Day 269 - 26th of May

11:07pm　普通

天気：雨天

The fact that I’m writing this now on a local train means that yes, I’m still in Japan; I missed my flight!!! I think this would have to be the biggest, most costly mistake I’ve made in my entire life; I feel terrible. At least I have Carly; she’s been a rock, and a shoulder to cry on. So now, we’re going to go back to the hostel, and try to book another flight for as soon as possible. I’m so exhausted; lugging my luggage here only to find I’d missed the flight was heartbreaking, and backbreaking. The airport was already really empty when we got there, and there were only a more flights. These really nice ladies stayed around and tried their best to help, but they had to leave eventually. I bought a phone card, and eventually figured out how to use it; my mind just wasn’t working by that point. The phone started ringing, and mum answered and I was soon reduced to tears; breaking the bad news wasn’t easy on either of us. I really feel like I’ve let everybody down, most of all myself. I had the wrong time stuck in my head; I should have checked the time again. Well, hopefully this has taught me a lesson; something for everyone to be wary of. Anyway, the rest of my day was quite pleasant, and we got a lot done…

In the morning, we got ready and packed and checked out at about 10. Check out consisted of putting our linen in the basket and leaving our key on the bed; too easy. We went over to the main building and Carly booked another night with them; it was the cheapest and easiest option. They were also nice enough to hold our luggage. After we returned with Carly’s luggage, we made our way to Sensouji for one last look around. I bought a heap of souvenirs and found a really great bargain on a carry-on bag; it was a perfect size too. The best thing was, it was free; I finally used the gift cards I had won from singing at INFES. After Sensouji, we went in search of the cat café nearby (I saw the ad in Asakusa Smile), and eventually found it. For 800円, we got to spend an hour in a room full of cats and kittens, playing with them and petting them as much as we like; it was so much fun! The woman who ran it was really nice, and I was able to talk with her a lot in Japanese; she appreciated my Osaka dialect. Most of the cats were pretty placid, but all the kittens were super energetic; they were jumping and running about all over the place. They did tire out eventually though, and they looked so cute sleeping. We left there at about 2, and then made our way to 九段下 (Kudanshita) Station, in hopes of looking around the imperial palace… Well, this is the last stop; we didn’t make it back to Asakusa. Now we’ll have to find somewhere to sit and wait; maybe a Denny’s?

12:54am　マック　

天気：雨天

We’re here in 津田沼 (Tsudanuma), a place that I otherwise would have never had visited, were it not for my stupid mistake; how lucky I am. Well, we didn’t find a Denny’s, but a 24 hour Makkas is right outside the station, and that’s where we are now; thank God for 24 hour restaurants. I just enjoyed a midnight meal (double cheeseburger set), and got a blue coke glass, in commemoration of the FIFA world cup; another thing fate has delivered me. It’s actually really cool, and I’m sure it’ll be a collector’s item someday. Carly’s curled up in a ball, sleeping; I wish I could get to sleep that easy. Oh well, I may as well write about the rest of my yesterday… Getting off at Kudanshita turned out to be really successful; I noticed a sign for 靖国神社 (Yasakuni Shrine), shortly after exiting the station. I had forgotten about wanting to go there, so I jumped at the opportunity. It was a beautiful, but solemn place, filled with the spirits of the war dead; man and animal alike. I was really glad I got to see it. From there, we walked through 北の丸公園 (Kita no Maru Park), walking past the 日本武道館 (The Budokan), and through some wonderful gardens. Since the Imperial Palace grounds were in fact closed, and it was starting to rain, we made our way to the nearest station (竹橋駅 – Takebashi), and took the subway to Shibuya; the 東西線 (Tozai line), and then the Ginza line.

In Shibuya, we searched around a little while for a good, reasonably priced place to eat; I wanted my “last” meal in Japan to be Japanese cuisine. We found this nice, little vending machine operating place and I ordered the katsudon set, which came with udon noodles and trsukemono; simple and delicious. After dinner, we went in search of purikura machines, and ended up finding a bit more than we had hoped. Searching diligently for a purikura place, Carly spotted a Krispy Kreme restaurant; of course we had to go in!!! I was thoroughly impressed. While we were making our orders, we were given a free donut; the original glazed. Since I was going to order that (since it is undoubtedly the best tasting donut ever), I could now order two different things; I got one with strawberry filling, and the other with raspberry. I only ate the glazed one at that point, saving the others for the train ride. We kept on searching for purikura, and eventually found a room full of them. Not too fussed about the style we could have, we just got into the first vacant one we could find; this one made our eyes look intensely blue. By the time we exited it was 7 o’clock (the time at which I should have already been at the airport), and I took a few more photos of Shibuya, and videotaped the crazyness of the crossing.

