#I just got back from a “no service or WiFi” vacation so I have MANY ARTS TO POST :DD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stephissalty · 4 years

Text

you still wear my jacket

Pairing: Iwaoi

Rating: T

Warnings: Language

Words: 6000

Summary: "Iwaizumi wasn’t one to believe in fate, but he could believe that there was some very, very cruel intervention that put Oikawa Tooru on the same plane, to the same destination, in the seat next to him, three years nearly to the day since the last time he’d seen him."

AO3

Part 2 - AO3

you still wear my jacket

Iwaizumi Hajime receives a text from his supervisor ten minutes before he’s set to board a plane to London.

Received, 19:04: enjoy your trip. don’t forget to turn off your phone

Received, 19:04: you need the time off

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes and sends an affirmative response before tucking his phone back in his pocket. He knew he was very much in need of a break. For the past three months, he had been working twelve-plus hour days, and his team had been working nearly as many. The project his supervisor had assigned to Iwaizumi’s group was interesting, at least: the coding division was to design and perfect a code to a new kind of robot, to be used in conjunction with other existing technology that the company was working on, and compatible with several different kinds of software. Iwaizumi enjoyed his job as a team leader - he’d been offered the position after holding an internship with a sister company while in university - but these past few weeks had been wearing him down, and he was ready to collapse.

His supervisor had suggested that he take a week off and get out of Japan - visit somewhere far away, somewhere he’d never been before for a change of scenery. And he was doing just that.

But even so, he still feels the weight of his laptop in his backpack, and his work phone in one of his pockets buzzes with another text. After this text, I’ll turn it off.

Received, 19:07: Iwaizumi-san, enjoy your trip

The text is from one of his interns, a university student named Kunimi. Even my interns are telling me to enjoy my trip. Have I been overworking that much?

He doesn’t turn off his phone.

He turns his boarding pass over in his hands, fidgeting slightly with the edges of the slick paper. For the millionth time, he reads over his boarding group, which reads BSNS CLASS, and then verifies it is his name at the top of the pass. Indeed, IWAIZUMI HAJIME is printed at the top of the paper along with all of the other flight details. He’s still in awe that he has the privilege to fly Business Class, something that is because of his hearty bonus that came in a few weeks ago. This whole trip was a treat to himself, but the tickets were a splurge.

“We are now welcoming Business Class. Business Class, welcome aboard.”

Iwaizumi makes his way towards the line forming, stepping behind well-dressed men in suits carrying briefcases and women carrying designer purses. At twenty-five years old and dressed in sweats and an old Aoba Johsai jacket, he feels slightly out of place. He puts his discomfort aside as he approaches the desk, where the attendant scans his ticket, and he enters the boarding bridge.

A few minutes later, he’s settled into his seat, 2B. The window seat to his left is still empty as he fishes his headphones and charging cord out of his backpack before stowing it away in the overhead.

It’s several minutes later, and as Iwaizumi is starting to be hopeful that he may have the row to himself that he feels a tap on his shoulder.

“Sorry, can I get -” as Iwaizumi looks up, the person speaking abruptly cuts off in surprise. “Iwa-chan?”

Iwaizumi blinks a few times, trying to register the sight in front of him. Standing in the aisle in front of him is none other than Oikawa Tooru. He’s older than the last time he saw him, but he’s definitely Oikawa. His immaculate hair is slightly longer than it was last time, and he looks a little taller, but that might be Iwaizumi’s angle. He’s dressed in a dark shirt under a white jacket with aqua trim and dark sweatpants, and to finish off the ensemble is a head donut around his neck.

“Oikawa.”

“Uh -” For one of the first times that Iwaizumi can recall, Oikawa seems to be out of words. “Looks like I’m sitting next to you. If you want, I can try to request a seat change or -”

“It’s fine. You’re holding up the line. Get in,” Iwaizumi grunts and grits his teeth.

“Right, right.”

Iwaizumi draws up his knees to allow Oikawa to pass, trying not to flinch at the moment of contact.

They sit in silence for a while as the rest of the plane boards, allowing Iwaizumi the distraction to put in his headphones and turn on music, loud enough to try to forget that Oikawa Tooru is sitting next to him. He subtly scoots towards the aisle and pulls his left elbow towards his body, vehemently ignoring the heat emitting from the body next to him.

What are the chances?

Iwaizumi wasn’t one to believe in fate, but he could believe that there was some very, very cruel intervention that put Oikawa Tooru on the same plane, to the same destination, in the seat next to him, three years nearly to the day since the last time he’d seen him.

Three years is a long time.

“Welcome aboard flight 0104, service to London Heathrow. I’m Sawamura, and I’m joined by Azumane, and we’ll be your flight crew for today’s flight. If you’ll direct your attention to your seat-back screens for the safety presentation please…”

The plane pushes back from the gate and begins taxiing towards the runway. Begin a flight from hell.

“Iwa-chan?”

He whips his head to Oikawa and removes one earbud. “Don’t call me that.”

“Iwaizumi...san.” Oikawa has a strange look on his face, as if the name tastes strange in his mouth, which he supposes it probably does.

“What?”

“Is it time now?” The question is vague, but the meaning is clear as day.

“We have been cleared for takeoff. Secure your seatbacks and tray tables in their upright and locked positions. Flight attendants, prepare the cabin for takeoff.”

Iwaizumi doesn’t respond, just puts his earbud back in and raises the volume even higher, to a nearly painful level.

The engines ready for takeoff, Iwaizumi looks to the window as the plane accelerates. He can see, even though the other is faced away from him, the sparkle in Oikawa’s eyes, even before leaving the ground. Once the wheels leave the ground, the city starts shrinking to a grid of yellow lights and soft neons and moving headlights. From Iwaizumi’s vantage point, he doesn’t have the best view, but Oikawa does, and Oikawa, although he’s definitely been on planes countless times, seems captivated by the city getting smaller and the sky getting more vast, getting closer to the soft clouds.

Oikawa’s always loved planes.

Iwaizumi knows that better than anyone. Oikawa’s the reason why Iwaizumi loves flying.

Once they reach ten thousand feet, Iwaizumi immediately connects his work phone to the wifi to check his messages, and, sure enough, in the Oikawa commotion, he’d forgotten to check it before takeoff. He had several messages from another one of his hard-working interns, Kindaichi.

