Damn frogs (not the French...I miss the french language honesty its comforting)

There was a lot of rain on Saturday throughout the evening and well into Sunday morning. This I believed helped all of the frogs eggs mature quickly and last night they were all crocking and calling all night long. To add to the noise there have been crickets creaking rather loudly for the past 2 weeks at night, so it ended up being some odd indistinguishable cacophony. Perhaps, I’m hoping the frogs will eat all the crickets and I will be ride of that problem. I tried ear plugs when I first went to bed but ended up waking up for the 3rd time and having to remove them due to pain. Ear plugs make the tunnels of my ears really sore, I know your not suppose to put them that far in but if I don’t they fall out very quickly. So I was up for about 2 and half hours trying to get back to sleep until eventually I just passed out from being so very tired.

I will most likely be tired today and I should go to the store buy some groceries, wash my mouldy smelly ass dishes. Too I have to go see one of my tutors to help me with nihongo (Japanese Language) and then head off to work. Gosh I have not even been up for half an hour and I am already tired. I just can’t sleep in past around 7am.

Yesterday I went to an Ikebana festival (flower arrangements) in downtown Osaka with the other international students from the university. Jacqui (new Australian teacher) also came along with us. I like her she is really funny, kind of reminds me of my little sister because she has the same colour hair mostly and complexion and such. I was able to try making a very basic flower arrangement. It would have been better if the lady helping me did not have fetid breath, seriously all I could think about was how to avoid it and try and breathe “fresh” air. Brought back memories from Gr.1, journal writing, where my teacher would be leaning over my shoulder trying to help but just had the worst breath and I could not concentrate on the work. Peter a man that works at the university, translated what she was saying. I’m glad it did not take too long, maybe 15 minutes, so I got out of it quickly.

After that finished some ladies grabbed me by the arm and hulled me off into the hall way…I thought I had done something wrong. They insisted that I stand up on stage and be a model for various styles of kimonos along with some other international students that I did not know. I am glad that English is a lingua franca because I am bad at Japanese and learning language at any rate. So a girl from Thailand, India, and China could all speak English (pretty well for what we talked about). There was also a girl from Indonesian and possibly a Korean girl…I did not talk to them. Anyway we went on stage during a presentation about the different style kimonos they use during plays (and in real life) and the masks they use and how you can tell which mask represents which. It was fun, other then the fact that it was rather hot in the building and thus added to by being on stage with a heavy styled kimono wrapping on under the lights.

After that we went and had a cup of tea that came along with the various activities during the festival. Due to the fact that I announced my nationality on stage another fellow Canadian student ended up semi coyly following us into the tea room and sitting down and introducing himself. His name is Kyle he goes to UNBC in Prince George but is originally from Fort Nelson. I was surprised to say the least. I usually meet (if any) Canadians that are from the East side. He came to lunch with Jacqui the Korean students and I, although I did not eat because of the lacking of diversity in menu options. After that we headed towards the station to go home (Jacqui, Kyle and I). He exchanged numbers with Jacqui and we will probably see him in the future.

It seems that most traditional styles of Japanese art forms are very formal and have many strict rules. I don’t care for it. Anyway I am tired and want to stop thinking insofar as I am….or possibly am not. Nicole comes on June 19th I am so excited. Oh and one extra added not, it gets dark her very fast by 8pm at the latest its very dark outside. My body is so not use to that and feels weird. I wish I was not missing the long days in Dawson Creek. Oh well, I just hope I will be around D.C for summer solstice, but who knows since I want to go travelling more. I’ll see thought it really just depends on my cash flow and savings. Well talk to you all later, loves.

Mmm Fresh Hand-Picked Strawberries!!!

Today I totally did not want to go to classes; was in one of those moods. It slowly dissipated and went by quickly, the day that is. The best part of it for sure was the fact that I was invited out to the garden that I helped plant strawberries in (earlier in the trip). So I got to eat the best strawberries I have had this entire trip! Mmm I have started exercising again and its making me feel better, particularly in mind. I need to force myself to constantly stay active, seems I get rather inactive every winter season. I don’t care about gaining the weight as much as I care about how it effects my emotions or chemicals in the brain. Definitely I become depressed, could also be a sun thing.

I hope it is sunny tomorrow. I will be going out to visit a lady, she is 28 years old, that I met randomly in front of Kinki University on the way to work over a month ago. She is really nice and had recently lived in the USA, where she happened to be converted into a Christian. Snicker….she talks about finding god a lot which is good for her and nice to see how it can so positively affect someone’s life, and she is slowly learning more and more about heaven. All I can do is smile and nod. I myself do not find Christianity not to be for myself, nor has she asked my why I am not but…I would rather not disclose and bring up a possible debate. As for other religions such as Islamic and Muslim and Hinduism, it’s because I don’t really know about those ones and have never been invited by anyone to try; via how people often throw various forms of Christianity into your face by different scenarios in life.

