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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Another week, another wordless Wednesday. Check out here for all the other people participating…

See here for more photos from Disney Sea!

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A couple of posts ago I asked my readers to ask questions if they had any…..I only received a couple but figured I would answer them in this post….

Mandy asked…What do you consider to be the three most significant days of your life?

Um I am really bad with these types of questions…because generally I have no idea. But probably the day I started highschool, the day I arrived in Japan for the first time and the day I met Shumpei. Just because they all made me the person I am now I guess….By the time I started highschool I was so ready for it…I needed to be in highschool and after coming from a very small Catholic primary school it was all so different. The day I arrived in Japan because obviously if I had never come to Japan on exchange that year then I never would of learnt to speak Japanese, make so many friends here and decided to come back. I say the day I met Shumpei is significant because he is the man I am going to marry!

Oh and meeting you Mandy when we were 4 as well!!! hehehe!

Sara asked… Kind of a geek questions but what manga do you have?

Actually I have no manga. I never really got into the manga craze but I once read Nana (like the first 2) and another one which I think was called Peach Girl. I am more of a Japanese drama girl….my favourites being Orange Days, Boku dake no madonna, Regatta and a recent drama called Puropozo Daisakusen!

Nay asked... Just to help you out with your blog posts, here is a question from me!
Would you say that your move back to Australia is filled more with excitement of going home, or sadness for leaving Japan? How is Shun feeling about coming to Australia for 1 year, giving up his job, losing his spot in the “Japanese job market” etc?

I think that my move back to Australia is filled with both excitement and sadness…I will only be gone a year though and I know Japan will still be here when I get back. I am a little nervous about going home….for me as well as Shumpei. I am nervous for myself because it is has been 2 and a half years since I lived back in Australia and even then I was only there for 10 months while I finished uni….most of my close friends are here in Japan and most of my close friends in Australia are no longer in Brisbane bar a couple! So that will be difficult because I have such a great support network of friends here in Tokyo who I will miss so much. But my family is in Australia and I need to be with them for awhile. I am nervous for myself also because I will need to find work and I know how stressful that can be! I am nervous for Shumpei because he is leaving his job and his friends and family behind and his motivation to do this is me….that is a lot to bear. As most of you know Shumpei`s English is not great and while it is getting better all the time he can`t really hold a conversation with someone that doesn`t understand Japanese…while he understands English quite well now he finds it very difficult to respond in English. I am hoping this will get better while we are in Australia.

It took Shumpei a very long time to decide to come with me. I had decided that I would be going back for six months whether or not he came with me or not because I needed to be with my family and he understood that. I gave him the choice and said that he could come of course….when he finally told me he was coming I cried. He had been thinking about it for about three months already and I really thought he wouldn`t come. As for giving up his job I think this is what he had to think about most. As some of you know the job market here is weird….people do not change jobs willy nilly and most stay with the same company for life. While this is changing a lot more now it is almost unheard of for someone to leave a job unless they already have a job lined up. Shun`s company has actually told him that he might be able to come back to his old job after 1 year….

I think the pressure from his family about leaving his job was more the problem that his own feelings about it.

Christelle asked …I’d love to hear more about your wedding plans, I know you said you couldn’t think about much before going to Australia, but you must have some image in your mind? Traditional wedding? Garden wedding? His family going to Australia for the ceremony? Big? Small?

When people ask me about my wedding plans I never know what to say because basically I haven`t done any. I never grew up thinking `OMG at my wedding I want to do this this and this` In fact I had never really given it much thought. But we have told quite a few people we are engaged and I am ultimately always asked the `What will you do for your wedding` question.

So far we have booked a venue…I wanted a place where we could have the ceremony and reception at the same place because we will have international guests most of which would not have transport to different venues. I also wanted it to be fairly local to the area that my parents live so my mum helped me book a place that had received some good reviews and had recently been done-up. We will be having a garden wedding and the reception in one of the function wedding rooms on site. The best thing is that this place also has a motel on the grounds so international guests will have a place (super close!) to stay!!! While I am Catholic, I never really had this huge desire to get married in a church and I quite like the idea of a garden wedding!

