Year of blessings-2024

The year 2024 took me to places I have never been to or I could have never afforded to, it’s been a year of traveling and exploration. The year began with my first overseas training and ended with my first girls trip. This year the stars aligned and the universe worked in my favor, it ticked off all my manifestations and I am overwhelmingly appreciative of it. 

Being away from home for the first time and experiencing a foreign land has been challenging, especially getting home sick for the Bhutanese species and the food. The language barrier made it worse but all of the situations made me more adaptive. 

Studying at an International University increased my friendship circle and broadened my view of the world, especially the different cultures around the world. Experienced culture shock several times but being a Bhutanese I think our strongest strength is adaptability, we can take the shape of any container and fit in pretty well. Different cultures come with different foods and cooking styles and sharing a common kitchen has been quite an experience for me. Some dishes smell as worse as a shit while some smell tempting and mouthwatering and among those the amount of chilli we consume leaves everyone flabbergasted. 

I have started to value the everyday things and most simple things. Everyday things such as wearing our national dress I miss it only when I no longer have to wear it. I was looking out for spaghetti and ramen back home. Now I prefer our Kewa Datshi and Ema datshi more than those. In the process, I have found joy in the simple things and I am profoundly grateful for the blessings I received this year.

May the new year bring blessings to every one.

6 days and 5 nights

Travelling has never been easy for me due to my poor navigation skills and motion sickness yet I have always yearned for it. Travelling to new places and exploring things has been a breath of fresh air and a gateway from mundane life. This time I seized the opportunity to explore Japan beyond Tokyo and my University. Shinkansens, local trains and buses covered large distances, with ease and efficiency. On the other hand, the demand for walking more than 30,000 steps each day made my legs rather stronger than before. Each place I have been to has its own beauty and way of welcoming the visitors. 

1. Fuji Yama (Mt. Fuji)

Located at an elevation of 3776 masl is one of the most enjoyed views by the eyes of the visitors. Coming from a mountainous country I couldn’t help but to compare with the mountains in Bhutan and Mt. Fuji is located a few hundreds of metres lower than Chelela pass yet it is more magnificent and attracts much more visitors. When it comes to taking pictures with the view of Mt. Fuji in the background people are crowded from dusk till dawn despite the freezing temperature.  

2. Fuji Q Highland

A day of survival, because I have never ever experienced  a roller coaster ride except for using the term as a metaphor to describe things. The scare of that day still lingers today and I swear I am never doing it again. From dropping you from the sky with 14 times spins (highest revolutions in the world) at a speed of 126 km/h seemed like the longest 2 minutes of my life. I am a person who lets my voice out whenever I am scared but being high up in the sky spinned and speeded I lost my voice, I guess that is the extreme point of scariness. I am glad that I didn’t pass out in the sky though I completely lost my balance by the end of the ride. 

 

3. Osaka Castle

A majestic castle stands tall and oversees the  metro city of Osaka. It is mentioned that it has played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century (wikipedia). More than the castle, the stone walls  surrounding the castle amazed me as it exhibited the quality and creativity of Japanese technique (burdock piling). 

4.Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street

This street is especially for people like me who cannot locate the places as all the stores are lined up at each side of the road from thrift stores to designer stores. You just name it and the street has it for you. Apart from the shopping stores, it has river cruise service and it is especially beautiful to enjoy the ride with the streets decorated with Christmas lights. 

 

5. Nara Deer Park and Todaiji Temple

Visiting this park took me back to Takin Zoo back home but the animals here are free ranging and they mingle with humans. They are so acquainted with humans that they have learned to bow to get treats from the visitors. Interestingly the deers live in harmony with both humans and the temple. They wander around the temple walking with the visitors and occasionally bowing and posing for the pictures. 

 

6. Kyoto

Kyoto is undeniably one of the most beautiful places in Japan and instantly became  my favourite. It has quite a lot to offer but the time was limited and we could only explore a few. A walk through the Arashiyama bamboo grove has been a moment to connect with nature while strolling around the area has been like walking inside a movie or a novel. The shrines were as old as 3000 years old and well protected, the houses were cute and space efficient while the paths were safe although narrow and the footpaths made of stone slabs. If you cannot walk then there is rickshaw service with endless stories of the nook and corner of the place, with the skill of a professional photographer and the strength of a horse. An evening stroll around the Gion district tells you the story of Kyoto through architecture, souvenirs, dishes and tea houses. After reading the stories of Geisha and tea houses I was particularly interested to get the feel of the place and it is definitely more vibrant and beautiful than described in the books although it is crowded. 

