i want the ocean right now April 25, 2008

one more working day and golden week begins. this week has been a bit easier, mostly because the kid who i teach twice a week for 45 minutes of pure and utter hell each, was absent. regardless, tomorrow will suck, of course they can leave my last day of the week before a 10 day vacation to be one with 8 classes with my hour lunch at 12:00 being the only break between classes i get straight until 8:00. but i cant complain, i was originally supposed to come in at 10:30 tomorrow morning to work a half hour of overtime to do a trial but it was cancelled. so i’m trying to look on the bright side of things.

this is my manager’s last week. the new manager, who beth and brent have been convincing me is going to make my life a living hell, has been here for the week. she doesnt seem so bad, but perhaps thats because my manager is still here. We will see after the break i guess. regardless, i’m really going to miss my manager. she did a lot for me, really went out of her way for me. I dont think i would have gotten half as far as i have here without her help. In japan everyone carries around small hand towels because the bathrooms don’t have paper towels ever and because in the summer it gets so hot you need to towel yourself off all the time. anyways, my manager gave me a burberry handtowel as a gift because she’s leaving. so unbelievably sweet. Mike and i are going to split on a going away present for her, and i’m going to be sure to write her a nice card to thank her for everything she’s done, i think i’ll buy her some flowers or something also, just from me. She’s looked up information on trips for me, helped me book my flight to okinawa, just endless things, that apparently my new manager definitely wont do (bummer). i’m hoping maybe my old manager will keep in touch. she is such a sweet lady.

anyways, tomorrow is the last day of work before my 10 day break, as i was saying, then early sunday morning i mission out to tokyo airport to meet jarek. his flight gets in at 1:00, its going to take me about 3 hours (and 100 bucks) to get there, and then he will probably take a while going through customs and all that, then i guess we will drop their bags off at their hotel, hopefully get to hang out for a bit. i want to take them to shibuya to see the crazy intersection and do some shopping maybe, and then hopefully catch a fun japanese dinner somewhere, then i must catch the shinkansen at 9:30 to get back to toyohashi to catch the last train back to okazaki in time…. and then Monday morning head to the airport in nagoya to head for a fun filled 5 days in Okinawa!

i just bought an armload of fun summer clothes which is making me more excited, this is a trip i need more than anything right now. its going to be an amazing five days, that’s for sure. I come back the evening of May 3rd, then the 4th is kyoko, my coworker’s wedding. i still dont know what i’m going to wear, which is probably trouble. perhaps i’ll find something cute in okinawa? i dont know if there’s much shopping in okinawa, but there has to be some shops. perferably ones with cute dresses to wear to weddings…

anyways..i need a cute pair of brown or gold summery shoes and a swimsuit by monday…. uh oh.

I’ve been sleeping a bit better this week. I’ve been using a hello kitty eye mask to block out the brightness of my apartment once the sun rises (seeing as my curtains are not long enough to cover my entire windows/sliding doors to my balcony) and it seems to be helping me sleep a bit. still having lots of strange vivid dreams and waking up a few times throughout the night, but at least having a little less trouble falling back to sleep.

The weather is getting beautiful. Last weekend it was almost too hot for t-shirts and a couple days this week have been the same. the nights are a bit cooler, and there are days full of really intense rain, which is a terrifying prelude to a disgusting thing japan calls “raining season” which i’m not looking forward to experiencing at all. i would prefer feet and feet of snow to days of disgusting hot humidity and endless rain. then after that is the scorching summer heat ive already experienced… so nonetheless i will enjoy the beautiful breezy spring days and cool nights we are having now.

alright, perhaps i’ll post again before i leave for okinawa, but if not, i’ll be sure to catch you all up on the details of my trip when i return. lots of love. sayonara. xoxo

i miss you every single day April 18, 2008

music: alphabeat- 10, 000 nights

I’m really not feeling like going to work today. I seriously hate my new schedule, and the majority of my classes. the kids are either terribly behaved or frusteratingly unable to do any of the lessons i plan for them. Yesterday I had the absolute worst class I’ve ever taught. I almost burst into tears in the middle of it. the kid would not do a thing. I could not get him to do any of the lesson, i spent 45 minutes chasing him around the room and trying to get him to do SOMETHING. it was terrible.