Trying to find the Ginza line to take back to Asakusa was not fun at all; this was the start of the downfall of the night. We ended up going up and down and around in a great big circle before realising that it was actually on the third floor; why a subway line would be there I have no idea. Since we were going from one end of the line to the other, it ended up taking about 30 minutes to get to Asakusa. I enjoyed my strawberry filled donut, getting jam and icing sugar all over my vest; it was wonderful. It was when I was just about to step into the hostel at almost 8, when it finally clicked that the flight was actually at 9:25, not 11:25. I immediately went into overdrive, packing my carryon bag at lightning speed, and then rushing over to the station to find the Toei Asakusa line to Narita Airport; there were lots of stairs involved. Things fell apart when we realised we were on the wrong train, and we had to switch twice to right it. Waiting around in the train was the worst experience ever, because I knew that everything was out of my hands; meanwhile the clocks were steadily ticking. I hoped against hope that I might just make it, forgetting the dismal implausibility of it.

We were still on the train by the time the plane took off, and ended up being only 10 minutes late, well really, I would have had to have gotten there at least 30 minutes before departure time to make it to the terminal. So that was that; my “last” 269^th day in Japan. Hopefully I can book a flight for tomorrow, and it’ll be all good; lucky I have the money for it. I guess now I’ll just write some general pointers about Tokyo, to sum up my holiday here… Asakusa Hostel is a wonderfully cheap place to stay if you just want somewhere to sleep and don’t have much luggage; having as much stuff as we did is absurd. I think the train system is pretty easy to navigate once you get used to it, and if you make mistakes (like we did) it’s not too hard to right them. Yes, there are over 20 lines operating both above and below ground, but that just means that everywhere is really accessible; the prices are decent too. There are lots of places in Tokyo that don’t smell too pleasant; just putting that one out there. We would just be walking down some street, and then suddenly our noses would come across a most unappealing stink. In general, it seems that residents of Tokyo automatically assume that foreigner = tourist = zero Japanese ability; and that’s what makes it different to Osaka. There wasn’t as much English signage, nor as many foreigners in Tokyo as I thought there would be. Of course, the touristy areas were more catered towards foreigners but still, not as much as I expected; not like Kyoto. And I think that’s about it; for now. We’ve still got a few hours before the trains start up again, so I might try to get some sleep, just like the two old guys either side of me and Carly in front of me…

Day 249 - 6th of May

10:08pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

I’ve just been practicing my presentation a bit more. Yes, I haven’t presented yet. Why, because all the other presenters today went overtime… I got to uni at 11:30 this morning, which gave me some time to eat lunch. I had katsudon from the cafeteria, which I hadn’t eaten in ages so I really enjoyed it; one of the last times I’ll be able to. After talking with Rachel and Julie for a bit, I got to class and after a bit of stuffing around, the presentations for underway. Well, the first guy talked about Japan’s fishing industry, and didn’t really address any problems; which was kind of the whole purpose. He ended up taking almost 15 minutes and remember, these are only supposed to be five minute presentations. So I was like okay, the others aren’t going to take that long; wrong. The other two ended up taking at least 10 minutes if not more, leaving me with no time to present. Saigo Sensei apologised and said I would be first up tomorrow; well, at least I won’t miss out again this way. When I told him my presentation was probably going to be long too, he advised me to shorten it, and I have done just that; culled the crap out of it. It’s still about 7 minutes, but that’s better than 10; it also means that I have less to remember, which is great.

After that, I sat around in class, waiting for religion to start. Today’s class was really interesting. We focused on 水子供養 (mizuko kuyo) or, memorial services for unborn babies; yes, they do this in Japan. Jizou is very much associated with this, being the main deity that cares for aborted or miscarried foetuses, and there are practices such as buying a Jizou statue at a temple and dressing it in hand-made clothes; as a representation of the unborn baby. The same can be said of Kannon (being a Mary-like figure in Japan), but to a much lesser extent. You can also address ema (vocative tablets) to the mizuko, expressing your apology. And if you think this kind of thing is odd, it gets better. Not only is Japan really big on memorial services for pets (they have many pet cemeteries), but such practices to show appreciation extend to dolls, rosaries, brushes, needles, and even termites!!! No joke, the professor showed us a memorial plaque which had written on it, “Termites, Rest in Peace”, in Japanese on it. Now, if you were an exterminator, this would be the right thing to do right?! It could be seen as pacifying the angry termite spirits, or showing gratitude towards them for providing business; sounds a bit weird, I know. I found the whole thing fascinating, although there is a limit to what is and isn’t a potential candidate for commemorating in such a fashion; it can’t be anything.

