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Published: October 1st 2007
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Do you ever just turn up the volume of one of your favourite songs and dance like a crazy person alone? I do, it's really refreshing and up-lifting. Sometimes I have days where I feel alone and really miss everyone back home but I've found that a good dance session really makes me see clearly...I mean I have a dream: travel the world; and to start this travel off with living in Japan for a time, and here I am living my dream, dancing uncontrollably for some reason always puts this into perspective for me.
So I know its been forever and a day since I last updated my blog...what can I say apart from I've been busy...living. My 6 month anniversary of being an Aeon teacher is believe it or not next week and its just turned into October...why does the time go so fast when you're overseas and nowhere near as fast at home? Japan is still living up to my very high expectations and managing to surprise me with new experiences and interesting stories all the time...god I love this country. I would be a lot happier if it actually started to cool down and become the
season that it is supposed to be: they call this Autumn??? It still feels like the middle of summer some days...please some reprieve from the stickyness...thats all I ask. I know I'll probably be asking for the sun as soon as it gets cold...thats the way life goes though huh?
I've taken a few trips in the last few months, my first one was to Tokyo with Lauren and Kyle. We only went for the weekend but its nice just to get away even if its just a couple of days. One of the highlights was heading to Harajuku where all the young people dress crazily (although I have seen it before it always changes) and being amused by this middle aged man dancing and singing all by himself to 'Superstition'- hilarious (at least I do it in the privacy of my apartment!!).
In August I met up with Bianca and Richard in Kyoto for a day and did some sightseeing, Kyoto always amazes me cos no matter how many times I go there (this was my 3rd) there are always more things to see and do- in fact I'm heading there again next weekend with some students
and co-workers for another day. It has to be one of my favourite cities in Japan.
A week later my little sis came to visit for my summer holidays, it was so great to have Kelsey here. We spent some time in Osaka and Nagoya with Bianca and Richard before they flew back home and then went travelling for a week. Its amazing how close you can become with a little sister who you used to fight so much with...my Mum always said "You just wait, as soon as you two don't live together anymore you'll be great friends and miss each others company", I thought this was ridiculous of course and always replied "Are you serious? I hate her". But as I have found out on a number of occassions over the last few years Mum's do usually know best. We had so much fun together and not once were we at a loss of things to talk about or laugh about. We headed to Nikko for a couple of days first and went and saw the temples and shrines around the area and also Chuzenji lake and Kegon Falls, some of the natural sights. It really is
a gorgeous place, I have no idea why it's taken me so long to get there but I'm glad I finally did.
We also went to Tokyo for a few days...possibly the hottest and most uncomfortable I've been in my entire life, seriously!!! Now I understand why the locals head
out of the city in the summer! As Kelsey said just walking down the street was like walking through a hot bath...hot and sweaty, yuck! Nevertheless we still managed to have a fantastic time. We did an obscene amount of shopping but we also managed to get to Disneyland one day which was UNREAL!! Packed with people like you wouldn't believe, and an unforgiving sun the whole day long but still an unbelievable experience. You see for me going to Disneyland was like a dream...living in Australia there is no Disneyland so for someone to make it to one they had to go on an overseas holiday and hence have enough money for a family trip like that. I always envied the kids who went...and literally dreamed about it. When Kelsey suggested we go I was like what...we can just decide the day before and go? Just like
that?
We met up with Lauren and her sister who was visiting in Tokyo too and had a very drunk, but great girls night out in Roppongi (a district of Tokyo). How I wish there were bars like that in Nagoya!! It was wierd to take my little sister out drinking, I can't believe she's 18!!!
My next trip has to be the most memorable of all!!
I climbed Mt Fuji!!!!! It was sort of a last minute thing, one of my students decided to get a group of people together to climb as the end of the climbing season was fast approaching and so a couple of weeks later it was all organized and we were heading to the tallest mountain in Japan to scale its heights. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had...and I was worried cos I'd heard horror stories about people getting really bad altitude sickness or just not thinking it was worth it and of course I hadn't gotten my body ready for a climb like that at all!! But I surprised myself, believe me it was tough, especially the last couple of stations when you had to push
your body and mind forward with every step...but I did it! I now understand the expression "I felt like I was on top of the world", the adrenaline running through me at the top was unbelievable. We decided to climb during the day as we had to make the drive from Nagoya which was a couple of hours so we knew we wouldn't make it for a night climb to see the sunrise from the top. We left Nagoya at midnight and started climbing at sunrise and 8 hours later we reached the top...mind you we did stop and rest at all the stations for a while. It also meant that the sky was a brialliant blue when we reached the summit. So yeah, I strongly recommend it if anyone ever wants to do it.
The only other small trip I took was to Takayama with Lauren and her student Kazue...its a couple of hours away but a beautiful place. Very old-style traditional Japan. We went to a folk style village and also a museum where they put these big floats on display that they use for a big festival they have in Takayama. A great day out.
Teaching is becoming more natural for me, I'm still having a great time and really enjoy my classes. I got a new foreign teacher co-worker: Doug. He's pretty cool, luckily we have a great friendship so work really is just a whole lot of fun and laughter. Of course it's still work so there are days when I don't want to go or just don't have the energy to dance and prance around the classroom with my very energetic 6 year old boys but at least I'm not sitting at a desk all day looking at a computer screen. Actually one of the best things about my job is that every day is different. Always teaching but never the same topics and believe me the students are always coming up with different things to talk about. The relationships that I've got so far out of this job has to be the highlight...socialising with my co-workers and students is great! From climbing Mt Fuji, trips to Kyoto, going to see a sumo match, traditional concerts in the grounds of Nishio castle, taking a tour of the Toyota factory to going out drinking, it's all so much fun. Especially those nights when
all you plan to do is go have dinner and it ends up being so much fun you miss the last train home and spend the night sleeping over at a students house talking til 6am and then getting up a few hours later to go home.
Anyway, thats all for now...I have to go...I feel the urge to dance uncontrollably to very loud music!!
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