Jonbu the baker

Um.. The server I’m storing my pictures are down. So from now on, no more LJ pictures until it magically returns. I could use my ECE webspace, but it’ll disappear after I graduate.

Nothing lasts forever. I just didnt think it’d end this quickly.

This is me at work.
That piece of Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum was given to me by Shirley while in Hong Kong.
My hand is crinching onto nothing. It’s like that from 10+ years of mouse usage.
My eyes are not looking at anything. It’s like that from 20+ years of monitor usage.

Have you heard Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons? I haven’t really hear the whole thing, but the Largo part of The Winter is my favorite. I’ts only a 3-minute segment of the whole thing, but it has so much impact.

How can I describe music? You just have to go hear it. It’s likely you’ve heard it already. On TV or somewhere else. Of all the classical music in my memory, it is the best 3 minutes.

I can’t find my tooth paste. I remember bringing a few tubes from Canada, because I read that the Japanese don’t allow flouride to be put into tooth pastes, and I just love flouride.

It’s so weird. I remember bring like 4 tubes, but I just can’t seem to find out where they went. It’s not possible to use up 4 tubes in 8 months right? Right.

So for tonight I’ll likely use some tiny toothpaste I got from a hotel in Hong Kong, and tomorrow I have to go buy some toothpaste.

Or, maybe tomorrow I will clean my room, and the toothpaste will appear.

While sorting out the pictures for this post I got extremely yawny, so I decided to go for a cleansing. But the water room downstairs was so chuck full of people, I was reverted back to my room.

Good chance to use this time to finish up this post because I shouldn’t really post these visually boring pictures.
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I am depressed.

Having to think about my return ticket got me thinking about what has been happening through this internship. It got me to think about what I will be leaving behind.

Japan.

Japan is such a friendly place. I feel no hostility here. I’m free to ask anyone at the train station for directions. I find patience and smiles where I would find frowns in Canada. And I will miss the trains, as well as the cities they take you to.

Sanyo.

It’s where I live, where I work.

I already developed a routine for every morning. There are people I will greet everyday. I have a favorite spot in the shower room. It’s very likely that I will never, ever live here again.

Fellow interns that have came with me to Japan.

In these short months I have grown dependent on them. They are my best friends in Anpachi, no doubt. But this relationship will end.

We all live in the same city back in Canada. But we all play different roles at that distant place. Everyone will resume their role back there. Return to their own circles of family and friends.

We will not bike together to nearby combini and chat for hours. We will not check out and comment on each other’s journals every single day. We will not email each other 50 messages during work using corporate emails. We will not sit on the trains together, and share the joy of leaving Anpachi.

Anpachi is a hole, as Shirley calls it. But it’s cozy in here. It’s the warmth generated by the people here with me. I’m just as happy here as I can ever be anywhere else in this World.

Of course friendship goes on forever. But it will change. This life will end.

What am I trying to say?

Time and location are mere settings. It’s people that make the story. I’m glad if I somehow made my way into their stories. They have certainly made their ways into mine.

Life is short, 1/70 of a lifetime is even shorter. Nevertheless this year-long experience will be the red streak that stands out in my greyish fabric of life.

When I leave this place three months from now, I will be leaving behind more than what it is. I will be pulling away from the family we’ve created.

Anpachi will remain in my heart forever. Not just because of the small town that it is, but because of the friends that were there with me.

Will I cherish life here more, now that it’s ending? I doubt I will. Humans take things for granted, at least I do. That’s a fact of life. Looking at myself as a bystandard, that’s what’s saddening me.

I hope I will read my own post later, and think different.