Plus the weather, as I said, didn’t help. So overall the reality didn’t stand up to my memories and my expectations. Plus most of the houses there have now been turned in cheap souvenir shops with nothing giving you an authentic feeling. Don’t know, probably I wasn’t really in the mood that day.
TAKAYAMA: OTBP: 2 OVERALL: 6 ½
I took the opportunity on the way back to stop at Gero Onsen. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to actually stop for an onsen cause overall the whole day wasn’t planned and I mainly improvised. Still the town is very nice and probably, having no expectations or no knowledge of it, even more worth visiting than Takayama. Had a nice walk around the town, and at least had the opportunity to “feel” the thermal water cause there’s plenty of fountains with hot spring water where you can rest your feet or your hands. It was enough to make me aware that a proper onsen there must be a very enjoyable experience.
GERO ONSENS: OTBP: 8 OVERALL: 8
And after this I went to Nagoya where I spent my last night in the city.

DAY 12: moving to Fukuoka ( Hakata ). I booked a hotel near Hakata station so I jumped on the shinkansen and moved there. The ride was as confortable as any shinkansen ride can be and I reached the place sooner than I imagined. First thing was a good look of the city from the panoramic floor in the station. Then had a walk to the Canal City mall wich is a very weirdly and interesting designed mall that is a very popular location in town. Had a walk from there to Nakasu island where I got a quick dinner considering it was already time, and had another walk around the area wich unfortunately will turn out to be my only experience of Fukuoka. I’ll spend here three nights but the following days will be so full that won’t give me any chance to visit the town more, so in the end I don’t really have an opinion on Fukuoka if not that I should probably have spent more time there, but unfortunately the days you have are numbered and there’s so much to see that you have to give up something here and there, so i won't even give a vote to the city.
DAY 13: Destination is Kagoshima that it’s easily reachable by train. I went there with no real expectation and I was totally blown away. Something clicked and I instantly liked the town, I must say that probably the fact that one of the most beautiful girls I’ve seen in japan out of the blue started a conversation with me on the train probably helped a lot in putting me in a good mood.
From the station I walked downtown till the coast. On the way I stopped shopping a bit, found a local market where local artisans that day were exposing their crafts wich I liked a lot and went to the top floor of the Centerrace Mall to get a panoramic view of the city with an amazing view on Sakurajima volcano. If you don’t know it’s the symbol of the city and it’s said to be almost always active, the whole day I’ve been there he kept puffing little clouds of smoke from time to time, it was very cool. So, once reached the cost I walked ( you should know it by now ) till I reached Sengan-En wich is the garden and the palace of a local lord and it’s very beautiful, totally worth a visit, also compared to many other places in japan, this is more modern and therefore more unique both in the architecture of the palace and the style of the garden. I’d say if you are in Kagoshima you won’t regret visiting it ( maybe don’t do like me and take a bus cause it’s more than 6 km from the station ). After visiting Sengan En I went back to the ferries and took a ferry to Sakurajima. The ferry is very cheap, 200 yen, and quick to reach it’s destination, but on Sakurajima there’s really not much to do if you don’t plan to use a bus or some other kind of transportation. Since it was already evening, I had nothing planned and I had to go back to Hakata, I just took the time to have a walk on the Lava Trail wich is a walk in a natural park that has grown over an old lava flow, wich is a quite unique thing that I enjoyed more than I expected. Then I went back to Kagoshima, had dinner and moved back to Hakata. I have to say I really enjoyed Kagoshima, the city has a unique vibe, very laid back, the people seemed to be relaxed and happy and were much more open toward foreigners than anywhere I’ve experienced. If I’ll ever be back in japan I’ll surely manage to spend some more time in Kagoshima. I took the train and I was back in hakata at around midnight so I went straight to bed in hotel
KAGOSHIMA: OTBP: 10 OVERALL: 10
Day 14: Nagasaki. Another fairly easy destination to reach from Fukuoka. The city itself is very narrow and develops around its river. As a tourist I was immediately attracted to its atomic bomb museum, wich is north from the station. I went there, you don’t say, by foot.
And later, once I’ve done with the atomic bomb part, the Nagasaki near the sea.
And here starts the tale of the two Nagasaki, because it feels like two different places in one. The north part, wich I didn’t enjoy much, felt a bit neglected and it’s mostly houses where people live. And it’s the part where you’ll see more tourists because as I said all the atomic spots are there.
On the other hand the south part near the city was to me much more alive and full of life, I’m no expert but that’s probably where the locals like to spend their free time and on the other hand you’ll see way less tourists here.
Back to the morning, I did what most tourists do, and visited the atomic bomb museum, the peace park, the ipocenter, and went also to see the half standing torii that is one of the few authentic places left as testament of the bombing, around the city. Talking about the museum, I’ve been to both thins and Hiroshima and, even if Hiroshima is bigger and with much more to see, I would suggest if one has the opportunity to visit also the Nagasaki one, it absolutely has its own legs to stand on. On a side note, out of 10 visitors, 9 were foreigners, I guess Japanese already know their history and don’t feel the need to visit such a place on a nice Sunday morning.
The peace park it’s a park, there you can see the famous statue wich is one of the main symbols of Nagasaki and that, if you ask me, is one of the ugliest statues you can find in the world, but still if you’re in Nagasaki you probably don’t want to miss it.
After lunch I moved to the sea side, here I’ve seen DeiJima wich is the former artificial island where the Portuguese were segregated centuries ago, very interesting place, kinda like a mix of an open air museum and a theme park, felt a little bit plastic but still worth some of your time.
Then had a walk to the near seaside park wich is a very nice and relaxing place where flocks of eagles fly so low over your head that if you rise your hand you can almost touch them, and pretty much ended the day there before having to go back to Fukuoka.
NAGASAKI: OTBP: 5 OVERALL: 7 ½

Day 15 – 16 - 17: my last full days in japan. I was in need of some rest at this point and I needed to move closer to Narita where I had booked my flight for day 18, so i spent more than half of day 15 to transfer from Hakata to Tokyo. I booked my last hotel for three nights near Otsuka station, wich if you ask me is a nice spot to stay in Tokyo. When I arrived in the evening there was a rose festival and all around the station there were roses bushes in flower and there were people singing and the whole station looked alive but also quiet, if you like a place to stay In Tokyo that it’s not chaotic like Shinjuku or Shibuya I’d recommend Otsuka.
The last days aren’t really worth mentioning, I’ve spent most of the time shopping for souvenirs, and recovering for all the travel i did the two weeks before. I explored a couple of places worth mentioning that not everyone ever goes to in Tokyo, like Nakano Broadway ( a weird shopping district that feels like a little Akiabara ), Nippori where there’s a little known street nice for shopping, or Chiba where there’s one of the biggest mall in japan but apart from that nothing much that you can read in the report of anyone who have been to Tokyo.
And with this, I think I can conclude my report. If you want me to upload some picture and you have a site to suggest me where it’s easy to upload and you don’t have to make an account let me know and if there’s enough interest I will oblige as soon as I’ve finished downloading all the pictures from my phone.

My fiance and I are planning a wedding in Portugal for sometime in April - June 2025. We specifically love Queluz National Palace as a possible venue for about 100-150 guests. So far I have reached out to a few wedding planners and their rates were all so drastically different (2.5K - 10K euro). I really liked the planner who quoted us 2.5K however there are no google reviews on her and it makes me hesitant. From those who have done a wedding in Portugal do you mind sharing any recommendations/advice/average prices?
Thank you in advance!

My fiance and I are planning a wedding in Portugal for sometime in April - June 2025. We specifically love Queluz National Palace as a possible venue for about 100-150 guests. So far I have reached out to a few wedding planners and their rates were all so drastically different (2.5K - 10K euro). I really liked the planner who quoted us 2.5K however there are no google reviews on her and it makes me hesitant. From those who have done a wedding in Portugal do you mind sharing any recommendations/advice/average prices?
Thank you in advance!

