From one cold place…

Tomorrow I’m leaving Holland again to go back to Japan. I have to say I’m kind of happy to go back. Why? The last 9 days have been great. It’s great to be back with my parents, and even Holland nice, after a couple of days of adjusting from Japanese culture to Dutch culture. I don’t know which I prefer. I guess both cultures have their pro’s and cons. But I realised that the reason that I’m so happy to go back has nothing to do with the culture, or the country. It’s just that my life lies in Japan, and not in Holland. I have friends here, but they are childhood friends who have their own lives here. I don’t. The only thing I have in Holland is my parent’s life. Before I build up my own life in Holland, after I return for a longer time, I will have my home in Japan. That’s fine with me. I like my life there a lot more than the life I used to have in Holland before I left. But I’m sure I can have this kind of life again in Holland after I return.

While I’ve been standing still in Holland for a week life has moved on in Japan. And I will get back into the rhythm of Japan the hard way. I leave Holland on Wednesday, arrive in Japan on Thursday, and leave for a trip to Hokkaido on Friday. A nice way to do crazy things, which I only seem to do in Japan by the way. I’m quite different in Holland. After that it’s back to work again, until July at least, but I’m considering staying longer.

I was thinking a lot about my future, and the choices I’m supposed to make at this time in my life, and before I came to Holland I could not reach any useful decision or conclusion. I arrived in Holland, and it took me only one morning to make up my mind. I know exactly what I want now. I do not know if I can get exactly what’s in my mind right now, but I know what to fight for. It’s a good feeling.

Merry Chrismas! And f*ck off with all those annoying Christmas songs….

Merry Christmas! I want to say this to everyone I know, because this year I was too lazy again to send Christmas cards to the people I care about, like my close friends in Holland and in Japan, and of course my family. I’m not a very nice person to people I don’t see much now but used to see a lot in the past. I’d like to apologise to all these people. If I never contact you it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to keep in touch with you. I don’t know exactly what the reason is. Probably laziness. You can dislike me for that. Meh Anyway, the people who know me well enough know that I will not forget about my old friends, and that they can always knock on my door if they need anything. And if you didn’t know before, you know now. Anyway, I’m forgetting about you guys again and returning to Japan on wednesday, so I guess I’m not very true to my word Drop by anytime, guys.

So, updates since last time. I did a lot of shopping, mostly for winter clothing for the trip to Hokkaido, but also some other stuff. Today I bought some nice food to take back with me to Japan, like cheese, saucages and other stuff. It’s very stereotypical, but a Dutch guy cannot live without his cheese ^_^ My suitcase will be quite packed..

I’m quite used to Holland again, and falling back into my old lifestyle and my old self here. I went go-karting with my friends today. It was the exact usual routine I used to do before I left for Japan. Pick them up one by one, drive there, race, and go back. It’s funny because they’re all living somewhere else as well, and they’re all back for the weekend and for Christmas. It’s like turning back time to how it was one or two years ago.

My mother’s birthday party! It was a special occasion, and we had a big party at a restaurant near our home. There even was a singer and a magician, thanks to the fabulous organisation skills of my father and my sister. The party was great, and it was good to see my family and friends again after such a long time. I’ve received a lot of positive reactions about my stay in Japan, and I was quite surprised to hear that there’s lots of people who still read my blog! That’s great!

- There be Dutch from here -
Jullie hebben me ook gevraagd hoe het mogelijk is om te reageren. Dat gaat zo:
- onderaan de post staat een regeltje tekst die er zo uiziet: “posted by Randy at 19:01 1 comments”
- klik op het ‘1 comments’ linkje
- voer rechts in het scherm je berichtje in
- kies bij het ‘Choose an Identity’ gedeelte voor ‘Other’. Dan kan je je naam en eventueel je website invoeren
- klik op ‘Publish your comment’ en hij wordt toegevoegd aan de blog!

This is my family. My mother, father and sister. And me, of course. Happy birthday, mom!

