So, after 7 months and a few weeks of being home we're finally heading back to Asia. It's been a frustrating past few months considering we were planning on being out of here August 1st. When we came home April 16th we planned on staying the summer and getting back to Japan during hiring season in August. Two of our friends wanted to go somewhere different so they talked us into Korea so we started that process which has been the longest and most irritating and stressful process of my life. So here it is, almost mid-December and we're just catching a plane out. Once we decided to go with private schools it's been a breeze, just came down to choosing the right school. I found the right school, they booked our flights and off we go!
In 2010 when we decided to go to Japan, we accepted our jobs in January, received the fly out date in February and left in April. Those few months between February and April I had plenty of time to adjust to the idea of leaving and mentally prepare myself for the huge change in my life. With going to Korea I got my fly out date on December 2nd and that fly day is December 14th. That is 12 days to prepare myself for leaving. I'm not talking about packing and getting things ready to go but really prepare myself. This time around I'm not scared or intimidated because, for the most part, I know what to expect. Yes, I've been desperately trying to get out of Weston for the last 4 months. And now the time has come and perhaps I should be breathing a sigh of relief and rejoicing but regardless of the exciting aspects of leaving and travelling someplace new I'm still, once again, leaving the comforts of home for quite a while. I'm leaving all my friends and family and just the easiness of familiarity. I'm still trying to decide what I want my last American meal to be on Tuesday night, any suggestions?
Before we left for Japan I was an absolute nervous wreck. Japan had always been on my list of places to see but I never thought I'd actually be calling it home. I had no idea what to expect in any capacity. I didn't know the language, I didn't know what a 14 hour flight was like, I didn't know what food to expect, I didn't know how the train system worked, I didn't know how I was going to do basic things like grocery shop. This time, though I'm going to Korea and not Japan, those things are far less daunting. I don't know a smidge of Korean...but I learned Japanese fast enough to feel comfortable so I know I can do the same with Korean. And learning the language really is the gateway to making things easier for myself.
I'm sitting here now at my Aunt's house, a place that has basically been one of my two homes while being in Weston. It really hasn't hit me yet that I won't be seeing this place anymore in just a little over a week. My last 8 months here haven't been the most difficult. Other than being the cart girl at the resort for a few months it's been pretty easy peasy. Sleeping in every day, doing what I please...not bad. So knowing that in a very short time I will have a legitimate responsibility every day is a little scary. Any normal situation...you job search, you interview, you get a job. When you interview for a job you know exactly what you're getting into, exactly what your bosses expect out of you on a day-to-day basis. Taking a job in a foreign country is not like that...because I have very little idea of what my daily life will consist. I know that I have a 30 minute walk to work, I know that I have to make lesson plans for each semester, I know that it's important that my classes get through their books, I know I switch classrooms each class, I know I work from roughly 2-7. That's really it. How does the school want me to make lesson plans? Will I have to interact with parents? Will Koreans disrespect me simply because I am foreign? Are the children as badly behaved as Japanese children? Not only am I going into a new job, in which every person is nervous, but I'm going into a new job in a new culture in a new country where things don't work the same way they do in America. Nerve-wracking? I think so.
Everyone keeps asking if I'm sad that I'm leaving before Christmas...the answer is no. I mean, the idea of it saddens me a little but I was with my family for Thanksgiving and I'm sure they're just happy that I finally have a job. Maybe the fact that I'm leaving in 8 days will hit me soon? I hope so because today seems like any other day and that flight looming in my future...doesn't even seem real.
PS Once we get over there and settled in I'll change the name of this blog!
Life with insatiable wanderlust.
Vang Vieng, Laos, December 2010
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Life/Korea Updates
Since everyone's eyes tend to skip over the long FB status updates I thought I'd come to my blog (for the first time since February!!) and let everyone who cares know what's going on. I guess once last March and April hit I was too preoccupied with coming back to America to write anything and once I got back to America there was nothing exciting to write about.
Every since being back stateside not only have I gained like 10 pounds from all the food here but I'm getting more and more over the good ol' US of A every second. The plan was to be back in Japan by August 1. HA. It's November and here we are, living in my Grandma's basement because absolutely nothing is working out the way we need it to be.
We decided in the summer to give up Japan like a bad job and move on to South Korea with two of our good friends, Jared and Rachel, who suggested we all go together. Fine. I wasn't keen on the idea whatsoever but I was outnumbered 3-1. Nothing to do but do my research and decide where and how to go about a new country. Jared and Rachel taught in the Japanese public school system while Al and I were private. They were tired of the public and wanted to go private in Korea and Al and I decided to go public. Overall, teaching in public schools in Korea seems to be the better choice (you get over double the vacation time from the private schools!) but it's also a way more difficult route. Once we were about two months in to the application process we were hit with the first of many bombs that would slow our process and seriously damper our spirits: the Ministry of Education needed reference letters from our old school in Japan. If you are one of the few people closest to Al and I you know that our experience with our school in Japan wasn't the best. If you didn't know, the school is ran by a tyrranical sadist who makes the lives of most of her teachers miserable to a breaking point. I was a great teacher and I received nothing but praise from my students and parents of students but that doesn't matter in the eyes of GEM School. Nonetheless, very few leave that school on good terms and/or in a happy mindset and there is no way in a million years Al and I could get a reference letter from her (and it had to be from HER specifically). So we gave up teaching in Korean public schools.
Last month we decided that our only option was to suck it up and teach for private schools. (Personally, I would rather teach for private schools but the draw of many, many vacation days kept me hanging on to the public system.) We found a great recruiter who has been a tremendous help and had us hired within two weeks. Since there are no "couple" positions available within the next month (we want out of here ASAP!) we would be taking two single positions and therefore single housing a.k.a. studio apartment. Fine. Whatever. (Did I also mention that teaching in Korea is rent-free?) So Al accepted his job after interviewing and asking questions and I was still waiting to talk to the current foreign teacher before I make my decision.
Since we're moving along quite quickly and smoothly I should have known that, with our luck, something bad was bound to happen. Well, it did. Because Al has previously been a resident of the United States he has to submit to an FBI background check before his visa can start being processed. I got mine done months ago because I had to. It takes 6-12 weeks. Well, there goes Al's job and the thought of us getting out of here in three weeks. So I cried and we both got upset and we were at a point yesterday when we really didn't know what we were going to do for the next three months. I have been working at the golf course up at Stonewall for the majority of the summer but just a few days ago found out that there's no more work for me since the season is over. Bye bye, paycheck! Bye bye Korea jobs! Hello possibility of me going to Korea alone for three months! Let's just say it was one of our worst days yet.
So, here it is, our (kind of) silver lining. Our recruiter called last night to talk about our options and our best one seems to be this: I still take one of the jobs that start in December and Al comes right along with me to wait on his visa. Schools pay for teachers' flight over and back so we would have to pay out of pocket for Al's but once he gets a job (in like, January or so) his school will actually reimburse him for his ticket. So once I get more information about my position that starts December 1st I can make a decision on whether or not to take that one. They already hired me I just don't know much about the school yet. So the possibility of us getting out of here in a matter of a few weeks is still a good one, we'd just be living on one paycheck for a few months (though, over there, it's not hard). Hopefully tonight I will get some info about my school and we can start moving forward for once.
Fingers crossed!
Every since being back stateside not only have I gained like 10 pounds from all the food here but I'm getting more and more over the good ol' US of A every second. The plan was to be back in Japan by August 1. HA. It's November and here we are, living in my Grandma's basement because absolutely nothing is working out the way we need it to be.
We decided in the summer to give up Japan like a bad job and move on to South Korea with two of our good friends, Jared and Rachel, who suggested we all go together. Fine. I wasn't keen on the idea whatsoever but I was outnumbered 3-1. Nothing to do but do my research and decide where and how to go about a new country. Jared and Rachel taught in the Japanese public school system while Al and I were private. They were tired of the public and wanted to go private in Korea and Al and I decided to go public. Overall, teaching in public schools in Korea seems to be the better choice (you get over double the vacation time from the private schools!) but it's also a way more difficult route. Once we were about two months in to the application process we were hit with the first of many bombs that would slow our process and seriously damper our spirits: the Ministry of Education needed reference letters from our old school in Japan. If you are one of the few people closest to Al and I you know that our experience with our school in Japan wasn't the best. If you didn't know, the school is ran by a tyrranical sadist who makes the lives of most of her teachers miserable to a breaking point. I was a great teacher and I received nothing but praise from my students and parents of students but that doesn't matter in the eyes of GEM School. Nonetheless, very few leave that school on good terms and/or in a happy mindset and there is no way in a million years Al and I could get a reference letter from her (and it had to be from HER specifically). So we gave up teaching in Korean public schools.
