Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Jeri who dreamed of one day traveling to Japan and witnessing the glory of the giant ice and snow sculptures at Sapporo’s Yuki Matsuri. She waited and waited, until she could wait no longer. Then, one day, all her dreams came true.

Okay, so that story isn’t completely true. It’s more like “Once upon a time Jeri got placed in Hokkaido and subsequently learned that the one awesome thing about the winter was the aforementioned festival”. But hey, both are equally valid reasons to attend, right?

Whether you’d been dreaming about it for ages like imaginary Jeri, or had only heard about it this year like real Jeri, chances are you were looking forward to the Yuki Matsuri this year. Let me tell you something, it did not disappoint.

 

I don’t live in the city, so I didn’t have a chance to visit until the weekend. When Friday finally rolled around, I was ecstatic and giddy as I hopped into Jessica’s car at 2 pm to go pick up Tracy and head into the city. We drove for an hour, sampling classics from my winter playlist, and finally arrived, parked the car, and walked out towards Odori park, where the festival was being held. 

 

According to the website, there are thousands of spectacles to behold at the festival. They had 2,416,000 visitors last year, virtually doubling Sapporo’s population (although I’m slightly confused as to how they count visitors at a free festival). The festival also boasts 228 ice and snow sculptures at its three sites. Most of them are small, but many are massive and unbelievably impressive. In fact,  there is so much snow needed for these sculptures that it takes them 6.500 five-ton trucks to move it all around. With all this in mind, I was ready to check out the sites for myself.

The first thing I saw when we got to Odori was a giant castle made of ice. The intricacy and detail of the sculpture was stunning, and I couldn’t take my eyes away. Everywhere I looked I saw smaller pieces of art made of snow, the subjects being anything from Totoro to the Taj Mahal. 

 

The second thing I noticed was the insane amount of foreigners that had come into the city. In general, I just assume that if I run into another foreigner in the city, I probably know them. I know this isn’t always accurate, but it holds up a lot of the time. Not this weekend. As soon as we got there, the three of us were accosted by a group of very drunk American Navy soldiers who promptly made it their duty to make Jessica very uncomfortable. Tracy and I acted like bad friends and laughed and snapped photos. Oops.

 

We walked along the park, admiring the artistry and ducking into a conbini every so often to try to bring some feeling back to our numb toes. Once we had travelled the length of the park, we decided to walk to the Susukino festival site, with help from Jesse, our incredibly wonderful Sapporo guide. 

 

The sculptures at that site were more beautiful in a sense. Since they were made of ice and not snow, they seemed more delicate, more dainty than the ones at Odori. We walked and looked and walked and sat in ice cars and had our pictures taken, and did all the wonderful fun Sapporo Snow Festival stuff. At that point, we were starting to get hungry, so we decided to indulge in what is probably the best (and most underrated) part of the festival: festival food.

 

 

We returned to Odori and frequented the Indian food stand, since as a vegetarian, it was probably the only stall I could eat at. I got hot mango juice and vegetable curry, which turned cold as soon as I sat down to eat it. In the never-ending war of temperature, the heat of my food definitely lost this battle. That being said, the food was delicious and hit the spot. Also, if you haven’t tried it, hot mango juice is absolutely delicious. It’s my new winter drink. For real. The others satiated their taste-buds at the international area of the festival, where they could purchase the kebabs that they had been craving all afternoon. Was it worth it? I don’t know, ask them.

 

 

Then, finally, came the moment we had all been waiting for. Ever since we had showed up, Tracy had wanted to go to an ice bar. She’s from Australia, you see, and is completely unused to all the interesting and exciting things that the winter can bring. That said, with our stomachs full, we headed to one of the many ice bars. We ordered warm drinks and stood next to a table made of ice, smiling and chatting with each other while reminiscing about the wonderful day that we had had. It was truly a great, albeit cold, end to a great, albeit cold, day.

In conclusion, if you missed the festival this year, shame on you, but I  just gave you the highlights so fret not. If you were there, I hope you had as much fun as I did!

The Interview

I figured I'd write about my interview so that anybody looking to prepare for interviews next year could have a little bit of help, so here goes!

To prepare, I asked everybody I knew to help me come up with possible interview questions, and I made answers to all of them. I did as much research as possible on Japanese culture, language, history, politics and geography. I memorized some phrases in Japanese (my language ability at the time was zero). I did practise interviews with my friends. I bought a business suit, which I recommend to anyone regardless of whether you get the job. I scoured the forums for tips.