Speaking of scenarios I had a dream I made it back to Canada and totally felt a longing for Japan like I was missing something. Though if I remained in Japan as a permanent resident I know I would miss Canada way more. Either way I think it will be sad, most sad of course if I never came home. I take a deep breath. Mr. Otha wanted me to read a novel by a Japanese writer (‘A wild sheep chase’ by Haruki Murakami) so I did, I have finished it and recently started reading ‘Lord Jim’ by Joseph Conrad. He told me in a tone that I could just tell was not impressed and that I should be reading Japanese books while I am in Japan. Such as this book of Genji, which is supposedly the longest book ever written; it was written 1000 years ago by a female novelist. So not interested, it’s about someone’s life, the entire thing. Its about 13 books long, took a person 10 years to translate into English. So anyways not interested, I think too much is lost in translation.

Well that’s my random little blip for the time being, I will write for you later (you being someone…I hope…..other wise writing this is completely pointless for me)

Speachless...well almost...

Yum, organic peppermint tea to sooth my throat…it is not sore really but I have basically lost my voice today. I became a touch ill on Monday but just brushed it off as allergies and then did nothing but watch movies and try to recover. I pulled myself together and went to my classes and worked back to back. That’s when my voice started to go… I have never really actually lost my voice before. Once when I was little and I was camping I ended up half losing my voice but ended up more rather like Fran Dresser’s.

Its weird not having a voice, I kind of like it but it’s starting to hurt or feels like some pressure is built up. Oh what else sucks is you can’t say “Thank You”, well I tried but it really would not come out well or loud at all. It was kind of funny when I think about it. I’ve been going on an ‘America’s Next Top Model’ marathon or watching. I can’t believe I am coming home in less then 3 months…it’s almost all I think about now. Well not all the time but when I am out and about I am trying to take it all in because I won’t be here much longer.

Crazy that this adventure will end, it really scares me. It may sound funny but I am excited and not terrified just flabbergasted that I will get to fall into the sky. Fresh air and camping! So excited! Anyway…I still can’t talk…maybe tomorrow?

Ha, oh yeah I have a blog to write in!?*

So all my company over the last one and a half months has come and gone. Mother came from March 16th until the 30th and then Eileen and Cara came from April 3rd until the 30th. I can’t believe it all went by so fast. I must admit I am extremely grateful for my mother coming first because I admit I was a little rusty on my people skills from being a loner for so long. I probably was not the greatest hostess for her but I love her so much and am sorry for any time I was anything less then pleasant. Which was often, so please forgive me and sorry Mummy; as for Cara and Eileen I think they enjoyed their time mostly with me I mean I have my “quirks” for lack of a better word and other then trying to get them to not eat meat in my apartment and turn off the lights and gas I think it was not to annoying for them. Now they are gone.

I must admit I think I am going to have to get use to that alone thing again. It won’t be as bad as the first time because well I should be use to it, but I can totally feel the lack of like “magic” around. It’s just like me and I realize what a head case I possibly turned into. I have decided that I can’t drink while I’m alone, I just get pissed drunk and that’s not good for multiple reasons. I will drink if friends are around me the entire time. Oh and yes I have set a date to come home. Which seems so final…I have to leave Osaka, Japan (possibly forever) on July 31st.

What kind of sucks about the time I have to leave is, I was under the impression that I could stay at least a week and some after school ends which is on July 29th (the last test). So when I asked what the absolute latest time I had to leave was, they told me July 30th. Which kind of pisses me off since Blake (last year’s student) was allowed to stay for an extra week and a half. It might be for other reasons then a degree of acceptance for the exchange student…but I don’t know but I have made myself feel like they are slightly prejudice towards me. Tattoos and all and lack of Japanese friends and heavy school involvement, what can I say. I’m a longer at heart.

Oh and how my heart ached when my Mother left, it too ached when my friends left but…my heart broke. Ha my eyes are watering. Really though it was a broken heart letting go of my Mother and having her leave. Okay I have to stop talking about this is like breaking my heart all over again. I miss my Dad too I had this dream I came home. He was not excited for me because a different family member was there and I was so devastated and upset that the feelings shock my mind to insofar that I woke up on the verge of bawling but quickly regained composure as it was only a horrible dream.

I want to try and keep better track of my dreams as they are very vivid but not to the extent I know they can get when I am constantly putting them down on paper. I have a new art class every Friday, which I will go to today and that is good it nice to get to be a touch creative again. The university will take more photos of me today. I think its because the first ones they took were “unusable” as my tattoo was showing. They did ask me to dress in bright summer clothing though and all my bright summer clothing has short sleeves. I was also told that I need to cover up my head with a hat or a bandana to hide my tattoo and keep all of them hidden for that much. So I’m a touch unsure what I will wear that is summery. Oh well. I should cut this off now and get ready for class. I will keep this updated again I promise…thanks Kalen Ravelli for reminding me I had one!

nothing and nonse...sleep need sleep/protien?vitamines?

