Turns out I still suck at updating.

I think we may be sharing the annex with a stray cat. It's hard to say though. Maybe leprechauns are eating bowls of left over fat. Or maybe it's a neighbourhood bands of rats with a taste for raw dough. Who knows.

I'm so far behind, that I haven't even gotten to my birthday yet. Which means that I haven't even talked about the awesomely amazingly perfect present I got from my loving husband. Although, if you are reading my blog you probably already know about that since you hopefully know me and it's all I talk about these days.

Ok, where did I leave off? Nagasaki. Ok. So, we got to Nagasaki and dropped our bags off at our hostel before heading out in search of a bakery that Dylan had been to the last time he was in the city. It was sadly closed, so we stopped at this small restaurant that had delicious coffee. I'm sure the food was lovely too, but I was sleepy. Happily fed and caffeinated, we headed off to the Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park. I really don't know what to say about that. It was depressing and amazing and horrifying and beautiful and gah. It did everything that a place like that should and it did it very well. I don't have any pictures since a lot of the museum was people's belongings from their day-to-day life that had been saved and treasured for this long and it seemed kinda disrespectful to reduce that to a souvenir from my summer vacation.

It's hard to go straight from that to something else, so we headed back to the hostel to actually check in and relax for a bit. After we went to check out some shrines and a fancy-looking bridge (that's kinda popular since it and it's reflection together look like a pair of glasses). It was still kinda early, so we slowly wandered back to the area of the hostel and stopped for dinner on the waterfront. Dinner was actually one of my favourite parts of our time there. We ate on the patio of a restaurant on the wharf and every table was full at our restaurant and all the surrounding restaurants, people where laughing and drinking, there was music playing in the distance, boats where coming and going. Exactly how you would imagine any summer evening in any port city. It had such a different feel from our afternoon and I found it very hopeful.

Not really relevant to anything. But I thought it looked cool and it was in Nagasaki.

 

The next morning meant another bus as we headed off to Kagoshima. First thing was first - we did some laundry at the hostel. Did nothing for a while. I think Dylan napped a bit. Probably found some food to shove in our face-holes. Then we hopped on a train and went to a bath house that specializes in sand baths. Sounds weird, but it was actually pretty amazing. Basically, we were given a full-length light bathrobe, sent out to the beach where we lied down and staff members buried us except for our heads. I think most people stay for about 10-15 min since the sand is freakin' hot. We stayed about 15-20 and were happy to get out. We got there after sun set (since it was a long train ride to get there), so it wasn't that hot out anymore. I'd imagine it would be significantly more unpleasant during the day since I doubt their tarp-tent-thingy does much other than make it so that you aren't staring directly at the sun. Then we rinsed off (both the terribly invasive sand and the buckets of sweat) and went to the indoor bath room. Another benefit of going at night - it is much less crowded and I only had to worry about being naked in front of our friend as opposed to our friend and a bunch of strangers. Finished up and caught the train back into the city. Had dinner at this amazing Indian restaurant. The worst thing about traveling is that the best restaurant are always so far away!

Fun side note: Kagoshima is near an active volcano that had been acting up a bit around the time we were there. So the entire city was covered in ash - to the point where there were designated areas on the side of the road for people to put the bags of ash that they had collected from around their houses. There were a lot of designated areas and a lot of bags.

I'm done talking now. I'll finish up soon. Maybe. Hopefully.

Excuses

     I actually have a good excuse for not updating lately. I was on vacation! Dylan, a friend of ours and I all went on a week-long trip down to Kyushu and Yakushima Island last week. It was amazing.

Wanna hear about it? I sure hope so!

     After school was over on the Thursday, Dylan and I hopped into the car and picked up friend. Dropped her off at the train station so she could get to Tokyo quickly to see some of her friends, then we drove to long, slow, toll-free way to Tokyo (if you take all the toll roads, it's about $40-50 to drive from here to Narita, not including gas). Then my adrenaline system got a work out when we navigated our way through Tokyo to pick her up. Oh goodness, that it one busy city with people who are all wanting to go somewhere and not thrilled to be stuck around the guy who is slowly trying to figure out where the heck he is. Stayed fairly panicked as we tried to find our way out of Tokyo. Finally, we found somewhere to stop the car to rest for a while. We had a wildly non-relaxing 3 hour sleep in the car, underneath some train tracks. It looked a lot like we just stopped in the middle of a road, but Dylan swears it wasn't and that in Japan they just pave underneath bridges. We then headed to the car parking place for 4 am before taking a shuttle bus and doing that whole airport/flying thing. Honestly, life was kinda a blur at that point. I was pretty tired.

