birthday week
publishing the draft from my birthday week now because i had no time to edit and post before my trip to south Korea.
I start on the weekend before my birthday because I can. On Saturday, I went to a beach hike. It was super cute and I brought my camera but I forgot my SD card. So stupid and sad. The views were so pretty, it would have looked like a movie with my camera. The hike itself was quite easy, but it was nice to spend time with friends and seeing beauty.
The next day I went to Jiyugaoka, which is supposed to give European neighbourhood vibes. I don’t know who said that to be honest, because it really didn’t give me those vibes. It is also known for having a lot of home decor and furniture and this one did have quite some Scandinavian and other European styles. The streets were very much Tokyo though. We went for a popular pizza, quite expensive, but it was honestly very tasty. After a walk around the neighbourhood and some tea in a British cafe, we went to the millionaire area. It’s a neighbourhood where the rich technically live, Den-en-toshi. The ones who want a house and quiet. Honestly it just looked like the Netherlands. It was a full residential area with houses and big pathways. Some houses were indeed a bit fancy but nothing architecturally shocking either. It reminded me of Bloemendaal, which is also a rich area so I guess rich people have the same taste everywhere.
week starts
To start the week the right way, I skipped class. To be honest, the whole weekend I had quite a strong headache. I ended up all days taking medicine and using shoulder heating pads, so my body was tired. Though the real reason is I wanted to finish my drama.
After the drama, I went to a quick and satisfactory meal in a salarymen restaurant. Later, I wanted to go to a cafe and get things done. I had so many things on my to do list. The cafe I went actually closes at 5pm and I didn’t realise it was that late already so I didn’t stay that much there.
I still managed to work, then I walked a bit more and sat in a park, where I crossed even more stuff of my to do list. I felt like wandering around so I walked once more. In total I guess I ended up walking 3-4 km.
This Tuesday was my last school Tuesday, so I decided to follow my typical routine. This is the only day of the week that actually has a stable routine. I go to class, afterwards, I get a mazesoba, I study or work and then head to taiko class. Normally I go to the library but for some reason it was closed that day. I did go to a park nearby and just chilled there. Once I arrived to Yotsuya, where taiko is, I also had time so I walked in pursuit of a place that looked green. I found a bench and read my book there. I am about to finish my book and it has been quite a good ride. Though I need to return it soon, so I should finish it (agnes from future admits she hasn’t finished the book yet, soon).
Taiko class was again so fun. Every class I fix my posture and movement better and this Tuesday it is starting to look perfect. Someone in my class brought souvenirs from Shodoshima, which I also visited, and I tried to talk about it with him but then i got too embarrassed and just said bye and left.
I had a lot of energy when I got back home, but it was 22pm and I thought I would have to chill.
On Wednesday, I went on a morning run. It had been a while since I didn’t go. I still had energy from the day before so I couldn’t postpone it again. I went to Arakawa river as I was in love with it the other day. The run was quite okay, the wind allowed me not to overheat. I didn’t do all at once, but I am quite content with the distance I did overall.
Afterwards, I showered, rotted in bed, ate and went to school. In class, we did presentations of something our country had invented. In my research of things Catalonia has invented, I chose the chupa chups. Please enjoy the slide of why chupa chups was invented so kids would eat without dirtying themselves.
The last 2 hours of Wednesday are my favourite class in the week, which is a small conversation/role-play class. The guy I am sat with doesn’t participate a lot but he is still better at Japanese so I can use him when I need for vocabulary. I enjoyed the class and I was a bit sad that it was the last one. In the end, we even did free-topic conversation with other people in my class which is a shame I didn’t get to talk with them more.
Later, I was going to a concert but my friends told me if i wanted to go for burgers nearby, and I was hungry so I went with them. I ate fast and made it to the concert literally 1 min after it started. I thought I would have an issue because I had no online ticket and the physical one didn’t arrive to my house yet, but I was okay.