I have been rather sleepy these last couple of days; I suppose it does not help that I cannot sleep in past 7 am for some odd reason. I have been dreaming about being home for the last two nights. Today my favourite teacher hung out with me for 5 hours, I ate lunch at her house and just stayed for the rest of the time. Its nice to hang out with someone, seems all the people I hang out with are quite a bit older then I am, older then my parents.
I find it’s easier for the Japanese people to find meals that are compatible with my diet then Canadians which is nice. Too I don’t feel like that much of a nuisance. Ugh I am tired…I think it’s my diet I have been getting fat. I am starting to exercise and eat better I hope that that will help…I did not eat very healthy today because I ate too much of things. Tomorrow is a clean slate, I don’t want my visitors to come and be like ‘Damn Justine you got squishy”. Wish me luck!

Tomorrow I am going to learn ‘Saddo’ which is the way of life that the tea ceremony promotes. Ugh I am trying to write in this but I have hardly focus I feel half brain dead or something. Note I should make sure I eat protein…anyways I will post this boring ness and hopefully write something better later. Loves you!

Canadian Ryori (Canadain Cuisine)

So I found this awesome website with many good films and documentaries about random things. I have been watching a lot of UFO ones, it’s interesting I don’t see why the US and UK government just doesn’t give the world the okay to tell the citizens about the other alien life. I wonder if an alien would ever want to visit me, I think it would be scary but very interesting and a wonderful experience. I hope they would be kind to me and respect my body/mind rights ha-ha; definitely not into vivisection or dissection of my body, although if I had to choose I would do with the dissection for obvious reasons. I wonder how the aliens fly across space from different star systems…or if they are future people. Well other then watching documentary’s today I cooked for a group of ladies.

I was picked up around 9:30am and taken to some sort of community center on the opposite side of the nakai train line (the train station I use to get into namba). I made my mothers favourite vegan dish, its name is ‘Kieran’s Favourite Rice” and it’s kind of like a goulash/stew. It’s very delicious and a complete protein because there is brown rice and beans (also tofu). They all seemed to enjoy it, I stressed that they can use whatever vegetables they want for the recipe which makes it quite easy to make. All of them said it was delicious so that is good. I also told them about Canada and a little big about me, some of the ladies spoke English so they could translate for me…no I’m still unable to speak Japanese. I mean I can tell them who I am and where I am from and what I like but I can not elaborate. I also gave them all little Canadian flag pins, I hope they are not like ‘oh great more junk’ and make the recipe again for their families. Around 1:30pm I was dropped back off at home. Before I left the center a lady handed me an envelope and thanked me. When I got home I opened it and there was 70,000 yen in it. I would have refused this if I knew what it was but I thought it was a thank you card. The Japanese rarely take charity for anything. I mean I never once was thinking ‘I hope I get money out of this’ it was just for fun. It’s nice to have extra cash though so I can’t complain there.

Speaking of extra cash I have taken up a tutoring job. Michelle has left Japan for a new job experience and I took over her tutors. They are 4 grown professors, so sometimes I feel a bit odd instructing people who are greatly my senior. The first lesson went okay I did not really teach anything only spoke and had conversation with one of the men. This last lesson was more successful as all 4 of the men showed up. I did a pronunciation exercise with them and also taught them homonyms that begin with A. I think every lesson I will teach a new homonym group. Homonyms for those of you who do not remember grade 5 English class are words that sound the same but have different meaning; such as Air and Heir. So that went well and they are all nice men, very interesting characters. They also pointed out that their university will be changing its name do to how it sounds to foreigners who speak English. I was confused on why they would do this until they directly told me why, you see the university’s name is Kinki University. They pointed out to me that if I ignore the knowledge I have of the Japanese language that Kinki sounds exactly like Kinky. I was oblivious to this fact until they pointed it out to me. Now I realize how funny it can be or annoying when introducing yourself to another professor in the USA. I think they want to change it to Kinda University. Oh yes and every class I get paid 10,000 yen. So that’s really good money that’s an extra 40,000 yen a month, I don’t think I will need to dip into my savings for a while. This is good so I will not have to worry about money with friends or helping friends out with expenses!

Well I am going to continue watching my UFO documentary and maybe make some hott cocoa with Soymilk! Love you all! Take Care!

Awaiji Island....I have great spelling....?