I have asked three friends to be bridesmaids! Catherine (who is here in Tokyo), a highschool friend Clare (who lives in Mt Isa for work) and Mandy (who reads and comments on my blog) who is my best friend from primary school and she lives in London. So yes my bridesmaids live in three different countries and none of them live in Brisbane where the wedding will be (Although Mandy and Clare are from Brisbane originally!) Shumpei has asked our friend James to be best man because we thought it would be best to ask someone that spoke English! hehe….It is great because James speaks Japanese fluently also! While James is actually originally my friend him and Shun have gotten really close and it was Shumpei who suggested we ask James (Although Shumpei had no idea what a best man was as the time) Shumpei has mentioned to a couple of his friends that he will need two more friends to be groomsmen it is something we can`t really decide right now because we are not exactly sure who is coming but I think he will ask two of his university friends! Having all of the wedding party so far away will make dress fittings for bridesmaids dresses a nightmare!

As for a theme, I am actually going to steal Nay`s idea (Don`t worry I asked her) and have a cherry blossom theme…as you can tell from my blog I love them!). While the wedding is in Australia Shumpei and I met in Japan, he is Japanese and ultimately we will be living here so it is very important for me to include something from Japan. I am not exactly sure how I will work it in but am thinking of cherry blossom invitations, cake, favors and maybe some decorations! Not really sure yet though and will have to wait til I get back to Australia before I decide anything for sure. I have also heard of a tradition they do in hawaii where they fold 1001 cranes which grants you happiness in your marriage. I like this because origami cranes are Japanese and I could give some to the guests etc but again not really sure about this.

I have no idea about colours yet though, this part is difficult as I love pink! and would love my bridesmaids to wear pink and for me to have pink flowers etc but I am not 100% sure yet. So maybe pink, silver and white for colours….

The wedding is not going to be very big. Maybe about 50 people. I thought less at first but I think a lot of Shumpei and my friends here in Japan might actually make it over for the wedding which would be fantastic. Obviously Cat and James are definitely coming but some other friends have said they would love to also!!! Shun`s parents are coming and maybe his grandmother and brother too!

The next question I am sure will be about the dress but this is something I really do have no idea about!

Because we will be having the ceremony in Australia a lot of people have asked whether we will be doing a ceremony in Japan also and at this stage the answer is no. But when we return we will have a ni ji kai for our friends and probably some kind of dinner with Shumpei`s extended family!

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• I always resort to dots when I have a lot of stuff to say but not much time to say it! Or a lot of random stuff that doesn`t really warrant its own posts!
• I am starting the 101 things in 1001 days challenge on April 1st…with Mandy and Paul I think it will help get wedding plan stuff done as well as a fair bit of stuff I have on my life list! I first read about this on the blogs here and here and have loved reading about their progress! Does anybody else want to join in????
• I am almost halfway through my encyclopedia of me meme and was wondering if anybody had any ideas of things they would want to see me write about for m onwards (I have L done!)
• I have booked a flight back to Australia and my tickets have arrived…It is a one way flight leaving Japan May 13th and arriving in Brisbane early morning on May 14th…..The ticket was pretty cheap….only 60,000yen including tax (That is about 650 dollars I think?) and thank god it was cheap because I have no money! I took a lot of sick days in the last couple of months meaning my last pay check was significantly less than usual!
• I finish work on April 11th so will have two weeks to pack up the apartment (We need to be out by end of April) and then another two weeks to relax in Chiba at Shumpei`s parents place until I leave to go home. And best of all I also have a weeks holiday next week…My second last week of work will be spent having a paid holiday. I like that! I am not sure how much relaxing I will be able to do at the in-laws place….I am not usually even allowed to put my own bread in the toaster…Shumpei`s mum insists on doing it for me. Let alone allowed to wash my own plates. This is something that really bothers me because I feel like I am taking advantage even though i offer EVERY TIME. I lived at Shumpei`s parents place for two months when I was first back in Japan…
• Shumpei taught me to play Mahjong and I really liked it. It is a Chinese game that Shumpei sometimes plays with his friends at a place especially for Mahjong…Not many people know how to play it I think so chances are I will forget how to play it before I get another chance!
• I read The Kite Runner the other day and it was awesome. Everyone should read it!
• Oh by the way the two quotes that nobody got on my movie quote meme…..One was from The Blues Brothers and the other was from Moulin Rouge!!!
• Oh I almost forgot!!! I got some more blog bling from the delightful Guera!!
• I really liked this award because I love reading blogs from around the world and have been doing more of it recently. I was so happy when she passed this on to me. So I have decided to pass it onto some other ex-pats bloggers I read similar to like what Guera did!
  (I am not sure if they all read my blog or not though!) There are heaps of others I would love to pass it onto also but I am not sure how may I can pass it onto! Also I am not sure where this award originated but it is great!
  • Mandy
  • Eurotrippen
  • Illahee
  • Amy
• My next post will be L is for…..

