I’m currently on a ten hour layover in Hanoi on the way home for the first time in nearly four years, so I thought it was a good time to write a blog. My last blog was about our snowrific trip to Sapporo. I’ve decided this one will be a bit of a catch-all for February/March this year.
So first up, Katy and I went on a a little day out to Kichijoji in Tokyo. There is a shopping complex there that has a very distinct Studio Ghibli theme. There are an assortment of little shops and cafes there, mostly with a cat theme. But the buildings and decor could very easily be straight out of a Ghibli film.
Later in February, Shyam and I went to Sankeien Gardens just south of Yokohama. It’s a beautiful traditional Japanese garden, which opened in 1906. Well worth the 700 Yen entry fee. There are ponds with ducks, historic buildings, and a little shop selling, among other things, dango. And this dango was the most extravagant I have ever had. They had special Spring time flavours and they were delicious!
And then into mid-March, I visited a new friend down in Izu in Shizuoka prefecture. We were primarily getting together to go see the BTS concert at the cinema. But I went down there fairly early and she showed me some beautiful Izu sights before the cinema trip. We went to the Izu Panorama Park first. It’s a cable car up to the top of this mountain, where there are beautiful sights of Mount Fuji, a special shrine, a free foot spa, and yummy ice-cream!
After that, we went for a late lunch at this scenic spot she knows. Unfortunately the curry I ordered was spicy, so I couldn’t eat it, but the salad and bread was still devoured, haha.
And then from there we went to Joren Falls, which is a place with a lovely waterfall. You have to descend a lot of steps, which of course needed to be climbed again, but it was worth it. I really love the sounds and atmosphere of waterfalls.
And so in the evening we went to a cinema in Numazu and watched the BTS concert. It was day 4 (I think) of the LA Permission to Dance concerts being livestreamed in cinemas around the world. It was really cool watching it with so many fellow fans in the cinema screen. Japanese people are pretty reserved, so it wasn’t that lively., but we saw videos online of cinemas in other countries get very into the swing of it, haha.
We got back late and slept in a bit the next morning. I had to leave fairly swiftly, so we just had an early lunch, and then I headed back on the train. It was a really lovely short weekend away.
And that brings this blog to its conclusion. I’ll, hopefully, be back very soon with another blog. I really want to get caught up ^^;
Um… so I’m writing this a lot later than I intended. But, as I always say, better late than never! ^^;
So, two weeks after our first winter trip to Nagano (see my previous post), Shyam and I flew out to Sapporo in the northern Japanese island, Hokkaido. We took a reasonably priced flight out of Narita airport (the limousine bus from Tokyo station was very easy and convenient again). The flight was fine apart from the moment the pilot said that we might not be able to land due to the bad weather and he might have to fly us straight back to Tokyo. Luckily that did not happen! We landed safe and sound at New Chitose Airport.
One of the first sights in arrivals.
I booked our hotel through booking.com and they very kindly offered us a free taxi from the airport to the hotel. Sounds nice, right? Wrong! So it’s about an hour by train and 2,000 Yen, so I thought going by a paid for taxi sounded like a good idea. It wasn’t. The weather was terrible and therefore so were the roads and, of course, the traffic. It took us 4 hours to do what should have been a 50 minute journey. Nightmare! Our driver was very nice though and even gave us a great recommendation for a ramen shop near our hotel, which we gratefully went to after checking in and dropping off our bags (it was fairly late by this point).
The street our hotel was on. Just a little snowy… Doesn’t look that good, but it tasted amazing, especially after 4 hours in that taxi.,
The hotel room was nice and I think we must have slept like logs after our arduous journey. The next morning we got up and started our first full day of exploring Sapporo. The first hour or so was basically just us marveling at just how much snow there was everywhere and getting very excited and taking lots of photos.
We eventually got over our obsession with the snow (and later, inevitably, tired of it a bit), and headed to the Sapporo TV Tower. This is a tower built in the 1950s that has an observation deck with nice panoramic views of the city. There were a couple of places to eat, a souvenir shop, some photo spots, and a small arcade there. It cost 1,000 Yen to go up, and I would say it was worth it. The snowy views were lovely.
Sapporo TV TowerOne of the views from the observation deck.
After that we took a bus to the Sapporo Beer Museum. Neither of us really drink beer, but we were interested in visiting nonetheless, and admission was free so why not? The outside was very pretty, covered in snow of course. There wasn’t actually too much to see inside. Just some big machines that used to make the beer when it was an active factory. The interesting part was the cafe (bar?) area where you could buy beer samplers. This was done by a vending machine, I think. We got the 800 Yen 3 beer sampler set that came with a container of assorted nuts too. As I said, we’re not really beer drinkers, but these were really nice! I thoroughly recommend this if you visit Sapporo.
