Mini holiday

Having a mini holiday in Tauranga/Mt Maunganui. Being unemployed (yes, still!) has its perks..aside from no regular income you're free to head off into the beautiful spring sun on a whim with a friend for a mini getaway! 

Caught up with a friend for the first time in years eating delish food on The Strand. Our food went cold from the non stop talking! LOVE.

Sightseeing, shopping, eating sushi (totally not up to my standard but hey I'm not in Japan anymore!), sun bathing, hiking, movies, wine & Mexican food for dinner was a great way to spend Thursday.

Leaving tomorrow so back to reality & job hunting but I have an international festival to look forward too on Saturday if the beginnings of this cold I've suddenly developed in the last few hours passes! 

xx

さようならじゃなくって

My last month or so in Japan was emotional, stressful, busy and hot! It was almost surreal thinking “this is the last time I’ll be doing this”. There was so much paperwork to do, things to get rid of, things to send, people to see, places to visit, parties to attend and speeches to give I barely had time to slow down and take in what was happening. Before I knew it I was handing over the keys to my house and walking out of the beloved place I called home for the last 4 years. Dropping off car was also a big move emotionally – it felt like I was giving up my independence. Using public transport and walking everywhere was HORRIBLE, especially in the hot sticky summer heat. I know for a fact that if I didn't have a car I would not have stayed in Japan as long as I did. Lucky for me (and thank hey zues) a car was required for my job! In a way i'm glad I was busy and kept busy until the last minute - had I had time to think about what was happening I would have been even more of an emotional wreck!

I spent four wonderful years in Japan making memories and meeting some amazing people. Leaving was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do and to cram all my goodbyes into a few short months/weeks/days coupled with packing up my life and shipping it home was heartbreaking. I am blessed to have made some wonderful memories and friends and throughout all the ups and downs that life brings I couldn't and wouldn't have asked for anything different...ok well maybe a few things relating to he who must not be named - yes I have re-nicknamed him to that of Voldemort! 

Nippon my beloved, you are sorely missed but I know in my heart we will be reunited once more!

Last Karugahama sunset

Karugahama toes

Last koto lesson - gosh how I miss playing the koto!

Packing.

Farewell gifts from school that made my mascara run a marathon

Beautiful blackboard art by my kids

Last basketball Friday with team Jouzu

Last basketball Friday

Last ramen at Gaba with team jouzu

Last sushi at Sushi sen with Tom

Last touch practice 

Purikura with one of my fave students from JHS now a SHS student!

Purikura with two of my fave Hiroshima ladies!

We found the bed cafe!

beds, cocktails and dessert - YES!

Last night in Japan spent at a beer garden with lovelies including these two!

xx

August Instagramming

September is here which means I have been home for just over 1 month now...scary how time flies!!

The weather is warming up and then cooling down and then threatening to snow - make up your mind Spring! This is my first spring home in NZ in 4 years and I had forgotten all about the little lambs being born and the beautiful daffodils blooming everywhere - maybe I forgot or maybe I just never took any notice.

Spring time in Japan is beautiful - the sakura and just the spring time vibe that everyone gets. You know I'm the hanami grinch but I love how beautiful the sakura and ume blossoms are. I love that all the stores are decorated with the perfect picture of spring, you can buy spring time themed goods and decorations everywhere, there are spring themed food and drinks avaliable (sakura latte anyone?) and the streets are lined with sakura trees. The seasons are clearly defined in Japan and I love it. Contrasting that to NZ now - if the lambs weren't being born and the daffodils weren't blooming (and of course if I couldn't read a calendar) then I would have no idea it was spring - it's like the year is just one big blur of a season. Maybe it's a cultural thing - I don't know, but I do know I miss my Japanese spring. I did find sakura however!! Mecha excite!!

With limited wi-fi access my instagramming has waned considerably, but here's what's been happening in my #instaworld

1. My last night in Japan at a beer garden with some lovelies including Marc & Katrina who I had't seen in almost 2 years!

2. Breakfast on the deck in the beautiful winter sunshine.

3. Whanganui sunsets.

4. Home skies.

5. Relaxing in the tub after a particularly sore physio session.

6. Getting my fit girl on #fitspo #juicing #boxgap #cleaneating #ironichashtagging

7. Queen of Hearts for a cousins Alice in Wonderland birthday party.

8. First coffee back in NZ (mochiron soy latte).

9. SAKURA!

Follow me on instagram @thecandystripepaperclip.

xx

Unemployment in the inaka is

bleaching my eyebrows, sitting in the car park at McD's/town library/cafes scamming free wi-fi, spending far too long in the international section at the supermarket reminiscing over the Kewpie mayo and instant miso soup, baking the entire contents of the Edmond's Cook Book, making my nieces school lunch and sneaking in notes, sleeping in, eating breakfast out on the deck in the beautiful winter sun, going to the gym, teaching body pump, drinking too much coffee and herbal tea, taking too many photos of the sky because of lack of better subjects, taking my niece to tae kwon do, painting my nails, dying my own hair with supermarket dye (multiple times), spending time with family, "looking" for jobs, spending hours online looking at Korean and Japanese skin care sites and seeing who ships to NZ, researching plants for my vege/herb garden, cooking dinners in the crock pot, reading to my hearts content - novels/fashion magazines/gossip magazines, constantly reorganizing my room, reading blogs, trolling on FB/insta and twitter and using up all the internet, going to physio, long baths, juicing (#fitspo #boxgap) getting a new phone and using up my months prepaid internet in one day - daymn you unlimited Japanese internets you've ruined me! playing far too much candy crush....