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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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Shokai suru means introduce yourself! So here I am, most people that would usually read this blog are regular readers and therefore know a fair bit about me because I write random stuff about my self all the time….

But a little introduction for those joining from the Ultimate Blog Party which is hosted at 5 minutes for mum! Firstly welcome to my blog…I am recently 23, recently engaged and I live in Tokyo with my fiancee Shumpei and we are moving to Australia mid year for one year before we come back to live here in this urban jungle! I am originally from Brisbane Australia and all the background info about me can be found on my about page and if you are into random facts then check out my post with 100 things about me or write meme into my search box and I am sure you will be overwhelmed with more info about me than you ever wanted to know!

I have no kids but am a preschool teacher here (I seem to be surrounded by mummies at this blog party! Or should I say mommies as I realize a lot of you are American)

I like to take photos which you can see here and I like to write a lot (as you can see from my blog!). I also love books, cherry blossoms (hence the blog name) and food….plus I dabble in a bit of knitting sometimes!

I love a good party, and you would usually see me bringing wine and cheese or mini pizzas!!! So pull up a chair and have a look around…..or better yet dance around, I have just put on an album by `The Fray`!

Oh and if you are into cocktails, here is my favourite. I don`t think it is an original recipe but a bartender in Thailand taught me how to make it!

You need a blender, white rum, dark rum, cointreau, pineapple juice and some grenadine (Orange curacao also adds a nice flavour!)! Mix it all together, and wah lah, you have a beautiful fresh tasting cocktail….Yummy!  Do be careful though, they may taste like juice but they are super strong!

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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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H is for Happy times…

On Friday Shumpei and I got engaged….I know I have been slack with blogging in the last week or so and part of the reason is that I haven`t had time to sit down and write a post and part of it is I didn`t know how to put it all into words.

We had talked a lot about weddings and getting married etc and recently and we had decided that we would have the ceremony in Australia. I said to Shun on Friday that if we were going to get married in May (2009) then we would need to start planning otherwise then we should come back to Japan next June and then go back to Australia to get married later in the year 2009 or in 2010…and I asked him what he thought, and what he wanted to do and he said (Im translating and paraphrasing a little bit also) `Lets get married in May, lets get engaged` and I said Ok!

Hehe, there is nothing terribly romantic about it but I am over the moon ecstatic! There was no ring, or formal proposal and Shun still wishes to ask my dad for permisson in Australia but we have started to tell friends we got engaged and are planning on getting married in May next year….We have told my parents and his parents also (On Sunday because we were out in Chiba for dinner…..I was releived that they didn`t seem to mind it was going to be in Australia…and said they would come)

So yeah, I am engaged! To the love of my life, who I couldn`t imagine not being with….so it is indeed happy times!

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Firstly, I still hate skiing…I did have a great time away for the weekend though! I have come to the conclusion that snow sports are not for me…

We went to an awesome place in Niigata in which we had to leave our car at the bottom of the mountain and catch a crazy snowmobile up the mountain….our ski ryokan was literally on the side of the mountain…go outside and you are in the middle of the snoboard/ski path! It was great….

Check out my photos of at flickr here…

Here are a couple of my favourites though…

Due to the heavy snowfall in Niigata, Nagano, Saitama and Tokyo it took us nine and a half hours to get home….(to give you some idea I think it took us 3 and a half hours to get there in the early morning on Saturday) The drive home was an experience…Junni lost control of the car at one stage and we ran into a snow bank….luckily we were not going very fast and there was no damage! Just a bit of a shock!!!! I know how to put snow chain on the tyres now though!

B for…. in my encyclopedia of me will be coming up soon!

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Lately Shumpei and I have been talking about marriage and getting engaged a lot more. We plan to get engaged sometime this year .I think we could just do it now but he wants to wait until we are in Australia (A lot of it has to do with asking my father for permission…and part of it is that he is worried that is is not a good idea for us to get engaged until he can speak English…I am not really worried about this at all but I think what worries him also is that if I go back to Australia I might want to stay while he would want to return to Japan. The thing is, I want to come back to Japan….and he knows this but is still worried a little I guess)