An explanation of the beers we sampled. Even the chairs have the famous star in them. The very quaint looking factory building
In the evening we went to the number one rated (on Trip Advisor) vegetarian friendly restaurant in Sapporo, Jyoti The Door to India. It was Shyam’s birthday, so I’d researched carefully in advance to make sure we had somewhere good to eat on his actual birthday day. It turned out great! Lovely atmosphere, delicious food, and friendly staff. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
The birthday boy (he’ll probably tell me off for posting this pic, but it’s the only one I have from the restaurant ^^; )
After that we had a cocktail each back in the very exclusive looking bar at the hotel. It had a nautical theme (I don’t have any photos and I don’t know why!) and a very professional, experienced bartender. It was a lovely ending to a very lovely day.
Day number 3 started with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. It was a typical Japanese style breakfast. Curry, rice, miso soup, various meats, fish, egg, etc. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how different it is to a Western style breakfast. It’s nice to try out every now and then though.
Then it was off to Moerenuma Park to go have some fun in the snow! It was an hour journey that included a train and a bus and a fair amount of walking, but it was worth it. It’s a huge park with lots of different activities going on. We headed to the Glass Pyramid “HIDAMARI”, an art installation built in 2003.
There is seating inside, an art gallery and, most importantly, somewhere to hire sleds! They had blue and pink sleds. We decided to just get one to share, so I chose pink, haha. There is a vast hill near the pyramid that was, of course, snow covered. Many people were sledding down it, but we found our own space and had a lot of fun. Dragging the sled up the hill was hard work as we kept sinking into the soft snow as we walked. It was hilarious at first, but we tired of it quickly, so I think we only lasted about 30 minutes with the sled. But it really was a lot of fun!
Shyam loving the pink sled. The view from halfway up the hill. The most adorable pic of Shyam I have ever taken, hehe.
After we took the sled back and had a little warm up inside the pyramid, we took a bus back and hurried to our next destination, Shiroikoibito Park, which is home to the famous Sapporo Chocolate Factory. Unfortunately it was already late afternoon and most of the attractions inside had already closed or were about to close, but we got some nice photos in the gardens and were able to have a quick look inside at the gift shop and restaurant area.
Approach to the chocolate factory. The snow-covered gardens.A London bus!A perfect couples photo spot ❤
We finished the day off with a chain okonomiyaki place that was in the Donki near our hotel. We also gave the Donki itself a good look over. The thing I love most about Donki’s (Don Quijote) is that no two are the same. It’s always fun to explore them, especially in different cities.
Our last day was the usual, ‘have a last look around and buy souvenirs’ kind of day. We found some more very authentic ramen in a tiny shop in a quiet arcade. It was very good and very cheap!
Then we grabbed our luggage from the hotel and hopped on a train to the airport (no free taxis this time, haha). New Chitose Airport is a tourist attraction in itself, so we had great fun whiling away our last couple of hours up north in the shops there, particularly the Royce Chocolate World. They even had a chocolate making viewing window, although I believe it was inactive whilst we were there.
And that was our trip to Sapporo! Before I finish, I’ll just quickly mention a couple of features of Sapporo I forgot to include. They have trams up there! Mostly just boring green ones, but there were a couple of brightly colored ones too (a Pokemon one? or maybe Hello Kitty? I don’t remember ^^; ). There is also a whole network of underground shopping centers and walkways, which was an absolute godsend as it was freezing! And being able to navigate our way around the city center away from the bitter cold was so much more comfortable.
I would love to go up there again in the summer next time. I bet it will seem like a completely different place without all the snow. But I 100% recommend this snowy kingdom during the colder months. We thoroughly enjoyed it!
So in January we managed to do two snow filled trips away. The first was an overnight to Nagano. Primarily we wanted to see the famous onsen bathing snow monkeys. But just seeing that much snow felt like a novelty as I hadn’t seen anything like that for many many years. It definitely brought the kids out in us.
We took the shinkansen this time after our not so pleasant experience with the delayed buses last time we went to Nagano. It was much nicer (and faster, obviously). It was really lovely watching the landscape zoom by and change from concrete jungle to snowy, mountainous countryside from the comfort of our seats. As soon as we got off the train, we found the bus that would take us to the snow monkeys. They aren’t very frequent, but I think we lined up fairly well with it luckily.
