Nonono

Today I took a trip into the villages outside Tokyo. As I headed outside at 8am this morning the weather was pleasantly bracing but not too cold, and as I hopped on the first of three trains I felt excited to see one of my most wonderful friends in a wonderful backdrop of autumn leaves. The car journey to the forest filled me with wonder and warm fuzzy feelings as we wound through the hills and I could for once leave all my endless drama behind.

Wrong. So wrong.

Well when we started on the forest trail it was a wide paved road, we said goodbye to that and a small gravel path led on. Absolutely fine. Somewhere along the way the path became narrow, covered in slippery leaves and tree roots and disturbingly vertical. Maybe there was some hill climbing involved…I took a deep breath and scrabbled upwards in a heavy backpack and tread-less Dr Martens. This was not the day I signed up for, I wanted to stand on viewing platforms saying ‘oooohh’ and taking photos. It became increasingly clear as my friends mother and sister bounded jovially along the thin trail that I was not cut out for this. Well the hill never ended, in fact I think it was a mountain (one of many in my immediate area) and by the time I realized I was clinging onto tree roots about 1200 feet in the air with a 60 degree drop a few inches to my side. That is the precise moment I knew I was definitely going to either break all my limbs or die. As you’ve probably guessed by now neither of those things happened but it did involve a lot of crying, swearing, being saved by my friend and absolutely no looking down.

Because many of the trees had shed their leaves the whole area was a slippery leaf avalanche which made it impossible to get a grip. Having little to no balance anyway this was a challenge but somewhere near the top my friend and her mother found me the most perfect branch to use as a hiking stick. This is about the time I realized 70 year old men without hiking sticks were walking briskly past me as I sat on a sturdy looking rock and valiantly fought the urge to cry and vomit.

The view was incredible, in fact it would have taken my breath away if I’d had breath at that point. I had a good cry and a hug from my friends mum at the top, now to tackle the slippery downwards slope…ahhh. Also I’d like to point out I had no idea where we were or how far we had to go to get out of this hellish nightmare (we were VERY near the start), but my adrenaline was slowly helping replace the fear and I was going to give it my best shot. With the help of my friend I decided the best method was to go down on my butt. I walked when I could and shuffled down like a dog with worms when I couldn’t. Apart from the spikes in my arse I enjoyed this method. Then it turned out I had to climb another mountain. Oh it also started snowing, beautiful right? Well no, the leaves became more slippery, the path more intimidating and now I was wet with frozen water as well as the sweat.

Part of the way down I did decided it was beautiful and really quite pleasant in a terrifying sort of way. Continuing on after a couple of hours the end was in sight. I have never been more happy to be on solid flat ground in my entire life. As somebody who even gets a little wobbly standing on chairs this was not something I’d ever wish to repeat but I was thankful for the experience. I’m safe now but very sore and keep getting wobbles when I remember I’m on the second floor….

I don’t understand why the Japanese like hiking so much.
Mata ne x

Nikko

Some beautiful people invited me to see the autumn leaves in Nikko and visit the temples and shrines. Well normally I only see 6am coming from the other end so getting up at that time was quite a shock. After a beautiful ride through the countryside our train arrived at Nikko 2 hours later…it was grey and wet. Still we trekked up a hill and many many many steps and saw all the beautiful Edo period temples and shrines including the Toshogu and a temple being dismantled.

Anyway there is so much to write about, I saw the famous sleeping cat, the ceiling dragon that cries, Tokugawa Ieyasus grave, the famous 3 monkeys among other generally grand wonders.

But it’s been a long week so here are the photos instead ;).

Mata ne x

Briefly…

I thought I’d explain the name of this blog because why the hell would anyone call a blog ‘pondbag’. Well Ikebukuro is 池袋 in Japanese, the first character is the kanji for ‘pond’ and the second is ‘bag’. Simple right! Apparentely it means a damp area of land so presumably wetlands or something. Anyway they totally love owls here because owls are fukuro and apparently it’s a super fun play on words and so that’s our local mascot. On that note and as far as mascots go however (and there are a ridiculous number of them here) the best is undoubtedly the charismatic Funassyi who operates as the unofficial mascot of Funabashi, Chiba. If you like crazy pears I highly recommend checking out a few videos!

