Eat, Work, Love

So many small but interesting things happened during the week that I am having difficulty remembering them. I have been amazed that sometimes, a week went by and I felt like I have lived so much. When I was in Santa Barbara, I had a good life and it was easy to remember what happened. I was in a very familiar bubble with the same people I know for a while. Here, I see new faces all the time. I think I talk to about 100 students each week. I am still on sensory overload with my surroundings. Not that I am complaining here but I wish there is an easy way for me to remember it all because I feel like I am just swallowing my experiences and haven't had the time to digest.

Well, before I forget another interesting episode, I should just take this opportunity to record it. It's my first day of the weekend today. I woke up at 1pm because I stayed up too late to talk to my sister. Then my dad called after I woke up so I stayed in bed and spoke with him until 2pm. It was a nice outside, cold but sunny day so I decided to go explore the other side of town across the river. I found a big Asahi Beer factory and discovered how close it was to bike to all the popular destinations in Fukuoka. My bike is like my car and I am getting a work out from it too! Yay! So after roaming around in my bike, I was starving so I decided to treat myself to a nice meal. I choose a Japanese pasta restaurant. The only Italian thing about the place was that they used spaghetti. Even if they use cream and cheese for their sauces, the pasta tasted nothing Italian. Craving something that tasted like home, I settled for a meat sauce dish which comes with an raw an on top. It's like the red version of a spaghetti cabonara. It was really delicious but I wish I didn't have to eat it with disposable chopsticks. And there was no bread to scoope up the sauce! After dinner, I went to Starbucks to study Japanese. I was weening off Starbucks back in the US but here, it's better than going to Seattle's Best. (I so wish Coffee Bean will open one here. I have no doubt they will do really well.) An hour later, the girl I bought the bike from, Olinka and her roommate, Amanda joined me to hang out. Olinka is a strong, spiritual Mexican woman, around the same age as me. We hit it off right away when she sold me the bike. As we shared about our lives, I learned that she came to Japan after having done ayahuasca. I have only heard of ayahusca once on a TV show but in just one night, I met Olinka and this other Japanese guy whom we met randomly at a restaurant and did it while he was in an ashram in India. They were both so excited and enthusiastic talking about their experiences which made me wondered if I will want to do it in the future. Anyway, all of this coincidence happened because I was craving for Mexican food so Olinka took me to one in town and it was good! The Japanese owner spent 2 years in Guadalajara to perfect his skills and recreated a fairly authentic Mexican restaurant in the middle of a Japanese metropolis. Oh, all the tortillas were homemade. Ola!

Other than this interesting night with Olinka, I also had a really good week at work. As I am starting to get to know more of my students and getting more comfortable with the materials I have to teach, I realized I have some amazingly smart students - old and young. For example, one students used her best English in class to describe a show she saw on TV where you can trick your brain when you feel hungry by doing 10 seconds of quick steps and how it worked for her. Another student compared the rest of the Japanese with the Okinawans when paying respect to the dead. Many students are more than happy to offer me information about Japan and share their knowledge with me and their classmates. Like I said before, I wish I can just remember them all!

Perhaps the biggest lesson I learned this week is about letting go. Breaking up is hard enough itself but what I realized is that I am also losing my bestest friend - someone whom I have confided in with almost everything and whom I adore but I can no longer just tell him what I am thinking or how I feel. I now have to process these information on my own and figure it out. It is not that I wasn't able to do it on my own before but I enjoyed having his opinion and sometimes, simply to have someone to listen to and he was a great listener. He had allowed me bounce things off him and offered nothing but a few nods of acknowledgements. I know our breakup doesn't come any easier for him and maybe even harder in some ways so I wanted to respect his time and space. But, I feel so sad at times because as Tom Petty sings it "Good Love is Hard to Find".

Siging off with a deep breathe. Namaste.

It's Tuesday again. Another week here in the land of the rising sun. As I sat quietly at an onsen (hot springs) tonight, I reflected on the ups and downs of this past week. There were some really high times and then the low - very low, to the point I felt depressed. Luckily, I know how to bounce back and not let it get to me for too long. Plus I have some really good friends back home who are keeping taps on me, making sure I am staying afloat, and rooting for me even though we are thousands of miles away. Anyway, this was my roller coaster week:

Monday: Day 1 of being single. Getting out of bed was hard. Resisted all temptations of a breakup.

Tuesday: Work was a great escape but must put on a happy face.

Wednesday: Snow storm distraction (see previous post). Heard about the Haiti earthquake.

Thursday: Less snow. Lots of news about Haiti. My heart finally feel less heavy.

Friday: A little shaken from a FB status. Worried friends. Friendly neighborhood kitty came to keep me company. Donated money to Haiti. Felt good.

Saturday: Crazy busy work day but good. Learned a lot from my students and started to have a better grip on the flow of the lessons. Then crazy fun night out with co-workers and students.

Sunday: From the very high the night before followed by a very low day. I didn't want to get out of bed. Feeling lonely and homesick, I moped around until I found motivation to head out for some window shopping. I went to Canal City where there are lots of stores like Gap and Zara. Not only it gave me a little comfort of home, the thumping US rap and pop songs were a great distraction.

Monday (today): It was a nice sunny day and I was quite excited to go to my first Japanese lesson in the morning. Got a private lesson from an 85 year-old Japanese woman who volunteers at the community center where the lessons are held. She was really sweet and told me she likes sake. LOL! Another old lady who likes to drink (Chan is the other one). Maybe that's the real secret of longevity here. Sake and beer with good food = good life = longevity. Feeling good from the lesson, I randomly went to a ramen restaurant and ordered a lot of food. I am always a little proud of myself that I have the balls to just walk in to a place, order food with hardly any Japanese and manage to have a good meal. But what I was most happy about today was that I walked all the way to the next town, found the recycle /thrift store I researched on (with the help of my iPhone), bargained a little with the shopkeeper, bought and managed to get a coffee table delivered to my house!

What I learned this week is endurance and embracing challenges with good intentions and positive attitude. With a little help from my friends, I should be able to find green patches in the rough roads ahead.

Peace.

A snowy day in Fukuoka

Well, it finally snowed properly in Fukuoka today and the whole of Kyushu. I think we caught the cold front from China. Feeling kinda cold when I woke up, I opened up the drapes to my balcony and saw snow. For a second, it was like Christmas! and then it quickly daunted on me that I had a 15-minute walk to the train station. When I was ready to head out the door, it was snowing heavily. After a block, my umbrella was broken and I was covered in snow. No doubt I would've turned into a snowman if I had continued walking to the train station so I waved a taxi down. 1200yen later in a warm car, I felt much better and was ready to work! This is all new to me! How I miss sunny So.Cal!

The photo I took when I woke up.

Some heavy snowing 10 minutes before I headed out the door.

The bush outside my work's building. So pretty!

One the way home from the train station, it was not snowing so I was able to walk home but a layer of snow is still sitting on the staircase.

My co-worker, Wasim took this photo at the station where he lives in Kurume, which is further south from Fukuoka. There were a lot more snow and and it was snowing. The poor guy was covered white when he got home!

A month deep in Japan

Sorry for the long delay, folks. I guess I am having a pretty good time here that I have not been able to find time to write. However, I did take a lot of photos. For now, here are a selected few (well, 132 from my 500 photos) with captions. I will write more soon. I promise. Enjoy!

By the way, あけましておめでとう akemashite omedetou/Happy New Year!

A month deep in Japan