The first thing we saw when we got off the bus, after an hour or so ride there, was a building covered in sharp, fierce-looking icicles.
We had a fair walk from here to the snow monkeys, but it wasn’t too cold as long as we kept moving. Plus the piles of snow everywhere had us, as I already said, acting like kids. Lots of jumping in snow mounds and throwing snowballs at each other as we walked. It was also very scenic with the snow coated trees, so we took lots of photos.
The snow monkeys area costs 800 yen to get in, but it was well worth it. It 100% lived up to our expectations. They were everywhere! Plenty of them were having a soak in the onsen, and loads more were just scampering about all over the place. Nearly as tame as the deer in Nara Park. Which I guess is not surprising since they are part of a tourist attraction. Most people there were being very respectful though. It was so interesting just watching the monkeys interacting with each other. And the snowy setting made it feel even more perfect.
Note the two different spellings of monkey, hehe. The picturesque approach to the snow monkeys.You can actually see the steam rising off the water here.Lucky close up!
Shyam got lucky getting this shot, haha.
There is a little gift shop up there as well, of course. We bought some magnets and postcards because you just have to. Then we started our hike back to the bus top and stopped off at a restaurant on route. The Enza cafe was actually a little gem of a place, especially considering it is basically the only eatery in this tourist trap area. We had big bowls of warming ramen followed with very delicious homemade apples pies.
Unfortunately we had a bit of a wait for that infrequent bus back to Nagano station, so we decided to pay the 500 yen entry fee to sit in the Shigakogen Roman museum (the icicle building), which is a very small art museum with some interesting art. I was mostly just relieved to wait in the warm and use the toilet whilst we waited for the bus though, honestly.
We checked into our budget friendly hotel near Nagano station when we got back and I don’t remember us doing too much in the evening as the day had been long and fall of travelling and walking. No pictures of the hotel room this time, but suffice to say it was bigger than the hotel room we had when we were last in Nagano. I have a rule about hotel room sizes after that tiny Nagano room.
The next day we didn’t really do all that much. We didn’t properly explore Nagano last time as we did our trips out to Matusmoto and Obuse instead. So this time we went to Zenko-ji temple and explored the areas around it. The nearby Joyama Park was very snowy and nice to walk around, but the free zoo inside it was a very sad affair. I felt incredibly sorry for the animals there. We found a small soba shop and had nice hot soupy soba to warm us up.
After we ate, I think we just did our souvenir shopping and then caught the shinkansen back to the city. It was a really lovely two days away though and really whet our appetites for snowy getaways. So much so that we found somewhere with even more snow just 2 weeks later. I’ll hopefully be back with that blog soon!
I’m back! Sporadic as ever, but I am here to try and carry on with my mission to get up to date with this blog. So this blog is going to cover two daytrips Shyam and I made in the latter half of last year. The first one was to Enoshima and the second was to Nikko.
So, we went to Enoshima at the very end of October. Unfortunately even this late in the year, Japan is still pretty hot, so we had the hot sun to deal with all day. Very good excuse for ice-cream though, of course. Now, Enoshima is an island connected by a bridge to the mainland. It is also an island that has a lot of stairs. So many, in fact, that there are escalators going up that you have to pay to use. I decided we were going to walk and not pay for the escalator. Big mistake!! We earnt our ice-cream at the top 100 times over!
A view of Mt Fuji on the bridge across to the island.Torii gate at Enoshima Shrine.A picturesque shot during the long climb up.One of the views from the top, including the Sea Candle.
No photos of the escalators unfortunately. After the ice-cream, we then descended a bunch of stairs to get to the other side of the island where the Enoshima Iwaya Cave is. I really wanted to go into the cave cause I love stuff like that (thank you Famous Five, lol). It was very cool! Naturally created by wave erosion and it has Buddhist statues inside. At one point it gets so dark you have to take a lantern to light your way. It reminded me of an episode of Cardcaptor Sakura, haha.
On the way to the cave entrance.Inside the cave.Terrible photo, but lanterns!! A window inside the cave gave us this wonderful view of the sea.
After the cave we had to climb back up all those steps to the top and then back down all those other steps to the bottom again. It was honestly tortuous and I wouldn’t want to do it again. But the views and the cave experience was definitely worth doing it once. I would 100% recommend taking the escalators up though. You can take nice photos of the view on the descent instead.
Our next daytrip was to Nikko. We went there in mid-November and unfortunately missed the autumn leaves being in their prime by just a few days. We still got some nice colours in our photos though. Nikko is about 2 hours north of Tokyo, in Tochigi prefecture. We took a special limited express train there, which was crazy busy and already full when we tried to buy tickets, so we had to wait around an hour for the next one.
