A shot taken nearby my friend’s house in Sibayama.

I’m gonna miss Sibayama’s lush green fields. I’m gonna miss the frantic chirping of summer cicadas. I’m gonna miss seeing the occasional flattened corpse of a snake, the seductively pointed legs of the spiders that invaded my room and the occasional rumblings of an airplane reminding me how far away I am from home.

Tomorrow, I’ll be saying sayonara to the countryside and moving a bit closer to Tokyo to a place called Ichikawa. It’s the thought of “moving” again that’s bringing back that crippling homesickness. I’ve skyped my family a couple of times, but it’s not the same. It’s a bit heartbreaking too when your dog can’t recognize your voice or your face through a screen (or maybe he did and he’s just foolin’). But, school hasn’t started yet nor has this exchange experience, really. I heard from a friend of mine who just completed her Go Global program in Hong Kong that the beginning and the end were the times where she was most homesick. I just gotta get to the middle of that delicious exchange sandwich after struggling with those dry, crusted slabs of whole grain. Don’t get me wrong, I love the bread on sandwiches, but seriously, no one eats a sandwich for the bread.

With the idea of heading into an apartment, the worries start to pile on. Money. Food. Space. Money. Laundry. Commuting. Transit. Money. Money. Money. Japan’s an expensive place to live in, but there’s ways to cut corners, to make sure you pay the bills and to be cheap-cheap-cheap. I for one, plan on heading to a Supermarket late at night where they markdown everything in an attempt to sell the last of their stock. 19yen udon noodles. Cheap frozen vegetables. I’m already salivating over savings.

While school hasn’t started yet (and it won’t until September 22nd), I hope I get used to the hustle and bustle of things before it does. My friends back home are already getting ready. Seeing people leading Jumpstart and or posting pictures of their return to UBC’s campus have bitten me with the vengeful venom (perhaps from a run-over snake) of homesickness. Though, I guess, you always carry a little bit of home around with you where ever you go. I just need to build my foundation. Build my house.

Originally published on August 16th.

Thankfully, I arrived safely.
As soon as I got my baggage, I immediately took a shower in the basement floor of Narita’s Terminal 2 building for around $10.
Even though it was a bit pricey, there’s something priceless about the violent, skull-crushing pressure of a hot shower after being on a plane for ten hours.

For the time-being, I’m living with a friend in the countryside. The countryside might seem boring, but there are moments like the one captured on the left that you can’t really find anywhere else. They’re stray cats. Country stray cats. Superior to their city-counterparts.

But by bus and train, you can go far. To a Pachinko Parlor. Although, my friend and I didn’t try our luck with those notorious silver-balls. Instead, he tried the slots while I watched. While the slots might not be the most… appealing part of Japan, it was still a place I wanted to experience at least once.

When you enter, you’re bombarded with the sounds of coins smashing into metal trays, the coarse coughs of smoking grandpas, and the slapping of flashing buttons. When you leave, you’re lucky if you can hear your own voice. The blinking machines and the animated scenes that accompany them are colourful and extremely vibrant (probably because if you wanna make a profit, you gotta invest the time and if you invest the time, you’ll probably fall asleep if it weren’t for them and the dramatic voice acting).

By the way, my friend did make a profit. Turned $10 into around $110. We made it rain—quite literally since we were flushed with a sudden downpour afterwards.

SO, using that dirty money, we went to a conveyor belt sushi place for lunch.

You gotta lift the plate in order for the plastic cover to pop-up. Also, at the end of the video, you’ll see some orange plates passing by. Those are for orders you have specifically chosen using a touch-screen before you. On the touch-screen, advertisements flood the screen like screensavers and at times, animated cartoons replace the menu. These cartoons offer you a chance to win some capsule toys. That is, if you get the good endings.

The food was great, although I’m not sure if it was because I was extremely hungry. My favorite had to be the tuna with uncooked-yolk (seen first in the video above). Slid down the throat reaaaal nice. Thinking about it has made me hungry for more, but I’ll contain the beast for now.

Tomorrow’s apparently steak night, after all.