     Anyways, landed in Fukuoka and was half-dragged from the airport into the city, where we stored our bags in a locker at the train station and promptly bought some food and a cup of coffee for me (i.e. this is where I start remembering what the heck was going on). Then, we hopped on a train to Dazifu where we went to the amazing Kyushu National Museum. It was just chalked full of really impressive things from Kyushu going back as far as 1st Century B.C. and it gave a really cool look at the influence that contact with other cultures had on the tools and artwork. We learn so much about trade between Europe and North America in school, but I really didn't now anything about trade between Asian countries or Asia and Europe and the ways that that has shaped the world. I was way too tired to fully appreciate it. After that, we headed over to a huge Zen shrine that is famous for it's stone gardens, apparently. It was beautiful and we fed some ducks. Finished up there and headed back to downtown Fukuoka, where we picked up our bags and checked into a hostel for the night (and resisted the urge to plop down on the bed and never move again). Then got on yet another train and went to have dinner with Dylan's old host mom! It was lovely, but I didn't talk a lot. Mainly because she doesn't speak English and I don't speak Japanese. But it was nice just in that the last time we saw her was when everything was falling apart and we were about to leave Japan with no money. And now Dylan has a great steady job, obviously our visas are in order and we're making it work for us this time around. After dinner, we caught the last train back into the city and slept. Finally.

Dazaifu Shrine

Doesn't he look so happy?

     The next day, we did a bunch of tourist-type things. We had breakfast at a cafe, did a bit of shopping. Oh, had some freakin' delicious tonkotsu ramen for lunch (where the broth is made from pork bone and very popular in Kyushu, instead of broth made from soy sauce which is much more popular almost everywhere else). We toured around a bunch of shrine and temples (including what is believed to be the first Zen temple in Japan), went to a tea house. And we past by this tourist-type place where there was a women weaving and you were allowed to try it out, so of course Dylan gave it a try and was adorably excited. We were going to have dinner at the street stalls that Fukuoka is famous for, but after wandering around for a long time and not finding any (we guess they weren't there either because it wasn't really tourist season anymore or because it was raining), we gave up and had dinner at some neighbourhood restaurant.

Zen Temple, completed in 1195

      We woke up early the next morning and headed off to Nagasaki. But this is already really long, so I'll continue later. I'm thinking that I'm gonna manage to break 8 days into 3 different posts, because I'm magical like that.

Uh-huh.

Life's been busy, blah blah blah, crazy amounts of students, blah blah blag. Other excuses as to why I haven't really been around lately.

Finished up the book I've been reading. Apparently it's a bad idea to stay up late finishing a crazy depressing book where tons of people are sick or dying. I love me my sad books, but they always put me in a weird head space for a few days.

Story time. Preamble: life's pretty good for Dylan and I. Our expenses are low (especially since, seriously, we've hardly had time to go anywhere, so spending money hasn't really been a thing) and Dylan has a regular pay cheque. So anyways, Dylan went crazy last week and splurged on some meat (I know, we're crazy people!). Not because it was ridiculously cheap, and was therefore going to plan everything we ate around it, or because he needed it for some specific reason. He just saw it and thought that he'd buy it and it'd get used whenever. Yah, we've been that couple that was so poor they lived off rice and whatever vegetables were cheapest. Which means that I am very familiar with opening the fridge and finding the moldy end bit of whatever vegetable. But that I have never opened the fridge to the smell of rotting meat. Turns out that you gotta eat that meat stuff pretty quick! Kinda gross, so we tossed it. Sweet mother, the smell that was coming from the garbage the next day. How is it possible for something to smell that bad? There wasn't even that much of it. That smell alone makes a pretty good argument for becoming a vegetarian.

Yah, that was the main point of me writing this post. To say that rotting meat smells bad. Had a picnic for Em last week because she is an old lady now! It was fun. Took yesterday off from going to the schools for meals and lounged around the annex. I got really excited because Dylan bought more laundry detergent so our clothes can be clean again.

I'll be more exciting next time.

Hello Internets.

I'm still with ya. The school has been really busy the last three weeks, with a high school group every weekend plus the regular students throughout the week. Hence my lack in presence.

