Blog about Yoo, but me

“It always goes back to being poor in spirit…”

Reading the beatitudes for the past 2 semesters has been life changing. I feel like I’ve learned so much about what it is about God’s Kingdom and what’s it all about. Reading each of the beatitudes is interesting to read. Like..Blessed are the ___, for they will ____. Each week in our small group we would basically go through 1 line and really analyze it and understand it. We ask questions and as a group try to interpret it and get a deeper understanding of that line. After going through each line you realize more and more. And also realize how wrong we had it.

I don’t want to go into each line but the one beatitude that always goes back to is…Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. By being poor in spirit, we long for a need of help or dependency, which comes from God. It was demonstrated today through a friend of mine today and I felt like it was right to record this day. A day of change for him and for us as well. God is good. This is good times right now. Let us be poor in spirit so we can see God and depend on God.

Hi blog,

It’s been a while. Have you missed me? I’m sure did. It always feels good to just write. Even though I’m not great at writing, I just do it.

The past 3 weeks has been an unforgettable. A lot has happened from after the KCF retreat during reading week. I feel like I have grown so much. There is so much to say but I feel like I don’t know how. Well I can say that I am learning more and more about the Kingdom of God. I’m hungry to learn more. It’s exciting.

Also, I have been praying more lately. A lot of my prayers have been answered during these past few weeks. It’s a bit overwhelming but I am so blessed. Right on, exactly where I should be. I’m so glad to have met this someone. I’ll leave it at that but it’s exciting times for me right now. Finishing up school and what not.

Please pray for Japan. I’m so worried about the countries condition after the massive earthquake. The nuclear reactor is not in good condition. It’s quite scary. I hope and pray that God’s love will be seen in this country. P.U.S.H.

Anyways, I’ll be back blog. Don’t wait for me though.

Well it’s been over a month since coming back to Canada. I definitely miss Japan. When I was in Japan I missed home a lot. But now that I am here, I feel like my old self. I don’t feel like I have changed at all. It could be a good or bad thing. And to add to that, I have been really really lazy. Going back to my old ways. It’s quite sad actually. I don’t want to write more because it’ll just make me more depressed.

I’m taking summer school right now. I’m taking Geography of Canada and Urbanization. I’m really enjoying the classes. I sorta wished I took geography courses earlier. I would have done a double major in Comp Sci and Geography.

Anyways, I have a story to share. I had to get a textbook for one of the courses. And I found a textbook from the student book exchange website at UTM. He was selling it a bit cheaper than others. So we exchanged emails of when to meet. This guy didn’t have a cell so he gave me his friend’s number. So I had to drive to UTM the next day. I get there and call the guy’s friend. He never picks up. “That’s ok”, I thought. He told me he would be at the student centre at 12. I got there at 11. So I had some time to kill. Later, I receive an email saying that he has to go somewhere at 12. So I’m email him back right away. No reply. I call his friend like 20 times. No one answers. At this point, I was so very annoyed and pissed off. I usually don’t swear. But I was cussing!! Saying ****. A hour later, I get a text from his friend saying that the guy sent me an email. At this point, I just lost it. His friend never picked up his phone. And who doesn’t have a cellphone this day and age. WOW! I never get this angry. I’m so angry these days. Why is that? Moral of the story, never deal with someone that doesn’t have a cellphone. GHETTO!! (And stop getting so mad Mike)

It’s been a busy last 2 weeks in Japan. I’ll try to summarize in point form.

- sports, sports, and more sports. Mini volleyball, basketball, futsal, badminton, fishing, bowling, and running. Fun, fun, fun!
- Food, food, and more food. I can’t get enough of Ramen. I love it too much. I’ve been eating too much and gaining some weight. =P
- Work, work, and more work. Work has been busy as the last days wind down. Documentation done. Internship report done. I found some bugs while demoing my project, not done. bah!
- Shopping, shopping, and more shopping. I’ve been shopping for gifts. I think I’m done for gifts?!
- Weather, weather, and nice weather. The weather is awesome in Kagoshima. +25 degree weather almost everyday. Barely rained.
- Moving, moving, and more moving. I have to start packing to move back home. Back home we are moving too. So packing x2. So much moving!! Ahhh!
- Bye, byes, and more byes. Had office farewell party, church farewell x2, and friends farewells. And I still have more people to see. I’m going to miss everyone.

