Hey Hey,
In less than 24 hrs, I will be boarding a plane for home!...I don't like it...the thought of leaving is just horrible. That's because I don't know when I will be able to come back. However, the thoughts of seeing everyone makes me want to board that plane!...So confused.
I would like to make this blog a bit more informative about Japan, especially since I will be back in the States...so we will see how that goes.
Until then, I'm checking out. I am so tired from literally running around the last two weeks, preparing to go home as I was finishing up school...Wait, I finished school for the semester? Who would have thunk that with what little time for pure relaxation I have had. However~I can have baths again! My dorms (*tears TT-TT) had no baths, just showers. So now I can clean up, then kick back and enjoy a bath~! :D ...That is...until I start thinking about how I'm leaving Japan...> ,<;
Welp...
Until then, later peeps!
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Slowly heading home
Hey peeps,
As of yesterday, I am out of the dorms. I sent all my boxes home. I jumped on the bullet train, headed to Kyoto, and met up with friends. All was dandy...until this morn. I lost my train card case that had not only my train card, also photobooth photos (known as Purikura), some business cards, and my Waseda ID card sleeve (we weren't allowed to keep our IDs...). So, under the exhaustion accumulated from that busy week last week and the frustration and sadness of losing my train card case, I just curled up, cried, then slept some. So today didn't start off well at all, especially since I missed my last opportunity to go to Osaka Castle for awhile. Two attempts, two misses. Osaka Castle, You will be that much more special to me~!
Anyhoo, the day was better and much more relaxed after I woke up. My friends and I chilled in the hotel room, then took a stroll through Kyoto areas I had been in April. During that stroll, we stopped and got dinner. The restaurant was an omurice restaurant. Delicious~! Omurice is a 'borrowed' term for "Omelet Rice", which is a serving of rice tucked under a blanket of Japanese omelet. Traditional omurice is served with 'ketchup rice', which, as you may be able to guess, is rice that is dressed with a ketchup-based sauce. Omurice remains one of my favorite Japanese dishes that are based on Western cooking. I just love it~!
Oh~! And the hotel is wi-fi, which means I am no longer tethered to an internet cable (which is what I had in my dorm room)!!! It's nice to be able to pick up my laptop and relocate without doing a dance around my internet cable!
Anyways, my friends and I travel back to Tokyo tomorrow. Since we may arrive in the early evening, I'm going to try finish up some moving business, such as canceling my cell and health insurance. y during that, I may free up my last full day in Japan.
After having traveled so much in Japan, this move back home just feels like a trip. That being said, I don't know how I will react to not being able to jump on a train and head to Tokyo...All will be revealed in time.
With that thought, I will close this blog post.
Until then, later peeps!
As of yesterday, I am out of the dorms. I sent all my boxes home. I jumped on the bullet train, headed to Kyoto, and met up with friends. All was dandy...until this morn. I lost my train card case that had not only my train card, also photobooth photos (known as Purikura), some business cards, and my Waseda ID card sleeve (we weren't allowed to keep our IDs...). So, under the exhaustion accumulated from that busy week last week and the frustration and sadness of losing my train card case, I just curled up, cried, then slept some. So today didn't start off well at all, especially since I missed my last opportunity to go to Osaka Castle for awhile. Two attempts, two misses. Osaka Castle, You will be that much more special to me~!
Anyhoo, the day was better and much more relaxed after I woke up. My friends and I chilled in the hotel room, then took a stroll through Kyoto areas I had been in April. During that stroll, we stopped and got dinner. The restaurant was an omurice restaurant. Delicious~! Omurice is a 'borrowed' term for "Omelet Rice", which is a serving of rice tucked under a blanket of Japanese omelet. Traditional omurice is served with 'ketchup rice', which, as you may be able to guess, is rice that is dressed with a ketchup-based sauce. Omurice remains one of my favorite Japanese dishes that are based on Western cooking. I just love it~!
Oh~! And the hotel is wi-fi, which means I am no longer tethered to an internet cable (which is what I had in my dorm room)!!! It's nice to be able to pick up my laptop and relocate without doing a dance around my internet cable!
Anyways, my friends and I travel back to Tokyo tomorrow. Since we may arrive in the early evening, I'm going to try finish up some moving business, such as canceling my cell and health insurance. y during that, I may free up my last full day in Japan.
After having traveled so much in Japan, this move back home just feels like a trip. That being said, I don't know how I will react to not being able to jump on a train and head to Tokyo...All will be revealed in time.
With that thought, I will close this blog post.
Until then, later peeps!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Eve of leaving home-Beginning the move home
Hey hey peeps!
One of the most famous manga around the world and the most loved in Japan is a 'little' pirate manga called "One Piece". At first glance, it looks dumb, its story sounds dumb, and the fans look even dumber for drooling all over it. So what is it about this manga that attracts so many people to it? That was something I had been wondering for many years. I tried reading it upon returning from my Tokyo missions trip back in 2010, and...I just couldn't fall in love with it. I could barely even scrounge up a shallow enjoyment for it. It just was the most baffling manga to be the most popular series in Japan and internationally.
Then...I came back.
Back to Japan.
Shoved back into attempting the manga series again....but this time, I watched the anime of it.
So, why should I even bring this manga series up in a blog post about leaving Japan?