 

Interesting facts I have noticed during this trip, all the tourist places are overcrowded and one can hardly manage to get a picture without the people photo bombing in the background. There are no waste bins in the tourist areas and none of the businesses are without a customer and maybe this explains why all the businesses are closed before 8pm. All the places have a theme for instance Nara park is themed as deer so the souvenirs to foods it's all deer shaped or something related to deer and for Kyoto it is matcha and so on.

There is so much more to share but I am falling short of words and I fear my limited vocabulary is not doing justice so I am keeping it short and crisp. 

No place like Bhutan-རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་དུས་ཆེན་ ༡༡༧

Wearing my national dress back home has just been an everyday thing but it is totally a different feeling wearing it outside. There is a sense of pride and patriotism wearing our National Day outside Bhutan and today it was at the peak. It was like a precious and prestigious opportunity which I  have been missing  without even realizing it. Being able to wear the national dress, being able to come together as a Bhutanese and being able to watch His Majesty’s address to the nation today filled my heart with happiness and gratitude and eyes with tears. Clips of the celebration back home filled my social media pages since the start of December and it made me homesick every time I watched them. I guess home is both a person and a place.

Studying at an International University I get to mingle with the students from more than 70 different countries with unique cultures and traditions but I am yet to find a country like Bhutan. None of these countries have the values as tight and strong as ours. Maybe I sound biased when I make this statement but I am a Bhutanese and which Bhutanese won’t agree with me.  When I was back home my eyes always wandered to the outside world and I swear I had envied all the fancy, tech-savvy and convenient things around the world but what I have realised being away from home is that the tight values of our country is incomparable to anything in the outside world. Being away from one’s home surely invokes one’s appreciation for the things one has.

Friends here are always awestruck whenever I share the stories from Bhutan and there are none who doesn’t wish to visit Bhutan. Every one of them wants to get rich and afford a visit to Bhutan one day and experience the stories they have heard from me. Bhutan may be a small nation in terms of size, economy and population but what we have is something no country in the world has. Bhutan is inarguably a paradise on earth.

རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་དུས་ཆེན་ ༡༡༧

De Lu Lu days at IUJ.

Exams have never been my comfort zone no matter how many times I have done it. Since the pre-primary I appeared for the exams until the ultimate RCSC exam yet I have never felt ready or confident.

Today after more than three years I am back in the same zone of anxiousness. However, the exams back home felt familiar if that makes sense but exams at International University of Japan (IUJ) feels more foreign and scary. Students dwell in the study rooms until dawn and rarely have the time to even break for a meal. Although I am not one of them, unable to spare time for a meal, the anxiousness steals away my appetite and hunger. I wonder if all the students in graduate universities study this hard and this long because I don’t remember such a thing in my undergraduate days. Does this mean students in Graduate Universities are making up for the days they have not studied that much during their initial days because now that they have better understanding of the world do they find the meaning of life while studying. If that is the hypothesis then I must be still the immature one cuz I am unable to find the purpose of my life in studies. 

I hopped onto this journey with so much pride and thought I would be on a vacation, away from my work but then life is not at all a vacation here. Lectures and Teaching Assistances keep me engaged from Monday to Friday from 9am to 9pm, only weekends are for shopping but just for groceries and veggies, laundry and cleaning my dorm room and few extra hours of sleep. Then, a few hours in between are for the homeworks, assignments and cooking. Finally, a few hours on weekends and weekdays after 9pm is for the extra curricular activities. So adios to my vacation. Additionally, exams knock on every one and half month.

Having said this, I don't mean that I don’t like my life right now. I figured out a new perspective or an escape to take in all these fast changes without being affected by my surroundings. I am at awe looking at the seriousness of people here with life and specifically time although it makes me question my state numerous times. I wonder how students here, despite the late night studies parties until 6am in the morning during the weekends, surprisingly make it to class on the next day and of course submit the homeworks without a minute of delay. I also attempted the same but it didn’t work for me (lol). That’s why I am here jotting my emotions during the exam week in the study room.

People, place and the experiences at IUJ never fails to surprise me.

