Cherry Blossom Adventures

I need to take a break from blogging for awhile. I have a lot going on with my family and my dad really is quite sick (not with the Cancer but with something else) but I can`t really go into here because this isn`t a anonymous blog. I want to write about it, and I wish I could but I can`t!! I will be back eventually…It might be a week or it might be a month…

I know I said I would write up a post about the surprise engagement party our friends in Tokyo through for us but instead I will just link to some of the photos I finally got around to uploading yesterday…

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• I arrived safely in Australia last Wednesday morning! 
• I know I have been slack and haven’t blogged in awhile but hopefully wireless internet will be set up in the next couple of days at my dad’s place and then I will be able to use my own computer to do everything. I am sure my google reader is overflowing!!! I havn’t read any blogs in almost a week, but I still love you all I promise! Will be around soon!
• My dad went into hospital this morning so I have the house to myself for about 2 or 3 weeks. I am not very good at living alone so I might come and go between my dad’s place and my mum’s place!
• So much has happened since I got here. Here is a couple of things. Bought a second hand car, a corolla, to run around in for the year. I went to see a friend who work for Julia Ross temping and she found me a job starting tomorrow which will go for two months as a student advisor doing admin work at the PA and Greenslopes hospitals. Basically got to make sure the medical students complete their prac and get their timetables and stuff….good money, regular hours and easy to get to, so I am happy. Might have an interview with the Japanese consulate in a couple of weeks also for a billingual admin person which would also be great!
• Went out for Japanese food last night with my dad and it was so yummy! We went to a place at portside called Sono I think it was! Staff and food were great!!!!
• I am missing Shun a lot but we have spoken everyday since I got here and he is doing ok in Tokyo and I am doing ok here so we are ok! I get so excited when I talk to him though cos I have so much to say about what is going on….He will be here in about 7 weeks!!!!!
• This deserves its own post but on our last weekend in Tokyo, I was supposed to have a goodbye party that I thought I had organized. Turns our our friends had organized a surprise engagement party, with about 50 people including Shun’s parents, brother and his wife, and we had no idea!!! Cat and James took us to Roppongi for cocktails and then I thought we were going to meet Koki to have some photos so we jumped in a taxi and we got there and they blindfolded us and took us upstairs above a restraunt into like a courtyard where all these people were waiting for us! It was amazing, and reminded me yet again, just how fantastic our friends are. Leader, Cat, James, Mai, Junni, Erika and Panni did a great job organizing everything….they even got in contact with Shumpei’s mum to get photos of shun when he was little and James contacted my brother to get photos of me growing up and they made a slideshow *(and yes I cried!). There was speeches made by others, and me and Shun, in which Shun proposed again, properly in front of everyone. It was simply one of the best nigths of my life and I have been smiling ever since. I will put photos up once I get internet set up properly on my computer.
• That is all for now…hopefully by next weekend at the latest I will be back up online properly and I will be around to check out what everyone has been doing!!!

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Last time I left Japan for awihle was almost three and a half years ago and it was three days before my 20th birthday. I knew I`d be back, and while I said a year, I didn`t really know how lon it would take. With out a doubt, the best year of my life was coming to an end.

To make it worse, five weeks earlier I had met Shumpei. I was in Japan almost 11 months and for some crazy reason fate couldn`t have brought us together any earlier it seemed.

The day I left was also the day two other exchange students were leaving so the kaikan, where we lived, was a buzz of activity and rushing around. Quite a few people had gathered to say goodbye. Shumpei had come by car the night before (Monday night) after work to stay. He had taken the following day off to drive me to the aiport.

I knew it would be hard to say goodbye. We all gathered downstairs, loaded luggage into the cars and I said goodbye to those not coming to the airport. And I started to cry. Leader, an awesome and dear friend, also had takent he day off work to drive the others going home to the airport plus a couple of others who were coming all the way out to say goodbye.

