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.