Goodbye, everybody! I've got to go...
Door: Laurens
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Laurens
31 Januari 2017 | Japan, Osaka
Hello everyone,
it saddens me to no end to have to report to that this is the last entry to this travel journal that I will write on Japanese soil! I am in fact at the airport right now, waiting for my plane to leave many hours from now. So a quick summary of my last month in Japan is highly due!
The first week of January was still free from school. it didn't feel that way, because I was studying for my finals, but officially we were free from school. Thus, the second week of January was one crammed with deadlines and exams. Exams on Wednessday and Friday, deadlines on Monday, Wednessday and Friday. Everything went well though, I met every single deadline! :D The only thing that could've gone better was my kanji exam. I probably failed that. That was within my expectations though, and should not effect my credits for The Hague in any way! Fun fact: the farewell party the university threw us was on Thursday, even though Friday was the busiest exam day for most of us XD It was a nice party though. It was held at school, there was good food, and oh yeah, I was asked to provide some entertainment for that evening :P And since my favourite pasttime in Japan is karaoke, it only seemed fitting (though one of my friends actually went so far as to call it poetic) that I would sing karaoke one last time before I came back to The Netherlands! I think it went pretty well, because I received a lot of positive feedback ^^ That evening we also received our certificates for having finished our exchange program at the university. Of course some sad goodbyes also took place.
Friday, after all the academic duties were finished, there was a huge farewell party organised by student at a bar near school. I think we occupied at least 50% of the available seating XD I don't think I've ever had that much to drink in my life! And to top ot all off, a group of us went to karaoke in Takarazuka, which left me walking home from laraoke around 3 in the morning and far from sober XD
Then on Saturday I went to aikido in the afternoon for the first time. You see, the adorable people of Sumire dojo had decided that they should throw a farewell party for me as well! After training we went to asupermarket, did groceries, went to someone's house and had dinner with a lot of Japanese food and a lot of alcohol! (I'm afraid that at this point it is safe to say that I've consumed more alcohol in Japan than in the rest of my life combined so far *looks deeply ashamed yet odly satisfied at the same time*)
After all the exam stress I felt like I needed (and deserved) a real break, so I went to visit my friend Yuna in Okinawa (group of islands to the far south of Japan)! From Tuesday till Saturday I walked around in a t-shirt, rather than a winter jacket! And Yuna even took 3 days off from work so she could show me around Okinawa, so you bet I had an amazing time! On Tuesday went went to Shurijo castle and played darts (she won 6 out of 7 games, to her delight), Wednessday we went to a horsefarm and toured part of the island (I made a friend on the way to Okinawa who worked there as a volunteer every now and then ^^') and we also did karaoke(!), on Thursday Yuna did have to work, so I went to the aquarium by myself. It is the biggest aquarium in Japan and one of the biggest in the world too! And they have an absolutely wonderous exposition! Everything from corrals to sharks and anything in between! AfterYuna finished work though, we went for dinner and drinking together :P Then on Friday we went to look around The American Village, with lots of stereotypical American stores, after which we went to play darts again. This time I managed to win 3 out of 7 games, but I needed to remind Yuna that she still won more often than I did before her pout disappeared :P
Saturday she also had to work, and my flight wouldn't leave untill 20:00, so I deciced to visit her at her work in a warehouse when she started at 12:00. Then at 14:30 I watched a movie in a cinema in that sea warehouse, after having had a very interesting conversation with a woman who was born a d raised in Okinawa but had been living in the US for the past 27 years. The movie was called "Remember", from 2015. Basically, an old guy with alzheimers gets sent on his way to fulfill a promise he made, while carrying a letter to remind him of that everytime he wakes up from sleeping. Very interesting movie! And for a movie that played in English with Japanese subtitles, I was the only foreigner in the room!
