Back to Nepal!

Although I enjoyed my time in Japan and other parts of the Far East,  it feels great to be back in Nepal.  Despite the fact that there is often times a shortage of water and my showers aren't always ideal, the power gets cuts a few times daily by the government which means there isn't always internet or light, I have to be extremely careful with the food I eat, the dirt from the dusty roads is starting to take up residence inside my lungs, Oh and did I mention the nationwide fuel shortage?  Very long story short, there is a MASSIVE fuel shortage.  People are parked in GINORMOUS lines at the gas stations, and by ginormous lines i mean that there are cars parked for miles and miles without anybody even in them just queued up IN CASE the gas station opens.  There were a few days that private vehicles were actually banned from purchasing fuel in order to save it for the emergency vehicles here.  Needless to say, people aren't going very far...and if they are, they are either walking, or riding on top of one of the FEW public buses that somehow still have fuel.  Many people (including us) are now cooking over open fires, restaurants have shut down bcuz they have no fuel to cook with....BUT.... despite all of these wonderful things, it is still great to be back here. :)

The line of cars goes MUCH longer than this picture shows...

Absolutely not

Now cooking over fire :)

Bikes lined up for gas, nobody even near them.

It's great being back because the kids here at Maitidevi school are nothing short of amazing.  Their hearts are 100 times bigger than their tiny little bodies.....which means love is literally BURSTING out of them.  :)

Celebrating Dashain!

They are always bringing me tiny little pieces of candy everyday.  I still have yet to eat a bunch of them because I can't keep up.  One of my favorite little girls named Pinkey (yes as in the color.... I know) one day gave me a package of cookies.  I'm pretty sure this wasn't her original intention when she left her house that morning.  She saw another student give me a bag of cheese balls and I think because she saw how excited I got ( I LOVE cheese balls what can I say) she then proceeded to give me her cookies.  I tried to not accept them, I really did, but there was no way I could.  Her feelings would have been hurt...and let's be honest...should she really be eating a package of cookies for lunch?  I think not.  :)

Pinkey getting tika :)

My first few days back, the kids overwhelmed me with their welcome back celebrations they planned and all of their wonderful little gifts.  Three of the classes decorated their rooms by coloring paper stars and hanging them from the ceiling.  They drew me a picture of fish and the solar system (not sure why but I'll take it :)  and gave me a cute little rose thing which I'm really not sure what I'll do with...but was told it will look beautiful in my house. :)

Class 5 :)

Best Wishes :)

fish pic :)

After exams one day, my Class 4 came prepared to make me a Nepali snack.  They all started pouring things into a plastic bag...which who the hek knows if the bag was clean or not...and began to make this lovely little snack.  They all brought in a different ingredient including, tomatoes, onions, oil, puffed rice thing, and some kids even brought in spices wrapped in newspaper...they were very creative I do have to say.  They all mixed it together at once with their (clean?) hands, I still ate it and I do have to say it was REALLY good.  They then proceeded to make it two times after that because I liked it so much.  I'm sure their parents were thrilled to keep spending money on these ingredients.  :)

The first few weeks back in Nepal, although there was a little adjustment phase I went through probably due to the fact that I was pretty much living in a palace in Japan, have been very relaxing to say the least. :)

Oh and random but important side note, a little old Nepali lady looked at me while in line at the local grocery store one night and asked "Korean?"
Apparently I've been living in Asia long enough that I now look Korean. 
The young boy working laughed and said "American."  :)

The Far East

After spending the past year in the Far East part of the world, I thought I would share some of the similarities and differences between Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.  Get excited.  :)

Out of the three countries, Japan is the cleanest and most orderly WITHOUT A DOUBT.  All of the people are extremely friendly and polite...even if they are only acting that way because they "have to."  There is a countrywide noon bell and a 5:00pm bell that lets you know it's time to go home just in case you forgot.  I'm pretty sure the garbage and recycling rules took me about a month to learn.  I think it would be safe to say there aren't too many surprises in Japan.  :)

My garbage/recycling rules that I'm pretty sure I didn't follow exactly. ooops.

