latest update

hello all

i was waiting till something blog-worthy appeared in my life to give you all another update of my life here in japan.
well something turned up- its sakura (cherry blossom) season in Japan at the moment. this "season" lasts for about a week. on friday, i went with ando-san and haruna to Ritsurin Park to see the cherry blossoms at night which was fun, then i went again on monday during the day with andrew, angela, miyoko and mai (friends weve made). i preferred the day, as i got nicer photos of the flowers and on monday they were in fuller bloom than on friday (can u even say that in english?)

last night after going to ritsurin park, me, miyoko, andrew and angela went out to dinner together to an Okinawan restaurant. Okinawa is a group of islands south-west of Japan, between Japan and Taiwan. okinawa is supposed to have the largest number of centenarians per capita in the world i think. anyway it was pretty yummy and the restaurant had a lovely atmosphere.

on i spent the weekend with ando-san and haruna. on saturday morning, we all helped out with a Baha'i junior youth group. the 2 boys who were able to come were half-Australian which was nice. (japanese junior high school students are insanely insanely busy so its really difficult to make a date which everyone can come to)
anyway after that we went to an exhibition at the local art gallery on early 20th century japanese porcelain (like tea cups etc). apparently its popular in japan. after going to see the cherry blossoms, we went out to karaoke with andrew and angela which was really fun. then i slept over ando-sans place :)

on sunday me, ando-san, andrew and angela went to Shodoshima Island, an island between Shikoku and mainland Japan. we spent the day there with a lady who used to work for Cathy and Yuichi and she took us around doing touristy things. it was really nice cos theres quite a bit of nature remaining on the island, and i always feel alot better when im around nature. in fact, we saw wild monkeys (those ones with pink faces and grey fur) as we were driving in the bush at one stage. me, a&a went insane haha

it was only angelas 3rd time to see the ocean (shes originally from St Louis then moved to Chicago, both of which are in inland America) so it was really great to see how excited she got about seeing the sea. she said the 2 other times shes seen the ocean were in Florida and California, both of which were at crowded tourist beaches so this quiet, Tasmania-esque beach was really special to her.

its her birthday in a week or so, so we (ritsurin park people) decided that she should have a birthday party which somehow involves karaoke. she had a bit of a laugh that its gonna be the smallest birthday party shes ever had- its so true, both of our social circles are single-digit figures, but its been good for me, im usually so lazy organising social things in sydney, whereas now its so different.

on the way to Shodoshima Island, me, Ando-san, A & A had a really good talk about heaps of stuff and one of the things i said was how glad i am to meet different Baha'is. Baha'is in the same local council area (eg Warringah) are organised into the same Baha'i community. the vast majority of the things you do as a Baha'i are with others from your community. anyway ive been in warringah bahai community for 8 years so its refreshing for me to meet others from different places.

also its nice to socialise with bahais (in australia my social life with other bahais is non-existent). and ive noticed that before coming here i based a lot of my view of the Baha'i world on my community- eg i honestly thought most bahais were either persian or westerner just because if you live in sydney thats how it seems, but like 90+ percent of Japanese Bahais are ethnically Japanese. According to bahai.org, the bahais in the world are from over 2100 different races, which i think id prob read before but its starting to sink in more now. Although I already knew that the Bahai Faith is the 2nd most geographically widespread religion in the world after Christianity, i think i subconsciously presumed that Iranian and American Bahais just moved to a lot of countries. hahaha i feel so dumb now lol

im so happy at the moment- its spring, which means i no longer have to look like "shrek" or a "bear" as Cathy joked a lot during winter (i feel the cold), i now only have to wear 3 jumpers! id become a walking example of Australias obesity epidemic- the only visible part of my body was my fat face, then wearing 6 layers+ a ski jacket isnt exactly flattering. jenny would have a ball if she were here hahaha...


bye everyone!