Ichi-go Ichi-e

Paper Cranes

Today one of the teachers lent me a book of poems about Hiroshima. At first, I was a bit taken a back – but then I realized that it was probably the only book he had that was partially in English (all the poems were in both Japanese and English). They were beautiful and tragic. At the end of the book was a letter from maybe, the compiler, I’m not sure – but it said that one day she hoped that this book would be in all languages so that everyone could understand that most of us are living in a time of peace and how crucial it is that we maintain it. Then I thought some more. Hiroshima isn’t about who was to blame or who did or didn’t deserved it – in fact, it’s not just a tragedy for Japan, but for the entire world. The poems weren’t from the point of views of soldiers, but of parents and children. About people who died in Hiroshima and about people who go on to die after.

When the Japanese mention Hiroshima they aren’t saying, “This is your fault,” they’re saying, “This was a tragedy – let’s not let it happen again.”

Of course, I can’t speak for everyone. Normally, this would be a rather heavy and bold topic that I wouldn’t dare touch on.

Places I’m going to visit while in Japan: Nara and Hiroshima.

*In other news!*

It’s 30 degree Celsius today and I’ve drank 3 bottles of water today. Also, I went to the 100 Yen store today – which is the Japanese equivalent to a dollar store…only not, because it is filled with awesome things! I bought a bear towel because I’ve learnt that with all the heat and the sweating, you really need a small towel at all time. Apparently this is an uncharacteristic summer for the north of the Japan, it’s usually much closer to Alberta temperature. I also bought some chopsticks and a chopstick box for school lunches, and a tea cup with a panda on it that says “Nihao.” (That’s Chinese, bee-tee-dub) The dishes and cups in the 100 Yen shop are so pretty! One thing I’ll miss about Japan and be sad to leave behind is all the cute dishes and home accessories. Kind of weird, I know.

Lastly, I bought a small notebook for writing down new words that I learn. I’ve got to start taking this studying thing seriously!

Oh yeah, today I was applauded in class for being able to read English fast. The teacher wanted me to show them that I was speaking at an abnormally slow rate for their benefit but not to make them feel bad, just to show them that English speakers really don’t talk so slow or enunciate their word quite so deliberately .

I think when I come home, I’ll request daily applause from my friends for something random and mundane. I’ll return the favour of course. We’ll all feel like superheroes.

“Clap clap! You put on matching socks today!” (no wait, that’s not mundane – THAT’S HARD!)

Or how about:

“Clap clap! You can use a spoon!”

Catching what I’m drifting!? It’ll be a movement.

Jizo statue in Noboribetsu

First and foremost, a big shout out to Brenna who not only set up this blog, but is also  hosting it now too! Thank you!

So here’s a summary of the last two and a half weeks:

Leaving day: Mom and Aaron took me to the airport. I was told later on by Aaron that  my goodbye had been incredibly abrupt! I hadn’t meant it to be that way, but honestly, I’m  terrible at goodbyes and didn’t want to cry – which I didn’t that entire 20 hour trip!

In Vancouver, I had my final meal in Canada. I had to have something very Canadian – so I ate poutine! One thing I’ll miss: Poutine! One thing I won’t miss: How I feel after eating  poutine.

The flight from Vancouver to Tokyo is the long stretch at about 9 or 10 hours in the air. It wasn’t that bad with the fancy screens and being able to pick which movies you want to watch. I thought I’d be reading or gaming for most of it but I actually ended up watching “Time Traveler’s Wife”, “Alice in Wonderland”, and “How to Train your Dragon”. Then my headphones broke, so I ended up playing some Dragon Quest 9 but there was only an hour or so left to my flight. Also, the people I sat next to kind of sucked. They weren’t friendly and the the female of the two took up a lot of bloody space.

I landed in Narita Airport which divided up into two different terminals. I picked up my baggage and made my way through customs. It was difficult to explain my situation since I didn’t have my work visa yet but I was bringing enough bags to stay for a lot longer than 60 days. In the end, my terrible Japanese was terrible – so they let me through without any trouble.

Here’s where things got complicated. I’m hauling these heavy suitcases around and I think I need to go to terminal 1. So I hope on this bus to go to terminal one, hauling each bag on one at a time. At this point, I feel awful – I feel like everyone is staring at me as I hold up the bus with my plentiful baggage. We arrive at terminal 1  and take each bag off, individually again and go the airport attendant proudly holding out my ticket as I believed the hard part was over – WRONG! I needed to be in terminal 2, where I started. I didn’t have to go through the embarrassing bag hauling at all, but now I would have to do it twice. I got on the same bus (different driver, thank god!) and made it to the proper place, checked my bags again, and waited for the plane that would take me to New Chitose in Hokkaido.

