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Right now I've got this song by Diddy ft. Skylar Grey stuck in my head... "Coming Home" it's called. But I guess it's appropriate because in two days I will be.

(Yes, that's the cliff hanger for you to keep reading...)

It's Tuesday evening of Kansai Gaidai's haru yasumi (spring break), so I figured I'd write a blog of what I've been doing for the past 10 days of my life.

There's been a lot going on here, as I'm sure you've all heard by now. And I don't even know where to begin.

Though things have settled down a bit (crossing fingers) it's still surreal to be living and experiencing this situation. I never ever thought during my study abroad that a 9.0 earthquake would hit Japan, followed by a tsunami, and then followed by all sorts of radiation drama. And I never thought that it would send me home.

Last week, this situation was the only thing talked about. Ever. In classes, in the hallway, in the bathroom, outside, in the cafeteria, on the train, in the dorms, in public areas where you'd happen to run into someone you know.... just EVERYWHERE. I must've gotten at least 10 emails a day from the school telling us that things would be alright, that we'd be fine, and that we wouldn't be affected.

But then students started going home. At first it was things like being scared of earthquakes and radiation or changing majors to something completely new. Then it was the European and the Chinese governments that made their students come home. Then Obama said he highly suggested all American think about returning home. Now schools are canceling programs and forcing students to return home.

I was in Hiroshima this past weekend and returned to my dorm to see that my roommate was gone. Her school had forced her to leave. Joelle was the best roommate ever and I never even got to say goodbye. About two thirds of my dorm has gone home because of the above reasons. Most students now are going home because their schools are forcing them to. In the past week, I've seen more girls crying then I've ever seen in my life.

At first, I was surprised. This time last week, Oshkosh was really chill about the whole situation and was like 'oh yeah, you're totally fine in Japan. Don't even worry.' Friday during the day I manage to connect to WiFi in Hiroshima and I get an email saying 'yeah the whole UW System has cancelled their programs in Japan. All the UW students are coming home so you probably should too.' (In addition to Oshkosh, Whitewater, Eau Claire, and Platteville all have students studying at Kansai Gaidai. Other UW schools have students all over Japan though.)

I guess I just can't believe it. I have to come home 2 months early. I'm not even sure if I can complete my semester. Kansai Gaidai might let us finish classes online, but they're still trying to work things out. If so, it's not certain those classes will transfer back. I don't know if money will get reimbursed. I can't start classes up at any other school because it's too late in the semester.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself in Wisconsin. Sure, maybe write a song or two and find a job, but still. This wasn't supposed to happen; how is one supposed to plan something like this???

Yes, God has a plan and I know that. But at times like this, it's hard to see the plan. There's a reason that I was supposed to be in Japan for only this amount of time. I know I have to go home and I've come to terms with that. But that doesn't mean that I haven't cried about it with the rest of the girls in my dorm...

I guess it just shows that you can never make plans. Because God's always got a better one in mind. I mean, just look at this blog title. January to June in Japan. I had planned to stay in Japan until June and even based a blog title off that. But now I have to go home. Crazy, right? I've always been a believer in signs... and I just keep seeing little signs like that, things that are telling me that I have to go home, no matter how much it hurts.

So heres to the 次のページ, the next page. I doubt this one will entail earthquakes, tsunamis, and radiation that will force me to leave Wisconsin, but hey, you never know. Japan has been AMAZING and I wouldn't have traded this experience for the world. All of you fellow people my age, I really encourage you to study abroad. It's an amazing experience and you won't regret it. And all of you people not my age, go travel the world. You deserve it!

Thank you for the love, prayers, and all of your support through this whirlwind journey!! I had so much fun with this blog and I love that you all liked it! Maybe I'll start another blog someday if I ever have something entertaining to say...

I'm excited to find out where the next page of my life will take me. But I've got to say, I'm even more nervous. Days and weeks leading up to my arrival in Japan, people would ask me if I was nervous and would be so surprised to hear that I wasn't. And it's true, I wasn't one bit.

But I never thought I would be nervous to come home...

Thank you all for journeying with me to Japan. I can't say thank you enough for your love, support, and prayers. It means the world to me. Keep the people of Japan in your prayers, they need it more than you know.

I love you all and I'll see you when I get home.

CB

March 11, 2011: The Sendai Earthquake

Before I really start this post off, I need to say thank you.

Thank you to every single person that has sent me an email, Facebook message, asked how I was doing and most importantly, prayed. THANK YOU for the prayers, God does work miracles!

This whole experience has been something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I've only been in Japan for a little over a month, yet I'm already infatuated with it's fascinating culture and wonderful people. This country doesn't deserve to have such a horrible disaster upon it... no where in the world does.

