January Weekend Trips

Despite it being winter here Ive tried to make the most out of my weekends in January - helping to pass the time between my brothers going home after their Christmas / New Years trip and Stuart coming back in late February to spend a month here with me - its been a great distraction

Weekend Trip to Mie Prefecture – 8/9 January

I had two clips left of my Seishun-18-Kippu (Y11500 for 5 people / days or all you can ride JR local trains) after the boys went home so decided to go on a weekend trip mainly to see the illumination at Nabana-no-sato but had some time to visit some other things around the area while I was over in Mie prefecture.

Stuart and I will be going to Nagoya in March for a couple of nights to check out some local festivals so seeing as I had to change trains here anyway I decided it was a good chance to check out the layout of the town and how to get from the station to our ryokan (Japanese style hotel) as the reviews were amazing but it’s a little far from the station It was snowing when I trained through Maibara but beautiful sunny skies when I arrived in Nagoya and there was even a free university students performance going on at the Nagoya Noh Theatre so it was a nice afternoon

Headed out to Nabana-no-Sato (in Kuwana, Mie)  and had time to relax and watch the sun set from the  outdoor onsen (rotemburo, hot springs) they have there before meeting Tim and Mio at 6-ish to check out the illuminations. The ones around the lake were pretty but it wasn’t until we hit the tunnels of light (one white and one rainbow) and the “moving” blue LED sea with dolphins and backdrop of Mount Fuji that I was completely blown away. If you get the chance to see them (the display runs until the 13^th of March) its definitely worth the trip.

Stayed at Mios place that night and had a delicious dinner, and breakfast the next morning, with her family. It was lovely to spend some time in a Japanese home just relaxing and chatting with them – such hospitality! Unfortunately all of the Mie CIRs that I had met at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Presentation in November were all out of Mie that weekend so I got up early on Sunday morning and made my way down to Ise on my own.

It was a long weekend (with Monday being seijin-no-hi) so the shrines were more crowded than usual but Ise proved to be another great day trip to do and nice to see some people dressed up. The main order of the day was of course Ise Grand Shrine so I checked out Geku (outer shrine) and then walked the 4kms to Naiku (inner shrine). Before heading home there was just enough time to head out to the coast and see Meoto Iwa - the wedded rocks at Futami Okitama Shrine which was a beautiful place to spend the last of the sunlight before heading back home.

Weekend Trip to Nagano Prefecture - 15/16 January

In the spirit of "making the most of winter" I decided some snow sports were in order. I hadnt been snowboarding since I was living here last time for uni in 2004-05 so it was well overdue, and perfect timing that Tim let me know about a group that was heading up snowboarding to coincide with a local fire festival at Nozawa Onsen and a side trip to check out the Snow Monkeys at Yudanaka.


So straight after work on Friday, 6 of us crammed out gear and ourselves into the car and headed towards the snow, and boy was it snowing. We arrived in Hakuba close to midnight and stayed over in a beautiful little cottage with the Christmas lights still up and awoke to a beautiful blanket of snow (and more falling)

My first morning snowboarding in over 6 years didnt go too badly (once I remembered how to get up). and did a couple of runs in the Toumi area and managed to turn okay and not spend too much time just sitting on the snow. If theres any sport that would teach you to always get up when you fall down it would be snowboarding though! After a couple of runs there Andy, Lashanda and I decided to ride the gondola up the mountain and the ride down was a little intense with a red run - labelled the "dynamic course" - the only way to get between two of the beginner green runs but made it though ;)

Saturday fternoon it was time to check out the Jigokudani Monkey Park. In winter some of the smaller roads in the area are closed so its a 1.6km walk from the carpark but it was beautiful and the moneys were great too. They were so used to people visiting while they took a bath that they practically ignored us and just went about their businesses, allowing for some great shots.

After visiting the monkeys we made our way to Nozawa Onsen for some dinner and the much anticipated Dosojin Fire Festival,  It is one of the three most famous fire festivals in Japan and is held on Jan 15 every year to pray for a plentiful harvest, health and good fortune in the coming year. The main attraction is the battle between the guards and the torch-whelding villagers as they attempt to set the beech wood shrine on fire. Decorative lantern poles are also set on fire as an offering to the gods for the health and prosperity of the first born son of some families in the village. 

Was a bit sore on Sunday morning but did a few runs at Nozawa, enjoyed an onsen, some quality kotatsu time and went to the information centre to pick up a few maps and things to send Stuart and before I knew it it was time to head home. Had a great time with an awesome group of people and it was nice to get back on a snowboard after so long - bring on the skiing in March.

2010 Reflections

Before getting too far into 2011, I feel like I should do the oblilgatory reflections on the year that was. It was a bit of a messy year but looking back on it I achieved quite a lot. For those of you who werent sharing it with me (and for those of you who were to remember all the fun times) heres a quick summary…

Finished off 2009 with the Green Day concert in Auckland with Andy and welcomed in the New Year with a great group of people (Nele - who unfortunately had to go back to Belgium at the end of Jan -, Em, Alexey, Andy, Hamil, Paul and Stuart) at Endeavour Inlet, Queen Charlotte Sound. The trip included lots of delicious homemade bread, pasta, sexy spa time, spending lots of time on and in the water, catching kina and weka, bushwalking and sunning on the massive deck – awesome!

After a windy ferry back (my first time to take the ferry since I moved to the North Island when I was four) we were back in Wellington. Summer in the capital means a few things to me - free concerts in the botanic gardens with a picnic and wine, the Sevens, lots of Phoenix games and of course a Thorndon Pool Party. This year Gow was back in town for it so brought a whole extra crowd and I think we had the most successfull pool party ever. 