After the movie finished I went to say goodbye to Yuna one last time and then made my way to the airport. As I mentoined before, my flight would leave around 20:00. Sadly, it didn't... Normally I would have landed at 22:00 and be able to get back to my dorm no problem. I arrived after 23:30 though, so there would be no more trains to Takarazuka.... In fact, I ended up waiting almost a whole hour before I could take a bus to Osaka, where I ended up pulling an all-nighter at the karaoke because that would be cheaper than finding a room for a few hours! XD In the end I figured it would be best if I simply thought of it as another interesting and unique experience. I was dead tired after that adventure though, let me tell you that!
Then my last full week in Japan began, and it was a week with nothing but goodbyes. On Tuesday I sent two boxes with gifts and what not by post and met friends at karaoke for the very last time (this time for real), on Wednessday I canceled my adress and health insurance in Japan and met 2 more friends for the last time at a bar after I went to my Japanese speaking practice group for the last time, On Thursday I closed my bank account, on Friday I visited school for the last time and had a farewell lunch with 2 Japanese friends who studied in The Hague last year, on Saturday we had a "Round 2" for my aikido farewell party.
on Sunday I met my friend from the Horsefarm in Kyoto for the last time. He first took me to a (free) concert from an orchestra that one of his friends played in, then he showed me a sake brewery where they explain the brewing process and finally we had dinner (with a conciderable amount of alcohol, as I'm sure you guessed by now) with 5 of his friends! Then on Monday I had my second and last game of futsal, so I could say goodbye to the people I know from there as well and in the evening I had dinner with a Chinese friend. Originally this was supposed to be the 2 of us, but apparently she forgot she was supposed to have dinner with her mother and a friend of the family XD This resulted in me having dinner with 3 people instead of 1. Now some of you may say that its cliche to eat Chinese with Chinese people, but what we had that night was miles away from what I usually eat in The Netherlands! This was the real deal and it was delicious!
So yeah, that brings us to today, my lastday in Japan. I'm having dinner with a Japanese friend later, as the final goodbye. After that I'll just have to wait for boarding time.
I will make one final post in this journal after I have safely returned to The Netherlands. So I'll be writing you guys again in a few days ^^
it saddens me to no end to have to report to that this is the last entry to this travel journal that I will write on Japanese soil! I am in fact at the airport right now, waiting for my plane to leave many hours from now. So a quick summary of my last month in Japan is highly due!
The first week of January was still free from school. it didn't feel that way, because I was studying for my finals, but officially we were free from school. Thus, the second week of January was one crammed with deadlines and exams. Exams on Wednessday and Friday, deadlines on Monday, Wednessday and Friday. Everything went well though, I met every single deadline! :D The only thing that could've gone better was my kanji exam. I probably failed that. That was within my expectations though, and should not effect my credits for The Hague in any way! Fun fact: the farewell party the university threw us was on Thursday, even though Friday was the busiest exam day for most of us XD It was a nice party though. It was held at school, there was good food, and oh yeah, I was asked to provide some entertainment for that evening :P And since my favourite pasttime in Japan is karaoke, it only seemed fitting (though one of my friends actually went so far as to call it poetic) that I would sing karaoke one last time before I came back to The Netherlands! I think it went pretty well, because I received a lot of positive feedback ^^ That evening we also received our certificates for having finished our exchange program at the university. Of course some sad goodbyes also took place.
