Departures

Aug 29

Welcome to the final blog post of my journey in Japan.

It has been some time since the previous post. I’ve found a good balance in my life and adventures here, and somehow haven’t really felt like writing. Perhaps partially because I’ve been writing a lot for my art project. A bit silly, since I do enjoy sharing stories and reminding my future self of the memories I’ve created.

But this week I really want to write one last post! To wrap things up and and to explain in what kind of mood I’m leaving Japan. I’m not even sure what that mood is, but I’ll probably come to understand it as I write this.

Since I was solo traveling through 北海道 (Hokkaido) the entirety of last week - my last big trip in Japan - I’ll share some travel photos as well!

bowling. — I started my 北海道 trip by flying to the airport in Sapporo, and then taking local trains for some hours to reach this village, 滝川 (Takikawa). I initially wanted to go the whole way by train, but it would've been insanely expensive, difficult and slow, so I gave up LOL. When I left the train station in 滝川, the first thing I saw was this abandoned bowling hall. There were a bunch of huge ravens sitting on the lamps of the red thingy.

train. — After walking around the village for a bit waiting for my transfer (the trains only ran once every few hours), I took this one to an even smaller village where I would live. The trains were really retro with these cool mechanical spinning ceiling fans.

street. — Finally arrived to my village, 赤平 (Akabira), after 12 hours of traveling. It's an old coal-mining city with some thousands of people living there. Back in the 1960s there were around 60,000 people. I could definitely feel the vibes of a village that once bloomed but is now slowly fading away. I like that kind of melancholic nostalgia.

My tiny cozy room. I was expecting there to be other guests in the house, but the place was completely empty when I arrived. It felt quite spooky with the narrow dark corridors and empty rooms. Like a cute little haunted house.

Romance

Dating in Japan turned out to be really exciting.

At the start of June, I found a person I really like. We’ve been seeing each other for almost three months now. She has made my life here so much more special, and I’m really happy and thankful that we’ve met.

It’s the person I was watching the sunset with in the previous blog post. 舞衣子. By now, we’ve been watching a lot of different things together, from big buildings to stars and fireworks and rivers and fishes and ghosts and buses and eyes and dances and city lights and hills and dinosaurs. I feel really happy for all these memories.

Our romantic relationship ends as I return to Finland, but we both want to keep in touch. It feels sad to suddenly have so much distance, but it warms my heart that I have made a new close friend in this faraway country - a country which now has a face.

In that sense I feel good about knowing that I will miss 舞衣子. I want to see her again, and that is another reason to return to this beautiful country one day.

coal. — Waking up in 赤平 for the first time, I decided that I'll just spend the first day exploring the village. So I went for a walk and found this old structure that was somehow used in coal mining.

stairs. — Next to the structure I found five million stairs that took me to the top of the hill. It started raining heavily once I got to the top. But I had an umbrella and the views were amazing so I just spent a while standing under a tree and looking at the valley from above.

onsen. — Since it was a rainy day I had the brilliant idea that it'd be nice to visit an onsen today. Less brilliantly, the onsen was up the hill on the literal opposite side of the valley so I spent like 2 hours walking there through the rain. By the time I arrived I was completely soaked. But at least I wasn't a smoking mouse or tattoo'd bear so I could enter and enjoy the hot baths. There was an outdoor bath as well where I could feel the rain falling on the top part of my body while the lower part was slowly boiling.

flower_road. — On the way back towards my house I walked through this pretty street. Some of the vegetation reminded me a lot of Finland. The temperatures in this region were also similar to Finnish summer days, around 25 degrees - perfect for an icicle boy like me.

vending. — Just another vending machine with epic placement.

house. — A cute house right next to where I lived. The village looks less creepy by day!

School

My uni classes ended in late July. The last weeks were pretty intense, since I was asked to, and wanted to, present the silence project I’ve been working on during my time here. So, I no-lifed those two weeks to make a prototype: editing sound, coding, doing graphic design, binding books etc. And then I showed it to the class.

