30.11.2012 - finally found out what's wrong

Hey guys,

so I felt a little ill yesterday and then last night I got really really bad again. swollen tonsils, intense nausea, crazy bad headache, backache, stuffed up sinuses, cough, light sensitivity, basically everything hurt terribly.

Went to a new, different doctor who's an English lady at a different clinic. It's much farther from me but I really wanted to be able to explain my symptoms and get some advice because I had what I thought was my third round of tonsillitis in 2 months.

Turns out I never even had tonsillitis, but have had strep throat probably since mid september, which means that at this point I am seriously ill. I'm currently on doctor ordered bed rest for 3 days, she said I much have a pretty serious immune system to have been working and stuff, given how long the virus had been in my throat.
She also gave my 10 days of antibiotics and said the 4 days the other guy gave me where absolutely not enough to kill anything, even if he'd given me ones for strep. Just enough to make me appear healthy, but not enough to fix the problem.

Even though being this sick absolutely blows, I'm really happy I went to her and finally know what's going on and have the right meds to deal with it.

I'm currently downloading seasons 1 through 5 of Doctor Who (the reboot) to keep myself occupied and in bed, stoked to get my David Tennent on, yo!
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To end this on a much better note: in exactly two weeks I will be seeing my family for the first time in over three months and I am so goddamn excited!

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I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

25.11.2012 - osaka style lunch + sensōji temple.

Hello all, I had a lovely lovely day and took lots of photos and isn't this just special?

Started out by Skyping relatively briefly with mum & Magnus; my family's going to be here in less than 3 weeks and I am so excited good gracious.

Then I went and had a traditional Osaka style lunch with Keiko (I teach her English, Takashi (her husband), and Yuriko (their daughter) in Shinjuku. It was so interesting!
I can't say I fell in love with any of the food honestly, but it was all good. And like I said, it was terribly interesting. Aaaaand I can tick 'eat octopus' off my bucket list, so, booyah.

kind of like a quiche ball with octopus inside it.

vinegar based dipping sauce for the octopus.

soy sauce, vinegar, and some kind of hot sauce all mixed: for the gyoza.

Takashi cutting this thing that they said 'is like an osaka pizza', but I saw little connection there.

it was the best thing I had, though!

served with dried seaweed and smoked tuna flakes.

soba, of course. with cabbage, chicken, and pickled ginger.

sort of a tasteless pudding with brown sugar (which just tasted like molasses to me) sauce.

where we ate!

Went straight from there to Asakusa to go to Sensoji which is a very famous Buddhist temple.
There's also a temple dedicated to tanuki there which is like half the reason I went, but then I couldn't find it! Sneaky. I will do some research and go again because I will not leave Tokyo without going to it, I swear.
As you can see it was packed, but it was so worth going. Had a bit of a spiritual moment with all the incense and the people praying and tossing coins into various offering things and it was so good.

tokyo skytree

After that I walked around the area for a while, got a few little presents and just enjoyed looking about. I don't seem to wander as much as I did when I first got here, I suppose that's natural since Tokyo's less… new and thrilling now.

The arcade leading to Sensoji.

grilled squid

Took a slightly complicated train journey to Minato so I could go to Nissin for a few western food stuffs, came back, made some chilli for dinner and then skyped with Liam for a while.

We talked about exciting plans and it was just generally a really nice way to end my really nice day.

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I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

24.11.2012 - snippet

Hello all,

slept funny so my back was a bit tight this morning but it felt almost fine at work and then on my way back to the train station from the farmer's market I tripped and fell (I never used to fall down, since I moved here I've tripped like daily.) and managed to make both my knees and my back feel like they were on fire?
My knees seemed to have calmed down a bit but my neck is killing me and I have a headache again.

Poor baby.

Sorry for the lack of photos, I didn't have my camera for any part of today.

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Buuuuuut here's the video from yesterday and a few of the self portraits I talked about, that I also took yesterday.

The song's Rave On preformed by Buddy Holly.

(I suggest you go watch this on YouTube because it's playing oddly on my blog.
you can do this by clicking the 'YouTube' icon that is in the bottom left of the video.)

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I'm actually working on a new project which is going to be a series of diptychs of self portraits taken in my room and landscapes of my experiences in japan.

I've started to put a few together in a book and I'm really really pleased with the results so far.

I may share a few once I have more that I'm psyched about.

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I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

23.11.2012 - kansai rinkai park.

Skyped with mum briefly but then her internet went out, so that was the end of that.

Went to Kasai Rinkai park to go to the aquarium and ferris wheel.
Had to do the fancy transferring of train line at Tokyo station which I'd never done, but I got there with minimal fuss.