My fiance and I are planning a wedding in Portugal for sometime in April - June 2025. We specifically love Queluz National Palace as a possible venue for about 100-150 guests. So far I have reached out to a few wedding planners and their rates were all so drastically different (2.5K - 10K euro). I really liked the planner who quoted us 2.5K however there are no google reviews on her and it makes me hesitant. From those who have done a wedding in Portugal do you mind sharing any recommendations/advice/average prices?
Thank you in advance!

Planning on going to Cancun with my mother and father in August. Wanted to get recommendations on somewhere we can go for 6 days with a budget of $3500. Our priorities are good food, adults only, and a nice beach. Riu palace fits in our budget, but would like to have it as a last resort since we want to try another brand. Would love to hear from people who have been to multiple resorts since we have been to almost 8 in the Dominican Republic.
There’s a chance one of them might not go (mother is scared of Cancun due to the media) so the budget would stay the same for recommendations.

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The Horus Heresy Book 18: Deliverance Lost by Gav Thorpe So last week, we got a lot of response and we would like to explain that we only hated it because we worked ourselves up talking and discussing it and coming to the realisation it didn't add up to a good book. I hope that clarifies things 😃
18 books in and we get our first full one from the point of view of the Raven Guard. The “Night Lords who got some therapy” have not been having a good time with Isstvan V and the massacring of their forces. We get to see what is required to try to rebuild a legion following the betrayal and then what happens when there is more betrayal.
This book builds upon the short story “The Face of Treachery”, also written by Gav Thorpe (go read our previous review Horus Heresy Book 16: Age of Darkness, an anthology : 40kLore (reddit.com) and give us an upvote hint hint) with the Alpha Legion setting up sleeper agents within the Raven Guard, which turns out to be highly useful as a new secret weapon is developed. Perhaps even more so than “Legion”, this story shows just how devious the Alpha Legion are.
‘What do you wish to ask of me, my son?’ ‘The Raven Guard verge on being a spent force, but I would rebuild them if I had the chance,’ said Corax. ‘Yet I cannot spare a warrior from the fighting to come, nor the time to raise up a new generation of the Legion. I seek your permission to launch attacks against the traitors, to mark our final passing in the glory of battle.’ ‘You wish to sacrifice your Legion?’ The Emperor seemed genuinely surprised. ‘In what cause?’ ‘I do not do it out of woe but necessity,’ explained Corax. ‘I must atone for the failure at Isstvan, for it will tear me apart as surely as my wounds did, if allowed to fester in my heart. Forgive me, but I cannot defend Terra, idly awaiting my fate to come to me.’ The Emperor did not reply for some time, his brow creased slightly with deep thought. Corax waited patiently, eyes fixed to the Emperor’s face. ‘I concur,’ the Master of Mankind said eventually. ‘It is in your nature to cry havoc and wreak the same upon your foes. Yet there is no need for sacrifice. I am reluctant, but you have my trust, Corvus. I will grant you a gift, a very precious gift.’
And another quote that we loved:
‘In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows: "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone, "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows The wonders of my hand". The City's gone, Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon. We wonder, and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chase, He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place.’
The primarch considered the words, but could not divine their meaning. His mentors on Lycaeus had taught him of poetry, of rhyme and metre and cadence, but he had never quite been able to see the appeal. Poems reminded him too much of the work-songs the prisoners had invented to keep up their spirits while they had hewn with pick and laser drill at the unforgiving stone of the penal colony. The last three lines left Corax feeling disquieted, though, as if the Emperor had suspected that his Imperium could not endure any more than the great empires of mankind's long history.”
Synopsis
“When I was a young boy My father took me into the city To see a marching band He said, "Son, when you grow up Would you be the saviour of the broken The beaten and the damned?" He said, "Will you defeat them? Your daemons, and all the non-believers The plans that they have made?" "Because one day, I'll leave you a phantom To lead you in the summer To join the black parade” Corvus Corax M31.1312
The Raven Guard are still barely alive on Isstvan V and are rescued by Commander Branne, who was guided by prophetic dreams. Beyond two ships sent back to Deliverance, his homeworld, Corax and his remaining forces head to Terra to see the Emperor. That’s good.
However, the Alpha Legion have surgically modified some of their Space Marines to look like slain Raven Guards and even implanted memories into them, to act as sleeper agents and pass on relevant intel. That’s bad.
Corax meets with Dorn and Malcador, and learns that the Emperor is a little busy currently and is unable to meet with him. Getting annoyed Corvus is met psychically by the Emperor, who gives him knowledge of how to access the remains of the ‘Primarch Project’.
With this knowledge Corax can restore his legion, possibly to even greater strength than before Isstvan.
But to get the knowledge, the Raven Guard have to get through a technological Labyrinth that is constantly changing and preventing them access (essentially a ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ moving maze). Corax uses his massive super duper primarch brain power and solves the labyrinth to keep it open. Inside is the ‘Primarch Project’, which can be used to make new Space Marines and quickly mass produce them.
The first of these new marines, dubbed the Raptors, are trained and deployed, striking a Word Bearer garrison hard. Estimates project the traitor legions will be outnumbered in months.
The Alpha Legion cannot allow this, so they rebalance the scales. A genetic poison, concocted from daemon blood, is introduced to the Raptors gene seed.
Soon the Raptors show rapid signs of mutation, morphing into hideous crowlike monsters. There is a certain irony that they resemble the same mutated Word Bearer possessed marines that struck them down on Isstvan. In a show of mercy or desperation, Corax allows the Raptors to remain. It is likely they will serve their legion until their use is no longer required. Omegon (the other primarch of the Alpha Legion) then attacks the gene seed project and chaos breaks out as the sleeper agents emerge and start slaughtering everything in their way. The mutated Raptors are released to fight back and prevent the Alpha Legionnaires escaping. Luckily, a Mechanicum super soldier has arrived to pick up the gene seed and I'm sure he is an upstanding member of society who can be fully trusted….
Corax is annoyed but determined. The remaining Alpha Legion agents are discovered and executed. It is time to strike against Horus and an unlucky unit of Emperor’s Children are wiped out by cunning lightning strikes and feints. The Raven Guard are victorious and plan to harry the Warmaster’s forces in their slow advance on Terra….
Review: Good ideas that do not always come together into a great plot. We genuinely really like this book but there are a few parts that just don’t work.
Labyrinth is an odd design choice; why have a primarch project that can only be solved by a primarch? It is very odd to seclude it in this particular way. Why not stick it on Mars in the Labyrinth? This is the second Labrinth the Emperor is keeping secrets in; why!? It doesn’t really achieve much by keeping it in there. Do we really think Pertarabo or Magnus would not be able to solve it if they turned up? Then they take the super secret project to a world currently experiencing a rebellion…Brilliant, just brilliant. Why not do the mass recruiting experiments on Terra until it is working? It might have made more sense to steal it and raise the stakes and betray Dorn and Malcador, but working for the greater good of the Imperium. It is a minor thing but it slows the book down considerably and you know Corvus is going to solve the puzzle, so there is no tension.
The attack on the Emperor's Children is such bolter porn. The attack on the Perfect Fortress is so not Slaaneshi; it's just a place that needs attacking by the Loyalists and is never mentioned again. Where are the weird palaces of pleasure and the civilians being turned into drugs?
Tinfoil Hat Time We do not have an answer to this one - but did the Alpha Legion send psychic messages to Deliverance? Because if not, why bother to have sleeper agents to a dead legion that was trapped on Istvaan V? Tinfoil Hat Time
I really enjoyed the scene where an Alpha Legion sleeper agent is nearly unmasked during combat training. He uses a move that is only known to the Alpha Legion, and is questioned by the other marines. “I saw someone use it on Isstvan” - he says and teaches the other Raven Guard. Internally he knows Alpha Legion marines will die due to his lapse in concentration.
I do fully sympathise with Omegon on throwing the whole Cabal plot out of an airlock.
Score: 7.5/10 - An solid good book with interesting ideas that just has a few issues from ideas that do not really make sense. We would recommend rereading this one for the cool bits and maybe breezing through the weirder bits. We are incredibly happy to meet Corax and have a more humanised primarch character who considers what they are doing and thinks about it.
Cover: The motion blur on Corvus is superb. He does look like a grim dark Beatle with that mop top unfortunately, but it does seem to suit him. Space marine is looking the right way finally. It might be set in the Perfect Fortress, but we are not 100% sure.
Heresy Watch: In the aftermath of Isstvan V, the Raven Guard have been decimated but Corvus has escaped and is determined to carry on harassing Horus with hit and run strikes. As a giant invisible birdman, he demonstrates he is more than capable of it. Interestingly, the Emperor’s Children stationed at the Perfect City seem to still be protecting the civilians there. The Alpha Legion are fully acting for themselves; they prevent the Raven Guard using the modified gene seed, give Horus flawed intel for it and end their relationship with the Cabal. They are acting for themselves. The Emperor is struggling to deal with the mess Magnus created and has to psychically communicate through Malcador (apparently 2 years before it happens. Let's not bring that up again).
Legion Watch/Number of Book(s):
Dark Angels: 4
: 2
Emperor’s Children: 7
Iron Warriors: 5
White Scars: 2
Space Wolves: 4
Imperial Fists: 8
Night Lords: 3
Blood Angels: 1
Iron Hands: 3
: 2
World Eaters: 9
Ultramarines: 5
Death Guard: 4
Thousand Sons: 5
Sons of Horus: 8
Word Bearers: 9
Salamanders: 2
Raven Guard: 4
Alpha Legion: 5
The Emperor: 7
Another entry for Rogal Dorn. Major characters from various traitor legions show up in the novel, inflating their count. Salamanders and Blood Angels are still forgotten about.
Tropes Watch: Are we the baddies?: 33
The Emperor has a ever shifting Labyrinth containing his secret projects, which has serious Bond villain vibes.
The Alpha Legion literally replace their faces with dead Raven Guard to become undercover agents.
It's definitely not gay: 19 “The Emperor reached out a hand and Corax felt hot fingers upon his brow. Energy flowed through the primarch, knitting his shattered bones, stemming his pouring blood, healing wounded muscles and organs. The primarch gasped, filled with love and adoration.” C’mon man, that's your Dad…. Given that description of injuries shouldnt Corax already be dead? Anyway?
How not to parent 101: 23
Oh Corvus. The poor guy is a little crazed in his quest to get the Raptor project working and it all goes horribly wrong. It was a big gamble and it did not pay off (due to Alpha Legion sabotage but still…)
The Emperor psychically meeting with Corax is an afterthought! And only when Corax gets mad. The son has literally returned home from hell and is confronted by evil stepmother Malcador who says that “dad is way too busy”. If The Emperor cared he would have put plans in place to send a message, help, or even just ask if Corax is ok?
Erebus!!!: 17 Besides the actual Erebus being here and worming his way as usual, Athithirtir is bloody annoying and tries to order Omegon to follow the Cabal. He fully deserves his fate, having alerted the Alpha Legion to what the Raven Guard were doing.
“Alpharius sat down, reluctantly accepting the Warmaster’s invitation, darting a warning look at Erebus just as the Word Bearer opened his mouth to speak. ‘Save your posturing for those that are swayed by it,’ said Alpharius. ‘Your change of loyalty proves the vacuity of your proselytising. You are privileged to stand in the presence of your betters, and should know not to speak until spoken to.’ The primarch enjoyed the contortions of anger that wracked the First Chaplain’s face, but Erebus heeded the warning and said nothing.” All it took was a primarch to finally shut him up.
Does this remind you of anything?: 32
Vicente Sixx (the Raven Guard Chief Apothecary) also doubles up as a singer and bass player in his spare time. His covert name is probably Dr Feelgood.
The super secure labyrinth is basically a one shot DnD dungeon.
Idiot Ball: 1 New trope this week after we keep noticing it. Why did the Alpha Legion sleeper agents stick around after the attack? They knew the Raven Guard knew there were agents, and they all get identified by their DNA and killed shortly thereafter. The Alpha Legion seem to be either amazingly smart and well prepared or absolute idiots. The Custodes have had it for weeks, so it's nice for someone else to have it. There is an argument for someone holding the Idiot Book for every book and we may list them all next week....