Rinse and repeat.

xxx

3 weeks and 3 days...not that i'm counting or anything.

COME ON PENSION REFUND!

eyebrow bleaching is so hot right now

winter?

sneaky school lunch notes

coffee.is.good

walks with the dog

more coffee (and cheesecake)

pretty clouds 

physio..gah

#totessexyallthetime

giant ginger kisses

juicing!!

the next karate kid...i mean tae kwon do kid..?

Hiroshima to Tokyo for the last

Two days before I was due to hand over the keys to my house I headed up to Tokyo for a whirlwind 24 hours.

Even though it's a long ride on the shinkansen to Tokyo I always enjoy it - maybe it's the excitement of what awaits when I arrive in Shinagawa. It sounds silly and I know if I lived in Tokyo and had to deal with the crowds everyday all day I wouldn't love it at all, but the rush I get as I walk though Shinagawa station to track one - the Yamanote line to get to Shibuya is awesome. 

I went to perform at the NZ embassy for a reception for the Japanese Defense Force - was a good performance and was a great last time with the group. After our performance we went back to the apartment to get changed and ready for what Shibuya had in store for us. Starting with mini asahi cans and chu-his from the kombini, NZ wine and beer from the staff at the embassy and a bottle of what can only be described as nasty aniseed medicine - omiyage a friend brought back from Greece, my last night in Toks was well on its way - and then Si turned up with his guitar. We eventually headed out to scramble to find they we were late and they were closing. The rest of the night was an awesome blurr of fun - Gas Panic, dancing, tequila shots, more dancing, more tequila shots, burger king, being tackled to the ground outside H&M by the D master who was looking for his coins that I stole and hid in my bra...very classy and then being locked out of the apartment because I forgot the code. 

Woke up the next morning not so hungover and made for the station so I could be home at a reasonable hour to get some more cleaning and packing done before heading to see Fast and Furious 6 with Kimi and Tom.

I'll miss my little getaways to Tokyo so much. I found them such a great way to get away from reality even for a short time and let the energy of Tokyo take me over. 

I'll be back - sooner rather then later.

Tokyo I love you.

 

Group selfie before we perform

Chu hi selfie

Tequila time with the D master and Miss M

Hungover shinkansen makeup

Rainy Shibuya

Borderline Hiroshima and Ehime

This is my attempt at catching up - I'm just going to post the last few months not necessarily in any order so I get back to real time and my super exciting life that is unemployment in the inaka.

During my last few weeks at school as the weather was getting far too hot to be sitting in a teachers room pretending to be busy I started leaving school as soon as my classes were done for the day (actually OK who am I kidding I have been doing this for the last 2 years...) which at times was straight after lunch. One particularly hot afternoon I text Tom to see if he was game to skip out on school early too and head to the beach, he was. So we decided to rendezvous at a Deodeo (now called Edion - when they changed over it was my mission to find something in store that still had the old Deodeo logo on it - I never did) where I'd park my car and then he'd drive us to the beach which was at the end of a chain of islands off Hiro in the inland sea.

It was so nice to sit at the beach and relax reading gossip magazines and talking smack - always so much fun with Tom boo boo. It was also really nice to not be sweating uncontrollably in a non air conditioned teachers room but sweating ever to slightly on the beach with coffee from the kombini and the cool ocean lapping (haha not really the inland sea doesn't have waves!) at our feet!

We then decided to keep driving and ended up driving over to the last island on the chain of islands that is considered part of Ehime prefecture - Ehime is like a ferry ride away and pretty far. We also drive up a pretty precarious road to a look out where you can see most of the islands in the inland sea. Such a nice mid week afternoon!

And of course I had to stop on our drive back to my car in Deodeo to take a pic of the graffiti I love so much! I actually made Tom turn around on a super busy highway to go back and take a pic..

Moody sky

Hiroshima & Ehime

love this little guy

Inland sea and racer back tan lines

oh i love me some selfies, especially a diptic of selfies!

xxx

1 week

I've been back in NZ for one week.

One loooooong week.

I knew when I left it would be hard to come back but I didn't realise how hard. I miss Japan so much. I miss my life in Japan. I miss not having to answer to anyone. I miss having things to do. I'm seriously starting to doubt if I made the right decision to come home. Having said all that I need to gambare and make the most of my time at home. Set goals and have a plan. The loneliness (most of my friends now reside in other countries or cities and the rest have 5 thousand kids) and boredom (small town 2000 people...enough said) will subside but only if I am proactive about it. I will give myself this weekend more to mourn for Japan and my Japanese life and then I will be all about getting things on track for the next phase of my life - getting out of NZ and heading overseas again (come on pension refund!).

I have so much to catch up on, namely my last few weeks in Japan. I'm also thinking about do a series of posts called "Unemployment in the NZ inaka - a day in the life" which will include fun activities such as my weekly visits to WINZ or bleaching my eyebrows, going to sit in the McDonalds car park to use the free wi-fi. Exciting stuff!

Oh and I have already used up 80% of this months data for the internet - curse you NZ and your non-unlimited internet!!! Lucky I legally acquired all my shows and movies before I came back! No more youtube this month for me...FML.

Watch this space!

My mantra of the moment - GANBAROU!!

xxx