I cried halfway to the airport (It is a long drive!) and with Shumpei driving not really knowing what he could say to make it better.  Of course there were dramas at the airport. I had sent two boxes of stuff to Australia already but my suitcase still weight eight kilos over (I was literally pulling out clothes from my suitcase and throwing them in the bin at the aiport!) and I had so much hand luggage (My backpack was 18kg! Not to mention a laptop, large handbag and a bag carrying goodbye gifts I had gotten!). In the end, I can`t remember how much they charged me for the extra weight in my suitcase but it was about $500. I think mum is more likely to remember! I had an emergency credit card and I rang her in a panic not knowing what to do (While  Leader and Shumpei were withdrawing money from their accounts to pay for it also!) and she let me put it on there.

We ate dinner and Shun gave me a letter to read on the plane and we all got ready to say goodbye. I was crying so much and as I walked through the doors to get my handluggage x-rayed I was still crying and waving goodbye to everyone that had come.

Less than 12 months later I landed back in Tokyo on a delayed flight from London, where Shumpei was waiting for me at the airport!

This time is a little different! Again, I know I will be back. I even know it will more than likely be at the end of May or June. But I still have mixed feelings. I want to go back to Australia for a little while, I do. But I know if it is anything like the last time I left, I will miss Japan terribly. Shumpei and I will only be apart for 2 months but that is still the longest we have been apart since I returned to japan two and a half years ago. And my friends here, I will miss them so much. They are so great to me, especially Catherine and James. I don`t know how I will go in Australia without them!

Tonight is my goodbye party that Leader, Catherine and James organized. It is a formal place apparently so I have a dress and Shun will wear a suit and we will be meeting Cat and James early in Roppongi for a couple of drinks before we head to Omotesando! I am very excited but it will also be sad because today will be the day I say goodbye to my friends here in Tokyo, and for most it will be the second time I will be saying goodbye!

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I am back from my golden week trip down to Kobe to meet up with Sarah! Sarah and I had never actually met in real life before although we have been blogging, email and facebook friends for awhile now! It was great to finally meet her and she was exactly how I imagined she would be (I wonder if I am like what she thought I would be?!) We got on really well and to look at his you wouldn`t have known we only had just met I don`t think!

I had so much fun! Sarah kindly let me stay at her place with her and her husband Ryohei (Who is a crack-up!) and we met up just after 5pm on Friday. I had taken the Shinkansen down, and after a bit of a mix-up in Tokyo, (I thought my train was 11:22 but turns out it was 10:10 so wen I got there just after a 11 I was in a bit of a panic but luckily they told me I could still catch the next Shinkansen and just sit in the open seating area!) I got to Kobe just after 2pm and I put my stuff in a locker and went exploring. I had never been to Kobe before and it actually reminded me a little bit of my home town Brisbane…obviously not as big as Tokyo, but the central area, Sannomiya, was still fairly busy and I am not sure why it reminded me of Brisbane but it just did! (I guess the fact that it is still a big city but that it is kind of small and not quite as busy as some, similar to Brisbane)

I grabbed a map from the Tourist center and made my way up to Ikuta jinja only a short walk from Sannomiya station as I had a couple hours to spare before I met Sarah! I am glad I did because they had one of those little rows of red torii! I love Torii!

It was kind of funny waiting at Sannomiya station for someone I have never met! But we recognized each other straight away and very quickly fell into a casual conversation! I am really surprised at how quickly we completely forgot that we we just met! We headed back to Sarah`s place to wait for Ryohei to come back so that we could head out for dinner! We ate yummy yummy Hiroshima Okonomiyaki! Ryohei was a sweetie also! He is really funny! Ryohei is not really how I imagined though, although all I knew about him was what Sarah had talked about on her blog. I guess I figured he would be shy like Shun (Shun is really shy around people he first meets) but Ryohei didn`t seem to be shy at all! They both made me feel extremely welcome!

On Saturday we woke up fairly early (For me anyway….I am lucky if I get out of bed on Saturdays before lunch time!) and Sarah made blueberry pancakes! We didn`t actually leave very early because we were going to Sarah`s friend Miranda`s house to meet baby Toshi! They live right near the water, which I am guessing is part of the port in Kobe! It was such a nice area and despite the heat it was a lot cooler to be closer to the ocean! Miranda made me feel extremely welcome also….she basically said when I walked in `My home is your home`! We ate lunch there and sat around talking for a couple of hours. I guess it is always nice to meet other foreigners who are living here and are married or engaged to Japanese men because I guess it makes me feel like there will always be people around in similar situations to me! Here is baby Toshi!

