Return to Canada

Goodbye Japan! Home of the rising sun and the love of my life. Some day I'll be sure to return ^_^ I still don't feel like I've left. These pictures I took on my way to Narita airport.

Well I've been back since the 6th and though it's nice to be back I really miss Japan and my girlfriend. Today, we've been together for 16 months. Sadly, we're not able to spend it together. It'll be that way until I go back to Japan which will probably be in July or August. It all depends on my money situation and how soon I can find a job in Japan and get a work Visa.

This is the last picture we took together in the airport before I had to go through customs. So sad :( I made a video of what I did in Japan but I'll have to get her permission before I post in on here ^_^ Maybe I'll put it up next blog post if I get the go-ahead.

Recently I've been studying Japanese a lot since there's not really much else to do here in Penticton and I need the practice. I think I'm getting a little bit better but I still can't carry on a conversation with any sort of competence. Compare it to French-class conversations in Grade 8: "How are you?" "I'm good, and you?" "I'm good also". Stuff like that haha. But for practice I've started a Japanese blog so I'll be trying to translate these posts into Japanese after I write them in English. If you can read Japanese and notice any problems, send me an email or comment on the post and let me know! :)

When I travel to Japan next time I also hope to travel a little bit to see my friends Ayane (彩音さん), Kenji （けんじさん), Ming (フラミンゴさん） and Ryu (隆). Most of them live in Osaka (I think) except for Ryu haha. ^_^

If you want to see some information on Penticton you can go here and read some. It's also the sister city of Ikeda (池田町) in Hokkaido, Japan (click the Japanese name for the Japanese website). One day I want to visit Ikeda also ^_^ If you know someone who's coming to Canada, tell them to visit Penticton =D It's a beautiful place if you like the countryside.

お祖父さん、どうもありがとう

Today my gf's grandfather presented me with a beautiful carved wooden bear. He wrote me a message under the wood on the bottom which I'd love to put on here but it has personal information so I can't. His writing is incredibly neat and looks so cool. When I come back to Japan I will bring him something similar from Canada. He wanted me to remember Hokkaido from this bear since bears are famous in Hokkaido.

I Lost Takoyaki

I'm not sure how, but suddenly it was gone. I'll start from the beginning:

Yesterday hime and I went to Sapporo together to go shopping for souvenirs together and to enjoy our last trip there before I left but it turned out to be quite an unlucky day. Mr Murphy followed us everywhere.

In the morning she asked her dad for a ride since he was going somewhat in the general direction of the train station and her mother complained we are too dependant on them jokingly. It was the start - we felt not so good but it was already too late so we got a ride from her dad. In the car my gf noticed she had forgot her watch and bracelet so she was pretty upset since we needed to use her cellphone for the time for the rest of the day (but, whatever, right?). So it was all good after that. We went to the station and with moments to spare ran to board the train *phew*.

We chitchatted for a while (an hour and 1/2) and then we arrived in Sapporo. Time to find souvenirs. We went for food first though and it was pretty tasty. We went to a really small rice restaurant. Apparently it used to only be inside massage parlors since it's a healthy restaurant but it's popularity grew and people wanted a stand-alone one... so it was made! And that's where we went. After we left we went to get some souvenirs haha.

During our hunt downtown I made a couple videos and took some pictures of Sunday in Sapporo - it was a lot busier than the last time we came but still not so crowded. And then I saw it!!　ウサギちゃん came back to me! One time in Asahikawa I saw a bunny girl and I wanted to take a picture but I didn't think it would be very prudent but now I had found one on the other side of the street. I could take a picture without her ever knowing. Bunny girls (it's just my name for them - they don't actually wear ears or something. I just think they look like bunnies) are kinda rare I think. Most girls dress kinda weird but not very many dress like the girl in the picture. We visited a mall that was full of ギャル (gyaru) (image image) it was pretty fun but I really don't know how these girls can go outside dressed how they do but well... culture is culture I guess, and fashion is fashion.

So we bought souvenirs and then ate giant parfaits and a nice dessert restaurant. They were really good and super filling (and also they looked really nice) haha. A little on the expensive side, but it's just one time so that's fine. Just look at it! Doesn't it make you want to eat it? I know I wouldn't mind another =D Mine was ８００円 and hers was ７８０円 I beleive... more expensive than our lunch (around $15 total) but it came with a complimentary drink which is awesome since their drinks are also expensive. If we had ordered a drink seperately it would have been.. ３８０円 for my coffee (which is $3.50) and about the same for her tea. So it kinda makes it feel like it's worth it.

Anyway, after we finished our parfaits we went to go play some medal games (as usual) but we had really bad luck. (the pictures on the right are of downtown Sapporo at night - on our way to get parfaits. Same intersection looking different directions) We stocked up a couple times since we kept running out of metals. I kept saying "if we keep going, we'll have to get lucky sooner or later" (I'm the optimist in our relationship haha) but we never seemed to get lucky. There's sort of a "roulette wheel" in the middle of the game where you play "bingo" and not very often you get the chance to "spin the wheel" I guess... but 5 out of the 6 first times we did it we got the number 9. Every freakin' time! What are the odds!? Seriously!? Anyway - I'm stubborn so I didn't want to quit. Which is good because eventually we started to win and we won a lot. We won back just about all the money we spent (in metals though) so we put them into the "bank" and left. Actually her brother wanted to play pool together and Round 1 so we had to hurry home. He said "either's fine" (we come home soon or stay out) but we thought we could go home soon and play.