Received 19:15: I got section 44 to compile!

Received 19:15: Yahaba-san will look over it tomorrow

Received 19:15: I’m going to start on 45

Received 19:16: You shouldn’t be doing work on vacation tho

Received 19:16: Have fun, Iwaizumi-san!

Not for the first time, he is exceedingly grateful for his dedicated interns, working even at seven in the evening.

Delivered 19:55: Thank you for your hard work.

Delivered 19:55: Don’t work too late.

He receives an immediate response.

Received 19:55: The same for you!

Delivered 19:56: Thank you.

Although everyone has told him to turn off his phone, he can’t bring himself to. He can’t bear the thought that one of his subordinates could need his help during the time that he’s in the air - after all, it’s a thirteen hour flight. A voice tries to reason that they shouldn’t be working at this time anyways, but it ultimately loses.

“As hardworking as ever,” Oikawa says, somehow catching a quiet moment in one of Iwaizumi’s songs, so his voice cuts through. Iwaizumi thinks he hears a twinge of anger in the word ‘hardworking’. He doesn’t want to think about why.

He returns his attention to his seatmate and wrenches out one earbud. “Huh?”

“You were just messaging work, no? Always a hardworker, Iwa-chan.”

“Were you reading over my shoulder?” Iwaizumi asks incredulously, ignoring the second half of what Oikawa said. He’s trying to rile Iwaizumi up, and he knows it.

“It’s not my fault if you have your brightness so high and your font so big that someone in space could read your texts.” Oikawa flashes a shit-eating, dazzling grin.

Don’t fall for it don’t fall for it don’t fall for it. “I swear -”

“Are you still at the tech company? Code monkey?”

Iwaizumi tries to rein in his temper. “I’m a team leader for the coding division, and, yes, I’m still with the same company. How about you, space boy?”

“I’m a project leader for a classified project at an aerospace firm in Tokyo,” Oikawa says, nose in the air.

Iwaizumi nods, ready to go back to his music, but clearly Oikawa has other plans.

“Iwa-chan! Tell me about your life.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

“Please.”

His eyes are pleading, and Iwaizumi almost breaks there. But then he remembers.

“No. Now, I’m going to take a nap. Is that okay with you, Oikawa?” he snaps. He actually isn’t tired at all and has trouble sleeping on planes, but dealing with Oikawa is too much for him today. He doesn’t wait until he gets an answer before turning away from Oikawa and burrowing slightly into the collar of his volleyball jacket that he still wears after all these years.

He doesn’t realize that Oikawa is also wearing his Aoba Johsai jacket.

Iwaizumi wasn’t sure when Oikawa really changed, but he thought it might’ve been when he missed the final ball in the last match against Karasuno in their third year of high school. After that game, he was never quite the same. There wasn’t another high school tournament to prepare for, and they were done playing for Seijoh. It marked the end of an era, in a way, and Iwaizumi figured Oikawa didn’t know how to handle it.

The end of third year was rough because of that. They still attended classes leading up to graduation, toured a few universities, applied to universities, got accepted to universities, dropped in on a few practices, but all of that was tinged with a grey cloud of sadness that both of them could feel.

Iwaizumi felt it all bubble up when they had to individually choose where they would be going to university.

One Friday night, they were sitting on Iwaizumi’s bedroom floor, two laptops open, and countless pamphlets and acceptance letters surrounding them as they each tried to decide where they’d attend for the coming year. Oikawa had been alarmingly quiet through the whole time Iwaizumi had been listing pros and cons of his personal top choices - two different schools in Tokyo and one closer to Sendai.

“What’s up?”

Oikawa kept his head down.

“Oikawa.”

He shook his head silently.

“Is the university talk upsetting you?”

He shrugged, still not looking up. His hair was flopped down, so his face was hidden from Iwaizumi’s view.

“You gotta talk to me.”

Oikawa very, very slowly raised his hand and gripped Iwaizumi’s wrist, pulling it toward himself. He still didn’t speak.

Iwaizumi thought he understood, though. “You don’t want to separate.”

Oikawa shook his head violently and hugged Iwaizumi tightly. He felt a wet patch forming on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around his friend.

“It’ll be okay,” he whispered, but it sounded like an empty promise to his own ears.

They sat there for a long time, Oikawa crying in Iwaizumi’s arms, as Iwaizumi tucked his face in Oikawa’s neck and tried not to cry as well.

I don’t want to leave him, either.

But I might have to.

The night of graduation, the two lay in silence on Iwaizumi’s bedroom floor. They’d already been to dinner with their families, already did photos, already took care of their prior commitments, They were free to just spend the evening together.

Oikawa had his head on Iwaizumi’s stomach, and their hands were intertwined over Iwaizumi’s chest. Even for them, it was very intimate, but they didn’t address it. The somber mood in the room was overbearing.

“Iwa-chan?”

“Hmm?”

“Everything’s gonna change now, isn’t it?”

They’d decided to go to different universities in the same city. They were getting an apartment together. Even though they’d be on different volleyball teams, they’d still be together. That managed to nullify both of their fears of being apart.

“Things are going to change, but what’s never going to change is that you’re my best friend,” Iwaizumi replied quietly. He ordinarily wasn’t the type to say sentimental things out loud, but tonight was different.

Oikawa pulled their conjoined hands onto his own chest and squeezed tight. He shifted his head to look towards Iwaizumi. “Is that a promise?”

Iwaizumi looked down and met his gaze, eyes soft. “Of course.”

“Even if I say something stupid?”

“Always.”

Oikawa turned his gaze away, refocusing on the ceiling fan as he ran his thumb over the back of Iwaizumi’s hand. He exhaled, seemingly thinking through his next words very thoroughly, as if he were scared.

“You couldn’t say anything that would make me not want to be your best friend.”

“Even…” Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. “Even if I were to say I’m in love with you?” The end of the sentence sounded choked, and the squeezing of Iwaizumi’s hand was almost painful - he could physically feel Oikawa’s anxiety.

Iwaizumi used his free hand to run through Oikawa’s hair softly. A giddy smile played at his own lips, and his heartbeat sped up. “Yeah, even then. I love you, too.”

Iwaizumi isn’t sure how long it’s been when he wakes up.

Just in front of him, serving the first row, he sees the flight with carts for the first in-flight meal. Considering this, he assumes he’s been out for an hour or so.

He risks a glance at Oikawa, who he finds looking back at him.

Iwaizumi doesn’t want to - can’t - decipher what the emotion in his eyes is.

“What’s for dinner for you guys? We’ve got vegetarian lasagna and a chicken wrap,” the attendant who’d introduced himself as Sawamura asks.

“Lasagna,” they say in unison. Iwaizumi stiffens, but doesn’t look at Oikawa.

“Great, great,” Sawamura replies, as he grabs the meals and hands them out. “Azumane will be by in a minute for drinks.”

Indeed, Azumane was taking the first row’s drink order. Neither speaks until Azumane has handed them their drinks - Sprite for Oikawa, Coke for Iwaizumi.

“Don’t talk.”

“Iwa-chan -”

The tension snaps. Iwaizumi growls, “I just want to eat my dinner. I can’t deal with you, I can’t deal with this right now, I really can’t. Stop.”

Oikawa swallows slowly and averts his eyes. He draws his left leg up to his chest, careful not to knock the tray table, and hugs it as he peels back the foil on his meal. “I’m sorry, Iwa-chan.”

He sounds defeated.

Iwaizumi can’t take it. He puts headphones back in.

The first year of university passed fairly uneventfully. There were so many changes, of course, but there were no disasters of epic proportions that Iwaizumi and Oikawa couldn’t work through alright.

They quickly fell into a routine. Iwaizumi would get back to the apartment first because his university was slightly closer, and his classes ended a little earlier. He’d start on his homework, and Oikawa would arrive sometime not long after that. After finishing both of their homework - Iwaizumi was a very good influence to get Oikawa to stop procrastinating - they’d figure something for dinner - usually Iwaizumi cooking. And after dinner they’d settle down in the living room for a few hours.

They spent a lot of nights on the couch in their apartment, a tangled mess of limbs, Oikawa’s head on Iwaizumi’s chest. Usually they’d watch a TV show or movie as Iwaizumi carded one hand through Oikawa’s hair and clasped their hands together over Oikawa’s chest with the other. He spent a lot of nights just playing with Oikawa’s hands, gently kissing his fingertips, appreciating all of the callouses.

Save for a few small domestic spats that were bound to happen to any new roommates or romantic partners, first year passed without a hitch.

Their first anniversary fell on a Saturday, so they had the whole day together. The day as a whole was phenomenal: lazy morning sex, pancake breakfast, sleepy movie afternoon, and fancy dinner. After dinner, though, Oikawa already had Iwaizumi pushed up against the outside of their door before he’d even unlocked it. He pressed their lips together hotly, like they had so many times before.

Iwaizumi smiled into the kiss but ducked away from Oikawa’s mouth. “Not yet. We’ll get there, though,” he promised and pressed a quick kiss to Oikawa’s jaw to satiate his partner for the time being. They pushed into the apartment, but Iwaizumi didn’t look at Oikawa, instead heading straight for his own bedroom, which had barely been used since they’d moved in - Iwaizumi slept in Oikawa’s room almost every night.

Iwaizumi first unzipped his school bag, fishing around in one of the pockets to find a permanent marker. Then, he opened his closet, sifting through clothes until he found his Aoba Johsai jacket. Still not speaking, he entered the living room, still holding the jacket and marker, grabbed Oikawa’s sleeve, and pulled him into Oikawa’s bedroom. He then found Oikawa’s own Aoba Johsai jacket, ignoring his boyfriend’s questions as to what the hell, Iwa-chan?

Iwaizumi laid both jackets side by side on the bed. “Sit.” Oikawa did, still thoroughly confused. “So, I’ve had this idea for a while, and I thought now would be a good time.” He blushed slightly as he doubted his idea. “I want us to trade jackets.” Oikawa looked confused. “Well - we both still wear them fairly often, and I was thinking that even though they look the same, we’ll always know they’re the others’? Something like that? It’s kinda a stupid idea, I know -”

“I love it.” Oikawa jumped up and cradled Iwaizumi’s face. He was beaming. Oikawa kissed him gently, tenderly, slowly, in the way that he knew Iwaizumi loved most. He pulled back. “What was it you were wanting to do with the marker?”

Iwaizumi still had the marker in his hand where it was holding Oikawa’s face. Nimbly twirling it in his fingers, he replied, “I was thinking we could, uh, write our names in them before trading?” He took his own jacket and folded back the end of the left sleeve, revealing the inside of the cuff, which was thick enough material to not let the marker bleed. “Is that okay?”

Oikawa, who still had the biggest grin on his face, wrapped his arms around Iwaizumi’s abdomen and kissed his neck. “Of course. You’re such a sap, Iwa-chan. I love this, almost as much as I love you.”

He craned his neck to chastely press their lips together again. “I love you, too.” Iwaizumi turned back to the jacket, and he carefully wrote out HAJIME #4 on one side of the seam, the side that would be closer to the body, and STRONGER with a small heart on the other side. He flipped the cuff right and passed the marker to Oikawa, who wrote TOORU #1 and INVINCIBLE, also with a small heart on his.

“Now, Tooru, let’s pick up where we left off,” Iwaizumi said after they’d cleared the bed, a playful glint in his eyes.

Oikawa didn’t need to be told twice before he was backing Iwaizumi up onto the bed.

Iwaizumi runs his right thumb over the inside of his left sleeve cuff. TOORU #1, INVINCIBLE. He still wears the jacket because he still loves volleyball, still loves the time he had at Aoba Johsai. He remembers all of the time they had together there. The thought makes his throat clog up and weakens his heart. He swallows thickly.

He never thought he’d have to worry about running into Oikawa, especially not while he was still wearing the jacket.

To make matters worse, Oikawa’s wearing his jacket, too.

Nothing’s changed after all these years.

“Iwa-chan, why are you going to London?” He sounds scared.

Weakened by nostalgia, he replies softly, “Vacation.” Pause. “You?”

Oikawa seems taken aback by the question. “Work trip, but I’m going a few days early for a quick vacation.”