There's something incredibly moving about being in a country that is not your own when a disaster strikes. I can't explain it and I wish you all could feel what I feel right at this moment. It's something that I'll remember forever. And when I see that #PrayForJapan is a trending topic on Twitter or the home page of MSNBC devoted to the disaster in Japan, it makes me proud to be living in Japan during this time of trouble. The whole world is thinking about us, supporting, and praying for us... and my one request is that you please keep doing so. It's going to take a long time for Japan to heal back to normal, but God really does work miracles.

I'm going to be straight up honest when I talk about where I was when this earthquake took place. No, I'm not making it up. 100% truth.

I was in the bathroom when an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan on Friday, March 11, 2011.

My last class on Fridays ends at 2:45 but thankfully my history professor let us out a couple minutes earlier this time. My friend Hanne was meeting me at 3 on campus, so I had a couple extra minutes before she arrived.

I ran down four flights of stairs to the restroom. I closed the stall door and sat down. Not even two seconds later, I suddenly felt incredibly dizzy. I hadn't eaten lunch yet because classes were from 11-2:45, so I figured it was because because my blood sugar was low. Was the earth moving? I was really dizzy now. And the feeling didn't go away. It felt like the earth was moving in slow motion in all directions and wouldn't stop. I held onto the toilet and the walls around me to try to get the shaking to stop. It was a slow shaking that made me think my mind was playing a trick on me. My head was pounding; I was so lightheaded and nauseous. I've never passed out before but in that moment it felt like I could've any second.

The thought that maybe? it was an earthquake had crossed my mind, yet I was skeptical and shrugged it off.

Later that night, I ate dinner with Hanne and Lindsay. The topic came up, and after I realized I was on the toilet during an actual earthquake, we laughed for quite a while. Lindsay had experienced a similar feeling of lightheaded and nauseous-ness during her pottery class, which she also thought was due to being hungry. She said many other people she talked to had felt the same kind of thing when the earthquake took place. Hanne had seen some dogs acting strange but didn't think much about it, because well, they are dogs.

Then the texts came pouring in. Hanne received several texts from Finland asking if she was okay. We thought it was interesting that the other side of world had already found out about this earthquake. We didn't think it was very big... but we thought it was so nice of them to care! Then we started talking about how interesting and crazy it would be if a huge earthquake actually took place. Little did we know...

After arriving back to my dorm at around 10:30 Friday night, I logged onto my email and Facebook. Several emails from my family asking if I was okay. Friends commenting on Facebook asking if I was okay. Yes.... I'm fine. But so confused???

I pull up Google and search 'Earthquake in Japan.'

Holy. Crap.

I had no idea it was such a big earthquake. No idea. At all.

As I sat there last night looking at pictures of the disasters from the earthquake and tsunami, tears were filling my eyes. I'm living this... not even 6 hours away. This is going on right now. In the country that I'm living in for the next 4 months.

These are things that are starting to become part of my everyday life; things that I'm starting to love about Japan. I just rode the JR Line, one of the many train lines that have suffered damage. I was supposed to ride Shinkansen (the bullet train) in a week, which have been suspended until further notice. I was supposed to go to Tokyo in a week, which reports are saying to stay away from Tokyo and northern areas of Japan...

It's so surreal.

It feels like the world around me has stopped because of this earthquake, yet I'm still living through it and doing fine. Thankfully, the Kansai area hasn't been physically affected, yet we still feel directly affected in a way that I can't describe. Spring break is in a week and though our Tokyo trip may be called off, I still want to find a way there. Not to do touristy things like we planned, but to help out. It's the only thing I want to do now... help out those that are hurting. Though that may not be possible quite yet, it's been added to my Things to Do In Japan Before I Leave list. And it's going to get accomplished.

But in the meantime, I want to thank you again for all your continuous love, support and prayers. It means so much to myself and the other international students, as well as the Japanese people. And if you have a couple extra dollars to spare, I urge you to donate to the Red Cross or other similar organizations. We've been given so much and the least we can do is to give back to those that really need it.

I'll keep you all posted with new information when I know it. I love you all.

Pray for Japan.

The Nara Experience

It's been a while since I've posted on this dear blog, so I figured I'd tell you all the tale of the great Nara adventure. Said adventure took place this past weekend and it was just wonderful!

Before I start anything though, you have to go to YouTube and look up "really annoying snoring." I hope these videos bring you lots of enjoyment and curiosity of what took place in Nara this past weekend...

Ok I need to back up.

12 hours earlier.