I know that i just need to get used to this schedule and they need to get used to me, and it will get better, but right now, it’s just so draining. I go to bed at like 11:00 now, because i dont even have the energy to keep my eyes open to watch more than one episode of grey’s anatomy. I’m starting to wonder if extending that extra month was a good idea. I mean, it is only a month, and another month’s pay will be nice, but seriously, if the classes stay like this, and i had the chance to leave a month early…. I’m going to be pretty pissed. on top of it, as though i dont have enough stress, i keep getting extra random private lessons thrown into my schedule and trials and…. ugh. i just feel like my head is going to explode.

on top of it, it’s been raining all week, which doesn’t help with a grumpy mood or stress.

lukily vacation time is soon, which i’m very excited for. unfortunately i just found out jarek is coming to japan the DAY before i leave for okinawa, and then goes back to canada the day AFTER i come back, except i have a wedding that day. so i’ll be lucky if i get to see him for a couple hours in tokyo the day he arrives, and then i must head back to nagoya that evening to catch my flight to okinawa from there in the morning. it broke my heart when i found that out. that he will be in japan for a whole week, and i’ll be lucky to see him for a few hours.

I cant even bring myself to be in the mood to go out and have fun this weekend. I’m trying to convince everyone to come hang out with me in my apartment to watch movies and drink wine because I don’t have the energy or stamina to go out and party on the town. we’ll see how successful that is.

oh and… April 17, 2008

i’ve developed a massive obsession with grey’s anatomy. i watched two seasons in about 6 weeks, averaging about two episodes a night and like 6 a day on the weekends.

it’s a major problem i’m dealing with right now. but its sooooooooooooooooooo good.

i made a clean getaway April 17, 2008

music: maria taylor – clean getaway

 

it’s been forever, and i apologize. The cherry blossoms came and left. they were absolutely beautiful. we spent the weekends drinking and eating beneath them, in the rain and sunshine. they lasted merely two weeks but it was two weeks full of the most stunning beauty you have ever experienced. It was heartbreaking to see them fall and disappear. While they were here, the cities just exploded into pink clouds and everyone smiled all the time  and everyone everywhere just got together and sat under the trees.

 

When i first discovered the cherry blossoms had arrived, was one of my favourite moments in japan. I went for a run along the river because the weather was nice. it had been a couple weeks since my last run and i convinced myself to go for it. As i’m jogging down the road, close to the big buddhist temple, i see a bunch of lit hanging lanterns lining the pathway along the river ahead of me. So i jog up and stop and look to the trees the lanterns are hanging from, and all i can see are pink flower buds everywhere, so i continue to run and the further down the river i go, the bigger and bigger the flowers get. It was my first experience with Japanese sakura, and it was breathtaking. I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.

 

That weekend Susannah, Adrik, eric and i made a day trip to kyoto to see the cherry blossoms there. The weather was ridiculous, raining on and off all day, but we had a great time. The blossoms were only starting to come out, but it was still stunning and i’m very glad we went.

 

My new schedule at school has begun and i have a bunch of new classes, and they are completely stressful and pretty much huge pains, so my weeks have been nothing but entirely difficult. my sleeping has been off, i wake up about a million times a night, and wake up terribly early and spend the rest of the day tired as hell. I just need to get back into the swing of things.

I leave for Okinawa in a bit less that two weeks and i cannot wait. I need a vacation more than anything right now.

I think i need to take a bit of a break this weekend. Do some movie watching, some cleaning. just take it easy. the past few weekends have been intense and by body is a little angry with me, i think.

Its also supposed to rain all week and weekend, so it might be a good idea to shut myself in with my pyjamas and some blankets.

anyways, im going to try to write in this more, i promise.

 

gone till october March 12, 2008

i went for a run along my river after work tonight.