Once we arrived at Nikko station, we took a bus a short distance to the famous Shinkyo Bridge. We got some amazing photos here. It was like something out of a book. That alone made the journey worthwhile.
Nearby to the bridge is an area that holds a five storied pagoda and some shrines and temples. It was busy, of course, and there were a fair few stairs involved. But lots of beautiful buildings as always.
We took a bus to Kegon Falls after this, but before we looked at the waterfall we stopped for lunch. After a little bit of uming and ahhing, we went into this restaurant that seemed to offer something at least vaguely vegetarian friendly for Shyam. It was run solely by an elderly couple; the wife in the kitchen and the husband running front of house. He spoke a little English and was very welcoming. It was very reasonably priced, the food was lovely, and it was perfect to warm us up as the higher altitude had made it uncomfortably cool for the clothes we were wearing. らーめん屋敷 (Ramen Yashiki) was the restaurant name. I definitely recommend it if you ever go to Nikko.
My very delicious lunch!
Kegon Falls is a very impressive waterfall. It drops a long way down. You have to take a lift down and then walk along this cold, long tunnel to get to the lower observatory deck. It’s definitely worth doing though as you get very close to the waterfall. It’s a very refreshing, beautiful few moments as you stand and stare at it and listen to the crashing of the water. There are also some souvenir shops and food stalls nearby.
Kegon Falls.
After the waterfall we managed to catch the nearby Lake Chuzenji during the golden hour and got some wonderful shots. It was the perfect way to end a very picturesque kind of day. And enabled us to tackle the long journey home with content smiles on our faces.
Okay, a bit later than planned (understatement of the year!), but here I am with my blog about last summer’s trip to Okinawa.
So on August 2nd, Shyam and I headed to Narita airport to make the short flight south to beautiful Okinawa. We stayed for 4 nights in a cheap but comfortable hotel a few minutes walk from American Village in Chatan. It was a holiday away from it all, exploring somewhere new, but it was also a chance for us to see a friend who had moved there a while back. So we spent a fair amount of time with her and her baby son. She drove us around, which was very important because it is best to have a car handy when in Okinawa. And we got to see lots of cool places we might not otherwise have seen.
When we landed in Naha airport we were starving! So we headed straight to a Royal Host as it was the only restaurant open at the airport that had anything remotely vegetarian friendly. After that we had a rather lengthy journey (I think about an hour and a half?) on a regular run-of-the-mill, local type bus. So not the most comfortable journey ever but a very cheap way to get from the airport to our hotel. Check in at said hotel was very easy and we were very pleasantly surprised by our room. It was very spacious and even had a microwave!
There were also cute Kimetsu no Yaiba themed signs in the hotel corridors.
The hotel was on a main road and the view of the sea was rather marred with buildings, but for the price we paid it was great and a perfect little base for 4 nights.
The view from our hotel room
It’s been nearly a year since we went, as I said, so I don’t remember the day-to-day details very well. So I’ll just give a brief overview of some of the things we did and saw and include lots of photos I took.
Most of the beaches were, unfortunately, all closed off because of Covid, but I managed to get a few decent photos, and we did manage to go on one beach that was off the beaten track. It was very windy that day, but we collected some seashells, which is definitely a thing to do in Okinawa (at least according to my students), and had a little paddle in the sea too.
The first beach photo I took.The seashell beachNot our best pic together ever, but it illustrates how windy it was, haha.
One of the days we drove to Yomitan and went to a collection of pottery shops and workshops called Yachimun no Sato. It was raining when we went, so we kind of dived from one shop to the next, but they had lots of gorgeous handmade crafts, including many iterations of the famous Shisa, the guardian lions of Okinawa. I didn’t get any photos unfortunately, apart from a quick snap of the site map ^^; It was definitely worth a visit though.
Another day we went to the capital, Naha, for the day. A lot of it was closed down because of Covid, but they had a huge Donki there with lots of souvenirs available. Other souvenir shops were also open, and we found a Chinese restaurant tucked away that did some, I think, quite authentic food. It certainly tasted good!
Some of the dishes we had.
Whilst we are on the subject of food, I have to say Okinawan food, at least the bits I saw, were very American swaying. There is naturally a huge American influence there because of the military bases. Lots of burgers, ice-cream, pancakes, etc. We did go to this lovely little beach cafe for breakfast one morning. It’s called Happy Bowls Oki and is run by lovely people. I tried their avocado toast and peanut butter toast and it was so delicious! Plus we got some beautiful photos of the sea nearby too.