The day of the interview, I had class beforehand, conveniently located in the building right next to the interview building on McGill campus. I went to class in my suit, then I walked to the building. I arrived about 30 minutes early. There were 2 former JETs working the tables outside, and I highly recommend using this time to ask any questions you have about the job and their experience, no matter what the questions are. It was really helpful.

Then, they called my name. I walked into a bright room and sat down on a tiny wooden chair 6 feet away from the 3 interviewers. One was Japanese, and two were foreign. They did the whole sort of good cop bad cop thing, with two being very strict, and one of the foreigners being super down to earth and accessible.

Some of the questions I was asked:
- where did you say you wanted to be placed? Why did you pick this placement?
- why did you choose to do JET?
- what do you want to do in your life and how do you think JET will help you get there?
- what cultural aspects of Japan are you most excited to experience?
- what cultural aspects of Canada would you teach Japanese people about?
- tell us about a time when you overcame an obstacle to achieve something.
- do you know what the JETAA is? What would your role be in the JETAA?
- what are the three main goals of the JET programme and how would you contribute to them?

After this, I was asked to do the role play portion. They told me they the JTE had just left the room and I was in a class full of seventh graders. I was supposed to teach them about winter in Canada. During this period, one of them (the happy one) played the role of the super genki student. The Japanese lady played the role of the troublemaker, throwing erasers at the other two and the foreign lady played the role of the tired student, sleeping at her desk. During this part I ended up attempting more class managing than teaching, and I was pretty sure I bombed. But that's just my experience.

Then, they told me they'd let me know, and off I went.

Words of Advice:
- I did a lot of research on Japan that I didn't need, but Id recommend doing it anyway. Just in case.
- show up very early.
- prepare questions to ask, but don't be surprised if you aren't given the chance to ask them. In my case, they said if I had any questions to ask the two ladies outside.
- Be succinct, but answer their questions.
- invest in a suit and wear it.
- no matter what happens, stay calm and go with it. One of the main characteristics they emphasize is adaptability. You will probably have to show this.
- smile when you walk in the room and as much as you can during the interview.
- don't worry too much! They just want to see what you can do!

Sorry that was so long, but I hope it helps!

Christmas in Japan

Alright, as promised for the maybe 3 readers who consistently read my blog, here's my post about Christmas traditions in Japan.

I decided to write on this topic because of the tens of classes Id been asked to give on the opposite topic, Christmas in Canada. The more I taught about it, the more perplexed my students seemed and I realized that this was because their customs were completely different to ours. I mean, sure, they celebrate Christmas, but they celebrate it in the most curious way. Like anytime they adopt Western culture, they celebrate Christmas in an attempt at Westernism that is so amazingly Japanese. Because of this, I’ve made a list of my top five Japanese Christmas traditions.

5. Christmas Cake

For some reason unknown to me, Japanese people buy cake to eat on Christmas Eve, whether it be with their families or friends. And not just any kind of cake. In general, the cake is a very special white sponge cake, covered with whipped cream and strawberries. It’s like strawberry shortcake, but in actual cake form. In fact, I actually got to make this with some of the san-nensei Home Economics students before I went home for the holidays. It is delicious!

4. Dating

For many young Japanese people, Christmas is seen as a dating holiday. Many young couples go out on super romantic dates, and profess their love to each other, or whatever people do on dates. I haven’t been on one in a while, so I kind of forget.  I’m also unsure of how this tradition started, but I know that many Japanese women get quite upset when they are single on Christmas. The poor things.

3. One-way Gift Giving

Apparently, since the Western idea of Christmas is relatively new in the country, they have adopted some practises but not others? Japanese parents tend to give their children gifts, but the children are not expected to give any back. Also, I don’t think they give anyone else gifts, just their kids. And only until they are the age when they stop believing in Santa Claus. Because like in Canada, the parents ARE Santa. Sorry, kids.

2. The complete absence of Religion

One of the most perplexing parts of these Christmas rituals is that according to the very scientific completely scholarly source of Wikipedia, less than one percent of Japanese people are Christian. The main religions are Buddhism and Shintoism. Because of this, many Japanese children think that December 25th is the birth of Santa, not Jesus, and even more people don’t even realize that Christmas in other parts of the world has a religious origin. 