Spring has officially sprung in okazaki. it’s far too warm to wear winter coats and flannel and knit scarves have been replaced by cotton and chiffon. after a winter of hibernation and nights of pringles and chocolate covered almonds my body was craving the freedom of a jog down the river, so i took warm evening’s offer. My ipod has refused to continue working so i had to brave the run without music, the way i judge how long to run, how long to power walk, one song run, one song walk, one song run, one song walk. Instead i let the thump of my running shoes on the pavement and dirt roads keep the beat, and my own stamina decide when to stop. and i couldnt stop. i ran without a break for longer than i’ve ever run before. i ran until i felt a stitch slice through my side and my breath became weazy and slow. it felt incredible. it was just what i needed.

i officially decided today to stick it out an extra month and end my contract, on my 23rd birthday, october 11th, instead of the original september 6th ending contract date. for over a week i toiled over whether to stay until november 22nd or october 11th, or september 6th. over the weekend i decided november 22nd would be the date. then all of a sudden last night i had a change of heart. i love it here, i truly could stay forever, i’ve found this level of comfort and security that i never knew i could reach. but there’s things i crave. my mom’s voice and her smell, my dad’s supportive hugs, sarah’s wit, tristan’s hair, my friends (the real ones). dating. gagster’s chicken wings… and i knew another three months was too long. one extra one was just enough. enough to complete this adventure. for some reason, a month earlier, september 6th just didn’t seem like enough.

So far, this has been the most important, life-changing, incredible adventure i’ve ever experienced. This is the year absolutely nobody can take away from me, because this is the year i went out and i experienced my life, for myself, without anybody. This is my year. This is the year i will be telling stories about for the rest of my life. These memories i’m making here are the memories that my children and my grandchildren will hear about. This is when I’m learning what is really important, and I can’t lie, i’m scared to death to leave it.

I spent all my time before trying to be on the inside. We all wanted the in, we wanted everyone to know who we were and be assured that we were known and we were important. Well here, i’m never on the inside. I’m a complete outsider. It’s painted across my face, it’s absorbed in every strand of my hair, the bridge of my nose, the shape of my hips. It’s been a giant wake-up call. there is an entire world out there and i’m not situated in the centre of it.

I refuse to go back to the person i used to be.  I just want to keep learning. But I can’t just keep on running. I know I need to go back and face the things i didn’t like about myself that i was able to escape by coming here. so one extra month here is enough. but don’t, for one minute think that i’m going to stop moving. sometimes, when your feet find the right beat, you just can’t stop.

this is really happening… February 23, 2008

music: Ryan adams

The time i feel like writing in my journal the most is always in the morning, getting ready for work, sitting in front of the mirror applying my makeup, singing along to ryan adams. i write entire entries in my head because i have zero time at those moments to sit in front of the computer and write. I used to only be able to write at night time, but now at night i just want to eat dinner, watch a movie and go to sleep. in the mornings my brain is buzzing with emotions and thoughts that i just tell to my reflection while i curl my eyelashes and add another coat of mascara. by the time i find myself on this page, they’re gone. i’m sorry. i will try my best.

anyways, valentines day was kind of depressing, i drank some pink champagne with strawberries and ate some of the chocolates my students made for me and watched the valentine’s episodes of the OC and wished for my own seth cohen. pretty uneventful. The next day i went to work as usual, received a phone call from mark (!!) inviting me out with him and his friends that evening, but i have to work on saturday, so that was a no dice situation, he invited me out saturday night also, but alas, kyoto plans. bummerrrrrrrrr.

anyways, KYOTO! beth and i met up at nagoya station before 10pm with chu-hi’s in hand, backpacks on back and smiles on faces. we bought our shinkansen tickets and travelled the very brief shinkansen (36 minutes!) to kyoto. We arrived in kyoto for 10:30 and embarked upon our mission to find a warm pub, some drinks and delicious food. we somehow navigated ourselves through the kyoto subway system (only after staring at the map above the ticket machines for a good 20 minutes) and found ourselves in downtown kyoto on a street that reminded me of hess village but more japanese. meaning, lined with bars whose signs i couldn’t read and with a river running through the middle of it. We were completely touristy, with our backpacks still on, i even purchased a fanny pack for the occasion (which i pulled off, it was meant to be kitchy alright) and both hovering over my lonely planet guide to kyoto. We were basically wearing signs taped to our foreheads that said “HELP US!” we were helped to the bar we wanted to go to, A bar. Basically its one big room, a log cabin if you will, with several huge picnic tables and you are just seated at any table with randoms. it’s loud and rowdy and cheap and there are stickers all over the walls, and beer is sold in huge bottles and you are given small glasses and everyone’s pouring their beer in each other’s glasses and kompai’ing and making friends. it was incredible. we made friends right away and it seems as though every japanese person we met in kyoto could speak english. The group of guys who guided us to A-bar paid for our drinks ( i love japan). We then decided we were in desparate need of dinner, so we found ourselves at the Hub, which is, ironically, our favourite pub in nagoya, so we end up at the kyoto branch. Anyways, we order more food, more drinks, vodka redbulls are downed when beth starts to crash and all is well. I end up meeting a guy from canada, sipping a glass of merlot, and we talk for hours about canadian bands and sing moneen songs. his name is ross.