 The food in Japan is great....very healthy for the most part and the sushi is of course world class.
The packaging of Japanese food, specifically desserts, is unlike anywhere else.  They take great pride in their packaging because it's Japan and everything has to be done in a particular way.  Sometimes I think they waste quite a bit of plastic on extra packaging, but hey, at least it looks nice. Right? :)  It wouldn't surprise me if I one day bought a bag of potato chips and inside the bag, EACH potato chip was individually wrapped.  That's kind of how things work in Japan.  :)

Everything is ALWAYS individually wrapped

Japanese sweets that always look like perfection

South Korea, specifically Seoul, has A TON of character.  The city and surrounding areas are modern, hip, urban, and full of pretty fashionable people.  The Koreans are also very kind, but you can tell they have a bit more of an edge to them compared to the Japanese.  They are much more individualistic and free to express themselves.

Random family who jumped in my picture

A lot of street music in Hongdae, Seoul

The South Korean food, to be quite honest, looked like barf.  I'm not gonna lie.   I can't judge all of the food because I didn't try it all....I guess I draw the line when I see intestines sitting in a bowl.  But seriously the food did not look appetizing .....and I'm not a very picky eater!  They are however known for kimchee, a red, spicy sauce that is used pretty much on anything and everything.  If you can take the heat, it's actually pretty good.

No clue what it is = not happening.

Absolutely not

From what I had noticed in Taiwan, the people weren't overly aggressive but they also weren't overly friendly.  They seemed to mind their own business but were usually always willing to help if you asked.  Usually.  :)

I was a huge fan of the food in Taiwan, specifically the street food.  It was not only cheap, but REALLY good.  From dumplings, to Taiwanese hamburgers, to bubble tea, I loved it all.  The night markets were my favorite because of the atmosphere.  It's definitely a great place to hang out and try new food, especially with a local. :)

Patty, a local of Kaoshiung who I first met in London :)

Super fresh seafood

Of the three countries, I would have to say that Taiwan was a bit more difficult to get around than Japan or Korea.  Many signs and announcements were sometimes only in Chinese (which doesn't help when the only Chinese I know is Hello.)  If you are lost in Japan, the locals will usually LITERALLY walk you to wherever you need to go.  :)

Here are a few pictures showing the temples, palaces and shrines of the East.  Japan has both temples and shrines, but because Shinto is their main religion they have many more shrines throughout the country.  South Korea has a mixture of temples and palaces and Taiwan has many temples and pagodas of Chinese influence.

Kashima shrine, Kashima, Ibaraki, Japan

Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea

Tiger and Dragon Pagdoa, Kaoshiung, Taiwan

In all three countries, it is not only polite, but expected to take your shoes off in most places...especially homes.  When people eat soup (ramen), it is polite to slurp.  It shows that you appreciate and enjoy the meal.  This does not mean that I enjoy this sound because I don't....I think it's disgusting.  If you one day find yourself in a ramen house, you can expect to be annoyed. :)

Ramen House, Chiba, Japan

Here's what the changing of the guards looks like in South Korea vs Taiwan...I also threw in London for the hek of it....not part of the far east but it's another changing of the guards.  :)

Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan

Buckingham Palace, London, UK

 The Far East part of the world is a place, really, where East meets West.  Many of the old rituals and traditions of each culture are still practiced today.  At the same time, these countries are on the cutting edge of certain technologies with capsule hotels and bullet trains that will soon be going faster than the current speed of 320km/hour....

LOVED sleeping in this capsule.  :)

These are. FAST.

