Who’s going to Japan?

I just want to say thank you to everyone who made an effort and joined my contest! I really appreciated all the effort you put into, to get the chance to win that round trip ticket to Japan, courtesy of Cebu Pacific!

Back in Japan

I am actually in Japan now, savoring the pleasantly cool Spring weather. The sakura trees have already bloomed and the flowers have fallen down from the trees in some parts of Japan, but if the weather holds up, we’ll be seeing them as we traipse around Central Japan. This is my third trip to the country, and I’m hoping to find even more reasons to come back.

Looking through the entries, I was able to identify with the poster’s reasons, and I even found new stuff to try or visit.

Darwin got me looking at the JAXA website, which led to me discovering that some of their facilies are open for the public. The Tsukuba Space Center was promptly added to my itinerary.

Of course, there were also plenty of entries, like Sy’s, that got me craving for Japanese food, like the Sapporo miso butter ramen.

Seeing Jean‘s cherry blossom photo got me excited about the prospect of possibly seeing these wonderful trees in full bloom in Matsumoto.

Mariane‘s photo with a Hard Gay cosplayer is GOLD! I admire you and your friend’s willingness to stand so near a guy wearing leather hot pants.

I also love getting some pretty unique entries. Ironically, Didi‘s isn’t quite unique, as someone also posted a similar photo! It’s true though, pen lovers would go absolutely bonkers in Japan.

Of course, there were also some who exerted a lot of effort into their entries. Really, you guys are awesome!

Ron‘s watercolor geisha

@NinaWanders #WanderInJapan They say if you love something, you can have fun with it. I still have the composite file pic.twitter.com/onE9QWXlpK

— Nero (@meetjoeblackPH) March 27, 2014

Nero‘s Lupita Nihongo

Milet‘s kawaii scrapbook entry

Lecky‘s Yoda origami

Given how vague my contest mechanics are, the decision to pick the winner is entirely in my hands — no random.org or Rafflecopter to make the decision for me. In the end the winner was chosen when I asked myself the question, who loves Japan most?

Rochelle, with her 100 reasons.

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, she is my friend, but that’s not the reason why I picked her. She made 100 entries, and that was entirely her effort (finished in just two days, even!). Ikaw na teh.

Thanks again to all who joined the contest! I hope I can run another one of these again 😀