With Nay, talking about her wedding plans and Sara talking about signing the papers this year but waiting for 2010 for the marriage ceremony it has given me a lot to think about. Nay, Sara and I are all of similar ages and in similar situations. We are all in serious relationships or engaged to Japanese men and planning on living in Japan after we are married. Nay will be having her ceremony in Australia (In Brisbane actually, where I am from!) while I think Sarah plans to have it here in Japan. Nay will also have a small Japanese ceremony in Japan at a later date. We keep in contact via email, facebook and our blogs and while none of us have ever met I know that we feel a connection due to our circumstances….We were hoping to meet up before Nay headed back to Australia to finish her studies but we have left the planning a little late….However I hope to meet Sara later in the year and Nay when I go back to Brisbane (Since she will be there until September, when she will get married)

Shumpei and I have tosses up the idea of getting married late next year in September or October (2009). If we were to do the ceremony here in Japan (Which has been the plan)…I know my family would fly over for it but I feel bad that so many others would be left out so there has been talk of maybe having a small party/reception type thing while we are in Australia. Plus, if we did it here it would be in Japanese meaning that my family would struggle with language and language barriers that they would have with all of the other guests.

There is a lot of things to think about. Where to file the papers for instance? In Japan or Australia, or both (Can you do both?) How much money we could afford to spend on ceremonies etc (At the moment is is close to zero)…..Also if the wedding is here in Japan what sort of wedding should it be. Traditional? I don`t think I could wear the traditional wedding kimono…..I could do it, especially if that is what Shumpei wanted but in the past when we have discussed it he has said he doesn`t necessarily want a traditional wedding….but white weddings here in chapels have fake ministers that do the ceremonies…and I am not sure I could handle that either. I think outside would be perfect…..or in a proper church with a proper priest. If it was in Japan that is…..If it was in Australia, despite being raised Catholic would I want to have a wedding in a Catholic church, especially since Shumpei is not Catholic…and has no intention of becoming Catholic.

I have never wanted a big fairytale wedding…..In fact the whole thing scares me a little because I would be so worried that after a lot of planning that the day itself would not live up to the expectations we had. I am all for garden weddings, with only a close couple of family and friends and a small reception at a restaurant. Here most of the time you can not invite so many friends to your wedding because extended family, business associates etc come higher up on the invitation list….

International weddings are a difficult thing to deal with. Most people I know have either had the weddings in their home countries or in both their home countries and Japan….Japanese weddings are absurdly expensive and I really wouldn`t want to spend that much money on one day. Shumpei and I are both young, i have no savings to speak of and Shumpei did have savings but has used a lot of it in the past couple of years by flying to Australia or for when we set up this apartment….I know he still has some but when we go to Australia later in the year he will do an English course and I will work so we will be living on one salary for a little while.

In Japan, like I said wedding are absurdly expensive….Shumpei`s brother`s wedding was so expensive it was unbelievable. And while it was really pretty, and a beautiful day…but I do not want to spend that much wedding on one day.

Are you married? What did you do for your `big day`? Are you in an international marriage…how did you please everyone? It would be interesting to hear what others did…especially those who entered or are entering kokusai kekkon themselves (International marriage)!

There is so much to think about and it is hard to know where to start!

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Shumpei and I met three years ago today (yesterday) and I hate to say it but it was love (or at least lust) at first sight! For gods sake I still remember what he and I were both wearing when we met. We take the 15th of Jan as our anniversary because while we technically started dating a week later we met on th 15th and for us it seems to ring truer as an anniversary (That said for the first year I think we thought of it as the 14th before we realized that we must of definitely met after midnight…..I know this because I went to watch a soccer game an ebisu pub with some friends which would of been playing later…..and we went to another bar before heading back to where we lived at the time…..and Shumpei was at a party at the dorm I was living in at the time)…..I remember walking into the room (third floor kaikan kitchen) and thinking ” My god that boy is hot!”….My gay friend (which whom I have very similar taste) also took a liking to Shumpei….and I will never forget the conversation where he tried to tell him he might be gay! (I am serious about my friend and I having similar taste….his old bf was sooooo hot…….and he had seen pictures of some of my ex`s and had fallen in love by looking at their pictures…A little freaky deshou?)

I worked late tonight because I had a private lesson. I bought a bottle of wine on the way home before getting in about 8:30…..we had tea in the apartment and it was nothing real special but here is a pic

And our wine “乾杯！”　（Cheers!)to celebrate our three years

Oh and lets not forget the happy couple (By the way it is hard to look happy and half decent when you have worked 8 hours plus done a 2 hour private lesson, cooked dinner and not eaten until 10pm)

Love you Shun! Here is to many years to come!!!!

Lost of kisses and hugs!

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