Taking the long way home from Japan to Frome, UK
Nine months passed between deciding that Fromeward Bound was going to happen and finally leaving Tokyo. During that time I did a huge amount of researching and planning – reading blogs and forums, pouring over maps, etc. – and created quite a clear idea in my head of how I thought things would play out.
Despite all that ‘deep’ thinking, some things have turned out a bit differently…..
Our very first night on the road
“The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors” – Melissandra – Game of Thrones
A heinous man, not four feet tall, approaches the car. His long pointed noise, crooked and bent, sniffs the cool night air like a hungry wolf. Greasy long blond hair lies in knotted strands down his hunched back. Black beady eyes peer through the open window and settle menacingly on my sleeping pale flesh. Suddenly he thrusts his hand through the open car window and grabs me: I wake with a start. I scream but no sound emerges from my mouth. I shout for Captain but no sound emerges from my mouth. Even my fast heaving breath makes not a ripple in the still night air. There is nothing but silence…..
Six tried and tested methods of execution:
#1 Mr Miyagi – (1984 Karate Kid) – when it looks like you are only grabbing handfuls of thin air, but, as you uncoil your hand, you have actually caught a mosquito in mid flight and crushed it to death in one swift movement. This method is no doubt the coolest and deserves utmost respect.
#2 Nosferatu – (1922 vampire film) – when you splat a mosquito mid meal leaving a smear of blood on the skin. A bitter sweet ending maybe?
#3 The Guillotine – after splatting a mosquito on the wall you realise that you have cleanly and neatly dissected him into two or more neat parts.
#4 Splat-and-Smear – when a mosquito is flying between the roof of the car and the mosquito net. From a lying down position, with palm facing upwards, you splat. And then, not even sure if you have got him, you nevertheless smear by dragging your palm some three or four inches in any direction. This does have the downside of leaving an unsightly mess on the roof but is so worth it.
#5 The Stun-Gun – when you have splattered the mosquito and he literally falls, like a lead balloon, into the abyss below leaving no residue or trace behind.
#6 The Tweezer – you must merely stun the mosquito first and then, holding him in your fingers and being careful to not crush and kill him, you slowly and sadistically pluck each body part off him one by one. Enough said.
Enjoy 🙂
I should forwarn you that you won’t come away with any mystic Eastern insights on the meaning of life (You’ll need to read Herman Hesse or Kahil Gibran et al for that.) Merely, a small insight into life on board the Korean-run ferry ‘Eastern Dream’ that sails between Sakaiminato, Japan and Vladivostok, Russia, via Donghae, South Korea.
And to be honest you won’t learn much about that either.
Here’s a map of the final route we took in Japan.
At school I sometimes do an exercise with the children where you recount a story or an experience in 20 words or phrases and then you have to reduce that from 20 to 10, and then finally whittle it down to only 5 words/phrases that sum up the story/experience. You have to be quick and go with the first words and not think too much about it. So Captain and I did one the last morning of our seven day drive around Japan. I’ll do his first and then mine 🙂
The first week of our trip was also our last week of our 5 years spent living in Japan. So, it was a week full mostly of excitement, but also tinged with a bit of sadness that this will be the last we see of the place we’ve called home for the last 5 years.
Here’s an edit of the video we shot over the week!
So our time in Japan is nearly at an end. After 5 years living in Tokyo we are moving on to the next chapter. I have LOVED living here. As an expat/foreigner/gaijin/immigrant – Tokyo offers so much. I felt it was now time to put my musings about my time in Japan into some written form. I hope its not too crass to divide these into two sections…and do please take these with a large pinch of salt 😉
This weekend we got in our last practice camping mission before we set off for real in 2 weeks time!
We went to Nikkō (日光) and spent a few days randomly driving around in the mountains.
We also got to put in a few flights with our new toy, Brian. We bought him 2 weeks ago, but as there hasn’t been the light, weather or space to try him out he’d been confined to his box. But no more!
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