Cherry Blossom Adventures

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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A sunset in April in Tokyo, Yoyogi park

Only on my fifth week of this and already finding it hard to decide what to put up. Photos of me and my friends don`t seem appropriate but they seem to be all I have! Need to get out more and take my camera and go shooting! Maybe tomorrow along the small river that runs by Shumpei`s parents place!

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Can`t find my USB camera cord in the mess in our apartment at the moment….It is probably in a box somewhere?!

So here are three photos from my flickr account that people have favourited the most….all from the same day, same camera, taken in Harajuku! They are not the best photos I have ever taken or anything but for some reason `Harajuku girls` are popular I guess!!! They were all taken two years ago!!

Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone!!!

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Today on the train when I got on in Shinjuku I watched three friends (2 girls, 1 boy) from Keio Elementary school ( Hard to get into private school!) hop on and sit down although as one of the girls went to sit down her seat was taken by someone else so she was standing. Almost immediately the young boy stood up and offered his seat to his female friend.

These kids were about seven. I couldn`t believe that a boy of that age would know to offer his seat to a girl!

In the kindergarten we taught the boys in our class (after quite a few pushing and running in the hallway incidents!) that if they were big strong boys that they should let girls go first! It took them a little while to get the hang of it and sometimes they still needed to be reminded but they eventually got it! Some of the mothers even mentioned that they had started to be more cooperative at home and let their sisters do things first!

Whoever that little boys parents or teachers are they are doing a great job of raising such a charming, polite little boy!

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I finished up work yesterday and I have mixed feelings…On one hand the job of late had been exhausting me and I had been quite sick on and off for awhile and until recently the school was understaffed (I thought anyway)…I have had enough of been a teacher for awhile (I do know that when I return to Japan that I will probably return to being a kindergarten teacher as job opportunities for foreigners without level 1 of the proficiency exam are few and far between)….I think teaching kids so young is a very physically demanding job (I don`t know how mothers do it full-time…I guess they are super glad there are kindergartens to send them to!) and I have mentioned here before that it was starting to make me feel a little bit like I would make a very bad mother!On the other hand, I love my kids at school, some of them have been there since I started 18 months ago and I have watched them grow, develop and change!

I only cried once, when I was saying goodbye to Shion (Who drew the picture below)….I met him when he had just turned 4 and now is already 5 and a half….He is actually one of the kids that cause the most trouble for me but he is also one of my favourites! He hugged me and said ` I will miss you, please come to my house for dinner when you come back to Japan`…..

I received many gifts and letters from my students, one of my favourites was this… I love the bow in my hair! And the random strawberry!

It was sad to say goodbye but I am happy also. I am ready to move on…..

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Dear Cherry Blossom Advenures readers…

It is hard to believe that a week has passed between posts…..so much has happened, stuff I will eventually blog about I am sure! Apparently this is the month of letters (If you are participating in NABLOPOMO) so I thought it was time I wrote a quick letter to you all!

Lets see. This Friday I finish up work at my current job….after 18 months.

I have already knocked a couple of things off my 101 things in 1001 days list but info on that will also come in another post. I am supposed to do a update at the end of the month and I hope to have at least another couple of things crossed off! Including actually adding a page to my blog with the list!

I am up to N in my encylopedia of me and I am still not sure what I will write about. N is for Names perhaps? Or maybe N for Nancy Drew……

I am spending way to much time on the internet reading blogs, playing around on entrecard and writing emails but not nearly enough time writing on my blog…..It is hard to beleive that after posting for 3 days in a row last week I thought I might be able to do NABLOPOMO this month…..and then a week went by between posts so I guess I am not ready for that yet!

We need to be out of our apartment by April 27th….I have not yet done any packing but I will eventually get to it…I have done some cleaning though and have a man coming to pick up all our books and manga on Monday to take to book off. I have also begun to clean out my closet but it is a bigger job that I first thought! I will also be leaving Japan in just over a month….This is even harder to believe and I know it really hasn`t sunk in.

You know what also hasn`t really sunk in yet? The fact that I am getting married next May (The 9th actually!)….so far I have booked a venue and that is it. I have just kind of given up on doing anything until I get back to Australia! Although Shun and I did go look at engagement rings on the weekend……

I sprained my ankle last week although it is healing ok but still a bit bruised and swollen. Get this I did it by WALKING in my apartment…..yep to the bathroom. I am such a klutz.

