I've had a crazy couple of days, what with the last days of school, farewell parties, and the dreaded 'P' word-Packing. I've managed to cram everything into my bag (at just over 21kg it's ok), and into a box which I'm posting tonight. But not easy packing 6 months of living away, I can tell you that much!
However, before all the pre departure chaos, I've had a week of hectic travel, meeting and greeting. In Kanagawa last week, Junior Highschoolers were taking the entrance exams for various High Schools, and as such Wednesday and Thursday were days off. On top of this, Monday and Tuesday were half days, and then Monday the 30th of January, my last day at school, was also a half day. That meant only Friday was a full day of school, no complaints there by anyone!
First on the list was a trip with Midori and Akira to the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. For those of you who don't know, Ghibli is the studio that produces famous animes like Spirited Away, Totoro, and Howl's Moving Castle. It was a fairly dreadful day as far as weather was concerned, raining something chronic, and so cold it was almost snowing, plus a very crisp wind, which made the inside of the museum very comfortable indeed. Ghibli has quite a strict no photos policy on the inside, but if you ever get the chance to go, definitely put it on your list. Even I, who has only seen 1 Ghibli film from start to finish, enjoyed it, it offers an awesome visual experience.
Outside with what looks like the Iron Giant
Sunday was a trip to Tokyo, something I hadn't really done properly for 3 years, and was my chance to re visit the places I couldn't during the Tsukuba trip in 2010. Calvin, his friend Hoshiteru, Olivia and I all met at Yokohama to take the train to Tokyo together, and what an adventure we had! First on the list was Shibuya, which is where I had gone the previous day, but because I was out voted as to which train to take, we ended up at a small station just out of Shibuya, and after 45 minutes of iPhone map checking, we finally got to Shibuya, which as I explained didn't have a lot going for it, so less than an hour after arriving, we left. It does however, have a Disney Store.
Next on the Tokyo Tour list was Harajuku. Harajuku has quite an alternative culture about it, it is full of young people who dress like their favourite anime/manga (cartoon) characters. It is very popular with young people, lots of accessories and clothing to be bought, and it is also very popular with foreigners. You generally go there for people watching, and to perhaps indulge in a crepe from one of the various stalls, and that's pretty much what we did.
Our next destination was one that held a special place in my heart, and that is the Tokyo Pokemon Centre. Was mega packed, more so than it was when I first went there, but I did get a free hat out of it, so all good on that front!
Following that we went to a city within a city, the Technology City of Akihabara. It sells everything you can imagine that is electrical, from computers and TVs to wires and microchips. Calvin wanted to buy a pair of headphones and I wanted to return there to do more people watching (this time with Otaku, Japanese nerds), so off we headed.
Akihabara also has a slightly weird aspect to it, and that comes in the form of Maid Cafes. The Otaku pay a large amount of money (think $10 for a coffee) for waitresses dressed as Maids to wait on them. Apparently they also speak in Japanese that is funny to the Otaku, so for us foreigners it was rather odd to see all these young women dressed as maids, giving out coupons for discounted drinks etc. Whilst it would have been fun, the price and that the funny Japanese would have been lost on us meant we decided against it.
Did a little bit of Karaoke to burn up some time, had some dinner and then headed home. We had a good time in Tokyo, saw plenty of weird and crazy stuff that you associate with Japan, and I crossed one more thing off of my list.
Monday I had organised with my clique a Karaoke date, one last time for us to all go out and have some fun. One thing I've learnt with the Japanese though, is that they are incredibly hard to organise. One Karaoke session on a Monday took three weeks to organise, and only 8 people were involved. But with the far more difficult than it should have been hurdle of organising it over, I went to Karaoke for the last time this trip.
With a free drink bar, we were well satisfied for beverages, and I made close to 10 bathroom visits, but damn that Melon Soda was good! It was also my longest Karaoke session, coming in at 6 hours long! Also the cheapest, the whole 6 hours cost each person 600 yen, which is about $10. (By comparison the first Karaoke session I ever had was 1000 yen, and the first one I did on my AFS exchange cost close to 2000, so this was a bargain!
Wednesday I went to a place called Hakone with Akira, a thermal mountainous region in the far west of Kanagawa. We took several trains to get there, including one that goes up a switchback, so the train would go forwards, and then backwards, then forwards again, for about 30 minutes. Apparently it's the longest switchback train in the world, and it was cool looking out the window to see the plain woodland turning into a wintery wonderland.
As well as the view, however, the thermal properties of the moutain give Hakone a unique culinary delight-black eggs. They are regular eggs that are immersed in the boiling springs, hard boiling them. The minerals in the water have the effect of turning the shell black, though the egg itself tastes perfectly normal.
Following the thermal mountain, we descended the other side in another cable car, to Lake Ashiko. Boarding a ship that strongly resembled a Pirate Ship, we made our way to the Hakone Checkpoint, a little town that was set up as a travellers checkpoint in the Edo period as a way of combatting the large number of bandits and criminals who passed through the region. Apparently it was quite the nightmare for travellers, with heavy taxes and rough guards, but when I went there it was quite an idyllic, albeit slightly touristy, place. Had a look around the various museums and historic places there, and of course played in the snow.
More frolicking in the snow followed, as well as a couple of shrines, and then we descended to mountain in a bus that was more of a rollercoaster, what with all the sharp corners we made, I was quite glad once I got off of it.