By this stage Stuart and I had been together 9 months and the lease was coming up on his place at the end of Jan so I suggested he move in to Webb Street with me which ended up working out perfectly. He fit into the flat well and we had some great times, getting all fancy with a cocktail party for my birthday and a breakfast at Tiffanys showing at the Embassy as well as lots of “random vegetable cookoffs”, cakes for pretty much any occasion, BYOs at Ban Mai Thai, house parties picnics on the front lawn and just all round good company – definitely miss this flat vibe a lot!

For Easter, Stuart and I borrowed his parents van, put up some makeshift curtains, battery operated fairy lights, set up the back so it could fold out into a bed or up into a dining table and hit the road for a week and a half. We travelled through Gisbourne and drove up around the East Cape all the way to Mount Manganui (only getting a bit lost) before making our way back down to Napier for the Wellums wedding – a great break away!

I had applied for this position – Coordinator of International Relations (CIR) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme – way back in early December 2009 before Stuart and I were living together. I was promoted from an HR Coordinator to Advisor in June 2009 and the change wasn’t right for me so I was looking at other options and a chance to use my Japanese before I lost it completely. I had an interview in February but I didn’t really think my Japanese was up to scratch although they called while we were on our Easter Holiday and said they would like to offer me the position at Wellington Sister City in Sakai. It took us a little while to make the decision of what to do but Stuart was very supportive and with the decision that we were strong enough to make it through a year long distance we set on making the most of the next four months together.

Our flatmate Anna got a posting for work at the World Expo in Shanghai and as fate would have it some grab-a-seat flights from Wellington to Shanghai for a week came up pretty soon after that so we jumped at the chance. We spent some time checking out central Shanghai and hanging out on the Bund and in Pudong, shopping on Nanjing Street, being tempted by Nankeen Blue Fabric, introducing Stuart to Japanese foods (Mister Donut and Yoshinoya), had dinner with Max, Anna and Tatsuya, wandered around the World Expo and went on a day trip to Huangzhou. We returned full from street food, with a big bag of tea and the most awesome dolphin bubble toy ever!

Enjoyed the last couple of months in Wellington even though it was starting to get colder, picked up some work lifeguarding out at Tawa Pool to pass the time and made it to the Ceroc Viking Ball, Anzac Dawn Service and even got invited to my old works Mid-year Party. Most mornings I got up at the same time as Stuart and walked him to the station, then around to Freyberg Pool and swam 3kms. On a standard day I would potter around the house for a bit tidying things up/packing, study some Japanese, go to the gym and have dinner cooked by the time Stuart came home (what a good housewife). Stuarts friends slowly became my friends too (he already knew most of my friends from ski weeks) and I got to know a lot of really awesome people. I also made the most of of having an oven and lots of flatmates to eat whatever deliciousness I cooked and had a lot of fun attempting some difficult birthday cakes and organising a surprise dinner for Stuarts birthday.

So before I left, I figured I had better to find out what all this skiing fuss was about (Stuart has been skiing since he was little) so Stuart and I tagged along for a weekend with the ski trip that the Wellums had organised. I had a great time and found I picked it up much faster than I had snowboarding (when Id done a weekend in Japan last time I was here for uni in early 2005) and didnt spend nearly as much time sitting on the cold snow - Stuart even ventured down to Happy Valley for the first time ever to spend some time with me at the end of the day. Am planning to go again when Stuart comes over this winter.

In the name of research (I needed pictures of New Zealand to take overseas with me) I headed up to Auckland for a week to hang out with my brothers for a bit. Mark had recently come back from a stint overseas so both between jobs we took the opportunity to do a trip around Northland. Checked out my second lighthouse of the year (shame I didnt make it to Bluff too) and had some great time just hanging out and chatting with Mark - hes really easy to travel with! Northland itself was really was beautiful and I would recommend it to anyone - especially those who think theres nothing above Auckland!

The last couple of weeks before leaving all seemed to go really fast, there was a lot of "last" coffees and lunches with people culminating in a big "jya mata" party at Arashi. Finally got everything packed up and went out for a nice relaxing high tea on my last morning with Stuart at Marthas Pantry - had always wanted to do that, but had never really found the right occassion.

And that is where this blog starts. The last five months of 2010 in Japan were about as up-and-down as the first seven in New Zealand. I was very underprepared emotionally for the culture shock of moving back because I had lived here before and worked overseas before. But going from an awesome flat to living on my own, leaving a big part of my heart in NZ and and not really having an immediate awesome group of people (like when I was here for uni) was quite hard. It took me a little while, but I eventually furnished my little studio apartment and met a group of amazing people from all around the world that actually dont live all that far away from me at all so that by the time Stuart arrived in mid October I was feeling much better about being here but it was awesome to see him. And after he left I only had 6 weeks to chug through until my brothers arrived for Christmas and New Years. Stuart will be back to visit in 5 weeks time and even Mum is hoping to make it over in June - its great to be able to share this amazing country with the people I love. If you can make it here before I the end of July I would love to see you - I have plenty of futons and blankets ;)

My job here has been amazing, and I have had the opportunity to be involved in all kinds of events from really grass roots level (Sakai Incense Experience, Wellington Educational Exchange) to attending big fancy International Relations Events (including two business trips to Tokyo to present to diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Ive been able to teach a Kiwi English class, a Kiwi Cooking class, translate heaps of interesting documents and learn about all kinds of things while improving my Japanese and working with a great team. They have offered to extend my contract but writing this has helped reinforce that going home at the end of my year here (in August 2011) is the best decision. There is a lot I really enjoy about living here, but there are a lot of things I miss about my life back in Wellington (handball, dancing, swimming, baking, gym etc) but more importantly there are a lot of amazing people back home that I miss very much too - I love you all, see you soon xx