I am the heaviest I have ever been and that is depressing…..I know I could start doing something about it now but have decided to start afresh the day I arrive back in Australia! Will be dieting with my mum and exercising with my dad I think! He walks everyday and wants to get a puppy so that will be our motivation. Also want to get a hoop!

I am going to Kobe in a couple of weeks to meet up with Sara which is super exciting and I can not wait! I will also get to go to Nara while I am down that way and that is also awesome since I have always wanted to go!

Oh last week on my week off I went to Disney Sea…another post perhaps?! Photos also? I also did Hanami on Saturday with Shun, Sumi, Junni and James and it was a random day but so much fun! We had no plans when we woke up that morning but the day turned out brilliantly!

I revised my resume for the first time in almost 2 years……I wasn`t even sure if resumes were still done the same way.

I signed up for entrecard….am already slightly addicted although don`t think it does anything for the traffic of my site but have already discovered some other great blogs! Although this isn`t helping my internet addiction at all because it just means I spend more time on the net reading blogs and stuff than I do doing stuff on my own blog or stuff like packing! Or even reading……I feel like I haven`t done nearly enough reading of actual books lately!

Now over to you readers, do you have any questions for me? You can ask me anything and I will try my best to answer! I have seen a couple of bloggers open up comments to their readers asking the same question `Do you have any questions` and it seems like fun. So fire away….

Hope you are all having a good week,

Love Lulu xoxoxoxo

ps: I just read the above…..talk about random. I do believe a letter is incomplete with a post script.

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It`s the season of cherry blossoms, one of my favourite times of the year in Japan. I take way to many photos but taking photos of sakura is addictive! I have finally uploaded some from the past week or so!!!

The Cherry blossom (Sakura) and hanami (Flower viewing) culture of Japan only comes around once a year, and only for a very short time. It is almost always over within two weeks, which is a shame but it also makes it that much more special!
Last week I spent a lot of time in Inokashira Park with the Spring School kids having picnics….while they were eating lunch it was a good chance to take a couple of photos! The back of Inokashira Park has some great pink sakura!!! Even on the weekdays last week, when the weather was brilliant (warm and sunny), a lot of mums were out with their kids in groups having hanami picnics!! Inokashira is a beautiful park anytime of the year but it comes alive during this season! I also went through the park after the rain yesterday because I had had a private lesson in that area. All the photos from Inokashira park are here but here are a couple of my favourites….

On Saturday I went to Yoyogi Park for Hanami with Catherine, Sumi and some other friends! We kind of decided to go pretty last minute and I mailed around to see who would be interested but most people already had plans, work or other trips but Sumi had decided to have hanami last minute with some friends too so we merged and met up at Yoyogi for some wine, beer, snacks and flower viewing! Luckily the weather on Saturday was actually pretty nice…little windy but still great hanami weather (Better than last year when I went…IT WAS FREEZING!). It was nice to pack a picnic basket, a picnic sheet and head to the park…..Crowded as expected but we managed to find a nice spot!

Photos from the day were here but again here a few of my favourites!

I won`t be around for sakura season next year but will definitely be back in 2010! There are still some sakura left to be seen this year…hoping to go somewhere tomorrow that I haven`t been to before perhaps. Maybe Ueno or maybe near the river in Iidabashi since I have heard it is beautiful and have been past on the train before during sakura season!

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In an effort to improve on my writing I have decided to sign up for Encyclopedia of me which started over at Bella Dia (and which I found out about by reading Laura`s blog here...) I am now almost half way through at K and while today`s entry is not so much about me, it has been very difficult to come up with a K something to do with me….so I present K is for Kokyo!

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Today Shumpei and I went to the Tokyo Imperial Palace, also known as kokyo…although we only went into the gardens! We were going to have a picnic but by the time we got up and left the house it was almost 2pm so we stopped and had Chinese food on the way! Spring is definitely in the air and it was nice to be out in the sunshine especially since the rain is meant to start again tomorrow (It rained from Wednesday afternoon to Friday last week!)