Welcome to another report of my one year stay in Japan from mid 2022 to mid 2023! If everything goes according to plan, I'll post the final part on May 27, which would be exactly one year after I returned from Japan! With that being said, after spending a month with a couple of friends in February 2023, enjoying the snow in Hokkaido and early sakura around the Izu peninsula, it was time to face one of the busiest seasons in Japan - proper sakura season in March/April. My mother would join me in late March on her first trip to Japan ever and she was hellbent on seeing some sakura and me being the tour guide. This came with the benefit of her paying for all expenses during our travels, which was very nice of her!
You can find the other reports down below.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11
Tokyo
Picking up where I left off in the previous report, I decided to show everyone what a "typical" Airbnb I'd stay in during my time in Japan looked like. When my friends left, I booked a very cheap Airbnb in Kunitachi, which is in west Tokyo, about 40 minutes away from Shinjuku on the Chuo line. As I mentioned in some of my earlier reports, I quite enjoyed staying out of central Tokyo and exploring areas that I'd otherwise never go to on a normal vacation. This place had a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. Looks pretty barebones but it was more than enough to satisfy my needs and the internet in Airbnbs was usually very good.
Since it was the beginning of March, I decided to go back to Yushima Tenjin to check the status of the plum blossoms there and they were beautiful at the time. One train stop away from Kunitachi is Kokubunji, which I went to because I saw a couple interesting spots on Google maps to check out. One of which was the small Tonogayato Garden, which was alright for a short visit. More interestingly, there's a small path called Otaka no michi, which looks very cute and goes along a few shrines and another small garden along the way.
Having seen Kawazu sakura a two weeks prior, I checked where I could find early blooming sakura in Tokyo and was happy to find that near my next Airbnb's location (Ojima in the east of Tokyo), a park close to Arakawa river had a few trees so of course I made my way there and it was the perfect time to see them too. One of the many reasons why I enjoy staying in eastern Tokyo is that the further I went out, the more relaxed I felt. It's so far removed from the central and west, where you have tens of thousands of people converging in several spots while here, there is just a wide open park, families and friends just hanging out in what felt like a more accurate represenation of what the average Tokyoite did in their daily lives. I think I went here a few times every evening because it put me at ease and I miss spending time there. And as always, plenty of small mom and pop shops serving all kinds of food, like this wonton soup with a side of fried rice.
Another garden I visited was Kiyosumi! It's in Koto, so again a bit out of the way but definitely worth a visit if you somehow find yourself in the area or just want to see something new if it's your Xth visit to Japan. Bonus pic from when I walked back "home"; sunsets in Tokyo in those side streets with rivers running through the city are particularly great.
The week leading up to my mom's arrival was spent with me visiting a bunch of parks in Tokyo to see how the sakura were going considering my mother wanted to see them. This was a tad stressful because it was supposed to rain for a few days before my mother arrived and in 2023, sakura season started super early so I was scared the rain and wind might kill em off before she even got there. That being said, Shinjuku Gyoen, Yoyogi park, the Kanda river, Chidorigafuchi and Ueno park were going strong! I switched Airbnbs one more time before my mom arrived, staying in Asaka - in Saitama. I had a couple more sakura trees right next door, which was great.
And then, the day had come! My mom arrived at around 7pm, I picked her up from Narita airport and let me tell you, it was an incredibly weird feeling riding back into that airport. Around 10 months earlier, I flew in and it was practically deserted due to the pandemic but now it was back to somewhat normal and I was hit with a weird sort of nostalgia! My mom was surprisingly fit and didn't seem jetlagged at all, demanding me to show her around Ueno park at like 10pm still. We got her her own Suica, her first konbini visit and then just went to the hotel and slept.
My mother had a couple of things she absolutely wanted to see and aside that, I was basically a tour guide who just showed her around spots I decided on on the day. The first thing my mom wanted to see was TeamLabs. Not something I personally had much interest in and the experience was pretty meh overall to be honest but she enjoyed it. Following that we headed to Tokyo station and went to Sushiro because my mom wanted to try Sushi and was keen on trying the "conveyor belt" one she saw on social media. Since it was nearby, we then walked to Chidorigafuchi and the Imperial Palace Gardens, giving my mom her first proper sakura experience. We spent quite a while walking around and it soon got dark so we took a train towards Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower looks great at night, especially with some sakura in front of it. We finished the day with a CoCo ichi meal before walking around the pond near Ueno park.
The following day, my mother wanted to check out Akiba to my surprise. She's not into anime or video games at all but she thoroughly enjoyed seeing just how many figures and plushies of everything exists. A visit to nearby Kanda shrine was of course obligatory. Gotta love the ema people put up there due to its close proximity to Akiba. Before going to Sky Tree in the evening, we went to Hamarikyu Gardens, which are way nicer looking in sakura season than in February, when I went there with my friend. Now, Sky Tree was an experience. Having been there just a few weeks earlier with my friends and there being no lines whatsoever, this time around, things were different. We had to wait for around an hour to get tickets and the observation decks were packed. If it was that bad in 2023, I can't imagine how it is now.
On the third day, the jetlag or just general fatigue hit my mother and she slept past noon so we had a more relaxed day without as much walking as the two before. Took a train to Kichijoji in hopes to show my mom Inokashira park with its famous sakura around the pond and we were not disappointed! My mom wanted to shop and since I am the least knowledgeable person when it comes to this, I simply took her to Ikebukuro's Sunshine City and hoped she'd find stuff there and she actually did buy a bunch of "fluffy" dresses!
The final day in Tokyo was a bit more packed again in terms of things to do. First on the agenda was a visit at Cafe Reissue, which my mom of course saw on Instagram. Since you can't reserve, they take your name and give you a time to come back at, which meant we had about an hour and a half to do something else. This was when we headed to Shibuya Sky. I had never been there because I didn't really want to spend 2000 yen on another observation deck but this one is actually good. In my opinion, if you could only pick ONE observation deck in Tokyo, this should be it. Nice, open views in a far better location than Sky Tree for example. Afterwads we headed back to the cafe and got our latte/hot chocolate art. I'm a bit of a hot chocolate snob so I'd say the drink itself was alright, the art is pretty nice and the sandwich was better than I expected. Definitely worth checking out if you can get a spot here.
Shinjuku Gyoen at this point had a fair amount of sakura trees already losing their petals, making for pretty walkways. In general, and this isn't some hidden gem, Shinjuku Gyoen is definitely worth going for sakura because of how many varieties can be found in it. Just make sure to get there early...
And with that, the first portion in Tokyo was done and the next day saw us take the Shinkansen to Kyoto!
Kyoto
I dreaded this visit to Kyoto because during my time in Japan, Kyoto has been relatively empty and enjoyable, contrary to how it was pre-pandemic. And the difference was definitely noticeable just a few weeks after having been there with my friends. Still not as bad as it probably is now, but noticeable. We wanted to go to Kiyomizudera in the evening for that picture, so we spent the time before that just strolling around the east side of Kyoto, but not before getting some lunch at a nearby restaurant. This is where I first realised my mother had no taste, as she didn't like gyudon whatsoever. Meanwhile, I thought this was one of my favourite gyudon I ever had.
We headed over to Maruyama park afterwards, with sakura all around and plenty of food stalls for your typical Japanese festival snack cravings. From there, we walked over to Heian Jingu, passing by Chionin Samnon. I've not been to the garden that is next to Heian Jingu, so we went in there. It's not the biggest place but it's very quaint and beautiful, especially the pond area. The sun was beginning to set and the walk back to Kiyomizudera would have been a bit too much for my mom that day, so we took a bus... and I've vowed to never do that again. It's crazy how packed buses in Kyoto got once regular tourism picked back up. Sannenzaka was also back to what I was used to pre-pandemic. On one hand, this must be great for local business. On the other hand, I can't imagine living anywhere near here...