“You still wear it.” He nods in the vague direction of Oikawa’s jacket, noticing that he wears the left cuff rolled, exposing the writing from all those years ago. HAJIME #4, STRONGER. He hopes bringing this up isn’t a mistake, but a growing feeling in his gut says it definitely is.

“You do, too.”

Their eyes meet for only the third time in the entire flight. Iwaizumi briefly notes that there are still over eight hours remaining on this flight, so getting into a dangerous conversation isn’t in his best interest. Fuck it.

“Of course I do,” he says, as if it’s obvious.

“Most people would get rid of their old partner’s clothes after a breakup,” Oikawa responds. Dangerous.

“Most people do, yeah.” Iwaizumi tries his damndest to keep his voice neutral, to not let his emotions show. Thinking about high school makes you weak. Now look at what you’ve gotten yourself into.

“And you…?”

Iwaizumi averts his eyes. Can’t let you go, but it’s been three years and our relationship fell apart because of me. He can’t say that so he opts for, “Apparently neither of us are most.”

Silence.

“I miss you.” Oikawa sounds scared.

“It didn’t work.” Iwaizumi is blunt.

Oikawa moves slowly, so, so slowly, as he guides Iwaizumi’s chin back to look at him with one finger. Against his better judgement, Iwaizumi allows it. Oikawa’s eyes are watery. “It’s been three years, Hajime. Can we talk about it?”

“It was my fault and you know it. There’s nothing else to talk about,” he says cooly.

“No -”

“Then let’s talk.”

During their third year of university, Oikawa proposed. It was perfect for them. Once every season, their universities played each other, and after that game - Iwaizumi’s team had won, but Oikawa was too nervous to be upset about the loss - he’d stopped Iwaizumi before he could go to get changed out of his uniform. He’d enlisted help from some of his university teammates (shoutout to Kuroo), and got down on one knee right in front of the scoreboard. That part actually wasn’t planned, but the pictures came out amazingly. Iwaizumi said yes, of course.

From there, they moved on with their lives and into their final year of university.

Iwaizumi picked up an internship, which he threw himself into headfirst, and Oikawa started spending even more time in the gym in hopes to get scouted for the national team. There had been eyes on him for the last two years, so this season would be his last chance to prove he was worthy of national play.

They saw each other less and less, but still came home to bed every night, even if it was late.

One week, Iwaizumi snuck into bed at just past midnight, having just gotten in from his internship. Oikawa was just barely still awake as Iwaizumi wrapped an arm around his middle and pulled him close.

“You’re home late again,” Oikawa whispered. It was the third night that week.

“I’m sorry,” Iwaizumi responded, punctuating the response with a light kiss to Oikawa’s nape. “I’ll try to be home by dinner tomorrow.” Oikawa hummed. “How was practice?”

“Good. I miss playing with you, though,” he said longingly.

“Let’s go to the gym this weekend.”

Oikawa flipped around, bringing them face to face. “Really?” His eyes were shining.

“Really.”

Oikawa surged forward and kissed him deeply, pushing Iwaizumi onto his back and straddling him. Iwaizumi kissed back with just as much fervor - god, he’d missed this with how much he’d been working. “God, I love you,” Iwaizumi mumbled against his lips.

“I love you too,” Oikawa responded, and Iwaizumi’s chest flooded with fondness, just like the first time.

Received, 21:45: hey iwaizumi-san. i’ll be out for the rest of the week

Received, 21:46: i’ll make sure all of my work is finished when i return

Delivered, 21:48: Okay. Is everything alright?

Received, 21:49: yea i had a family emergency come up

Delivered, 21:50: Alright. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

Received, 21:50: thanks

“Is that work again?” Oikawa asked tentatively. It was a Friday night, and they were laying together on the couch watching one of Oikawa’s favorite movies. It was supposed to be a night for just the two of them since Iwaizumi had been working late every night that week.

“Yeah, sorry,” Iwaizumi apologized and kissed his head. He wrapped his arm tighter around his fiance.

Oikawa found the hand that was still holding his phone and pried it out of his grip. “This is mine now. You said tonight was for us,” he pouted. He was being over-dramatic in a way that was slightly childish in a joking manner, but Iwaizumi could tell he was actually upset. He’d been neglecting Oikawa for the past few months, and it was catching up. “Please, Iwa-chan.” His eyes were pleading Iwaizumi to pay attention, so he consented. Oikawa untangled their limbs and walked to their room, Iwaizumi’s phone in hand. When he returned and sat down a moment later, he said, “You can have it back tomorrow afternoon.”

“Okay,” Iwaizumi conceded. “I’ll do better.”

Oikawa kissed the back of their conjoined hands. “I believe you.”

It didn’t get better.

It got worse.

“Okay, so we’re leaving tomorrow night to go home, and we’ll stay at my parent’s house. We’re taking the five-fifteen train, and we should be there around nine.” Oikawa was rattling off details about their trip home to see their parents over winter break. The plan was to stay home for a few days and then return to their apartment and spend Christmas Eve and Day together.

Received, 15:04: We need you in the office

Received, 15:04: There’s an issue with one of the processes and the other team leaders are already on holiday

“Tooru?”

“Hm?”

“I’m going to need to take a later train. They’re calling me into work.” Iwaizumi looked away in shame.

“But Iwa-chan! We’ve had this trip planned for months!��

“I -”

Oikawa got in close to Iwaizumi’s face. His time at work had been getting worse and worse, and he knew that Oikawa was going to reach a breaking point. “Tell them no.”

He swallowed. He was nervous - what if he got fired?

But - he had an angry Oikawa, and that could end up far, far worse for him.

Delivered, 15:14: I can’t. Tooru and I are leaving for Sendai tonight. Sorry.

Received, 15:15: It’s important.

Delivered, 15:18: I cannot come in. This trip is important to my fiance.

Delivered, 15:18: Sorry.

Received, 15:19: Noted.

That was an awfully ominous response coming from someone at a career level above him, but Iwaizumi hoped it was worth it. Keeping Tooru happy is always worth it.