But wow! One more week in Japan. I’ve lived here about a year. Wow. Looking back makes me think. I won’t say now. I’ll write about it after I get back to Canada.

Anyways, Tokyo Saturday to Tuesday. Leave Japan on the 25th at 12 noon ish and arrive Toronto 3pm ish on the same day. Cool. I only lose a few hours.

It was Golden Week in Japan. And you know what that means? Traffic reports. It’s the busiest time of the year in Japan. The 3 day holiday makes it the best time to take the whole week off and go on a vacation. I love it. Wish we had more holidays in Canada.

For Golden week I went to Yakushima Island with a 5 other coworkers; Urushibata, Kamada, Ohira, Tsukioka, and Nakatsuka. We had to catch a ferry in the morning. This was a fast ferry. It only took 2 hours to get to the island. It usually takes 4 hours on a normal ferry. We got there, picked up our rental car and headed to grab something to eat. Nothing special. Just a katsudon. After headed to our accommodations. This place was nothing fancy. It was like an old ryokan with tatami mats. It was very comfy. And the owners were really nice. We headed out to go hiking. It was an easier hiking trail. But this trail was famous for the lush green forest. This forest area inspired the Princess Mononoke anime film. It was about a 4-5 hour hike. But it was very nice to say the least. After we headed back to our accommodations. The owner served an awesome dinner. We washed up and played cards for the rest of the night. We had an early morning the next day.

Well the next day we had to wake up at 4am. We had a long climb ahead of us to see a famous 3000 year old tree called Jumonsugi. And an early start was a must if we wanted to get back before night fall. I didn’t get any sleep that night. Ohira-san was snoring all night. Not only that my allergies started again. Not good, zero sleep. Well we took the bus to the bottom of the start point. There were a lot of people. Well it was Golden Week. Anyways, we had to take another bus to the acutal hiking start point. It was another 40 minutes up the mountain. But this roads up the mountains were crazy. I mean twists and turns everywhere. I loved it. The bus driver was so good too. We got off and got ready for our long trek.

This was a long long trail. It first started off with an easy trail following a rail road track and that was maybe 2 1/2 hours. Next, it got more trickier. More obstacles and what not. It’s hard to go into details of the hike because it was just a lot of trees and rocks. I will say it was beautiful though. We finally got to Jumonsugi after 2 1/2 hours plus 2 1/2 hours on top of that. This tree was huge but freakin awesome. Was it worth it? I would say so. It was fun. We headed back. It was very painful, tiring, and sweaty. I must admit it was an awesome feeling. To top that off, there were these 2 girls that we kept bumping into. I thought one of them were cute. Anyways, after a long hike we just crashed waiting for our ride back. The best way to finish an 8 hour hike was of course an onsen. Onsens are awesome. Later, we ate dinner, drank, played cards, and headed to bed. I had a somewhat decent sleep.

It was our last day in Yakushima. We were all tired. We just cruised around the island. Visited places here and there. We saw fish, deer and monkies!! Good times. It was finally time to go back to Kagoshima. We all crashed and were knocked out as soon as we sat down. We grabbed dinner by Dolphine Port and headed home. A good trip I must say. All I could think of was sleep.

I still had 2 days left for Golden week. I decided just to relax and do nothing. Well the weather was amazing. 27 degree weather!! So I had to head out. And I did. I rode my bike and went shopping for gifts. Gifts are so hard to find. I hate shopping. lol

Well that was my Golden week. Good times. I should add I started watching more tv shows. How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. Both good shows. That’s all for now.

PS. I have only less than 3 weeks in Japan. WOW!

Another good weekend.

Friday after work, decided to watch a movie. But before that ate some Fish & Chips. To be honest, it wasn’t great. Something was missing. Tartar sauce for the fish & ketchup for the chips was missing. Anyways, headed over to Amu shopping mall to the theatres. I was excited to watch this movie. Clash of the Titans. I saw the trailer but didn’t read the reviews. Big mistake! I haven’t been to the theatres in a while after my last disappointment, GI Joe. So I was hoping this would not disappoint too. Well it did. Even more than GI Joe. My brother said it was ok. Usually that means it’s bad. But I gave a benefit out of the doubt. I would at least thought the story would have been somewhat believable. Like in the stories. Bah. That’s all I’ll say.

