The countdown is on

Well, it's really starting to hit me that I'm leaving. I'm now thinking in terms like, "only five more shaves till I finish work," or "I should really eat at this restaurant today as I might not be back in this neighborhood again before I leave Japan."

My group took me out for lunch today as a little goodbye party. I hope whoever comes after me takes good care of them. I don't think I was very nice to them because I was always so stressed out dealing with my boss. But we must have made some sort of connection: they clubbed together and got me the pen below as a parting gift. I don't know if you can really see the detail, but the pen is inlaid with red and gold dragonflies. You see, I once told them that one of my happiest memories of Japan was a trip to Yamanashi prefecture where I sat in the garden of a restaurant beside a reservoir in early summer with my sister and some friends and just watched hundreds of dragonflies fly in the blue sky around us. Just remembering that makes me smile, and now I'll feel the same way whenever I use the pen.

Second in a series: things I'll miss about Japan

Well, the move is really happening. My last day at work is March 2 and then I leave Japan on March 31. As the reality of what I am doing is setting in, I'm trying harder and harder to focus on the good things about my last few years here so that I'll say goodbye on happy terms. I'm finding it helpful to continue to jot down the things I'll miss. (None of which have been about work... so far, hahaha!) So here come three more:

Uniqlo


I may as well be sponsored by Uniqlo at this stage. Almost all the clothes I own come from there, and you cannot beat them for simple, good quality, inexpensive casuals. And they are far and away the best place for foreigners like me who don't fit the traditional Japanese size templates. The mothership in Ginza is currently being renovated and will open just before I leave as the world's biggest Uniqlo store. Luckily I'm not a compulsive shopper or I'd be planning to clean the place out before I send my shipment back to Ireland.

Japanese presentation


The attention to detail and thought that goes into presentation in Japan boggles the mind. Appearances count for so, so much over here. I will miss how even a 6-euro fast-food dish like the one above will be served with thought, care and artistic flare. However, I also now know very deeply how much effort and discipline is required to achieve these Japanese standards of quality. I will not dwell on the (many) times I have been scolded by a superior for not folding a piece of paper correctly or stapling a report in the wrong place, and don't even get me started on the deficiencies in my stamping technique. But these negative associations aside, living here makes you really appreciate quality and precision.

Open spaces





I bet you never thought anyone would say that about Tokyo. But to be honest, the city is extremely well served with parks and plazas and places to enjoy the outdoors. Here is just one example I passed through today by the Imperial Palace. All the people who come to Tokyo expect thronging streets, mad neon-filled crossings, and buildings packed one on top of the other. And the city has all that in spades. But the longer you live here and the more exploring you do, the more places you will find that allow you to get a bit of space outdoors. I think it must be because homes are so tiny - people would go really crazy if there weren't some public areas to get away from it all.

Conversations with my mother

Me: so yeah, the woman I was out with last night, I hired her...

Mother: say what now?!!

#thehiddenperilsofworkinginHR(makingyourmotherthinkyoupayforit)

Today is a big day in "2012: a year of changes". I just submitted my first funding application to do a Ph.D. later on this year, so the whole thing i

Today is a big day in "2012: a year of changes". I just submitted my first funding application to do a Ph.D. later on this year, so the whole thing is starting to feel real. You have to really big yourself up in these applications, so I ended up writing the thing as if I was going to find the cure to world hunger. In reality, I feel much more like image below. (P.S. This post was really just an excuse to show the cute dog to my sis and mam.)

First in a series (hopefully): things I'll miss about Japan

No. 1 Blossom-watching
I will have left Japan before the cherry blossoms come out in Tokyo. I going to make every effort to track the seasons a bit more when I get back to Ireland, and I think the odd 'ohanami' party will have to be organized. Though we'll probably all have to bring scuba gear in case the Irish weather doesn't play fair. When I was really in the depths of my despair last year, getting out and walking among the autumn leaves really helped. I think you can see why.











No. 2 Mount Fuji
Even though she may erupt and melt us all, she really is a fine looking mountain.




My favourite thing was to catch surprise views of her from the city on a clear day, like the one below.





No. 3 Tokyo Tower
Kind of the same as Mount Fuji, I'll miss the tower because I think it's beautiful, because it always seemed to just pop up out of nowhere, and because it helped orient me on my mega-walks around the city in the days before GPS-enabled smart phones.


An image that sends ice down my spine is this photo of the tip of the tower. You can see how the March 11 earthquake twisted that girded steel like a plastic straw.


As I've said a lot before, Tokyo really didn't suffer in the disaster, but this is a reminder of how much the city got shaken about, and how much more it may be shaken about in the future. I will not miss earthquakes.


No.4 Skyscraper living
I love a big metropolis. I got great pleasure going to restaurants and cafes on some dizzying floor and feeling like I was living in the clouds. This view from Shiodome can't be beat. I wonder are there any rooms for rent at the top of Liberty Hall (Dublin's fun-size skyscraper)?



No.5 The aesthetic of weird
I will miss how weird things are over here. I will also miss being allowed to be weird(ish) without the fear of being beaten up by youths! So much of the aesthetic over here is beyond explanation: I don't know what it is, but I know I like it. Take for example this ad. What this young woman has to do with fast-food restaurants, I don't know. But I like the ad. Also weird: the food combinations over here. They can be hit and miss, but the Japanese really give it a go in the kitchen. This burger with a half-slice of mango is a pretty big seller.

