If anyone still reads this, go here instead

I have started a new blog, now that I am back in Japan again.

I don't even know if anyone reads this one still, but the new one can be found here.

A new life

I've been staring at my keyboard for about 5 minutes now, wondering how to start this post. It's been so long since I've written something that it would be wrong to continue as if the posting-drought didn't exist.

But I've restarted this blog a number of times, and I don't want to rehash the "been a while" posts that I've written before.

You can tell by the flow - or lack thereof - of this post that I'm out of touch.

I was chatting to N the other day (so glad I have here with me here in Australia) and we both said that we miss our blogs. We missed sitting down and putting our thoughts, experiences, dreams and feelings into words for anyone and everyone to read.

So here I sit tonight, wondering whether I should get back into blogging.

But I'm really tired. So I think I will leave the wondering for another night.

Random post

So, I haven't written in a long time, and now I am in Germany. I have been here for about 5 days I think. Before that I was in Ireland for a bit over a week.

And everything has been going so fast. Ireland was a lot of "old" with beautiful scenery. Germany has been a lot of beer (what else could you expect when you go to Oktoberfest?) and lots of expensive cars. Taxi drivers drive Benzs and Police drive BMWs. Prost!

Bought some Birkenstocks, went to see a mad man's castle (the inspiration for Cinderella's abode) and made friends with drunken locals. One guy knew three English phrases: good morning, good evening and happy hour.

Tonight I am off to Paris - only 10 hours by train. Will be there for a few days before moving onto London. Can't wait!

Right, that's the short of it.

Last night in Japan

Well, it's come down to it. I can't believe it, I really can't. I still feel like I will see all these amazing people tomorrow; like I will walk into school on Monday morning with a cheery "ohayou"; like I will ride another crowded train into Shinjuku; like I will return to my mountain hamlet and hear the cicadas cheer... I can't believe this is my final night in Japan.

I had an awesome three years. I met some amazing people, had some amazing experiences, ate some amazingly weird food and overall had an absolutely amazing time.

I will try to keep this blog going once I'm back in Australia. I'll see how I go with that, considering my mum has dial-up internet.

Mata ne, Japan.

My desk

It's Friday afternoon and everyone is off doing homeroom stuff. The tea lady and I were chatting for a while, and I said I should do something productive. I told her I might start cleaning out my desk (it needs to be cleaned). Straight away she said "mada mada mada!", meaning "not yet! not yet! not yet!" She told me I still have plenty of time to do that. Her desk is next to mine, and she said if I cleaned out my desk now, she would be sad everytime she looked at it. And it's too early to be sad.

She's so sweet, my Japanese mum.

Searching

I don't get that many hits on my blog. Usually, it's only people who know me that read what I write.

But every now and then, people come across my page by chance. They type something into a search engine, and Jottings of Japan shows up in the results.

Here are some of the things people have searched for and found my blog:

1) Thorpedo
2) JHS Japanese Speech Contest
3) Yakiniku Tongue photo
4) "How to body rubbing"

I hope Jottings of Japan provided these people with the answers they needed.

Surprise

On Saturday night, I went to a surprise birthday party for a friend. The party started at 8pm, but I was on my way back from Tokyo so ended up arriving fashionably late with N around 9:40ish.

About 11 people were there to celebrate. Food was ordered in from one of the best restaurants around (Hyakuzen) and the drinks were flowing.

The host of the party disappeared at one point, and returned wearing only his Y-fronts and sunglasses, and was yielding a bag full of stuff from the 100 yen store. We played a batsu game, which is where you play some sort of game, and the person who loses/makes a mistake has to partake in some sort of penalty. The game we played was "takenoko" or bamboo shoot. It's difficult to explain the rulese - one of those games you have to play to understand.

Anyway, N and I were a bit reserved at the beginning, but then N grew a bit bolder and decided to be more active in the game. She paid the price.



But a good night was had. Stayed the night, and woke up to a huge breakfast and great music.