Well, it's because this manga really reflects my time here in Japan. I tried something that I was not sure about trying and I fell in love with it. Then there's the theme of friends, companions, nakama, community, family. This is why I brought up One Piece.
The reason why fans flock to this series is because of its theme of nakama. To fully express the meaning of the Japanese term nakama, we have no equivalent in English. The Jisho.org translation lists words such as "company", "colleague, "circle of friends, "comrade" to describe nakama, but none fit perfectly. A nakama is a companion in life who is closer to you than a friend, but is more than a brother, something like fellow comrade in life. Think of the unique relationship between soldiers and then mix a bit more pure friendship and siblinghood into it. That's what a nakama is.
That term, nakama, is the central theme of One Piece and is the best term to describe my CSU study abroad family here. So, as I was discovering the nakama within One Piece, I was building up my own circle of nakama. Even the opening songs, endings songs, and songs sung by the characters themselves revolve around this concept of having nakama by your side.
One OP (One Piece) song that became the theme of my year here in Japan is entitled, "Oretachi wa Family/We are Family". I have linked a Youtube video of the song that also includes English lyrics for it. The characters are discussing their relationship as not being acquaintances nor friends nor siblings by blood, but 'family'. That is what my friends are here: family. We started out as strangers and ended up as family.
On the eve of leaving my dorm, my heart churns with the fear and desperation of not losing my new family. This includes my Japanese friends, my International friends, and my church friends. All of them make up my family here in Japan...and those I have to leave behind. My CSU friends and I can meet up, especially those who are near my home in Cali. But others...are out of my physical life.
As I finish packing and move on to cleaning for tomorrow morning, I struggle to make sense of this concept "leaving". It doesn't feel real yet. I have never really left my life behind before. Even when I when on my missions trip, it was still just a "trip". My friends outside my missions team were "friends from a trip". But the friends around me now are my family. They walked several months beside me. We shared our lives with each other, including the hardships. And because of them, I could survive my hard times.
In short, I am leaving one home for return to another. This is physically and emotionally something new to me. I am learning about the struggles of packing, while experiencing the struggles of separation. I am both scared and excited to see how our lives continue to intermingle and await the opportunity to travel so that I can once again see each of my family members again.
I now have a strong desire to travel all over the world.
Until then, later Peeps!
One of the most famous manga around the world and the most loved in Japan is a 'little' pirate manga called "One Piece". At first glance, it looks dumb, its story sounds dumb, and the fans look even dumber for drooling all over it. So what is it about this manga that attracts so many people to it? That was something I had been wondering for many years. I tried reading it upon returning from my Tokyo missions trip back in 2010, and...I just couldn't fall in love with it. I could barely even scrounge up a shallow enjoyment for it. It just was the most baffling manga to be the most popular series in Japan and internationally.
Then...I came back.
Back to Japan.
Shoved back into attempting the manga series again....but this time, I watched the anime of it.
So, why should I even bring this manga series up in a blog post about leaving Japan?
Well, it's because this manga really reflects my time here in Japan. I tried something that I was not sure about trying and I fell in love with it. Then there's the theme of friends, companions, nakama, community, family. This is why I brought up One Piece.
The reason why fans flock to this series is because of its theme of nakama. To fully express the meaning of the Japanese term nakama, we have no equivalent in English. The Jisho.org translation lists words such as "company", "colleague, "circle of friends, "comrade" to describe nakama, but none fit perfectly. A nakama is a companion in life who is closer to you than a friend, but is more than a brother, something like fellow comrade in life. Think of the unique relationship between soldiers and then mix a bit more pure friendship and siblinghood into it. That's what a nakama is.
That term, nakama, is the central theme of One Piece and is the best term to describe my CSU study abroad family here. So, as I was discovering the nakama within One Piece, I was building up my own circle of nakama. Even the opening songs, endings songs, and songs sung by the characters themselves revolve around this concept of having nakama by your side.
One OP (One Piece) song that became the theme of my year here in Japan is entitled, "Oretachi wa Family/We are Family". I have linked a Youtube video of the song that also includes English lyrics for it. The characters are discussing their relationship as not being acquaintances nor friends nor siblings by blood, but 'family'. That is what my friends are here: family. We started out as strangers and ended up as family.
On the eve of leaving my dorm, my heart churns with the fear and desperation of not losing my new family. This includes my Japanese friends, my International friends, and my church friends. All of them make up my family here in Japan...and those I have to leave behind. My CSU friends and I can meet up, especially those who are near my home in Cali. But others...are out of my physical life.
As I finish packing and move on to cleaning for tomorrow morning, I struggle to make sense of this concept "leaving". It doesn't feel real yet. I have never really left my life behind before. Even when I when on my missions trip, it was still just a "trip". My friends outside my missions team were "friends from a trip". But the friends around me now are my family. They walked several months beside me. We shared our lives with each other, including the hardships. And because of them, I could survive my hard times.
In short, I am leaving one home for return to another. This is physically and emotionally something new to me. I am learning about the struggles of packing, while experiencing the struggles of separation. I am both scared and excited to see how our lives continue to intermingle and await the opportunity to travel so that I can once again see each of my family members again.
I now have a strong desire to travel all over the world.
Until then, later Peeps!
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