Last month we decided that our only option was to suck it up and teach for private schools. (Personally, I would rather teach for private schools but the draw of many, many vacation days kept me hanging on to the public system.) We found a great recruiter who has been a tremendous help and had us hired within two weeks. Since there are no "couple" positions available within the next month (we want out of here ASAP!) we would be taking two single positions and therefore single housing a.k.a. studio apartment. Fine. Whatever. (Did I also mention that teaching in Korea is rent-free?) So Al accepted his job after interviewing and asking questions and I was still waiting to talk to the current foreign teacher before I make my decision.
Since we're moving along quite quickly and smoothly I should have known that, with our luck, something bad was bound to happen. Well, it did. Because Al has previously been a resident of the United States he has to submit to an FBI background check before his visa can start being processed. I got mine done months ago because I had to. It takes 6-12 weeks. Well, there goes Al's job and the thought of us getting out of here in three weeks. So I cried and we both got upset and we were at a point yesterday when we really didn't know what we were going to do for the next three months. I have been working at the golf course up at Stonewall for the majority of the summer but just a few days ago found out that there's no more work for me since the season is over. Bye bye, paycheck! Bye bye Korea jobs! Hello possibility of me going to Korea alone for three months! Let's just say it was one of our worst days yet.
So, here it is, our (kind of) silver lining. Our recruiter called last night to talk about our options and our best one seems to be this: I still take one of the jobs that start in December and Al comes right along with me to wait on his visa. Schools pay for teachers' flight over and back so we would have to pay out of pocket for Al's but once he gets a job (in like, January or so) his school will actually reimburse him for his ticket. So once I get more information about my position that starts December 1st I can make a decision on whether or not to take that one. They already hired me I just don't know much about the school yet. So the possibility of us getting out of here in a matter of a few weeks is still a good one, we'd just be living on one paycheck for a few months (though, over there, it's not hard). Hopefully tonight I will get some info about my school and we can start moving forward for once.
Fingers crossed!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Christmas in SE Asia
So I've put off writing about my vacation because I can only assume it's going to be a monster of a post and I wanted to be able to give it my full attention and time. I have an hour before I need to leave for class and Al is lying here reading a magazine so I found an opportunity, yay!
First, I'll start by saying that I haven't seen many places of the world yet so when I say Thailand and Laos are some of my favorite places in the world I don't have much to compare it to. So on that note, THAILAND AND LAOS ARE AWESOMMMMEEEEE!!!
Our flight was scheduled to leave December 23 at 1:30pm from Osaka but the vacation shenanigans started much sooner than that. Al, Christa and I all travelled together for the beginning bulk of our trip. The initial plan was for Christa to spend the night at our house and we would take the train early the next morning to Takamatsu and then catch the bus from there to Osaka airport. Well thanks to December 23 being the Emperor's birthday (thanks a lot Akihito) the trains didn't start running until well after we needed to be in Takamatsu. Great. So after we all finished our last classes (FINALLY after months and months of texts of "105 days!" "76 days!" "12 days!" "TOMORROW!!!") on the evening of the 22nd, Christa headed over to our apartment and we went all the way to Takamatsu that night to stay at our friend Katie's house and then get a cab to the bus station. Sooooo much trouble, but it had to be done.
So we head for Katie's house and get off the train and all the while Al is saying how he knows exactly where Katie's apartment is in relation to the train station. An hour and a half later, cold from walking and cursing Emperor Akihita's birthday under our breath we finally arrive at Katie's. In reality she lives 10 minutes from the station. Thanks, Al. Katie and her boyfriend are headed for the airport the following morning as well, but for Okinawa, so we're all in the vacation mood and happy and end up staying awake until 3 or so. We get 2 hours of sleep and get our cab to the bus station. Christa and I are cold and complaining but the bus finally arrives and we start the long 4 hour ride to the airport. I think we happened to get the worse bus in the Shikoku-Kansai fleet and it makes for a long, uncomfortable trip, but we arrive in one piece and despite everything we're all in very good spirits and excited to finally be checking in. Christa is on a different flight than Al and I so we say our goodbyes at the gates but we'll see each other again when we all arrive in Bangkok. Christa has a short, easy flight with a stopover in Seoul for only an hour or two...Al and I, on the other hand, have a 7 hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan which has us arriving in Bangkok well after midnight.
We decided to make the most of our layover and leave the airport for a few hours and see Taipei and check another country off the list. We got through customs and immigration easily. Taiwan is actually a part of China, it even says "Republic of China" in my passport. Let me say that getting through immigration into CHINA is much more of a breeze than trying to get back into my home country of good ol' America. American immigration = nightmare. We didn't have too much time and I know nothing about Taiwan except for the Taipei 101 (second tallest building in the world, was the first until 2004 or something) so we decided to tell the cabbie to just head there and drop us off. IT'S HUGE. I mean that building is gargantuan. But it's strange because it's not in some metropolis like Manhattan amongst a lot of other large buildings oh nooo. It's just this colossal building in the middle of nothing. It just looms over everything in this ugly, dusty city.
We get dropped off at head inside and what do we find? A huge line of Japanese tourists waiting for the tour to the top. Okay. Pass. We'll head on to the shopping plaza part of the building, thanks. So we just walked around for a while, ate (we wanted to eat some real Chinese food, but then I read the menu and discovered what real Chinese food consists of and opted for an Italian restaurant instead) and got a cab back to the airport. All the while listening to "Black and Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa on the Taiwanese radio station along with an English DJ. Weird.
After an already long day (and it's only early evening) we hop our plane to Bangkok. We arrive at 12:30 at night and once through immigration are bombarded with Thais with signs hounding us to stay at their hotel or take their cab service. It was like trying to get through a throng of paparazzi. Before leaving Sakaide I had a friend print off all our flight and hotel papers so I could have them with me. (we had 7 flights and 5 hotels to keep track of, I needed those papers) Well, one was forgotten and that one happened to be the hotel we were staying at when we arrived in Bangkok. For the life of me I couldn't remember the name of the hotel so we had to choose another hotel to stay at for the night. The one I couldn't remember was already paid for (oops) but at least Thailand is cheap and it was only $30 or so. We hop in the hotel's "shuttle van" which ended up being some kind of old Buick LeSabre with a hotel logo on it and start the terrifying 10 minute journey to the hotel. Thai drivers are worse than Japanese ones and that's saying something. There is absolutely no organization on the highways and people are all over the place and swerving in and out and...I really don't think I could ever describe that 10 minutes to anyone. Just pure horror while I held on for my life in the backseat. So, we finally arrive to the hotel (total crap) at 1:30 or so and get a few hours sleep before meeting Christa again at the Bangkok airport at 7:00am to catch another short flight to Udon Thani, a small town close to the Thailand/Laos border.
Once we arrived in Udon Thani we took a short bus ride north to the border town of Nong Khai where we were meeting up with our friends Jared and Rachel. (They had arrived a few days before us) We chilled along the Mekong River for a bit, marveling at the fact that we all finally made it and could relax. The main mode of short-distance transportation in places such as these is a tuk tuk. A tuk tuk is little more than a motorcycle with a covered mini trailer hooked to the back with two benches. Actually, it's not a little more than that, that's exactly what it is. A normal sized one can fit maybe 4 or 5 people but trust me, I saw probably 10 locals crammed into one more than a few times. So Jared and Al took one tuk tuk and Rachel, Christa and I took another and we headed for the border to cross into Laos. Laos was our first communist country, woo! Going into countries like Laos isn't like taking a nice trip across the border to Canada...or even Mexico. You are crossing into a country where they don't observe the same kind of ethics and morals as the Western world. If you are caught doing something against the law here, they could very well just kill you if they feel like it and no one would hear about it and they don't even have to let your home country know what happened to you. It's pretty scary but you just have to keep a smart head about you.
Once we did the border protocol we exchanged our Thai Baht into Lao Kip (we got nearly one million Kip from the exchange, millionaires!!!!!) and crossed the border into Vientiane, the capital of Laos. With our tourist visas and gangster roll of cash in hand we headed for the bus station. We still have another 4 hour bus ride until we eventually reach our destiation: Vang Vieng. Once we arrive at the "station" we realize that we've missed the legit tourist buses that head for Vang Vieng. So we negotiate a price for another bus heading that way and hop on. The trip takes 5 hours and a lot of it was on a dirt road winding through the mountains...albeit beautiful ones. We stopped in every little village along the way to pick up things that needed to be delivered to this remote town we were headed towards. Once those grueling and sometimes scary 5 hours were over we had to climb over 20 or so boxes of fish sauce that had been loaded in the aisle of the bus that travelled with us to VV. It was well past dark when we arrived so it wasn't until morning when I walked out of my room that I saw the striking scenery of Vang Vieng. I could have taken a million pictures and use a giant thesaurus to describe what I saw and nothing could convey the sheer beauty of my surroundings. The magnificant karst mountains for a backdrop with the Nam Song river flowing in front of me and the lush tropical landscape of this part of the world absolutely took my breath away.
