Day 68. NO PICS YET.

Today i was angry with myself right in the morning. Weather forecast was rain and clouds as always and since past days were like that, i even didn't doubt it, so i just enjoyed my sleep and staid in bed until 12 oclock (i staid up late last night!!), but when i woke up and opened my eyes i saw that blue sky and sun!! And i was sooo angry with myself, then i went to facebook and saw friend's messages on my wall like "fuck, wake up!" and i was angry even more... But luckily she logged into facebook again and we decided to meet - it's a girl i met in Sasayama while wwoofing. She's lovely and she reminds me of one person... 

We went to Imperial Palace and took a walk, ate my home-made onigiri and just chatted... We met in Tokyo station and i could praise my intuition once again! Last year i stayed out of Tokyo station by all means, but this year i couldn't avoid it and now i understand why subconsciously i didn't wanna go there - it's a mess there. It's not as big as Shinjuku for example, but it's really spacious and there's not much of directions and maps, so basically you have arrows pointing this and that, but when you arrive the arrows disappear, so you're left with guessing. Did not like it!  

Imperial Palace is a big park after all... It's nice for walking around, i might come back again! I liked it.

After that we went to Mitaka and just walked around. It's a nice district. Mitaka and Kichijoji - there i can go quite often. It's a little bit further away from the center of Tokyo, so it's a big relieve to be out there... 

In the evening i met Cody and Reiko - two people also from Sasayama wwoofing. They are extremely lovely people and one of those who make my going back to Europe harder. Leaving all those people here is heartbreaking. Even though i DID miss my friends back at home, i really did...

Tomorrow i'm going to Ainu Matsuri and gonna be surrounded by nature - totally looking forward to it. 

Today was sunny, but actually cold and i'm worried i caught a cold, but i'm a tough girl - i won't let any illness bring me down on my journey in Japan. 

Day 63. NO PICS YET.

Today i got to cook again and it was the sweet cuisine - we forgot to do shopping on sunday, so we just moved it to monday. I prepared milk rice and sweet fruit soup - was delicious! Even though rice magically absorbed more milk than expected, so it became a little bit stiff. But well - food is food after all, it's was nice. The soup did turn out just like i wanted, so i couldn't stop eating, even though it was too hot - i just shoved everything down my throat instead of really enjoying it thoroughly, but i just couldn't resist. I wonder, why i cook so little lithuanian food when i'm germany.

We had pretty long break in the afternoon, so i took a walk in the park nearby - didn't know it even existed - and at the sea shore, made some pics, ventilated my head a little. And afterwards we were getting ready for the evening - healers were supposed to come. We rearranged Nagomi a little bit, made a separated area, where they could do their thing. And also we had a special menu! Lots of tea (chai as well!!) and soy meat karaage. Was really delicious. 

Those healers are young people and very friendly, so we had dinner together (more friends joined us while we were eating) and then the healing started - i also got a session! Was interesting, even though i didn't feel too much. After that i talked a lot to my hosts' friends, which are slowly becoming my friends so it's again really sad i'm leaving right now - on a verge of really getting into that circle. And it's strange when i think back about last year, how little i did in Japan and this year - it's a total difference and i'm so happy. Even though i have to admit, that communicating still gives me shivers, but i have to do my best. I've seen already couple of foreigners that speak fluently, totally fluently japanese and i know i can do it!

In the evening i had to call because of my part time job, so i just HAD to go back home, but since we had customers, i was given the keys and was left on my own - to drive back home. It was my first time driving in Japan at all and i did it completely alone, that's was really nice. Not just the driving itself (on the left side and stuff) made me relax - i like driving - but also the thought that my hosts trusted me so much, that made me also happy. 

Strange thing - the left side traffic looks normal to me by now, it's gonna be strange going back to the right side i think. 

Day 55.

Almost vacation today... We didn't work at lunch time and if not that reservation from a famous person, that came just while we were sightseeing a little bit, i don't know if we would have worked at all. But one reservation didn't hurt anyone! And we started just from 5 pm today, so i guess it's fair.

