Recontracting

2015 is finally here and so far, it’s a little terrifying.

It’s now been almost half a year since I’ve started living in Japan, which means, in JET terms, that it’s time to decide if I’ll be recontracting for the upcoming 2015-2016 year here. If I don’t recontract, I’ll stay in Japan until August 2015, and then return to the US. If I do, I’ll be here until August 2016, another 18 months in Kadogawa. I’d be returning to the US on the eve of my 24th birthday.

When I first arrived to Kadogawa, I was certain I’d be staying for two years at minimum, and maybe even a third or fourth year as well. The students are so fun, the money is great, I can travel (paid vacation days!), and I am constantly being challenged, while experiencing a new way of life. What else could a girl need?

However, lately I’ve been doing some thinking. Suddenly I’m not sure if Japan is the right place for me or not.

When I think about my future career plans (or hopes and dreams and whatever), I really feel a pull towards working in entertainment. I’ve been doing improv comedy for about eight years now, I majored in film production at UCSC, I’ve been singing and playing guitar since I was just a kid; all my life has sort of been spent on stage. In Japan, I don’t have that outlet anymore.  It truly feels like something is missing.

A few of my friends recommended I work on my art at home, practice my skills so that when I return to the US I’ll feel more competent, more prepared, ready to kick down the door and show the world what I’ve got (I’m a star, baby!). But with something like improv, I can’t practice alone, and I feel like I’m wasting time not taking classes and using those muscles. 

And as my personal hero Amy Poehler says, great people do things before they’re ready. I’m worried Japan is a way to put off going after my dreams and goals because I am afraid of failing.

I came here to learn, to figure out who I am, what I’m doing. Is a year a long enough?

I’ve recently returned from a long trip abroad (still in the process of posting!) and it sort of feels like everything in my world shifted during the trip. When I left, I had firmly decided to stay. I am doing so many interesting things here, and in California, I am just another college graduate looking for a job. I like feeling like I am doing something different, living my life uniquely. 

Then I experienced loneliness. Homesickness. The weirdness of tourist shops in Bali.

I remembered all the things I was missing out on while living in Japan. There’s no nightlife in Kadogawa! What?! No boys to date! No Mexican food! I’m twenty-two years old, Taylor Swift promised me breakfast at midnight with all of my cool hip friends wearing a gown! I’m supposed to be taller! 

Then, of course, upon my return to Kadogawa (on top of all these sad feelings and lonely feelings and WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE feelings), I became very ill. I’m not sure if it was from eating something bad in Bali, or the influenza going around in Miyazaki, but either way, it was the most terrible week of sickness I’ve had in my adult life, simply because I felt so alone. And also I could barely get out of bed to make myself a PB&J.

They tell you living abroad is hard, but I think it’s easy to forget sometimes. Especially when you feel like you’re supposed to be a competent, independent adult...

But now, here I am four days later, drinking a ginger tea, back at school with students who are funny, speaking a language I still don’t understand, telling people about the crazy things I saw on my long trip. Riding my bike in the crisp morning air, trying to cook new healthy recipes in my apartment, dusting all the surfaces in my little house... Suddenly, I don’t feel so stifled or sad or alone. 

This place is mine, this life is mine, and there are still a lot of places I want to go and see. Maybe I don’t have the freedom to try out being a waitress or a Disney princess or taking musical improv classes, but I can go to Tokyo or Europe or take surfing lessons or go to dance school or write another novel (I finished one in November and I’m so proud)! I have a lot of time, I just think right now I’m using it to romanticize life in California instead of using it to live in the moment here.

I also think winter is pretty cruel and when it’s dark as soon as you get off work it’s hard to want to go out and pursue your hobbies.

I still haven’t made my decision about whether I’m staying or going, and I’m still pretty freaked out about the whole thing. But I’m in a calmer place now, and I’m trying to think of things in terms of what my old lady self would be most glad I chose when I’m wrinkled like a prune in the nursing home. I’ll reflect on everything this weekend and let you know what’s happening next week.

Until then, I’m just going to try to enjoy what I have for what it is. Life is good when you don’t take things so seriously.

Winter Travels Pt. 2: Mad about Maokong

After two days in Okinawa, my band of merry JET friends and I headed off to our next winter travel destination, Taipei! We were only there for three days, but managed to pack a lot of adventuring into that short amount of time. I'm pretty sure it was my favorite destination of the three as well, since the food was incredible and the public transportation made it easy to reach all the destinations we wanted to see. I was glad to have been able to do so much in such a short amount of time.

On our first day, we headed up into the mountains in Taipei on the Hello Kitty themed Maokong gondola. Taipei seems to love Kitty Chan just as much as Japan does.

The gondola floats serenely over the city for about fifteen to twenty minutes, with the option to stop and explore different places along the route. Followers of my blog from the Hong Kong days might remember a similar cable car experience I had when I visited Ocean Park, and it did sort of feel like a deja vu moment. Either way, I'm a big fan of the floating over mountaintops public transportation movement. Talk about a way to travel!

