Last Gift

I won't say I hated my job with every fiber of my being, though it felt very near to it at times. My students and their hilarious antics helped me endure even the worst days and I'll miss some of them dearly.

On my very last day, the mother of one of my favorite students gave me this box. I didn't open it in front of her and I was half certain it was something I'd keep out of guilt rather than genuine appreciation.

To my most pleasant surprise, I opened it to find a gorgeous wind chime. I had been looking for one to take home with me and I figured I'd settle for a cheap one from a 100yen shop. I was shocked to receive this hand-painted glass orb from a department store. I hadn't said anything to anyone about wanting one, I'd only been thinking about it. 

I don't want it to blow away in the wind or break on the balcony so it's staying inside for now.

The same mother also sent a card with photos to my Hawaii address. She said the family will come to visit the islands next year and she'd like to see me then. I don't know if her son will remember me, but I look forward to it nonetheless.

Stuff

When I came home two weeks ago, I was immediately overwhelmed with the amount of things in my room.

I threw out a lot when I left my old apartment - books, clothes, bedding, the crap on my balcony that was left from previous teachers that none of the Japanese staff at my school felt they needed to deal with - but I still managed to send home five decent-sized boxes. It was a task that took two months.

To organize my room in Hawaii is going to take that long or longer.

Yeah, it's a freaking mess. I have so far received four of the five big boxes I sent myself. They aren't as big as I remember them to be. I ripped open the two I got today and was like WOOT CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST! WHAT DID I SEND MYSELF??? I also found that everything has a funny, gasoline-like stench! I managed to separate colors and whites and delicates but didn't quite make it to washing it all. The first two boxes didn't stink, I put everything away just fine. Ugh.


Before the postman attacked me with my stuff, I did manage to give away a box overflowing with old clothes. I threw out at least a dozen bottles of grody nail polish and all my old make-up. I got rid of every little maybe-one-day-I'll wear/use/need-it thing I could. I'M GETTING THERE OKAY IT'S A PROCESS.

I have a bunch of mini-projects under the big umbrella goal of ORGANIZATION.

• WASH OR STEAM EVERYTHING GOODNESS IT SMELLS.
• Burn and get rid of all the CDs I can bear to part with right now.
• Put all my trinkets and doo-dads in one place so I can give them away to friends easily.

The half you can see - my stuff.
The half you can't see - mom's stuff.

I can't throw out everything because a portion of it belongs to my parents, who used my empty closet space for their belongings. I have no plans set in stone for living in Hawaii or moving to colder climates, so getting rid of winter clothes might be a bad idea. I did leave with most of my big dresser empty (a pleasant surprise) and there are a lot of half-empty containers in my closet.

BUT OMG I'M SO READY TO GET RID OF HALF THIS CRAP AND NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT IT.

My third box of GET THIS CRAP OUT OF HERE items.

Seriously I have to steam or hand wash all those scarves
because they smell like disgusting container ship EW.

Doing all of this has forced me to examine how I acquired all of it and the attitude I have toward material things.

I thought I did a pretty good job in Japan about not buying useless things. I tried to ask myself the following:

DO YOU NEED THIS?

WILL YOU USE/WEAR IT? (If you'll wear it, HOW MANY OUTFITS CAN YOU MAKE WITH IT? WILL YOU STILL WEAR IT IN 3 MONTHS? 6 MONTHS? A YEAR?)

DO YOU HAVE SOMEWHERE TO PUT IT?

DO THE ANSWERS TO THE PREVIOUS QUESTIONS JUSTIFY THE COST?

BONUSES: WILL YOU HAVE TO REPLACE IT? WOULD BUYING A MORE EXPENSIVE VERSION BE BETTER IN THE LONG RUN?

I should have started asking myself these questions a long time ago! Then I wouldn't have to get rid of so much JUNK now because I wouldn't have bought it in the first place ughhh.

I do feel bad about throwing things out that were given to me as gifts. Screw whatever I bought when I wanted to be stupid with my money, but presents that people took time to pick out for me or they just had to buy it for me when they saw it or whatever... that's hard. Photos are hard to throw out as well, but I haaaaaaaaate trying to organize photo albums bleh.

In other news, I applied for a real job and I'm just kinda waiting around for that. I'll be cleaning if you need me.

Things I Miss About Japan #13: Sunscreen

I'm back home and BOY does it kinda suck.

Shopping isn't what I've grown accustomed to. Not just for clothes, but beauty products and household items in general. One thing I REALLY REALLY REALLY came to love was Japanese liquid sunscreen and even aerosol sunblock, like this stuff:

They're so much lighter and smell much better than American ones. They soak into my skin quickly and leave a very faint scent that only I can smell if I put my arm right up against my nose and inhale. These work just as well as the thick gross stuff we normally use in America.

There's even weird powder sunblock in five fun cloud puff things. It leaves your skin looking like a Stephanie Meyer vampire so I didn't buy one but it's interesting.

I never bothered with sunblock in America is because it STINKS. Everyone within 10 feet of me knows I'm wearing it. On top of that, I feel it on my skin and sweating off AND IT'S GROSS. When I played water polo in high school, I'd purposefully glob that stuff on so I'd be slippery in the water and my opponents couldn't keep a grip on me. It's okay to be stinky and greasy in the pool, just not anywhere else.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found that Neutrogena sells a watery liquid sunscreen!