My classmates and the professors really liked the work, and I got a lot of really helpful feedback. And to be honest, I was quite happy with it myself, even if it was just a first version. I already know I want to continue working on it in Finland.

On that note, I cannot wait to show the work to friends and people in Finland! It somehow describes my trip here as well. I’m interested to see how non-Japanese people will relate to it.

In general, I really liked going to school here. It was much more free than I expected, but at the same time it felt structured, since we had meetings every week. It felt good to receive personal feedback and suggestions for my project every week from the professors. And even if I didn’t get to know my class mates that well, I liked our interactions and everybody felt really kind and helpful.

oldhouse. — The next day I wanted to go see flowers, since I heard there was a nearby region famous for them. So I took local trains for some hours to reach 上富良野 (Kamifurano). It was another little village with some really funky houses.

road. — The flower region was a bit out of the village, and I had to walk through a bunch of country roads to get there.

field. — I really liked walking between these fields. It was actually a dream of mine, to walk between rice fields somewhere in the middle of the Japanese countryside. They weren't all rice, but I think it still counts.

bear. — And a ferocious bear with fancy mustache.

limelon. — And a highly delicious melon at a nearby food stall.

booth. — In the countryside some farmers were selling their crops in little booths like this. You could just take the food and put your payment to the little tube on the right.

bell. — I also walked to another flower place on top of a hill. It had a bell you could ring.

sunset. — On the train home after a long day of walking.

Language

I am not sure if my Japanese has really improved during my time here. My grammar has got worse, if anything. What has gotten better, though, is my vocabulary and confidence. I’ve had to speak the language on a daily basis for almost half a year, and even though I sound like a baby, I’m not afraid to speak anymore.

I’d say this is mostly thanks to the incredibly kind and patient people I’ve met here, who don’t seem to judge my broken Japanese. Other than that, what has helped is that people don’t really speak English here so I have no choice but to try and communicate in Japanese.

My vocabulary has grown, or at least shifted, quite a lot from what I learned before coming. I can now read and pronounce a lot of the everyday kanji, and know all the common phrases used in grocery stores, restaurants, onsen, train stations etc.

I also really want to thank my hiking friend ありさ for teaching me a lot of vocabulary as a result of me pointing at things and asking “what is that?”

Even during last week’s travels in 北海道, I was quite surprised that I could have (extremely basic) conversations with some locals. This is something I never would’ve imagined in my first weeks here. Happy times.

spray. — The following day, I felt like climbing a mountain so I woke up really early and took some trains and buses towards 旭岳 (Asahidake), the tallest mountain in 北海道. I arrived at this station at the root of the mountain, and took a cable car to get a bit higher. Bears are common in the region, so some people carry bear spray while hiking. And seems like some people also like spraying humans in cable cars. Makes sense, humans can be scary.

hiking_path. — Getting off the cable car, ready to start an adventure! It was much colder up there, around 14 degrees.

geyser. — 旭岳 is an active volcano, and I could see the mountain breathing on the way up.

asahidake. — As I got higher, the weather got worse and worse. It started to rain, first slowly, and then more and more heavily. The wind was also getting crazy, and I couldn't see anything with the mist. I was completely soaked and feeling a bit spooked, so I turned back around this spot, some 100 meters from the top. I prefer living.

pond. — I descended back to the cable car station, feeling pretty cold, to change to dry clothes and warm up a bit. Then, I went for an easier walk at this plateau. It was incredibly beautiful, there were so many little ponds.

cable. — Taking the cable car back down, I saw some of the prettiest views I've seen in my life. Also, I later heard that somebody died on the mountain that day. It's sad, and I can easily believe it with that kind of weather. Just as a reminder to myself and others, there is no shame in turning back, ever. Ego and mountains are not a good combination.

bataatti. — Resting and enjoying a sweet potato at the end of the day, dry and happy.

Food

If I had to choose one thing about Japan that I certainly won’t miss, that would be the food.

Vegetarianism and veganism are really not a thing here. It’s essentially impossible to find vegan options in restaurants aside from the very touristic centers of big cities. Even vegetarian food is a huge struggle. Every random wet noodle dish is made into fish or meat broth, or it has some pig or fish powder added to it.

