thelifeofloui

Today I started a new adventure.
How I've been waiting for this moment...
Final Fantasy XIII-2

During my first day back in Sweden I first had lunch with my mom, then we went together and bought birthday present for dad and after that I went to "Skatteverket" to let them know I've moved back to Sweden and filled in some papers etc. Also talked to Dena on the phone while waiting for my turn there :D Then I went to my dear friend Ina =) We just chilled, trying to make Pokémon Black & White co-operate with us and just talked. It felt amazing to see her again =) And I also had short talk with Maja on the phone!! Yes!

It was a really good first day.

Mami!

 

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Soo....now I've been back a few days. I've been trying to unpack everything but it's difficult since it is SO MUCH to unpack and I don't have room for everything. So much clothes, books and just random things which I have no idea where to put. Gah...

And I've been struggling with my jetlag. Alot. But now I feel much better...yesterday I woke up at 4:00 in the morning which...sucked.

But yesterday was awesome!! I met up with Dena and we walked around in the city and then sat down at a café and just talked talked talked!! I've missed her sooooo much!!

And today I'm gonna meet up with my partner in crime, Sofia!! :D

Everything feels great.

 

 

I'm back in Sweden...for real.
Feels....very strange.

But good at the same time. Have so many things I wanna do here.

This is where I should be right now!!

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Here's some pics from the journey home:

 

 

My last day in Japan was amazing. At around 14:00 I met up with Jocke, Anton and Tsai and we carried my bed up to Jocke's room on the 4th floor. David also dropped by to get some stuff that I would otherwise just throw away. Then the 4 of us went and had ramen for lunch. Delicious, as always.

 

Then Jocke went home and the rest of us went back to my place and did some final cleaning. My landlord came over at 18:00 to check my room and then I followed her to her house (it's nextdoor) and got some papers and money and we sat there and talked a bit. She's a very nice lady =) Then when I got back to the others we went to the book/video game/DVD/manga store next to Mr Donut and spent MONEEEEY!!! Yehoo! Anton bought a 3DS LL!!! I'm so jealous!!!

 

Afterwards we went and had dinner at a place where I haven't been before..which turned out to be AMAZING!! Traditional Japanese food at it's best!!! Then we sat there and talked a little bit about...life. Hahaha. Then the 3 of us walked back to my place and packed up Anton's things (he got alot of stuff from me aswell, such a lifesaver) and then we said goodbye. These 6 months wouldn't have been bearable without Tsai and Anton. They are both amazing people and really,really, REALLY good friends. In a way I feel like I could've gone on like this forever, if only I had them by my side. But I can't....have to move forward, have to go to new places and meet new people.

These two... =)

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I don't want to make leaving Japan a dramatic thing. Sure, I'm probably gonna cry in the airplane but...I know that this isn't the last time I visit Japan.And that makes everything so much more...endurable. This really isn't goodbye. It's not. This is just Chap. 2 in the book about "Johanna and Japan". 

 

So yesterday (Saturday) I went in to Kyoto city for the last time. 

I took the bus fairly early to Kawaramachi and went to Tully's for breakfast. Had the AMAZIN' chilli hotdog Sofia's been telling me I have to try and om my Gackt....it was deliiiiish~

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Then I just walked around my lovely Kyoto for a few hours, did some final shopping and then took the bus home. Then I took my bicycle to the bicycle shop and dropped it off there and then walked all the way back to the city to have dinner with Tsai and Anton. 

AND GUESS WHAT!? Some derp cherry blossom trees have already bloomed!!! So I got to see the cherry blossom again =)

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The dinner...was awesome. OKONOMIYAKI!!! Soooo good! I ate so much xD Haha but I've been looking forward to it for I don't know HOW long....

Then after dinner we took purikura together!! I can show pic later...

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Then later in the evening Albert came over. It's (really) been a while since we hang out together but it didn't feel like it at all. It felt really nice to be together with him again =)

So, on Friday me and Anton went to Shiga to go to a circus. We'd gotten the tickets for free from Puppy so we thought hey, why not. We go there using the Keihan line all the way to Hamaotsu (okay we did go the wrong way at first but we didn't really care, we had our Pokémon games with us so ;D)
Once we got there we found the circus tent immediately and then went to a shopping mall nearby. There we looked around a little bit and then had dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant.

 

 

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Then we went to the circus...which was AAAWESOME! I didn't have any high expectations at all but, wow...it was great.

 

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When the show was over we walked back to the station and took the train home back to Kyoto. At Sanjo we stopped and looked at some video games and then walked to Mister Donut and bought doughnuts :D And awesome day!

Bye bye Shiga!

Today has been a really good day.

But before writing about why it's been a good day (I'll write about it tomorrow...), I want to take time and say that today has been sad aswell.

Today I had to say 1 of my 3 goodbyes that I really, really don't want to say. 
Today I had to say goodbye to Puppy (and KICL.)

I've been thinking about this all week...like, how am I gonna cope with this? My school, KICL, has been in my life for the past 1 ½ years...even though some days were a bit tough, and the homework almost drove me insane some times, I still loved KICL. It's such and amazing school and I've learned so much there. Not just the Japanese language, but so, so much more.

And Puppy....my lovely Puppy. He has been there for me SINCE DAY ONE. I owe so much to him and I'm not even sure he understands how grateful I am towards him. We really got closer during my last semester at KICL and if I felt a little bit down one day, talking to him made every gray and dull day suddenly bright again. We have the same humor and since we both talk with alot of sarcasm we'd stand there "arguing" about something silly and other people would be like "whaaat...?". Like today we started "arguing" about the correct way to draw the world map, since it's different everywhere. Of course I said the Europen version is better while he claimed the Japanese one was better....and there we stood, "arguing" about the world map. 

And then we just talked....about the past, my time at KICL....the future etc. It was really nice.

I know that I'll meet him again in the future (just stop by at KICL) so instead of saying goobye to each other, we parted with just saying "See you soon". It made me feelt alot better.

Ughh....I liked Puppy. I liked him alot. And I will miss him very, very much. 

 

 

 

So yesterday was really awesome. Even though the weather was awful...

ANYWAY, meeting up with my old host family was really nice. We had lunch together, then fika and watched some TV together. And I played a little bit with Ichika and Shun, of course. They're so adorable. 

It felt quite sad to leave them...since I don't know when I can come and see them again....BUT, when I move to Osaka, we can see each other more often!! :)

 

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So after taking the train back to Osaka, I walked around my favourite streets a little bit. But it was raining and the humidity was INSANE so I couldn't really enjoy it as much as I would've wanted to. But it's ok, since I did take time to eat at my favourite restaurant in Osaka =) Sooooo guuuuuud~

I don't know why but...I thought it would be more heart breaking to leave Osaka...Right now, I feel fine. Since I know that I'll be back. I just don't know exactly when. I even though I looove that city, right now, I just want to go home to Sweden and be there for a while. That's all. 
See you later Osaka <3

Yesterday morning my parents left Japan. 

And now I'm alone for about a week and then it's time for me aswell to leave.

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So right after they left I decided to go to the ward office in Sakyo to let them now I'm leaving Kyoto and fix my health insurance etc. Unfortunately, I missed the bus to the ward office by 1 min, and was left stranded for 2 hours until the next bus would come. So, what else could I do but walk across the street to school and sit there for 2 hours and play Pokémon White. Hehe.

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So after going and coming back from the ward office I went home and rang the electricity company to end my contract. Everything went well and they'll send a dude to cut my electricity between 3-4 in the morning on the 25th. Well...isn't that just swell.....
My taxi will come and pick me up between 4:45-5:15 so...yeah.

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Today I haven't been doing much. Went to KOONAN to get a box or pipe or something to ship Otto's umbrella in...but didn't really find one. Got a regular cardboard box that I'm gonna cut and use scotch tape to bind it all together...we'll see how that goes. 

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Other than that I've been cleaning out my drawers and taking down the last posters. And realized to my horror that I've thrown away my big poster pipe thingy that I got from buying my latest Gazette poster from the concert....so now I don't know how to get it back home.....it fits in my suitcase but....I don't want to ruin it : (
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Then Joakim came over to get some stuff and we ended up sitting on the floor chatting for a while about random stuff. It was nice. 

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I'm gonna try to get to bed early tonight because tomorrow....I'm going to Osaka. Probably for the last time...for now of course. And I'm gonna visit my old host family and have lunch together. I'ts gonna be amazing. 

 

PART 6 (At the Silver Pavillion, last day in Japan)

 

The entrance...

PART 5 (in Kobe)

15/3-2013

Part 4 (at the Aquarium, Kaiyukan, outside of Osaka)

 

PART 3 (in Fushimi Inari!) 

PART 2!!

Ice cream at "Sweden"

Yeah. We're having alot of fun. Eating delish food every day and just enjoying ourselves to the max. Here's some random pics from the past few days.

 

The graduation ceremony yesterday was very memorable. I don't even want to think about how many people I might not ever see again....I can't really believe that my time at KICL has come to an end. I mean, it's been 1 ½ year....and it's been so amazing. The best time of my life. I don't really want to think about it being over right now (don't really have time for it either since my parents are here) but it'll probably hit me soon enough.

Had a really nice day together with my fellow crazy Swedish boys. We shot a film for KICL website (again) and today our location was....the university! Yay! We finished it off on the roof of the uni and got some really nice shots.

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Other than that, since I came 30 min early to school to meet up with the others (of course, I'm always too early) I had a chance to chat with Puppy. Talking about how inconveient it is that there no word for "To miss" in the Japanese language. Like, "I miss you" doesn't have a true equivalent in Japanese. That lame.