Stars shinning bright above you, night breezes whisper I love you…. Ha I had a dream that my family came to visit me in Japan last night in the hotel. They all ended up getting mad at me for some reason though and I was upset that they came to bash me. Apprehensive about company maybe or getting to comfortable with the Kubota family it’s hard to say. Really thought I am joking. This weekend or rather Friday around 11:30am until Saturday around 3:30pm I was with Yuki and Akio on the Island Awiji (I’m not sure if that’s the correct spelling or not). Oh and Yuki and Akio want me to call them Otosan and Okasan which is a formal way that you ask someone “how is your mother” you would say ‘Okasan and not Haha because haha you only use if its your mother). Anyways they want me to because it seems more comfortable and such and all the other exchange people they have helped out called them that. I don’t feel comfortable saying that because well my parents will only ever be the only parents I have and I don’t like the thought of imitation ones. I mean I do the same thing with my Grandfathers second Wife. Jade call’s her Grandma but I just call her by her name. I mean she is definitely that type of figure in my life but it feels wrong for me to call her that. Does any body understand what I mean? Ahh anyway back to my type adventure. Friday night we did not do too much me and Yuki went for a short walk into the resort’s golf course…although we like snuck through an opening in a gate by a bush/tree line. So we were being sneaky there will be some photos up on facebook soon of the trip. It was a good laugh the walk. Then that night Akio had a meeting and Yuki and I ate in a tiny little dingy restaurant but the cook was really nice and talkative so what can I say, too he had a friend who was vegan and completely understood my diet. Then later that night we picked her husband back up and we chilled in the hotel room until 11:30ish having some wine and junk food. We went to sleep then…took me a while to fall asleep though like normal. It was different since the room was actually warm I was too hot-ish rather then being to cold and trying to fall asleep.


The next morning we woke up at 6am so to sneak me into the bath house. I have to sneak in because Tattoos are a huge no no due to the fact that is highly associated with the Ikuzi (or something like that) gangsters. She discreetly gave us two definitely not big enough bandages for my “fashion tattoo”. Luckily the night before I bought a case of large band aids to cover my tattoo and we had two of the other band aids that the receptionist gave us the night before when we were inquiring. Unfortunately this was not enough to cover up all my tattoos. We were also told that if the two band-aids that she gave me did not cover up my tattoo (all the tattoos) I would not be aloud in. So we went up and I started changing and luckily, even though most of my dragon was covered in band aids I had a towel hung over my shoulder, she came in to check where my tattoo was! And she helped me place the band aid on my Hess tattoo…which hid it perfectly. So she was none the wiser and content. Or so I thought, about half an hour later when Yuki and I were chilling in the dry Sauna she peered in threw the door and like waved to us, another check up. Again though I was covering my left side with a towel flung over. I did not expect them to be so intense about it…I’m thinking it’s not worth all the effort. It was fun though me and Yuki being kind of dorky bad asses and breaking the resorts rules. Too this was the nicest resort I have ever been to. I was on top of one of the hill/mountains and had a beautiful view of the straight.


After we finished up with the bath house we packed all our things up and left. We dropped Akio off for his meetings and then Yuki and I went to view some WHIRL POOLS! So cool! Although we were not on a good day for when the tide changing into the Pacific Ocean from the straight makes really big ones but we saw a bunch of little ones. It was really crazy and weird you could also see that the water level was higher in the straight then the pacific so there was a little bit of a shelf...of water…so weird and cool! I have about a million (probably unrecognizable) photos of them. After that we went to an art museum, which was really neat but not the art pieces were not the originals but many many famous ones from different periods around the world. So that was fun to look at and see how big they really were. All of the reproductions were done on ceramic plates (not plates but like flat slabs and such ness). We wondered around there until about 12 when we had to go pick up Akio. It was a really beautiful trip once we were out of Osaka, and then out of Kobe and onto the more rural forested island. Definitely never want to live in the city when I’m older. Oh and on the way back Yuki took me to the largest tomb in the world for one of the 5th century Emperors of Japan; although the land is owned by the countries royalty so ‘normal’ people are not aloud to wonder around on the grounds. It’s surrounded by one moat and some land and then another moat. The inner most land has not been touched so there is a 1500 year old forest sitting on it. The forest must have some pretty amazing trees in it. Here is a little photo of it I quickly found on the net.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/7/74/180px-NintokuTomb.jpg (copy and paste if it does not work)
There is a little tan slit among all of the green near the bottom middle (before the city) area of the photo and you can walk half way up that sandy patch before you get to a gate and the first moat, to see a little sliver of the forest. The trees looked like fluffy broccoli.
Yea and so now I am home and really tired but that’s a summery of how my day started so I am sleepy and my room is disgustingly messy. I hope nobody randomly shows up…hopefully tomorrow I will clean it. Anyways I love you guys and miss you all!