After staring out my door for like 50000 hours we ate some breakfast. I had a giant $1.50 plate coconut sticky rice with pineapple. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I've already found a recipe so I can make it myself. We wondered around the town (if you can even call it that) to see the local area before meeting up with everyone. We all stayed at the same guesthouse but Al, Christa and I shared a room on the river and Jared and Rachel had a room in the main building...I think they paid a whopping $6 a night for their room. (Did I mention Laos is dirt cheap?) I soon discover that foreigners, mostly American, Australian and British, outnumbered the locals by about 10 to 1. I knew before coming here that Vang Vieng was overrun with 20 somethings all here for one reason: to party on the river. I read that tubing down this river is somewhat of a rite of passage before backpacking throughout SE Asia...and here we are.
We carried our tubes another 400 meters or so to "Bar One" which is the first stop on the river. We immediately put down the tubes and got some buckets to share. (bucket = about the size of a normal sand-castle making bucket but filled to the brim with whatever alcoholic concoction you come up with all for the low price of about 50,000 Kip) Christa, Rachel, Kiri and I head straight for the sunshine to soak up some Vitamin D and hopefully get some color while Al and Jared hang out in the shade with a little puppy that's roaming around. We finish the buckets, grab our tubes and head down to the water. We all very ungracefully flop in our tubes into the not-very-warm water and start the slow trek down the river. There are many, many ramshackle bars all down the shore, you just choose when and where to stop. The owners of the bars throw out ropes when they see passerbys and if you feel like taking a break they'll pull you in. We took advantage of one of the ropes and stopped at Bar #4 so we (not me) could have a go at the rope swing. I was too much of a weiner, I have no upper body strength and I don't think I could've held myself on so I passed. After a few more buckets and quite a few rounds on the swing we got back into the tubes and floated down the river some more. We stopped once or twice more then headed back into town before it got dark. After some dinner, questionable green drinks and a very long night we did it all again the next day. We finished the tubing route and at the last bar (or so they say it was the last one) we spray painted hearts on our skin and the boys took a shot of some local liquor that had bumble bees fermenting in it. You know like the worm in tequila? But bumble bees. Pass.
Our last day we woke up and had some breakfast, bought a few souvenirs (a pair of shorts, three shirts, swimming trunks and 3 pairs of sunglasses all for the low price of $12) and chilled until our bus arrived to take Al, Christa and I back to Vientiane. While waiting, Al bought a street vendor sandwich that would eventually give him some vicious food poisoning. We hopped the bus (a real one this time, not a fish sauce one) and started back for the border. Once there and back through customs and immigration (all with a very nice sign saying if you bring any drugs across with you, you will be "put to death") we cross back into Thailand and back to the Udon Thani airport. We say our goodbyes to Christa and Al and I board our $40 AirAsia flight for the beach segment of our vacation.
We arrive in Phuket at midnight and take a shuttle to our hotel for just the one night. We wake up the next morning and take the hotel shuttle to the ferry port where we took a 2 hour ferry to Phi Phi Don, the island that will be our home for the next 8 days. We're now in the southern part of Thailand and the weather is hot. The ferry docks and we're starved so we find a restaurant and I had the most delish soup I've ever had...Tom Kha Gai. It's a sort of chicken coconut soup. Heaven. Once fed we walked down the main road...but it's not really a road because there are no cars on the island...and look for our hotel, Bay View Resort. It's the last resort on the first of two main beaches on this side of the island. We check in and are taken up to our bungalow which is so cute and bungalowy and I love it. Al's food poisoning has now severely set in and he can't even leave the room. I walk back into town and find a pharmacy and since in Thailand you can get any kind of meds over the counter, I just tell the lady what's wrong with him and she gives me some kind of strong antibiotic and a Rx level pain killer. I take him the meds and I go down and start my vacation by getting a $12 massage on the beach. *Sigh*
The next few days are spent in utter relaxation despite our weather being horrid. It was overcast nearly every day and rained for about an hour each of those. We found a bookshop and bought a bunch of books and spent a lot of the rainy times out on our porch. What's kind of sad is that also during those rainy times we discovered that Thailand has English TV channels. OMG. We don't get to watch TV in Japan so actually sitting there flipping through channels and being able to watch MTV and the news IN ENGLISH was almost as Heavenly as sitting out on my porch watching the ocean. Like I said, sad, I know. New Year's Eve rolled around and we spent it eating the biggest buffet dinner ever at our hotel then headed down the path into town to find someplace to hang out for a while. We got a few buckets (WAY more expensive than in Laos) and settled in to enjoy each other's company and wait on midnight. Al ended up meeting some guys from France and I got bored listening to their French chatter that I can only understand maybe 50% of so a little after midnight I headed back to the bungalow and Al stayed out with them.
Our last few days we finally got beautiful weather. Phi Phi is made of two islands: Phi Phi Don (inhabited) and Phi Phi Le (uninhabited). Phi Phi Le is renowned for being one of the most beautiful places on the planet so I wasn't going over there on a cloudy day. We waited until the weather cleared and charterd a longtail boat (one of those iconic Asian boats you see in all the pictures) to the island for 6 hours. Our nice Thai man named Kip took us all around the island to different snorkeling spots and finally stopped at the famed Maya Bay where they filmed the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. The scenery around the island and the view from the beach was astonishing. The turquoise water with towering sea cliffs nearly completely surrounding the lagoon was something that, just like in Vang Vieng, I'll never be able to capture with a camera to fully register how beautiful it was in person.
While relaxing on Maya Beach we thought it was strange that there were a lot of bodyguard sized men and cops running around the place. It was kind of like "it's Thailand, who knows" while rolling our eyes. It turns out that the Thai royal family was there! Random. But they left soon after and took all the badged men with them. As we were walking back towards our boat to head back for Phi Phi Don we noticed a large, long overhang in one of the cliffs on the beach. Congregated under this overhang in the shade were at least 50 Japanese people. We laaaaauaghed and laaaaaughed. Those Japanese. Just as weird on vacation as they are in their home country. So with the funny image in our minds we scrambled back into the longtail boat with Kip and he took us for a few more stops then back to the hotel by sunset.
The last day or so is kind of a blur, I think it was all the relaxing. We did end up running into a Japanese family at the pool. I hear "Samui, des ne?" enough in Japan so we hightailed out of there quickly. We bought some more souvenirs and headed back down the dock to board the ferry back to Phuket. Sad face. Once back in Phuket we had all day to kill before we boarded our plane back to Bangkok so we found a giant mall to roam around in. Also in that mall was a SIZZLER. Oh yeah, I'm talking the tacky, salad buffet, family style restaurant in all it's glory. We don't get this kind of food in Japan! Rejoice! It was absolutely delicious. REAL American style food for once.
After we stuffed ourselves stupid with Sizzler food we still had a ton of time to kill so we decided to see a movie. It turns out the Phuket mall has one of those luxury cinemas so we splurged and saw "The Tourist" in absolute bliss. They're quite extravagant, luxury cinemas. We buy our $18 tickets and wait in the fancy lounge where there's free food and cake and drinks. They call everyone in when it's time to start and you have a Lay-Z-Boy, a blanket and pillow and your popcorn and pop of choice is there waiting for you on a stand beside said Lay-Z-Boy. It was well worth my $18.
We finish the movie, get to the airport and hop our plane back to Bangkok. We arrive at 11pm or so and wait on our shuttle to hotel #4 of 5. It was pretty nice for a Bangkok airport hotel. Our flight out of Thailand the next day didn't leave until evening and by this time we were running very short on funds so, unfortunately, we didn't have the money to take a quick trip into Bangkok to see the sites for a few hours. We just had some lunch, went to the airport and checked in and chilled in the airport for 3 or 4 hours, ha! Booooring. We boarded our flight and started north. Just like our trip down we had a layover in Taipei but on the way home it was an overnight layover. So we land and check into our last hotel of the trip, a veeeeery nice Novotel. It has been the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. Loved it. We board our LAST flight the following morning bound for Osaka.
Once in Osaka we had to wait on our bus time, which was about 2 hours after we landed. But WAIT! Al forgot to set his watch to local Japan time so we missed that bus and have to wait another 2 hours for the next one! Let's just say I was less than amused.
So 7 flights, 5 hotels, 2 tubes, 6 buses, multiple tuk tuks and 6 passport stamps later I'm sitting back in cold Japan wishing I was still on this amazing vacation with good food, good drinks and great friends. (cheesy ending)
FINISH!
