Three months!
Thats right, Ive reached the approximate halfway mark of my stay already. Can you believe it? Its actually more if you count the number of working days and dont include my allocated holiday at the end o.O;
My mind is drawing a blank for what to write about, so youll have to excuse me if this post doesnt seem to follow the exact order of events since my last entry. Ive written replies to all my letters recieved so far, so I should get to work on sending postcards and letters to people I havent heard from yet… As of late Ive been trying to edit my UCAS application (once again) since the school found problems with it even after theyd assured me it was ready to be sent before I left for Japan. Yes, I would have appreciated this information 3 months ago! o.O; But at least I still have time…
The end of November… Not a great deal of trips out, as money was catching up with me, but in terms of things at Shiso Home, theyve been leaping forward quite quickly. Its almost astonishing when I flick back through my eng (diary) I keep (the written one) and see how packed-in everything has been, and how many new experiences Ive had (both amazing and unfortunately, as you may recall with the typhoon, tragic). And they keep on coming! Ive made friends with the secretary at the Home, Nutaba-san, recently, and visited her house a couple of times, meeting her husband and daughter. Shes always really exhuberent; smiling and welcoming, yet has an earnest side and often found time to listen to me on my off-days. Yes, they are there, as much as this biased diary might suggest otherwise... There just seems to be a certain looming quality that a public journal has over me. Im reluctant to write every last thought and feeling down here they I do in my written diary, knowing everyone can read it. The blinds are pulled half-shut over the window to my soul, I could say. Sorry :/, but I can imagine reading pages of depressed metaphor-ridden prose might sour the tone of this diary. It`s largely just me thinking too hard and over-analysing, as those of you who have known me for a while are aware that is one of my weaknesses. Nothing to worry about ^_^.
Back to things. I organised a bowling trip on the 20th of November with four of the staff from Shiso. Jess and I caught a lift there with Kondou-san, who lives in an apartment near us both, where we all talked and got to know each other a little better. Once in our teams, we gave them English names: Yamashita-san (who works on the Shiso program with us) was Jenny, Kondou-san (who works in A-living area and I talked to that one time coincidence had us travelling to and from Hanshin Home together) was Sarah, Taniguchi-san (also in A-living) was Emma and Kyunai-san (who works at Harima, speaks pretty goood English and took us sightseeing when we first arrived) was Julia. Jess, Taniguchi-san and Kyunai-san won the overall games in the end, but it was a lot fun all the while.
After bowling we all went too Nanphu, a great okonomiyaki restaurant in Yamasaki, and all shared six different varieties of the stuff. We rounded off the evenings conversation (with Kyunai-san translating a lot ^\_^;) with ice-cream sodas and a lot of laughing. ^\_^. I dont know what went on at the ice-cream machine with Kondou-san and Taniguchi-san when they were getting it for everyone, but I`m sure we must have disturbed the whole restaurant by the end of the ordeal. It was very much one of those times that the tiniest thing (in this case a comparison of ice-cream towers of varying heights and wobbly vertical structures) was made so much more funny just because one person set everyone else off laughing about it ^_^;. Never has luminous green melon fanta and ice cream made such an impression :P - and moreso that this was the first time, they told us, GAP volunteers had invited some of the staff out anywhere.
Anyway, must dash now - until next time.