so close to christmas

i'm not very proud of my closet; but i had to take a photo to remind myself why I should clean it..later. :P

I opened my closet today, and still the same as it was when I stored them away four  months ago, in that little corner, were my watermelon cardboard boxes. 

my box of books headed for Malaysia.

Searching the house for gum tape, I made a box out of a flat piece of cardboard, and secured it.

I then begun the process of packing.

I have now a huge watermelon box solely just for books.

I haven’t weighed it yet but I feel sorry for my dad or my brother because in a week’s time, my family is visiting me from New Zealand.

They are bringing this box back with them to Malaysia to send to New Zealand because lets face it; if I was to send that box back by ship from Japan to New Zealand it would cost the earth.

And sending anything out from Malaysia would be doing my dad a huge favor financially.

I only have a month left here in Tokyo.

WHY, do I only have a month left?

I feel like time is cheating me.

When I was little back home in Malaysia, I would run to the kitchen and try and find all the sugary cereals that I could snack on while watching Doraemon.

I never knew Doraemon was a Japanese cartoon, by the way. Isn’t that insane?

I thought it was a Malay cartoon because it had all been dubbed into Malay.

So sugary cereals would be; Honey Stars, Coco Pops, Frosties- I was that chubby kid that could eat anything, and would eat everything.

So anyway, here I would be running to the kitchen, and desperately trying to find a stool so that I could reach the higher shelves.

My mom put sweets up on the higher shelves knowing that my brother and I were too short to reach but what kid would be so stupid as to let height or parents restrict them?

Finding the stool like the little genius I am, I then climbed onto it (hoping all the while that my brother doesn’t come along and rock the legs of the stool)

However, always discovering that either A: there are hardly any sugary cereals left to munch on, or B; there weren’t any at all.

It was weird because while packing my books into the box today, I felt that way.

The sugary cereal back then in my childhood is the time I have left in Japan today.

Hardly anything left, if not totally gone already.

By the way, my evil brother was always the one to steal my cereal.

Along with my Mee Goreng.

ahh yes, the student handbook. (threw this crap away obviously)

Being the ‘neat’ girl I am, I found papers wedged in between my books.

They were papers from when I first arrived, little notes I had scribbled to myself.

Letters to people that I wanted to write to, but never finished.

Letters I had finished but ended up not posting.

Blog entries, receipts, doodles, exchange company letters…you get the picture.

I also had my last ever Japanese test on Saturday, in which I didn’t study for at all.

Finishing the proficiency test had somehow wrung me out of any discipline I had left in me.

I didn’t even bother studying, and the day before my exam, I went out drinking.

Did the exam go well? I think it didn’t go too well, but it’s too late to start regretting.

I could have done better, and I should have done better, there’s no doubt about that.

However, I have completed one of the major goals here in Japan- to study, and sit for a proficiency test at either N1, or N2.

So I’m happy.

The night I went out drinking with some friends I ended up losing my commuters pass.

For any exchanger in Japan, losing a commuters pass is pretty much losing your phone, your wallet, or your alien card.

You pay a small fortune for this pass that allows you to travel anywhere in Tokyo via any transport you wanted.

Students would get a discount depending on the route in which they took to and from school each day.

For example, I live in Motoyawata, or Ichikawa.

I then have to go all the way to Shinagawa.

This would, in a week, cost me 7000yen.

However, buying a commuters pass would cost me 8500yen a month; and I could go to and from school (and in and out of all the stations along this route), and it wouldn’t cost me any extra.

To sum up; losing that card is one of the stupidest things you can possibly do.

I’ve done this 3 times already.

I’m happy I’m exchanging in Japan because one thing that amazes me about this country is how ridiculously honest everyone is.

If you’ve lost something, it’s certain that you will find it.

Even if you’ve lost actual cash, people would pick it up in the street, and give it to the station officer or the police.

I guess that’s something admirable about Japan because I’ve lived in, and been to many Asian countries so far in my lifetime and none of them will even begin to compare to how efficient the Japanese people are with the lost-and-found system.

The past two times I lost my card, I’ve received calls from the station office, informing me that they’ve found it.

However, this time was just plain weird.

Guess who found my card?

Of all the people in Japan?

…

You ready for it?

This is so good. You’re literally going to shit your pants.

..no, not literally.

…MY FIRST HOST MOM.

Yes, crazy, wiener-loving, screaming host mom.

She found my ticket, and apparently was squinting at my name.

She then called my exchange company, which then called me, to inform me of what had happened.

My reaction was simply just a, “oh my god.”

What else do I say?

I can’t say, “yokatta!”, or “yappari.”

Those aisatsu are just beyond inappropriate.

So is “usso” or “yabai”, (which somehow portray the image of OMG), but nothing will ever match up to the actual “oh.my….god.”

shibuya on a Sunday night

There are millions of people here in Japan; and in Tokyo? MILLIONS.

Out of all those people; my crazy first host mom was the one to find my card.

Insane.

I’m so happy she didn’t burn it though. Apparently she was extremely confused as to why I’m still in Japan.

She assumed I was sent back to New Zealand.

Bless her soul.

Needless to say, I’m going down to Oji tomorrow after school to retrieve my card.

I used to go there a lot because a certain someone lived there, but going back there now doesn’t comfort me as to haunt me really.

I wasn’t planning to ever set foot in that place after summer vacation had ended but so far that plan hasn’t been effective.

I have a curfew now too, by the way.

I don’t know what to make of it. The hugest emotion that I’m feeling right now?

Confused.

I don’t know why a curfew is suddenly set in place when I only have a month left in Tokyo.

However, sleeping over at people’s houses is okay so, it’s not extremely restricting to my night-life here in Tokyo.

Although I do wonder why my host family suddenly decided that a curfew was necessary.

The trip to Hiroshima is also going to cost me a small fortune of 65000 yen.

I’ve used up a lot of my money for Christmas presents and warm clothing for the holidays, and when my host mom told me how much the trip would cost; I panicked.

Going down to Osaka barely cost me 30,000 yen.

The 65000 yen includes both hotel and transportation, but so did the Osaka trip.

I don’t know where my host family has planned to stay but I never knew that it would cost so much just to go down to Hiroshima for the New Years.

I can’t wait for my family to come to Japan, and show them around Tokyo.

Let’s just hope there are not “hey, can I see your gaijin card” comments that make me feel scared to eat anything remotely resembling food for the rest of the day. ;p

It really doesn’t feel like the holidays.

Although it didn’t snow in New Zealand, come December, the spirit of Christmas would be in the air.

Everyone puts up Christmas illuminations, and there are Christmas carols everywhere.

Tokyo is doing the same although it’s somehow different because Christmas here in Japan just means Boxing Day and New Years.

So although the Japanese kids have to go back to school on Christmas Day, I think we end school on the 22^nd of December.

This is one thing I am definitely not going to miss about Japan.

School in December should be a breach against human rights in my opinion.

And not to mention three-month length summer vacation should be effective internationally- not just Down Under.

All my love always

April