First, I'll start by saying that I haven't seen many places of the world yet so when I say Thailand and Laos are some of my favorite places in the world I don't have much to compare it to. So on that note, THAILAND AND LAOS ARE AWESOMMMMEEEEE!!!
Our flight was scheduled to leave December 23 at 1:30pm from Osaka but the vacation shenanigans started much sooner than that. Al, Christa and I all travelled together for the beginning bulk of our trip. The initial plan was for Christa to spend the night at our house and we would take the train early the next morning to Takamatsu and then catch the bus from there to Osaka airport. Well thanks to December 23 being the Emperor's birthday (thanks a lot Akihito) the trains didn't start running until well after we needed to be in Takamatsu. Great. So after we all finished our last classes (FINALLY after months and months of texts of "105 days!" "76 days!" "12 days!" "TOMORROW!!!") on the evening of the 22nd, Christa headed over to our apartment and we went all the way to Takamatsu that night to stay at our friend Katie's house and then get a cab to the bus station. Sooooo much trouble, but it had to be done.
So we head for Katie's house and get off the train and all the while Al is saying how he knows exactly where Katie's apartment is in relation to the train station. An hour and a half later, cold from walking and cursing Emperor Akihita's birthday under our breath we finally arrive at Katie's. In reality she lives 10 minutes from the station. Thanks, Al. Katie and her boyfriend are headed for the airport the following morning as well, but for Okinawa, so we're all in the vacation mood and happy and end up staying awake until 3 or so. We get 2 hours of sleep and get our cab to the bus station. Christa and I are cold and complaining but the bus finally arrives and we start the long 4 hour ride to the airport. I think we happened to get the worse bus in the Shikoku-Kansai fleet and it makes for a long, uncomfortable trip, but we arrive in one piece and despite everything we're all in very good spirits and excited to finally be checking in. Christa is on a different flight than Al and I so we say our goodbyes at the gates but we'll see each other again when we all arrive in Bangkok. Christa has a short, easy flight with a stopover in Seoul for only an hour or two...Al and I, on the other hand, have a 7 hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan which has us arriving in Bangkok well after midnight.
We decided to make the most of our layover and leave the airport for a few hours and see Taipei and check another country off the list. We got through customs and immigration easily. Taiwan is actually a part of China, it even says "Republic of China" in my passport. Let me say that getting through immigration into CHINA is much more of a breeze than trying to get back into my home country of good ol' America. American immigration = nightmare. We didn't have too much time and I know nothing about Taiwan except for the Taipei 101 (second tallest building in the world, was the first until 2004 or something) so we decided to tell the cabbie to just head there and drop us off. IT'S HUGE. I mean that building is gargantuan. But it's strange because it's not in some metropolis like Manhattan amongst a lot of other large buildings oh nooo. It's just this colossal building in the middle of nothing. It just looms over everything in this ugly, dusty city.
We get dropped off at head inside and what do we find? A huge line of Japanese tourists waiting for the tour to the top. Okay. Pass. We'll head on to the shopping plaza part of the building, thanks. So we just walked around for a while, ate (we wanted to eat some real Chinese food, but then I read the menu and discovered what real Chinese food consists of and opted for an Italian restaurant instead) and got a cab back to the airport. All the while listening to "Black and Yellow" by Wiz Khalifa on the Taiwanese radio station along with an English DJ. Weird.
After an already long day (and it's only early evening) we hop our plane to Bangkok. We arrive at 12:30 at night and once through immigration are bombarded with Thais with signs hounding us to stay at their hotel or take their cab service. It was like trying to get through a throng of paparazzi. Before leaving Sakaide I had a friend print off all our flight and hotel papers so I could have them with me. (we had 7 flights and 5 hotels to keep track of, I needed those papers) Well, one was forgotten and that one happened to be the hotel we were staying at when we arrived in Bangkok. For the life of me I couldn't remember the name of the hotel so we had to choose another hotel to stay at for the night. The one I couldn't remember was already paid for (oops) but at least Thailand is cheap and it was only $30 or so. We hop in the hotel's "shuttle van" which ended up being some kind of old Buick LeSabre with a hotel logo on it and start the terrifying 10 minute journey to the hotel. Thai drivers are worse than Japanese ones and that's saying something. There is absolutely no organization on the highways and people are all over the place and swerving in and out and...I really don't think I could ever describe that 10 minutes to anyone. Just pure horror while I held on for my life in the backseat. So, we finally arrive to the hotel (total crap) at 1:30 or so and get a few hours sleep before meeting Christa again at the Bangkok airport at 7:00am to catch another short flight to Udon Thani, a small town close to the Thailand/Laos border.
Once we arrived in Udon Thani we took a short bus ride north to the border town of Nong Khai where we were meeting up with our friends Jared and Rachel. (They had arrived a few days before us) We chilled along the Mekong River for a bit, marveling at the fact that we all finally made it and could relax. The main mode of short-distance transportation in places such as these is a tuk tuk. A tuk tuk is little more than a motorcycle with a covered mini trailer hooked to the back with two benches. Actually, it's not a little more than that, that's exactly what it is. A normal sized one can fit maybe 4 or 5 people but trust me, I saw probably 10 locals crammed into one more than a few times. So Jared and Al took one tuk tuk and Rachel, Christa and I took another and we headed for the border to cross into Laos. Laos was our first communist country, woo! Going into countries like Laos isn't like taking a nice trip across the border to Canada...or even Mexico. You are crossing into a country where they don't observe the same kind of ethics and morals as the Western world. If you are caught doing something against the law here, they could very well just kill you if they feel like it and no one would hear about it and they don't even have to let your home country know what happened to you. It's pretty scary but you just have to keep a smart head about you.
Once we did the border protocol we exchanged our Thai Baht into Lao Kip (we got nearly one million Kip from the exchange, millionaires!!!!!) and crossed the border into Vientiane, the capital of Laos. With our tourist visas and gangster roll of cash in hand we headed for the bus station. We still have another 4 hour bus ride until we eventually reach our destiation: Vang Vieng. Once we arrive at the "station" we realize that we've missed the legit tourist buses that head for Vang Vieng. So we negotiate a price for another bus heading that way and hop on. The trip takes 5 hours and a lot of it was on a dirt road winding through the mountains...albeit beautiful ones. We stopped in every little village along the way to pick up things that needed to be delivered to this remote town we were headed towards. Once those grueling and sometimes scary 5 hours were over we had to climb over 20 or so boxes of fish sauce that had been loaded in the aisle of the bus that travelled with us to VV. It was well past dark when we arrived so it wasn't until morning when I walked out of my room that I saw the striking scenery of Vang Vieng. I could have taken a million pictures and use a giant thesaurus to describe what I saw and nothing could convey the sheer beauty of my surroundings. The magnificant karst mountains for a backdrop with the Nam Song river flowing in front of me and the lush tropical landscape of this part of the world absolutely took my breath away.
After staring out my door for like 50000 hours we ate some breakfast. I had a giant $1.50 plate coconut sticky rice with pineapple. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I've already found a recipe so I can make it myself. We wondered around the town (if you can even call it that) to see the local area before meeting up with everyone. We all stayed at the same guesthouse but Al, Christa and I shared a room on the river and Jared and Rachel had a room in the main building...I think they paid a whopping $6 a night for their room. (Did I mention Laos is dirt cheap?) I soon discover that foreigners, mostly American, Australian and British, outnumbered the locals by about 10 to 1. I knew before coming here that Vang Vieng was overrun with 20 somethings all here for one reason: to party on the river. I read that tubing down this river is somewhat of a rite of passage before backpacking throughout SE Asia...and here we are.
We met up with everyone, including one of Rachel's friends who met us here, Kiri, and started Day #1 of tubing. We walked the few short steps from the guesthouse to the tubing office, or rather a dirty garage filled with tractor innertubes, paid our 60,000 Kip for the tube rental and piled into the tuk tuk. The local man took us about a kilometer or two through town and up the river to the start point.