To: Iwaizumi Hajime

From: Management Team

Subject: Work Dedication Issues

Iwaizumi,

It has come to our attention that you expressed an issue dedicating yourself to your position on an occurrence on 14 December 2020. We are aware that you were recently promoted from intern to team leader, so if the new job requirements were not properly communicated, please let us know so we can direct you to the documentation of your job description. In short, as a team leader, you are required to be dedicated to your work and must be reliable to be called upon. If that is not possible, please let us know so we can begin training a replacement .

Best,

Management Team

Iwaizumi felt sick as he read over the email again. And again.

“Tooru?”

“Hm?” Oikawa hummed as he walked into the living room, where Iwaizumi was sitting on the couch, legs pulled to his chest.

Iwaizumi handed him his phone, open to the email. He watched as Oikawa’s eyes scanned the email, watched as his features set into a hard glare. Oikawa thrusted the phone back at him.

“Are you blaming this on me?” Oikawa demanded.

“I should have gone in that evening. They’re threatening my job.”

Oikawa’s eyes turned from cold to fiery. “And you’re threatening me. I didn’t do anything wrong by asking my fiance to pay attention to me for once and to follow through on plans we’d had for months. ”

“But, Tooru -”

“Hajime. I’ve put up with this for so long.” Oikawa’s face softens. “I know you’re dedicated to your job. But you’ve been forgetting about me. And that’s okay for a while. But not for eight months. I’m tired of it. Please, Hajime, don’t make me make you choose,” he begged, tears in his eyes.

Not for the first time, Iwaizumi saw the toll his neglect was taking on his partner. He felt like he took a sucker punch to the gut. “It hasn’t been ei -”

“It has. I’ve been waiting and waiting for it to get better. I thought it would get better in the summer, and then in the fall, and then at Christmas, but it didn’t.” He shook his head as if trying to clear the tears bubbling up. “I miss you, Iwa-chan. I can take a lot, but I can’t take this much. I need you back. So....” Deep breath. Iwaizumi tensed. He knew what was coming. “It’s either me or the job.”

“Tooru, I can’t just quit my job!” Iwaizumi protested.

Oikawa’s face crumpled. “Then I’ll send Kuroo to get some of my things in the morning.”

Iwaizumi stood and wrapped his arms around Oikawa, who weakly pushed against them. “No, no. I can’t - I can’t - lose you.”

Oikawa pushed away with force. “Oh, baby, you lost me months ago,” he said bitterly. Tears ran down his face as they stood in silence, three feet separating them, as his words sunk in.

Then, he turned and walked to the bedroom. He threw one change of clothes into his school bag along with his laptop and some chargers and toiletries.

Iwaizumi was still in the living room, frozen. “Tooru, don’t -”

Oikawa pressed a kiss to his cheek. He tasted salt. “I love you, Iwa-chan.” And then he left.

Iwaizumi cried.

“You didn’t come back,” Iwaizumi says. He picks at one of the threads on his t-shirt.

“I said I wouldn’t.” Pause. “It took you three weeks to message me.”

Guilt eats at his stomach. “I didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t sound like an excuse.” Iwaizumi debates on how honest he wants to be. If he wants to open this whole box of worms, if he actually wants to try to make the relationship work or to repair a friendship with Oikawa, or if he wants to just give the bare minimum of information. “There was too much I needed to say, so I was waiting for you to come to me. Kuroo said you’d probably come around.”

“I didn’t.”

“No, you didn’t. Why?”

“Hajime… You hurt me. A lot. Eight months is a long time. Basically from the time you got that promotion until I left, I hardly saw you. And I just progressively got worse. You kept promising you’d get better, but then the next week I’d see you even less.” Deep breath. “I missed you so much. I missed the man who I proposed to, I missed the boy who I confessed to, I missed the boy who I spent all of our school years setting to, I missed my best friend, I missed my boyfriend, I missed my fiance, I missed my partner. I lost all of those, because you weren’t ever there when I needed you. Did you know that I actually got a job offer in Sendai? I debated taking it, but I wanted to wait and see if I could talk some sense into you. I never got scouted for the national team, so I applied for a few overseas teams. I made new friends. And a whole bunch of other things. All of this happened when we were still together, Hajime. I’m willing to bet you didn’t know any of it because of how preoccupied you were with your job. And it’s great that you had and still have such a good job, but…”

“I’m sorry, Tooru.” His fingers clutch at a chain tucked into his shirt that suddenly feels very heavy. Hoping it’s not the wrong choice but mostly moving on impulse anyways, he pulls out the chain, showing Oikawa what’s hanging on it.

He gasps. “You.... You still wear it?”

“Of course.” He bites the inside of his lip. “You never officially called off the wedding.” The engagement ring Oikawa had bought slides along the chain, glinting in the low cabin light. “Tooru… You deserve better than how I can treat you.”

“No.” Iwaizumi snaps his head up to meet Oikawa’s shining eyes. “You treat me like a goddamn king. You just didn’t prioritize us. And that was a problem.”

“I still can’t prioritize. I’ve been talking to work this whole flight,” Iwaizumi mumbles. As if on cue, his phone buzzes immediately, but he ignores it. “But…”

Oikawa sighs. “I don’t think I made a mistake by leaving.” Iwaizumi’s heart plummets. “But I made a mistake by not coming back.” Inhale. Exhale. “But I’m here now. So… Iwa-chan, will you take me back?”

Their eyes meet again. Iwaizumi searches the deep, brown eyes for any sign of a joke. “I don’t want to hurt you again.”

“You’re with the sister company now, yeah?” Nod. “Maybe you can talk to your supervisor about getting some more set hours and less on-call hours? I… I don’t want to live without you any longer. I want to at least try to make it work, Iwa-chan.”

“My supervisor is the one who sent me on vacation,” Iwaizumi chuckles. “We can try. Slowly.” He takes Oikawa’s hands in his own carefully, loose enough that the other can take them out of his grip, and draws the hands to his mouth. He presses a gentle kiss to each hand.

“A true gentleman,” Oikawa laughs. Everything is so, so soft as he cradles Iwaizumi’s face with one of his hands and kisses him. For the first time in nearly three years, Iwaizumi’s heart feels like it might be okay.

Once he pulls away, Oikawa takes the left sleeve of Iwaizumi’s jacket and cuffs the sleeve the same way he has his own, exposing TOORU #1, INVINCIBLE. Then, he laces their fingers together.

