Flat3D

Taking it easy!

I had planned to head into college today and pick my modules and have a brief poke about the library for books to start thinking about my dissertation.
Instead I am going to go in tomorrow morning before work and pick my modules. Today I am going to relax a little.

I arrived back from Japan on Friday night. I flew via Paris and so was able to pick up some nice pate and cheese for my mum in duty free, then flew on to dublin landing at around 7:30. I got the 9pm bus to belfast where Graham picked me up and I got home finally at around midnight.

On Saturday I headed off, jetlag and all, to Loughry college to enjoy the second half of Route 66 (PCI’s young adults conference thingy). The talks and seminars were great, I don’t remember half as much as I could have due to being groggy from my Jet lag.
I do remember James talking about a movie called I am David, so I went ahead and bought it on amazon’s marketplace for a pittance… Looking forward to seeing it!

Anyways I’m home and taking it easy! Nice…

Some photos

not too many, but seeing as Mel requested them…

So far so good…

Well I’m in Shinjuku now, in an internet & manga cafe for upto 6 hours… Got a nice recliner and massive screen in front of me… Now I just gotta pop round and get me some coke and a dvd…

Nice…

Still in Aomori…

Right now my plan was to be almost in Tokyo with plenty of time to get a train to Narita and sleep it out in the hotel. Either that or doss about a bit shopping etc and then find an all night internet cafe (probably the cheapest way to get some personal space and a nice comfy chair for a night, some even do night packs where you get a highly discounted rate for a 5 hour stay, devised to milk cash from folk who’ve been too slow in leaving the bar and catching the last train home!)

But I’m still in Aomori. The shinkansen are all full all the way to Tokyo except the last one which means I catch a train to Hachinohe at 6:45(ish) and then shinkansen all the way home. I could have got an earlier train, but it was standing in the in-between-the-cars room only from either Morioka or Sendai all the way to Tokyo. As I don’t have a real hurry to get anywhere I figured the last one would do for the sake of getting to sit down all the way!
So I will arrive in Tokyo station after 11pm. My current plan is to stick my suitcase in a locker and head for the bright lights of Shinjuku. Maybe wander around a bit and then find an internet cafe (found a chain online called “Manboo!!” that does a night pack for about a fiver, gets a personal room with a pc, tv, dvd player and reclining chair) Whether I sleep or take the chance to watch a lot of DVDs or not will depend on how much I sleep on the train (a lot I am guessing!)

I was hoping to get the night bus to the airport from Aomori, but it was full too (must be a busy time!), so I am using my super-duper rail pass to get on the shinkansen (nice…). It’s kind of fun to be able to just set out for somewhere with time to spare and have an adventure getting there! Japan certainly makes it easy too, lockers for bags, low crime rates, cheap as you like all night entertainment cafes…
Like I told Natania when I got my days mixed up and arrived in Sendai a day early, Japan is easy! It’s very difficult to get in any real problems if you have a some common sense and manners…

I should be able to be at Narita for 7:30am, plenty of time to check in!

Japan

So I’ve been here in Japan for 11 days and have two more full days til I have to go home. So far its been great meeting people who I haven’t seen in ages. It’s been particularly good to spend some time with Emily (エミリ) and we’ve had some great talks about the future etc.

The first four or five days I spent in Ibaraki with Emily and her family. It was great to meet them all and we had a great time, they are some very kind people. Her dad runs a soba restaurant (japanese noodles) and I got to eat what was literally the most delicious soba I have ever come across (duck meat soup soba, I love duck…)

Then we came up to Itayanagi and I left my stuff in the church here and headed off to sendai for what was meant to be 2 days and ended up being 3 (I got the day wrong!). I was able to meet up with Natania (Sorry to her parents who I told I wasn’t going to be able to see her, it all kinda came about last minute!) and then visit the Elliots at Takayama, it was good to see everyone, even Philip the Elliots’ current short termer from Belfast Bible College!

On Sunday I was able to attend church here at itayanagi and meet a lot of old and friendly face (old in that I haven’t seen them in over a year), though the english service isn’t as full and vibrant as it used to be, there are a lot fewer short termers around and not many Christian english teachers.

Yesterday Emily and I headed up to Hakodate on the ferry, Hakodate is an interesting part of Japan, as a port city and one of the earliest ports to open to foreigners it has a lot of western stuff, like old churches (which have miraculously survived the earthquakes, given they are built using european methods!) from the 1800s (ok not _that_ old, but old for Japan!)

Today and tomorrow things are winding down, Emily has to go back to work and I am entertaining myself. On Thursday I have to begin the long trip home. I wish I had had more gumption when planning and buying my ticket. I hadn’t realised that monday is a bank holiday, I could have stayed an extra two or three days!