Look Who Came to Visit Nagasaki...

I haven't managed to write a blog for a while as ive been rather busy, my parents and sisters came out to Japan on the 13th of May! They stayed in Tokyo for a couple days before flying down to Nagasaki on the 16th to stay for a week. With them they brought two goodie bags of food and sweets for me made up by my auntie and one of my bestfriends Anna. I was in desperate need of doritos and galaxy but unfortunately it did not last long!!

Whilst they were here i had real food every night and not toast/scrambled eggs for dinner!!! Besides going out for dinner we visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on their first day. I wont write too much about it as i have already a blog dedicated to it but seeing it for a second time didn't make it any less horrible. Before hand we took a picnic to the peace park and enjoyed the lovely weather! That night we ate dinner at a yakiniku restuarant which is basically an indoor bbq which you cook yourself. There is a grill in the middle of the table and you can order beef , pork , chicken, many vegetables and rice of course. No Japanese meal is complete without rice! It was absolutely delicious and rather fun!
The next day was another scorcher so we spent it relaxing at the seaside park by the little stream where all the kids were cooling down. One day on our way to the seaside park, dad was eating a pastry roll of some form and the biggest bird you have ever seen in your life came down and took the thing in its mouth right out of his fingers. It was hilarious but i am now very wary of eating things outside incase they attack me, they are huge!! At night time we took the cable car up to Mt.Inasa to watch the sunset and enjoy the view of Nagasaki, which is really beautiful at nighttime. A couple of times whilst my family were here we went to the baseball range which is a lot of fun but also super hard! My 7 year old sister was ten times better than me, i think i only managed to hit one or two balls. You can choose how fast they come out at you, it ranges from the slowest being 60mph to 130 mph. I tried 100 and then settled for 60mph.
The rest of the week was spent relaxing at the seaside park, by the harbour or taking a wander round the shopping malls. On the thursday we set off for a weekend in Kyoto but that shall be revealed in a new blog!!

OKINAWA- Golden Week.

Finally the time came for our holiday to Okinawa. Golden week is an annual holiday in Japan which almost everyone has, its either a very long weekend of its during the week. We decided to make the most of Golden week and venture out of Nagasaki to the Japanese Island, Okinawa, which is quite far south near Taiwan, it is here that Karate was originated. I packed my bags after work on tuesday, basically every item i had in my wardrobe i packed because i couldn't decide what to take and what to leave! I had treated myself to lots of summer clothes, crop tops, skirts etc for our trip so i was excited to wear them all!! We set off on wednesday morning on the bus to Fukuoka airport which was about 2 hours away and we arrived at the airport with just enough time to catch some breakfast! Our plane to Naha airport in Okinawa was painted like a shark it was rather cool!

The plane was just under two hours and it was a rather bumpy ride, it was quite a dull, drizzly day when we arrived. By the time we had arrived at our hostel, Hamby Resort, in a town called Chatan-cho, two hours away from the capital Naha it was almost 5pm. The hostel we were staying in was actually really good, it provided free rice, eggs and cooking spices. There was free shampoo and accessories in the bathrooms as well as free bicycle hire and it was only around about £60 for 4 nights! We settled into our room which was rather cute with bunkbeds and we also had another woman staying in our room. She was called Vanessa from Spain and was really lovely. Nearby there was an American village as there is a US military base in the town near. It had lots of good shops and many restuarants, western ones as well as Japanese. The first night we all went out for dinner to this small place which had the most beautiful view of the beach and ocean. It was a good start to the holiday. 

The next day, was warm but rather cloudy but he headed to the beach to sunbathe. The beach is absolutely gorgeous and the water is soo blue! Lucy and i went on a large inflatable sofa which was pulled around by a jet-ski, it was incredibly fun and rather scary at the same time! The sun looking incredibly strange this day, it had a rainbow ring around it, ive never seen it before. Me being silly, thought i wouldnt get burnt because it was rather cloudy and i didnt appear to be in the sun at all- big mistake. As the day went on my sunburn slowly started developing even though we left the beach after an hour. I think it was probably the worst i have ever been burnt, i was in soo much pain i couldnt sleep that night. When i had been lying on the beach my phone was on my stomach, so i had a phone shape on my stomach.. not cool. Unfortunately i could wear any of my lovely crop tops i had bought! Alot of suncream was purchased the next day along with a huge tub of moisturiser( or so i was to discover a week later, it is actually make up remover). 