I can’t finish this blog without mentioning some of the beautiful scenery we saw during our time in Okinawa. We drove to a place called Kafu Banta, which had absolutely breathtaking views from up high of the sea. Taking in this view was probably my favorite moment of our holiday.
We also walked along the seafront near American Village one evening and got some shots as the sun was setting. It was a lovely walk, though maybe one too many feral cats along the way.
Overall it was a nice short break away. I’d love to go back one day when there are no Covid restrictions and do more of the Okinawan-esq things like snorkeling and island hopping.
And that is another blog done. Sorry it’s so vague. I really need to write these when the information is still fresh in my mind. I’ll try harder ^^;
One of the first things I did once I got out of hospital was go to the BTS, The Best exhibition in Yokohama. I’d booked the tickets prior to all the hospital drama and had been very worried I’d miss out on going. So when I was discharged two days before I was due to go, I was extra relieved. I became a big fan of BTS at the very start of 2020 and they and their music have really helped me through in the last two years. So this entry is a little self-indulgent, but as I’ve said in the last two entries, this blog is for me, first and foremost.
The BTS, The Best exhibition was held in Yokohama for a few weeks over last summer (it’s since been to Osaka and Fukuoka). They had rooms that featured props/sets from some of their Japanese songs’ music videos, outfits they’ve worn, other memorabilia from their career so far. Pretty much exactly what you’d expect to find at a music group’s museum/exhibition. We weren’t allowed to take photos except for in the music video rooms, which was fine by me because these were my favorite rooms by far!
So the first one was from their song, Lights: Lights MV. They recreated the movie theater from the video and even the ATM. It was very cool!
They even had replica popcorn between some of the seats. Sorry for my silly face. We didn’t have much time to get photos with this, haha.
The next room was for Stay Gold: Stay Gold MV. This room was super cool and so pretty! They recreated the flower atmosphere from the video and it had a Team Labs vibe going on with how the lighting worked. I really liked this room!
Soooo pretty!The lights followed your movement! So cool! (I look like I have tattoos on my arm)
The third and last MV room was for their newest Japanese single, Film Out: Film Out MV. I think this was my favorite. It recreated the dramatic atmosphere of the video so well. I actually felt like I was in it. It’s maybe my favorite Japanese BTS song as well (so difficult to choose favourites), so this room felt very special to me.
Just me immersing myself in the MV, haha. The doors! Hobi and Yoongi’s door, lol.
The other rooms were very interesting too. Lots of photos, memorabilia, outfits, etc. I couldn’t take photos, as I said, and my memory is kind of vague now. There was a special place where messages popped up from people visiting the exhibition, which was pretty cool. Then last, of course, was the merchandise shop. I somehow kept my shopping down to the bare minimum (maybe the huge hospital bill was still fresh in my mind >.< ).
You can never have too many notebooks and pens >.>
I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition. And then, a couple of days later, I indulged myself in another BTS themed outing. Katy and I went to Tokyo Tower to go see the special Film Out illumination. It was on the main deck and basically they had an illumination show on the ceiling set to the music of the song. It was very beautiful and actually my first time going up Tokyo Tower too, so an extra special trip out.
Tokyo Tower on the way there. Katy and I being goofs 😂I’m not sure how to upload video on here, so this image will have to suffice, lol. Tokyo Tower as we were leaving.
Okay, I’m done with this BTS infused entry. The next entry will be about our trip to Okinawa at the end of July last year. It will hopefully be up within the next few days ^^;
So, I didn’t really do too well with the whole catch-up blogs thing. I’m going to give it another go now. As I said in my last blog, this is mainly for me to be able to look back on my time in Japan x amount of years down the line, so I want to try and record all the big and/or interesting events. So with that in mind, this is definitely not going to be one of the more fun reads, but I feel it’s important to document it.
In July last year, just before school finished for the summer, I ended up in hospital for 5 days. Now a hospital stay is never fun, but it is even more stressful when you’re in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language well and there are various restrictions due to a global pandemic. It was a very stressful, distressing few days for me, but I want to briefly write about it now as it was a big event that happened to me here. Also, it might be helpful for anyone wanting to know about hospitals in Japan.
So I had bad stomach pains, which got worse overnight. Early in the morning I finally decided to call an ambulance. This was stressful as I had to attempt some Japanese first, but actually they got me connected to a translator pretty quickly, which was different to my previous experience, so I was very grateful there. The ambulance arrived swiftly and they looked after me very well. The translator was on the phone with me most of the time and they got me to the hospital after some negotiating about which hospital it should be.