It was about 2 in the afternoon on Saturday when this journey begins. Myself, Lindsay, Hanne, and Sayumi (Lindsay's awesome Japanese friend) were on our way to the land where the deer roam free! (No, not Wisconsin...) It was about a 2 hour train journey away but alas, we had many wonderful conversations, saw beautiful scenery out the train windows, and got stared at by Nihonjin (Japanese people) because we are gaijin (foreigners, minus Sayumi).

Our hostel was right across the street from the train station which was super convenient. We checked in and and headed out to see the shika (deer!!!).

Upon arriving to Nara Park, this is one of the first signs we saw and I laughed so hard at it!! I'm sure you can see why. Japan is a very clearly labeled society and there really are hilarious signs everywhere.

(PS... you can click the pictures to enlarge them this time... I have no idea what happened with the last one, oops...)

We hung out with the deer the rest of the afternoon (and the next day).

(Fyi... over the course of this post there will probably be a lot of deer so if you're sick of seeing dead deer on the side of the road in Wisconsin you should probably stop reading right now. Or you should keep reading and you'll get a good feeling in your heart that tame deer really do still roam free in deer parks in Japan.)

I know... this is probably considered a creeper picture.

We were fortunate and got to see some other sights in Nara before sunset which was super gorgeous! This is the Five Story Pagoda!

Oh hey!

Below is another part of the Kofukuji Temple... I believe it was. This trip worked out perfectly because in my history class we were just talking about Nara being the old old capital of Japan and then I got to see the places we were talking about this weekend! It was pretty cool.

Then it got dark and we went to a fire festival at this super old castle! None of my pictures turned out but it was insane. There were mobs upon mobs of people and the crowd was absolutely SILENT the whole time. But then something sweet would happen like someone would throw a fireball to the opposite side of the castle and then everyone would "ooh" and "ahh" at the same time. It was so entertaining and I spent half the time observing the crowds reactions and noise (slash lack thereof) because it was so unusual!

We stumbled upon this display with pictures of the fire festival! So these were what my pictures were supposed to look like. :)

After the fire festival event took place, we headed out to a bar and Sayumi taught us about highballs! Highballs are Japanese drinks and they are wonderful. They consist of whiskey, soda, and flavoring. Us foreigners got plum wine and Sayumi got a regular (has no flavoring and is just whiskey and soda... it was like 17 times stronger). But they were awesome and apparently are unique to Japan!

And now, folks, here we are. Back to the starting point. The hostel.

Now, this was my first hostel experience (considering we don't have them in the States). For those of you that don't know what hostels are, it's pretty much a giant room with bunk beds and you and a random amount of strangers sleep in a said room and it's super cheap. For 1 person it was like the equivalent to $20 USD for one night.

Anyway. I told you to look up "really annoying snoring" on YouTube.... did you do it??? If you did than you know what I'm talking about. If you didn't then you're just going to have to use your imagination. But it was real bad.

I woke up at 3 am to this low rumbling coming from below me (I was on the top bunk). I kid you not... the random person below me was snoring so loud it was like a low bass beating out of some obnoxious teenager's car. Then on top of that snoring, there were 2 other loud people crazily snoring on the other side of the room. Throw that in with a little sleep talking and sleep humming from others.... it was a chorus of snoring that kept me up for a couple hours at least. I never leave home without my iPod (for music and my handy Japanese translation app) but of course the one time I do is a disaster. But I have learned my lesson! Never again will I travel without my iPod. If you plan on doing any hostel traveling in the near future, take note!!

Our hostel. View from my wonderful top bunk bed.

(There high percentage that the male and female in the right corner were the snorers...)

The following day (Sunday) we explored Nara some more, hung out with our dear deer (ha) friends, and finally got home around 4 pm ish. It was a wonderful trip and so much fun! I will leave you with some more pictures because everyone loves pictures.

This, my friends, is why you should never ever ever use Google translator for a foreign language.... a return mouth?? Really??

Lindsay was awesome at herding the deer! (She had deer food)

The babies were so precious!!

Just chillin...

Awesome tree branches.

They liked the scarf.

Stay tuned for more adventures from Japan!

Spring break is in 2 weeks and this will consist of heading the wonderful and magical Tokyo! And we are SO EXCITED. It will consist of many adventures and crazy happenings I'm sure. Marcy Ethel (yes, that is my cameras name) will sure to be documenting everything. Also hoping I'll get a chance to see the WELS Mission in Japan because it's in Tokyo!

But. I have to survive a week and one day of classes.... BUT this weekend a couple of us are heading to Kobe, which is well-know for it's Chinatown. Chinatown in Japan? I'm confused as well but I'm sure there's a good story behind that reasoning. And also heading to the famous Osaka Aquarium on Sunday to see some exotic sea creatures!

Oh I just want to say THANK YOU for reading this blog. It makes my day that people are actually interested in these adventures :)