Kushiro!!

Kushiro day 2...really, only two days. It's hard to imagine that it has only been two days. It seems like at least a week...I'm already having trouble remembering the rest of the trip in Mexico, though to anyone who knows me, that isn't particularly surprising.
Mexico, as it tends to do, had some tricks up it's sleeve. We had one of those days. The days I had almost completely forgotten. They were a big part of the impetus to move. You get up, big list of exciting activities and a few errands. Hit the ground running only to find yourself quickly hitting a road block. It takes the better part of the morning to get round the seemingly minimal hiccups but at some point you just bite the bullet and say, forget it, next! Then that's a bust too. By the end of the day you look back, tired, frustrated and incredibly irate and realize that despite a significant input of time, money, energy and ingenuity, you have accomplished nothing. Nothing at all. The list remains there, un-ticked, nothing completed. You KNOW it's not your fault, hell, you dont even think to blame yourself but that just makes it worse. You were Mexico Cities bitch for the day and there was just nothing you could have done about it. It likes to do that to you every now and then, just to remind you it can, that it's its own beast...then there's the other days...
Two days after that we had the Martinez get together. 30 or 40 Mexicans from every walk of life together to see Diana and I. Singing, dancing, eating, drinking and just enjoying themselves. It was delightful to be a part of. There is so much love and dedication in the families in Mexico. It is a wonder to see it and even more of a wonder to be a part of it. Ah Mexico....

We hit Paris only mildly exhausted. We slept a bit on the plane but not much. The Hotel was more than we expected and I can say, if any of you readers out there ever win a shit load of money I would recommend staying a night or two at airport hotels to unwind between flights...well at least in Paris de Gaul. The village there is beautiful and in mid summer it is full of flowers and cobbled streets and those little brick houses and bread and cheese...and well just French goodness in general. We even talked about coming back...to a village near an airport! Well, suffice to say, whether it was the 12 hours on a flight and another fifteen to come or whether it was just a nice place, a goods night rest in a comfy bed and a chance to do a few laps and loosen your bones was Fantastic! Thanks folks!

Getting into Japan proved to be pretty smooth all in all. We had a tiny hiccup in immigration but nothing that merits a story so we will skip to Kushiro...oh, Haneda airport was pretty close to empty...weird. The first impression of flying into Kushiro airport is of green. Everything is green here in Summer. I was actually reminded of Thailand when we touched down. Giant leafed tropical looking plants coming up everywhere. Empty areas all around. It's not what you would expect from a freezing Island to the far north of Japan. Getting out of the bus though, makes you remember pretty darn quick. We are pretty much in the middle of Summer now and it's jumper weather. I mean it might have got to 20 today. Maybe. And that's it. It isn't going to get much warmer. They had a 28 degree day the other day, pretty darn hot apparently. I'm just looking forward to winter.
On that first day we got in around fourish. We said a quick hello to our boss, dumped our stuff and headed into town for dinner. In Tokyo I am told that pretty much everyone can speak English. You can find a few little tiny places, tucked away in the back streets maybe, where they only have a few words in English...well Kushiro is pretty much the opposite of that. Pretty much everyone can speak a few words of English but you have to really look hard to find anyone who really speaks the language much. Since our Japanese at the moment is about as good as our nepalese (zero), well you can imagine what fun dinner was. Admittedly we chose the smallest least picture laden place we could for our first outing, but it was hilarious to say the least. I think we managed to get enough between us (most of it coming from him I have too say, we certainly haven't been holding up our end of the deal in language exchange situations but what can you do) so that both Diana and I left well filled, smiles on our faces and in general good humor. I think the gentleman even enjoyed having us by the end. Thankfully know one else came in while we were eating either, so that was kind of fortunate. He was kind enough to sit down with us and mime out foods and drinks which was fortunate. Today we got to practice even more and though we weren't much better we managed to find where to buy soil for our pots, bikes, coke, cheap stuff, get Kushiro information, an evergreen garden and a heap of stuff about work. Admittedly not all of it required Japanese but I thought I would dump it all together to make us look better. The best I think had to be dinner, the impetus for this little rant.

Dinner tonight was chosen by Pepix, well the place anyway. We had just bought the new adapters for the computer chargers (add that to the list of language accomplishments) and decided to stop for dinner on the way home. We had been talking about heading to the same place as yesterday but since our Japanese had not exactly improved we decided to share the embarrassment around a little. The place Pepix picked was gorgeous. The last one had been a little more traditional but this one was just wonderful. The guy, though he spoke little to no English, managed to convey to us what we were going to eat (zero pictures) and most of the ingredients. He also had really cool knives but I couldn't work out how to say that so wont be buying them yet. He served a weird Italian/Spanish/Japanese fusion kind of thing and it was really tasty.We chatted to the other customers...or they chatted about us and laughed, but it was cool anyway. Later the Airtraffic controller from Kushiro airport came up and translated for us for a while. There were only three tables full (including ours) in the little restaurant tonight and yet that is the busiest restaurant we have seen yet. This has been a fantastic first two days to our new life in Kushiro and from here on in just gets better!! Today we move into our new apartment, go shopping and have an interview with the local paper!!