Kiyomizudera was packed to the brim and my mom really wanted to take a picture from the famous angle, so we stood there for what felt like half an hour with little to no progress before she conceded, but we got nice pictures just off the platform. She enjoyed walking around Kyoto more than actually checking out the sights sometimes, which was great because Kyoto is a beautiful city. Kiyamachi is fantastic at night!
I had to face the PTSD of the prior month's Nara visit because of course, my mother wanted to see there deer there. But we got there early enough, with plenty of time to check out Todaiji, where my mother bought a goshuincho, and Kasuga Taisha. On our way back from Nara, we got out at Fushimi Inari and made our way up for the sunset. No torii pictures here because I've taken so many at that point, that I simply didn't this time.
We were looking for something to eat and up until that day, I had never experienced being denied entry into a restaurant before. Throughout 3 separate Japan vacations and this whole year I spent there, everywhere welcomed me, even out in the sticks. But that day, it happened twice. The first place I kind of give a pass because apparently they had some "bar event" going on so no food was being served that day (Google maps reviews were raving about the food there). But the second place, an okonomiyaki restaurant, does not get that pass. I slid open the door, saw 2 empty tables and the counter having a bunch of space. The owner's wife saw us coming in, I asked whether two people are fine - in Japanese, mind you - she had a very brief chat with her husband and then told us they're full. Obviously I accepted that and we went back out. I was pretty angry outside, though. There was no way they had no space in that restaurant and I am convinced they used that reasoning because they didn't want to serve foreigners. We just went to a nearby Chinese restaurant in the end, my mom not minding the "fuss" much but this was the first time I got denied from multiple places, so I was still somewhat mad lol.
The next day, we headed over to Nanzenji. Since we got off at Keage station, we walked our way up and had a quick look around Nanzenin before getting to Nanzenji. Also worth visiting is Eikando a bit further up the road. I can't remember if pictures inside the facility are just not allowed or if I forgot taking that many but the area is quite large and you can walk inside the temple. We then went to Ginkakuji, which I didn't take pictures of at all since I've been there before in October (so if you want to see pictures of that, check that post out). Unlike in October, this time there was a line to get tickets - which I didn't expect because it used to not be as popular as Kinkakuji.
Final day in Kyoto proper was spent in and around Arashiyama before my mother had her booked Maiko photoshoot. This took about 2 hours, she got the makeup done, was dressed up and had a bunch of pictures taken. She loved it. The place she did it at was called "Kyoto Kimono Rental Yumeyakata). Afterwards, she bought some souvenirs in random stores in the city. She also wanted to check out some other "famous" maccha place called "Maccha House". I'm actually not that big of a fan of maccha and this place really just seemed like a tourist trap. My mother enjoyed it though and as long as she had a good time, I didn't mind going to these places. Looking back at this Kyoto leg of our trip, I realise we didn't really have any "traditional" Japanese food experiences (as in kaiseki or the like). Not sure why that was. That was our last full day in Kyoto since the next one would be a day trip from there to Himeji, before we headed down to Hiroshima.
Himeji
I've been to Himeji before in like 2019 but back then, the castle was covered up for some renovations but this time, it was all there in its glory. And man, Himeji in Spring is absolutely beautiful. The park before it is full of sakura, I'll let the pictures do the talking and say that visiting Himeji is always a must but especially when you are in Japan in Spring. One of my favourite sakura spots for sure. The only negative thing I could report about it is that going inside the castle may not be worth it for you. There's a whole lot of stairs to take, which usually is no big deal for me but at some points, everyone had to wait for like 10 minutes before being able to go up to the highest point because there were so many people inside. I can't imagine this being much better a year later.
Hiroshima
Took the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima at around 11, making us arrive at around 1:30pm. Dropped our luggage off at Koko Hotel Hiroshima and then went for lunch at Yotchan, an okonomiyaki restaurant I went to a few months prior. I was a bit scared my mom wouldn't be a fan of okonomiyaki, given she didn't enjoy tonkatsu or gyudon but this turned out to be her favourite meal of the whole trip, which made me very happy. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki are in my opinion far superior to their Osaka counterpart, the noodles at the bottom really elevate the dish. The weather during our time here was pretty bad with mostly rain, but it certainly added something to the mood around the peace park and museum, which we visited of course. Sakura in Hiroshima weren't really existent at this point anymore, understandably so since the season starts a bit earlier here than up in Tokyo. The good thing about Hiroshima is that there's a bit of an underground mall with lots of shops and places to grab some snacks, so we were able to avoid much of the rain. Nevertheless, we ended the day a bit early at around 7pm (even though my addiction kicked in and I went for CoCo ichi at like 10pm lol).
And then we were off to Miyajima on the next day. It was my first time going there since my planned trip in November was foiled due to stomach issues. The weather was still rather bad but just like the day before, I think it actually added to the atmosphere on the island. Obligatory torii picture here. The shrine itself isn't that impressive - maybe this was due to the weather, though. But it wasn't raining super heavily, so we decided to take a walk to Daisho-in, which was maybe 10-15 minutes away on foot from Itsukushima shrine itself. Very much worth a visit, they occasionally let steam (?) out into the yard here, which is pretty cool in these weather conditions. Of course, I was put on goshuin duty ever since my mom had gotten her book in Nara so I had to collect stamps at every shrine we got to. If you go here and it is raining, be a bit careful about the stairs - they can be very slippery and my mother was incredibly lucky to not tumble down all the way down at one point.
After exploring just a little bit of the forest/mountainside, we decided to head back to the shrine and to our surprise, it was completely free of water now! Got lucky there and able to get up close to it! And that was it for Miyajima, we took the boat back to Hiroshima, got another round of okonomiyaki in before returning to Tokyo on the next day.
Tokyo
Since it was my mother's last full day in Japan, we went on a bit of a goshuin hunt around several shrines and temples, both small and large, in Ueno, Uguisudani, Akihabara and Asakusa. We simply walked from on to another, can't really list them all but Ono Tersuaki and Akiba shrine (this was kinda hidden!) were some of the smaller ones. There was a little festival around Sensoji going and we got a few snacks there. After one last walk along the Sumida river, it was time to go shopping. Only this time, it was me doing the buying... Got myself a PS5 that my mother took back home in her suitcase for me, the weak yen was just too good back then already and made me save like 100€ on that thing! We had dinner at my favourite little Chinese place near our hotel and then, my mom's time in Japan was pretty much over as we went back, packed up her stuff and got ready for the next day's trip to Narita, which I will cover in the next (and possibly final) report!
I love showing people around Japan, especially when it's their first time. I was a bit afraid my mother would miss out on the sakura and the mood would be bad but fortunately it all went well and mostly as planned. She absolutely loved it and would love to visit again. For me personally, as you can read about in this thread I made a year ago, I was super glad to have been "living" in Japan during sakura season because I think planning a normal 2 week vacation around sakura would be very stressful. Especially with tourists hitting record numbers currently, I feel like travelling during sakura season would be too much of a hassle for me personally - but to each their own!
To be honest, I had a tough time writing this report due to some depressing stuff going on in real life right now so I am not really that happy with how it turned out. Nevertheless, I am planning to release the final report on the 27th as planned. It's been almost a year since I returned home and I wish I had written these reports while in Japan instead of this late but too late to stop now, I suppose. If there's enough interest, I could write a "Best of..." report as an extra, talking about my favourite restaurants, foods, places to visit, activities and also my least favourite things during my time in Japan. But I'll see how the next report goes. Speaking of which - that one will include my final solo sakura adventure around the north of Japan in cities like Kakunodate, Morioka, Kitakami, Hakodate and, of course, Sapporo.
Thanks for reading and if you have questions, feel free to drop them!