The hospital admission is a bit of a blur, to be honest. There were various tests and scans, as well as a very painful, traumatizing PCR test (I think they pushed the swab too far up my nose, it was horrible). They then told me they needed to do a Laparoscopy. So I was given a couple minutes to talk to Shyam on the phone, and then prepped for surgery. I remember the anesthesiologist had very good English and was joking with me. Then the next thing I knew, I was in recovery after a successful looksee inside my tummy.
After the surgery there was a lot of different information given to me. First I was told I’d need to stay for two weeks (which was incredibly alarming and distressing for me). They gave me loads of forms to fill in re. payment for using hospital pyjamas, for meals, and other amenities. I was told I wouldn’t be eating or drinking anything (not even water) for the first day. Eventually someone came and told me that actually I’d probably only have to stay a week max. This information was mostly in Japanese or very basic English. There was one nurse there who spoke really good English though. She couldn’t spare me too much time unfortunately, but she came by when she could.
Also, a special shout out to my doctor. He spoke a little English and he worked so hard for me. He came by often, he twisted a load of rules so that Shyam could come by and visit me everyday, if only for a short time. He even offered to basically be on standby just for me on his day off over the weekend. And when I was eventually discharged, he wrote me a letter in English detailing all the important stuff. He went above and beyond for me and I will always be grateful to him.
So the actual stay was lonely and isolating. Shyam came by everyday but was only allowed to stay for ten minutes or so. He did everything he could for me though. Left his Nintendo Switch, brought me a great book to read, lent me his ear pods, etc. But I remember crying a lot and finding it incredibly difficult. The nurses and other staff did their best to help me and cheer me up, but it was a terrible experience for me mentally.
It got a little bit more fun once I was allowed to eat and drink again. I started playing a game of ‘which flavour jelly will I get this time?’ They started me off with one pot of jelly and water. And gradually upped my meal contents over the course of the 3 and a half days I was allowed to eat real food. I, of course, took pictures. Not of all of the meals, but some of them. So here, have a visual on some Japanese hospital food delights.
My first post op meal, some 24+ hours later. The first slightly more substantial meal: very watery congee, miso soup, the yellow stuff I couldn’t eat, and my fav, jelly.Beige bowl had fish, tomato and egg. The congee was less watery. I don’t remember what the other stuff was. Shaky pic, sorry! Much more normal meal. I got sick of that godawful barley tea though. Just give me water, please!
So on my fifth day, I was finally told I’d get to go home. Shyam brought me a change of clothes in. My lovely doctor spent lots of time talking to us and making sure we had everything we needed. He booked me a follow up appointment for the following week with him. My English speaking nurse came by to wish me well. Actually a whole group of nurses joined me in the common area for goodbyes. It was very sweet and I really wish I’d asked for a photo now. Shyam meanwhile sorted the payment out. And then we were in a taxi heading home and my hospital stay was thankfully over.
This entry is much longer than I intended, but I just want to finish by quickly talking about the money side of things. Being born and brought up in the UK, I’ve always taken it for granted that you go to hospital and don’t have to worry about paying for anything. It’s very different here. They have National Health Insurance, which you pay on a monthly basis, but this covers 70% of fees. Meaning, you are still liable for 30% of the bill. My hospital bill was a sizeable amount. More than I had imagined, actually. It was very sobering and made me incredibly thankful for the NHS back home. Hospital is stressful enough without having to worry about the bill total adding up.
Ending on a slightly better note, my friend mentioned I might be able to claim some of the money back. So I finally explored that option recently and, after some Google Translation aided emails with my ward office, I was able to apply for the High Medical Costs benefit. I got nearly 3/4 of my hospital bill back, which was naturally incredibly relieving to me. So it’s a very good thing to know about if you’re ever in a situation like this.
Okay, I’m done. I’ll be back with a much less serious post next time. Hopefully not another 3 months down the line ^^;
So um… hi! I’ve been going to write this blog so many times but it’s just never happened. I really do want to keep a record of as many of my moments here in Japan as I can though. So over the next few days (weeks/months >.>), I’m going to be writing several ‘catch-up’ blogs. They’re mostly for me for when I’m finally back in the UK and want to reminisce. But if you read them, I do hope you enjoy them. The details will be sparse on some blogs as my memory is terrible, but there will be lots of pretty photos to make up for it.
