thegetgo-tokyo

So I'm alive and back in the UK.

For anyone who hadn't guessed I came home because of the horrific earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. I was in my Pre school when the earthquake hit Tokyo and it was honestly the scariest experience of my life...not just because my own life was in danger but because I was responsible for all of the children in my class. We evacuated the school without anyone being hurt and the school was undamaged. The monorail station directly outside the school shook violently and we could see the train car down the track swaying from side to side. All of the mothers told us that in all their life they had never expeienced something like this which made it all the more scary. At the time we had no idea of the destruction happening in the north of the country and we were stuck at school for the magority of the night due to all the trains in Tokyo being on shut down. The next day Nozomi and I took a trip to Hakuba to go to a party at a ski resort and when i arrived back in Tokyo I got a message from my folks to get on Skype. We had a discussion about how safe I was regarding the nucleur reactor in Fukashimi. Obviously back home the news had been contantly playing footage and reports of the horrific detruction and the general state of Japan so I can understand my family's concerns. I made the decision to leave Japan the next day.

My heart goes out to all those who have been effected by this horrific event and for all my friends still over there. From what I hear everything is pretty normal in Tokyo but please everyone TAKE CARE!

And thats basically it. I'm still dealing with the fact that my life there is over for the forseeable future but I am making plans to return and get a full working visa. This will take me several years of planning and working but the love that I feel for the country has given me the drive and inspiration to see the path I'm going to walk down. I won't ever forget the year I spent in Tokyo, the people I've become so close to and the fact that I was brave enough to do it in the first place.

Right now I am taking a few months out to live like a lazy bum and enjoy the summer with my UK friends. I have a really part time job in a deli in my hometown with one of my best friends Toni so I'm earning a little money to have fun with while my last months wages from the school is going to be used to get me on some early childcare courses so I can work at a preschool here.

As I am one of those people who need something to obsess about or I go nuts, I am starting a new blog mainly about clothes and my favourite styles and anything else that comes to mind. So if that interests you please come over to...

http://jalalzeldaocarinaoftime.blogspot.com/

and lets have some new age fun with a vintage feel.... :P

Honest to blog

Well that took a while.

My laptop died a few weeks back and so I've been out of blogging action. Also I am in fact a lazy human being who can't even be bothered to type a few thoughts now and again!

I've found myself being very lazy in alot of aspects of my life recently. My Japanese studies have been neglected and I'm pretty shocked that even after a year my listening, reading and most of all speaking is rediculously bad. I admit it's better than it was when I first came here but still I would have liked to have seen myself doing a bit better by now. Hey

Ho though, some days I'm filled with the drive to learn and study hard but I had a period of being very dissinterested in language. Perhaps due to my job allowin

g me to speak only English I had no fear of communication. The only words I have to speak everyday is "Arigatou Gozaimasu" to the clerks at the 7Eleven.

Conclusion, I need the fear!

One of the highlights for December has been getting the FLU. I was knocked out for a week, and I do mean knocked out. Flopping around in bed like a fish, sweating and crying for my mum!

I visited the doctor 4 times and 4 times I was put on drips of vitamines and antibiotics

Seeing as I'd never in my life been on a drip before this was somewhat of a novelty but by the 4th time of being sat for 2 hours with a pin in my arm I was ready to get the fuck better.

It's funny, in England I would visit the doctor maybe once or twice a year if that but since I've been in Japan I have been to the doctor/hospital a total of 6 times! SIX! WHY IS THIS? Does riding the Chou line everyday mean really mean I am just begging for sickness? Should I really start wearing those masks to keep peoples nasty germs away? Or is it the fact I work with a classroom of toddlers who lick their snot off their hands and cough in my face? These are mysteries of the universe but nevermind, Tokyo made me sick. Not that getting the flu is uncommon but I haven't had it for a few years and so I'd fogotten how truely crap it is. I sware I get man flu...

The attitudes towards illness are slightly different here too. Like being put on a drip was, for me, a fairly extreme thing to go through. In England, you are told to drink fluids and rest for a few days while taking painkillers. There was a point in my illness where the doctor told me he was going to refere me to a hospital if I didn't improve by my next appoinment (The next day)...LIKE WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY? But I understand why now....

I'm not complaining, but (ohh but) the medicine here sucks. The Japanese drugs seem to be a good few years behind most other places, the painkillers you get are expensive and weak and are pretty much a waste  of everyones time. Cold medicines cost around Y1500, roughly GPB10 which is, quiet honestly TAKING THE PISS. But I haven't found the perscription to be any better. The doctor gave me Tamiflu, which was made notorious in England for making people worse when they had flu, and another tablet I got was just a B12 vitamin...but I trust these doctors medical knowledge is greater than my own so I took the pills and felt the same. The drips however did have an effect and after my second dose of the purple bag I found I could sit down, stand up and move my head without wishing I was dead. The drips may have seemed extreme at the time but I have I feeling they are the only thing that would do any good.

It was a quicky, however Christmas is fast approching and I'm interested to see how 2 Brits and a Sweedish girl (Namely me and my housemates) will fare this holiday season....having no oven to cook a roast dinner, no Christmas crackers and no SPROUTS. Drama is sure to happen, please watch out!

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