The latest and most thrilling season of English football would also be the most controversial. The amount of times we had issues with refs, VAR, red cards, and blown calls made the NFL refs seem like experts in their craft. Seriously, the best European football league can't even get a video review correct in less than 2 minutes and it drives everyone mad. We also had further proof of Rich 7 favoritism with the FFP punishments dished out. It was absolute chaos, it caused fanbases to melt down like Chernobyl, but it made for amazing shitposting. How did your team do?
Manchester City: Sigh, the Prem is not beating the farmers' league allegations after this. In some way, we all expected this. After their historic treble, everyone assumed City would take a step back. They weren't even the best team in the country and they still found a way to creep up into first place. Their fourth title in five seasons, six under Pep Guardiola. They still have a chance at a double, too. If you're still living in the "Fraudiola" camp, I suggest you touch grass. Do you know understand how fucking insane that is? Sure, you can say Abu Dhabi bankrolled him and now they may be paying for it dearly but that is serious contention for greatest manager of all time. This time he was up against the adversity, too. They went without KDB and Haaland for long periods of time. Phil Foden was rightfully voted PFA Player of the Year for his efforts in their absence. Julian Alvarez took massive strides in becoming the next great Argentine striker...when he can get into the team. Jeremy Doku showed flashes of greatness, and it might spell the end for Jack Grealish. Rodri was Rodri, Ruben Dias was Ruben Dias, you know the deal. Even academy kids made serious progress. Pep won the Champions League without Messi and with a real striker. He's now guided City to another title. Goddammit, can we please get someone to topple this monopoly?
Arsenal: You did it again...you fucking did again. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You thought you were becoming the reincarnation of Real Madrid. You ended up becoming the red version of Poch's Spurs. Some might even say that Spurs team was better than this team. Arsenal had the title in their grasp again. Then they sat back and drew with City, lost to Villa at home, and in the end, these results cost them. You bottled it again. Bukayo Saka had his best season ever. So did Martin Odegaard. Leandro Trossard made a case for a starting spot. Gabriel Martinelli was sporadic but effective. William Saliba and Gabriel locked down the backline. David Raya won the Golden Glove. Mikkel Arteta has a case for Manager of the Year (likely going to Unai Emery), and they still bottled it. We don't need to rehash how their European campaign went. You should've known Spurs were never going to give you that benefit of the doubt. Why would your local rivals help your title charge? At least you're back in the Champions League, and you showed you could shed some of those demons next campaign, so long as you don't match up with Bayern again. The painful truth is, you went trophyless again. How much longer is the goodwill with Arteta going to last? Doing this once? Forgivable. But twice? Unconscionable.
Liverpool: This was not how Klopp's Last Dance was supposed to go. One trophy, and the League Cup at that, is all Liverpool had to show for it. They hit the worst patch of rotten form at the most inopportune time. You might think losing games twice to Manchester United in a span of a week was bad enough, but to go to Italy and lose to Atalanta? And they kept a clean sheet?? Dear god, they made Crystal Palace look like prime Barcelona at one point. You are fucking cooked, and it shows. Darwin Nunez started to break out, then reverting to forgetting how to play the sport of football entirely. Virgil Van Djik's age showed. Ibrahima Konate shows flashes but is injury- and mistake-prone. Mo Salah is mentally checked out, and it showed with him in only scoring twice in the last 10 matches of the seasons. Him and Klopp arguing on the sideline was peak Liverpool banter era. You literally on the verge of a quadruple AGAIN and you scuffed the run... This team is going to need a massive reset, and that may mean cashing in a few aging stars. New manager Arne Slot will have an absolute gargantuan job ahead of him. With FSG's financial model, it'll be interesting to see who they bring in. But what do you about Mo Salah? Clearly his age is starting show.
Aston Villa: Unai Emery was sacked by Arsenal for "underachieving." When you see the job he did with Villa with half the budget he had at Arsenal and players willing to run through walls for him, you can understand how Villa managed to stay in the Top 4 most of the season. Ollie Watkins had his best season to date. Douglas Luiz become the third-best defensive midfielder in the league, and dispatched a few penalties. Niccolo Zaniolo played a smaller role and still contributed heavily to big wins. It wasn't ever perfect, and there are plenty of wayward results to point out, but Villa has got some of their old mojo back. Get ready, boys, you're going dancing next season. You'll be in the new-look Champions League for the first time since the 1980s. Don't forget: Villa has some European pedigree to them. Sure, it was back when the competition wasn't as fierce as it is now, but respect them. Otherwise all you Madrid fans are going to be shitting themselves when you rock up to Villa Park for the league stage.
Tottenham: Tottenham's season hit some very high highs, and some deeply low lows. A 10-game unbeaten streak to start the season ended with a four losses in a row. Injuries crippled all the progress they made. Ange Postecoglou's all-out attack works, but when it doesn't, it is absolutely terrifying to watch. Hueng-min Son had a nice comeback season. Richarlison finally came good for the club. James Maddison started out well enough and then had a fall-off for the ages, as did Pedro Porro. The backline of Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven showed they can be great but they need real discipline in midfield to balance out the high line. But there are still many players that can't get them over the hump. Not to mention, they were derailed by injuries all campaign. Make it 16 years since the last major trophy. Fifth seems fitting for a team still going through an identity and cultural reset. Some supporters think Ange isn't the one for the job. They often forget just how big of a rebuild is needed after losing Harry Kane and other core players over the past five seasons. Those are probably also the people that don't see the positive of the Tottenham money-making machine. Why win trophies when you can host NFL games? Sigh, I just want one Cup, is that too much to ask for? At least they clinched Europa League, I guess.
Chelsea: Todd Boehly will no longer be making the calls about Chelsea's transfers. That should make the fans a little bit happier. If you're keeping score at home, he's only got 1/30 of new signings right. Jury is still out on Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Axel Diasi, Mykhalio Mudrk, Noni Madueke, and Levi Colwill. Mauricio Pochettino was trying to build something, but it was hindered by constant setbacks. A massive pile of injuries, extreme fan pressure, and underperforming players signaled it would not be another fruitful season for the Blue Lions. You got beat by a bunch of high school students in the Carabao Cup final, and somehow that wasn't the lowest point of the season. It was the thrashing by Arsenal. Chelsea should feel lucky they snagged Cole Palmer out from under Man City. He's the real Eden Hazard regen, even though he's a bit of a penalty merchant. He dragged Chelsea from finishing outside the Top 10 again. This summer will be a major clear-out. Raheem Sterling, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, and Thiago Silva might or are already leaving. The thinner squad will allow Poch to actually build something...maybe. You're not seriously going to sell Conor Gallagher to Spurs, right?
Newcastle: Eddie Howe can feel sort of vindicated that he guided this Newcastle team to a top 10 finish. They had one of the worst injury sheets in the league this season. The delicate balance of Champions League and the English season exposed their biggest flaw: not enough depth. Sandro Tonali getting suspended for being a degenerate gambler definitely did not help. Nick Pope was out most of the year and Martin Dubravka showed why he's no longer first-choice. Sven Botman and Dan Burn spent time on the sidelines and that killed their defense. Seriously though, they were chucking out Football Manager regens to play critical minutes. That only works in video games. In reality, the club is backed up against the FFP bubble. They will need to sell to buy, and that might mean cashing in on Alexander Isak or Bruno Guiamares. Maybe they'll even cut ties with Tonali and try to recoup some of their money. The richest club in the world is playing inside the rules? I guess they don't want to be the new Man City. I honestly commend them for trying to play within the confines of the rules. Some clubs can't say they do that.
Manchester United: Jim Ratcliffe really had no idea the scope of the rebuild he inherited once he bought his stake in United. He called out the club culture and facilities in the media multiple times, but perhaps it was all reactionary. United had a shit season. And boy do I mean shit. None of their players could stay healthy. Marcus Rashford is entering Dele Alli territory with how bad his falloff has been. There was the Mason Greenwood situation, then the Antony situation, and the Brazilian managed only two league goals across the whole season. Jadon Sancho called out Ten Hag's management and was gleefully banished back to Dortmund, where he started picking up his performances. He's in a Champions League Final...lol. Casemiro and Raphael Varane showed their age. He had a solid run of form but it didn't last. Varane's already said he's done in Manchester. Rasmus Hojlund took 15 games to find his first goal of the season. Alejandro Garnacho is now the best player at the club and even he had beef with Ten Hag's coaching. Bruno Fernandes might be seeking greener pastures. They finished dead last in their Champions League group and were out of Europe by February. Take solace in making the FA Cup final, but you were losing 3-0 to Coventry City, a Championship club, and had to beat them on penalties. Old Trafford may truly be falling down, and it doesn't help with Ten Hag waffling about he is still the best man for the job. Because you know, it was his signings that set the club back so much money. Antony costing 100 million quid needs to be investigated. There's no real sign of progress under INEOS's ownership. It's still too early to judge, but it's clear they will need to make some decisions. Enjoy raiding all your rivals for executives. Apparently "We're Manchester United" still works.
West Ham: Was it a bad season for West Ham? When you deep it, you'd probably say not really. David Moyes started out kinda slow but managed to get the Hammers going in vital moments. Jarrod Bowen continued his remarkable rise even as a center-forward. The pillage of Ajax for Edson Alvarez and Mohamed Kudus was fruitful, even if Kudus's underlying numbers aren't that great. James Ward-Prowse stepped up his game after being freed from the shite coaching at Southampton. Alphonse Areola cemented himself as the true No. 1 in goal. Lucas Paqueta was the real eye candy. So much so he's looking like the heir-apparent for Kevin De Bruyne. He'll cost another small nation's GDP but he was that class. Sure, they didn't reach the Europa final like they wanted to and got knocked out by Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen, but how can you say this was a disappointing season? Disappointing enough to tell Moyes he's done after this season? You're replacing him Julen Lopetegui? I know he did fantastic work with Sevilla, and you may see yourselves as the English Sevilla, but tread lightly. Did you see what happened between Wolves and him? Or what happened in his final season in Seville?