When we landed, it was raining the likes of which I had never seen. Apparently it was the remnants of a typhoon which had hit other areas of Japan much worse. We arrived in my town, Shiraoi near maybe…10 pm? My first meal in Japan was from a convenience store – gyoza, yakisoba, melon soda and some onigiri. Then I promptly went to sleep and woke up at like…6 am.

First week: Josh was here for the first week of my stay in Japan – which I’m grateful for. He taught me a lot of stuff before he left though I’m sad we didn’t have more time. He taught me to drive on the left side. At that point I felt like it was an impossible feat to train my right-side oriented brain – but honestly, now I think nothing of it! I’d like to note that the speed limits are stupid. 40 in most place within the city and 50 on the highway. 50 km! That’s stupid slow. Everybody speeds though and I honestly can’t blame them. I’m surprised there’s not more cases of road-rage in Japan.

We went out to eat a lot – Josh took me to Clipper for sushi which was AMAZING! It’s kaitenzushi which is the rotating sushi bar. There used to be one in West Edmonton Mall, but I don’t think it did so well. I haven’t gone since he left because I haven’t become brave enough to venture forth on my own but soon my sushi-eating instincts will take over and no one (or fish) will be safe.

We ate So-su Katsu (Sauce katsu I’m thinking) which is breaded pork cutlets on top of rice – nothing undelicious about that!

We went to Hide-chan (pronounced hee-day)- which I love and have pretty much gone every Friday since I’ve arrived. It’s a yakitori bar-type place and the owners – Mama and Master, are amazingly nice people! I feel so at home there that it’s become my cheer up place after a long week.

We went for Indian-style curry with Josh’s badminton club (now my badminton club!), then to bowling. I totally sucked – like an intense amount of suck. It was ten pin bowling which I’ve never done – only 7 pin for this girl. After we did karaoke and though I suck, I love karaoke! In Japan, you rent your own small air conditioned (yay!) room and you and your friends sing!

Another night, Josh took me to Old which is probably the coolest little establishment I’ve ever been to. I want to go back – but I’m not sure if I can just go by myself :S I think once I’ve met more people I might return. I’ve been told it’s an old house converted into a bar. There we had Josh’s farewell party and stayed out til 4 am. At this point, I’m still jet lagged so that was quite the feat for me! By the way, my bedtime in Japan is 10 pm and my wake up is 7 am or 7:30 am – that’s AMAZING for me! If you’re name is Justin, you know all about how hard it was for me to make it to work for 10 am!

Josh GTFO’d the country and I was left my lonesome. That week was the worse. I didn’t want to go outside, I cried quite a bit and felt stupid and lonely everyday – not going to lie. All I could think about is “Why did I ever decide to do this?’ – Worry not, I get a little grumpy sometimes – but now I’m way better! I’ve done so many cool things and met so many cool people!

Amanda on her own: I started work, if you can call it that! I work from 8:30 to 3:30, have an hour lunch break (when I eat tasty school lunch!) and usually only work about 2 to 4 of those hours. I started using all that extra time to study – buuuuut that makes me sleepy so I started reading “Namaah’s Curse” (smutty smutness of wonderfulness). They can’t read English so if anyone even cared to ask – I would just tell them it’s studying or something. I finished that and now I’m working on the second book after “His Majesty’s Dragon” – “Throne of Jade” or some such. I’m thinking I need to by an e-book reader so I can buy more books and not have to worry about trying to take them back to Canada. I was thinking a kindle since they’re pretty cheap now.

I joined the Badminton club that Josh was part of – even bought some shoes that are specifically for Badminton yesterday. Already, I think I’m getting better! It’s a lot of fun!

On Sunday of last week, I went to an international barbeque and then on a hike to a waterfall. They hadn’t told me about the hike so I dressed specifically for a barbeque. I wore my cupcake shirt because nothing says “Hey, I’m cool, I like cupcakes” like a cupcake shirt. Also, a jean skirt. So the hike was made more interesting by my choice of apparel. We walked through the river, climbed up rocks and the whole time I was thinking “This had better be a really nice waterfall” – and you know what, it was.

That pretty much the first two weeks summed up. I probably forgot some things but I’ll talk about them later. I plan on going back and adding photos to this post as well – but I’m kind of tired of writing right now! Tomorrow I’ll talk about my adventures to the aquarium! After I clean my house, I’ll try to have a video tour of it for all you curious people! (so, like the week before I leave).

Miss you all!