The next day we headed to the beach this time i was fully clothed and sat with towels covering me, not a good look in 27degree heat. We looked around the american village alot at all the shops and i treated myself to some new leggings and rather ridiculously sized high heels, they are gorgeous though! Lucy and i went on a rubber ring each pulled by a jet-ski , it was even more terrifying than the inflatable sofa. The minute we started i got salt water in my eyes and couldnt open them so i spent the next 15 minutes of the ride absolutely terrified with no idea what was going on just being thrown about covered in water. Later on in the day, the guys who ran the water sports came to find us and asked if we wanted a free ride on the banana boat, mainly because they were bored i think and they wanted to take it out. They told us the aim was to make us fall off into the water and unfortunately it worked. More salt water in the eyes and a large mouthful was consumed, not nice. 

For the next day we had booked para-sailing, i had never done anything like this before so i was pretty scared. We had decided even if we spent all of our money we were going to have a good time. It was incredibly scary, the guy didnt speak english so he just put the safety harness on us and the next thing i know we were half way up in the sky attached to a parachute. The view was absolutely gorgeous, we were up there for about 10 minutes and after a couple of minutes i started to worry about how we were getting down. I was slightly scared that they were just going to dunk us in the water, but we had a safe landing back on the boat without going in the water! It was a good experience. 

Okinawa is an absolutely beautiful island and i hope to visit it again one day too see more of it. By the time our trip had finished i was glad to be back to my own bed as i was extremely grumpy from the lack of sleep i had. The noise from the other people staying in the hostel, combined with my horrible sunburn meant i didnt get more than a couple hours sleep over the 5 days and i cannot deal with no sleep! I took alot more photos but i cannot upload them all to here, again they are all on my facebook page!  https://www.facebook.com/chloe.aaa/photos

Ikebana, Tall Ships Festival and Fireworks!

Well i have had quite an event filled week!! Lucy and i went to Ikebana after work on thursday. We had been invited by a woman we met at tai-chi called Konaka-san who is really lovely. After meeting us at the hospital after work, we took the tram up to Nagasaki train station as the place we were going was just up the hill from there. At the apartement you had the perfect view of the Fukusaiji Buddhist Temple which is shaped like a turtle with a large statue on its back.

 We are yet to explore inside the actuall temple but the time shall come for that! The apartement belonged to the Ikebana teacher and there was quite a lot of women already there. We sat down to eat some food which was already prepared, chicken, rice and some side vegetables etc. Ikebana is Japanese flower arranging, i wasnt all that sure if i was going to enjoy it. I dont know anything about flowers, or how they should be arranged for that matter! Before we went, i was struggling to find reasons as to why anyone could find it enjoyable. But i was pleasantly surprised. It was somewhat relaxing, just picking flowers and just popping them here and there until it looked presentable.

We started off with something simple as we are beginners but some of the women were creating really beautiful combinations, some were very simplistic others a bit more complicated. Afterwards we were given 'English tea' which actually was Darjeeling tea with...wait for it... a spoonful of marmalade in it!! Bizzare. At Ikebana we had the chance to talk to a lovely women who spoke English from living in Canada for a year. It was nice to be able to chat so someone who could speak very good English. My Ikebana is now sitting proudly on my desk, hopefully i can keep it alive for a reasonable time!

On Friday, the three of us were watching another operation. This time it was a nose operation as the patient had Chronic Sinusitis. Im not going to even pretend i know what that is, all i know is they took out alot of nasty looking things from inside his nose! It was strange to watch as the patient had so many tools up his nose, cutting away inside. They had to be careful as it was extremely close to his eye. After the surgery we went to the cinema to see IRON MAN 3. I was super excited and i was not dissapointed. Even though i managed to munch my way through all my sweets by the time the trailers had finished, it was still awesome. We were all super tired afterwards so we just headed home for bed.

On Saturday it was the annual Nagasaki Tall Ship Festival down at the harbour so we took the tram down for the day. We chilled at the seaside park where i sat and read my kindle for a while and enjoyed the sun. Some of the boats here were super big and we even had the chance to go take a look around one of them. It was good as ive only ever been on a ferry before! The seaside park was really busy and there was lots of little stalls selling Japanese food and other things. 

 At around 8:30pm there was a firework display, everyone gathered in the seaside park and the harbour to sit and watch. It was really great and it went on for quite a long time. It was a great way to end the day! We headed home, after a mcdonalds of course, and went straight to bed again!




On Sunday , i had alot of housework to do..how boring! I cant believe this is what i have to do with my free time, washing dishes, washing clothes, hoovering, changing bedsheets, food shopping..oh life is hard!! Na, to be honest i dont mind doing it, once i get started cleaning i get into a right good cleaning mode! Once i had finished it all, i went to the Peace Park as it was super hot, ridiculously hot. I chilled there for a couple hours reading my kindle and people watching. Once i returned home i realised i had managed to get a little sunburnt.. not good! Definately need to invest in some suncream if i am going to survive living here during summer.
I have one more day of work and then i am off to Okinawa, i cannot wait ahhhh!!!!
Again i havent put all my pictures from this weekend on my blog but they are all on my facebook...
https://www.facebook.com/chloe.aaa?ref=tn_tnmn

Japanese Onsen!

So i was back in the nursery again this week on my own this time and as usual i had lots of fun! If you play a game with one kid all the others come rushing over, desperate to take part. For a while they were using me as a stool and at one point i had four kids trying to fight over who was taking place on my knee, the ones who didn't get the knee decided to sit on my legs instead. After a while the pins and needles started to kick in but unfortunately the kids didn't quite understand that so i had to suffer them for a while! The kids are all so full of energy and zooming about the nursery so after a shift there i was quite tired but off to the hospital i had to go! It was my last week in ward 7W so i am looking forward to starting 6W next week, see if anything interesting happens there!

On Friday night we were taken to the Onsen by Ezoe-san, the lovely Japanese woman who takes us to Tai-chi. We took the bus up to the onsen which is called Fukunoyu and sits about half way up Mount Inasa. For those who don't know, an onsen is hot springs where you go and bathe. Before we went into the onsen we went for dinner which was a buffet. Food has never made me happier, there was SMILEY FACES!! As we walked around filling our plates up, we sat down and my plate consisted of my favourite food, everything was deep fried, yum!! I had chicken, smiley faces, onion rings, more chicken and some more smiley faces it was so good. The Japanese are really healthy and eat a lot of veg and Ezoe-san pointed out that i needed to eat more vegetables..oops. Dessert was even better, chocolate fountains, ice cream i was in heaven! As we ate our dinner we watched the sunset over Nagasaki, it was beautiful.

When you go to an onsen, normally male and female have seperate ones because you must go in completely nude. To begin with i found this really strange and awkward and i didnt know where to look but after a while you get used to it. When you are walking from bath to bath you cover yourself with a towel and as you get into the bath you have to roll it up. Typically onsen is located outside but it is becoming more common to find ones which are indoors as well. The one which we went to was located indoors and outdoors. There was jacuzzi's, different types of saunas, large bathing areas which ranged from 38 degrees to 43 degrees as well as a super cold one. Outside there was private ones which were giant tubs which you could jump into, it was really relaxing lying in a hot bath but having the cold outside air around me. The main bathing area outside looked over Nagasaki and as we lay in it we were able to watch all of the twinkling lights of Nagasaki, it was extremely peaceful. One sauna that we went into you had to cover yourself in salt and use it as a scrub because it is really good for your skin. Im not very good with the heat in sauna's so i didnt last too long in there! One of the bathing area's inside gives you a full body massage as you lay down or there is one which focuses on your back and waist. It was soo good!! I surprisingly had a very good night, i wasn't sure if i was going to enjoy it, the thought of spending my night with lots of naked japanese women in baths did not appeal to me what so ever but it was good. Afterwards we headed home and went of to bed!