“Now, I’m going to sleep,” he announces.

Since he has no objections and is getting tired again himself, Iwaizumi leans over and rests his head on Oikawa’s shoulder, the other resting his head on top of Iwaizumi’s. It feels right.

Hours later, when he reads the message he’d received, it is from his supervisor.

Received, 23:55: If this message sends and your phone is still on while you’re on vacation, I’m disconnecting your company phone

Received, 23:55: Take time for yourself

Received, 23:56: If you connected to plane wifi just to receive work messages, so help me Iwaizumi, I don’t know what to do with you

Oikawa and his supervisor get along very well when they meet a month later.

#iwaoi #my writing #haikyuu!!#haikyuu!! fanfic #hq #hq fanfic #oikawa tooru #iwaizumi hajime #iwaoi fanfic #iwaizumi x oikawa #canon divergent #i guess?#ao3 #post breakup

53 notes · View notes

the-general-hux · 4 years

Text

@finishwhxtyoustartxd

Armitage Hux rested his forehead against the cool glass of the passenger side window. His parents had stopped talking hours ago, his mother was asleep in the front seat and his father was driving with white-knuckled fingers crimped around the steering wheel. Hux shared the backseat with luggage that wouldn’t fit in the trunk of their rental sedan. His knees pressed against the back of the driver’s seat and he longed for chance to stretch out his legs. His eyes blinked open and shut as he looked out the window at the endless procession of trees.

Traffic slowed down and his father spat out a string of curses at the other drivers’ abilities to keep stopping distance on the rain slick road. The air smelled damp, even through the filter of the air conditioning. A small town appeared and a sign declared it Bayport. Perhaps the settlers had never heard of redundancy, Hux thought. A smiling whale spouted a flourish of water on the sign. Hux gritted his teeth and put in his headphones.

Tourists crossed the highway, oblivious to oncoming traffic and the increasing frequency of his father’s cursing. A bead shop. Souvenirs. Weed shop. Rinse and repeat. Hux caught a glimpse of some amazing biceps in front of a coffee shop and he wrenched his neck to see if the potential face matched the muscles, but his father turned a corner and Hux lost his sight line. He huffed out a sigh. Probably just a tourist, maybe one of those bikers that cruised up and down the Oregon coast. Doing what? Whale-watching?

They pulled into a driveway that was marked with a jaunty lighthouse, Driftwood Cove. They named the rental house. Of course they did. His father stopped the car, turned off the ignition and announced. “This is our home for the next month. Let’s try to not kill each other.”

“No promises.” Hux said and his mother shot him a warning look. “Fine. You work on your book, you work on your paintings and I’ll work on growing a thick coat of mildew.”

“Now darling, it’s not that bad. The ocean air is marvelous for my health and I only have so much time with you before you go off to college and leave me behind.”

Forty two days, six hours and twelve minutes, Hux thought as he got out of the car. He sighed again and nodded because that was what you did when your sick mother guilt tripped you. This wasn’t his idea of a beach holiday. The sky was painted in shades of blue and gray, the whole landscape looked angry and battered into submission by the relentless coastal wind. Then he turned to the ocean. There was a haze covering the entire Pacific Ocean, as far as he could squint. “Twelve hours in the car and I can’t even see the fucking water.”

Hux claimed the room at the very top of the rental, it had a window overlooking the ocean and a stupid sign. “The Crow’s Nest.” He dragged his luggage up the stairs. The whole room smelled musty and forgotten. He sat down on the edge of the queen bed and flopped backwards, staring at the rafters. There was no need for a bed this big in such a small space— Hux scrunched his face up in disgust. Do not think about how many people have had sex in your bed, just don’t. That way lies madness, Hux thought. I am not going to look under the mattress pad.

“Boy!” His father hollered up the stairs, “Come help your mother with her junk!” Hux blew out the breath he was holding and descended the stairs.

It started to rain.

It continued to rain for three days. Drops splattered on the window panes and wind shrieked through the eaves. Hux made a bet with himself about how soon the roof would fly off. It was even money. He curled up on the bed, surrounded by fifteen decorative pillows that some poor soul had embroidered with seagulls and a two year old copy of People magazine. He’d read it cover to cover three times. Cellular service was complete shit and WiFi was apparently an alien concept in rustic vacation rentals. His father’s laptop had not survived the road trip and Hux’s had been commandeered, so no jerking off to his carefully curated archived amateur Alpha porn. The television downstairs had a dial to change the channels. All three channels.

“I’m going to start talking to myself. I am. I’m going to start talking to myself and go find a great white whale to have a battle to the death with. Honestly, it’s inevitable.” He could go talk to his parents. See what they were doing— Hux shook his head. Mother was sleeping, exhausted from her medication and Father was writing. He could write for days at a time, eating what was brought to him and pissing in a milk jug by his desk. He had a bestselling series, it was Regency romance of all things and the royalties were sending Hux to a very good school.

“Yet another thing for me to grateful for.” Hux told a decorative seahorse on the wall. “I have to get out of here. I have to.” He grabbed his coat and one of the guest umbrellas from the hallway. “I’m going out!” He called to his father who grunted in response and waved him off.

Hux made his way down the driveway towards the town center. He paused in front of the map of the town, drawn in a cartoon fashion that made the library and the police station look like equally jaunty places to visit. His sneakers squelched with wetness as he made his way to the coffee shop. It seemed like ages ago that he’d caught a glimpse of those glorious biceps. Everyone was wearing shapeless polar fleece and practical galoshes that he coveted with an practical intensity he’d never truly felt before.

He ordered a hot milky tea, something to chase the cold away from his bones and wrapped his fingers around it. “It's June,” he reminded himself and the counter girl smiled at him and then at his Omega Pride lapel pin. “It really is June, isn’t it?”

“It usually clears up by now. It’s not so bad. Just remember to take your vitamin D pills until the sun comes out again.” She pulled another shot of espresso after that bit of unsolicited advice. Hux pushed his sopping wet shock of red hair out of his face. He was not a natural sun worshipper, but the next time he saw the sun even he might offer up a few prayers of gratitude.