anywho, beth and i basically stay out all night as we didnt have the decency to find a hotel as soon as we arrived, but the next morning we are ready to take on kyoto with full force. Ross, who lives right downtown kyoto takes us to a killer indian restaurant for delicious curry and naan for lunch and then we hit kiyomizu-dera, which ended up being my favourite spot in kyoto. You walk up a hill through winding, old kyoto streets filled with stands selling food and souvenirs, and there are horse carriages pulled by little japanese men. We saw two geishas (not even the young in training ones!) these were real life, older geishas. they were absolutely beautiful. Beth and i obviously were total creeps and took their pictures without them knowing.

Anyways, kiyomizu-dera, has this incredible huge veranda that basically looks over the entire city of kyoto. it’s breathtaking, basically the best first stop on a kyoto tour. There’s so much to see and do there. tons of statues to rub for good luck. There is this famous lover’s rock walk. where basically you touch one rock, and with your eyes closed, must walk about 8m through the crowd, without bumping into anyone and touch the other rock at the end of the walk. if you do so, it means you will have good luck in love. Beth and Ross both fail, and i’m skeptical of the whole thing, refusing to do it. finally they convince me. It’s terrifying actually, walking that long with your eyes closed, you constantly feel like you’re going to run straight into a wall, even though i knew there were no walls anywhere near me. Beth was my voice guide and people basically dive out of the way when they see someone doing the walk, scared that they will pretty much ruin this person’s life and chance for love ever. So anyways, i’m doing this, freaking out, BUT i didnt peak once and then i hear beth say “okay, reach down!!.” So i do, and i can feel the cold smooth surface of the rock under my hands. Im beaming. We high five and people around us are smiling and giving nods of approval. It felt like quite the accomplishment.

So we finish touring the kyoto grounds then head to check out gion, this extremely old street in kyoto which is famous for it’s geisha houses. We unfortunately don’t see anymore geisha’s but the area is beautiful. i actually took my most favourite shot of kyoto of this street at dusk. After this, we are basically exhausted and ready to find a hotel and a hot shower and clean clothes. So we say goodbye to ross, head to a local coffee shop to grab something warm to drink and pour over our lonely planet guide for a cheap and closeby hotel. We find one right downtown, close to the nightlife area (which will be handy for that evening) so we drag ourselves there, book ourselves a room with two twins for one night and head up to the 9th floor. It’s tiny but its clean and quaint and has a shower so we are more than pleased. We scrub off two days worth of grunge, change, reapply makeup and are ready to hit the town.

Lonely Planet steers us wrong, when we finally find what they called a stylish izakaya which turned out to just be a restaurant, and quite frankly, we really wanted to sit on the floor. so we mission about downtown kyoto and come across a cool looking place. we head inside and god bless our fabulous translation skills, what we thought was a 6 minute wait turned out to be a 60 minute wait. but we pulled through and soon found ourselves seated (on the floor) at a table, shoes off, sipping hot sake and all was well. We ate a delicious meal and drank a great bottle of white and just talked and talked about everything (mainly i couldnt shut up). I’ve been craving conversation like that since kanika disappeared off my planet and it was nice to have that. beth is a great person.

we navigate ourselves back to abar after dinner, but being a sunday night was a little less raucous. we were seated at a table with two australians, hermione (to which beth replied “there are actually people named that in real life?” and her douchebag australian guy friend who she was visiting in japan, he’s a teacher here. anyways, hermione is awesome and we go with them to this bar ING, which ross took us to the night before owned by this really cool long haired japanese guy with a great record collection and menus that are made out of nirvana and ramones album covers. We made more friends and somehow managed back into our beds at our hotel.