To start with a bit of a personal-life thing (as opposed to happy-fun-time adventure things), I sometimes have really vivid dreams about my dad and family. I had a lot of them last year once I got back to Ottawa. I haven't had one in a while, but I had one last week. Sometimes they are really depressing, but they can sometime be happier. Those are almost worse though, since I wake up and kinda get smacked in the face with reality. Because they feel ridiculously real at the time. I rarely remember my dreams, but these stick with me. I don't really talk about them too much, partially since it's weird for something like that to affect me and partially since they just feel so personal. But I guess this past year has been a good lesson that it doesn't matter whether you want to or not, your body will find a way to deal with those darn feelings and shtuff.

Anyways. Japan.

Despite the fact that we've been busy 'round here, Dylan has taken a couple days off. Last weekend, it was our five year anniversary (craziness!), so Hubby took the afternoon off after the high schoolers had left. We went into a nearby town and stopped by the zoo before they close. They had penguins! And giraffes! And soft-shelled turtles, and turtles that looked like dinosaurs! And some other stuff! And penguins! That would have been a good enough celebration for me to be honest. But afterwards, we headed off a park, walked around for a while and did some sittin' and readin'. Then we were going to go to a fancy-ish restaurant, but didn't have anywhere in mind. So, we spotted a place that looked pretty good while driving. Yah, turns out it looked pretty nice especially on the outside, but was about family restaurant level of food. I thought it was fitting/funny, since we're not the fanciest of couples. But Hubby was a bit disappointed. He forgot about that pretty quickly though, since we moved on to a fireworks show that was downtown that night. It was sorta a competition, in that different companies sponsored chunks of the show - so it was a very long show. As in, it lasted two hours. They boast having about 15,000 fireworks. All in all, a good day.

He also took another day off later in the week, so we decided to try and go to a cat cafe. Despite what inappropriate things you might be assuming, a cat cafe is just a normal cafe but with a lot of cats. You pay to be there for a chunk of time, and a drink is included. From what I've gathered, it is mainly aimed to people who can't have pets of their own. I think this cafe had about 15-20 cats and could sit maybe a dozen people comfortably. It was fun, except that I was suddenly reminded that I'm allergic to cats not long after walking in. Oh well. Worth it. We were going to go to a soccer game in the evening and had a bit of time to waste, so we went to yet another park to read. Only difference this time was the ten or so mosquito bites I got. Then we went to the game where Dylan was desperate to see a goal. The game ended 0-0. It was the second live game he has gone to and the second one that has ended 0-0.


Ok, those are the highlights for now. Byeeee!

I miss the rain.

Raining season here in this here part of good ol' Japan is officially over. It got hot - really hot (right now it's about 31-33 degrees outside). I wasn't ready! So I've been spending most of my time sweating and try to hid away inside.

But! Last week Dylan and I did venture out to Yokohama. Dylan's friend had to go there for a test, so we tagged along and made a day trip out of it. It's a neat little town (by little, I mean it is the second largest city in Japan). A bit off unsettling though, since there were a lot of foreigners, especially because we were in a more tourist part of the city. Seeing other foreigners reminds me how much I must stick out and then I get all self-conscious. Anyway, we got there and went to Chinatown - which is huge. It reminded me a lot of Canada and just made Dylan really want to cook. Then it was time for our friend to go write her test, so Dylan and I found a nice park and settled in to read and relax for a while. After that, we headed... somewhere... I don't know, I just followed them... and went to a few pubs/breweries and did us some shopping at this adorable market-type place. Had some pretty fantastic Mexican food for diner (the international food scene in our neck of the woods is very limited). Wondered around for a while longer. Then headed home. All in all, a fun day if you look past the fact that I was exhausted, got a moderate sunburn, got some blisters on my feet, and may or may not have gotten some really mild heatstroke because it was so very very very hot out.

Oh, side note. A couple days later, we went to a night market for a bit and grabbed a couple beers at a pub after where we ended up watching a women's doubles tennis match. Which gave me the brilliant idea that we should play tennis the next day since the school has a court, despite the mind-melting heat (have I mentioned that it's hot here?). That stroke of genius resulted in Dylan re-injuring his back, Em definitely getting heatstroke and my moderate sunburn becoming a bad sunburn. Nobody should ever take my suggestions ever.

To have a happy ending, the rainy season being over does mean that the clouds that have been hiding Mt. Fuji have lessened considerably and we have gotten a few gorgeous clear looks at it in the last few weeks.  
 

Visa!