Damn it, this is what breakfast SHOULD be like

Any where in the world, you'll find things you dont like. It's inevitable. In Paris I remember that I was surprised at how dirty the streets were. In Venice everything was just so touristic it kinda put us off. Madrid was great but sometimes the people came off as pretty cold sometimes. Mexico is no different. The chaos, the fear, the insanity of the traffic, it certainly isn't paradise...but damn the Mexicans know how to do breakfast. Barbacoa is probably the best Sunday morning breakfast I can think of. Whole lambs slow roasted in pit ovens over night served with blue corn tortillas, lashing of Salsa and a rich lamp soup. Add to this think richly spiced sweet coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice and I honestly can't think of a better way of starting my Sunday.
I sat, eating till I nearly exploded, smile from ear to ear, while the amicable chatter of friends and family surrounded us. It was beyond delightful.
Mexican's know how to do breakfast.

Long live Travel!

Leaving, as always, was weird. As you all know I am a giant softy and I'll miss you all more than you know but I do so love it. I love walking through those gates. I love the knowledge that from here on in it isn't going to be breezy, I have to pay attention. Its like waking up on the first day you after you get sick. The first day you feel better. Suddenly you remember what your body is capable of, what your mind is capable of and you feel so alive. It usually lasts only a day or so before you remember all teh creaks and groans your body has all the time but that first day is always awesome. Walking through those doors, hearing languages, not being able to be sure that it will all work out, not having it all laid in front of you....it feels similar. It makes me feel alive, despite the pain, exhaustion, weariness and any other synonym of completely knackered you can think of. It's great and I may be addicted to that feeling, regardless of how much I'll miss you all.

So the first flight was to Shanghai. We didn't get to see too much out of the windows I'm afraid. We were flying through clouds pretty much the whole way which was a shame. Air China, as an airline isn't too bad. There is some leg room, the seats were comfy and there were lots of movies (I didn't watch any though, or read much). The food wasn't too bad either. Nothing to write home about but either was it unbearable. Despite that the first trip was the worst. Neither of us could sleep which was pretty frustrating and by the time we arrived in Shanghai we were both pretty stiff sore and irritable. and just for fun we had to collect our luggage, go through passport control (without a visa) and then check back in in Shanghai. Yay. as it turned out there were a few of us that had to so it wasn't too bad but by the time we got onto the second flight we were pretty exhausted and another 10 odd hour flight was not high on our priority list. as it turned out the leg from Shanghai to Paris was on an older plane with less leg room, no movies and much worse food. Getting to Paris we managed to kick it up a notch and became level 7 exhausted zombies. Not much good to say about that trip but we got there. Though we had to once again check our baggage out and in again it was all good, the French were absolutely lovely and it was a pleasure to be there. It is always a massive plus going through a border control check point and having people smile and be nice, a rare thing.

The food at the airport was very tasty, if drastically insufficient. No wonder the french are all georgeous slim super models. They count coffee and a croissant as breakfast. Oh wait, there was a juice too. Nevertheless the people were again delightful and though we had to have two breakfasts to get through to the next flight, despite a delay cos of the baggage conveyer playing up, in reasonably good humour. Content zombies. The airplane though surpassed every expectation I have ever had of economy class. I had more leg room than you could poke a stick at. Me, Pepix was practically swimming. She could have curled up on the floor at her own feet if she had wanted to. We were on the second floor of the plane (boeing 747-400) which was a first and the air hosts and hostesses were such reasonable lovely people I found it hard to believe they spent all their time in airplanes. On top of that the food was shockingly good, they brought us champagne and snacks in between and it was just generally awesome beyond compare. I thought we had died and gone to backpackers heaven (that is to say business class). Though Pepix still didn't sleep much I slept for pretty much 8 hours!! Incredible. from there it was all smooth sailing. The family met us at the arrivals terminal. There was hugging and laughter and general joy (we didn't hug too much because we smelt like the zombies we still were. Seriously, two days, forty eight hours, in air conditioned 'comfort' in the same clothes, no showers....well you can imagine). A recovery shower, some tacos from Sumesa (the local of my in laws) where the owner not only remembered me but remembered what I ordered last and it was like we had never left. Just transformed into zombies.

Today our welcome party starts! We have the house open from nine in the morning, so in three hours. We have slept only four since arriving but what the hell, we'll make it. It just wouldn't be as much fun if it wasn't hard.

I may feel like a zombie but damn its good to feel alive again!

Monday.
10 days til we leave.
We'll be in Japan by the end of the month.
It's getting real now.

This weekend we had an open house for those who were free and keen to drop in and share some time and food. It was great. The fire went all weekend. The food too. There was curry, beans, soup, tortillas and more deserts than we could have possibly ever finish. It was just the kind of relaxing weekend I was hoping for. It was impossible to see everyone, I knew that, but it was still great to see a few familiar faces. These days, even if you do live in the same country its hard to keep in touch with more than a few friends and your family, it's jus the way it is. I'm not very good at good byes anyway. I probably should be. I've had the practice, but I'm not. I keep thinking I am not putting enough emotion into it. I'm really looking forward to going. This is something I love doing, venturing forth into the unknown. Yeah, there'll be times I'll miss people, but no more than usual. It's just how it is. So I keep feeling like I'm letting the team down when I don't get all misty eyed. I get over it though. Then I leave. Its what I, and now we, do.

See you next time

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