We groaned through the 10:30 alarm and peeled ourselves from bed to make 11:00 checkout, stuffing our things into our backpacks still half drunk and went out for breakfast and planned our day. We somehow found the kinkaku-ji (Golden temple) after walking for about 45 minutes or more, but it was breathtaking, absolutely beautiful. it sits in the middle of this pond, and it reflects off the water and it is just something you have to see. pictures do not do it justice. There we met up with two of our japanese friends we made the night before who both speak great english and designated themselves as our tourguides for the day. they first took us to lunch at this little restaurant, a single counter that serves mainly rice dishes, run by one well-preserved older japanese woman. she talked to beth and i through our japanese tour guides and told us both to call her “okasan”- mother. she called me alyssa-chan, and gave us little trinkets for good luck. it was heart-warming.

Our tour guides then took us to their buddhist temple, not one for tourist sight seeing but one for actual meditation and sutra chanting. it was huge and beautiful. One of our tourguides had to head to school, so the other took us on a mission to Ryoi-ji to see the famous rock garden. on the way we stopped at another temple, but i cant remember what it was called. either way it had lots of statues wearing aprons (which is apparently to show care for the figures) and it was known for its plum trees. no idea.

anyways we end up at the rock garden. and it’s well, a bunch of rocks, made to mimick the movements of the ocean or something? i dunno, it was just metaphors all over the place. and being an english major, i appreciate metaphors but all i was really thinking was “whoa… japan.”

So after this, we are both exhausted and ready to sit on the shinkansen, so we say goodbye to our friend and head on the bus back to kyoto station. we pick up gifts of kyoto sweets for our schools and get on board the bullet train for the 36 minute ride back to nagoya.

Thus concludes kyoto trip 2008. it was beautiful. Really, i had such a great time. i cant wait to go back for the cherry blossoms.

valentine’s LAME February 13, 2008

music: glen hansard and marketa irglova- leave

it’s one of those early mornings when i cant fall back to sleep, so i thought what better time than now to upload my blog. everytime i actually feel like writing i don’t have the time, and then i keep putting it off and putting it off, so here’s my update.

last we spoke i was going on a date with mark. well, we went out for dinner and talked over delicious food in this cute little hidden restaurant in sakae with a seat right by the front window, and we talked about bob dylan and ryan adams and wilco and it was absolutely perfect. before we knew it, it was 11:30 and i was running to the subway to catch the last train home. alas, i missed it. mark hopped on his scooter and drove down to the station to meet me to keep me company as i was going to have a long night ahead of me until the trains started running again. we grabbed a table at a nice little place near the station. we drank wine and talked until 3:30am about our families and professors we loved and it was perfect, really. there was a point he stated that his cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

When i finally headed home, i was exhausted as all hell at my next day of work, but my heart was exploding confetti all over the place, so i didnt mind it. it was basically the best date i had ever had in the history of the world.

Anyways, the rest of the week went by, saturday night i headed to fujigaoka to hang out with brent, a fellow amity worker i had met at follow-up training, and his coworker and some of their friends, as fujigaoka is less than an hour away from me. So we went out for sushi and drinks and ended up singing karaoke until 5:30 the next morning. a really great night. the next day i headed to nagoya to spend a nice alyssa day, i went to see sweeny todd, which i loved. spent the rest of the night at home, relaxing, watching movies.

the next day brent and i met up to do some shopping in sakae, low and behold, as we’re strolling down the busy sidewalks of sakae, who do i see on his scooter on the road, but mark. he takes his helmet off and we smile and wave, but obviously cant really have a conversation right then and there, so i continue walking, and that’s that. i give him a call a few hours later, to laugh about the randomness of that chance meeting, and he says he lives around there, i ask what he’s up to later that evening, he has to teach until 10:30… blah blah. etc.