After leaving Sarah and I headed back into Sannomiya for a couple of hours before going to Osaka for another of Sarah`s friends Birthday parties at the Hardrock cafe! In Sannomiya though we walked upto Kitano which is where a lot of old foreigner settlements are….European style houses and food! It was a bit of a hike up (in 26 degree heat!) but on the way down we did enjoy a lovely icecream. It was nice too because there was a mini festival happening…..People from dfferent countries had made designs and pictures out of flower petals, bark and dirt. Here is my favourite photo from there, although there are more over at my flickr.

We headed into Osaka at about 4:30pm and met up with Sarah`s friend Muriel who was having a birthday party at the Hard Rock Cafe. I have never been to one before but there was definitely an American feel about the place…I had forgotten what meals that size looked like! It was great fun and while I am still on my no alcohol diet, I stuck to water and pigged out on a salad, burger and cheesecake instead (So giving up alcohol is doing nothing as you can imagine!)….It was great to meet another new bunch of people but by the time we left I think both of us were feeling a little sick from over eating! hehehe! It was very yummy though!

On Sunday, we got up early and headed to Nara! I have always wanted to go to Nara and Sarah was kind enough to come with me on my journey! It was on my list of 101 things in 1001 days so I will be able to cross it off! Yay! It was a super super hot day (about 28 degrees….I can`t believe it is just May!) and it was a bit of a hike to get to Nara from Kobe but I am so glad we went. I think we both had a great day despite been a little tired and weary by the time we got home!

We didn`t get to see everything but we did see the three story and five story pagodas inside the Kofukuji Temple grounds (Which is also where we spotted our first deers of the day!). This is part of a Buddhist temple complex! I love pagoda`s (almost as much as red torii!)

We then walked up through the park (Inside this park is where the deer run wild and also where most of the main things to see in Nara are) towards Nandaimon gate which would talk us to Todaiji where the big Buddha is! On the way we stopped to pet some deer! It is not really surprising that these deer as so tame considering the amount of tourists which come through Nara each year (they are much nicer than the deer on Miyajima Island down near Hiroshima!)

Todaiji, which houses the great Buddha of Nara, is apparently the largest wooden structure in the world! The building which stands now is not quite as large as the original but it still very impressive! It was amazing to see the inside of the building and the Buddha as well! I took heaps and heaps of photos but here are a couple of my favourites.

Sarah and I both like Japanese gardens and on the information we had it mentioned that Isuien Garden was a nice Japanese style garden so we went to check it out. It was lovely and cool inside with a couple of traditional Japanese tea houses thrown in amongst the gardens…all of the buildings inside had thatched roofs which was really cool to see! The garden is meant to represent the design of gardens during the Meiji Period (1868-1912)

After our day out in Nara Sarah and Ryohei cooked Nabe for dinner, Niigata style! It is the way that Ryohei`s family cooks it and it was yummy! It is kind of more like shabu shabu because you dip everything into ponzu sauce before you eat it!

Sarah and I talked almost non-stop the whole time we were together about our plans for the future (family vacations together!) and how we felt about staying in Japan. When I come back to Japan next year Sarah will most likely be living in Kanto from August 2009 so I am sure we will be able to see more of each other then! I really can`t say thank you enough to both her and Ryohei because they both made me feel so welcome! I really had such a great time and I can not wait to see them both again!!! Next time we meet up Shumpei will be coming with me (he spoke to them both on the phone while I was down there)! I actually think him and Ryohei will get on well because they have similar sense of humour…Shun is a little bit shy but once he gets to know people he really warms up a lot so I am sure they will get on great!!! Like I said already too, Sarah and I got on really well also and I am glad our online friendship transcended into a RL friendship so nicely

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Japanese Azalea (ツツジ）in Nara: Isuien Garden

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