We stopped to buy takoyaki and then it was off to the train station. One of the subway stations is named "Pole Town"... I'm not sure who had the idea to name it such but I found it pretty hilarious. In any case, we had to take the subway because we'd miss the train if we didn't.. but we missed our stop on the subway, instead, and had to go back one stop. When we got off my gf noticed she didn't have her ticket any more either so we had to talk to the security who, luckily, let us past without having to pay extra. But all that hassle ended up causing us to miss the train by about 10 minutes so we had to wait another hour -_-' We checked the sign and it said the next train wouldn't be until 9:20 so we decided to do some more souvenir shopping. at 8:50 I said we should go back so we started on our way back. We got to the boarding station at 8:55 and the giant sign that shows the times said 9:00 so we ran.

The train was packed and sadly there were no empty seats so we had to stand between 2 trains where it was cold *lame*. After a few minutes we decided to eat our takoyaki because we were hungry and it was probably still kinda warm. But... it was gone!! We lost our takoyaki. It was in a plastic bag that I was holding. I was also holding a bag full of garbage and all our souvenirs but somehow the bag with takoyaki in it was missing. We tried to figure out where it could be - where we could have left it but I noticed something... After we bought it we never stopped and I never put the bags down. I held all 3 from when we bought it until when we boarded the train. The mystery of the missing takoyaki. My gf was angry - takoyaki is her favorite food and this takoyaki in particular is her favorite takoyaki - it's kinda expensive too. ５００円 for one takoyaki boat (8 peices). No seats and no takoyaki *sigh*. After about an hour we finally got seats and we were able to sit for about 20 minutes haha. Then we arrived in Asahikawa.

Hime emailed her mom to say we arrived but she said her brother just got home. Apparently he had been waiting at the station for us since he knew there was no 9:20 train so he had no idea when we would get there. We felt pretty bad so we decided to take the bus. We walked down to the bus station. It was 10:20 - the bus left at 10:15 and the next one was 11:00. Missed by just a few minutes again!! We decided to walk to the spa her dad goes to since he was there at the time. We hoped we could get a ride. Luckily he hadn't left yet so we got a ride home with him and she explained our whole day to him and he laughed haha.

Today I Felt Famous

So, today turned into one of the most interesting experiences I've had since coming to Japan. My gf and I walked to the nearby library to study a little bit this afternoon in a relaxing, quiet place. Recently, we go to the library to study quite often. Either the one near her place or the large Asahikawa Central library downtown. The one near her house is beside a Junior Highschool (age 13-15) so quite often we see students in the window who point at us as we walk by. It's both embarassing and flattering - even though I know the only reason they do it is because i'm 外人 (gaijin - foreign). But today was different.

At around 4:30 I was hungry - I had brought a pudding to eat because I knew I'd get hungry during studying, so I figured I'd eat it now. Outside the "study room" - the place where you're allowed to eat - there was a really stinky おたく guy who was reading Dragonball Z. He looked at me funny (gazed would probably be a better way to describe it) when we first entered the library so I wasn't so inclined to sit by him. I decided I'd just go outside to eat it. It's small so I wouldn't be too cold (at the time I just had a t-shirt on).

So I went outside to eat and was enjoying my pudding in the cold when a short おばさん (middle aged lady) came out and talked to me. 「さむくない？」 (are you cold) she asked me. I answered and we attempted to have a conversation in Japanese. She had a lot of questions from where was I from, what was I doing in Japan, where was I staying, what did I do in Canada, how old I was etc etc. It was a pretty good opportunity to practice my Japanese. Once the conversation started to get a little too difficult one of the employees of the library came out and apparently she speaks english! So the 3 of us started talking - she went to Canada and visited Edmonton and Iqualit? Nunavit? Something like that. She went cariboo hunting and stuff - so cool!

Then I heard a lot of 「外人外人」 from inside the school. There was a huge group of junior highschool students leaving the school and they were all looking at me. Being white in Japan is sometimes quite discomforting. They all walked out of the school and I attempted to keep the conversation going with the 2 girls I was originally talking to but the kids were so noisy. Suddenly one of them said "Hello" to me and stepped foreward (must be the brave one). I replied with a nice "Hi". She thought about her next sentence for a little while then tried a "Are you cold?" I tried to keep my sentence as simple as possible so I said "I'm not cold" but she looked pretty confused so I repeated "not cold" then she said 「なっと？」 (natto is fermented soy beans) - all of her other classmates burst out laughing and I tried to save her from being too embarassed by saying 「さむくない」 which resulted in a pretty resounding 「すげっ！」 (wow) and some whispered 「日本語を喋って」 (he spoke japanese). At this point I was pretty embarassed myself. The two girls I was talking to before decided they would leave and I thought I should do the same. I said bye to them and was about to say bye to the young girl I was talking to but she offered me a hand and said "nice to meet you" so I said "nice to meet you too" then went back into the library.

The library closed about 15 minutes later - I had explained the story to my gf inside the library. During the walk home we found a small group of about 6 girls that had been outside the school just minutes earlier. They were on the other side of the street and all waved at me. I waved back and started laughing. They all started a hushed conversation (since now I was with my gf). For me, I couldn't really understand anything so I just smiled and waved, but my gf didn't really like what they were talking about.. or more how they said it (in japanese there are levels of politeness and they weren't being polite) haha. They seemed quite concerned that I was laughing. My gf explained later that "are they laughing at us?" was the main point of their discussion haha.

I don't think I'll be able to experience this kind of stuff again since when I come back to Japan I'll be living in a bigger city, where foreign people are a little more commonplace. So for now I'll cherish this memory hahaha =D