Hux wandered over to the small shelf of used books that lined the back wall. A hand lettered sign read, “Lending Library”. Out of habit, he looked for his father’s name on the spines of the books. Only one volume this time. The fourth. Savage Unbroken Hearts. Hux couldn’t read his father’s writing, it was far too intimate an act. It was worse than the time his father had walked in on Hux taking a selfie, wearing glitter and a rainbow thong. Hux cringed at the memory and selected a paperback space opera that boasted about galactic conquest. He sat down at a table and thumbed through the yellowed pulpy pages. The previous owner had scrawled his name in childish block letters on the interior cover. Ben.

The counter girl gave him a plastic bag for the book and Hux stepped out into the rain. It wasn’t going to defeat him. “You hear me?” Hux muttered to the weather as he made his way down the boardwalk. He rolled his eyes at the tiny salon and a candy store that was only open on the weekend. He paused in front of a photograph studio that specialized in pirate portraits. Skywalker Studios. Tourists grinned in tawdry costumes and posed in front of pirate flags. Rain dripped from the tip of Hux’s nose and he snorted in disdain. There was a 90% chance that his mother would drag them all in here for a souvenir portrait.

The beach access stairwell was just beyond the photography studio and Hux gripped the guardrail as he wrestled with both the slippery seagull shit smeared steps and the wind that threatened to steal his umbrella. The ocean was surging, the tide rolling in. Hux stared out at the dark, seething waters and felt begrudging respect for the power and intensity of the storm. Also for the warning signs posted all over the beach. Rolling logs that could kill you. Rip tides. Sneaker waves. Tsunamis. This was not the ocean that was in the brochures. Icy spray hit him in the face and he blinked saltwater from his lashes.

There was a man strolling along the pebbled beach. Long dark hair whipped around his head. What kind of Alpha bullshit was this? It was a stereotype of course, but the only person who would have the sheer ballsy stupid confidence to be walking on that beach would be an Alpha. A shameful thrill trilled up the back of Hux’s neck and he tasted the salt on his own lips.

The man reached the stairwell and as he ascended, Hux hid behind his Driftwood Cove umbrella. The man paid him no mind as he passed, Hux peeked out from beneath the umbrella shade. He swallowed hard as he caught the hint of a defined, youthful jawline, speckled with interesting moles that reminded Hux of constellations. The man unlocked the door to Skywalker Studios, stepped inside and flipped on the OPEN neon sign.

Oh god dammit. He wasn’t going to follow that weirdo guy, no matter how broad his shoulders were, no matter how bored Hux was, no matter— he stood on the steps of the photography studio and pushed open the door.

A bell jingled announcing Hux’s presence as he folded up his umbrella in the entry way. “Just a moment!” A deep voice called out from behind a curtain. “Be right out!’

Hux looked at the puddle of rain water accumulating around his feet and he flushed with embarrassment. He glanced to the side at a mirror for the tourists to check their costumes. His hair was plastered to his head, water dripped from his ears. No, no, no this was a mistake—

The broad-shouldered stranger walked out in a muscle baring tank top, drying his hair with a towel. The lack of fabric made one thing painfully clear to Hux’s libido. This was the owner of the Glorious Biceps. He wrapped the towel around his hair in a makeshift turban and looked at Hux. For a long moment, the Alpha’s plush pink mouth fell open as he took in the bedraggled, soaked ginger making a mess of his shop floor. If the Earth could open up and swallow me whole right now, that would be just dandy, Hux thought. He turned to leave.

75 notes · View notes

thevisafly · 3 years

Link

Post-Covid Travel Guide | Surviving a Long-Haul Flight | Tips and Tricks!

Covid-19 has taken a massive toll on the travel industry. It has undoubtedly put a damper on everyone’s travel plans in 2020. However, with encouraging news about development of Covid-19 vaccines and start of human trials of the same, international travel may soon resume 🙂 We’ve seen many people lose out on their summer vacation plans because of this, but not for long! A long-haul flight can be pretty tiresome sometimes. If you don’t know what ‘long-haul flights’ are, they’re basically any flight longer than 7 hours. Usually this category involves international flights, however, some domestic flights in large countries can come under this umbrella. Why are long-haul flights so bad, you ask? Well – the constant sitting, lack of WiFi and limited area for movement could contribute to this attitude. But don’t worry about all these pain points – we’ve got you covered! In this article, we’ll go through 9 super-important tips for your first long-haul flight! Some of these may come off as a no-brainer, but those are the ones we tend to overlook and forget first. With this list, you’ll end up a long-haul flight expert. So, let’s jump right in to some tips for your next long haul flight in post-covid times.

Wear Comfortable Clothes Well, this comes as no surprise – comfort over style is good for all kinds of flights. However, it’s especially important for long-hauls. Always remember to dress in loose clothing, made out of a breathable material like cotton. You need to be able to move around, be free and as unrestricted as possible. Often, people might opt for one-pieces (like dresses), but we advise against that decision. Flight air conditioners are quite unpredictable, and are (more often than not) on the too-cold side of the spectrum. Dresses mean that your legs are exposed to all that cool air, allowing them to get stiff and maybe even cause an injury if exposed for long enough. Jumpsuits may be an option, but a good sleeved tee and jeans/track pants should do the trick. And always carry layers! The best way to protect against the chill is to layer up. Jackets are imperative, especially if you plan on getting cozy and catching some z’s. If you feel too hot, you can always just unwrap yourself by a layer, and you’re good to go.

Good Seats Are SO Important Trust us, you really don’t want to get caught with a non-reclining end-of-flight seat for 10-11 hours in a row. Reserving a seat beforehand (especially on a long flight) is worth the trouble, and even more so if your flight is at night. You can even come early to the airport and reserve a seat then, if you are not able to do so online. Leg room is one of those commodities that one can never have too much of, so this is something to consider when choosing seats. The seats near the emergency exits have the most leg room, however, in case the unlikely case that the aircraft has to land on water , be ready to snap out of that slumber and activate the emergency exits! Some people prefer aisle seats, and some prefer windows. But no-one – and I repeat, NO-ONE likes that crammed middle seat with no elbow space and no privacy. This is probably something to keep in mind as well. If you’re the kind of person who loves to enjoy the view on an airplane, window seats are for you. Alternatively, you might value your bathroom breaks more than this – aisle seats are best in this case, as you don’t have to keep excusing yourself every time you get up. The middle seat is okay if you’re travelling in a group or with family. Stretching and moving around is also a good idea on long-hauls, as your body tends to stiffen up. Back muscles can take a toll with all that sitting, so make sure whichever seat you’re in, you can get out of easily! We recommend some good ‘chair yoga’ – you might find that your seated arrangement doesn’t deter the will for some good asanas!