Apart from the onsen i didn't do much this weekend, on Saturday it was pouring it down so i stayed in all day and watched monster's inc because i am full of the cold! On Sunday i had a productive day cleaning my apartement and doing food shopping. Lucy and i also went a walk up the mountain to a large shopping store called Mr Max just for a wander in the sun. Also i found doritos!! They may not be my favourite kind but they are still doritos, yet to discover the flavour though. I am slightly getting better at cooking, managed to make chicken with noodles fried in garlic and salt, yes it may be a simple thing but i still made it myself woo!!!

ONE MORE WEEK TIL OKINAWA

Lung Operation and Ward 7W

This week i started in ward 7W and the women i am following around, Yoshiko-san is absolutely crazy. She runs everywhere and is constantly dissapearing. I can't keep up with her, she is normally already down two flights of stairs before i even realise that is where we are going but she is funny. The work is this ward is pretty much the same as the rest, making beds , little bit of cleaning and stapelling booklets together for them which i don't mind.

 Huge sully in the shopping mall to promote the new Monsters Inc Movie coming out! There is lots of strange things in the shops in Japan, especially super markets but i found this in a beauty shop this week! Placenta soap anyone?

 Possibly the worst lunch the hospital has presented us with, ew!!! Mister donuts all round...

 This week i was able to watch a lung operation which was quite gross. The patients lung had collapsed and shrunk whilst attatching itself to the roof of his ribs( i think ). To separate the lung from the ribs, the surgeon burned the skin to detach it and i thought that was really horrible. After a while the surgery got a bit boring, mainly because i was really hungry but also because it was alot of the same thing going on and we were there for a while. It was interesting to watch and i am glad we had the opportunity to. Luckily i didn't throw up or faint so i think i did well! 
After Tai-Chi this week, Fujiko-san took us for some cake and tea which was lovely, at some point they are going to take us for Yaki-tori which i am excited about! Another lady at Tai-Chi has invited us to her house where she will teach us flower arranging which i am looking forward to. Im slightly getting better at Tai-Chi but it is still quite hard, there is wayy to many steps and hand movements to remember!
Lucy and I took a train trip to Sasebo this weekend, which was about an hour and a half away from Nagasaki. The train was the seaside liner so we seen some really beautiful views of the coast. In Sasebo there is a 1km long shopping mall which was quite good but we didn't buy much. Afterwards we sat next to the harbour and spotted some jellyfish in the sea. It was nice to do something instead of wasting the day.

This weeks adventures!!!

This week was my last week in ward 4 and the jobs didnt get any more exciting unfortunately. Most of the nurses and healthcare workers on this ward are lovely but most of them dont speak English so they didnt speak much. Alot of the time i was shoved in the linen cupboard to put sheets on duvet covers and pillows which i surprisingly enjoyed because i could stretch it out to last an hour or two to make the day pass faster. Other times i was serving the patients their green tea and wiping down their bedside tables. There is one patient, im not sure of his name but every day he wouldf say to me ' Good Morning, Sank you, Sank you!' Other patients always ask me how old i am to which they always reply oh so young, kawaii then point out that i have a big nose hmm thanks guys. The Japanese are very honest people which i suppose is a good thing. When i tell the nurses and patiens im from Scotland they reply 'ooh Scotorando , men skirts? bagpipes? in England? speak english there?'. Its rather hard trying to explain that Scotland is not in England but next to it and is part of the United Kingdom because they think the whole of the United Kingdom is infact England, so i have given up! On monday i shall start my new ward which i am looking forward to!!

On Wednesday we were invited along to Thai-chi classes by the same woman , Ezoe-San, who took us to the Sakura festival. Ive never been to Thai-chi before and i wasn't really sure what i was expecting. There was only about 8 of us in the class and everyone was about 50ish so we were the youngest there. Thai-chi is very slow and is all about holding stance and posture to strengthen the muscle, i was awful at it. We had to 'sit on an imaginery chair' for 3 minutes which may sound easy but i can ensure you it is not, my legs were shaking but all the women who are about 3 times my age managed it with no bother at all! After about half an hour it became easier and i was quite enjoying it so im looking forward to going again. On wednesday night we decided to try cook and we made our own batter, chopped up some chicken to dip it in and deep fried it in garlic and chilli. We ate it with rice and it was amazing!! I can finally cook!!!