Mata ne x

Cat cafe for homeless kitties

Cat cafes are a huge thing in Tokyo and there are many scattered around the various districts. It’s a place for people who can’t own pets to go cuddle animals for an hour or two. The idea was so popular cafes like this exist for all sorts of animals now and all across the world and tbh I was quite worried about the popularity of these places and wondered if all of the animals got treated well.

I live in a uni dorm in Asakadai, Saitama and was wandering through the station and saw a guy making a passionate speech for charity and briefly looked as I walked past. On my way back from the shops I stopped and realized it was a charity for the animals left homeless from the Fukushima disaster and teared up a little. I guess when thinking about the disaster and how awful it was for people I never thought of all the animals left behind…

I donated a little money and the man was genuinely grateful and I thanked him for working hard for the animals. He gave me a leaflet with information about the charity and an advert for the ‘Foster Parents Cafe’ a cat cafe in Shinagawa that houses abandoned and orphaned kitties from the disaster with the hope of getting them adopted by new families. So if you’re in Tokyo and want to go pet some kitties and don’t mind going a little out of the way please go to the Satooya cafe! The entry fee is a donation of whatever you think is reasonable and can afford and it goes to helping keep the cats safe and healthy until they find a home!

You can find the website and coo at the pretty kitties here http://www.satooya-cafe.org =)

Mata ne x

Guys I’m so sorry…

Well it’s been two months and apparently I’m super shit at this, forgive me. But in my defense life here is so busy I haven’t had much time! Most of the past couple of months has been just living in a daze soaking everything up. I’ve made some amazing friends, been to some weird parties and generally had the time of my life.

University is fun, getting to debate in classes is my favourite thing! On the other hand Japanese grammar classes are the worst.

Everyone is super nice and friendly, all the Japanese students at Rikkyo are super warm and welcoming and make fitting in here really easy. Everyone seems to think I’m cool though which is an absolute joke…have to keep reminding myself and other people that I’m a huge nerd and actually kind of a jerk aha!

People here work hard and play harder. They also just accept that jumping in front of trains is a normal thing that happens here. I live on a commuter line and there are quite a lot of suicides. It’s sad but mostly people here see it as an inconvenience, people going out with a final grand ‘fuck you’ to the society in which they have no voice….

On a lighter note Tokyo is truly a consumer paradise, you can buy anything as long as you have the means. It’s capitalism gone mad. The station at Ikebukuro is flanked by two huge department stores and there are many more surrounding it. If you love shopping Tokyo is the place to be!

I think even though I’m still in a slight phase of culture shock (there are so many people…) I’m getting used to it. I’ve assimilated to the point I look at foreigners on trains like ‘ooooh look a gaijin’ and kind of forget everyone is doing that to me too. Also on that note I really wish people would stop picking their noses on trains…

Guys I’m gunna go for now but hopefully I’ll start blogging more and I wanna start a vlog too so watch out for that hot mess. My bath just ran itself (yeah really) and I’m so stoked to get in it. Mata nee. x

Has it only been a week? It feels like it’s been 20 years and I’m in a future not quite ready to let go of the 80’s…

So here I am, I was shitting myself really about this whole biz, even though I’ve known it’s been coming for years. Luckily though the nervousness and excitement turned out to be one and the same. Gosh it’s such an adventure, being set free in a strange land starting out completely on my own. Maybe this will finally give me the time I need to grow.

I live in Asakadai just in Saitama, cute little commuter town with everything you need and more. Everyone is lovely. My university is beautiful and full of shady tree lines avenues in the heart of the fun and sleaze of Ikebukuro.

Harajuku is full of things I want to buy as ever.

Met some lovely and interesting people so far and all in all I’m very happy and privileged to be here!
I hope to keep you updated, it’s kind of crazy here and the experience is wonderfully new and exciting.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the courage to get here!

x