It started with some cultural dancers and then some monks doing some chants. It was quite cool but I wanted to see a bit more of a concert instead of a cultural experience. However, my prayers were answered and a jazz band came with a shamisen guitar. The band was great, sometimes they went on some improvs or a lot of solos, and they were so fast, creative and cool. I couldn’t take videos which is a shame.
I saw a man sneakily recording the performance with his phone. Only the audio. At first, I was like “the audacity of this man to ignore the no recording rule like this”, then I thought, why shouldn’t I have the same audacity? So, I recorded the last song. Banger audio.
Thursday was the last day of class. Of the semester and for me, the last of this school. It was a bit anticlimatic. I felt like an normal day, everyone was in the last day mood, many people skipped class… I thought of organising a dinner with my friends, but I couldn’t go because I had drums class.
In the evening when I returned to my share house, I encountered quite a show. My evil twin showed up (my friend buzzed all her hair and uses this wig for job interviews). These days the share house has been livelier in the evenings.
The next day I deregistered from my town council because after Korea I will come back to Japan with a tourist visa. Losing my citizen status also didn’t feel like any ending or anything. After all I have so much time after my trip to Korea to properly say goodbye to Tokyo (and to do a lot of exciting things). Though I should have used my citizen status to use the healthcare here and do a full-body check, which is almost impossible to do in Europe unless you are actually sick.
After the town council, I had a little break in a very cute and family cafe, then I just walked home even if it it was far. I walked through a beautiful park, some streets and made a pit stop in a shopping mall. I had to buy a swim suit and some essentials for my next trip. I ended up buying other stuff as well in the honour that it was soon my birthday. Some of them were actually not necessary at all and it felt a bit wrong since soon I was travelling and planning to spend a lot of money. To solve this conundrum, I told my dad to pay for some of them as my birthday gift. He agreed and I felt validated by my spending choices. Since in the end, I technically didn’t spend that much money, I got a boba tea and walked through the canal until my house. I love riverside walking, specially after financially irresponsible choices.
Next day, my friends and I went to see the devil wears Prada in the cinema. Both movies, it was like a special marathon. The quality drop between the first and the second one is staggering. The cinemas in Japan were very organised, of course. Nice experience to see the differences. I loved their smart popcorn and drinks tray that attaches to the chair as a side table.
And finally the day arrived, my birthday. Even though I didn’t arrive late to my own birthday, I was indeed having some food while people came. Because people were waiting for me, we got another show in our sharehouse. The crazy man showed up. He is a dude that tends to be in the living room a lot but mostly doesn’t say anything. However, sometimes he has very violent outbursts. He starts hitting the ovens, and throwing things loudly. Everyone is freaked out about him because he doesn’t even say anything, he just loudly hits stuff. Funny enough, he sometimes actually tries to spark a conversation and try to be friends with people he scared. Complete double personality.
We left quite quickly after his outburst, and went to an entertainment centre. Sadly we could only do 3 hours instead of the whole day pass because it was very busy that day. I tried baseball and I really enjoyed it. Around my third round, I got a bit better so I was proud. We also played basketball altogether and I guess all those basketball lunch breaks I did paid off because I was smoking my friends. It was fun to play with people and not only on my own. I tried dancing games, shooting, roller skating and more… it was an interesting experience. Very exhausting. We then nurtured our soul with a huge amount of noodles and then got an ice cream for digestion.
I was planning to see the water show in Odaiba but everyone was too tired. We did see the odaiba waterfront though, but we didn’t wait until the sunset. Now the sun sets a bit later so it was a bit too much. This part of Tokyo even though it’s quite close to the house, it’s not very well connected so we still made it home very late.
goodbye?
I am in a stage where I kind of want to do this last month of goodbye in a relaxed and steady manner. Then, go back to Europe and start to think about my long-term life and career. However, I am not in this last month either yet. I am travelling for 20 days tomorrow. To be honest, I am not fully in vacation mood. It’s an interesting feeling to like somewhere so much you don’t want to travel. I feel like before I was always more down to travel constantly.