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

3 days..

I have three days left in Japan. I can't believe that I've been here for four years and I'm finally leaving. 

I'm really sad that I'm going, although it doesn't feel real yet. I'm trying to be positive & optimistic about what's next for me - even though I don't really know what that is yet. It was my choice to leave and the hardest decision I've had to make yet. 

This last month had been crazy busy - packing, cleaning & farewell partying which has finally caught up with me in the form of massive cold that kept me inside (at my friends house) and bed bound. It's always worse being sick in some else's house. 

Enjoying my last few days in Hiroshima doing things I love. Today is Miyajima just to walk around by myself with my beats and appreciate. 

日本愛してる。

Train selfie & orange pants!

purikura, pizza and sangria happiness

This weekends happiness was baking cookies with Kimi on a Friday night after having a particularly sad first (of many) last days at school followed by a few fails that put me on edge - chocolate chip cookies were a great distraction, sleeping in on Saturday well past my alarm, getting all my laundry done (5 loads) and dried at the laundromat (damn you rainy season!), watching Masterchef Australia, catching a train to the city that was sooooo cutely decorated, Saturday sangria at cute bar in the city with my lovely partners in bitchy crime, cheap pizza and wine, bumping into Mr. Hawaii by chance while waiting at starbucks and having a great quick catchup, predetermined drunken purikura poses, meeting up with Mr. Rugby for a quick chat outside the Adidas store (?!) before their team went off to karaoke, Sunday night exercise - run, yoga and squat challenge, clean bed linen - that first sleep in fresh linen is the best! and a cherry flavoured coke to sound out my happy weekend. I feel slightly guilty that I didn't make the most of a sunny Sunday but relaxing and going for a run made me feel slightly better about it.

Quietly stressing about how little time I have left here and all the things I have to do before I leave - paperwork, school, packing and getting rid of all the unwanted stuff in my house..these next few weeks are going to be a challenge so I have to take out to de-stress, relax and refocus.

First order of business - bed!

xx

cookies with Kimi

empty

mecha cute train to the city - it's okonomiyaki!

graffiti in Japan (especially in Hiroshima) always makes me happy!

sangria Saturday!

just so you know, this is how you be kawaii

#totescutebabes

why so cartoon?

wear pink booty shorts and hold a cat - that's how to make cute.

it's just not fair you are so kawaii (stomps foot).

Sunday night post run yoga.

my little lizard friend is back - it's been a while!

Monday night beach love

Happiness is lying on the beach reading magazines & listening to daft punk while basking in the beautiful early evening sun.

Hearts, kisses & Yankies.

Detoxing

After an amazing weekend of excess I need to detox - in a major way. I drank far to much and got pretty drunk, almost embarrassingly drunk - ALMOST. Too many bottles of champagne in the club - like my instagram hashtag, I need to remember that #yourenotscottdisik! I had yakiniku for the first time in I honestly don't know how long - the last time I remember having it was over 3 years ago...generally speaking I don't eat much meat to start with so this all you can eat business sent my stomach into overdrive. Two days later I still don't feel right.

The stress of getting ready to leave Japan, packing, planning, preparing final lessons, preparing speeches for farewell parties, stressing about how much annoying Japanese paperwork I need to do before I leave has me tired. I'm not eating properly and since I quit the gym I'm not exercising nearly as much as I should be - I'm still running and playing sports but I should be running more.

So, I have devised a detox plan that should get me back to feeling good. I've planned out my dinners for the week - fresh vegetables and salmon or chicken, lunch I have no control over as I get school lunch (although I will be choosing what I eat from it carefully and eat only half of the rice), breakfast is going to be something small that I can eat quickly as I never have time to make something and sit down and eat it - I like to sleep! I'm going to try and NOT stop at the kombini on my way home from school for a snack and I'm going to limit my caffeine intake - no fizzy drinks and only one coffee (if that) a day.  I've been pintresting up a storm and found lots of delicious ways to naturally flavour water - I drink so much water anyway but I'm hoping the flavoured water will satisfy my sweet cravings.

I also found these detox pads that you put on the bottom of your feet at night and take them off in the morning. They are supposed to help rid your body of unwanted toxins and excess water. I've been reading about them online and there are a mix of good reviews and skeptical reviews. I've always been a believer in trying things for myself - I will keep the reviews I read in mind but I'll be the judge if they work for me or not. They say that you should use them for a minimum of 30 days - I don't want to spend all that money on them so I'll try do them a few times a week. I tried them last night for the first time and when I pulled them off this morning they were pretty gross..I don't know what the gunk was, but it wasn't pretty! So I'm curious to keep trying them.

Let's see how this detox thing goes..

xx