1. KFC on Christmas.

This has got to be one of the best things about Christmas in Japan. I know I’m a vegetarian, so I shouldn’t be repping this, but many Japanese people eat Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas. This tradition has become so popular that many KFC chains offer special Christmas packages. Once again, I’m not entirely positive how this tradition started, but from what I understand, it is all part of an advertising campaign done by KFC back in the 1970s, when they started promoting the idea that Christmas = Kentucky. This was done because apparently one group of expats realized that in the absence of turkey, fried chicken was the next best thing. Obviously, KFC capitalized on this possibility and the trend grew and grew, being adopted by the Japanese people as an essential part of Christmas in Japan.

So yeah, that’s Christmas in Japan! Next time, I may or may not write about something more relevant to my life. We’ll see how I feel.

Adventure Time With Jess and Jeri part 3

Alright friends, so we left off on a huge cliffhanger, heading out towards E-san at 1:00 p.m, ready for anything. We were super excited to climb the mountain, then spend the evening relaxing in the wine-red water at the E-san onsen, before Jessica drove us to our hotel in Hakodate and she headed home to make it to church the next morning.

We were driving down the road, heading through Hakodate to make it to the mountain on time. The wind was in our hair, and our minds were untroubled. Then, all of a sudden, Jessica mentions cautiously, “Hey, guys, I don’t want to freak you out, but my battery light came on. I think I should get it checked out.”

Oh no.

We found a service station within the next kilometre, and pulled in. This was the second time we had stopped at a service station without buying gas, and as we pulled in, Jessica tried to tell them what was wrong in Japanese. In my eyes, she did a pretty great job! After a lot of pointing, nodding, and words I didn’t understand, Jessica told me that it was her alternator belt, and that they didn’t have one at that station, but they did at the Nissan dealership in the city.

So much for E-san!

We hopped back into the car and drove into the city, grudgingly obeying the speed limit. Although we still wanted to climb the mountain, we also didn’t want to get pulled over. Eventually, we found the dealership, and they took her precious car away from her for an hour. By this time it was 3:30, and we were pretty sure that we weren’t going to be climbing any mountains. Instead, we settled for a walk down the street, where we found a wonderful patisserie and stuffed our faces with macaroons and cake.

Not a bad second choice, but still not exactly what we were looking for. Eventually, we walked back to the dealership, and found Jessica’s car fixed. “Horray” we exclaimed in unison, causing stares from the Japanese passers-by. We hopped in the car and resigned ourselves to heading to our hotel in Hakodate, where Jessica would drop us off before she headed back to Kuriyama.

We got to the hotel, and I could tell as soon as she laid down on my bed for a tiny rest that Jessica wasn’t driving home that night.

“Guys, I think I wanna stay here tonight. I really don’t want to drive,” she said, and that was that. We booked another hotel room, and all of a sudden, E-san was back on the horizon!

With that settled, we went off to find a place to eat. The hotel recommended this tiny little locally owned place. We couldn’t find it no matter how hard we tried, so eventually we gave up. We came across this place covered in lights and Christmas decorations, with a large quote on the front that said “everything in the restaurant is in the full spirit of Christmas”. We HAD to give this place a try.

 Apparently the place is quite famous with anyone who lives in the area. They serve burgers, omuraisu, and curry, from what I can tell. This seems mismatched enough, but the most startling thing was how many Christmas decorations there were. They seemed to stick out from every single wall and every corner. I counted no fewer than eight Christmas trees, all of them completely covered with decorations. They photos do not do it justice at all. You had to see it. If anyone is in town, the place is called Lucky Pierrot, and their logo has a clown. visit http://www.luckypierrot.jp/ for more info.

Jessica and I were exhausted, and wanted some relief, so we headed to an onsen in downtown Hakodate to relax a little. It was nothing special, but there was a nice outdoor pool where we soaked and chatted with some of the locals. Mom declined to come, to our great dismay.

 After our soak, we went to the hotel, and rested up for another exciting day ahead of us.

When we awoke, we packed up the car, checked out, and drove up Mt. Hakodate to see the beautiful view. We contented ourselves with the view and with playing twister on the giant compass on the ground. Mom thought we were crazy. We giggled a lot. It made us happy.