The trend seems to be that it has to be something that is important in a person’s life, such as calligraphy brushes, or sewing needles, which that person has potentially used for their welfare; they have transferred part of their soul into it. There are also services for trees, which I was happy to hear about but again, it can’t be just any old tree. We then talked more about abortion and the great debate in America (and certainly in other countries), pitting pro-choice against pro-life; it’s always interesting to hear people’s views, especially when they have come for a variety of different background. At the end of class, we got out 1000円 rebate for the Tenri field trip, and I joked it would be going straight to groceries. It’s actually not that funny, because that’s exactly where it did go; I went to Kirindo and Fresco straight after class. Getting back, I was soon off to the post office, sending my first box home. I opted to send it by boat, and it turned out to be surprisingly cheap; easily half as much as air travel. This made me very happy, and very relieved, so I purchased another box (only cost 200円) and got that packed up with the rest of my books and two jumpers; it’s quite heavy, but I think it’ll work out fine. I have another box to send too, but I’m thinking it’s going to cost less than 100 dollars all up, which is great; in total I’m sending about 15kgs of stuff home. I’ll get those sent off tomorrow, and then it’s done; I should see them again in a month or two.

I was very glad to get that all sorted, now I just have to worry about getting all the other stuff on the plane; I’m going to have to buy another bag… I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my reading and writing homework and writing kanji, and then went up for dinner at about 7. Earlier on, I had decided that I would just make scrambled eggs for dinner, but a better though came to mind; I would make French toast. Since I had never made it before, I asked Katie how, and found it surprisingly simple. I ended up making two slices of that, and then scrambled eggs with the rest of my eggs; it turned out to be a wonderful meal. I’m definitely making French toast more often now; so good!!! Tonight, Ash happily announced that see was an aunt; her older sister had her baby yesterday. I always find it strange when young people are aunts or uncles (I knew some in high school), but I guess that happens when there’s a huge age gap between you and your older siblings; 10 years, in Ash’s case. I stayed in the kitchen until about 8:30, and then practiced my presentation for a bit, and also got started on my field report; I got as far as the title page… Anyway, I’m going to have an early night tonight, and not just for my sake, but for Hugo’s also. He got back from Tokyo this morning, after being on the bus all night, so he’s very tired. Goodnight…

Day 65 - 3rd of November

10:32pm　セミナーハウス
天気：寒い
Although I woke up with a sore throat, I didn't let that stop me have a productive day, although it did spend most of it indoors; it's freezing outside. It's been 10 degrees all day, and it must be colder now. Diego's not back yet. He and Jessica left for Osaka at about 10 this morning. As for me, I did my washing (including hand washing my new clothes), cleaned the room, and got a good part of my Japanese presentation done. Carly hung out with me for most of the day; it was good to have the company. It was not until about 4 that I went out; to Sanko for groceries. I came back soon after and found Amber with Carly. I wanted to make katsudon for dinner tonight, so I looked up a recipe and realised that i was missing one of the ingredients; bonito flakes to make the stock. Amber needed to go grocery shopping, so out again I went, coming back triumphant.

It took a bit of preparation, and a lot of dishes, but I finally made katsudon. It wasn't as nice as the one I get at the cafeteria, but not bad for a first attempt I guess. the meat I got was so cheap; 4 pork chops, half-price at just over 400円. I only cooked two, and I only ate one, so the other is left over for tomorrow night. Even though it's a national holiday Sanko was still open, and the sales were still on. I bought a persimmon, and tried it afterwards for dessert; it wasn't that good. Oh well, tried something new.

10:49pm
Diego's just got home. They ended up going to Osaka castle, Yodobashi camera, and the Pokemon centre in Umeda. I still have to go there. Well, I think the cold, or virus, or whatever that's been going around has finally hit me. I've just got a sore throat, but I also feel really drained. I'm just going to have a shower, then go to bed. Tomorrow, uni again...