Phew!

Well! What a relief! I finally like Japan! YAY! Its taken almost three months, but I'm finally finding my feet and enjoying it here. I might even say I love it.

Just feels like things have finally been clicking into place in the last few weeks and I think it has something to do with finally letting go of home and feeling settled here instead.

I mean I miss you guys soo much, and the beach, oh god I ACHE for the beach! In any kind of weather, summer or winter, the beach is soul food.

But I love Japan too and I especially love the utter FREEDOM I feel here! Oh I'm so glad I came, I wouldn't have my life any other way :)

Think I've started to appreciate things a lot more here, you know what I was thinking on the train, I love how you have to actually get to know people here, Japanese people all look very similar so you have to actually talk to them and get to know them to find out who they are whereas at home I think we have a habit of judging people on image and placing them in a box.

But you know what that's so restrictive, and the sad thing is we place those limits on ourselves, how much more enriched would our lives be if we didn't follow those little rules and habits we set for ourselves...

I love Tokyo because you can wear ANYTHING you want absolutely ANYTHING and no one gives a damn really, you can be whoever you want to here and people accept that. I love that.

And I love how Japanese people ARE so creative in what they wear, how they present themselves, what interests them, its kind of like in New Zealand we follow trends right, intellectuals, rugby heads, surfies, whatever you know, but here I love all the very different personalities, but hey maybe that's just a result of the sheer size of the population, I dunno, but I really love it here.

I love how I'm intrigued every day and there's ALWAYS something new to see or unexplored around every corner.

I've been listening to my IPOD as I get out and about these days and it's so cool, it feels just like a movie when I'm listening to songs and whatever it is kind of changes what I get out of the scene in front of me - you know how they match songs to scenes in movies?

And it IS just like watching a movie when I'm listening to Tadpole and sifting through a teaming crowd of bodies down in Shinjuku Station or looking out the train window across the city skyline while Greg Johnson's playing. You just wouldn't believe how cool it is!

And the shopping, oh the shopping is just overwhelming here, I've gotta take photos or something for you, but the variety is utterly amazing and overwhelming and on the weekends in the big parks there's street stalls and vintage shops, but there's also giant department stores like you wouldn't believe I mean Tower records is ten floors of media!!

Oh and the SHOES! Honestly, just everything and anything you could want is here and what's cool is there's still parts of the city that look very much like scenes from a 'chinatown lane' in a movie you know and these little tiny pubs with curtains hanging over the door are still very popular here.

I love how friendly everyone is and the energy and atmosphere of the place. Time passes sooo quickly here for some reason, but people say that's just Japan. I can't believe it's June already and there's only six months till Christmas, the weeks go soooo quickly here that I feel I'm only just gonna get started and it'll be time to come home.....or at least move on anyway, as if I do come home it won't be for long...

Time just passes too quickly and there's too much more world to explore just now. A guy from work went home for a visit to Sydney and was wondering where all the people were! And man I've been there and I thought it was big, but no he's right, there are SOOOO many people here.

I've taken some photos, which I'll get sorted soon, but you just wouldn't believe the sardine trains and elevators sometimes eh, or even crossing the road! Goddam, sure has been a lesson in patience here coz there is just no way you can hurry, everyone kind of just moves as a group shuffle kind of thing coz whereever you try to move to there's gonna be another person in front, beside and behind you - it's crraaaaazzzzy! BUT I LOVE IT!

I love how it's different and I feel so free here! Life is so full of possiblities, opportunities and adventure right now, so it's very cool. I don't ever want to get to a stage in my life where I feel stale or trapped. I know life moves on in different ways, commitments change, we can't avoid responsibility all our lives, but I ALWAYS want to keep at least some small sense of this adventure and freedom that I have now coz it's just SOOO invigorating!

I have a feeling that the next few years are going to be the best of my life, but in a way I don't want to think like that coz I want life to just get better as it goes on you know, to enjoy EVERY stage of the journey, coz you learn something from everything hey.

Another thing I've been REALLY interested in lately is Aid work. That's DEFINITELY something I want to do sometime in the future. Talking to people who've done it, i imagine its one of THE most rewarding and enriching experiences you could ever hope to have in your life.

To see how little some people in this world live and cope with, and how few opportunties they have to ever escape their situtations. Well just thinking about it brings home to me how much we have to be grateful for in our lives already.

Most of the people I know were born into a country which celebrated freewill, provided access to education, food, clothing, cars, honestly, I mean god I can't believe there are people in this world feeling depressed that their house isn't big enough or car flash enough, but if they'd take a moment to look at what they have instead of what they didn't they see life in such a different view.

I mean there are people who are diagnosed with cancer everyday, people loosing loved ones in sudden accidents, people sold into slavery, people whose sole purpose for the day is to FIND some food.

Take a look people, take a look at the food stacked on your table, at the hot shower waiting for you at the end of the day, at your family surrounding you there today to share one more moment with.

Look around you at and realise just how VERY MUCH you have and appreciate it with fresh eyes, because if you take a moment to take stock and put things in perspective you'll view life with such renewed vigor and energy.

The fact is much of the worlds population actually live in poverty, it's not a TV program, it's not in some storybook, it is a reality every. single. day for many, many, people and they have absolutely no way out of it.

Be grateful for every single moment you've been blessed with in the life you have and don't waste a second.

Find something that you're passionate about in life today, however small that is and be inspired, maybe it's your daughters smile, your partners laugh, the way your dog greets you at the door, the way green leaves glisten so refreshed after rain, your favourite song on the radio...

Find something to savour and bring you joy every single day, but please don't ever let life become just going through the motions.

Love Always,

your Fernleaf in Japan.