He also kept saying how amazing my Japanese has become and how bragging about it justifiable. Hahaha I'm not so sure that I agree with that pup but hey, I take it as a compliment. 

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Anyways, here's some pics from today!!

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And if anyone has missed it....MY PARENTS ARE LANDING IN JAPAN TOMORROW!!!!  I'm gonna go and pick them up after the graduation cermony. Feels amazing. Can dry my tears after having to say goodbye to my friends on my mama's shoulder. Perfect.

So today I went to the Nishiki-Market. For the first time...haha. It's this looong narrow market street close to Teramachi here in Kyoto where they sell fresh fish, tsukemono, spices and lots of different stuff. I walked all the way there (took me about 1h) and the weather today was aaaaaamazin'. It was really warm outside.You can feel it in the air that spring is approaching. YAY!

And yeah I painted my nails a little bit today aswell while watching Mumin ^^

Yesterday's party was awesome!! Almost everyone was there and we had so much fun! And the best part? No one drank any alcohol!!! YAAAY I it made me so happy!!
Woaaah I'm gonna miss my classmates....alot. We really had a good run together =)

 

After getting our results back today we played a little game in class. Well, actually two games but I only took pictures of one ^^ Anyway, the latter was like a memory type of game. You know, in the deck there's two card with the same picture on it and you're supposed to find both of them and pair them them up. This was the same but instead of being two pics with the same image on them, it was one pictures cut in half!! And the theme of the cards was..... fish.....yup. Fish and other water creatures (like clam, squid etc) and they were all painted in a beautiful traditional Japanese way. Which made it even more difficult to pair them up. We worked in teams of 2 ppl and guess what....me and my partner WON!! :D hahahaaa!

 

Report: 81/100

Oral: 84/100
Grammar: 78/100
Kanji/Vocabulary: 115/150 (77%)
Hearing Comprehension: 53/80 (66%)
Reading Comprehension: 58/100
Composition Writing: 80/100

Not the most amazing scores ever but....nevertheless, I passed!!
OH YEAH! 

ooooooh my God the test today....were a total blood bath. The grammar was ok I guess (if you'd studied,which I feel I sorta hadn't) but the reading comprehension......wow....I suck. I failed it. I know I did.

*sigh* Well, we'll get back all of the test results tomorrow soo...yup, tomorrow's gonna be fun....heh...

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I honestly couldn't think straight today....I talked to Puppy between and after the tests and I just....couldn't speak Japanese anymore. Just....slowly, weirdly and just....strange. He said I sounded like an old lady. Hahaha. I guess that's what happens when you only sleep 1 ½ hours...

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After getting home I just curled in under my kotatsu and killed some time in the Internet....without any feelings of wasting my time. Because now, I'm free (at least until tomorrow). 

So tonight I watched "The Hunger Games" again. Last time I watched it was last summer at Maja's. God....I really like that movie but...it's sickening. Just...I dunno, I think everyone who's seen it kind of get the same feeling.

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I'm quite impressed by myself that I haven't fallen asleep standing up today. Actually, after getting home and taking in easy for a while, I felt much better. But now I feel my eyelids getting reeeeeally heavy. 
Time to get some sleep.

 

 

 

Okay so I've slept about 1 ½ last night (Just.Couldn't.Sleep.) and now it's time for finals!!! YAAAHEEEEY I put waaay too much sugar in my tea this morning so now I'm on a crazy sugar high.....gonna have to chug some coffe later between the test in order to survive though...ugh....this sucks.

LET'S GET THIS SHIT OVER WITH SO THAT I CAN GO HOME AND SLEEEEEEEP!!!

 

Grammar, reading comprehension....BRING IT ON!!

 

 

Today's test went ok. At least the Kanji/Vocabulary part...hearing comprehension was not as ok....

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Today's been a very good day, mostly been together with Anton. We stayed at school to study until 18:00 after the tests were over...still haven't even looked at the grammar we need to learn. Am gonna do my best to study this weekend.

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Anyway, I realized today, while sitting at school together with Anton, that it would be the last time we sat there like that. After school hours, barely no one there and getting some studying done, chatting, laughing, talking with Puppy....the last time. Because after Monday, we're done with studying for this semester. My last semester. 

After I realized this I suddenly got this weird feeling in my stomach. Separation anxiety. ALREADY?! I still have 3 weeks left, I thought. But it didn't help at all. Even after coming home (after a brief stop at the grocery store, buying sweets and other unhealthy stuff) the strange feeling in my gut didn't give in. I can't believe this is over soon.

I think that 70% of me REALLY want to leave Japan and go back home to Sweden, but the remaining 30% of me REALLY don't want to leave Japan.....and it really hurts having to go against those 30%.

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I don't know...it's just....uugh.....

Now I'm gonna run away from all of this type of thinking. 

I'm running to the Unova region.

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PS.

Just a little note to self.....

昨日見た夢はその三回目だった。

おい、脳さん、もういいから止めてくれない？

そんな余計なことは、考えないほうがいい。