thoughts

Well guys, it's time. This blog post will be the last fuelled by a day filled with nothing and extreme boredom. Because today is my last day at work. Last week I had my final classes. The time has arrived; leaving Japan. It's that time for overarching reflection, as things I will never do again pass me by, and I pack up my life in Japan both physically and emotionally. I have many emotions about how this past year has gone, about my experiences. But also it's time to look to the future, a space and time that is completely different to that I am existing in now. What will the future be? The biggest last, for sure, is this is my last day at work. My purpose for coming here. Being an Assistant Language Teacher at a rural Japanese Junior High School. This past week, so many lasts have come and gone. Some strange, some sad, some glad. I will never have to say the standard greetings to whatever class I'm teaching followed by the same stock questions ever again. Good morning...

Recently, I've been thinking about how I'll miss Amazon when I move back to New Zealand. We don't have Amazon, and New Zealand is kind of in the middle of nowhere when it comes to the world as a larger scheme. Things I want like clothes, or really niche items can be difficult to source in store in NZ, or just really expensive when bought in store or ordered online, but here in Japan, everything is available on Amazon at the click of a button. In the larger scheme, there's so many stores here that New Zealand doesn't have. Ikea, Costco, Uniqlo (of course). Everything is so available. Is this a good thing? I mean my heart says yes, but my head says... maybe not? So we don't have Amazon in New Zealand, nor do we have a similar alternative (unless you count Mighty Ape but that's mostly games... And a large selection of La Croix water? I miss La Croix...) Amazon is so easy and I can get anything I want sitting at my desk at work. Living out in the countryside i...

I have been stuck between a rock and a graveyard of draft blog posts recently, and I found this skeleton which I wrote over a year ago about my then imminent departure to Japan. Reading it, it's interesting to see my feelings of excitement, frustration, trying to figure out what the hell is happening. It's a great jumping-off point for reflection. Also, it's just interesting: "Really not entirely sure what this blog is about anymore. I guess it's for my own self reflection and proclamation of my views. And so I will proclaim and reflect on my decision to move to Japan at the beginning of August 2018 on the JET programme, and my experiences with that decision thus far. So I'm pretty much 100% going to be moving to Japan, thanks to my acceptance into the JET programme as of last Friday, but this decision has affected me for almost a year since I first decided to apply. Firstly, this decision has profoundly affected my life path and helped me realise what I ...

Rather recently, I did a thing where I stopped eating meat. This is the second time I have done this in my life (unless you count the time I declared becoming a vegetarian at a family gathering and then promptly stuffed my face with salami as a tween). Round two is a little different to the first time though, because, as I am sure you know by now, I'm living in Japan. I tried to find a picture of me stuffing my face with some sort of meat product. This is the closest I could get; me taking a picture of a bean burger at burger liquor in Wellington a few years back. I have always leant towards the meat-free options. So, why does my dietary change in the context of Japan warrant its own blog post? Many, many reasons my sweet fren. And a lot to do with food culture. It's fascinating! Who knew that conceptions of food and health would be different in a country that is not where I am from (shock horror). Firstly, the cultural conception of a well-rounded diet in Japan much mor...

Let's get personal today on Emily's blog. I am here to announce that I am leaving Japan in August, official and everything. I am going, but strangely, I still have 4 months left. I will get to the whole 'reasons' part of why I'm only here for a year later, but first, let me tell you about how this whole moving to Japan thing has really messed with my perception of time. At various points over the last 8 months, my time here has felt like it will be over in an instant, and other times felt like it will never end. I look through photos and archived instagram stories and I think 'wow, that thing happened three months ago?', with 3 months emphasised as being short, or long, depending on the context. People saying 'wow you're only there a year', or when I'm planning for last destinations to get to in Japan before leaving, it does feel so short. But then I think, oh I have 4 months left, it feels like such a long time. It's a third of a yea...

It seems I now find myself in the middle of flu season in Japan. Slowly, more and more children are disappearing from classes, whisperings of 'infuruenza' abound. The room is freezing cold from the windows having being left open for the last 5 minutes. I look down at my remaining students and most, if not all, are half-hiding their faces with the ever popular face-mask. And I scream internally. Because to me, this is all wrong . Let me backtrack, and begin with a point that I believe you will all be familiar with: it really upsets me how Japanese people don't wash their hands thoroughly, if at all. Which is an issue, seeing as it is now 'influenza season', and for me at least, I have been taught that one of the best ways to prevent the spread of influenza is to wash your hands (plus cover your mouth with your arm when you sneeze and cough; you know, standard stuff). Therefore, this lack of hand-washing is an increasing source of frustration for me. However, it s...

Picture this. It's a Tuesday morning in January. It's cold outside, and I'm huddling under the aircon with my scarf piled around my neck, cursing every teacher and student who dares open the staffroom door letting the freezing air in. Except on this day, I'm only half-heartedly cursing those who dare open the door to my warm nest. My mind is occupied with something else. Today is kujira school lunch day. I've known about this day for over a week now. Friday was New Zealand school lunch day; corn pilaf, crumbed fish, a broccoli salad (consisting of mostly cabbage and carrot?) and kumara soup. Not exactly what I would say is truly New Zealand food, but the kumara soup was close enough for me. But neatly tucked away a few pages after the explanation of the New Zealand school lunch, in the 'special school lunch week' newsletter, was a diagram of Tuesday's lunch; the kujira school lunch. And underneath said diagram, was a diagram of a whale. The 'Sp...