So first up, we have our Spring trip 2021 to Kyoto and Nara. The school yeah finishes here around the start of the last week of March, and then the new year starts during the second week of April. So we decided to go on a little adventure during our off time. We did the mad, cheap thing, and took night buses there and back. So we actually had 3 full days there with two nights in a hotel squished in between sleeping on the uncomfortable buses.
So the night bus got us into Kyoto bright and early on Tuesday 30th March. We did the only sensible thing at what was about 6:30am and ate a hearty McDonald’s breakfast 😂 and just chilled in there a bit until the hour was a little more reasonable and we were more awake. Then we headed straight for Fushimi Inari Shrine.
One of the most famous sights from Japan, I think. I love foxes and torii gates, so I was in my element! It was really fun walking through them all. It would usually be heaving with tourists, so a rare time to get some less crowded photos of them.
I don’t actually remember what we did after this. We would have checked into the hotel at some point. We also visited a beautiful garden with cherry blossoms blooming among other pretty flowers – I distinctly remember some bright red flowers. We also would have eaten again, but I can’t for the life of me remember what we ate. I have no food photos from Kyoto, which means we must have not eaten anything particularly special. Kind of terrible of us really, but what can you do. 🤷♀️
The next day we got out bright and early and took the train down to Nara. It’s only a short journey, so the perfect daytrip from Kyoto. The main attraction is, of course, Nara Park. Deer roam freely all around the park and there is Todai-ji, the temple that houses the famous Daibutsu (Great Buddha) of Nara. It was a really lovely, sunny day, so we spent many hours walking around the park seeing the various sites and, most importantly, feeding and petting the deer.
Encountered this very informative sign upon entering the park 😂Me making the rookie mistake of opening the senbei near a crowd of deer and getting ambushed 😅We found a lone one a bit later and I was able to feed it a bit more successfully. And we found a baby one all by itself and I managed to get this adorable shot 🥺The Nara Daibutsu!
Again, I’m sketchy on the details of the full day. I can’t even remember if we ate anything in Nara or not. Maybe just snacks… I did get a little deer plush and call it Senbei though. We took the train back to Kyoto at some point and I finished the day with a headache and early to bed. I remember that much. Typical me really.
On our third day we packed in a few big ones in Kyoto. We went out to Kiyomizu-dera temple first, and then across to Kinkaku-ji, and also squeezed in Nijo Castle. Busy busy day! Kiyomizu-dera is very elevated and the views were breathtaking! Kinkaku-ji was incredibly picturesque and well worth a visit. Nijo Castle was, I think, covered in scaffolding, but the gardens were beautiful.
Kiyomizu-dera templeThe pagoda at Kiyomizu, shrouded by Spring ❤️One of the many breathtaking elevated views from Kiyomizu-dera.Kinkaku-ji looking resplendent amidst nature. The stunning garden at Nijo Castle.
After all our sightseeing, we did some souvenir shopping, ate something 😅, and settled in to wait for our night bus. I think there was a game center open quite late where we whiled away some time. Then the night bus got us back to Yokohama at something like 5:40am. So an incredibly long day!
It was a very good trip, but I think if we head out west again (we want to go to Osaka, particularly for USJ), we’ll not be cheapskates and just buy shinkansen tickets, haha.
And that is the end of the first of hopefully many catch up blog entries. I just need to keep up the enthusiasm and motivation to write them. So hopefully look out for more blogs in the near future. 😊
So, as promised, a little step back in time to November last year. Shyam and I went on a short trip into Shizuoka prefecture when we had a long weekend off from school. I desperately wanted to see a couple of attractions there, so off we went early one day on a train. My memory is a little fuzzy so this write up will be a bit sparse, sorry.
The first stop on our whistle stop tour into Shizuoka prefecture was Atami. We had to change trains there and it was still fairly early, so we decided to have a short look around. It’s a seaside town with a bustling market and gorgeous beaches. I believe it was windy but warm under the sun. We sat and ate sandwiches by the sea.
Looks like an August day, not November, haha.
After that it was onwards to the destination I was most anxious to go to: Shiraito (white thread) Falls. An absolutely breath-taking waterfall, which was made even more amazing by the autumn leaves being in full colour. It’s difficult to describe how I felt when I eventually saw them in person. I’d seen plenty of pictures, but seeing and hearing them was out of this world. It is easily in my top 3 moments of being in Japan so far. Just astounding really. I 100% recommend visiting them if you come to Japan.