After this, we drove to Hakodate Tower and paid to go up to the very top to see a bird’s eye view of the Goryokaku fort. It was shaped like a star and looked absolutely stunning from the tower. I amused myself by snatching an English leaflet and reading facts out to Jessica and my mother, pretending that I knew a lot about the history. They were impressed until they noticed the concealed pamphlet. I took this as a hint that we should actually go look at the fort.

We took the elevator down and walked around a bit, not really caring that it was raining. The park is beautiful, and well worth a walk-through, although you might want to visit it on a sunny day. We turned our bodies into a star to pose for photos.

Finally, we made the journey to E-san. We drove and drove and drove down the endless road. 

Finally, when we though we could no longer bear to be in the car, we came across the mountain in all its glory.  We drove up as far as we could, parked the car, and then started the hike.

Being an active volcano, the smell of sulfur was strong and we saw plenty of air vents spewing steam. 

I’m not going to lie, I was a little wary of the hike. My mother came with us for the first little bit, then bowed out when we started to climb the steps. And climb the steps we did! One after another, we went further and further up, stopping only occasionally to take pictures. Eventually, after much effort, we reached the top. 

It was really cloudy. We couldn’t see Honshu.

As anticlimactic as it was, it was still a good hike, and on the way down we counted all the stairs we’d come up.  We took turns counting to hundreds in different languages. I practised my Japanese. I was proud of myself. 918 stairs.

After this long hike, we decided to cap off the trip with a soak in the famous E-san onsen. We drove around, looking for it, and finally found it right next to the mountain. It was so tiny that we almost didn’t see it, but we were excited for a soak nonetheless.

We went in, and it was very disorganized. It looked like no one had been there in ages. We called out, and eventually someone came and answered our calls.

“Uhh... is the onsen open?” we asked hesitatingly.
“Sure is!” The man replied, asking us for 4 dollars.

We then walked down a hallway with carpet of at least 4 different colours, and into the changing room, roughly the size of my closet. We changed quickly, and entered the onsen. We were completely not expecting what we got.

The onsen was just as small as my bathtub, and the water seemed to be more rust-coloured than wine-coloured. The entire room was grimy and small, and we were the only people there. This fact, at least, was unsurprising. We showered and cleaned ourselves, although we hardly saw the point, and got into the bath. From my point of view, it seemed like the perfect setting for a horror film. I kept looking around for the villain. Once I got over that, however, it was quite relaxing.

Famous onsen? I’m not so sure.

Finally, relaxed and clean, we started the long drive back to the city. We got in eventually, and promptly fell asleep, ready to work the next day.

And to cap this one off, more Engrish!

Adventure Time With Jess and Jeri ep. 2: guest written by Jessica

Hello, I'm Jessica, a first year ALT in Kuriyama, and I spend a lot of time looking for places to adventure. Lucky for me, the other ALT in Kuriyama, Jeri, also loves traveling. Together, we adventure like a boss.

The end of October brought with it phenomenal fall colours and Hokkaido astounded me with her beauty. Everyone knows that cherry blossom viewing (hanami) is a famous activity in Japan. But did you know that viewing the fall leaves is also popular? As soon as I discovered this, I knew I wanted to take my newly purchased car and find someplace beautiful.

I planned a weekend getaway to Onuma Quasi National Park and Esan, both close enough to Hakodate. Onuma is a popular tourist destination and well deserves it. It consists of two lakes at the foot of Mt. Komagatake, which are dotted with over a hundred small islands. Esan is a mountain on the southeast tip of Hokkaido. On a clear day, you can see Honshu from the top.

This sounded like an awesome adventure to Jeri and I.

We set out in the early afternoon of October 28th, our goals clear in mind: get to Onuma, see cool things, take pictures, eat ice cream and see Honshu. The drive was long, even with me speeding along the expressway. Mix tapes (CDs) serenaded our travels. We rocked out. Jeri's mom, who was visiting from Canada, ignored us from the back seat.

Adventure began once darkness had set in (at like 7 p.m, really Hokkaido?) and our hotel was near. My car, which I had only had for about a week, started squeaking. Jeri looked at me. "Why is your car squeaking? Is there a bird in there?"

I thought for a moment. "Well, if there is, it will stop soon!"

