回生（Resurrection）

For the longest time after our long Tokyo trip I felt absolutely no need to update this. "Why should I", I thought, "when I've already done all my travelling?" I of course neglected the fact that people read this blog (and in the future, I will too) for things other than just travelling - I had fallen into that rut via 10-something posts ago where I questioned what I should actually post about, here.



That being said, this month has definitely been treated as a "wind-down" month, filled with goodbye parties, homework and tests, and shopping. I've been busy, but with less exciting things, you see.

It's remarkably cold here - I mentioned earlier how warm it was in December and will readily admit that it changed completely in January. We had snow for only one day, but not for lack of trying. The reputedly punctual Japanese trains were all delayed and confused, but by mid-afternoon they had things figured out (thankfully, as I was taking another trip to Kyoto!). Kyoto may be typically cooler than Nagoya by being surrounded by mountains and all, but that sure deprived them of the snowfall.

Speaking of snow, I also went to Shirakawa (White River), which is an old-style village with those pointy-roofed houses. I toured while having a perpetual snowfight with my host-siblings - and I'm fairly certain I was teaching them how it was done, too. Hopefully they'll never forget, especially when I picked up the boy and shoved his head into a snowdrift. He got me back by rolling a snowball the size of him down a road at me.

I also travelled to Kobe as a daytrip, a rare solo travel experience for me. I ended up hiking part of Mt. Rokko, took photos by the seaside, listened in on a earthquake survivors panel, and just explored as much of the city as I could. It's a very nice place and reminds me of Vancouver by housing a huge range of classes, from the grungy downtown to the expensive-looking property suspended on a concrete island.

Recently I decided to travel a bit, after the program ends, thanks to my parents' persuasion. I had only been considering the most frugal options and didn't even think about what I wanted. Being a completionist, having Hokkaido and Okinawa sitting there unchecked on my list bothered me - so that's what I decided to do. I found some cheap flights, and I'll be shooting to the north part of the country, and then all the way to the southernmost point. These two places vary so much in culture and environment that I'm going to have a culture shock within the same country. I'm excited.

This may be my penultimate entry: I will of course do a final one when I return to Vancouver, but I don't know if there will be any call for it after next week, or really any chance. I'll be spending a month living without a certain home, living either on another's largess or a hostel with strangers. I'll be surviving on grocery store food and bento boxes from the convenience stores, and being generally detached from what I'm used to. I'm very much looking forward to it.

Thanks all of you for your interest along the way. The program ends on Thursday, after our graduation ceremony, and then I'm released free into the world. What happens next, you'll have to wait to find out.


Oh, and I ate fugu (blowfish) yesterday. They say if it's venemous that one has 24 hours to live, so I've got about 25 minutes left if that's the case. Wish me luck!