Coziness in a cup.

Milk tea i made all by myself! To make things cozy... I always feel some kinda warmth when drinking that. And those lovely apple shaped cups just spice things up completely!!

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 60. NO PICS.

2 months i'm in Japan already and i got used to it so badly, i'm really getting upset when thinking about leaving back to Europe. But i guess it's good to find a place where i wanna be after all - i can always go back, can't i? When it comes to me, i tend to attach to places i feel comfortable at really fast, because i'm constantly looking for home... Who know where it's gonna be. 

Today was a day like any other day, but in the evening i made lemon grass tea with lemon grass straight from the garden!! Was lovely...  

Day 51.

Today was my day off. I wanna go there and do that, but after working like i do here, there's just one thing on your mind when you wake up on your day off - stay in bed and do nothing at all.

Anyhow, today we had a trip to some places, which at the beginning was just awesome, but then...

So first of all, we went to this... well, place, called Village. I even don't know how to call it properly. It used to be just a typical old japanese-style house, but it was renovated a little bit, so know you can live there or do things (it probably was about to break down completely... so

the renovation is just to make it look like a house again, but they didn't change anything about it!). It's like a small cafe, they have different kind

of herb, indian tea, coffee i think. They are also selling hand-made accessories, clothes, natural skin care products, honey, spices, tea - those kinda things. The house is at a small hill, surrounded by trees, bushes and basically - pure nature. It's really quiet there, if you can read/understand japanese - there's loads of interesting books, the smells are nice, so you just sit there, listen to the nature and relax, enjoy, turn off from the world a little bit.

I really enjoyed it! After a while, with a cup of nice tea

i had to take my note out and started sketching things. Handcrafting and selling it on etsy didn't quite work for us, but the idea hasn't died in my head - i really do wanna continue it. Maybe i could go through festivals or sell it for shops like that - i just have to have a decent amount of the goods.

Japan so far seems like the best location for things like that - my own business, trying to achieve something with organic/healthy living style, handcrafting, photography, basically peaceful life... For instance, you are allowed to sell/use goods made/grown by yourself, which is barely allowed in Europe. I even started thinking about importing my dad's honey into Japan... Might be good idea actually.

While travelling from A to B, i just enjoyed the view through the window, sticking my hand out and trying to catch the wind. Just like in a movie! Just like in a dream...

Sky was still gray and scary because of yesterday's typhoon, it was still raining most of the time, but i tried to ignore that. And i fell in love with Japan again and again and i don't know anymore how many times i'm gonna fall in love with this country in the future. I find here places, i like to stay at for way longer, than i'm staying, i meet people, i wanna keep as friends in the future, i like how things go here. I try to memorize every tree and bush and flower on my way, watching with my eyes wide open - i do not wanna forget anything!

I do not why, but i sometimes get the feeling that this or that village looks just like U.S. even though i've never been there... But i just get this strange feeling, and if i followed my intuition, it might be true. So right now i would like to travel through U.S. and see if i'm right!

After visiting the Village, we just kept on driving and that where the downhill for me started... We went to Shizuoka to visit hosts' friend, who i don't know.

So we went there, first of all i didn't like the guy's attitude, but not gonna post online why. It's enough to say that i reaaally was annoyed by the way he talks, moves and does the rest. Second of all, i didn't know the guy and since there was no connection what so ever, i didn't have anything to talk about to him, not to mention, that my japanese isn't good enough to just talk about anything - i'm pretty much limited to easy topics. Third of all, i was just dragged there without even asking if i want to and that really hit the core. The rest just mixed with each other and i was really sensible, couldn't manage with the noise 4 kids around me made, couldn't manage the guy, his bigger kid, who was in my eyes, really impolite, couldn't manage the smell around me, had to do something, so i just took a note, a book and went to the balcony, it didn't hold the noise too much, but at least i had my own space, where my energy could flow around me and get free a little bit, without being choked by others' energies.

This place is a huge personal struggle for myself. As much as i like my host-family, as much as i like the place where i work, it's difficult for me and i have ups and downs to often. I often feel i wanna leave and the good part is - i can leave whenever i want, but then again - i don't wanna just surrender and run. But the line between suffering and challenging is really thin here.

Today however, i managed to fight a little bit and told them i would like to leave soon... It was already evening, so i guess it wasn't too bad to ask them this kinda thing. My host-momma agreed!

So today wasn't a good day, even though it had PERFECT start... And so after my day off i feel tired.

Day 43.

