Cherry Blossom Adventures

• Will need to be in dot points since I have a lot to say on a lot of different topics. I got my blogging mojo back a couple of weeks ago and was posting a lot and then I got stressed out with work and life and things going on back home in Australia and lost it again. I will try to get back into it though…I like blogging, I like reading other blogs and I like the fact that it gives me a chance to write when normally I wouldn`t write anything in English anymore. Except maybe my diary…which like blogging happens in stages. I am in a diary writing stage at the moment so am writing or doing something in it everyday (For anyone that keeps a journal or diary I have found keri smiths sites inspiring!) however because of that it has meant I have not been blogging.
• Kyoto last weekend was fantastic….I had a great time and it was so good to catch up with kanako. I would post pictures except I dropped my camera on the first day I was there and now it doesn`t work. I have taken to get it fixed but it will take a couple of weeks. I was so angry that I wanted to cry…I had been so looking forward to taking lots of photos. Anyway apart from that everything went well….We visited about 10 different places and I love the fact that you can get a 500yen bus pass in Kyoto that lasts you all day. It was just as I had remembered it…this time though I did manage to see a couple of other places, even a couple that were not as populated with tourists…Seeing all the zen gardens really makes me want a Japanese garden……I loved the rock gardens too. The amount of effort they put into them each day is amazing. Seeing Kanako again was great like I said. We met up on the Friday night, just her and me, for coffee, and I have to say it was a little strange to be seeing her again after so long and we had a couple of awkward silences (We found it hard to choose a language to speak in…up until now in person we had only ever used English…although recently when I had spoken to her on the phone I used Japanese because I thought it would be easier….we write emails too each other in English though….we started out in Japanese but switched to English later as she said she never gets an opportunity to speak English with native speakers anymore….I am so jealous of her English…..Even now, after been back in Japan for 5 years her English is still fantastic, if not better than it was when she lived in Australia.) We met up again the following night for dinner and Shumpei came and her boyfriend Kengo, it was my first time meeting him but he was great, a real funny guy. We used Japanese mainly that night since the boys don`t speak English much. Then her and Kengo came to say good bye to us the next day at Kyoto station where we all had lunch together before getting on a shinkansen to Tokyo! Since coming back to Tokyo a week ago we have emailed back and forth a few times. It really was so great to see her again, and to remember what we had been doing five years ago in Brisbane, and three years ago in Kyoto. It made me realize how much I had missed her and I think her and her bf will be coming up to Tokyo early next year to stay with Shun and I (The best thing also was that Kengo and Shumpei got on great…Shun is a little older than him and usually the both boys are a little shy but they got on famously!) I hope to visit Kanako again sometime next year after she returns to Nagasaki to become a junior highschool English teacher. I have never been that far South (I have only been as far as Hiroshima) so I am looking forward to that too.
• I am going back to Australia for Christmas. My dad was meant to come here on the 26th of December but he can`t come now and there has been a lot going on in Australia recently with my family, some of it which has contributed to my stress etc recently, so I have decided to go home for 2 and a half weeks on my winter break. My dad`s health hasn`t been so great lately but it isn`t the only reason I am going home. I can not wait to spend some time with my mum and my dad and my brother and his gf (Although they take off for Europe on the 1st of January for six weeks, lucky things). My parents are separated and this will be the first Christmas I have been in Australia since they separated which I think is going to be a little bit strange for me…..but then again my parents still get on well and have always been there for each other so I am sure it won`t be much different to Christmas’s` in the past. I look forward to doing almost nothing for 2 and a half weeks….I really need the break!
• I have been getting really crafty lately…I even want to bring my old sewing machine back to Japan with me in January. But I have being beading more and have started knitting. Am on to my second scarf but I did a lot of squares to work out some new stitches etc recently too. I have a fair bit of yarn stock piled with some other projects in mind…I attempted some baby booties the other day but they need a little work…Might go back to them this afternoon. I have also bought some cards to make my own Christmas’s cards…I need to get a start on them though otherwise Christmas will come and I won`t have even started. Might do some of that later this afternoon also. When my camera is fixed I promise some photos of some of the things I have made….Although my flickr does have a couple of photos of earrings I made a few weeks back.
• Have been so stressed lately. Like I said with stuff going on back home, but also here in Japan. I like my job, but lately I have been so stressed out lately and we really need another assistant at school. Before the school was bought by the new owner we had always had three teachers on staff…I had been the last one to join the team also. Now it is just me and the owner running the classes and I feel like I can never get everything I need to get done because I just don`t have the time in the afternoons to do all the craft prep etc for the following week. Plus the preschool class, which I teach with the owner, is growing and we need the extra hand there in the mornings. Because I am stressed out I feel like I am not giving my best to the kids anymore. I am also hating the fact that teaching is making me feel like I would make a bad mother…up until this point I had always thought that eventually, when I had children, that I would probably make a good mother…I hate that my job is making me feel that way. I am sure it is just a phase and it will pass but still…The school is moving next weekend too, so not only do we have to teach classes everyday this week, plus prepare for the following week, we also have to pack up the whole school. We have one day, next Monday, to prepare the new school (Everything will be moved there next Sat and Sunday) for the kids who will return on Tuesday. I can tell it is going to be another stressful week…
• In other news I had dinner at James` house last night with Erika, Koki, plus Shun and me…because I had to work yesterday we didn`t arrive until just after 7pm and the other three had already cooked up a storm! It was lovely to sit down, eat, drink some wine and chat! I haven`t seen Catherine in what feels like ages, but I am sure we will be catching up this week or at the weekend.
• Things with Shun and I are going really well. For awhile there he was doing so much overtime that it was driving me insane that we never had anytime together but lately things have been really great and we go out to eat dinner together at least once a week and he has been getting home by 10 every night, sometimes earlier! We are still thinking about moving to Australia next year for six months…I really want to go, and I think I will be going….Shun is still thinking about it but lately he has been asking me to speak to him in English more, which I see as a good sign that he is leaning towards coming to Australia!
• I still have the ongoing headache that comes and goes. The doctor says it is caused by stress…which doesn`t help me much!!!

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