I woke up early the next day. Ryu hyung, Hwajin noona, and I planned to go to Ibusuki. I was excited but tired. Ibusuki is nice. We first headed to an onsen called Health Planet. I went there last time. But this time it was better. There are two sections in an onsen for male and female. Sometimes they switch places. This time we did. The view was even better than the last time I went. It was unreal. I secretly took a picture from the changeroom (don’t worry, it was empty). Not a great picture though. After, we headed to this famous restaurant. It servedNagashi somen. Noodles? Just noodles you ask? What’s so special about this place was how we ate the noodles. In the middle of the table, there’s this donut shaped tray thing. Inside there’s water that goes around and around. So what do you do you ask? Well you put your noodles in there!And it goes round about. Then you stick your chopsticks in the water where the noodles get stuck on your chopsticks. You grab what you were able to collect and dip it into soy sauce mixed with green onions and wasabi. And lastly EAT IT. It was very interesting. What’s also interesting is that this is only found in Kagoshima. There’s other ways of eating it but Kagoshima invented this donut machine. So ya. It was good. The atmosphere was nice too. It has trees, watefalls, small rivers with fish in it. The water is very fresh too. You can fill your water bottle in the water. Well that was that. Later, we headed to eat some crepes and headed back to the city.

In the evening, I had dinner plans with Ishiguro-san, Kawasaki-san, her daughter Yuka, and Lee sensei; all members of the church. They invited me to have dinner because I was leaving next month. It was very nice of them. We talked, had awesome food, and some delicious red wine. Good times.

Sunday, I headed to church. Today was a special day. 3 members, including myself, were leaving Kagoshima. So they decided to throw a small farewell event after service. We had lunch, gave speeches, and got gifts. It was very happy and sad moment. I was going to be leaving all these wonderful people. I’m going to miss everyone. I still have 3 more Sunday’s left so still have time to say my bye’s.

Next week is Golden Week! YAA!! 5 day holiday. Off to Yakushima island! Excited!

I started watching more TV shows. I’m caught up in the other shows. Not many seasons, so ya. One show I should mention is Glee. It’s a new show but I really like it. Similar to High School Musical. If you’re into those movies/shows, then you should check it out.

So far in Japan I’ve watched/caught up in the following:
- Friends
- Seinfeld
- Fresh Prince of Belair
- The King of Queens
- Entourage
- Chuck
- Lost
- Prison Break
- Dexter
- Top Gear
- Modern Family
- Breaking Bad
- Bored to Death
- Glee

Shows still to watch:
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- How I Met Your Mother
- Sopranos
- Battlestar Galatica
- Friday Night Lights
- The Wire

Wow, looking back at that list and I’ve watched a lot of tv shows since I’ve been in Japan.

Here’s a needed update on Japan.

A couple of weeks ago, after work, I went to go eat with some coworkers. We went to plan our Yakushima island trip. There are 7 of us all together. So i think it will be fun. But the interesting part of that day was what we ate. We ate chicken!! Raw chicken!! I had the opportunity to eat chicken before but I would always pass. I can do raw fish but raw chicken??? Well raw chicken is quite famous in Kagoshima. You can’t get it anywhere else. Well I tried it and can’t say it was good or bad. Not sure if I would eat it again. I’m afraid of getting sick. Anyways, I can say I ate raw chicken in Japan. haha

Two weekends ago, we played some futsal. I should mention the weather was so nice. Like t-shirt and shorts weather nice. I also went bowling. It was cheap and fun. It was me, Urushi, Ueno, Kamada, Ryu, Shizoka, and Yuka. Arm was sore after. I also went to Urushi’s place and played some games. Good times.

Last week we played some mini volleyball and badminton.That was fun.