On tuesday i was again at the nursery which was really fun again, we watched Finding Nemo with the kids which was quite funny watching Nemo's dad swimming about saying 'Sumimasen, sumimasen' which just means excuse me. There are a couple of really cute little kids but they do not want to share your attention with anyone else! So when one of them was sitting on my knee along comes another at top speed and launches himself on both of us and started fighting for the space on my legs. Another little boy just wants to cuddle and came along to sit on my knee and cuddle in to watch Finding Nemo, very cute. I wish we were at the nursery more because its so much fun but i suppose once a week is better than nothing!

 

 On Friday night,  Lucy and i decided we would get dressed up and go find a nice restuarant and treat ourselves! After looking at all the Japanese style restuarants we settled on an Italina, typical me! It was amazing to have some proper food, we had pizzas and pasta and it was still only £10 each, cheap! Afterwards we went off to a cafe which served cocktails as we decided we would give it a go and see if we could get served which we managed with no trouble, i had a frozen mango cocktail which was yummy and Lucy had a tequila sunrise!   

The Japanese are really big on photo booths which edit you to look 'more beautiful' so off we went to give it a go! Its rather fun but sometimes it makes you look quite strange.

 

Mt Inasa and Sakura Festival at Kazagashira Park

It was a beautiful weekend in Nagasaki so we decided to make the most of it and on saturday we walked down to the harbour! On the way we found a lovely little shrine a little up the mountain and right next to it we found the cable car station for going up to Mt Inasa. We decided we would still continue down to the harbour and go to the shopping mall and we would head up the mountain for sunset. Mt Inasa is in the top three night views in the whole of Japan and it is just over 1,000 ft high. The cable car up took around five minutes and as we crawled up we would gradually see more and more of Nagasaki. I knew Nagasaki was big, but no where near as big as it actually is. When you get to the top all you can see for miles is buildings and mountains, its hard to tell where it starts and begins. It is really peaceful at the top of the mountain as they have music playing and there is an observation deck which you can see the whole of Nagasaki from. We waited until the sunset so that we could view Nagasaki at night with all the twinkling lights. One they way back home we decided to get a snack and as i have become addicted to donuts since arriving here, i decided i would try be healthy but ended up buying some greasy southern fried chicken pieces from 7/11 where Lucy discovered a new love for corn dogs. We are so unhealthy here!!

On Sunday we had been invited to a Sakura viewing festival at Kazagashira Park about 20 minutes by bus from central Nagasaki. We had been invited by a woman who works with the volunteers at the hospital as she is part of the YMCA here and other foreigners who live in Nagasaki meet here. The park was so beautiful as it was covered in sakura which unfortunately are starting to dissapear already. Here we met the rest of the people who would be joing and chose a spot for our picnic. As the food was provided for us i was quite scared as i was presented with a set lunch packed with rice wrapped in seawead with salmon inside, a bright red sausage looking thing and a few other strange objects. I managed to eat most of it apart from the seaweed and rice which smells to much like the ocean for my liking.

There was people from Indonesia, South Korea and China at our picnic and most could speak English as well as Japanese. They had mainly moved here to come to the university to gain better degrees. At the festival we were able to see young girls dressed in kimono's who performed traditional Japanese dancing and afterwards they came to speak to us and we were able to get our picture with them. We were also served proper Japanese green tea by women dressed in Kimono's at a tea ceremony style thing in the park, unfortunately i really do not like green tea which isnt good as they drink so much of it here! We were able to wander about the park and enjoy the view before we set off for dinner at Ezoe San's house. Once we arrived she performed the tea ceremony for us which is done with such precision and care, everything must be done properly. Afterwards she cooked us a dinner of various things which included, rice, noodles, various salads and what i think was a large round of gammon wrapped in bacon. She is really lovely and trys her very hardest to speak English, on wednesday Lucy and i are going to Tai-chi class with her which iam looking forward to. Again the majority of my pictures are on my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/#!/chloe.aaa.