Hakone was definitely one of my favourite places in Japan, one of the things I wanted to do in Japan was see lots of snow, and Hakone was the place to do that. It was also Akira's first time to go there, so he got a lot out of it as well.
Thursday was spent at the southern end of Kanagawa, on the coast beside Tokyo Bay, in an area called Enoshima. Enoshima is the location of one of Japan's best aquariums, and Olivia, Calvin, Hoshiteru, myself and Yuya, one of my classmates, spent our last no school day there. A really spectacular place, infinitely better than any other aquarium I've ever been to before, and as a picture speaks a thousand words, here are some of the best. (Plus I'm running out of time to pack)
All in all, the aquarium was VERY spectacular, a variety of shows and displays running throughout the day, and as well as that, with my Japanese High School ID, I got a massively discounted price. (I've surprised many Japanese ticket issuers over here when I say 'One high school ticket please', and then pull out my ID to their surprised faces)
After the aquarium we said farewell to Olivia for the last time, and then Calvin, Hoshiteru, Yuya and I continued down to the beach where we surprised some Japanese youngsters by playing on the playground equipment with them, to the extent that they got up and left. Not really keen to share their playground with others it seems....
Last task of our Enoshima Mission was to visit the actual Enoshima, which is an island just off the coast, connected to Japan by a bridge. In fact, I think at low tide you could probably almost walk there, it would certainly be no great task swimming there.
With darkness falling, we left Enoshima for Chigasaki to have dinner, and then parted ways.
Friday, being a normal day of school, was decidedly unremarkable at best, tedious at worst.
But along came Saturday.
Saturday was initially going to be the final time for all 5 of us Shonan Chapter AFSers to meet up and say our final farewells, but with a fair few not being able to come, it ended up being Calvin, Hoshiteru, Yuya, Genga, who was also my classmate, and myself. Our plan for meeting at 10 at Yokohama Station was somewhat hindered by the fact that and hour and a bit previous there were two earthquakes of about magnitude 5, causing no damage but requiring a lot of track to be checked. My line from Ebina, the Sotetsu line, was on time, but the others were all late, ranging from 5 to 25 minutes. Once we finally met up, we first went to a delightful store known as Don Kihote (Don Quixote), which sells a smorgasbord of things you want but don't need, and is good fun just to look at.
For example
Our curiosity satiated for now, we headed off to a gaming centre to try our hand at bowling. No offence to him, but Genga performed abysmally, did make me feel better about my decidedly average game though.
Despite the hardships, Genga did manage to pull this off ;
The score I will not disclose, needless to say I did not win, and neither did Genga.
With bowling done, we had won ourselves some tokens for the game arcade on the first floor, so we proceeded to use those up, wondering how people can spend hours and thousands of yen on a game that doesn't reward you in anyway.
Feeling a bit peckish after a couple of hours bowling, we took the train to China town. Calvin and Hoshiteru had been to an all you can eat buffet restaurant there previously which was apparently very good value for money, so we checked it out. It was indeed very good value, and the food was top notch, maybe even too good. To say I overate would be an understatement in this case, but that sweet chicken was VERY nice indeed.
Frolicked a bit around in China Town, as that's what one does there.
Then went to Cosmoworld, the amusement park on the Yokohama waterfront, did Dr Edgar's scary house, but being in a group of 5, wasn't so scary at all. Generally just looked around from then until we patred ways and left for home.
And with that, only one day more remained of my social calendar, before my last day of school, and before packing commenced.
Midori had set aside Sunday the 29th of January as being my Farewell Party, and to this end had invited several of her friends who I had had dealings with in the past, and I invited my closest friends for an afternoon of food, drink and other such stuff.
Think it was a pretty good success.
Following the party, my social calendar of the week from the 22nd to the 29th of January came to an end, and I prepared for the last day of school.
It started as any other, with me falling asleep in maths, struggling to get through English intact, the only difference being that I gave a speech to the staff before school, during which I recieved my Graduation Diploma and a present from the school, which blew me away by its size.
But other than that, nothing too unusual.
However, over the past couple of weeks, I had had suspicions as to what my classmates were planning for my last day, as there had been many secretive meetings that I was barred from, a multitude of photo takings, involving all but me, and perhaps most telling, was the Genga was acting particularly strange when I enquired what he was doing after school Monday.
These suspicions were confirmed when the bell rang signalling the end of school for Monday (half day), and out came a data projector, a screen, supermarket bags filled with drinks and food, and wrapped parcels were produced. Seemed my suspicions were correct.
Nasa had made a slideshow of photos of me over the past half year, there were speeches, and then in Japanese style, incessant photograph takings.
With an abundance of presents and a bouquet of flowers (specially chosen as purple due to my tendency to wear purple to school-how thoughtful of them), I went to a restaurant with friends for lunch, and then waved them goodbye for the final time, boarded my train to Ebina, and began the monumental task of packing.
Not helped by Mumu though
Apologies for this blog being a bit 'absent', I'm writing it in between packing, lunch, dinner, dessert etc, hence the quality lacking somewhat. I'm off tomorrow at 12.59 to Ofuna, where I'll meet up with lots of returning AFSers, and we will go to Tokyo for two days, after which I'll board an airplane bound for Christchurch, New Zealand. Then after a few hours I fly out to Nelson, arriving home at 1.30pm on Sunday the 5th of February.
However, while this may seem like the end, it is far from it, there are a few more blogs remaining, so keep an eye out!
Sayonara for now from Under the Kanagawan Sun!
Toroi :)
You're dashing as always
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