Friday, October 15, 2010

My Last Night in Tabata

Since tonight is my last night in Sakura House Tabata, and one of my last nights in Japan for the foreseeable future, I thought that I should write. . . something. Even though Sumidagawa Youth Hostel does have wireless internet and I could, conceivably, write my "last night in Japan" post there tomorrow night, it just wouldn't be the same. So I sit here on the bed upon which I will sleep for one last time, writing what will almost certainly be my last blog post from my first trip to Japan.

In case that last sentence has you worried, let me just say that the sadness I intermittently felt throughout the past month over leaving Japan has past. I had a great, productive day today. Most of my things are packed, my room is vacuumed, the AC filters cleaned, and hell, I even washed the floors. I thought it would be an all day job, but I managed to finish by early afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day walking; through Tabata-shinmachi, then Nishi-Nippori, then Nippori, then all the way to Ueno park, and then back again. At Nippori I ate a beef rice-bowl (one of my staple foods here in Japan, along with ramen, conbini sushi and the absolutely delicious katsu-don) and was complemented for my chopstick skills-- though the flip side of that is I didn't understand she was complimenting me until she had said it for the third or fourth time. Figures, I spend three months in Japan and the skill I most successfully develop involves food, not language.

Tomorrow I stay at the same youth hostel I did when I arrived. I'll likely spend the day in nearby Akihabara, visiting the Tokyo Anime Center (free!) and seeing if I can buy a watch with my 1000 yen AKKY coupon. Then, the next morning-- as early as possible in order to beat the crowds-- I head to Narita airport. Once there, I plan on checking in my luggage, and then visiting nearby Narita-san shrine. My flight doesn't leave until nearly 6 pm, so I should be okay for time. Then its a couple of hours of waiting to board, and then nine hours of likely very little sleep as I fly to back to Canada.

After that. . .

Well, immediately afterward, I'm heading to Victoria to see my sister's new band Pocketknife perform live. Then I'll spend the next week or so getting set up in Victoria, then going back up to PG to see family and friends, pack up more of my stuff, and move it back down. Oh, and somewhere in there I will find time to grab a fucking huge Taco Time Super Beef Burrito meal. And a steak with garlic butter penne. And Daddio's pizza. Seriously, there is so much pizza and pasta in Japan and none of it is done right!

But after that. . . ?

Well. . . school, and. . . work, and. . . tutoring, and. . . well. . . there is one thing I'm gonna try and do once I get back to Canada, something that could set me on the right path in life, or at the very least, be quite an experience. I'll let you know once I get back.

2 comments:

Cait said...

It's been like a million years since I commented on any of your posts (sorry lol) but I just wanted to say that I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in Japan! But welcome back to Canada whenever you get here!

Jeremy K. said...

Great to hear from you, Cait. Sorry I took so long getting back to you, but flying half way across the world turned out to be a surprisingly complex and intricate process. It didn't help that Air Canada and Narita Airport seem to have no idea what they're doing, but I'll get into that in another post.

 
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