As disconcerting as a squeaking car is, our hotel was only 15 minutes away. The squeaking went away after a few minutes and we made it safely to the Crawford Inn, a cute place near the station. I went inside while Jeri stayed in the car, and started the exciting process of checking into our room. One bad thing about being a foreigner is that I don't know how to properly check into a hotel. The good thing about being a foreigner is that as soon as they saw me, they already knew what my reservation was. Jeri's mom was staying in one room, while Jeri and I shared another.

The nice man at the desk told us where to park and followed me back out to the car to get our bags. When he saw Jeri, he said something along the lines of "Oh, the other person is a girl?"

"Yeah," I said, a little confused by the question. "She's my friend."

I should have realized that something was up then.

His statement made a lot more sense when he showed Jeri and me our room - with one double bed.

Ah. Naruhodo!

No big deal. Jeri and I laughed about it. Thats what happens when you reserve rooms online on a Japanese website!

Saturday morning brought lovely weather. I was itching with excitement to take pictures of all the things (+10 cool points if you get the reference. Check out hyperboleandahalf if you don't). And now for an embarrassing confession- the main reason I wanted to stay at the hotel was the breakfast.

And it was worth it.

We walked around the lake, enjoyed the stunning scenery, and took lots of pictures. We also stopped for a morning dessert at this fancy little restaurant.

There is a nice bike trail that loops around the lakes and you can rent bikes from several stores in the area- usually about ¥500 per hour or ¥1000 per day. You can also rent rowboats and paddleboats to enjoy the lake and try your hand at fishing- just like Link does in Zelda: Legend of the Twilight Princess!

We also saw, but did not sample, wine and squid ink flavoured ice cream. Excite!

The islands were beautiful, although I would recommend going a little earlier in the season. A lot of the trees had already lost all their leaves by the time we showed up.

We left at around 1:00 pm, heading for our next destination: Esan! But everything didn't turn out as planned. What happened? Tune in next time for the next episode of Adventure Time with Jess and Jeri!

(note from Jeri. I'm ending this with a great example of one of my favourite things about Japan: Engrish. :D)

Jeri's Mom Takes On Hokkaido!

So as you all probably also know (especially you, Mom), my mommy came to visit me in Kuriyama a couple of months ago. Wow, has it really been that long since I've updated my blog? Apologies. So I figured I'd detail some of the adventures that we got up to, in a new (and probably short lived) blog segment I like to call "Adventure Time with Jess and Jeri (and Jeri's Mom)!"

Also, if this blog post is less coherent than usual, you can blame lack of sleep. I am writing this in a hotel room in New York City, right after a 14 hour time zone change and approximately 24 hours without sleep. It has quite literally been the longest day ever.

So yes, my mom came to visit me in Hokkaido. Jessica had just gotten her brand new car and was excited to show us what it could do, so Andromeda, Jess and I all piled in to go to the airport to pick up my mother. We had decided to go a little early to get some shopping done at the outlet mall right next to the airport, so we drove and drove, getting closer and closer to Chitose. Once we'd gotten close enough, Jessica asked me where the mall was.

"I don't know," I replied. "I was taking us to the airport!"
"Well, could you take us to the mall?" Jessica countered.
"Umm, sure, what's it called?"
"I don't know"
"Well how am I supposed to plug it into my phone?"
"I don't know! Just get us there!"
"Uhh... okay, Jessica!"

After a lot of backtracking and failed attempts at typing hiragana on my phone, we finally managed to get to the outlet mall, but not before we drove down two roads that threatened to take us to the end of the world. Seriously. Scary. Anyway, once we got to the mall, we realized that it was closed, so we backtracked once more, all the way to the airport.

When we got to the airport, we amused ourselves in the arcade, by doing purikura for the first time (photos to come). For those of you who don't know, Purikura is a Japanese photobooth, designed for beauty shots, from what I can tell. It's a popular pastime with friends, because it makes your eyes giant and super "cute" and then afterwards you can draw on the photos and add backgrounds and stickers before you print them out. It was a little bit terrifying, but I think that's only because I'm super camera shy.

We also happened upon a crane game filled only with sausage, which Andromeda obviously had to try out.

Eventually, my mother's flight came in, and we managed to make it home without any major problems. The reunion was stunning. I'm pretty sure we smothered each other in hugs. I think the Japanese people were a little scared at the airport, what with their aversion to physical contact and everything.

When we finally got home, she unpacked the suitcase she had for me. It was like early Christmas! My winter clothes, vegetable bouillon cubes, kraft dinner, cinnamon toast crunch, peaches and cream instant oatmeal, infusium shampoo. All my comforts from back home were all of a sudden in my apartment again. It was heavenly!