On the weekend, I went to Kirishima with Urushi, Kamada, Akasaka, and a new coworker. We went to some amusement park. They had Go-karting, mini golfing, and grass skiing!! lol.. Go-karting was so much fun. Arms were really sore after. We also did mini-golfing. It’s not like back home. Where they have walls. Everything is grass. So it a lot more challenging but fun. Didn’t try the grass skiing. It looked boring. Very small hill. So skipped that. Did more go-karting. I am the best. haha. We were quite tired after but lots of fun. Later, I met up with Ueno and his friend, Ishi. We had a bbq with some other girls. Hitami, Minami, and I forgot the other girls name. It was fun. Hitami spoke English really well. We talked and cooked meat. But it was really cold. Later we went to karoke and sang some songs. Good times. Got home at 4am.

Anyways, that’s the update. And wow only a month left before I go back. Where has time gone? Well my weekends are busy. I’ll try to update when I can.

I’m itching to ride again. Ride a motorcycle that is. Japan is an awesome country to have a motorcycle.  I wish I had one. Especially in Kagoshima. The warmer weather makes it worse. It’s not helping. A lot more people ride here as well. It’s a lot more convenient. It’s hot watching a girl ride a motorcycle. =P

I’ve been looking online to find a cheap bike. So I can ride it for a year. And when I get a job, get a better bike. But my funds aren’t looking to shabby. Plus, I gotta contribute to the new house. So most likely no bike. But maybe I I can find a really cheap bike. There are a few out there. But a lot require fixing. I can’t say that I’m a mechanic. At least I can change oil and grease the chain. lol. We’ll see.

Bah!! It’s just that time of year again. I miss my old bike. My blue Kawasaki EX500. It brings back good memories. She was so good to me. Except for that one year when I tried to wake her up from hibernation. She wouldn’t start. Being the noob I was, I killed the starter and had to replace it with a new one. $100 right there. I then asked a mechanic to fix it for me. It was stupid. There was just water in the gas from the condensation from the cold weather. I drained the gas tank before but I guess not all of it. Well at least he replaced the spark plugs. A good lesson learned.

I remember when I had to let her go. She was costing me too much money. Well I needed the money for school anyways. The good thing about bikes they don’t depreciate in value like cars do. I sold her for a good price. I only lost $500 over 2 years. I sold her to a friend of a friend. So I knew she was in good hands.

I miss the feeling. The feeling of wind blowing against your body. The feeling of adrenaline rushing through your blood. The feeling of freedom on the open rode. Nothing is a better feeling than riding a motorcycle. It’s been almost 4 years since I last ridden. It’s time to ride again. Insurance is cheaper now too. Bu still money is factor. I have to ride again. Soon time, soon time.

Last Saturday was the best weather for watching/viewing sakura. The office held a BBQ at a park by the river. We had lots and lots of meat to cook. I had the pleasure to do the BBQing. I realized I love BBQing. Except your clothes stink afterwards. BBQing actually makes me less hungry. I barely ate any meat. BBQing is just so much fun. So no time to eat. The whole はなみ (hanami – flowering viewing) experience was very pleasant. Everyone outdoors socializing, eating, and just have a good time. It reminds me of back home. It was a fun day. Good people, good food, & good fun. PS. Japanese love their alcohol. lol

I recently finished watching Dexter and almost done Prison Break. I asked on Facebook for recommendations on other good TV shows. I got an overwhelming response, which I was not expecting. It was good though. I got a good list of TV shows I have in mind. At the same time, there are just too many to watch. Some of the shows just started. I don’t like that. I want a good amount of seasons. So I can watch them all at once. I hate waiting for the next episode. It loses it’s appeal. But I can’t let that stop me from watching any tv show.

I also stopped watching the clock. I mean the count down till my return to Canada. At first, I was so happy that time was moving fast. All I could think about was going home. However, I feel a bit sad that I’ll be leaving Japan. A lot more is happening now. More to do. More people to see. But with with such little time. I realized time is so precious now. It may be the last time I see these people again.

Lastly, I’m watching the dollar. The Canadian dollar that is. It’s doing really well. Same goes with the US dollar. It may be a good thing. But I would rather it be doing bad against the Japanese Yen. Hopefully, it will do bad next month. I need to exchange all my Yen I’ve made.