--> Just so you don't think I've been totally neglectful, I wrote this post a few weeks ago, but have been so busy with moving out that I didn't have time to add pictures. I hope they're worth it!
Friends! Congratulations on making it to 2014! Before talking too much about the year of the horse, let's take it back to Christmas, yeah?
It makes sense that Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas this year. I posted on Facebook on Christmas eve that it felt like any other Tuesday, which I got the most conquering responses from my fellow expats. Taking time to think about everything that Christmas was for me before this year, I realize there would be no way to get any of that. Starting with the media, social or not, I saw only Japanese ads on YouTube and don't watch TV. Back home, there are holiday commercials and movies on starting before Thanksgiving. In stores, there are massive holiday sales, and everyone is pushing you to buy more. I'm glad I missed out on that this year. Something that was interesting in Japan was that everything was themed for Christmas. I guess when there isn't a big mix of different religions pushing to be recognized and worries about stepping on others' feet, they can just focus on one religion. I'm not sure how much is taught about religions in schools in Japan, but I imagine that since almost the whole society is either Shinto, Buddhist, or practices a combination of the two, (or kindof nothing) it may not matter as much.
My Christmas was essentially just like any other day. I had normal business hours the whole week. I did teach maybe my favorite adult student, a really funny and colorful man, and a really sweet 6 year old boy. After work, I went with my American coworker and her husband to a really good brick oven pizza place and chowed down on 2 pizzas, risotto, and a salad between the three of us. Crazy good, so much food. After, I celebrated with some cake and drinks at my favorite bar with some friends. I am glad I had the experience of a non-traditional Christmas because it helps me realize what parts of the holiday mean something to me and what doesn't. I Skyped with the fam later that night - they had 14 people over for brunch! Maybe for some 14 isn't so much, but my family is not so big so that was a lot.
The Saturday after Christmas was our first day off of the holidays and in Matsue we were graced with maybe an inch or two of snow! I ran and played through it - and got some stares from local children - on my way to the station to catch my 8:40 am bus to Osaka to get on a flight to BALI! My first lesson learned was that flying through the Shanghai airport needs a long layover. Probably always. The flight was late getting to Osaka, so we were 2 hours late into Shanghai. After a less-than-comfortable jog through the airport, I made it to the gate with about 5 minutes to spare. Somehow I got mixed up and the flight arrived an hour later than it was scheduled to. That means that when I arrived at the hostel finally by 5 am, I had an hour and a half to shower and sleep before the shuttle to the fast boat came to pick us up. Us will refer to me and my best friend. The fast boat took us 2 hours to Gili Trawangan, one of the three Gili islands off the coast of the main island of Bali. We finally arrived at our hostel on the island somewhere around 2 pm on the 29th and fell asleep quickly. We spent the next 3 days wandering the island, sitting on the beach (in the shade these days... tan versus skin cancer is no longer a debate to me), playing in the ocean, getting massages, riding bikes, eating good food, and avoiding the horse-drawn maniac-driven carts that were all along the main road. Almost it was cool to see the horses everywhere, but if you look closer they looked super hot and were sometimes foaming at the mouth. Kinda messed up. One highlight was the night food market where there were many stalls of delicious pancakes and other food. My favorite was a stand that was almost cafeteria-style where we walked up and pointed to different trays of food that looked good and they charged us by how many things we got. That night was fun because about halfway through the meal, the power on the island went out for about 5 minutes. And it started to rain a little. But hey- it's an island. No need to worry. The New Year celebration itself was a good time. We had a nice dinner with some tuna steak and coconut shrimp to finish off the year, then headed over to a rooftop party. Having attended a small liberal arts college, my experience with frat parties is pretty limited. This, however, was undoubtedly the equivalent. Certainly not bad, just not the kind of thing I would do on a regular basis. The next morning, we caught our boat back to Bali. This was an unfortunate journey because a storm was coming in so the 2 hour ride was very wavy and we had to close the windows because water was spraying everywhere. Wild! I was really glad no one lost their lunch though. Once we arrived, a shuttle took us to our homestay in Ubud. It was a really sweet little place with very nice staff. We spent that night wandering a little bit, but were mostly too tired to do much (besides eat a lot of delicious food, of course). The next day, we went to something with a name like Ubud Palace which I think is where the royal family still lives. We also made it to the monkey forest and shopped around a little more. I bought three bottles of the most delicious chili sauce and tried to bring it on the plane, but it was confiscated. So sad.
My flight was scheduled for early the next morning, so I made my way to the airport around 11:00 pm. I made it through security and everything, but the airport was very unorganized and the flight was late. I was sitting next to the screen so I could watch it to learn what gate to go to, and a lady who was going to be on the same flight came and sat next to me. I'll let you know it was about 3:00 am by now - not necessarily when I'm the most chatty. I wasn't rude though, of course. She was a big-time complainer from LA and I was wondering if she would ever say something positive when someone else walked by in front of us. She quickly says something like "Oh- that's ______. He's really interesting. I'm going to go talk to him" and left! Needed a little ice for that burn. They did end up coming over to visit after a while, but she was some kind of rude. After delays and expected insanity in Shanghai, I made it to Osaka. I stayed in a hostel that was pretty small to begin with, and was even smaller when they fit three bunk beds into a 6-tatami mat sized room. Got home the next afternoon and proceeded to not pack (what I should have done, as I had a month left. That was saved for the last week... few days of living in Matsue).
 |
| Night market |
 |
| The main road on Gili T. No motorized vehicles, just horses. |
 |
| Remains of a homestay probably washed away during a big storm. |
 |
| New Years Parade |
 |
| Temple in Ubud |
 |
| These offerings were everywhere. Nice to smell so much incense. |
 |
| Monkey Forest |
 |
| Cool band we saw the last night. |
Next up, looking forward to some travel through Thailand before heading to my 4 week yoga teacher training course in Goa, India. I'll try to keep up with some posts while I'm away, but no promises. I don't want to be on electronics all of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment