The trip I'd been waiting for: Koyasan

Ever since I visited Japan with my family in 2009, I've been wanting to go back to one place, Koyasan.

Koyasan is a little town in the mountains of the Wakayama prefecture. It's about two hours away from where I live. It is the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism so there are many temples, but the thing I was most eager to revisit was the beautiful graveyard. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful place on earth. It looks so myserious and the nature, covering the old tombstones is so breathtaking, I can't even describe it. I don't know what took me so long to get there, but I finally went again a few weeks before leaving Japan. 

I was planning on going by myself, mainly because it's a place that's really close to my heart and I figured it would be a nice place for me to go and think a little bit. But when I told one of my closest friends this, he said he really wanted to go as well and he didn't want to go in group either. So in the end, the two of us went together and I'm so happy we did. It was a wonderful day.

We visited many temples and pagoda such as the Konpon Daitō (根本大塔) and the Kongōbu-ji (金剛峯寺). I really liked seeing these, as I hadn't went to see them the last time I was in Koyasan.

As I said before, I was most excited about revisiting the graveyard I adore so much. The graveyard (the biggest in the world) surrounds the mausoleum of Kūkai (空海), also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師), the founder of the true word Buddhism school. I remember, during the night tour of the graveyard I experienced all those years ago, being really impressed by Kūkai's story, and even now, seeing the mysterious gates to the place where, legend says, he is still meditating, was amazing to me. The place feels so sacred there, that I couldn't bring myself to take any photographs, but picture it like this: you are looking at a rich, green, overgrown forest. A little path leads into it, the greenery blocking you from what's behind. Incense burns and next to you a man sings strings of prayers.

We wandered around the cemetary for a long time. I was so happy! If you've seen some of Hayao Miyazaki's movies like My Neighbour Totoro or Princess Mononoke, that's what being in this graveyard feels like. It feels like magic.

I'm so happy I got to go to Koyasan again and I highly reccomend people to go see it if they can! I believe it is the prettiest place in Japan.

K, that is all!

XXX

Tenjin Matsuri!

A few days ago I went to a festival in Osaka with some friends. It's called Tenjin matsuri. I'm not exactly sure what the meaning of the festival is, but I felt like matsuri (Japanese festival) is something I should experience now that I'm still in Japan.

People come dressed in yukata, which is always really fun to see. There's a lot of yummy food you can get from the little stands in the streets. As far as activities go, there was a sort of parade in which people danced and carried things through the streets (I'm so uneducated I'm so sorry haha) and at the end of the day there's a big firework!

yukata!

kakikoori (shaved ice)

ocotpus in one hand, sausage in the other

I had fun at the festival but I do realise these kind of events are not for me. There are just too many people! I had to squeeze myself through the crowd to head back to the trainstation earlier and I almost had a panic attack from the amount of people around me. I could barely move. So, no, I won't be going to many matsuri's in the future haha!

But it was a good day hanging out with friends nevertheless.

Good night! ♥

My last work day

I had my last day at the kindergarten I work at few days ago.

I have enjoyed working in this place so, so much! I'd been really nervous when I first started because I had no idea whether I was competent to teach English to a bunch of 3-6 year old Japanese kids. Luckily my work partner, Sofia, was amazing. She actually knew what she was doing and thanks to her, I learned how to teach and be confident about it.

I worked alone for a while after Sofia left in Februari and got a new partner a few months after that. This time, I was the one in control and I'm honestly so proud of how far I've come.

The people at the school were always so kind to me and I've grown to love the children a lot. I admit I had to hold back a little tear when I had to say my final goodbyes.

The children gave me little books with pictures and thank you messages, as well as a card. I feel so blessed!

my present to them

I've grown to love these people and I've promised that when I come back to Japan, I'm coming to see al of them!

this was at a work party about a month ago.

I'm gonna go to bed now.

Good night!

Farewell of the dorm

It's that time again when people start leaving the dorm and this time I'm one of them.

We had our farewell party at the dorm last week, as well as the last all you can drink party of the dorm. It's been emotional times. But I'm also filled with gratitude!

The farewell party started with a barbecue in the little garden at the back of the building. There was udon and curry and veggies and rice and I ate a lot. I really appreciate how many vegetarian things there were! The focus of the BBQ was the people though. Basically it turned into a picture taking event. I was a little sad that a few of my closest friends couldn't make it to the party, but I had tons of fun nonetheless!

 

After that we settled down in the common room to watch the farewell video. Now, me and Koni were crying before the video even started, but it only got worse with the video, haha! It was such a beautiful video! It had pictures of random times in the dorm and our dorm events, as well as silly and heartfelt messages from everyone. I laughed and cried and laughed again and again. It was beautiful!

After that video, there was another suprise video because a lot of the resident assistants (the Japanese students who live in the dorm, help us out and organise all these fun things) are leaving as well. So we watched another video from the RA's and that was great too.

Lastly we all received a DVD with the video on, with a card in it that everyone then could write messages in. It was an emotional but great day.

The all you can drink that followed a few days after was awesome as well. We drank for two hours and went to karaoke.

I'm so glad I got to live in such a happy place where everyone welcomes you with open arms regardless of who you are or where you come from. I feel like this living situation allowed me to make friends with people who I wouldn't easily get close to if it were my live in Belgium, and I'm so grateful for that. It's a situation that forces a person to become more open and accepting and I love that.

The many people I made friends with, and especially those who I've grown really close to, I concider as more than friends. They feel like a true family to me. Whether this is because of the fact that we live together in the same house or the fact that we're all away from our own family and we need to fill up that space, I don't know. Probably a mixture of both. But that doesn't make it any less real. I love these people to death and I will never forget that.

I'm going to miss the people in this dorm so much. But I shouldn't think about it negatively. I've gained so much in living here and meeting these kind, generous, loving people and the fact that we all live in different places only means that I have more reason to travel the world. That's a very happy thing. I am a very lucky person. All I need to do is make the money to travel hahaha!

I've decided though that that is what I want to do. I want to travel a lot. I want to work, I want to work hard, I want to learn to take care of myself and then I want to travel.

Secondly I've realized how much I love my home and my family. I realized how lucky I am in having such a good place to come home to. So I want to spend time with family as much as I can.

I don't know where this post has gone. What was the point of this post again? I don't even know.

Oh well. I'm gonna leave it at that! I'm taking one of my best friends to the airport in a few hours. It's gonna be another emotional day.

Much love ♥