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Published: February 12th 2010
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I suppose one of the best, and worst, things about travelling is that you meet some amazing people and make a lot of friends but you only ever have such a short time together. Some people you know that you will talk to after your brief encounter and others you know that they just came into your life for a passing moment and left their mark. I love both kinds naturally, but it doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye. I left Miyakojima today and it was very hard to leave everyone and the island, it felt like I had been there forever and I really did make some good friends, who would have thought hey? I definitely want to return there sometime, whenever that time may come. I highly recommend going there if you are ever in Japan.
Yesterday I did go to the beach for a while, it was once again a really hot day and the beaches were fairly full, and then I made my way back to Diego and did what? Relaxed again! Everyone apart from Miyuki were out so we just lazed about the living room, reading and listening to music. When everyone eventually came back Techan decided he was going to cook pasta for dinner that night so we all went to the supermarket and bought food and went back to the guesthouse to cook together. It was such a simple task but one that will always stick out, especially because of all the laughter that we shared.
One of the funny things that I will always remember:
Two new girl guests arrived at Diego on Saturday and they joined us in the supermarket outing to cook pasta. At supermarkets in Japan the trolleys are really small, not like back at home. You know the baskets you use if you only have a few things to buy? Well the trolleys here are designed to fit one of them inside, what you are supposed to do is sit the basket on the trolley and put your food in the basket so that when you get to the register you just put the basket on the bench and they take the food out from the there. It's hard to explain, the trolley isn't deep and low like in Oz, but the flat area where you put the basket has a small lip around it so that the basket doesn't slide around.
So it does sort of look like a small version of our types of trolleys, anyway the funny part. Techan grabbed a trolley and asked one of the new girls (Riechan) to get a basket, which she did. Then with a very confused look on her face:
"Why do we need a basket
and a trolley?" she enquires. Without saying anything Techan grabbed the basket and put it on the flat section of the trolley, like usual and looked at her curiously.
"What do you usually do when you go shopping?" he quizzes her.
"Well I use one or the other, but usually just the trolley" Riechan explains. At this stage we just all looked at each other and started laughing, poor Rie looked so confused.
"Doesn't the food fall off the trolley Riechan?" Techan asks with a smile on his face (like I said the lip around the outside is very small, not designed for keeping food in the trolley).
"Well, yes. But I'm used to it now. I balance the food in the right position" Rie explains. Well this had us all in hysterics. Riechan is Japanese and 28 years old so she would have done a fair bit of shopping in her life and she didn't know how to use the trolley properly!! When Techan very amusingly explained that you use the basket too, and asked if she didn't wonder why no-one else's food fell out and if she ever saw how they did it, she just shook her head and became very embarrassed! It was so funny, I can just imagine her walking around the shop with a carefully balanced trolley! Poor Rie!
Anyway, back to what I have been doing. After we all ate pasta together we were all just sitting around and talking and one of the guys staying there at the moment is an artist and he brought out his sketch pad and started drawing, he usually did this every night, I had looked at his work and it is fantastic, I wish I could draw! Anyway I asked him to draw me something so that I could take it away with me and he did a watercolour painting of a Miyakojima flower for me, it is so good! I'm going to frame it when I get home. In fact just before I left Diego this afternoon we were again sitting around the living room and he was drawing again and I didn't know but he actually drew a picture of me, again very good, you could tell straight away that it was me, I had no idea that he was doing it either so it looks natural, I let him keep that one. It was a fantastic drawing though.
I am now back in Naha the capital of Okinawa, I'm here for 3 nights. I flew this time so no funny boat stories to tell you, it was really good actually to fly, the plane wasn't that small but it wasn't big either and you can definitely tell the difference when you're flying, you just feel a lot lighter (as in the aircraft) and can feel the wind a lot more. It was lunchtime when I left so we had a beautiful view of the island of Miyakojima from the air, I didn't have a window seat though unfortunately but what I did see was great!
Like I said before it was really sad to leave Diego, Techan drove me to the airport which was really nice of him, saved me catching a taxi cos there are no buses. We spent the morning taking more photos of us all together and exchanging contact details, and they all came outside and hugged me and waved as we drove off, it really did feel like I was leaving home!
But today was probably the best day to leave because a typhoon is on its way to Miyakojima and is supposed to get there tomorrow so there would be no going to the beach for a couple of days, good timing for me.
I'm now on my way back north and it sort of feels like I am making my way back already, you see since Hiroshima I have been travelling south but Okinawa is the furthest south so from here I am going back up north to the mainland and towards Tokyo, but yeah it feels like I am making my way back. Although I'm not halfway yet I still have about 5 weeks to go. Although it was sad to leave today I'm not going to let it bother me because I still have plenty more time and heaps more places to see and people to meet!
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