A picture memory at study room on 6/12/24.

Being a Tourist at Minamiuonuma

From being the most clingy person to going solo it has been quite an adventure for me. During the initial days all I could do was be in the same circle of friends and not even go grocery shopping without my friends and I was always contended to be in my comfort zone. However, this weekend has been all about going out of my comfort zone and exploring things on my own. It’s a small thing but I am glad that I did it. 

Since my University is rurally located there is nothing big to experience like in the cities. No cafes, no cute restaurants and the nearest 7/11 requires more than 30 mins of walk so you see there isn’t  much of an option for leisure. Having said this it doesn’t mean that the people here do not socialise they do but in a more local and traditional way. 

Niigata prefecture is known for producing one of the finest rice in Japan so the community here celebrates RICE FESTIVAL after the harvest of the rice to celebrate the strength of their city. Free invitations are sent out to the locals including the students of nearby universities and schools. The local community cooks free meals with rice being the main dish for more than 300 people and share their joy of their harvest. The school kids also help in marketing the rice. A simple idea yet so productive and meaningful engagement.

Back home, paddy cultivation is equally honoured and practised by the farmers especially the western region although it is not really considered cost effective. I have seen people celebrating the transplantation as much as one of the annual rituals whereby the entire community helps each other through labour contributions. 

Just like the fire blessing, ‘Mewang’ of Bumthang the community here Hakkai San celebrates the FIRE WALKING FESTIVAL twice a year in spring and autumn. It is celebrated in front of the Hakkai San Son Shrine which is located at quite a distance from the community to encourage people to walk to receive the blessings. The main ritual starts with an hour long of prayers by the priests surrounding the bonfire. After that, priests walk on the hot charcoal for purification and blessings and while the audience also eagerly lines up to walk on the hot charcoal and most important for purification and to receive the blessings. 

It is definitely a different place yet things seemed too much like home and the past two days had been quite nostalgic while I attended these festivals on my own. 

  

Transition

Although there is a willingness to adapt to change, the ability to accept change is minimal, whereby we are so used to being in our comfort zone that we are not able to adjust to slightest change from the normal. It has been more than three years since my last classroom life and for those years I neither had to sit in one position listening to someone for hours nor I  had to submit assignments or even write the examinations so there was no obligation for living each day. The datelines for the work could be met anytime and even if I failed at times there was a flexibility of giving explanations, not excuses though. 

Now that I have to shift myself to being the one to listen and meet the academic requirements my mind refuses to do so easily. The fact that I have no background of economics and mathematics makes it worse although I am not proud to admit this. In the pool, a maximum of the students are either doing their second masters or are recent graduates. There is the determination to learn more for those doing their second masters while there is burning passion and fresh mind for those continuing their education and in between these two groups it’s me, a blank paper who took on a challenge to study economics after a gap of education and with no basis at all. This fact also makes me reflect on our country’s position in terms of education and the investment in the development of Human Resources.

Everyday I go to my classes with the blank page and since I don’t have prior knowledge on the subjects my expectations are low and everything taught in the classes never fails to amaze me. There is a fear and the anxiety that I won’t be able to catch up with the rest yet I reassure myself. I confide to the positive affirmations and smile whenever the fear crawls up.

Additionally, the professors here are knowledgeable, experienced and each of them having graduated from prestigious universities around the world just makes me feel privileged to be in their classes. 

To the challenge and the opportunity ahead I am hoping my inability to transition faster won’t be an obstacle to achieving my goals and filling the blank page with the best. 

My life’s most expensive experience - Tokyo

I had the most expensive experience of my life in Tokyo and today is the 17th and the last day until next time. Although the vigorous sessions and language classes kept us busy from 9am-5pm including some weekends, the day always included 3-4 hours of walking after the classes. Despite all these walkings my white crocs still remained as white as snow. Walking just to eat some good food, (good food= food which is spicy and not sweet, lol). 

Some places I have been had me awestruck while some were rather crowded to even walk by. My favourite ones:

1. Meiji Jingu

Who would have thought that there would be a vast park (70 ha.) in the middle of the metro-city. If one is rather sick of the metro life then one can just visit the park and the shinto shrine for a little peace of mind. The fact that they had barrels of sake (alcohol) wrapped in bamboo straw was quite amazing because it seemed similar to Yang Chang back home. This sake was offered every year to the enshrined deities by the members of Meiji Jingu for the flourishment of the sake brewing industry.  

 

Sake barrels

2. Shibuya

This is where the famous loyal dog Hachiko dog’s statue stands which was built in memory of Hachiko who waited for his owner till his last breath (9 years 9 months & 15 days) who actually died in the war. This is no ordinary statue cuz people stood in line under the scorching sun just to take a picture with the statue exactly how we Bhutanese stand in line for the blessings from Lams. 

Shibuya crossing

Hachiko dog statue

     

At the very same location, the busiest crossing in Tokyo- Shibuya Crossing where 1000-2500 people cross this intersection every two minutes, thus the nickname scramble. People almost dash you through when crossing this crossing. 

3. Tokyo Tower

The tower which held the title of tallest tower in Japan till 2012 is about 333 metres tall. It was a challenge for me and my friend to go there as it was our first time going by ourselves as we were just following others during the rest of the time. We felt rather accomplished as we could go by the train to the next station and reach the tower. The fees charged were also reasonable but unfortunately we could not view from the top most deck as it was under renovation. We got the chance to view Tokyo from above 150 metres. 

Tokyo tower

             

                

4. Harajuku street

Harajuku street

The street of fashion it was, as there were youths all in fashionable clothes mostly inspired by the animation characters. Everything in this street had a theme, and it was like the entire episode of animation/movie put on the street. For me I definitely felt out of the place, without make up or even a dress to blend with rest. The huge bag pack I carried made it worse so you can imagine me as the clown in the show.

5. Kabukicho street

This is another street for the youths but this is more of a nightlife. It portrays the out of the box Japanese culture. People strolling in this street kind of breaks the Japanese rules and I even read somewhere that there are even chances of theft or street arguments as the streets are lined up by Izakaya (Japanese drinking bar). Pretty girls all dolled up and invites people in their bar for a drink by greeting the people and shouting out their restraurant’s menu. I found this as another marketing strategy used by many restaurants in Japan especially towards the evening. They are not short of customers yet they call for more customers. 

  

6. Tokyo Metro-Politian Building (TMG Bldg.)

Nothing is free of cost in Japan except for the observatory in this building. It is yet another observatory point where the metro city can be viewed from as high as 202 metres. It has two observatory decks north and south and both are free of charge for all. The most fun part about this building is the night lights/shows projected on the building every night. People come with their bean bags/mats and enjoy the show from the street. A mobile popcorn and coffee shop would have definitely been a catch. 

Night show at TMG Bldg.

Overall, Tokyo has been quite overwhelming with everything placed at your convenience and some even beyond your imagination. However, my heart and stomach years for ema datsi and yuechum toh. 

From Shinjuku-Tokyo

A bumble bee street it is, filled with hustlers who do not even have the luxury to either eat, talk or even walk. Everything is moving at the speed of 2x if it was 1x back home. To catch up with them I am restoring to running instead of walking, waking up an hour early to complete my morning routine and catching up with the people back home from the restrooms. I am definitely blown away by the pace of Japan. 

It is no joke when it comes to time for them to the extent that they took us to the classroom directly from a two day flight without even a cup of water. Being Bhutanese I also became a victim of certain expectations such as a welcome tea if  not a full course meal. Maybe this is what a culture shock feels like.

The number of suppliers equates to the buyers, that we are required to register and stand in queue even for a meal. For the record, my friends and I did not get our dinner yesterday even after waiting for more than 40 mins. The trick here was we had to register in lesser head count if you want to get the table faster. No businesses here are empty like in Bhutan and maybe that’s the verification that the population is essential for any businesses to flourish. 

Money definitely cannot purchase things easily here because every purchase here specifically getting a mobile sim card is permissible only after a full proof documentation. Even after getting the sim card the procedures and the flexibility is not as mobile as in Bhutan. The sim either works only for voice or data and is too expensive (About Nu.840/month just for 5GB) if we want both in one. The carry over of the balance during each recharge is not possible so basically you lose your balance if you do not finish your data within the period and incase if it is exhausted before then the charge of extra for recharge before the period. So not everything is greener on the other side just because it is a developed nation. I am already missing Bhutan Telecom and Tashi Cell. 

 

Overwhelmed with new experiences, shocked with differences and anxious of fitting in. Even so I am glad that I took up this new challenge because now I have a different story to tell.