I was glad i could have a little bit more time than regular this morning... I did may things, started planning university, filled my agenda with when-to-do-what lists, started choosing additional subjects for studying - i'm thinking i'm going for russian and/or indonesian. I wanted to do DaF (German as foreign language), because i really love it, and i like the teachers, but every single class of that subject crosses with my main classes, so i cannot choose it. Pity, i was really upset by that. But it's never perfect in life, huh? Anyways, there's a lot of new subjects available which woke my interests to come back to that university a little bit more! But what i didn't like was that japanese is also available, which means that there might be newbies in the language course with us, which brings our already low level and further down...

For lunch we went to a park to have a picnic! I looove picnics! We didn't prepare anything by ourselves, because i think it was kinda spontaneous thing, so we had to buy everything, but that doesn't matter, because picnics - any picnics - rule! So we went to this nice quiet park surrounded by tea bushes... Was really beautiful and interesting. And that park had a small organic (i suppose) vegetables shop, where everything's pretty cheap, so we bought vegetables and fruits. Prices were really good except for honey - it was as expensive as hell (just like about everywhere), which makes me crave more and more for a true lithuanian honey. To be completely exact - for honey from my parents bee hives.

After our small picnic we went to a shrine and fed fishes and turtles. The smallest boy kept on eating the fish food, because it was actually kinda delicious and sweet - i tried it. There's gonna be a big festival in that shrine, but i'm not gonna be in Omaezaki anymore...

Before this small trip i managed to order pictures for my exhibition and with having done that i'm completely ready for the exhibition to come, just need to calm down my nerves and be positive about it! I already started doing my portfolio, since i'll have to show something when i'm going to UK. So it was a productive day for me - glad about it!

Day 5.

Today we took a quiet walk in Sankeien - a beautiful park in Yokohama. It's indeed a gorgeous place, so if you're in Yokohama, go visit that one (get off at Negishi Station and take a bus to Honmoku or Sakuramichi). You want to take at least 2-3 hours for a walk, but you might spend as well more time... We were a little bit in a rush today, so we couldn't stay as long as we wanted, but that was not as bad as i thought, since on our way back home we met bride and broom in traditional japanese outfits, so i took a picture of them too!

The park is really spacious, so you can just relax and enjoy the view. It has a huge lotus and water lily pond, but water lilies weren't blooming yet. Also, it has some events through out the year, but you should take a look at their time-table.

You also shouldn't be lazy and climb up the mountain, where you find an observation station and three story pagoda, brought all the way from Kyoto.

You have quite a few guides there (volunteering ones, so their services don't cost anything), however they all speak just japanese, so foreigners should explore the park on their own.

After the park we went to planetarium. Well, it's actually a pretty big science museum with the planetarium as one of the facilities. We were surrounded by kids all the time, but we still enjoyed it. Planetarium was really nice, it was really different from planetariums i've seen as a child in Lithuania, so i was impressed. It was a pleasure to watch everything above our heads... It was not just stars and planets on the "screen", but a beautiful movie with all kind of beauties. I was totally tired and it got so quiet, chilly and dark, and the music was so nice, so i fell asleep and skipped 10 minutes. I was upset a little bit, but maybe next year i'm going to the same planetarium once more!

We also visited Natsuko's grandparents today. They are already old, but really kind people. Her grandfather is learning german, so i had to talk to him a little bit, but he grabbed his japanese all the time and, to be honest, i wasn't upset with that, since i had to improve my japanese skills as well. Natsuko's grandmother kept on giving me gifts and i started feeling i couldn't accept that much, but i was told, that giving gifts is almost her hobby, so i just accepted everything. She is a little bit similar to lithuanian old ladies, though, because they are also all so kind and like giving things. Sometimes i feel that lithuanian culture has so many similarities to japanese!!!

It was an overall quiet day, but i think i needed it, because i feel somehow tired. I'm wondering if i got a delayed jet-lag, but it wouldn't make much sense to get that after 5 days. I'm enjoying my vacation right now, because from the 28th day i'm gonna work until 25th of August, then have 5 more vacation days and work for another 3 weeks. I already know that i won't wanna leave Japan, just like the last time, so it's gonna be again painful to land in Germany and again, i'm gonna crave for Japan so badly and again i'm gonna dream about it in the night, but that's the way it is. Maybe one day i'll fly to Europe just for visiting and "go back home" will refer to going to Japan.