catch up
hi, sorry think it's about time i posted something rather than just think about doing it & not getting round to it!
much has happened since i last typed, in a way...
coming home This may or may not be a surprise to you, but as of a week or so ago, I've felt that I'd actually really quite like to come home next summer. So I probably won't recontract for another year here, but will rather come back and try and find a job/ place to live etc. Lots of you may have expected that anyway, others may be puzzled- i'm not sure. But I can't quite summarise how i felt, but I think this experience doesn't have to drag on for 3 years... although it's not 100% definite I will return, ha ha. I have until Feb to actually sign the form and decide.
The question then becomes what to do/ where to go. Any waves of inspiration on this would be good! But I'm not expecting it to magically work out, but gradually I think something will transpire (at least I hope so). I read a book the other week, called "The Dream Giver" and I found it useful in finding perspective for why I'm here. And then realised that something else can happen after this experience in Japan, and I'm realising that none of this makes any sense, sorry!
I went to Taiwa cho on Saturday for pottery (ceramics- I made some tea cups supposedly & the people at the centre will bake them and put pretty colours on them). It was a beautiful location- in a place called 7 Mountains. We had a wonderful view & afterwards had a picnic. I didn't take any photos of our outdoor autumn picnic (not that picnics are ever indoors...) but imonikais are basically picnics held in Miyagi and Yamagata in autumn, where a big soupy mixture is made quite rustically - potatoes, carrots, other veg, meat & miso. Miso is a type of fermented soy bean paste. A comedy moment (for me!) on Sat was a brand newcomer to Japan [had been here 3 weeks] was poking around the soup ingredients, saying, "So which one is the miso?" [ie none of them]. Anyway, that was good, and see some snaps below:
Beautiful place- we went across the water to a park for the picnic. This is the before they have been fired pics (have to wait a month til they're done)- note the nice looking bowl is someone else's! Either you need a lot of prior experience for the pottery, or I DEFINITELY do not have the knack!
En route between pottery and picnic, I saw this:
much has happened since i last typed, in a way...
coming home This may or may not be a surprise to you, but as of a week or so ago, I've felt that I'd actually really quite like to come home next summer. So I probably won't recontract for another year here, but will rather come back and try and find a job/ place to live etc. Lots of you may have expected that anyway, others may be puzzled- i'm not sure. But I can't quite summarise how i felt, but I think this experience doesn't have to drag on for 3 years... although it's not 100% definite I will return, ha ha. I have until Feb to actually sign the form and decide.
The question then becomes what to do/ where to go. Any waves of inspiration on this would be good! But I'm not expecting it to magically work out, but gradually I think something will transpire (at least I hope so). I read a book the other week, called "The Dream Giver" and I found it useful in finding perspective for why I'm here. And then realised that something else can happen after this experience in Japan, and I'm realising that none of this makes any sense, sorry!
I went to Taiwa cho on Saturday for pottery (ceramics- I made some tea cups supposedly & the people at the centre will bake them and put pretty colours on them). It was a beautiful location- in a place called 7 Mountains. We had a wonderful view & afterwards had a picnic. I didn't take any photos of our outdoor autumn picnic (not that picnics are ever indoors...) but imonikais are basically picnics held in Miyagi and Yamagata in autumn, where a big soupy mixture is made quite rustically - potatoes, carrots, other veg, meat & miso. Miso is a type of fermented soy bean paste. A comedy moment (for me!) on Sat was a brand newcomer to Japan [had been here 3 weeks] was poking around the soup ingredients, saying, "So which one is the miso?" [ie none of them]. Anyway, that was good, and see some snaps below:
Beautiful place- we went across the water to a park for the picnic. This is the before they have been fired pics (have to wait a month til they're done)- note the nice looking bowl is someone else's! Either you need a lot of prior experience for the pottery, or I DEFINITELY do not have the knack!
En route between pottery and picnic, I saw this:
Which reminds me, the other day, before jumping on my bike to school, I saw this: 
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, according to my neighbour it's a god. Well, yeah right. I might have misunderstood with my rubbish Japanese, but he seemed to be saying that because this little frog is sacred, you can't kill it. Baffling. [Not that i was planning on killing it, btw!] Just a small creature that lives in the rice paddies (me thinks) - which are in the process of being harvested - made by God, not a god in the slightest, in my humble opinion. But there you go! 
Beautiful yellow paddies before they're all gone and the landscape turns brown for months and months and months (then black and white with snow) and brown again.
posted by bananatree @ 12:51 pm
2 Comments:
Can't I persuade you to be a teacher? Anyone who can play the piano could get a job as a primary teacher anywhere. And you wouldn't have to put up with some mutt translating all the wrong instructions.
Just read about your possible future plans & am reminded of that 8th verse in Psalm 32:
The Lord says,"I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you & watch over you.
New Living Translation
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