 If you're wondering which place was my fave (which I know of course you are) I would have to say my favorite of the three is most definitely Japan...but then again I'm pretty sure I'm biased. :)

Sunsets! :)

The sunsets of Kamisu are one of the things I looked forward to EVERY weekend here....even in winter when the sun was setting at 4:30pm and I was freezing my booty off.    The park across from my house has a small little hill which couldn't be more perfect for watching a sunset.  Which is why I was always surprised there weren't more people up there enjoying the view.  More room for me I guess. :) But that being said, there were always the same people I would usually see every week.  And by people, I mean that I would actually first recognize the dog AND THEN the owner.  One of them being Friendy.  Friendy is a GINORMOUS Saint Bernard that could probably eat me in a second.  And that's not a joke.  His name is Friendy because he is friendly...of course.  :)  It didn't take me long to realize that many of the Japanese use English names for their pets.  Besides Friendy,  I also remember meeting a dog named July and a cat named Tuna.

Love these things

Friendy doing his duty!

From the small little hill, on a clear day, I could see Mt.Fuji.  I've only been able to see it a few times but it was pretty cool considering it's about 200km away.

The sun and the clouds this past year have lit up the sky in ways I never could have imagined...I'm amazed at how completely different the sky was EVERY single night.  I think I probably took over 100 pictures of all the different sunsets...it was impossible not too because they were all ridiculously beautiful. 

The sunsets have been nothing short of Brilliant.... and I'm pretty sure all of them were just one of God's many beautiful paintings.  :)

Mt.Fuji Climb

An old Japanese proverb says: “He who does not climb Mt.Fuji is a fool, but he who climbs Mt.Fuji twice is an even bigger fool.”  I would definitely have to agree with this little proverb because there is no way in hek that my body will ever go up that volcano again.  Definitely worth it, but once was enough for me.  :)

Beginning of the trek was super foggy....

And then there was light  :)

Taking a little break at a hut along the way..

 
Had I known Mt. Fuji was still an active volcano, maybe I would have thought twice about climbing the thing.  For some reason (probably due to my lack of research) I thought it was a dormant volcano.  But either way, since you are reading this blog, I think you can gather that there were no eruptions while I was climbing....thank God. :)

Climbing Mt. Fuji was both easier and more difficult than I thought it would be.  It wasn't super strenuous, but it also wasn't super easy if you know what I'm saying.  Great description hey?  :)

Looking down on part of the trail

I was kind of obsessed with the clouds

I spent the night in a mountain hut almost on the top of Mt. Fuji at 3450 meters.  I think this was the highest altitude that I've ever slept at and I could definitely tell by the way my head was feeling.  The couple of people that I saw who got altitude sickness and the oxygen machine that was being used by a bunch of people in my hut didn't freak me out at all (that was sarcasm.) 

  

Happy to be at my mountain hut for the night :)

Staying at this mountain hut was officially the most people I have ever shared an accommodation with.  Let me first start by saying that this hut wasn't big by any means.  Seriously. Not big. At. All.  And how many people do you think they squeezed into that place?! 150! I now know what it's like to feel like a sardine.  I'm usually not a claustrophobic person, but when I found out that I was sharing a blanket with 7 other people and would be spooning the Japanese stranger next to me, I think my heart stopped for a split second.  

My sardine bed

 

Not crowded at all

I slept about a wink the entire night...and by the entire night I mean I didn't sleep.  Everyone tried to go to bed around 9pm but I seriously doubt anyone got any sleep.  I mean how could you when there were a billion people snoring, you were sharing a blanket with 6 other strangers, and you had the amount of space about the width of a ruler?  The answer is you can't.  :)
People started "waking up" around 1am to start hiking in order to make it up to the summit before sunrise.   Thank God for my headlamp otherwise pretty sure I probably would have had a bunch of falls.  Finally made it to the top around 4:30am and watching the sunrise from above the clouds was pretty nice.  :)

Going down the volcano was NOT EASY...but the views were pretty darn spectacular.  When I finally got home, I felt like I get hit by a tornado.  The following 5-6 days I spent recovering from this nice little climb....so needless to say, Mt.Fuji kicked my butt.  :)

Bonus Question:  How do you know that you and everybody else on the bus back to Tokyo are exhausted?   

Answer:  When u don't even realize that the girl next to you is sleeping on ur shoulder...until you finally wake up.  :)