I bought a bottle to compare to my favorite Japanese brand. I'll admit I use a lot of Neutrogena acne care and face wash products so I've some brand loyalty going on here, but I honestly haven't seen anything else like this.

Both are compact and purse-friendly. The Nivea one is on sale in Japan for like 300-400 yen, so about $5/bottle. The Neutrogena one was like $11 ugh. I'm no expert at this crazy metric system, but I'm pretty sure milliliters equal the same amount of space or something as grams, so the Nivea one has more sunblockin' goodness in it. Like double. FOR HALF THE PRICE WTF.

AND IT DOESN'T EVEN GO ON THE SAME. The Nivea one is thinner and spreads a lot easier than the Neutrogena one. The Neutrogena sunscreen is far more to my liking than most American sunscreens but it's still icky and kinda smelly and meh. Nivea is on the left, Neutrogena on the right.

Thankfully they both soak in pretty quickly. I couldn't tell a difference between the two once they were dry.

EDIT: I put on quite a bit of the Neutrogena one today and my hands feel chalky. I've washed my hands more than once but it still feels weird. It also feels a bit greasy on my arms, so ew not using this unless I have to.

I guess it's a fair alternative but I LIKE THE JAPANESE STUFF BETTER OKAY. IT'S CHEAPER AND NOT STINKY AND WORKS JUST AS WELL AS THE GROSS STUFF FROM AMERICA.

My 3-hour Layover in Korea~

IT KIND OF SUCKED, but only because most of the locals I met lived up to the stereotype of All Koreans Are Rude.

As part of my flight path back home, I had to change airports in South Korea. I took off from Haneda, landed at Gimpo, and flew from Incheon back to Honolulu.

I was a bit worried about the airport change, but everyone I talked to assured me that it wouldn't be too bad. Indeed, all the signage was in clear English and easy to understand. If you have half a brain and can navigate through Tokyo's mess of subways and train lines, getting between Gimpo and Incheon is a breeze.

I packed light and only had my small purple carry-on, not expanded, and my backpack with my laptop. I didn't want to wait around for my luggage at the carousel and drag it all through Korea.

The first rude person I interacted with on my trip was the immigration lady at Gimpo. She did not say ANYTHING to me - no indication for me to move forward, no greeting, no instructions throughout the screening process. She snapped at me when she looked over my papers, "Where is your Korean address?"

"I'm going straight to Incheon."

After that she put my passport back on the counter and said nothing, so I left.

I made it to Incheon with time to spare. Even took some photos!

"I'm that Korean actor from You're Beautiful that you cannot escape.

Welcome to Incheon"

There's an ice skating rink!

"If I let go right now I will die."

A lot comfier and aesthetically pleasing than most airports.

I had to check in for my second flight, so I went toward the dozen or so counters for Korean Air. It seemed like half the check-in wing was dedicated to Korean Air, and they have a slightly different check-in counter system than most airports. They ask you to check in according to what kind of traveler you are - if you're in a tour group, family, with baggage, without baggage, etc.

I passed the No Baggage Check-In once and saw the one male employee behind the counter flirting with some woman, maybe his off-duty girlfriend. I didn't want to go over and disrupt Korean Rico Suave but I also didn't want someone else yelling at me for going to the wrong check-in counter, so I went over to him.

"I need to check-in."

Guy was obviously miffed. "Don't you have to check your luggage?"

"No." I handed him my passport and his woman disappeared around the corner.

I got that done and decided I needed a snack. I bought a Coke and the worst onigiri I have ever eaten at a shop, and the girl didn't even put it in a freaking bag. CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT I HAVE ONE HAND FULL WITH MY LUGGAGE AND MY WALLET IN THE OTHER HAND?

I went to security and the officer weighed my bag and my suitcase. "It's overweight combined. You have to check one." JESUS CHRIST, I saw NO ONE else go through that. So I went and checked in the carry-on, again with rude employees who don't know how to greet people, say thank you, or generally interact with customers. I almost forgave the girls who were standing around to manage the line, because they lifted the seatbelt-looking thing to let me through, but they just went back to chatting and overall looking unprofessional.

I got to the gate and I thankfully did not have to deal with anyone else, but I couldn't believe how the employees acted. The guy at the gate had his iPhone out and was busy texting someone for 10 minutes. A girl who came by with supplies for the plane was talking on her phone, running her cart into the door because she didn't have a proper grip on the thing BECAUSE SHE'S GOT HER HEAD COCKED NEXT TO HER SHOULDER AS SHE CHATS MINDLESSLY WHILE NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT SHE'S DOING. And another employee wearing a shirt 3 sizes too small was generally dismissive of a customer who came up and asked a question.

The flight attendants on the plane were much better. Even more so because I was randomly upgraded to business class. LAY FLAT BEDS FTW.

Long story short, maybe I'll go back to visit Korea but I sure as hell am not living there. THEY'RE SO RUDE.

Square One

I've been back in Hawaii for almost a week now.

I spent 3 days at home wishing I could go back to Japan. I haven't moved past that mentality, but I am venturing outside.

Made myself sick by sleeping at weird hours and not trying to acclimate to a new time zone.

I still have things left to say about Japan and my experiences teaching, but I'm not motivated to write anything at the moment.

I am not abandoning this blog. Just a holiday.