Twenty-Twelve: Year of Changes

So 2011 was pretty much shitehawkes.

Apart from the obvious national crappiness (3.11), it was my worst year so far, personally and professionally. I had an already bad work situation that turned really toxic, combined with terrible homesickness and a feeling of having really messed up my life. I spent the second half of the year depressed - being sick going to work, crying alone, hiding under the covers. It was not good. But I got to go home at Christmas, and the support of friends and family helped me take control. So come twenty-twelve, I've quit my job, I'll be leaving Japan in April and heading back to Ireland to (hopefully) do a PhD at my old uni. Better yet, on the way home I'll be doing a bit of a mini world tour.

2011 broke me down and made me feel worthless, but it's a new year now and I'm back in control and things are looking up.

Of course the past year wasn't all bad. When I had gone through the worst of my angst, I headed to Hawaii to figure some stuff out. It's not a bad place to try and get your head together. It's hard to feel that life is treating you bad when you're hiking Diamond Head in the sun or having drinks at sunset at the Sheraton on the beach.

Basically, I'm a whiny bitch who had a bad few months and is now going to spoil himself unnecessarily with more world travels. I'm luckier than I know.

So Hawaii...Freakin' amazing sunsets (and mojitos)...







Hiking this arid beauty...




I mean, c'mon, it's paradise...









And I know it's Tacky McTouristy, but you can't go wrong with a fire show and a bit of hula.



The state flower (yellow hibiscus)...


Love the natural air-con on this place, but if you lived there, you'd spend your life opening and closing windows...



I also just love the unusual perspective on this next shot - they look like "Angels of the North do the Pacific"...

And can we also talk about how much I love Honolulu's open-air airport and occasional ukelele concerts...



There are so many doves (when seen in nature) in Hawaii...


AKA flying rats (when seen sneaking in off the balcony into your hotel room - this guy broke in three times! Look at him giving me the side-eye)...


Finally, I kind of loved this couple doing paradise on scooters for two...


Although these mobility devices are way more popular in the States than in anywhere else I've been. You even get them free at Wal-Mart (surreptitiously snapped on a business trip to Kansas last year)...



Also, seen on my trip to Kansas, this welcoming sign on the door to my (soon to be former) company's premises...


And, of course, the ever-present tornado shelter. Dorothy wasn't kidding around!


Moral of 2012 - there's no place like home.

Nostalgiapalooza

I'm going away on business on Tuesday, and I must think the plane is going to go down or something because I was overtaken yesterday by a need to look back on my life and visit some old haunts. I went to see my former home in Zama, about an hour and a half by train from the centre of Tokyo. I lived here when I was studying Japanese and paying for my studies with English teaching. This feels like a world away from my life now. It certainly was a poorer time back then, but oh for the holidays. Being in Zama again brought back lots of happy memories.The town is a rural suburb, with lots of rice fields and small holdings, but it's still on the commuter belt for Tokyo, and it's also home to a major US air force base. All this combines to give it a pretty distinctive atmosphere. I mean, it must be a special place if you can find a Godzilla tombstone next to a vegetable patch as above!

I hadn't been back in over two years and nothing was any different. Well, apart from the fact that my beloved neighborhood karaoke-izakaya has changed hands. Peace out, warawara! The town centre is made up of a small train station and about 10 shops, and my video below captures most of them.



Anyone who visited me in Zama will recognize the sound in the background (though you might need to really turn up the volume, as it's just a crappy phone video). The bloody level crossing (fumikiri 踏切) was the soundtrack to my life as I lived right beside one. It got to the stage living there where I only noticed the sound when it was gone, like on the rare occasions the train service got stopped for a typhoon or something.

On the topic of noise, I got to take a walk in the nature reserve that is located just a few minutes from the station. I took this short video at the entrance to the park of the sound that will forever be Japanese summer to me: insects doing their nut.




This is a sound you just don't hear in Ireland's glacial summers. The park was such a great resource to have nearby. I used to walk here a few times a week and sucking up all those negative ions probably helped me be a happier person than I am now. That and the doing stuff for other people, I guess: back in the day, I used to volunteer at this old folk's home.



I certainly haven't been charitable like that for a long time. The journey down memory lane was a lot if fun, but it also helped me to take stock and figure out how I need to recalibrate my life.

Major tangent, but one final bonus of going back to Zama was being able to shop at my old supermarket and stock up on the world's best wet wipes!!!




I know it might not seem like a normal cause for excitement, but these wipes are individually wrapped, keep in a crazy amount of water and will get anything clean. Only a few people who know me extremely well can understand why this purchase made me so happy: these wipes have come to my rescue in some odd situations, most notably the time I was accosted by a deranged man far from any source of water and soap who was intent on shaking my hands with what could only be described as the filthiest hands I have ever had the misfortune to squeeze. You can't buy the wipes for love nor money in Tokyo, and I ended up clearing the supermarket of its stock minus one box, in order to be a little considerate of others. You see, I'm already recalibrating towards a sunnier more charitable disposition.