We carried our tubes another 400 meters or so to "Bar One" which is the first stop on the river. We immediately put down the tubes and got some buckets to share. (bucket = about the size of a normal sand-castle making bucket but filled to the brim with whatever alcoholic concoction you come up with all for the low price of about 50,000 Kip) Christa, Rachel, Kiri and I head straight for the sunshine to soak up some Vitamin D and hopefully get some color while Al and Jared hang out in the shade with a little puppy that's roaming around. We finish the buckets, grab our tubes and head down to the water. We all very ungracefully flop in our tubes into the not-very-warm water and start the slow trek down the river. There are many, many ramshackle bars all down the shore, you just choose when and where to stop. The owners of the bars throw out ropes when they see passerbys and if you feel like taking a break they'll pull you in. We took advantage of one of the ropes and stopped at Bar #4 so we (not me) could have a go at the rope swing. I was too much of a weiner, I have no upper body strength and I don't think I could've held myself on so I passed. After a few more buckets and quite a few rounds on the swing we got back into the tubes and floated down the river some more. We stopped once or twice more then headed back into town before it got dark. After some dinner, questionable green drinks and a very long night we did it all again the next day. We finished the tubing route and at the last bar (or so they say it was the last one) we spray painted hearts on our skin and the boys took a shot of some local liquor that had bumble bees fermenting in it. You know like the worm in tequila? But bumble bees. Pass. Our last day we woke up and had some breakfast, bought a few souvenirs (a pair of shorts, three shirts, swimming trunks and 3 pairs of sunglasses all for the low price of $12) and chilled until our bus arrived to take Al, Christa and I back to Vientiane. While waiting, Al bought a street vendor sandwich that would eventually give him some vicious food poisoning. We hopped the bus (a real one this time, not a fish sauce one) and started back for the border. Once there and back through customs and immigration (all with a very nice sign saying if you bring any drugs across with you, you will be "put to death") we cross back into Thailand and back to the Udon Thani airport. We say our goodbyes to Christa and Al and I board our $40 AirAsia flight for the beach segment of our vacation.
We arrive in Phuket at midnight and take a shuttle to our hotel for just the one night. We wake up the next morning and take the hotel shuttle to the ferry port where we took a 2 hour ferry to Phi Phi Don, the island that will be our home for the next 8 days. We're now in the southern part of Thailand and the weather is hot. The ferry docks and we're starved so we find a restaurant and I had the most delish soup I've ever had...Tom Kha Gai. It's a sort of chicken coconut soup. Heaven. Once fed we walked down the main road...but it's not really a road because there are no cars on the island...and look for our hotel, Bay View Resort. It's the last resort on the first of two main beaches on this side of the island. We check in and are taken up to our bungalow which is so cute and bungalowy and I love it. Al's food poisoning has now severely set in and he can't even leave the room. I walk back into town and find a pharmacy and since in Thailand you can get any kind of meds over the counter, I just tell the lady what's wrong with him and she gives me some kind of strong antibiotic and a Rx level pain killer. I take him the meds and I go down and start my vacation by getting a $12 massage on the beach. *Sigh*
The next few days are spent in utter relaxation despite our weather being horrid. It was overcast nearly every day and rained for about an hour each of those. We found a bookshop and bought a bunch of books and spent a lot of the rainy times out on our porch. What's kind of sad is that also during those rainy times we discovered that Thailand has English TV channels. OMG. We don't get to watch TV in Japan so actually sitting there flipping through channels and being able to watch MTV and the news IN ENGLISH was almost as Heavenly as sitting out on my porch watching the ocean. Like I said, sad, I know. New Year's Eve rolled around and we spent it eating the biggest buffet dinner ever at our hotel then headed down the path into town to find someplace to hang out for a while. We got a few buckets (WAY more expensive than in Laos) and settled in to enjoy each other's company and wait on midnight. Al ended up meeting some guys from France and I got bored listening to their French chatter that I can only understand maybe 50% of so a little after midnight I headed back to the bungalow and Al stayed out with them.
Our last few days we finally got beautiful weather. Phi Phi is made of two islands: Phi Phi Don (inhabited) and Phi Phi Le (uninhabited). Phi Phi Le is renowned for being one of the most beautiful places on the planet so I wasn't going over there on a cloudy day. We waited until the weather cleared and charterd a longtail boat (one of those iconic Asian boats you see in all the pictures) to the island for 6 hours. Our nice Thai man named Kip took us all around the island to different snorkeling spots and finally stopped at the famed Maya Bay where they filmed the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. The scenery around the island and the view from the beach was astonishing. The turquoise water with towering sea cliffs nearly completely surrounding the lagoon was something that, just like in Vang Vieng, I'll never be able to capture with a camera to fully register how beautiful it was in person. While relaxing on Maya Beach we thought it was strange that there were a lot of bodyguard sized men and cops running around the place. It was kind of like "it's Thailand, who knows" while rolling our eyes. It turns out that the Thai royal family was there! Random. But they left soon after and took all the badged men with them. As we were walking back towards our boat to head back for Phi Phi Don we noticed a large, long overhang in one of the cliffs on the beach. Congregated under this overhang in the shade were at least 50 Japanese people. We laaaaauaghed and laaaaaughed. Those Japanese. Just as weird on vacation as they are in their home country. So with the funny image in our minds we scrambled back into the longtail boat with Kip and he took us for a few more stops then back to the hotel by sunset.
The last day or so is kind of a blur, I think it was all the relaxing. We did end up running into a Japanese family at the pool. I hear "Samui, des ne?" enough in Japan so we hightailed out of there quickly. We bought some more souvenirs and headed back down the dock to board the ferry back to Phuket. Sad face. Once back in Phuket we had all day to kill before we boarded our plane back to Bangkok so we found a giant mall to roam around in. Also in that mall was a SIZZLER. Oh yeah, I'm talking the tacky, salad buffet, family style restaurant in all it's glory. We don't get this kind of food in Japan! Rejoice! It was absolutely delicious. REAL American style food for once.
After we stuffed ourselves stupid with Sizzler food we still had a ton of time to kill so we decided to see a movie. It turns out the Phuket mall has one of those luxury cinemas so we splurged and saw "The Tourist" in absolute bliss. They're quite extravagant, luxury cinemas. We buy our $18 tickets and wait in the fancy lounge where there's free food and cake and drinks. They call everyone in when it's time to start and you have a Lay-Z-Boy, a blanket and pillow and your popcorn and pop of choice is there waiting for you on a stand beside said Lay-Z-Boy. It was well worth my $18.
We finish the movie, get to the airport and hop our plane back to Bangkok. We arrive at 11pm or so and wait on our shuttle to hotel #4 of 5. It was pretty nice for a Bangkok airport hotel. Our flight out of Thailand the next day didn't leave until evening and by this time we were running very short on funds so, unfortunately, we didn't have the money to take a quick trip into Bangkok to see the sites for a few hours. We just had some lunch, went to the airport and checked in and chilled in the airport for 3 or 4 hours, ha! Booooring. We boarded our flight and started north. Just like our trip down we had a layover in Taipei but on the way home it was an overnight layover. So we land and check into our last hotel of the trip, a veeeeery nice Novotel. It has been the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. Loved it. We board our LAST flight the following morning bound for Osaka.
Once in Osaka we had to wait on our bus time, which was about 2 hours after we landed. But WAIT! Al forgot to set his watch to local Japan time so we missed that bus and have to wait another 2 hours for the next one! Let's just say I was less than amused.
So 7 flights, 5 hotels, 2 tubes, 6 buses, multiple tuk tuks and 6 passport stamps later I'm sitting back in cold Japan wishing I was still on this amazing vacation with good food, good drinks and great friends. (cheesy ending)
FINISH!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Cold weather, among other things...
So...it's cold! Okay, okay...it's like, Georgia in the winter cold. But compared to this summer we're all freezing. It's in the 50s in the day and probably low 40s at night. Al and I actually just now turned on our heater because it stays pretty warm in our apartment (so far). The sun is still really hot and it streams into the house in the mornings and kept things nice and toasty. But now the heater definitely stays on. Winter. Bah. I guess it's nothing compared to the giant snowstorm WV just got...neener. It's actually funny because Al and I were talking and we're like "it's kind of early for a snowstorm isn't it?" and then we realized that it's 3 weeks until Christmas. The trees still being half green and the not-too-wintry temperatures have me feeling like it's October or something.
So my mom came to visit about a month ago. She had a pretty good time, I think. She got on all the right buses and trains and everything. I think she liked some of the food. She didn't care for udon but I think she liked ramen and yakiniku pretty well. We did all the touristy things...temples, shotongai, Ritsurin and even went to Hiroshima. Now that's an interesting place to visit. It was seriously haunting to see that one building that was left standing after the atomic bomb blast. The museum was only 50 cents to go through and we were in there for over 2 hours. It was relatively unbiased, which I found surprising. Even though I maintain they started it first with Pearl Harbor it was still horrifying to see the damage that bomb caused. So many people died and all the effects from radiation is just nuts. You kind of need time to decompress after you get through the museum.