The aquarium itself was really nice I though, bit crowded in places, but nice.
And the ferris wheel would have been much, much better had it not been overcast.
Maybe the whole day would have been better had it not been overcast?

nightmare

spot the fish

I dare you to find me a cooler animal than a mudskipper.

I'm not sure, not that I didn't have fun, but it wasn't as joyous as it could have been.

After (my camera battery died, which is why this isn't documented via photo or video) I went for lunch in Harajuku where I'm thinking they gave me something with dairy in it even though I must have said I was allergic (in English & Japanese) at least 5 times.
I don't feel so sick, but I have a horrid headache which is another symptom.
I might just have a headache, also a possibility.


Took some self portraits I'm happy with on camera, we'll see how the editing goes!

Made myself some potato & pumpkin and edited the video of my day, now I'm going to relax for a bit before going to bed nice and early so I feel good when I have to wake up at 6.30, to have time for breakfast, before work tomorrow!

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I'll post the video tomorrow maybe, I'm having trouble getting it to upload right now and I need to not be on the computer for a few minutes.

22.11.2012 - 3 months in Japan.

Well,

Today's my 3 month anniversary of living in Tokyo/living on my own.
It's odd, I feel like I've lived here for so goddamn long.
Not in a bad way, but honestly it feels like I've been here for at least 6 months maybe longer.

I didn't go to class this morning because I wanted to try Seki Sensei's class after work.
But then the Oedo Line decided it was an opportune moment to stop for FIFTEEN MINUTES between Higashi-Shinjuku & Wakamatsu-kawada (the stop closest to the dojo, on this line) so I didn't even get to the street Hombu's on until 7, which is the start time for the last classes.
So I walked back via my favourite korean grocery store.

Made myself some gyoza (not the best kind unfortunately) and watched the newest episode of Criminal Minds (not the best one unfortunately). What an evening.

I have tomorrow off and Hombu's closed so I have the entire day free. I have a pretty exiting plan but the weather way mess with it a bit. We shall see.

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I had this long write up planned with things I feel I've learned and blah blah blah, but then I started writing it and it just felt so terribly contrived.

I haven't radically changed, I'm not a different person, my life views haven't undergone some sort of giant upheaval.

I feel like the same person I was before... just a little bit more capable and a little bit more aware and a little bit more knowledgable about myself & who I want to be.

And I know, those are important and big things. But they're hard to explain. I have these crazy moment where I just feel like an adult (in a possitive way) and I've living this life and doing all these adult things like actually doing laundry and commuting to work and it just hits me, that I'm a real grown up now. Or something.
Other times I find myself listening to music that reminds me of hanging out in my living room with my family (Yes, Magnus, I do mean 'winding down music'.) and weeping quietly because mummy & daddy aren't here to hold my hand through a tough moment and I wonder if I'll ever really be ok on my own.

But I think honestly the two biggest things I've learned is that
A) I can do it alone. Not that I have to always or that I can't get help but I am truly capable.
B) mummy and daddy (and Magnus and my close friends) will always be there to hold my hand. Not always literally, but I have an outstanding support network of people who make my life amazing and are always here for me.
It took moving and having a really hard time to see that, and it's invaluable.

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That ended up a bit long and magical in the end, didn't it?
To end off your evening here's a photo that sums up my entire life in Japan.

smug face + koala-tea time in my underwear + gi pants.

21.11.2012 - Meiji Jingu Shrine + Yoyogi Park

Slept in all the way until 9.30 which I think is the latest I've slept since I moved here.
It felt amazing, well worth it.

Messed about a bit online, ate breakfast, talked to Magnus. Like to many of my mornings!

Then I went to Yoyogi Park for the afternoon.

Firstly I went to Meiji Shrine where they were having some sort of thing?
There were a lot of these vegetable boats and a lot of plain vegetables. And also a fair bit of tinsel.
Also a lot of mother/daughters in kimonos, but I don't know what was going on.
Typically enough haha.

Looked at all the wishes (and read the ones in English!) and wrote my own and got all emotional for really no reason.

person after my own heart

Then I took this poem thing by Emperor Meiji and it was just so perfect for my life and what I needed I immediately started crying.
Another typical Signe moment!
They weren't exactly sad tears though, so it's all good.

Then I went and just walked around the park bit and sat on a bench and enjoyed the chilly fall day.

Also saw a guy with one of those big bubble things, i.e. two sticks and some string.
I ought to have taken a photo of the crowd, there must have been like 30 people watching him.
Everyone fucking loves bubbles.

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I went to to the dojo tonight, had a bit of a frustrating class.
Practiced with this western guy who was just bigger and stronger than me and he fought me on every technique and then used strength to push me down.
It still made me feel good, because aikido almost always does, but it wasn't fun, you know?

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hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!