Takaii

I had to have a full Medical Examination today for my Visa to Australia.Okay ,they say its 21 thousand (100 pounds) for the examination and x-ray.By Tokyo private Clinic standard I felt that that was expensive but expected.
So while I am having my blood pressure taken and height and weight assesed etc,etc,etc the nurse asks me what exactly I will be doing in Australia .......I tell her I am doing a B.A in Health Science and that I will be studying specifically Acupuncture.........She tells me that I will need to have blood tests taken for HIV and Hepatitus antigen......fine I say.......She then says that this will be extra.Okay I say,how much is extra.........wait,wait.........just a little more.......for one vial of my blood to get to the lab and be tested costs 14,000 yen(75 pounds) I am shocked,astounded and quite frankly appalled .........Its a student visa for christ sakes.I am gnna be a student for 4 years........does this tell you that I will be rolling in cash and dancing the nights away bathing in Champagne???
I am sick of professions that deal with health care or other sensitive services that we absolutely need charging the crap outta you just because they know you have no other choice.Its shameful.

He is clever!

You have to check out this guy!
He is hysterical.I particularly like the one about communication!
How many times have we stopped ourselves from saying what we really wanna say!? Well here is the answer to all your pent up anger!
Go on have a giggle.
I also like Annie the cat (Halloween /psycho).

http://www.zefrank.com

Za Spoons

I love rhythm........It sits in your stomach and rises up .Closing my eyes it takes me to a place in my centre and grows like a beautiful flower,finally blossoming into an expression of dance or movement or pure being. Its an expression and a communication.
I have played the Djembe for years. I was trained in Western Africa,I travelled through lesser known states and challenged the Masters to show me what they knew.It was never easy.
"Woman dance, dont drum".........so I danced.......a little.......eventually I pushed myself onto them ,challenged them to change thier tradition.Perhaps I shouldnt have done that but I was there to learn the rhythms of Africa.I wanted to learn Liberty,a rhythm that signified the independance from France. It was hard.It didnt flow in 4/4 it was off beat,it was complicated and beautiful. I observed thier reluctance and then thier wonder and pride that I could do it- a woman.
Yesterday we played to the beat of a great little accoustic band ,not with drums -with spoons! For such a simple little tool it has many uses.........Yai spoons....I think I may take a pair with me now as the norm.More than that and the same with the drum.It brings people together.Like I said its a communication and a bonding force.A smile emerges on the faces of those around you-Its fun,its pure joy.......Thank you spoons for being so simple.
I am now contemplating 101 uses of spoons in book form.......any ideas???

Pieces of Me

Hoorah.....Hooray!
A piece of me has arrived in Australia.........I recieved news today that the box that I sent almost 8 weeks ago has finally arrived.It was the box I was most worried about.It had lots of wood sculptures and plates and photo frmaes and pieces of my travels and time spent in warm interesting places.
Australia is very strct about this kind of thing and we were fully expecting to get a call saying that half of it had been taken away and confiscated!
I think it must have been the buddha I packed in the box.He must have protected the "things" I am most attatched too..........Hoorah for Australia ,Hoorah for my little wooden bits and pieces that will make my home more like home........Hoorah for a piece of me that is now settled into Australia! Hoorah!

Coming Together

Its all coming together at long last..........The fruits of my labor are starting to sprout forth!

Its been a difficult month.I have been stressed out to the max.Laughed a few times so hard I thought i would cry ,its been border line Hysteria.........

I have filled out so many forms and sent a menagerie of e-mails to officials.

I have so far organised my darling cat to leave Japan on the 1st November.Australia has very strict rules about what they do and dont allow into the country . It has been a host of visits to the Vet and mounds of paperwork and permit getting and spondoolies being dished and even measuring of the cat from head to toe and toe to head.Certificate A's and Certificate B's and certificates to prove certificates A and B.Its been a mind whirl. I was told that he is a little overweight which at this stage is not a concern as he will have to sit in quarantine for 30 days in Australia! Little sweetheart.I am so sorry to you for that ,but I promise you a better quality of life on the other end.Please dont forget me and for god sake dont die on me! I have spent a small fortune on getting you there ,that it would break my wallet, but most importantly my heart.Although dont doubt his courage and stregnth.Only the other day I caught him drinking out of the loo! Tuesday will be a hard day, as well as a relief that he is on his way! I have to take him to Narita where he will be seen by an Animal Quarantine inspection Vet who will thoroughly check that I have followed all procedures and that he is fully vaccinated to Australian standards.He will then seal him into his cage .( Question to self........how do I make sure benji has done most of his business before that?? I am pretty sure I wouldnt be able to cross my legs for 12 hours)

After this I will take him yowling (I am pretty sure ....) across to the cargo section where I will check him in for his adventure. He can only fly in a cargo plane .They will not allow him in the belly of a passenger plane.After this we will part our ways. My stomache will clench and I will become a wreck.Thankfully I have company.A good shoulder to support me for the journey back ,and more.

