A look back on 2012

I know this blog post is super late... I was actually hoping to write it and post by New Years Eve but things just got way too busy again for me :( I really hate using the excuse that "I'm busy" so that's why I couldnt blog or edit videos, but lately my time has been so limited :(

Oh, and before I forget, I just made an instagram account so please follow me if you haven't yet!
http://instagram.com/kimdaoblog

Anyway, 2012 is finally over and now we're moving onto 2013! So many exciting things are happening this year that I can't wait for! I'm going to Japan again in less than 2 weeks, I really can't wait! I'll be in Japan for a month so if you have any video requests for me to film in Japan, please let me know in the comments to this blog post! This time I also invited my family to come along with me to Japan for a week. I'm going to show them around Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and maybe travel somewhere where there is lots of snow. They've never been to Japan before, and since I always travel I felt kind of bad haha.

I wanted to write this blog post to kind of reflect on things in 2012. I rarely do these blog posts since I thought people will think they're quite boring lol, but I guess it's nice to sit down and just type whatever is on my mind haha.

2012 was a huge year for me, so many things happened that I never would've thought would. It started off with me going to Japan with my friend Janelle for about 3 weeks which was really fun! We were super poor cos we over shopped (lol) and we had to live off conbini food for 2 weeks hahaha.








After that I went to Hong Kong with Janelle! She travels to Hong Kong frequently and I've always wanted to go to Hong Kong to travel so it was perfect! I spent a week in Hong Kong and omg, it was shopping/food heaven hahaha. I remember the first time we arrived in Hong Kong, we sat in McDonalds for about 3-4 hours waiting for her cousin to finish work since we were staying at her apartment. I was SO surprised at how cheap the McDonalds were hahaha (compared to Australia anyway). We just sat there and constantly kept ordering more LOL. (My Hong Kong post will come after my Japan ones!)








After I returned to Australia, it was back to reality for me. I had to go back to university so things calmed down. Shortly when I got back to university, my best friend on Youtube Sunnydahye came to visit me!






I made a few videos here and there but I was getting more stressed out with uni so didn't get to make many. However, I did make a few Liz Lisa videos which changed everything this year..



Around my winter vacation time (would be summer vacation for everyone else not in Australia lol), I received an email from Liz Lisa. As everyone knows, I'm a huge fan of Liz Lisa. I discovered the brand when I was shopping in Shibuya109 for the first time back in January 2011 when I went to Japan. I was super stingy on my trip the first time when I was in Japan, and during the last 2 days of my stay, I had a lot of money left over so I decided to spend it all on Liz Lisa! hahaha. That's when I decided to start creating Liz Lisa videos and blog posts. The Liz Lisa staff came across my blog and contacted me, told me that they wanted to meet me and flew me over to Japan to meet them! Never would I have thought that my favourite clothing brand would contact me. I was so surprised but was super excited at the same time. I asked them if they could fly me to Osaka first so I can meet Matsui mama and papa again!





I met this couple when I stayed in Japan in 2011 in a hostel near their place. When I came back to Japan at the start of 2012 I stopped by their store and they remembered me! Since then I have been keeping in contact with them!




I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo to meet the Liz Lisa staff! They were super nice!






They then told me, they wanted me to go to San Francisco with them. Liz Lisa was going to go out of Asia for the first time for a Japan J-pop festival! I have never been to America before and didn't have any thoughts of going (the air ticket is too expensive). So I was super lucky that Liz Lisa gave me the opportunity! I returned to Australia for a month from Japan and I was off to the USA!











Besides getting to work with Liz Lisa, I also got to meet two of my Youtube friends, Wen and Shirley!

I was so happy I got to meet them! I've actually known Wen for around 5-6 years! And Shirley has been one of my closest friends since I started Youtube!

I also got to meet some of my awesome Youtube subscribers who came down to say hi to me, thank-you so much!! It was definitely a different experience working with Liz Lisa. I met so many different people and made many new friends! I hope I can go back one day!

Once I got back to Australia things calmed down again. I tried to work hard to keep uploading videos, but at the same time uni got really busy :( Around that time I was also trying to work more so I can save up enough money to go to Japan again at the start of 2013. Nothing much special happened after because it was mainly work work work for me towards the end of the year haha.

I was really satisfied how last year went for me. I managed to travel to Japan twice and to America, I never thought that it would be able to happen, so thank-you Liz Lisa for letting me travel more! Also there are exciting new for Liz Lisa for the Aussies! I can't give much away yet but if all works out well you guys are in for a treat!

I realized last year I have disconnected myself from Twitter and Facebook a lot. This year I will try my best to try be more connected to all my viewers. A lot of things will change for me this year, I'll finally be graduating from university from my Psychology and Japanese degree, so let's see how things go from there!

My New Years resolution... it's not something I really thought about. But this year I want to try hard to improve my Japanese. I got very lazy last year to be honest with my Japanese ever since I completed my major. This year I want to try to create some videos in Japanese to improve! I've always been really shy to speak Japanese because i was always afraid of making mistakes.. but everyone learns from mistakes right? I will do my best!

Once again, thank-you so much to everyone who has been supporting me throughout the year. Without you guys none of these amazing things would've happened to me this year. I feel very lucky to have the best subbies! ♡ 今年もよろしくお願いします！