Crystal Palace: Today's top stories: Crystal Palace finished comfortably mid-table for the 11th season in a row. In other news, grass is green. It was a strange but similar season for the Eagles. Spats between ownership over the long-term vision for the club coupled with Roy Hodgson's depressing retirement tour clouded what could've been an opportunity to pounce. With Brighton and Bournemouth shitting the bed, the time was prime to strike. But again, they were let down by inconsistent forwards. Jordan Ayew and Jean-Phillipe Mateta are still struggling to score consistently (At least Mateta is producing now). Odsanne Eduoard is made of glass bones and paper skin. Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise, and Dean Henderson were good enough to keep them afloat. Eze's got enough street cred to have City and Spurs linked to him, but we'll see what premium the Eagles charge. More credit is owed to Oliver Glasner. He was a shrewd appointment, and it showed with his tiki-taka style of play. Remember, he took Frankfrut to a Europa League final win and beat Barcelona and West Ham to do it. Next season should be a moment to capitalize on drops in quality from other mid-table rivals, but you'll probably be back here with me in 2025 with a 12th consecutive mid-table finish. At least this time it's in the Top 10.
Brighton: Brighton was my biggest disappointment for the 23-24 season. Maybe that's too harsh, but what the actual hell happened? There was a lot of squad turnover, understandably affecting the quality. But they still had Evan Ferguson, Karou Mitoma, Lewis Dunk, Danny Welback, Julio Enciso, and Simon Adringa to pick up the slack. Oh wait, almost everyone listed above was injured long-term. Roberto De Zerbi's managerial stock took a massive blow. He couldn't properly juggle the league and European football, especially as the injuries piled up and they were relying on academy kids to play key minutes. There's also rumors of him beefing with club executives about the transfer policy. The drawback of such a unique system: the falloff is inevitable. It ended up causing "irreconcilable differences," and De Zerbi promptly packed his shit and left. At least Brighton can take solace knowing they won their first European group stage and picked up sensational victories against Ajax and Marseille. Proud moments amid a rather shite season. Pick yourselves up and go again, lads. Even though De Zerbi bounced, your ownership will already have his next candidate picked out. Just pray it's not a Graham Potter return.
Bournemouth: The Cherries had another fine season where a lot started to come together. I was skeptical about them parting ways with Gary O'Neil after the job he did, but Andoni Iraola was a shrewd appointment. He actually found ways to unlock Dominic Solanke. Not even Jurgen Klopp could do that. Antoine Semenyo appeared as a servicable mid-table winger. Luis Sinisterra brought the Colombian flare to the South Coast and proved he could be the country's next great hope. Some of the English lads like Lewis Cook carved out key roles, and did just about everything right to ensure another comfortable finish. Bournemouth really were not in any danger of going down. The blueprint is there. I doubt Iraola will be able to take them into European places, but I've been proven wrong by plenty of managers before.
Fulham: Another solid finish for Fulham. Look at you, not yo-yoing even amidst Tony Khan's ridiculous pro wrestling PR drama. The Jaguars of English football showed a lot of fight and a lot of class. The signing of the season is surely Rodrigo Muniz. The Brazilian revolution between him, Andreas Pereira, and the aging Willian was glamorous. Antonee Robinson played like a man reborn and may get a move to a bigger club. USMNT fans couldn't be happier. It was tough not seeing Tim Ream playing week in and week out but he's clearly slowing down and might need replacing. But you can't get rid of Tom Cairney! It's not allowed by order of the streets. I doubt Marco Silva will read this, but he may not even have a choice in the matter. Joao Palhinha likely played his final season at Craven Cottage. Even at his age, he's good enough to get into the Bayern or Arsenal first team. Cash in and replenish, you know the drill. They'll have a lot of work to do this summer.
Wolves: Gary O'Neil is a top manager for the jobs he's done with Bournemouth and Wolves. It was not an easy season for Wolves, but compared to past campaigns, this was fantastic. O'Neill successfully unlocked Hwang Hee-Chan and Matheus Cunha. That alone is massive. Toti Gomes flourished in midfield. As did Pablo Sarabia. Pedro Neto showed flashes of brilliance...when he wasn't struck down by injury. Jose Sa returned to form and kept the team comfortably floating between between the top half and upper-mid talbe. What more can you say of Wolves? They were one of the better mid-tier teams this season, and that was after Julen Lopetegui walked out just days before the season began. You thought the Wolves were dead? Oh no, they are still on the hunt. Unfortunately, their pack is likely to find new homes with more money. I think you get the metaphor.
Everton: It was meant to be a Sean Dyche masterclass. Playing attractive football has never been his repertoire, yet that was exactly what he did with this Everton. Meanwhile, Everton fans are still steaming about the points deductions they underwent. I can understand why they feel this way, considering there are much worse violators and they're being made an example of. Yet Dyche thrives on these situations. He could only collect so many points with this Everton group but they did play well enough and have some decent talent. Jared Branthwaite is clearly an upgrade over some of their past center-backs. Consider this his window-shopping season. DCL flirted with injuries and still managed to score key goals. Beto hasn't come good yet but give it a little time. Idrissa Gana Gueye played well for his age, and Amadou Onana too had his window-shopping season. Fear not, Toffees. Even with the points deduction, you will finish comfortably bottom-half, and had it not been for the Premier League's hypocrisy, you would've been as high as 12th. This is a huge moment, because you're also moving into Bramley Moore next season. Godspeed, Everton.
Brentford: Ummm, hello? Anybody here want to win a fucking football match? Anyone want to collect three points? The good vibes at the Gtech Community Stadium are starting to falter. Brentford's feel-good story is starting to get a reality check: they lack significant quality. The plan was to continue Thomas Frank's Nordic Connection since it had produced results in the past. They got Ivan Toney back around mid-winter, but did it really change their fortunes? He wasn't anywhere close to his past self. Too much time on the couch will do that. Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbuemo did step up in attack, but without Rico Henry and Ethan Pinnock in defense it was too easy to carve through them. Mark Flekken did his best to mitigate the damage, but it was not enough to save them from a 16th-place finish. Nathan Collins was ok business but he clearly needs more time to develop to the system. Sergio Regulion put in some decent shifts on load, but not enough to justify keeping him permanently. You passed: DON'T! GET! RELEGATED! But for the love of god, please fix this shit before 24-25. Time to reset on the squad, find another plucky veteran willing to take a pay cut for playing time.
Nottingham Forest: Speaking of points deduction, nobody feels bad for Forest. They made more signings than Chelsea and clearly did it by some fishy means. It was mostly because they couldn't get Atletico Madrid to buy Brennan Johnson, so they had to accept Tottenham's lower offer. That doesn't excuse past transgressions. Then that wild social media statement that called out the Premier League's officiating. Secretly, everyone loved it but also wondered how they had the audacity to say such a thing. The only thing they can't defend is themselves. Steve Cooper, the architect of their return to Premier League and first-season survival, was canned for Nuno Espirito Santos. It kinda worked...I guess. They're not in a relegation spot even with their punishment but they definitely look the part. Gio Reyna came here on loan and had minimal impact. Morgan Gibbs-White looks good but clearly has flaws. Chris Wood is still their only reliable striker. Matt Turner was benched for a 32-year old Mats Sels and that didn't fix any of their goalkeeper problems. They're like a frat house toilet: always leaking. They'll definitely be another clear-out this summer.
Luton Town: At some point, results start to matter. It felt like Luton realized that too late. They did put up some impressive results like a 4-4 draw to Newcastle and a 4-goal dismantling of Brighton, but they struggled mightily. It was expected, but they really did give better teams runs for their money. Ross Barkley and Andros Townsend came off the couch to help. Barkley made a case for Comeback Player of the Year. Townsend provided some experience but football skills...not so much. Elijah Adebayo and Alfie Doughty tried to get the creativity going. Carlton Morris managed to post a double-digit goal season. They had pieces but could never put it together fully. The defense...good god, the defense! It couldn't stop a beach ball from going over the goal line. You brought in Daiki Hashioka to stabilize things, and all he did was score own goals and turn the ball over. It's sad that Luton is going back to the 2nd tier. Rob Edwards's job is probably safe, but can he remake the magic of 2022-23? Might be a step too far. Honestly, I'm more sad to see Jeffrey the Labrador go. The goodest of boys makes the goodest of club mascots.
Burnley: I can only applaud Burnley's ownership for not thinking like a yo-yo club. They chose Vincent Kompany because he is the anti-Sean Dyche. Free flowing, tiki taka football, playing out from the back with inverted fullbacks. Even if all the haters wanted to see him go to bring in a relegation dogfighter like Big Sam, the executives kept their man. Truly cut from the same cloth as Pep, but without any of the Pep players. That was the real downfall of Burnley's return to the Prem. This group won 101 points in the Championship last year? They didn't even manage to get 30 this time around. Kompany played anti-survival ball, and it didn't work. Sure, they had talent with guys like Vitinho and Jacob Bruud Larsen, but after it was shite through and through. At least Kompany had the audacity to play an expansive style, but survival needed more defensive rigidity. Go win it again, Clarets.
Sheffield United: If Burnley was ass, Sheffield United was mega-ass. They played like a Championship club, so it's only natural they got clobbered like a Championship club. They brought in Ben Brereton-Diaz and his fake Chilean skillset and he was...actually kinda good. It can't be said for the rest of them. Ollie McBurnie and Cameron Archer seem like the standouts, but nobody on this team was convincing enough to warrant a move to a bigger team except maybe BBD. He'll likely sign for Everton as the replacement for DCL. The club thought bringing back Chris Wilder in place of Paul Heckingbottom was the move, and it did next to nothing. Setting a record for most goals conceded in a single season is hilarious levels of incompetent defending. Conglats, you are now the new Norwich. Wear your badge of shame in anguish and go win the bloody lot in the Championship.