anyways, the following week flies by nice and quickly, next thing i know, its saturday night and im heading to fujigaoka to hang out with my new group of friends, which feels really nice to say, might i add. i meet up with brent and beth and pat at the same sushi restaurant and we eat sushi and drink again and then head out to some other local fujigaoka bars where we mix our own irish car bombs and jager bombs and all in all have an enjoyable evening. the next morning i wake up on pat’s couch and we mix up some mimosas and watch flight of the conchords then meet up with beth for some wandering in sakae. we end up at the hub and meet some cool people. i call mark to see if he wants to meet up for a quick drink, he’s watching a movie.

so then and there i decide: eff that.

anyways, the rest of the night is fun, i meet up with some of the other friends i had met in sakae when i went out there a couple weeks ago, and then monday i go to my mall for the first time in a couple weeks and then treat myself to a curry dinner.

it looks as though (hopefully) beth and i will be heading to kyoto this weekend. it was a random drunken decision but it seems as though it’s going to actually happen, and i’m very excited about that.

valentines day is tomorrow and im thinking of taking myself out for a romantic dinner and then coming home to watch the valentines episodes of the OC. im not cool at all. not in the very least.

i’ve FINALLy finished reading sophie’s world after months and months of dragging my feet through it. i have this thing where i can’t stop reading a book without finishing it. even if i hate the book. it could be the worst piece of crap i have ever read but i will not stop reading until i read the entire thing. so needless to say, i hated it ( i didnt realize before i started it that it was a translation, i hate books that are translations, you’re not getting the author’s words at all and the writing style always turns out horrible.) but thank jesus i’m finished it and i’ve started reading japanland, which sarah and tristan bought me for my birthday.

im going to bake cookies tonight for my staff because we all know how much i love excuses to bake and valentines day is one of those.

i watched my blueberry night’s last night with jude law and norah jones, it kind of sucked. i have watched a lot of good movies lately though. I loved Once, wristcutters: a love story, marie antonette, across the universe, broken english… i know there’s more but i cant think of them right now. i watch too many movies.

aaaaaaaaaanyways, i always think i have so much to say and then i dont. ah well, i’ve pretty much already been here for 6 months. that’s crazy.

if i had a dime for every time i… January 31, 2008

music: stop playing guitar- the promise ring

its about 7am and i cant sleep, so i decided to use this time to update, since it’s been ages. So what’s been happening, well, two weekends ago i went wine tasting with yui and her dad and their wine tasting group. it was at this tiny little french restaurant,and we took up the entire place. We had about 15 glasses of wine: champagne, red, white paired with a bunch of different delicious foods. it was great. There were a few people who could speak english and i really had such a great time, i cant wait until the next one. My dad would have loved it.

i somehow managed to peel myself from my bed the next morning, of course after tossing back a couple aleves and hopped on my bike to make the trek to the mall for some starbucks and mall wandering. I had sowme breakfast and coffee at starbucks then walked around for a bit. picked up an old owen and elliot smith cd, a couple scarves from the hippy store i love, one purple one for my coffee table and one funky mustard yellow one for my neck. i then picked up some movies and headed home to watch movies in bed for the rest of the night.

the next morning i woke up and threw on no direction home and then, realizing my bob dylan obsession, headed back to the mall to grab a dylan box set, came home, watched more movies, all in all, took it easy. very enjoyable.

the next week flew by. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, time flies here. it’s ridiculous. i think maybe it’s my 11-8 work day. i wake up, i make coffee, i eat breakfast, i go to work, i come home i have dinner watch a movie and go to bed. and the next thing you know its the weekend again. i dont mind it one bit.

Yui and i went out for a midweek dinner and wine break last week. we went to this great asian fusion restaurant close to where we live, the same place arden and dawn took mike and i on our first night in okazaki. great food at that place. best pad thai i’ve had in my life. anyways, we said only two glasses of wine but of course that turned into 5. her and i are bad/great news for each other. i know she’s reading this too, HI YUI!!! anyways, we had a fun night and the owner invited us to some lunch party there on february 10th, which i think i will go to. so that’s cool.