Friday, after all the academic duties were finished, there was a huge farewell party organised by student at a bar near school. I think we occupied at least 50% of the available seating XD I don't think I've ever had that much to drink in my life! And to top ot all off, a group of us went to karaoke in Takarazuka, which left me walking home from laraoke around 3 in the morning and far from sober XD
Then on Saturday I went to aikido in the afternoon for the first time. You see, the adorable people of Sumire dojo had decided that they should throw a farewell party for me as well! After training we went to asupermarket, did groceries, went to someone's house and had dinner with a lot of Japanese food and a lot of alcohol! (I'm afraid that at this point it is safe to say that I've consumed more alcohol in Japan than in the rest of my life combined so far *looks deeply ashamed yet odly satisfied at the same time*)
After all the exam stress I felt like I needed (and deserved) a real break, so I went to visit my friend Yuna in Okinawa (group of islands to the far south of Japan)! From Tuesday till Saturday I walked around in a t-shirt, rather than a winter jacket! And Yuna even took 3 days off from work so she could show me around Okinawa, so you bet I had an amazing time! On Tuesday went went to Shurijo castle and played darts (she won 6 out of 7 games, to her delight), Wednessday we went to a horsefarm and toured part of the island (I made a friend on the way to Okinawa who worked there as a volunteer every now and then ^^') and we also did karaoke(!), on Thursday Yuna did have to work, so I went to the aquarium by myself. It is the biggest aquarium in Japan and one of the biggest in the world too! And they have an absolutely wonderous exposition! Everything from corrals to sharks and anything in between! AfterYuna finished work though, we went for dinner and drinking together :P Then on Friday we went to look around The American Village, with lots of stereotypical American stores, after which we went to play darts again. This time I managed to win 3 out of 7 games, but I needed to remind Yuna that she still won more often than I did before her pout disappeared :P
Saturday she also had to work, and my flight wouldn't leave untill 20:00, so I deciced to visit her at her work in a warehouse when she started at 12:00. Then at 14:30 I watched a movie in a cinema in that sea warehouse, after having had a very interesting conversation with a woman who was born a d raised in Okinawa but had been living in the US for the past 27 years. The movie was called "Remember", from 2015. Basically, an old guy with alzheimers gets sent on his way to fulfill a promise he made, while carrying a letter to remind him of that everytime he wakes up from sleeping. Very interesting movie! And for a movie that played in English with Japanese subtitles, I was the only foreigner in the room!
After the movie finished I went to say goodbye to Yuna one last time and then made my way to the airport. As I mentoined before, my flight would leave around 20:00. Sadly, it didn't... Normally I would have landed at 22:00 and be able to get back to my dorm no problem. I arrived after 23:30 though, so there would be no more trains to Takarazuka.... In fact, I ended up waiting almost a whole hour before I could take a bus to Osaka, where I ended up pulling an all-nighter at the karaoke because that would be cheaper than finding a room for a few hours! XD In the end I figured it would be best if I simply thought of it as another interesting and unique experience. I was dead tired after that adventure though, let me tell you that!
Then my last full week in Japan began, and it was a week with nothing but goodbyes. On Tuesday I sent two boxes with gifts and what not by post and met friends at karaoke for the very last time (this time for real), on Wednessday I canceled my adress and health insurance in Japan and met 2 more friends for the last time at a bar after I went to my Japanese speaking practice group for the last time, On Thursday I closed my bank account, on Friday I visited school for the last time and had a farewell lunch with 2 Japanese friends who studied in The Hague last year, on Saturday we had a "Round 2" for my aikido farewell party.
on Sunday I met my friend from the Horsefarm in Kyoto for the last time. He first took me to a (free) concert from an orchestra that one of his friends played in, then he showed me a sake brewery where they explain the brewing process and finally we had dinner (with a conciderable amount of alcohol, as I'm sure you guessed by now) with 5 of his friends! Then on Monday I had my second and last game of futsal, so I could say goodbye to the people I know from there as well and in the evening I had dinner with a Chinese friend. Originally this was supposed to be the 2 of us, but apparently she forgot she was supposed to have dinner with her mother and a friend of the family XD This resulted in me having dinner with 3 people instead of 1. Now some of you may say that its cliche to eat Chinese with Chinese people, but what we had that night was miles away from what I usually eat in The Netherlands! This was the real deal and it was delicious!
So yeah, that brings us to today, my lastday in Japan. I'm having dinner with a Japanese friend later, as the final goodbye. After that I'll just have to wait for boarding time.
I will make one final post in this journal after I have safely returned to The Netherlands. So I'll be writing you guys again in a few days ^^
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