Continuing from my previous review of eSIMs for France, I’ve decided to review more popular destinations and top eSIMs for them. This time, I checked the best eSIMs for Mexico. In this guide, I’ve reviewed some of the top eSIM providers—Saily, Airalo, and Alosim—to help you find the best option for your needs. I’ve compiled the facts to make your decision easier.
Disclaimer: as I’ve got a question, I’d like to state that I am not affiliated with any eSIM providers that I mention. I am interested in this technology myself and I noticed that it is difficult to find detailed and somewhat more extensive information here on Reddit. Hence I write these posts intending to save you time from having to check various sites and simply collect the information from the web myself.

Pricing and Plans Overview

Finding an option that offers both competitive pricing and plan flexibility is crucial. Here's a comparison of three providers: Saily, Airalo, and Alosim.
Below is a detailed comparison to help you understand how each provider stacks up:

• Saily: Offers a range of plans for Mexico, starting at 1GB for $4.99 and up to 10GB (including 3GB and 5GB options), making it a cost-effective choice for shorter stays.
• Airalo: A slightly pricier option, with 1GB at $5 and other options for 2, 3, 5, and 10GB, ideal for those needing reliable service with moderate data usage.
• Alosim: This provider offers similar pricing to Airalo, with 1GB starting at $5 and other options up to 10GB, providing a balance between cost and coverage.