So last weekend, i decided that after work on saturday, i was going to go out on the town in nagoya, alone. I decided i need to make more friends. I love yui and ai to death, but now with kanika gone, i need to know more people close to me. i want to have people to call up to hang out with on weekends. so after work saturday, i went home, prettied myself up and hopped on a train to nagoya to hit the town. this was a big feat for me. i mean, going out by myself like that, to a bar. sure i would do that at absinthe, but that’s because i knew i would know everybody there. here i was, going out, knowing i would know NOBODY. but i knew i needed to do it, i wasnt going to meet new friends drinking wine alone in my apartment watching romantic comedies. i walked around sakae for a while looking for somewhere to go, i passed Hub, a sort of irish style pub that looked busy so i went inside, bought myself a vodka soda (jumbo size) and took position against the bar. and thats all i needed to do. the place was packed with foreigners and i ended up meeting so many interesting people. i think you are more approachable when you are alone. anyways, i met this older australian guy who was in japan on business, flying to thailand the next day. he had been to japan numerous times and had plenty of great stories. and listening to funny stories about japan while being told in a great australian accent was thoroughly enjoyable. while australian dude was grabbing me a drink, a good looking guy walks by me, stops, turns and asks me “what are you doing?”i just shrug and say “drinkin” and he says “alone?” to which i respond, “yea.” so he introduces himself, mark, and we talk a bit, then australian guy returns with my drink so mark laughs and says “you’re not alone!” i explain that i just met this guy and so mark introduces himself and the australian guy (i forget his name) introduces himself and they make small talk for a bit, then mark returns to his friends.

Australian guy and i talk for a bit more then mark walks back up to us and asks me if i come to nagoya often, i tell him yes, pretty much every weekend, so he hands me a card and tells me that he lives just a few blocks away from hub and he’s written down his phone number and email address on the card and that i should call him next time i’m around and we’ll meet up for a drink or whatever. the card is like a postcard but with a picture he sketched of a river in tokyo. i’m intrigued. so he goes back to his friends and australian guy and i talk a bit more then he has to go because he catches an early flight, i dont mind, he was interesting, but much too old for me and i wanted to talk to mark more, so he leaves and i go back to mark. He laughs as i approach and apologizes because he says he was just serenading his friend alan with allentown. “allentown, billy joel, do you know that song?”he asks me, i laugh “yes, i know that song”… we all know my billy joel thing. anyways, we chat for a bit, he’s hilarious and witty and interesting, after a while his friends are leaving so as does he, and he tells me to make sure i use that card.

I then meet these two really cool people from morocco, in fact the woman is the aunt of the guy who is my age. turns out she owns this moroccan restaurant in nagoya and he’s a chef there. she’s really dry humoured and eccentric and cool, and he’s got great long hair and good style, they just oozed cool. so i end up hanging out with them for the rest of the night, they take me to different bars around the city until i have to catch my train home. im stoked to go to their restaurant, they have hummus and that makes me so happy because i thought there was no way i would find hummus in japan.

anyways, i spend the rest of the weekend in bed watching movies with junkfood, unable to bring myself to do anything else. its like now i can party one night on the weekend and then i am finished for the rest of my life, and by life i mean the rest of the weekend. me, alyssa, can only party one night a week. i know. insanity.

SO i get up the guts to contact mark. i send him an email and ask him if he’d like to meet for a drink or something this weekend. he tells me he’s  going to osaka saturday but asks if i’d like to meet friday after work, he finishes at 8:30 and knows a great restaurant/pub in sakae where we can eat and talk. unfortunately i work until 9 fridays and would have to catch the last train home as i work saturday so we’d be majorly pressed for time, so i ask him if thursday would be possible. he emails back saying he teaches a private lesson until10:30, so he wouldnt be able to make it out until close to 11, tells me to think about if friday would be possible…

he then emails me back like a minute later and says he’ll cancel that class and have dinner with me thursday. !!!!!!!!!

sooooo, i’m having dinner with him tonight, and i am beyond excited. it’s been a while since i’ve felt excited about a boy like this. so this makes me happy. this is probably why i cant sleep because i’m a huge loser and never get dates.

anyways, sorry about the gushing but i reaaaaaaaaaally needed to gush and this was the perfect place to do it at this moment. my apologies.