We took the train to Mishima after we’d had our fill of waterfall watching. We had booked a hotel here for the night so that we were nicely situated for heading out to Mishima Skywalk the next day. The hotel room was surprisingly big! Much better than the room we had in Nagano. Mishima itself is an okay place. We eventually went to an izakaya chain Shyam is familiar with (finding vegetarian friendly restaurants is sometimes pretty hard here). Then got a very good night’s sleep!
The next day we got up early and headed straight for Mishima Skywalk. This is the longest suspension bridge in Japan. It was some sight to behold! I’d had wild ideas beforehand about wanting to go on the zipline that goes alongside the bridge, but as I walked across and saw said zipline in action, my tummy pretty much dropped out from under me and I lost all desire to do it ^^; I have some regrets now, but not in an overwhelming way. It looked very scary!!
You can see said zipline in this photo *shudders*
There was a vast gift shop and restaurant on the near side of the bridge, and once you walked across it you had food stalls, another gift shop, a high wires adventure playground, and lots of lookout posts and things like that. I had some very yummy karaage and we took lots of photos and had a good wander round. Then we walked back across the bridge that, I should mention, swayed rather alarmingly, haha. We bought a few bits in the gift shop and then caught the bus back to Mishima train station.
It was still fairly early when we caught the train back towards Yokohama, so we decided to stop off in Odawara on the way back. There is a castle there, which we walked to and took photos of but decided not to go inside it.
And that was the end of our November trip. Not as many details as usual. I promise to write up about our next trip in a more timely manner so that my memories aren’t as faded. Until next time! 🙂
Ahh I’m bringing this blog back from the dead. I feel so bad for not having written in it for months. I’ve just been extremely busy with school and life in general. Just want to start by pointing out how inappropriate the title of this blog is now, but also actually incredibly appropriate since so many people come to Japan for a year and end up staying for years -plural-, lol. So yeah, I’ve passed the 2 year mark now. Though, honestly, I think it’s mostly because of the pandemic. I’m not sure if I’d have stayed this long if not for Corona, but who knows…
Anyways, this post is going to be about the second junior high school graduation ceremony I have attended. I honestly can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I attended my first one, but 2020 passed in a blink of an eye, at least for me. I taught the 3rd graders at this school a lot more often than I did in my last school, so I knew them better and was a little apprehensive about how emotional I would get, so I was very thankful that I had the safety of my mask to hide behind for the ceremony, as I did last year, haha.
So also the same as last year, it was just the eight classes of 3rd grade and the teachers who attended the ceremony. It was filmed and I think many parents gathered in the classrooms to watch it on the TVs in there. Something like that. The gym was freezing because they obviously had to make sure it was well ventilated. I shan’t go into great detail because it was very similar to last year. Lots of bowing, singing, and then a seemingly endless stream of students going up on stage to collect their graduation booklet. I survived emotionally until the end, when they evilly decided to play some very sad sounding music as the students left class by class. The emptier the gym got, the wetter my cheeks became, lol.
The ceremony lasted just over 2 hours and afterwards we all filed back into school, seeking the relative warmth of the staff room compared to the gym. A bit of time lapsed and then we all gathered outside to give the students what was like a guard of honour as they left school for the last time. The students seemed surprised but absolutely delighted that I was amongst the teachers seeing them off. I got lots of great reactions, including a high five from one of the more exuberant boys. Also, a girl I helped with a speaking test she had to take to get into a specific high school came over to tell me she passed. I was delighted for her and told her good luck and to keep studying hard.
After the students left, it was time for our special graduation bento. I was worried it would be like last year and I’d have to force down some wasabi filled sushi again, but happily they were different ones! It was very good! and extremely filling!
I also took the chance to read the messages some of the students wrote for me, which were put in a nice little booklet. It’s such a lovely keepsake for me. The messages were mostly in English. The one Japanese one was easy enough for me to understand what it said. It’s so sweet of a handful of the kids to take the time to write to the AET who only taught them for the one year. I was so pleased to receive them! 🙂
There was a bit of hanging around to do after lunch with not much to do. I tried to while away the time by writing down some ideas for the 2nd grade lessons I would be teaching the next week. The graduation day itself was lovely though, and I’m really going to miss some of my 3rd graders. They were (mostly, haha) a really lovely group of kids. I genuinely hope they go on to do amazing things in high school and beyond.
So concludes my first blog entry in months. I really will try my best to write in here more regularly. I might go back in time a bit for my next entry and write up about a trip I did in November, if I can remember decent details of it, as it was an excellent trip! But other than that, going forward, I hope the current situation allows me to do some fun, exciting things, which I can tell you about. Until next time… 🙂
A year in Japan 