Our first stop was Taisui shrine, a huge ornate building covered in dragons, gods and flowers. The shrine had a sort of a one size fits all sort of thing going, as there were different places to pray depending on whether you were followed the Tao, the Buddha or Confucius. You could also buy a token for good luck to hang on your rearview mirror for roughly $8 USD.

This room was my favorite by far. The ceiling was lit to look like the night sky, and in these cases all around the room were different saints for everyone's birth year. We all went around and found our own personal "guardian angels."

Here's my saint-- if you were born in 1992, you have this lovely scholar watching over you. Apparently, my lucky number is 9, my lucky color is purple, and I have a lot of wisdom, if the shrine is to be believed.

After we had our fill of temple gazing, we returned to the gondola and continued up the mountain, eventually arriving at the little town of Maokong. Famous for tea flavoured soba and special Chinese tea tastings, the tea drinking grandma in my heart was very excited at the opportunity.

We picked a random shop and tried an assortment of tea themed snacks, including tea oil noodles, tea meats, and steamed buns (pictured below). 

 My tea set, complete with tea biscuits, tea jelly, and, of course, tea! I tried a new flavour (but since it was written in kanji, I have no idea what it was called). It sort of reminded me of jasmine tea, since it had a very floral taste.

Black sesame, matcha, orange, cranberry and herb flavored steamed buns were a real treat. You can see the tea oil noodles and Elley's beef dish (possibly also made with tea?) in the background.

After we had stuffed ourselves with tea themed dishes and had a mosey around a couple tea shops, we tried a special Taiwanese dessert, the ice cream spring roll. It was taro and pineapple ice cream with shaved peanut brittle and cilantro-- it sounds nuts (haha, get it?), but I definitely recommend it.

The purple ice cream is taro flavoured, the yellow is pineapple. The cilantro made it so refreshing too! 

 Allison and I triumphantly eating spring rolls. 

A view of the town from the gondola platform

The gondola ride was such a treat on our first day in Taiwan, and it's a really inexpensive way to get to have some really unique experiences. If you like tea, Maokong is really the cream of the crop. Or should I say, the cream of the milk tea.

Actually no one should ever say that. Is it just me, or are my jokes getting worse?

I'm not done with Taiwan yet! Stay tuned for the next Winter Travels post to catch up with the rest of our Taiwanese adventures!

Winter Travels Pt. 1: Zamami Islands

Author's Note: I wrote this post on December 23rd, 2014, while we were in our Okinawa hostel. I wasn't able to actually upload it until now, so please do excuse the belatedness of the post.

Good morning everyone! I hope the days leading up to Christmas (and all other super fantastic holidays) are going swimmingly for you! To soak up my time abroad, I've decided not to return home for the holidays this year and see a little bit of the world instead. I'm hoping it gives my family some time to miss me more!

I've sent all my presents home and attended all my Christmas parties and "bounenkai" (forget the year parties) so now I figure there's only one thing left to do-- travel!

I'm currently sitting in a hostel in Okinawa after the first day of my sixteen day winter vacation extravaganza and I thought it might be fun to do some blog updating on the go-- true travel writer style. Besides, I have to post these photos as soon as possible. I'm running out of space on my phone!

For the first leg of our winter holiday, we flew to Okinawa last night and got into our super cute hostel, only to get up early this morning and catch a ferry  to Zamami Island, a tiny beach town with a population of 400. 

The water was so turquoise blue.

As a lover of humpback whales, I enjoyed this sculpture greeting us on our way into the harbor.

We immediately hiked up to this lookout point at the top of a mountain. I don't think I was prepared for so much uphill walking, but it was definitely worth it. The view was breathtaking!

Panorama shot of the beach-- I felt like I was on the island from Lost.

I had a second to get a selfie with the view of town! You can check out my new haircut too, what do you think?

After we were done reveling in the amazing views, we decided it was time to hit that amazing beach we were admiring from above. We hurried down the hill to town, rented bikes and made our way over. Little did we know, we'd have to climb another gigantic hill to get there! My legs were aching!

Me, Bridget, Elley and Allison on our bikes.

On the deck in front of Furuzamami Beach

Bridget and Elley build a sandcastle while I sit shivering in my towel. I forgot it was winter and the wind made me feel quite cold after swimming.

After some ominous looking clouds and rumbling bellies convinced us to take an early respite from our beach adventure, we went back to town to have lunch. There was literally one restaurant open, since it was Sunday, but the food wasn't too bad and we supplemented our appetites with frequent trips to the only general store on the island.

Some of my favorite Okinawa specialties included "taco rice," which was literally just taco fillings and hot sauce on rice, and "soki soba," a thick noodle soup dish with pork. Both were equally delicious, and definitely unlike anything I had eaten in Japan before.

Finally, muscles aching from our long day, we hopped on the ferry back to the mainland. I thought the island was quite a treat even if we came on a windy winter Sunday, when most of the island was on vacation and our noses were a bit chilly all day.

Tomorrow we'll be exploring Naha, the biggest city in Okinawa. Hopefully my feet will be rested and ready to go by then!