So the one thing we're looking forward to is Thailand! We booked our trip a few months ago and are headed there December 23 until January 5. Al, Christa and I are flying into Bangkok on the 23rd, staying the night (we don't arrive there until 1:10 in the morning) and catching a 7:30am flight to Udon Thani, Thailand right on the border of Laos. Us three are meeting two friends, Jared and Rachel in Udon Thani then we're all crossing the Mekong River into Laos together. We're taking a bus to Vang Vieng, Laos and staying there until December 27. Vang Vieng is a very small river town but it's famous for backpackers. You rent tubes (like the giant tractor tire innertubes) and there is a start point on the river and about it's about a 2km floating trek to the end point. Along the river are restaurants and bars and music and all kinds of mad fun. I'm not talking about something fancy...it's a bunch of shacks full of foreigners dancing to loud Western music. They locals throw out ropes in the river and if you feel like stopping, grab one and they'll pull you in. This is how I will be spending Christmas Day 2010. Here is a picture I found online of Vang Vieng and the river:
A little nicer than what we're expecting, I think, but it's a pretty picture all the same =D After Laos, Al and I are catching a plane from Udon Thani to Phuket, Thailand and Christa, Jared and Rachel are going their own ways. Christa is trying to get to Cambodia I think. Once in Phuket, we'll spend the night there then catch the ferry the next day to Phi Phi, a very small island off the coast of Phuket. We're staying in a beach hut there until January 3. It's going to be complete Heaven and we all send daily texts to one another counting down the days. Our job gets pretty monotonous and boring and we definitely need a long vacation. It's now 2 weeks until we leave. Picture below is the view from our hut. The island in the background is Phi Phi Ley, an uninhabited, unspoiled, (claimed as one of the world's most beautiful places) island where we can go everyday if we want and also where they filmed the Leo DiCaprio movie "The Beach".
Needless to say, we're pretty excited. Thailand, Phi Phi specifically, has always been on my "Top 10" places to visit and to be able to cross one of those off is exhilarating.
Nothing too new on the job front. Al and I are most likely going to be coming home to the USA in April for a few months. Our tentative plan is to move to Okayama (the next big big train stop from us now, but across the bridge onto the mainland). We're going to stay in Japan for 1 more year (about 95% on that) because the money is so good here. We both really like Okayama and it's so much bigger and way more people and we have access to the Shinkansen (the bullet train), which is great. So once our contract is finished here in April, we'll head home for a few months and then head back to Japan in late June or early July. Preferably early July as I would like to spend a July 4th in America for once. So we'll see. Any changes to be made will be put on here!
xoxoxo
Monday, September 27, 2010
Ahhhh...
The weather is cooling down! I've now worn a pair of jeans three times! THREE! I have not put on any type of pants, let alone thick, hot jeans since June...only skirts, shorts and dresses for almost three months but it's actually cooled down enough in the past two weeks or so to wear jeans. The bad part about the cooler weather (and when I mean cooler, I mean it's hovering around 75) is that I'm getting paler. Nobody looks good in the winter and tanning beds don't exist here. I'm hoping that the sun is still strong enough for me to be able to lie outside a few more times and get some mini sunburns or something to hold me over another month or so. Bah.
We went to a baseball game yesterday! Baseball is HUGE in Japan. I think baseball is one of the most boring sports ever but it was fun nonetheless. One of the office workers in Ota (one of my schools) and her husband had tickets so they took Al and I and Katie and Lisa. In America, the 7th inning stretch everyone stands up and sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". In Japan, everyone blows up and lets go of these giant balloons that strongly resemble sperm after a traditional song that is played in the stadium.
Now, the game we went to was very empty (they had just won the league championship the night before so nobody came to our game) so letting the balloons go was cool but somewhat underwhelming. Now, if you go to Osaka to a Hanshin Tigers game (they are huge like the Yankees or something) there are something like over 50,000 releasing these balloons at the same time so it's like one giant balloon ejaculation.
We plan on trying to make it to one of those games next year...hopefully. Tickets are near impossible to get.
That's all for tonight...Al is whining for me to go to sleep :)
We went to a baseball game yesterday! Baseball is HUGE in Japan. I think baseball is one of the most boring sports ever but it was fun nonetheless. One of the office workers in Ota (one of my schools) and her husband had tickets so they took Al and I and Katie and Lisa. In America, the 7th inning stretch everyone stands up and sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". In Japan, everyone blows up and lets go of these giant balloons that strongly resemble sperm after a traditional song that is played in the stadium.
We plan on trying to make it to one of those games next year...hopefully. Tickets are near impossible to get.
That's all for tonight...Al is whining for me to go to sleep :)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Atarashi Louis!
Just thought I'd post that I added a new addition to my LV family. I got this gem at a used shop (aka Heaven) for $900 LESS than what it retails for. They still sell the same bag in stores, albeit a slightly updated version, but it's still the same bag nonetheless. It's such a good, big size but the condition isn't even close to being new. The leather has already oxidized into the caramely brown it is now but other than that it shows very little signs of wear. I'm very, VERY happy with it and one of the main reasons I bought it was that Al and I both can use it. As we speak he is spending the weekend in Ehime (next prefecture over) and took it as his overnight bag because it "completes his outfit" as he says. (Do you doubt why we are together?) It usually sits in the closet in its dustbag but we do travel a lot and it's the perfect carry-on size for planes. I also just figured out how to put pictures on this thing so this will be my first one! <3 <3
Monday, August 16, 2010
Things I Love
Excuse me for my writing absence. It's been well over a month since I wrote last and I apologize. It's not because I don't want to write but because there really isn't much new to write about. It's a lot of the same day-to-day things that never change going on over here. Still working for the weekends and that's about it. I also like being alone when I write and (darling, you know I love you) Al is always around so I don't get much time to just sit down with my thoughts and bust out an entry.
I thought I'd put together some things I love and some things I hate (next post) about Japan. And I actually can't even say that I hate anything about this place...there are simply certain things that are terribly inconvenient that make my life more difficult. First, things I love:
1. The train. I absolutely love the idea of a train system. America needs one nationwide, though I don't think it would work out so well. I love being able to walk down the street to the station and hop a train nearly anywhere. It's also really relaxing, though in an odd way because it's loud and bumpy but there is something calming about turning on my iPod and letting someone else take me where I need to be.
2. My bike. The last time I rode a bicycle before coming to Japan was sometime circa 1999. I had always felt a little silly on one, even when it was just my family and I on camping trips. But now that I have a cute purple cruiser I've wondered why I never enjoyed it before. I can get to the market and put my groceries in my basket, go for a ride to the park or simply just escape the smallness of my apartment for a while. Though, if I really think about it, that's (unfortunately) not really an American lifestyle. One can't fit the vast amount of groceries bought from a Super Wal-Mart in a bike basket.
3. Celebrity status. Okay, not really celebrity, but closer than I'll ever get to Hollywood. Being in the smallest prefecture in Japan, the locals don't see many foreigners. I live in a very rural area. (Think rice paddies and shrines, not Tokyo) Al and I get stared at...a lot. I really love it though, makes me feel like we're Angelina and Brad or something. Sometimes it does make me want to roll my eyes because people are NOT bashful about the staring. I mean I'm standing on the train platform and someone sitting on the train very blatently leans to the window and strains their neck to just gape at me. I've also gotten a lot of free stuff too. A lady in the park selling handpainted postcards called me Britney Spears, played with my hair and gave me one of the postcards. (Many compliments on the hair. They think it's my natural color. I let them think that.) I also seem to get free dessert of some kind every time I go to my favorite Indian restaurant in Marugame. I've also been told that I'm a hot commodity when it comes to companies wanting teachers because I have the "ideal blonde hair and blue eyes". Sweet. Ah, the life of a blonde in a black haired country.
3. Vending machines. They are everywhere. It's a way of life in Japan and if you don't believe me google something along the lines of "Japan vending machines" and you will get article upon article about them and how Japan and vending machines go together like PB&J. But you can't get food in them ooooh no. (Besides the few rice machines scattered here and there and the one that sells vibrators down the street from my house) It's all drinks and they are on every corner. At least a few every single block, down cramped alleyways, in people's yards, and rows and rows of them in front of large places like department stores and train stations. The best thing to get out of one is...
4. Milk Tea. One of my favorite things I've discovered about Japan is this delicious, sweet tea drink that comes hot in the winter and cold in the summer. I'm from the south dude we don't put milk in our tea but I've discovered the amazingness of it and I'm already thinking about how I'm going to make some once I get back to the States. I guess it's pretty simple...brew a cup of a tea and put milk and sugar in it. WHAM BAM the best thing ever. I'm completely addicted and I can't seem to be able to pass a vending machine without getting one.
5. All the Louis Vuitton. See previous post.
6. Shopping. The Japanese people thrive on shopping whether they can afford to or not, so even here on my little island the shopping is abundant. Anywhere I go I can buy clothes...or anything really. There are little shops all over the place and malls and department stores and machis the list goes on and on.