So today i switched my place and i arrived at my last host this year. It's in a small city called Omaezaki in Shizuoka prefecture...

Every travel this year, every host, every single place had its own surprises. I left Kyoto late at night, short before midnight and i arrived at Shizuoka in the early morning - at 5 am, so i saw still sleeping city. I didn't sleep too much, maybe 3-4 hours tops, so i was still tired. I found a comfortable bench and i had another hour of sleep, while the city was still, resting after long day and just slowly waking up for a new start. I haven't explored the city at all because of my heavy baggage (damn you, stuff!!!), but it's not as rushing as Tokyo. People in white and black (all the employees) spread through the whole train station relatively late and walked with a tiny grace, even with their heads down. But it's not like in Tokyo - with blood boiling and crazy eyes they're running from a platform to another, trying to squeeze themselves in the trains.

While the first host didn't surprise me with the view and surroundings (it was in Tokyo area...), it managed to give me a big shock cause of its hygiene and how things go there. It wasn't as bad on one hand, but on the other hand it was just terrible. When i left to my second host, i didn't even know what to expect. And then the mountains, valleys, rivers and greenery made me wipe my tears off while still on train. The place itself had its minuses and pluses, but i found peace and was enjoying mountainous view every day. Here, when i was going to my spot, my attention was caught by neatly planted tea bushes - there's a lot of them in this region! I never knew that Shizuoka is famous cause of its tea! So it was a nice surprise... The town i work in, doesn't have tea farms, or at least i haven't seen them yet, but they trip on the train was an interesting one!

It didn't take too long until i met with my host which is an alternative type, listening to reggae, surfing, warm and that also took me by surprise. After lunch we went to Nagomi (that's how the cafe is called) and i went to check out the beach and that was yet another thing that made me smile! The ocean is beautiful, the beach is amazing! I cannot see the sea from the cafe, but it takes tops 2 minutes until you can dive in the water. It's so beautiful here! You wouldn't believe. It's not just a simple random sea, it is the ocean! It's my first time to be so close to the real ocean. The feeling is overwhelming.

You climg up the dunes and while doing that the ocean just open ups right before your eyes. In the evening the whole beach is covered with this mellow warm yellow sunlight, at the sides of the beach you can see mist chewing on sand and you just want to explode into million peaces and fuse with the mist. And never leave.

Cafe is really beautiful as well. It's pretty alternative, just like the owners! It's always filled with reggae or ska music, bright colors and friendly decorations, so i feel totally welcomed here. It's almost like at home. The whole village is interesting. Even though it's really small, but on the way your eye catches reggae posters, shops, paintings of Bob Marley, rastafari flags. There are many events to support the rastafari culture - it's gonna be interesting to explore the neighborhood.

I'm the only wwoofer at the moment, so i enjoy the quiet when i'm not doing anything. It's quite the opposite from Sasayama where you're always surrounded by other people. It is of course nice, but also tiresome. One girl might join me here, if my hosts still need someone. She wants to leave Sasayama and i suppose we both want to work together again, before our ways split for good. She's australian and so after Japan she is going back. So this thing is a little bit of an inner conflict inside of me - to stay alone or not. Tomorrow's my day off ( just like in Sasayama, despite the fact, that we have 2 days off there), so i'll have time for myself, for my blog, for sea, pictures and the rest.

I still haven't really experienced the work here, since we didn't have many customers today, but i'm a little bit worried about working hours. We close with the last customer which might be really late, but the starting point is always the same. So we'll see.

The house where I stay is really nice and big. I have a nice room and a really comfortable futon - today i was barely to be woken up after my afternoon nap. A little bit embarassing!

My host-mom's parents have a super market which used to be a fish shop, so I suppose we're going to have lots of fish, which makes me really happy! Not just because i love fish, but also because i have to take care of my health and i didn't quite have this chance in Sasayama. It's my first day so i really cannot say much, but it seems i won't have any problems with food. It's of course not just about food, but give a worked better food and you'll have better results! Today for lunch we had delicious sushi. I guess a day with raw fish is a successful one, so I'm glad.

It's gonna be interesting for me to work here, since i wanna have a cafe on my own on day. There's already one recipe from today that i'm gonna memorize!

Before my host picked me up from the station, i had couple of hours of spare time, so i just found a place in a shadow, which happened to be some kinda empty lot between houses and just crashed on the rocks and slept. Oh boy, i slept so well! That's the test for you - if you can fall asleep in less than 3 minutes on rocks, that means you are really tired... Just like i was.