I used to joke about messing vegans up by sprinkling bacon powder on the food as the last ingredient. Well guess what, that’s Japan in a nutshell! I guess the universe is taking revenge on me for making bad jokes.

And in the average supermarket, there are none of the ingredients that I would usually cook vegan meals with: no lentils, no grated soy, no chickpeas, no (nice) potatoes, no corn flour/tortillas etc. This made it quite cumbersome to cook, since I couldn’t rely on almost any recipe I knew from before.

That being said, the vegetables and tofu are really nice here. Especially tofu, it’s extremely cheap and tasty, and there are so many varieties. But, I’ve been living such a fast life, that I definitely haven’t had the time to cook two meals every day.

For lunch, I usually just bought a snack from a konbini. And since veggie options are limited, I’ve been eating the same kelp onigiri and inari sushi for the last five and a half months. Kill me.

Consequently, I’m actually really looking forward to being back in Funland and having an exciting variety of vegan things I can buy in the supermarkets. And every restaurant having some vegan options.

And ruisleipä. I will ruisleipä so hard when I get back to Finland.

And potatoes. I will never eat rice again. Only potatoes.

Ok ok maybe I will miss that one restaurant with vegan ramen in Akihabara. The thick creamy broth and the chewy noodles. And maybe that one other place in Shimokitazawa with the nice soba. And the expensive restaurant with the colorful gyoza was really cool.

But hey lol anyway ruisleipä and potatoes here I come!

Here are some photos from the remaining time in 北海道. This was my local station.

festival. — I came by this matsuri, festival, in a nearby village. There were a lot of food stalls and activities.

toire. — I visited an outdoor museum dedicated to architecture of the Ainu (the native people of this region). These are toilets.

ainu. — And this is one of the traditional huts from the inside.

One evening I encountered a funny bug. It was walking around the train platform (its legs look funny but it was totes ok). I saw some 5 people getting off a train and noticing it like WAAA SUGOOOI and gathering around it to look at it.

singing. — I was surprised when coming home one day - there was a festival in my little village! The singer was doing their best to entertain people in the pouring rain.

windows. — Just a quiet moment in my room on the last morning.

Final week

I’m writing this blog on a train. I was just visiting a classmate’s exhibition in Enoshima, some hours away from where I live. That’s one of the things I really wanted to do this week.

Some of the others are: showing my work to ありさ, since she didn’t see it yet, going to the city office to register my departure from Japan, meeting 舞衣子 over the weekend, packing up and moving out of my house to stay at Shunsuke’s place for the last days.

There are many many things, but I’m still trying to to take it quite slow, since last week’s trip was so intense. I was dead for two days after returning. So I’m cutting myself some slack and just trying to enjoy a relaxed last week in Tokyo.

exhibition. — I visited the exhibition of a classmate this week. The space was really cool!

exhibition_flowers. — Beautiful hanging flowers.

Temporary departures

It’s hard to comprehend how much time has passed since I came to Japan. At the same time it feels like an eternity since I arrived, but at the same time it’s like yesterday.

Kind of like a dream that feels like it lasts forever. And then, when waking up, you realise that you haven’t been sleeping for more than a few hours. Yet, it feels like you have done so much since you fell asleep, that you almost feel exhausted.

But I know that these have been some of the best months of my life. I wouldn’t trade anything away or do anything differently. Everything went just as it was supposed to, even the more difficult times, and I feel happy to have experienced it all.

Now that I’m writing this, I feel a bit like crying. I’m not entirely sure why. I guess I’m realising that this amazing period in my life is coming to a close. And that I’ll probably never be able to experience something like this again - being an arts exchange student in a faraway country.

But, I’ll experience different things. And, I’m looking forward to being back in Finland with all the people I know and love and finding new adventures there.

And I already know I want to visit Japan again. Next time probably in the autumn, to see all the funny trees here changing color.

But for now, this is it. Bye, Japan. Bye all the beautiful people and nature and adventures.

See you next time.