Another view of Japan

So, I've just come back from a busy weekend of lots of firsts and new stuff with friends. I have a lot of pictures, so I'll mostly let the pictures talk on their own.

First, on Saturday after class, Me, Hinata, Tamaki, Catie, and I met up with their mutual Japanese camp friend Atsuo, who works as an English teacher for the JET program in Chiba, in Korean town for a grilled meat dinner.

 

The following picture isn't where we ate, but I've noticed that Koreans tend to like pigs a lot. It's the mascot for almost everything Korean I've seen lately.

 Afterwards, Catie and Atsuo went home and Tamaki, Hinata, and I went to Dai-san's neighborhood and met up with Dai-san, Makoto, and later on another friend from Japanese camp Risa. First, we went to all night karaoke. Super fun but I was probably the one with the most energy haha... Dai-san and Makoto sang a lot though.

This was Tamaki at the beginning of the night. He was really good at singing Lady Gaga haha

 Hinata and Makoto singing together.

 Tamaki and Risa dead at 2 in the morning.

 And of course, our reaction is to take pictures of them as they sleep. Hinata, Makoto, Dai-san.

I like how Makoto is the only one who realized I was taking a picture of the three of them.

 At about 4am, we called it quits and walked to Dai-san's apartment and stayed the night. Japanese apartments are really small, but I really don't feel like there was need for any more space for someone who lives by themselves. In fact, it seemed like the perfect amount of space.

The next morning, we woke up, got dressed, and started out on our road trip! 

Dai-san had rented a car and he drove us up into the mountains to this area called Okutama. It was still Tokyo, but it was as if we weren't in Tokyo I know anymore.

First, we stopped for--as Dai-san says--Brrrrunch. It was called 'kamameshi', which consists of food that is steamed in a pot (kama) as the main dish. I had the vegetable set, which was vegetable tempura, raw konnyaku in ginger sauce, pickled vegetables, potato with miso, a greens soup, and a bunch of vegetables and a quail's egg on top of rice. I couldn't finish my rice, so I gave it to Dai-san, who on top of my unfinished rice, ate all of Risa's rice, plus his own rice. I really don't know where he stores it all...

 After lunch, we went for an adventure in nature~

 This doesn't look like Tokyo anymore, right? It was my first time experiencing so much nature in a year. It was really beautiful.

 In the middle of nowhere, these little shrines remind you that you're still in Japan.

 Waterfall! It had a really cool name--Twin Dragon Waterfall.

 Then, we went by the side of the river. The feel of the area by the riverside reminded me a lot of the creek next to my old house, although the river was definitely much bigger. So once we got to the riverside...

Risa took pictures and Dai-san decided to sunbathe,

 Makoto started being pensive by the water,

and then decided to sleep,

and then everyone started skipping stones--or rather throwing big rocks into the water.

After that, we went to an onsen--hotsprings and took a bath. It was really nice. An onsen means that the water in the bath comes from a source that naturally produces warm water, so it's even cleaner and has more healing properties that the regular water that we shower/bathe in everyday. After a bath, you have to get either milk or ice cream, so Tamaki and I got mango soft serve, and Hinata got green tea soft serve. Makoto got macadamian nut ice cream (because he's an adult) and Dai-san got strawberry cheesecake (because he's still a child).

Anyways, that was my day. I am so sleepy, but it was pretty fun. 

I really appreciate the fact that Hinata and Tamaki have led me into their circle of friends from camp, so I've got to meet lots of different people, and I know that they consider me as one of the group already. But I can't help but feel left out of all the memories and time that they've spent together. It's a bit lonely... But I appreciate and will always treasure the memories that we are making now.

Recent thoughts

So as the time draws nearer for me to go home, I am caught between the fact that I'm going to miss so many things about Japan--the wonderful friends I've made, the foods and such that I can only get here, looking around me and seeing that everyone is Japanese, etc.--and the fact that I really miss my family and friends at home.

I think that this is the first time where I have had to leave a place where I have made so many dear friends and I don't know if I will even see them ever again. Then again, I have never lived in a place away from home for so long before. To leave the people here is like leaving behind a second family. They aren't as close as my true family of course, and I don't always feel that I can push myself upon them and open up as easily as I can to my true family, but that doesn't change the fact that I have come to love so many people here.

When I talk to other people about this, they often sympathize with me and think the same way, but today, one my friends said, "Yeah, I'm going to miss the fun times, because those were great. But the tough times were really tough." Yeah. That's true. Having to deal with sickness, sadness, loneliness, heartbreak, etc. all on my own has been truly hard on me. In general, I'm a 'sabishigariya', someone who doesn't handle loneliness very well, and I'm not very good at keeping my feelings to myself. I think I'm probably someone who needs someone else to spit my feelings and emotions out to, or else it builds up and up until finally it overflows one day in a flood of tears. And then to act normal in front of everyone right after that overflow and no one ever knows about those tears is painful, too. Perhaps I'm being selfish and childish to expect others to support me whenever I feel down.

Anyways, it's not over yet! Two more months to enjoy and suffer through the good times and the bad times and build up and enrich the being called Kenia.