Spring

My last Spring in Japan has definitely sprung, and it is bittersweet. The cherry blossoms have been and gone in the space of about 8 days. I took 2 photos of the same tree one week apart (to the minute):

That is pretty much what it was like all over Hagi. Light pink everywhere for one week, then the green rot set in and the whole city looked like it had a really bad case of  chicken pox . . . if chicken pox were green, and grew on trees.

My point is, that is was over really quick and I didn’t get the chance to enjoy it because of my incredible ability to procrastinate for weeks at a time. A Hagi friend invited me to a cherry blossom BBQ a few Sundays ago, and I had every intention of going, as soon as I finished an assignment for the Human Resources paper that was due the following Monday.

Sunday morning I was up nice and early (read: 10am) and decided I couldn’t work in a dirty apartment, so out came the vacuum cleaner. Then I had to get my laundry done for the week, and while that was in the machine I figured I might as well do my dishes so the whole place was clean and I would be ready to complete the assignment.

The plan was great, the execution not so good. The rest of my day went something like this:
10am – 1pm: cleaning, getting distracted by toys and shiny things, checking my email.
1pm: Obviously lunchtime.
1:30pm: Wash my lunch dishes so the mess won’t distract me.
1:40pm: Remember my clothes and hang them out to dry. Proceed to check them every 15 minutes to see if the are done.
1:45pm: Get my books out and sit down at my computer.
1:46pm: Realise I need to have a bottle of water to stay hydrated.
1:50pm: Get a text from friends asking when I would get to the BBQ. Reply that it should only take me a couple more hours and I will be there.
1:53pm: Finally start working.
…
…
…
1:12am: Text friends to see if they were still out. They weren’t.
1:25am: Bed.

Admittedly, there were a few times when I took a break, but most of the time was spent writing the paper. The result: a 16-page masterpiece sent to my lecturer on time and one missed BBQ. My last spring BBQ before heading home.

So like I said; bittersweet. But at least I’ve finally sorted myself out and am on top of the rest of my reports. As I type this I have a completed report waiting for to be sent, and a freshly marked assessment sitting on my table that I am considering framing because I got 100% on it! (Consider this my moment of bragging . . . ok, I’m done)
I’ve also finally realised that the next three months really are the last chance I have to do all those things I’ve been meaning to do over the past five years, which mostly means waking up on the weekend NOT hungover, hanging out with friends every spare minute we have, and creating a ‘Japan Bucket List’ and ticking at least 2 things off every week. Speaking of which, pre-work karaoke = done.

oops

So Dad kindly pointed out that I posted the same pic twice instead of the field being plowed in my last post. To make up for it,here is a photo of Dad on a merry-go-round at Disneyland. Enjoy.

Rice planting

Its heating up quickly here in rural Japan which means one thing: rice.
First the fields are flooded to drown the weeds that grew over Winter, then the farmer comes along and plows the field into a muddy swamp which gets reflooded,left to settle then planted by machine if the farmer is rich or by hand if poor.
Some schools have a field the students plant which is always fun and messy - the perfect combination!

The perfect example

I feel like this Japanese clothes (I think) shop wanted a simple name that would sum up all things British. Did they succeed or not?

Procrastination at its finest.

So this is what I get up to when I really want to avoid studying. This one took me 3 days to do - I won't show the folder I have that is full of these things.

Aaaaaand we're back

So I'm just going to pretend the last few months didn't happen and start up again with what we did last Sunday: eating and drinking.

The cherry blossom season is in full swing, so we decided to barbecue at the park (we being Shak, James, Rachel, Marc, Wayne and myself).

James, Rachel, Shak doing what they do best.

After way too much meat we decided it was the perfect time to introduce Wayne and Rachel (the Americans) to cricket. I also discovered how difficult it is to take an action photo while you are supposed to be fielding. This is about the best I could come up with:

Yeah, I totally missed catching this ball. It was painful.

And finally the team photo: 



Quite possibly the perfect way to end the weekend - the muscle pain on Monday pretty much summed up how we all felt about the start of the week, too.