December 18th, 9:35pm, I leave Japan. Right now it is December 17th 11:25 pm, and with that gap growing narrower and narrower, nostalgia starts to kick in.
This semester has been a great one. As much as I wanted to cry from fear while sitting in Haneda four months ago, I can't imagine not having this semester as part of my life. I met people from all around the world and fell in love with hearing their stories, traveling with them, singing karaoke with them, and being stupid college kids together. There's some of them I will probably never forget (and I only saw that because my memory sucks) and I hope they also never forget me. They're amazing...
And those are just the people. For four months, I had the privilege of living in and traveling in what I think is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I took advantage of my time and tried to build the best experience I could. I saw temples, prayed with monks, cooked with strangers who weren't strangers by the end, ran the most I have in my entire life, shared the sorrow over the horrors of the past, sat without a scrap of cloth on in a bath with a group of girls I only met a few months ago, hiked a mountain, got attacked by a homeless man who didn't speak my language, and had an interesting conversation with a drunken Japanese man.
Finally, things I will miss about Japan:
- All of my friends
- Donburi
- Melon pan
- Karaoke
- Meredith
- Awesome public transportation
- Kyoto
- Chu hai
- Sushi!
- My RAs
- Cell phone-eating deer
Things I look forward to in America:
- Cheap food
- Cheese
- Shoes that fit
- Kitkats that taste right
- Faster internet
- My friends at home
- Showers that stay on
- My pets
- My family!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
And There Were Ten
I have made yet another discovery in Japan, but it is again something that doesn't actually pertain to Japan.
Blogging! Most of us simply aren't cut out for it, and I think those are the same people who couldn't keep a diary/journal as a child. A common phrase to hear around the other international students: "Oh, I should write that blog entry." or "When was the last time I made a blog entry?" Looking at the 11, and now 12 that have summed up my four months in Japan, I realize, for the hundredth time in my life, that I am one of those people.
So ten days. That's such a small number, one you can count out on your fingers in fact, but it honestly didn't seem so small until stuff began to fill up the space of those ten days: exams, papers, packing, moving, last-minute time-wasting shopping.
It's just like all those other countless times in life when hindsight laughs at that naive notion of "a long time" we cling to. Four months I was wringing my hands over for six months prior, summed up in now twelve short interludes. Maybe thirteen.
Blogging! Most of us simply aren't cut out for it, and I think those are the same people who couldn't keep a diary/journal as a child. A common phrase to hear around the other international students: "Oh, I should write that blog entry." or "When was the last time I made a blog entry?" Looking at the 11, and now 12 that have summed up my four months in Japan, I realize, for the hundredth time in my life, that I am one of those people.
So ten days. That's such a small number, one you can count out on your fingers in fact, but it honestly didn't seem so small until stuff began to fill up the space of those ten days: exams, papers, packing, moving, last-minute time-wasting shopping.
It's just like all those other countless times in life when hindsight laughs at that naive notion of "a long time" we cling to. Four months I was wringing my hands over for six months prior, summed up in now twelve short interludes. Maybe thirteen.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Tokyo - For Ones Who Lack A Clever Title
So last week I was a bad student and skipped a day of class to go to Tokyo. One of the most exhausting trips... OF my life.
On Friday night, my roommate Meredith, her friend Stephanie and my friend Eric all headed to the train station to hop on one of the last ones to Kyoto Station. We left in plenty of time, and since nothing went wrong, we also arrived about an hour before departure. Some butchered Japanese and pathetic "I'm lost" gaijin looks later, we found our check-in point and were told to wait a little longer to check-in so we took a quick trip to McDonald's for the 150 yen special on all sizes of french fries. Best special ever.
Even though we dominated the back row on the bus and got a little room to stretch out, I think Stephanie and I were the two who got the most sleep, and even we topped out at maybe 3-4 hours out of the 6-7 hour bus ride. Also, people from the Kansai area don't necessarily know Tokyo any better than gaijin unfortunately, and they can be extremely unhelpful.
Since we couldn't check in to our hostel (the Tokyo NINJA, woot) until 5 pm, we dragged our tired selves around the city, in the rain, for the next 10 hours. I repeat... 10.... hours.