To illustrate this more clearly, here's a table summarizing the pricing:

Plans and Country Coverage

Although my main goal is to help you find the best eSIM for Mexico specifically, each provider still offers different plans and country coverage which could be a deciding factor.

• Saily provides a versatile range of plans, including 1GB, 3GB, 5GB, and 10GB, covering an impressive 150 countries. Notably, their eSIM can be reused across all destinations.
• Airalo expands this further with plans up to 10GB, boasting the broadest coverage with 200+ countries.
• Alosim offers plans similar to Airalo, covering 170 countries.

Top-Ups

All providers offer online, app top-up, and ordering functionality in case you run out of data while in Mexico.

Installation and Ease of Use

Ease of installation is an essential factor when selecting an eSIM.

• Saily: Offers one-click setup and manual setup alternatives. Saily's eSIM doesn't require reinstallation when you travel to different countries and can be reused, which is a significant convenience compared to other providers.
• Airalo: Direct installation via an app, using a QR code, or manual installation.
• Alosim: Automatic installation for iOS only, with QR code or manual installation options available for other operating systems.

Speed and Connectivity

Connectivity and internet speed are critical, especially if you rely on the internet for navigation, communication, or work.

• Saily: Offers 3G, 4G, and LTE browsing speeds, partnering with premium networks for consistent and high-speed connectivity.
• Airalo: It can offer 4G LTE speeds in most countries, though some countries only support 3G speeds.
• Alosim: In most locations, users can typically experience a 4G (sometimes 5G) or LTE equivalent network.

Customer Reviews

Other customers’ satisfaction is always something worth checking. For eSIMs, I checked the eSIM comparison table created by people on this subreddit. Overall, the scores go as follows:

• Saily: 4.2 stars
• Airalo: 4 stars
• Alosim: 4 stars

For a detailed comparison, you can check the full table.

Customer Support

• Saily: 24/7 support through live chat or email.
• Airalo: Offers customer support only via email or contact form.
• Alosim: 24/7 support via email.

Conclusion: Choosing the Best eSIM for Mexico

Considering various factors like pricing, ease of installation, speed, and country coverage, Saily appears to be the most appealing choice for those searching for the best eSIM for Mexico too.
However, Airalo and Alosim too has their own advantages so whatever your choice may be, ensure it aligns with your travel plans, data needs, and budget preferences.

I am an internationally trained engineer from Mexico who graduated in 2007. Came to the U.S. and wanted to start my engineering career. I realize early on the only way to do this is by getting engineering license which requires passing not one but 2 challenging exams.
I am 40+ years old with kids + demanding job. English is not my 1st language. But I wanted to improve my career, provide better for my family and set an example for my kids.
Earlier this year I started looking around for FE Electrical exam preparation resources and came across Study for FE, Wasim's online course multiple times on this subreddit. I took a leap of faith and signed-up for the on-demand + live training bundle. I had considered / tried free resources. This program was a game changer for me and saved a ton of time because of its structure, depth, quality of explanation and consistent support. I never felt alone at any point during my exam preparation.
Initially I was expecting to spend 10-15 hours per week studying for the exam but once the weekend live classes started, on average I was spending 20 hours per week and sometimes more. I tried to keep up with the 12 week schedule, did the pre-recorded lectures, quizzes, mini-exams. I showed up to as many live classes as I could on Saturdays and Sundays and watched the ones I missed once Wasim uploaded the recordings the same day.
I stuck with a daily schedule as much as I could. My family supported me immensely in this project and they provided me time and opportunity to study as much as I wanted to.
Initially I wanted to take the exam early - March/April but since my goal was to pass it in the first attempt, I gave myself additional time to do all the practice exams (computer simulated in Wasim course), NCEES sample and reviewed weak topics. I am glad I took this approach because each time I did a practice exam I learned about my weakness.
Exam was not straightforward. It pushed me to the limit but I had prepared extremely hard for it and kept believing in myself. Computer sections, signal processing and communications were most challenging in particular because my undergraduate had very little on these topics. I learned it all from the Study for FE course and did well enough to pass.
Thanks to this community for providing me with guidance, resources and motivation. Had it not been for you, I wouldn't have known where to even start from. When I came to the U.S. I didn't even know about the FE exam or PE exam.
If you are still hesitating about taking the exam, just find the right guide, focus on the goal, and go for it.
Remember: Who dares, wins!
Ask me any questions in the comments... happy to help!

I've already made a similar post on this, but after a small breather away from Nioh 2 I went back into it, and it might be my second favourite game ever (I doubt my favourite is ever being beaten) but it's scary how much this game gets right, and how little attention and acclaim it recieved from the press (it got good reviews to my knowledge, but almost no hype). Unfortunately I think big game reviewers are forced to finish and review games in such a short period of time, that it's almost impossible to really get the full picture of every detail and mechanic of this enormous game and why everything works so well.
It seriously reminds me of a mid-year PlayStation 2 game with how it prioritises player fun and engagement over everything else. I try to get into a lot of different modern video games but too many of them feel floaty, unresponsive and have a low skill ceiling to appeal to the mass. Nioh 2 goes in the opposite direction, and still manages to be one of the most accessible "difficult" games on the market. I think most people can finish this game, even if it does lack accessibility features that it should ideally have like colour blind mode (things definitely get hard to see sometimes, worse so in Wo Long I found) and one-handed play that some modern games have invented. At least you can actually pause this one!
The combat is so good, I could talk all day about it. The stance system is a natural way of letting us fight enemies and also giving us an enormous moveset for every one of the amazing weapons, it does this without having one of those annoying "rock-paper-scissors" systems that actively force you to use the "correct" way of playing. This is reflective of most of the game's design - the player isn't told how to play correctly, no map markers, pop-up tutorials, forced stealth sections etc, they already KNOW how they CHOOSE to play thanks to the way each mechanic incentivises personal usage and discrepancy without being overbearing and patronising. The actual meat of the combat is how cathartic the movement and attacking feels. Especially on a PlayStation 5 controller, this game feels like a treat to play - and your characyer actually listens to your inputs.
The story is far more than the "serviceable" affair critics gave it in my opinion. I found myself actually getting invested in it, from the chill and vibey start to the more sad and bittersweet end, it has a fantastic and natural shift of tone and it retained me far more than most big video game stories. The DLCs are fantastic too, though I would've liked to see more of the Tengu's Disciple as that felt a little short on story and ended what felt like half way through the final mission. Anyway, it clearly did something right as I'm still thinking about Hidechiyo, Tokichiro, Mumyo, Nobunaga, Otakemaru and so many others even after beating the game multiple times, which is more than can be said for most TV shows, movies and video games.
Boss and enemy design is fantastic, aside from the ones I don't like to fight (which I can count on my fingers) I think they all do a fantastic job of culminating the amazingly designed and wonderfully varied levels. They all look so cool too, and sometimes adorable. I love the way the game uses colour to make enemies and environments pop out at you. Games often suffer from "where-is-the-enemy-that's-hitting-me-itus" but they really stand out in the environments in Nioh 2 I find. The environments are so gorgeous too. I wish we got one or two more areas on the level of Byodo-in, Distant Dream or Palace of the Damned, but they are all presented in fantastic art and visual design and feel just the right amount of labyrinthine.
The mechanics are the meat of this game. Everything flows together so amazingly, and it you never feel interrupted by mandatory mechanics or forced sections - and it's so deep that I'm still discovering things hundreds of hours later. I just love everything about this game, AAAAAAAAAARGH!
Anyway to bring this rant to a close, I really want Nioh 3! Please please please please please please. Please.
10/10

We are more than 3 million on reddit, I started to review slothana's YouTube videos, and it is being talked about in several countries such as Brazil, China, France, Italy, Germany, India, USA, Mexico, South Africa, Holland, Spain, and many more 😍❤️💎 we also reached 100M market capitalization, without help from whales but from just normal holders, this community is getting bigger and bigger and soon we will be at the level of Pepe, Wif, Bonk , Floki 😉 and we will reach 1 USD with several new exchanges that will list us soon 🌑🚀💎 so guys, don't sell right now, because when we reach 1 usd or 10 usd you will regret having sold at a low price 😉