New Beginnings

"What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms." 
-Kobayashi Issa

     
     It is my second spring here in Osaka. The cherry blossoms are blooming, the new school year is about to start and there is a sudden energy pulsing throughout the city. Not that Osaka is every really short of energy but spring time and hanami (cherry blossom viewing) season is different. Everyone seems a lot more awake. Maybe it is the excitement of picnics under pink flowers or the promise of a new school year, or financial year (which begins in April here in Japan) but there is just this undeniable feeling of lightness every where you go. 

     As I mentioned, the new school year begins in April. So for me, this is also a time of reflection. How did this last year go? How can I improve? Not just on a professional level but a personal one as well. This last year and a half I've spent in Japan has been a roller coaster ride. I hate using such a cheesy and overused expression but there really isn't another way to put it. There have been exhilarating highs and soul crushing lows with every imaginable twist and turn in between. I gained confidence, have fallen, questioned the very core of who I am, picked myself up and am still slowly and tenderly putting myself back together. But despite it all I can say that I am in better place now. I am still learning and still growing but that is what this entire adventure is for. An adventure that I am blessed to be experiencing!  So I thought it was about time I shared it with you all! I have re-amped this old dusty blog of mine and hope to share a little bit of how life is here in, what my friends and I affectionately refer to as, "the Dirty South" along with tips about the JET Programme, reviews on goods and makeup,  and the general day to day derpings of a young adult stumbling her way through her first years as a "real adult". So, as we say in Japan...よろしくお願いします!!! yoroshiku onegaishimasu!!! ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