Dumping our stuff off in a few lockers, which are a nifty thing all over Japan, we headed out to Shinjuku, which wasn't too impressive honestly. I might have been the rain too. After Shinjuku was Harajuku, equally as wet, but infinitely better shopping. I oogled many pairs of boots that I only didn't buy because my shoe size in Japan is non-existent. I also got to finally check out Body Line, which my sister could spend the entire Washington State Lottery on.
Originally we also planned to head to Shibuya at night to see it lit up, but by the time 4:30 rolled around, we were all hungry, tired, and probably two seconds from pushing each other down a flight of stairs. A shower and ramen never felt so good.
The next day was spent at TOKYO DISNEYLAND! Which, although not quite as good as Disneyland, was still quite fun. We saw a tranny sneeze on a water fountain a foot away from us, heard "Merry Christmas" five million times in the highest voice I've ever heard, Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion, and told Ishigawa-san thank you for all her hard work after she kept having to chase Japanese people away from an area they weren't supposed to sit in during the parade.
Akihabara took up the brunt of the next day. I bought far too much anime merchandise and even spent 1200 yen on one of those machines akin to the American 25 cent machine. They were Zelda pins and I wanted them... so I got 6.
Again, the plan after was to go to Shibuya, but three days in Tokyo thorough sapped our energy and we simply spent the remaining time in the train station being good college students doing our homework. Finding the bus stop was not a problem thankfully, and in no time we were headed back to Kyoto to stumble in to Japanese classes the next morning, half awake.
More lessons from Tokyo: Apparently only Americans are fond of water fountains, benches, and trash cans; none of these luxuries exist in this city, and Patient Zero has been found. Beware the outbreak.
On Friday night, my roommate Meredith, her friend Stephanie and my friend Eric all headed to the train station to hop on one of the last ones to Kyoto Station. We left in plenty of time, and since nothing went wrong, we also arrived about an hour before departure. Some butchered Japanese and pathetic "I'm lost" gaijin looks later, we found our check-in point and were told to wait a little longer to check-in so we took a quick trip to McDonald's for the 150 yen special on all sizes of french fries. Best special ever.
Even though we dominated the back row on the bus and got a little room to stretch out, I think Stephanie and I were the two who got the most sleep, and even we topped out at maybe 3-4 hours out of the 6-7 hour bus ride. Also, people from the Kansai area don't necessarily know Tokyo any better than gaijin unfortunately, and they can be extremely unhelpful.
Since we couldn't check in to our hostel (the Tokyo NINJA, woot) until 5 pm, we dragged our tired selves around the city, in the rain, for the next 10 hours. I repeat... 10.... hours.
Dumping our stuff off in a few lockers, which are a nifty thing all over Japan, we headed out to Shinjuku, which wasn't too impressive honestly. I might have been the rain too. After Shinjuku was Harajuku, equally as wet, but infinitely better shopping. I oogled many pairs of boots that I only didn't buy because my shoe size in Japan is non-existent. I also got to finally check out Body Line, which my sister could spend the entire Washington State Lottery on.
Originally we also planned to head to Shibuya at night to see it lit up, but by the time 4:30 rolled around, we were all hungry, tired, and probably two seconds from pushing each other down a flight of stairs. A shower and ramen never felt so good.
The next day was spent at TOKYO DISNEYLAND! Which, although not quite as good as Disneyland, was still quite fun. We saw a tranny sneeze on a water fountain a foot away from us, heard "Merry Christmas" five million times in the highest voice I've ever heard, Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion, and told Ishigawa-san thank you for all her hard work after she kept having to chase Japanese people away from an area they weren't supposed to sit in during the parade.
Akihabara took up the brunt of the next day. I bought far too much anime merchandise and even spent 1200 yen on one of those machines akin to the American 25 cent machine. They were Zelda pins and I wanted them... so I got 6.
Again, the plan after was to go to Shibuya, but three days in Tokyo thorough sapped our energy and we simply spent the remaining time in the train station being good college students doing our homework. Finding the bus stop was not a problem thankfully, and in no time we were headed back to Kyoto to stumble in to Japanese classes the next morning, half awake.
More lessons from Tokyo: Apparently only Americans are fond of water fountains, benches, and trash cans; none of these luxuries exist in this city, and Patient Zero has been found. Beware the outbreak.
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