Now onto the things I really dislike...
I thought I'd put together some things I love and some things I hate (next post) about Japan. And I actually can't even say that I hate anything about this place...there are simply certain things that are terribly inconvenient that make my life more difficult. First, things I love:
1. The train. I absolutely love the idea of a train system. America needs one nationwide, though I don't think it would work out so well. I love being able to walk down the street to the station and hop a train nearly anywhere. It's also really relaxing, though in an odd way because it's loud and bumpy but there is something calming about turning on my iPod and letting someone else take me where I need to be.
2. My bike. The last time I rode a bicycle before coming to Japan was sometime circa 1999. I had always felt a little silly on one, even when it was just my family and I on camping trips. But now that I have a cute purple cruiser I've wondered why I never enjoyed it before. I can get to the market and put my groceries in my basket, go for a ride to the park or simply just escape the smallness of my apartment for a while. Though, if I really think about it, that's (unfortunately) not really an American lifestyle. One can't fit the vast amount of groceries bought from a Super Wal-Mart in a bike basket.
3. Celebrity status. Okay, not really celebrity, but closer than I'll ever get to Hollywood. Being in the smallest prefecture in Japan, the locals don't see many foreigners. I live in a very rural area. (Think rice paddies and shrines, not Tokyo) Al and I get stared at...a lot. I really love it though, makes me feel like we're Angelina and Brad or something. Sometimes it does make me want to roll my eyes because people are NOT bashful about the staring. I mean I'm standing on the train platform and someone sitting on the train very blatently leans to the window and strains their neck to just gape at me. I've also gotten a lot of free stuff too. A lady in the park selling handpainted postcards called me Britney Spears, played with my hair and gave me one of the postcards. (Many compliments on the hair. They think it's my natural color. I let them think that.) I also seem to get free dessert of some kind every time I go to my favorite Indian restaurant in Marugame. I've also been told that I'm a hot commodity when it comes to companies wanting teachers because I have the "ideal blonde hair and blue eyes". Sweet. Ah, the life of a blonde in a black haired country.
3. Vending machines. They are everywhere. It's a way of life in Japan and if you don't believe me google something along the lines of "Japan vending machines" and you will get article upon article about them and how Japan and vending machines go together like PB&J. But you can't get food in them ooooh no. (Besides the few rice machines scattered here and there and the one that sells vibrators down the street from my house) It's all drinks and they are on every corner. At least a few every single block, down cramped alleyways, in people's yards, and rows and rows of them in front of large places like department stores and train stations. The best thing to get out of one is...
4. Milk Tea. One of my favorite things I've discovered about Japan is this delicious, sweet tea drink that comes hot in the winter and cold in the summer. I'm from the south dude we don't put milk in our tea but I've discovered the amazingness of it and I'm already thinking about how I'm going to make some once I get back to the States. I guess it's pretty simple...brew a cup of a tea and put milk and sugar in it. WHAM BAM the best thing ever. I'm completely addicted and I can't seem to be able to pass a vending machine without getting one.
5. All the Louis Vuitton. See previous post.
6. Shopping. The Japanese people thrive on shopping whether they can afford to or not, so even here on my little island the shopping is abundant. Anywhere I go I can buy clothes...or anything really. There are little shops all over the place and malls and department stores and machis the list goes on and on.
Now onto the things I really dislike...
Things That Inconvenience My Life
Now onto the things I really dislike. Mostly a list of complaints. There are a lot of things in Japan that are so completely ridiculous that the foreigners have an acronym for the question we ask so often: "Why?" B.I.J. or Because It's Japan. That is the only reason we have for the nonsensical things we run across.
1. ATMs. Japan is mainly a cash-driven country. I guess a few places will take a credit card if they absolutely have to, but I dont' think I've ever seen anyone use such a thing since I've been here. But now we get to the fun part...the ATMs close at night. That's right, you heard me. There is no such thing as one staying open past 7pm, let alone 24 hours. If you need money at 9:30 at night you can forget it. You won't get any until the next morning. It's something I've had to learn to do...make sure I have enough cash on me at all times.
2. No trash cans. With the superfluous vending machines come the scarce trash cans. They seem to all have a specific dwelling such as bathrooms, train stations and McDonalds and rarely will you find them anywhere else. On the street? N-O. In Japan you are expected to take your trash home with you and throw it away in your own house. Um, okay. Even at the beach...campgrounds...forget it.
3. Laundry. I have a miniscule washing mashine outside on my porch and no dryer. But no one in Japan has a dryer. Everyone hangs their clothes outside and I really hate it. It takes forever to do laundry because I don't have much real estate space outside so I can have maybe two loads hanging out there at a time. I have to wait hours for it to dry then do more. I'm not even sure how it works in the winter...do the clothes just freeze?
4. Shoes on/off. On. Off. On. Off. On. Off. I don't see the point of having cute shoes in Japan because I have to take them off wherever I go. When I go to work I have to take them off and so I'm barefoot the rest of the day. Everyone is. Or everyone has special indoor slippers that go on the second the shoes come off. Going to a house party? Forget wearing those cute pumps you just got that perfectly complete your outfit because you have to take them off at the door and no one will ever see them. I found it quite comforting when I first arrived here running around work in my slippers but now it's become one of those things that is way more of a nuisance than a comfort.
5. Drivers. I've already posted how much I hate Japanese drivers and it hasn't changed unless it's just gotten worse. They are always in my way, going too slow, or taking up both lanes...or all three at the same time, which happens often.
6. Food going bad quickly. I guess this a good and bad thing. My fruits and vegetables start going bad incredibly fast and I've been told it's because they aren't full of preservatives like in the US. Fair enough. But when I bring bananas home I have to eat them the next day basically or else they will be too ripe by the second. Occassionally I can get maybe 2 1/2 days out of my fruit but that's pushing it. Bread is the same way...5 or 6 days out of it maybe? Not much more than that. A lot of the food actually has these little fresh packet things inside the packaging so as to keep the food from going bad even quicker. I guess a little packet of something is better than preservatives loaded into whatever I'm eating.
I'm sure I'll be adding more of these love/hate things as I live here longer...stay tuned...
1. ATMs. Japan is mainly a cash-driven country. I guess a few places will take a credit card if they absolutely have to, but I dont' think I've ever seen anyone use such a thing since I've been here. But now we get to the fun part...the ATMs close at night. That's right, you heard me. There is no such thing as one staying open past 7pm, let alone 24 hours. If you need money at 9:30 at night you can forget it. You won't get any until the next morning. It's something I've had to learn to do...make sure I have enough cash on me at all times.
2. No trash cans. With the superfluous vending machines come the scarce trash cans. They seem to all have a specific dwelling such as bathrooms, train stations and McDonalds and rarely will you find them anywhere else. On the street? N-O. In Japan you are expected to take your trash home with you and throw it away in your own house. Um, okay. Even at the beach...campgrounds...forget it.
3. Laundry. I have a miniscule washing mashine outside on my porch and no dryer. But no one in Japan has a dryer. Everyone hangs their clothes outside and I really hate it. It takes forever to do laundry because I don't have much real estate space outside so I can have maybe two loads hanging out there at a time. I have to wait hours for it to dry then do more. I'm not even sure how it works in the winter...do the clothes just freeze?
4. Shoes on/off. On. Off. On. Off. On. Off. I don't see the point of having cute shoes in Japan because I have to take them off wherever I go. When I go to work I have to take them off and so I'm barefoot the rest of the day. Everyone is. Or everyone has special indoor slippers that go on the second the shoes come off. Going to a house party? Forget wearing those cute pumps you just got that perfectly complete your outfit because you have to take them off at the door and no one will ever see them. I found it quite comforting when I first arrived here running around work in my slippers but now it's become one of those things that is way more of a nuisance than a comfort.
5. Drivers. I've already posted how much I hate Japanese drivers and it hasn't changed unless it's just gotten worse. They are always in my way, going too slow, or taking up both lanes...or all three at the same time, which happens often.
6. Food going bad quickly. I guess this a good and bad thing. My fruits and vegetables start going bad incredibly fast and I've been told it's because they aren't full of preservatives like in the US. Fair enough. But when I bring bananas home I have to eat them the next day basically or else they will be too ripe by the second. Occassionally I can get maybe 2 1/2 days out of my fruit but that's pushing it. Bread is the same way...5 or 6 days out of it maybe? Not much more than that. A lot of the food actually has these little fresh packet things inside the packaging so as to keep the food from going bad even quicker. I guess a little packet of something is better than preservatives loaded into whatever I'm eating.
I'm sure I'll be adding more of these love/hate things as I live here longer...stay tuned...