And I thought I was exhausted...........

Gawd, I am exhausted.........but I realised today that some deal with it differently to others,some will battle on quietly and crash at the end of the day,some will crash briefly on the train,some will crash on other peoples sofas ,or others will do what I saw today but I am guessing not too many.
She was standing against the door of the train ,she fell asleep ,she crashed..........completely........ onto the floor of the train,spread eagled postion,full body slam with the hard train floor.It was hard not to giggle,perhaps embarrased for the poor girl.There she lay Keitai still in hand, meek little eyes looking at at us who all were looking down at her.An odd perspective I am sure. I mean its not everyday that you get to see the world fromt he floor of a train huh?
Of course , she got off at the next stop apologising profusely to us all........No one said a word.......I wonder what it was like down there for the 2 minutes that she lay there? I certainly think her suit would have needed a dry clean.She left in a half bedraggled, dusty, dirty state.
Yeah ,I am tired but not that tired.

Recollections

Saturday.
The last day in Yotsuya.The home I have had for the longest period in 10 years. The circumstances of leaving sad . The future looking bright.The following of a lifelong dream.
I lay in bed that night feeling upset and sad that 2 people cant work it out in a kind and compassionate way.Sad that people are capable of such acts of dis-respect and able to inflict pain in such large amounts that it is hard to imagine that there was any love there at all.
My home was important to me. It has been, and in the future, will be the place where I can escape and take off the mask of the day. Its where I can warm myself and pull together the happenings of the day.
My home in Tokyo was built on love and a desire to make a warm place to be. There were many happy memories there.Amazing parties.Yummy dinners.Love shared under the sheets. The walls have seen much. The stories they could tell are most likely more eloquent than my own.They will no longer see Sarah anymore.She has gone.All remnants removed and safely on thier way to Australia .
Is it silly to be so attatched to a home? It was so much more than a home.It had a character and a heartbeat.
Well my dear home.Goodbye.

I am he and he is I

I relate to this little guy so much.......

It was amazing to see the instinct kick in when these little guys touch the sand.There was no confusion about which direction to head in.The Ocean! And fast!
We had to run around chasing these little guys before they swam away! Oh and I have to admit a little playtime too!

Party in plural.........

Wow! I didnt take into account in my planner that I would have to attend so many Sayonara parties.
I am starting to realise that Japanese just love to sayonara way before the event and all the way leading up to the departure! They dont want just one goodbye but several! This entails many late nights, lots of drinking and a whole heap of legnthy spiels about how wonderful you are and how much your spirit will be missed.Its tough.How will I possibly manage???!!!

Turtellinis!!!!!!!

Okay, Okay.....it was a few months ago but I am dreadfully behind on this blog with all thats been going on and I did promise more photos and more stories.......sorry for the delay!

So off i went to Malaysia.I already posted a part of the journey! The part that took sooooooo long but man it was worth it when we finally did!
We were fortunate enough to be there at a time when the Turtle hatching season was in full swing and even luckier to be a part of the whole conservation project that they have going on there.
1 in 100 turtles survives.Its abyssmal that these cute little guys have such a tough start to life and some dont even make it outta thier holes without getting munched on by some looming Monitor lizard or by an army of bull ants let alone the thought of how they cope when they start thier new little lives in the ocean.
The conservation project is a way of hopefully increasing these numbers. Suprisingly though the project in its practice is very primitive.
As you walk along the beach you see a multitude of sticks sticking out of the sand with a date.You approximate 10 weeks after that date and start digging up the hole to see if any of the little guys have started hatching.If so ,you grab them,put them in a box before they can make it into the ocean and keep them for a week or so.When they are a little older ,harder and not so vulnerable they are released into the ocean at night to go it alone .