# Phones - they're always breaking down at the wrong moment! I had hoped to celebrate Japan's win over North Korea tonight with a lovely pic of my taiko club's chairman's dog - wearing Japan's national soccer shirt. Yep, a dog.
It seems to be a trend (not the soccer shirt, just shirts on dogs in general), as Jo points out today as well...
Alas, my camera refused to work.... :(
# Scary stuff - in case you hadn't realized, I'd love a career which involves living in a lot of different places: in different countries, that is. Possibly a dream job, but it exists. And I want it... But I'll get back to that later. What frightens me about that is the following scenario:
Living in that foreign, far-off country, not speaking the language and as a consequence being stuck in a very, very small world and not knowing the simplest things about the city that you live in.
I suppose that living in Tokyo doesn't quite prepare me for the life that would await me. A friend came along to my taiko practice tonight. Loads of fun (glitter, when are you coming?), but it struck me that even after she's lived here for 7/8 years I couldn't explain to her how to get back to her station as she hardly ever uses the trainsystem. She has no need to, she lives around the corner from everything she might ever need in a very non-Japanese area. I only carry Japanese language maps and so on, but do think it normal to have something like that on you in this city (but then, obviously in English).
It was a bit of a wake-up call. Not the first time actually. Even while working in an expat environment, I suppose it doesn't give me the full picture of the kind of life it entails: I speak the language and know the country so can go all over the place. I don't want to critize my work mates at all for this (even if it might sound like it), they're great and I'll miss them back in the Netherlands. I guess it's a different kind of life. It just makes me wonder how I would be living if I'd be working in say, Malawi all of a sudden ;)
# Immigration - why do they put the local immigration office all the way out of the city in an industrial area, with only trucks and seacontainers and no sign of normal life?! [hope my visa-extension comes through though!]
# Woohoo! Four more days of work until I can start my (hopefully well earned) holiday! Hilde, it's starting to sound like a packed two weeks with lots of fun stuff. Hope you're looking forward to it, I know I am (*^-^*)
# Stress-free - a new experience... because of the above holiday, I want to have my research project written, lay-out-ed (sp?), handed in and sent to all the relevant people before then. Still have a fair bit of work ahead of me, but surprisingly it is not freaking me out. I was expecting a repeat of my final thesis-writing weeks.
What's more: I'm actually quite happy with how it's turning out! This is a totally new sensation. I'm usually completely dissatisfied with anything I write, but the energy security research is turning out to be not bad at all... If I may say so myself ;)
I'll get back to it once I'm finished and can give a proper conclusion and all of that.
# Libraries - don't you just love 'em? As I haven't got the latest Murakami Ryu book yet, I got some of his stuff from the local library and it's turning out quite interesting. As the title says, a bit strange... Strange Days - Murakami Ryu
Hmm, much longer than expected and a bit random. Oh well, that's what blogs are for, aye?
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