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Louis Vuitton
If you know me well enough you know how much I ADORE Louis Vuitton. I have had two small clutches to call my own and I'm very proud of it. I don't like LV because it's "popular" (if you can even call it that) or because everyone in the world once a piece of it. I like it because I like it and that's all there is to it. I can appreciate the immaculate quality (which is why I refuse to buy fake...which is tacky anyway) and I'm always anxious to see the new collections they come out with.
The reason for this post is to say that Japan has been making me one happy girl because there is LV Everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. The Japanese have a very high standard for quality and they love designer everything here. Just about everyone seems to have something or other LV and it's great. The area where I live is also swamped with consignment (secondhand) shops. Can you see where I'm going with this? Okay...while in Japan I can significantly increase my Louis Vuitton collection at a FRACTION of the price of paying retail because of all the secondhand stores around here. There are these big chain stores called Hard Off that are always guaranteed to be chock-full of designer anything all behind glass cases. There are also the smaller consignment boutiques just about everywhere you look and all these places have LV coming out their ears. I can get $1,800 bags for $300 and $400...sometimes cheaper but the better the deal the more used the bags are. I saw a giant Keepall 60 (a big duffle bag) that probably goes for about $1,300 for $250. Granted, it was very, very, very used...the leather was incredibly dark but it was still in good working condition. If it's still there in a few paychecks I was thinking about getting it. My goal before leaving Japan is to aquire maybe three or four used bags and maybe, just maybe, for a going away present for myself I'll walk into the store in Takamatsu and buy something brand new.
Just a side note...I guess when you resell your used LV (or any other designer items) to places like Hard Off they give you crap for it. An office worker at one of my schools told me she used to have tons of LV but had to sell it to consignment. She said she had about $10,000 worth of it and they gave her under $2,000. Now I'm not sure how consignment works from the selling end but that sounds terrible to me...maybe it's normal...I really don't know.
The reason for this post is to say that Japan has been making me one happy girl because there is LV Everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. The Japanese have a very high standard for quality and they love designer everything here. Just about everyone seems to have something or other LV and it's great. The area where I live is also swamped with consignment (secondhand) shops. Can you see where I'm going with this? Okay...while in Japan I can significantly increase my Louis Vuitton collection at a FRACTION of the price of paying retail because of all the secondhand stores around here. There are these big chain stores called Hard Off that are always guaranteed to be chock-full of designer anything all behind glass cases. There are also the smaller consignment boutiques just about everywhere you look and all these places have LV coming out their ears. I can get $1,800 bags for $300 and $400...sometimes cheaper but the better the deal the more used the bags are. I saw a giant Keepall 60 (a big duffle bag) that probably goes for about $1,300 for $250. Granted, it was very, very, very used...the leather was incredibly dark but it was still in good working condition. If it's still there in a few paychecks I was thinking about getting it. My goal before leaving Japan is to aquire maybe three or four used bags and maybe, just maybe, for a going away present for myself I'll walk into the store in Takamatsu and buy something brand new.
Just a side note...I guess when you resell your used LV (or any other designer items) to places like Hard Off they give you crap for it. An office worker at one of my schools told me she used to have tons of LV but had to sell it to consignment. She said she had about $10,000 worth of it and they gave her under $2,000. Now I'm not sure how consignment works from the selling end but that sounds terrible to me...maybe it's normal...I really don't know.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Sorry Y'all
Sooooo I haven't written in a while! I really do apologize but it's not from being too busy to write...quite the opposite...I just feel I haven't had enough interesting things going on to write about. But I'm going to try to blog about even the little things to keep everyone informed on the life here.
Lately, it's been a lot of the same. Working for the weekends, basically. Classes are going well...I can see improvement in some of my students which just warms my little heart. A lot of them are still pretty dumb and I see no hope in sight.
Weekends are AWESOME. It's been a long time since I've had endless things to do and people to see and meet. Any weekend there is something going on in one city or another. Someone is always having a huge party or a lazy castle day where we just go lay on the grounds of the Marugame castle and do nothing all day but eat and chill. Always a get together of some sort and I'm making some friends this way which is nice. I've met two new girls, Vivian and Isabel (from Quebec and England, respectively) and I adore them. Vivien is so nice and sweet and Al loves her because they can speak French to one another and Isabel has that wicked awesome British accent so she can make even the most boring topics sound absoultely riveting. They both are extrememly fun to be around but it sucks because they won't be around for as long as Al and I plan on staying. Boo.
Al has met some other guys that he's getting closer with so things are always improving. Every person we meet is from somewhere awesome or has an interesting story. At one of the castle days we had maybe 20 people there representing like 5 or 6 countries or something. This may sound lame to some people that I'm getting excited over something like that but being from WV it basically comes down to...I don't get out much. Sure I lived in Canada but that's not too cultural.
Boring topic #1: I have discovered my favorite type of Ramen: Tonkatsu. It's ama-za-zing. If you want to wikipedia it and find out what it really is, go ahead, but it sounds disgusting. It is so delish I could eat it daily.
Not-so-boring topic #2: Japan is noted for the cockroach infestation of their country, I guess. Since the day we arrived everyone has told us about how cockroaches are in every single household regardless of the luxury or cleanliness of the place. I've been crossing my fingers for a month but I kept hearing, "Oooooh you wait, they're coming". It happened two nights ago. I closed the lid of the trash can and that monster thing came running out from under it and I screamed bloody murder and had Al get the can of spray and kill it. I had a full on panic attack. I guess he is the start of many but I've found out how to ask for the proper cockroach killer whatever stuff at the store so I will be getting some of that ASAP.
Interesting (to me) topic #3: WE GET PAID TUESDAY!!!!!!! Our first paycheck has finally arrived and I could cry from happiness. We've been barely scraping by since we got here but we're finally getting paid. My first purchase will be an awesome YSL lipstick that I've been dying to get and a bicycle. Al is going to be getting a driver so he can go to the driving range and hit golf balls. I'm getting 290,000 yen and Al is getting 286,000 yen. *happy scream*
My mom sent me some packages and in one of them was two giant bottles of Hidden Valley. I am now going to make some chicken just so I can dip it in it and die from the deliciousness that is ranch dressing. Good night.
Lately, it's been a lot of the same. Working for the weekends, basically. Classes are going well...I can see improvement in some of my students which just warms my little heart. A lot of them are still pretty dumb and I see no hope in sight.
Weekends are AWESOME. It's been a long time since I've had endless things to do and people to see and meet. Any weekend there is something going on in one city or another. Someone is always having a huge party or a lazy castle day where we just go lay on the grounds of the Marugame castle and do nothing all day but eat and chill. Always a get together of some sort and I'm making some friends this way which is nice. I've met two new girls, Vivian and Isabel (from Quebec and England, respectively) and I adore them. Vivien is so nice and sweet and Al loves her because they can speak French to one another and Isabel has that wicked awesome British accent so she can make even the most boring topics sound absoultely riveting. They both are extrememly fun to be around but it sucks because they won't be around for as long as Al and I plan on staying. Boo.
Al has met some other guys that he's getting closer with so things are always improving. Every person we meet is from somewhere awesome or has an interesting story. At one of the castle days we had maybe 20 people there representing like 5 or 6 countries or something. This may sound lame to some people that I'm getting excited over something like that but being from WV it basically comes down to...I don't get out much. Sure I lived in Canada but that's not too cultural.
Boring topic #1: I have discovered my favorite type of Ramen: Tonkatsu. It's ama-za-zing. If you want to wikipedia it and find out what it really is, go ahead, but it sounds disgusting. It is so delish I could eat it daily.
Not-so-boring topic #2: Japan is noted for the cockroach infestation of their country, I guess. Since the day we arrived everyone has told us about how cockroaches are in every single household regardless of the luxury or cleanliness of the place. I've been crossing my fingers for a month but I kept hearing, "Oooooh you wait, they're coming". It happened two nights ago. I closed the lid of the trash can and that monster thing came running out from under it and I screamed bloody murder and had Al get the can of spray and kill it. I had a full on panic attack. I guess he is the start of many but I've found out how to ask for the proper cockroach killer whatever stuff at the store so I will be getting some of that ASAP.
Interesting (to me) topic #3: WE GET PAID TUESDAY!!!!!!! Our first paycheck has finally arrived and I could cry from happiness. We've been barely scraping by since we got here but we're finally getting paid. My first purchase will be an awesome YSL lipstick that I've been dying to get and a bicycle. Al is going to be getting a driver so he can go to the driving range and hit golf balls. I'm getting 290,000 yen and Al is getting 286,000 yen. *happy scream*
My mom sent me some packages and in one of them was two giant bottles of Hidden Valley. I am now going to make some chicken just so I can dip it in it and die from the deliciousness that is ranch dressing. Good night.
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