I didn't plan for this blog post to be this long, but apparently that's what happens when you haven't posted for a while. I am going to stop here for now, but I promise I will write part two later.

Also on the list for me to write about:
- christmas traditions in Japan
- my work situation
- travel plans

If there is anything else you'd like to hear about, feel free to leave it in the comments! Until then, I'm going to go sleep away some of the jetlag.

Love, Jeri

Up Google Creek Without a Paddle

Alright, so I know I have been absolutely pathetic at keeping the blog up, but I swear I have an excuse! In keeping with the last post, you all know that I wrote a novel last month. It's not very good, but I figured that I’d prove to you that I wasn’t lying by giving you an excerpt of it to read, so here it is:

March 11th, 2012

Starting Point: Somewhere in the Jungle
Ending Point: Somewhere in the Jungle
Hours Clocked according to Google: none. Absolutely none.
Distance Covered: nowhere.
Injuries sustained: one. Still.
Sight of Jaime: of course not.

Dear Diary,

We’re on day three with no Jaime. We had planned on refilling our water bottles at streams that we passed along the hike, but since we’ve been camping for so long, we haven’t found anything. We are beginning to run low on water. We’re still good for food for a little bit, but I’m going to have to get Anna back as soon as possible. Her leg seemed to have been healing okay, but I think it might have become infected. It’s turned an unnatural purple colour, and she is starting to look quite sick.

I’m getting really antsy, alone with my thoughts. Anna and I have had a few conversations, but mostly she just sleeps. After all, that is the only way she can dull the pain. This is a different kind of alone than I’ve felt befre. It’s not the kind of alone you feel when you’re driving down the highway, alone, listening to music and feeling happy to get away for a bit. This is the kind of alone you feel when you know you are miles and miles away from the nearest person, and even further from anywhere you would call home. It’s the feeling of having no one by your side, no sounds to keep you company, not even the gentle hum of traffic that you used to hate but have grown to relish the comfort of.

Like I said, I am alone with my thoughts. And the bugs. And sometimes Anna.

I have to admit, having her here is somewhat of a comfort, even though her broken leg is the reason that we are in this situation. I’m not saying I blame her for breaking her leg, but would it have killed her to be a bit more careful?

No, I don’t mean that. Accidents happen and we have to make the best of the situation. After all, even in her semi-conscious state, she’s still a great conversational companion. Last night, waiting for Jaime’s return, we had an interesting conversation about love. It started with my very subtle hint that Jaime might have been interested in her.

“So, Anna,” I started, knowing that tact was of the utmost importance in this situation. “Jaime’s a really great guy, huh?”
“Yeah, he’s really sweet. I can’t believe he went out of his way to go find me a splint. I feel so guilty about it.”
“Don’t carry that weight on you, you have enough to worry about as is. I sent him out into the jungle, I’m the one that should take the blame for this. Although, you know he’d do anything for you.” I added playfully.
“I know. He’s got the biggest crush on me, I can tell. And he’s such a gentleman. But he’s not the kind of guy I normally go out with. He’s younger than me, and he’s so small. I don’t normally date guys I could beat up, and I could take Jaime in a second.”
“Oh, give him a little more credit. He’s tougher than he seems.”
“I suppose he’d have to be with his past, but it’s just… I don’t want to be the one to break the poor boy. Look at me,” she continued, moving slightly to showcase her body art.  “My history is written all over me. I’ve got a past; I’m not someone he should be with. This is even more obvious now, given what’s already happened with the two of us, and we’re not even dating! The idiot ran off into the jungle to help me and now he’s either injured, or captured by the FARC or the Panamanian police or worse. Don’t get me wrong, if we ever get out of this alive, I’ll give the man a kiss for the effort, but we just wouldn’t work.”
“You don’t know until you try! I mean look at me and Grace. Sure, it isn’t working out right now, but I thought she was way out of my league when I met her. If I hadn’t taken a chance, who knows where we’d be right now. Probably not here, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t have had the amazing life I had up until now, with my two wonderful kids. Damn it, I’ve been such an idiot.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it, Will. She loves you, and she’s still cooling off. It’s a big thing that you did, just up and running away like that, she had every right to be as angry as she wanted.”
“I guess. I’m just so worried that I’ve messed everything up for good. I love her so much, what on earth was I thinking?” The more I talked, the more of a mess I became, until I was lying in the tent with Anna, my head on her shoulder, sobbing like a baby. For once, though, maybe because of the kindness I’d shown her when she broke her leg, she didn’t mock me. She didn’t make fun of me; she didn’t push me away, reminding me that I was not to touch her. Instead she just lay there, stroking my back, and softly singing a sweet melody, calming me down, and reminding me that it was all going to be okay.