Some of the sakura were already blooming and it was nice to walk around, take photos and just take in the atmosphere. I have only been to the gardens once before, several years ago, with my mum while she was in Japan….I would love to go on the emperors birthday when they open up not just the gardens but the most of the palace…

I took heaps of photos and you can see them all here but these are a couple of my favourites! I suppose this is where the encyclopedia of me part comes in even though I am not in any of the photos….but I did take them all! I have always liked to take photos but have gotten a lot more interested in the last couple of years…

Sakura season is just starting here but I think next weekend or the weekend later will be the best weekends for hanami (flower viewing!)……this is by far my favourite time of the  year in Japan! I will miss it next year since I will still be back in Australia!

It was nice to have the day out with Shumpei too!!!!

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In an effort to improve on my writing I have decided to sign up for Encyclopedia of me which started over at Bella Dia (and which I found out about by reading Laura`s blog here...)

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J is for Japanese…

I have a love hate relationship with language learning….technically Japanese is the only language I have actually tried to learn (apart from some basic phrases while going through Europe and a couple of Maori words). I have talked a lot before on this blog about why and how I came about studying Japanese but hey, who wants to hear it again?

Like most people when they finish high school I really had no idea what I wanted to do…but I had decided that doing a course in Business/Creative Industries at QUT was what I wanted to study….but I didn`t get in…..In fact I didn`t get into my next four choices either. I got into my last choice, which I had put as a safety net (lucky huh?) and it was a straight up arts degree from Griffith University. I just want to say I have nothing against Arts Degrees (In fact I am so happy I did it because if I hadn`t I wouldn`t have ended up in Japan)

I was more than a little upset about it but by the time I started I figured that I better make the most of it and I had also discovered that I could do a PR major or Journalism major through the arts degree at Griffith which was something I had thought about studying if I had gotten into business! In my senior year at school I had also met Kanako a Japanese exchange student and had admired the fact that she learnt to speak English so well in her year in Australia. So I enrolled in elementary Japanese classes as well for my first semester as well as some psych courses and simple journalism/media courses. I had no intention of staying in the arts degree, I still had dreams of transferring out, that was until about three months later…

Uni wasn`t my first time studying Japanese….technically we did some basic Japanese at school in primary school (With good old Mrs Shield!) and also at my high school studying Japanese and German once a week was compulsory in year eight! But studying Japanese at uni, five hours on campus a week, plus home study was completely different! I loved it…and I was actually ok at it!

I applied to go on exchange mid year and left the following year for a year abroad at Seikei University in Tokyo….I hadn`t realized how hard it would be….Seikei didn`t really offer courses for beginners and that pretty much still what I was…( It didn`t help that I had not studied from Nov-Mar while I was on summer break waiting to go to Japan)I had one on one tutoring for the first couple of months because I wasn`t up to the same level that others on exchange were….Most of the friends i made in the first couple of months always spoke a little bit of English meaning I didn`t have to use my Japanese…..and my foreign friends all spoke English and Japanese really well so they could translate for me. I was gradually improving but not nearly as fast as I would of liked.

I loved Japan, I love the culture and the people and I was gradually getting a hang of the language and making friends that only spoke Japanese forcing me to speak more and more and then one day it all seemed to fall into place over the summer….and I could hold conversations and communicate and order in restaurants and read the menus and ask for help at the train station if I needed it. I think anyone that is learning another language gets to that point…where everything just clicks…

I am still a long way off from being fluent…and I still have a love hate relationship with Japanese study…..sometimes I love it, get right into it will study for a couple of hours a day and then it goes away again. I hit a brick wall and just give up on it for awhile……I always go back to it…..and I hope one day to pass level 1 of the Japanese proficiency test!!! Obviously the fact that Shun and I talk to each other in Japanese 95% of the time helps my Japanese except he knows the Japanese I know and talks in a way that is easy for me to understand!

My dream is to become fluent enough to read the newspaper and pass level one of JLPT….the problem is if I achieve that once I might just give up, and from what I have heard, If you don`t continue to study then it all just goes out the window!

The only way, for me anyway, to really learn a language is to immerse yourself in a country that speaks that language….so to all those language learners out there…..go spend six months in Spain or South America if you are learning Spanish, or a year in China if you are learning Chinese….It will make the world of difference to you language study…Not to mention it will be an experience you will never forget!

I am a little stuck with K is for….I haven`t decided what I will be doing yet! I can not believe I am almost half way though this writing exercise already!

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