i’m also starting to get anxiety about not doing enough travelling while i’m here. i need to get out and see more, it’s actually stressing me out. i feel like i have so much i still need/ want to do, and my time here keeps getting shorter and shorter. AH!

ok i need coffee, i will write more soon.

xs os.

alyssa

i’m just happy you stuck around January 17, 2008

music: Iron and Wine- he lays i the reins

Its taken forever for me to update and i apologize. so much has happened. so as you all know by now I flew home and surprised my friends and family for christmas vacation. I left japan on the 27th and arrived in canada the same day and stayed until january 6th. it was an amazing trip home and seeing everybody and my old life was surreal. Thank you to everyone for making it such an enjoyable trip. There was so much I wanted to do, and so much I did, but at the same time so many things I didnt get to do. But every second I was at home was incredible. Im so happy i was able to make it home for the holidays.

I wrote an entry from the airplane on my way back to japan. And so here it is:

 I Don’t really know what day or time it is. I’m on the flight back from Canada to Tokyo. I had an amazing time, but really it’s bittersweet to leave again. It’s strange, I feel like Ive done all this growing up while I’ve been gone and became somewhat of a different person, but then I come back and I fall right back into that person I was before as if nothing has changed. That place is a hole that sucks you in. I left four months ago preoccupied with a situation and here I am, four months later in the exact same position. I think this was my way of telling myself that I’m not fully ready to go back yet. I lapsed back into my old self and so it’s a good thing I have another eight months away to work on improving me.

So now I’m a week and a half in of being back and I’m loving life here even more than before i left. I’ve started cooking, working on perfecting my culinary artistry and so far so good. I made delicious whole wheat spaghetti last night  topped with spinich and cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese, it was amazing if i do say so myself.

Last weekend was great. After work on saturday, yui and i came over in their pyjamas and we had a pyjama junk food party with copius quantities of wine and champagne, clearly not enough as we had to run to the convenience store to buy more when we ran out ( i love japan because it is possible to do that) and we stayed up late just sitting and talking in my apartment and all three of us passed out in my bed watching lost in translation. such a fun night.

Sunday I stayed in bed as late as possible watching audrey hepburn movies. it was perfect. then i got ready and headed to nagoya to say goodbye to kanika. Yes, she has to move back home because her poor little body is not doing well in japan. Its what’s best for her and I know it is something she had to do, but i’m heartbroken i wont be spending the remainder of the year with her and our weekly starbucks chats.  so we said goodbye and it was sad, and i went home and ate sushi and watched the devil wears prada and went to sleep.

On monday i watched more audrey hepburn movies then rode my bike to the mall for some exercise and to buy a nice new warm fuzzy blanket for my bed.  I came home, got ready and then went out for dinner with one of my coworkers, Kyoko and her fiance and his friend. We went out for dinner and drinks at this really good restaurant and they invited me to their wedding! its in may, and i’m so excited i get to experience a real japanese wedding. whatever shall i wear.

anyways, i should get ready for work, but i will write more soon! hearts, kisses, miss everyone already. xoxox

had ourselves a merry little hamilton christmas December 27, 2007

so meg and justin came down for christmas eve and we made the most delicious dinner and drank champagne and wine and had a really great christmas. It really didnt feel like christmas around here until that night, it was perfect and exactly what i needed. i completely loved seeing them. when it was just us sitting around drinking and eating in my apartment, you couldnt even tell we were in japan. it felt like we were back home. it was nice. the next day i worked and they came and met me for a quick lunch. christmas day was strange, working like any other day, the students hardly even knew it was christmas. it was just…. so different. Meg and justin decided to stick around another night, which made me so happy, we went out to a izakaya for dinner, it was delicious, of course, but definitely a very unchristmasey dinner, but our dinner the night before totally covered those grounds.

They left today when i went to work, and it was sad, but I know i will see them both soon. Im so happy they came all the way out here to spend christmas with me. it was really a special couple of days. I love those two, like family. Its almost winter vacation and i cannot wait to have a break. I also cannot wait to see clinton and laura and to fiiiiinally visit kyoto. i think its going to be an experience and a half.

anywho, it’s late, and i must work tomorrow, so i shall be off. gnight all. merry merry christmas to everyone. i hope you all had a very happy holiday. xoxoxoo