As life slows to a crawl here in Koga, things have become quite regular for me. I figured it’s time for the quintessential travel blogger post: a day in the life of yours truly. I’ll try to remember to add all the quirks of daily life. We’ll go with a Monday. Usually I wake up bright and early at 6am to the song “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye. Then, I hit the snooze, twice. I’ve been on the planet long enough to know that it’s going to take more than one alarm. At 6:30am, a second alarm goes off with the song “Parks on Fire” by Trifonic. This song has considerably more edge to it, and impossible to sleep through. Thus, my day begins. Continue reading
Tag Archives: ibaraki
Koga’s Famous Peach Festival (桃まつり）
My first weekend was quite a success. On Friday I hopped on an evening train into Yokohama. It takes about 1 hour, 45 minutes straight from here. It’s pretty epic that there is a line that goes directly there from Koga. Once in Yokohama, I spent the night with my long lost, good friend, Mari Kishi. We only get the opportunity to see each other once a year (if that) but it’s always the same. She is very strange, and so am I. It’s perfect.
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Hunkering Down
Matcha and ice cream latte
In an effort to shorten my posts, I should probably post more. That said, training is this week and I can’t promise how often I’ll be up to the task. I figure I might want to get one last post in before my 8am-9pm training days begin. Yeah, you read that correctly. So crazy! Yesterday was pretty relaxing. I got to hang out with Yoko-san, her mother and her father (both very kind) and we enjoyed a lovely “French” lunch together. Her father was so bold as to tell me not to eat very much so I don’t get fat, and ask me if I have any boyfriends (plural). Yoko-san said “Please don’t mind my father! He is so weird!” It was entertaining though, and that’s what counts! Continue reading
Things I am Going to Miss
The pin is Sakai-machi, Ibaraki. The city in the south is Tokyo!
This one has been stewing for a while. It’s a list of everything I am going to miss, and then another of things I am looking forward to. But before I get started, I have a bit of news!
For anyone who follows my twitter, Facebook, or has talked to me recently, you will know that I finally got placement! The phone call had to come on a Thursday night when I was just about to go downtown for one last girls night. We were already enjoy hard cider, but luckily, I had barely drank any of mine when a phone call from Japan came through to my cell. I guess I made a face and said a vulgar word before running off with my ringing phone. Later the girls told me that it was either something bad, or I got my placement phone call. Well, the latter was true! I’ll be living in Sakai-machi, Ibaraki. It’s a small town north of Tokyo, and it’s rural enough for me to need a car. That said, it’s exceptionally close to the big city and it’s not rural by American standards, it’s just sparsely populated for Japan. I was secretly hoping for a car, and I wanted to be close to Tokyo. Both of my wishes came true! I can’t wait! Continue reading
The Girl In Translation 