When I awoke this morning, I was still cuddling with Anna. It should have felt wrong, but it was nice to have someone to hold, even if it was just as friends. I got up, heated up some of the remaining water for coffee, and poured two cups. I sweetened hers with sugar, poured the rest of the hot water into some instant oatmeal for breakfast, and returned to the tent with my hands full of goodies.

“Any sign?” Anna asked, not having to say anything more.
“Not that I could tell.” I replied, wishing with all my heart that I could give her a different answer.
“Well, isn’t that just shitty,” she replied, taking the coffee and oatmeal off my hands as she said so. She quickly ate the oatmeal, not stopping to savour its taste, then asked for my help getting out of the tent.
“Why do want out?” I enquired sweetly, acting innocent.
“You know very well why I want out. Don’t act all high and mighty. My leg is broken. I am in pain. Someone I care about has been gone for days now, and he is God knows where. I’m stuck in the middle of the jungle. Now help me out of the tent so I can have a cigarette, or I will try using my leg, and you’ll have to re-set it again.”
I couldn’t really argue with that logic, so I put my arm around her, and helped her hobble to her seat outside the tent. I gave her back her cup of coffee, and her pack of smokes, and set her down, plopping myself next to her.
“You know, you’re going to run out soon. If this is how bitchy you are now, how bad are you going to be then?”
“Will, you don’t want to know.” She replied, puffing on her cigarette to light it, and blowing a little smoke back into my face.
She had a point, so I left it at that. We sat there in silence for a few minutes, me drinking my coffee, her finishing her cigarette. When she had stubbed out the butt, I figured it was as good a time as any to broach the subject with her.
“So Anna, it’s been a few days now. I’m finding it harder and harder to believe that Jaime is going to be coming back any time soon. You really need to get to a hospital. I don’t think we can just sit here and wait for him anymore. What should we do?” I asked, seriously hoping that she’d have some sort of magic answer.
“I don’t know what we should do,” she sighed, obviously unhappy with her own answer. “I have been thinking about it non-stop. There’s no one perfect answer, but I think the best thing I could come up with is this. We leave a few notes here, in case he somehow manages to make his way back, saying that we’ve headed back to Yaviza to get me some medical attention. Then we head back, moving slowly, and leaving plenty of marks, so he can follow us if he gets lost. I really can’t think of anything else we could possibly do,” Anna admitted, sounding slightly defeated.
“No, that’s good. That’s probably the best we’ll be able to come up with. We should leave some supplies here too, just in case he turns out to need them. We have no idea what kind of shape he’s in after his three day foray into the jungle.”
“Sounds good. Let’s get me to a hospital.” Anna finished, and with that, we were ready to continue on our way.

Now, we’re packing up the camp and getting ready to start moving again. I gave Anna tasks that she didn’t have to move very far to do. She’s writing the notes for Jaime, putting together his pack, in case he comes back, and cleaning up her area. I’ve been stuck with everything else, since I seem to be the only able-bodied person in the entire jungle. We will walk until tonight, set up camp once more, and hopefully be out of the jungle in three days. Then the only thing we need to do is deal with the Panamanian police, get Anna to the tiny hospital in the town, hope they have the services that are necessary to care for her, and get her the care she needs.

I hope to God that Jaime has made it out of the jungle. I hope he was captured by Panamanians, if he was captured, and he’s waiting in that military booth that we were ushered into when we first got there. I can’t even begin to think of what else could have happened to him.

No, Will. Think positive. It’s the only way that you’re going to make it out of this alive and relatively sane.

Here’s to not dying,

Will.

So yeah, that’s from my book. It consumed my life for a bit, so hopefully I will get back to posting Japan related things shortly! I’m headed home for 3 weeks on Thursday and the ridiculously long trips will hopefully give me plenty of time to blog about a bunch of things!

Sorry once more!

Jeri