In Seattle: Sorry, but we`re related, cant`cha tell.
Hello family, friends, stalkers, and random readers of my blog!
The other day one of my friends spied me on Skype and stated, `You haven`t updated your dating blog lately, so I`m assuming things are going well.`
Out of this statement I took two things, 1) I should update my blog soon, because it has been awhile and 2) To re-establish my legitimacy as a non-dating blog I shall make sure my post does not go into that direction.
If I was trying to be Carrie Bradshaw 2.0, I would re-locate to Manhattan.
(We share a name, but that is nearly as far as the similarities run, sex/dating columnist/blogger I am not!)
Anyway, I`ve been a really busy bee since the last time I`ve posted, here are some of the things I have been up to:
-Last classes of the school year
-Tokyo Marathon
-Seattle
-Prefectural Meeting
-Osaka/Kobe
-Hiroshima for my B-day
-Hanging around Yamaguchi/Mine
-Seeing my ALT friend Jasmine!
-Attempting to keep myself busy for the past week and a half of no classes. (and the next two coming as well)
For the most part this blog post will focus on the bolded topics. Some of them may get bumped into a later post (I have dayz to fill, so expect a number of blog posts to be coming in the next 2 weeks) depending on how much I devote to writing about each.
As much as I love March, symbolizing the coming of Spring and my birthday, this year it loomed upon me like a big grey cloud. Am I trying to be all metaphorical?, No, I felt that way because quite literally it was extremely grey and cloudy nearly all month. On top of the grey misery, March in Japan is still pretty chilly, many of my Japanese friends told me that I should expect to wait until around Mid-April for the weather to really begin to warm up (>_<). Having spent a large part of my life living in Hawaii, I tend to get at least slightly affected by extended periods of lousy weather. So my main goal for the month was to be as active and busy as possible to keep the March Blues (I never have March Blues, what is this blasphemy! [note: I may have just made up the concept of March Blues]) from setting in.
So below I have listed a a handful of many useful ways of keeping your future March Blues at bay. Enjoying!
Keeping away the March Blues Step 1: Take a festive trip to a city and celebrate
Anyway, so after our big prefectural meeting in Yamaguchi City, my friends Ciaran, Anneli, and I decided to go to the Kansai region for a bit of a St. Patricks day adventure.Although I was disappointed to discover that there was no green beer nor did the local Mcdonald`s have any shamrock shakes, I was pleased to find that the festivities did include Guinness (doesn`t get more Irish than that), plentiful Irish folk, Potatoes, Magners (legit Irish Cider), kilts, bagpipes, food, and shamrocks for dayz!
Look at all those foreigners.
During the festive events I was educated by my Irish friend Ciaran, that kilts and Haggis, which I`ve typically associated with Scotland, actually originated in Ireland. I`ve also deduced that in typical Japanese fashion, adorable children are also a crucial part of celebrating St. Patrick`s day in Japan.
It had also been brought to my attention, as the token American amongst our motley crew of festive revelers, that the Irish are completely baffled by this celebration we call St. Patty`s. ` What is St. Patty`s day? It`s St. Paddy`s day (ye crazy Americans spelling all things wrong)!` Likewise, I`ve also been thoroughly educated on the famine, as the opening line used throughout the day began something like this, `So, have you ever heard about the famine...` (tell me more, tell me more) And in typical St. Paddy`s tradition, the majority of our day and evening was spent in a lovely Irish Pub in the middle of Osaka.
Keeping Away the March Blues Step 2: Go on an adventure to the most desolate part of your prefecture with amazing company and soundtrackz
There is no better way to prevent yourself from hitting March Madness (and not the basketball variety and more like the [mad] March hare in Alice in Wonderland) than a jaunt out in the wide open blustery cold country side.
`Careful, she's stark ravin' mad!`
So a few weeks back, Jessica, Jesse, Laura, and I all crammed into Laura`s little car and took a trip out to Mine! What is in Mine? Well Akiyoshidai and Akiyoshido, the Mine cave and Mine Karst landscape. Since many of us had already been to the caves, and they are a bit of a (un)pretty price to pay to see again we opted to checking out the free Akiyoshido instead. And on the car ride, for some odd reason we decided to listen to my first childhood cd (Winnie the Pooh and his woodland friends: Songs from the 100 acre woods) Click the video below to have a listen and reminisce on your childhood.
Anyway, here are the two photos I took, it was really windy and extremely cold, and I hadn`t thought of putting on mittens or gloves. (Excuses)
Keeping Away the March Blues Step 3: Go Sightseeing with a friend visiting from out of town.
Sight seeing is a really great way to get your mind off of how cold, miserable, and ever dragging out the month of March may be. But a way to keep it fresh and funky is by going sight seeing with a friend who is coming to visit from out of town. Reason being is that not only do you get to go out and stretch your legs, but you also have a great companion to enjoy the sights with. The best part is that you can also use the time to catch each other up on what you`ve been up to since the last time you`ve talked.
And luckily for me, my fellow ALT and friend, Jasmine had the time and will to come visit me in little Oshima. Last time I had seen her was back near the end of January, I think. So we had a whole month and a few weeks of catching up to do. Since Oshima doesn`t have some of the most amazing sights in Japan, (though we did later discover some cool things about the island) I decided to take Jasmine to Miyajima and Hiroshima. Since I forgot my digital camera when we went to Hiroshima this blog post will really only cover our Miyajima adventure.
I really love traveling with Jasmine. I don`t know exactly what it is, but everytime we go sightseeing together we happen to meet the greatest people and have a really great time (the latter can of course be explained by how awesome we are).
Anyway, our adventure around Miyajima included meeting some really awesome people that worked on Miyajima in the ferry station(?). They were really excited to meet us, talk to us, and take photos of us (which were later made up into these really cute gifts that they gave to us as souvenir`s. We also later met an older Japanese couple over lunch who enjoyed talking to us and repeatedly kept inviting us to come to their home in Osaka to eat, drink, talk, sight see, and stay. How friendly. Maybe that will be our next travel destination together!
As for the rest, here are some pictures:
Cute little bambi who later tried eating our lunch and our handbags. Crazy babsie.
We decided to rent bicycles to putz around the island on. Here Jasmine is having a bit of a Marilyn moment, it was so windy!
The genki tourists strike again!
And with that, the end of March arrived and the potential prospects of Spring. April 1st was a lovely day but today the weather is looking extremely foreboding.
Okay, that`s enough for one blog post. Expect another one soon.
Next blog topic is likely to be about the Japanese school system: featuring crazy school schedule, and heart wrenching teacher transfers.
Until then!
Keri
1 comment:
Good to know my nosings get reactions ^_^
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