So, the school has been a bit slower lately. It's been a nice lull before, I've been told, everything picks up like crazy in July and August. It's meant that my darling deary and friends have had a bit more free time to show me things and hang out. Even though my darling deary has decided to pick pretty much every piece of fruit on the surrounding towns and preserve them in a multitude of ways. It's a good thing the annex has a industrial kitchen, because he has well over twenty pounds of two different kinda of fruit. He's lucky he's so cute.

But the school is definitely gearing up for the busy season. My buddy got here last week (I'm ridiculously proud of myself because I drove most of the way to the train station to pick him up by myself without getting lost ... I may have brought three sets of directions with me). So many friends! And another teacher who used to work here before will be here for the month of August. But he'll be living in the annex with us while he's here, so I'm a bit nervous about that. I don't like sharing my space with people I don't really know. I've been assured he is a nice guy and I'm sure it'll be fine, I just worry too much.

Oh, I went down to immigration to have my visa changed. I now have a year-long dependents visa, so that's a relief to have everything all happy and in order.  And the immigration office is at least an hour and a half away, so we made a day trip of it and adventured our way around for a bit (partially in search of somewhere that sold a plant that Dylan needs for his preserving). Nothing terribly thrilling, but it made for a good day.

Yesh. That is all for now.

I would love to tell you all of exciting stories of adventure and wonder. But the school has been pretty busy lately, so little time for play. Dylan is on day 9 or so of work. But we've been going climbing pretty often. And yesterday we went out for fried rice, then to a bar-type place thingy because some guy that Dylan's friend knows was DJ-ing. I'm having fun, it's just a little bit more of a subdued fun than the first couple weeks. But I'm an old lady, so that's right up my alley!

I took the day off from life today. I didn't go have meals with students, I didn't see anyone other than Dylan. Heck, I didn't even go outside. It made the day easier to handle. I just need to manage to try and not go on the computer too much tomorrow, to avoid being too bummed out. Stupid internet.
Although I feel that I am not as opposed to being sad as most people are. I don't feel taking a day to be sad about sad things is necessarily a bad thing. I'm generally more inclined to avoid all those feeling type things, so I try and remind myself that it's ok (kinda of like how I have to remind myself that telling people I like/love them is good, not a sign of weakness). Because my default plan of letting everything build up and build up until I have a sobbing melt down doesn't seem like a great idea.

Anyway, happy Father's Day, Daddy. I love you and I miss you.

Oh right.

Ok, so that feelings thing didn't work out terribly well. So much so that I stopped writing here at all. I am trying to work on it on a more face-to-face, person-to-person level though. But if I'm still so bad at it that you've missed it, rest assured, if you read this blog it is almost certain that I think you are amazing. Baby steps. But it has slapped me across the face how important it is to make sure that the people you love know it. I'm working on not taking those things for granted.

Enough of that.

So, I'm in Japan.

I did my year of Criminology. It was crazy fun to be back in school. Because I'm a nerd like that. The worst part was actually having to be around hoards of 18 year olds who didn't have the same passion for school that I do. Chances are that you've heard my rants about little kiddies talking to each other through class, ignoring the lecture that was taking place in front of them, or people who go to discussion group without having done any readings or having gone to class and sit there not saying a word the whole time. But now I'm less sure than ever about what I actually want to do as a career. I want to learn more about every subject I took, so it anti-narrowed my focus.

But, Dylan being in Japan and me being in Ottawa wasn't that much fun. So, as much as I absolutely loved Ottawa, I caved. I left behind my lovely friends, new and old, and packed up my life yet again. I haven't given up on school, but I figure that it will be much easier to have a long distance relationship with my university than with my husband. We live on the school grounds of the private English immersion school where Dylan works, outside of a small-ish city. I've been told that it's 13km from the school to the top of Mt Fuji, so I have a pretty nice view from outside my front door (I'll try and get a picture for next time). Every week there are new students, meaning that there is always something going on. It's a bit of a drive into town, but it means I get to learn how to drive on the other side of the road! Japanese streets are terrifyingly narrow! I've been joining Dylan at the climbing gym. Meeting all the friends Dylan has been making. I'm happy or at least getting pretty close to it.

Oh, and my sister got married!! I made a pit stop in Victoria after leaving Ottawa, before coming here to be her maid of honour and watch her marry her other half. I'm still amazed at how good she looked. I was there the whole time she was getting ready, so I shouldn't have been that surprised. But she looked perfect. And they were both adorably happy. I'm still not sure I understand it, but marriage can be beautiful when done right.