Fields, trees, and not much else

So, the last days I didn’t do much, except recover from my cold, which sucks. I caught a really bad cold in the plane to Holland and I’ve been feeling quite crappy for the last couple of days. I’m starting to get better now, which is good since I’ve got another plane flight coming up, and some busy days in Japan too. The last days have been quiet, and besides feeling sick I’ve spent most of my time shopping for stuff to take back with me to Japan, mostly winter clothes and stuff.

Also, I can’t seem to get up a a normal time. I wake up at 7 to go to the toilet and then I’m either too sick or too awake to sleep more, which produces a very sleepy Randy in the evening Anyway, enough ranting, here’s some cool boring pictures. I found a nice place near my home which looks exactly like the dead marshes from Lord of the Rings. Makes me wonder if it’s filmed here instead of in New Zealand..

A windmill! Of course there has to be a picture of a windmill. It’s Holland after all

A bunny! Well, they live in the wild around here, and apparently they’re starting to show up more again, after almost being extinct in this area a couple of years ago. I saw lots of them on my bike near where I took this picture.

The ‘beach’ of the Zuidlaardermeer. Trust me, in summer it looks nicer.

The nothingness.

More nothingness and a cool tree. Guess which picture is upside down ^_^

And more nothingness. My province is very exciting. My province is wide. Like pants that are too big.

Public toilets and trash cans

I went to Amsterdam yesterday to visit Liou, my Dutch Asahi Kasei buddy from last year. He left last september and went back to Amsterdam. It was actually my first time in Amsterdam since I was 12, so I don’t remember much of the city at all. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by Amsterdam. I don’t know why, but I expected an ugly, dirty city full of drugs, criminals and assholes (this might be a bit exaggerated). So I was kind of surprised when it turned out to be just a nice, pleasant city with a great atmosphere, and some very nice places indeed.

Today I went to the dentist o_0 WTF!?!? Why do I have to go the dentist every time I have a holiday in Holland? Not my idea of vacation. Anyway, it was over very quickly and I didn’t die. In fact, today is my first resting day in a couple of weeks. That’s why I don’t feel like doing much today (like planning for the trip to Hokkaido, sorry NN! I will say sorry to you another 50 times when I get back ).

I’m leaving next week wednesday. One week left here. Not that much to do except partying ^_^ My mother’s birthday party, the Christmas party, and whatever else comes along. I’ll keep you guys posted if I’m not too lazy

Here’s some pics from the trip to Amsterdam:

TRASH CANS!!!! JAPANESE PEOPLE LOOK AT THE TRASH CANS!!
Holland has trash cans everywhere, Japan has them nowhere. The opposite of this are the public toilets. Holland does not have them anywhere, and if you do manage to find one chances are that it’s dirty and disgusting and you need to pay for it. Screw Holland.

This is the train I have to take from the only city in my province to my crappy place, which barely has a train station.

Amsterdam. Anybody who’s been in Amsterdam must know where this is.

Same place, other side.

The canals of Amsterdam. A very typical Dutch sight. You can find (less of) these in the city near my home as well.

More canals at dusk.
And at night.And this is Liou and me, after we asked someone who didn’t look like a criminal to take a pictures of us. Since you can see this picture you know that the girl didn’t run away with our camera’s ^_^ Ironically, we managed to take this picture near a sign for sushi. Amazing…

Dutch trains are nowhere near as reliable as Japanese train. On my way to Amsterdam there were no trains between Amersfoort and Amsterdam, so I had to go through Utrecht. On the way back there was a delay of 30 minutes at Amersfoort, which was when I took this picture. One more annoying thing is that you cannot pay with bills for your ticket, only with coins or your bank pass. I had to buy a ticket to Groningen with coins because there are no people at the train station near my home. Then in Groningen I had to find a ticket office to buy a ticket to Amsterdam. This country sucks if you don’t have a Dutch bank account. I forgot my bank pass in Japan by the way :’(

Buttermilk!

Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttermilk
We call it karnemelk in Dutch. It’s delicious. At least in my opinion. Most people hate it. Meh.

So, I’ve been in Holland for two days now, and I’m still wondering what the hell I’m doing here. I have so much stuff to do in Japan, and a lot of stuff to do in Holland that is somehow related to Japan, that this does not feel like a vacation or a homecoming at all. I’m still restless. Whenever I feel like I’ve settled down here again I’m reminded of things in my other life, my life in Japan. It doesn’t mix well, unfortunately.

I’ve been going around making a lot of pictures of useless, boring and normal things, and I’m getting weird looks from my family, who don’t understand why I’m taking so much pictures. Weird. Anyway, I’ll share some of my better ones here.

Taken in the only city in my region: Groningen. Called the fish market.

One of our 3 cats, Mickey. Sleeping, as usual.

Some kind of weird camel walking around near our local shopping mall. WTF?

At my father’s work. He’s an automotive spray painter, and he uses this room to clean his spray guns.

Back in Groningen, shot from my sister’s car.

The tallest tower in the north of the Netherlands: the Martinitoren (Martini tower). Recently closed because too many people committed suicide by jumping from it’s top.

From a nice walk just before sunrise, on the first day I arrived here. This was about an hour after my stupid alarm clock went off because everybody forgot to turn it off for seven months..

Same walk. This place is about 10 minutes walk from my home.

Still no sunrise yet, but a nice sky.

This picture was taken from a small observation tower, put there for people to look at birds and nature. Since it’s winter now, way too early on a sunday morning and because it was freezing cold nobody else was there except me. My hands almost fell off everytime I took a picture because of the cold wind.

Finally, the sunrise Which is about an hour later than the sunrise in Japan by the way. It gets dark about half an hour later here, too. Japan’s time zone is really screwed up.

Holland, I have come

Schiphol airport at 4 in the afternoon. I arrived in Holland yesterday.

It’s 7:30 in the morning and I’m sitting in the couch in the living room of my parent’s house. I arrived in Holland yesterday at 4 in the afternoon, and we were back home at 7. Since I was really sleepy I didn’t do much and went to sleep at 10. I was planning on sleeping until noon, but my stupid alarm clock prevented that. The damn thing went off at 6:30 in the morning, which was the exact time I set the last time when I was in Holland, when I had to make the place back to Japan. I guess no one bothered to turn it off for all those 7 months that I was gone… :’(

I wasn’t sleepy at all so I just woke up and went downstairs. It’s unbelievable how dark and quiet Holland is. When flying over Holland yesterday I realised for the first time how small Holland really is. There’s nothing there! Only farmland and highways. There’s barely any towns or cities, especially in the region where I come from. It’s so very dark. Barely and lights along the highways, and a very sharp contrast with Japan, where it’s impossible to find a dark spot within a 100km radius of Tokyo. I will say that I prefer my bed in Holland because of this. There is not a single sound, and it hasn’t been so quiet for me since last time I came here in May.

What was going to be a week of doing nothing and relaxing will turn out to be quite a busy week actually. My mother’s birthday party, the Christmas party, meeting friends, buying stuff, going to the dentist (yes, really.. yuck T_T )… Today I will take my time and relax though. I’m going to need it since I woke up way too early, and I will probably be sleepy for the rest of the day..

Anyway, here’s some pictures for you to look at.
On the way to Narita, somewhere around Yokohama I think, but not sure.

My home for 12 hours: KLM’s Rio de Janeiro.
I’m going to Hokkaido for one week after Holland, but here it is already! ^_^
I’ve been to Sapporo too
Catching the sunset somewhere before Scandinavia.
My first views of Holland in 7 months!
Driving back home playing with my camera.

Crappy picture of me in our living room, next to the Christmas tree.

I’ll post some more pictures later of the house, Holland, and of course, our cats ^_^