Food = Life, Especially On A Long-Haul! Everyone loves food. And most people eat a snack at least once in the span of 4 hours. Imagine doubling that time, but only getting a packet of salted nuts as compensation? ‘Hangry’ is probably the best way to describe it. Carry your own food – but remember to not stock too many liquids or liquid-like foods (eg. curries). This might not even be allowed on the flight, and you’ll have to dispose of it before you begin eating itself. It’s also important to think about what kind of food you’ll be eating. If you are spending the next 10 hours sitting (as compared to working out, playing or even walking around), you’ll have to change your diet a bit. To suit this new seated marathon, make sure to go light on your meals. Heavy meals include higher-energy foods, which you won’t burn on the flight. It will keep you awake, and may not allow you to rest well enough before landing. Sometimes, we may not have a choice, as meals are pre-planned and we have to eat what’s available to us. In this case, remember to bring your own food, and maybe some fennel seeds as well. They’re known to aid in digestion, and also act as a mouth freshener – killing two birds with one stone!

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate! Hydration goes without saying. Drinking water is something you’d need to do even on ground, but it’s even more important when you’re 30,000 feet above sea level. Mouths are more likely to get parched, and you can’t even carry more than 500ml to quench that thirst! However, here’s a tip – carrying your water bottle is still a good idea, even if half-filled. Ask the air staff for a refill, instead of using the paper cup method which they give you. You’ll get more water in that way, and you don’t have to keep bugging them for water either! International long-haul flight services include drinks. These may include alcohol, or be restricted to teas and juices. Either way, it’s a better idea to stick to good old water for the most part. This is because it has the highest water content out of all (belaboring the obvious), and has the least sugar content out of all options. This means you’re less likely to get a sugar rush, or even a general sugar high and its inevitable low that comes right after. Although, if you are a nervous flyer, the alcohol option might be a good temporary choice, as it acts as a sedative. However, it does dehydrate, so beware. If you want some variety, teas like green tea are good for hydration instead.

BYOE – Bring Your Own Entertainment Some long-haul flights have in-flight entertainment. This includes a back-of-the-seat screen – with movies, songs, and sometimes even games. But it might not be the best idea. Why? Because if you’ve gone on some before, they tend to have similar movies in stock. The music is not terribly updated, but if you are ok with having any old song play to pass the time, then you’re in luck. Many streaming services like YouTube and Netflix offer download options – and our advice is to make the most out of them. They offer a more personalised approach, as what you’re downloading is what you truly want to watch. Offline music is great too, and you don’t even need a streaming service for this – just a few gigabytes of phone storage. It’s more likely to keep your attention, and even help you learn some cool new stuff, who knows? And entertainment doesn’t only have to be digital. If your carry-on space permits, a good read is all you need. Reading lights are installed on all airplanes, so your flight was literally made for this! We don’t recommend card games or games with many moving pieces, though, as these might get lost on the plane… Only to be found by the cleaning lady, a lone, isolated Monopoly chip in the oasis of fluorescent floor strips.

Can You Have A Mini-Bath Here? The quick answer to this is, yes. You can. And honestly, you should. Carrying good travel hygiene products are very necessary, especially on a 7+ hour journey across the globe. Wet wipes, deodorant, cotton pads, sanitizer and even a toothbrush and paste are some essentials on our list. Why, you ask? Well, sitting for so long has its risks. You may be sweating, you may be sitting next to some folks with strong body odour, or you may just not want to inconvenience anyone with your bodily situation. Often, airplane food doesn’t suit us, and neither does being in the same place for hours on end. Freshening up makes you feel not only physically better, but mentally relieves us of some stress even if for a minute. And a flight shouldn’t have to get in the way of your skincare routine, now does it? Speaking of which, it’s advisable to go as bare-faced as you can. Makeup is not a good idea for long flights, as it tends to cake up and smudge. For both men and women, moisturizing is a must, as the AC tends to dry out skin – even under a warm jacket. Toilet tactics may also be a good area of expertise to know about. The best time to use the loo is right after the seatbelt sign is switched off after takeoff, or in the middle of the flight. The end is absolutely the worst, as you risk catching the toilet in a mess, or not catching it at all (due to seatbelt signs). Make sure you carry ample amounts of toilet spray and/or sanitizer with you just in case. And just like that, we’ve come to the end of our article on tips and tricks for a long-haul flight. We hope you enjoyed reading all the spunky tips we had to offer. If you’d like to book your visa, travel insurance or SIM cards before flying out, remember to contact Visa2Fly! We’re always here to help 🙂 If you enjoyed this blog, know that there’s more where this came from! Our articles on Hostels vs. Hotels, and the coolest skiing destinations are live on our blog page! Happy travelling~~

#Post-Covid Travel Guide #Best Visa Apply #Surviving a Long-Haul Flight

1 note · View note

hollandsmushroom · 5 years

Note

ok so i have been on vacation on the past two days at the beach with my family and the service and wifi sucks at the hotel. sometimes i can’t receive texts or calls or send them out. so i spent most of the time at the pool or sleeping. also i didn’t feel that ashamed of my body and i was in a bikini so i was a bit proud of myself! anyways but imagine a plushy reader on vacay or something without cal and suddenly she’s not answering his calls and texts and he’s a worried lil bub the whole time.

then eventually when she gets connection somewhere or something she calls him and he’s a bit upset and worried he’s all like, “i was about to book a flight over there!” and the reader thinks it’s adorable and apologizes idk and maybe the reader has to make it up to him someway.

This is such a cute concept and I love it!! Also PROPS TO YOU FOR ROCKING THAT FUCKING BIKINI, I AM PROUD OF YOU MY BABY!!!

You lay on the towel on the beach, the sound of the water running over the small rocks on the beach had lulled you into a vacation haze the second you had arrived, your time on the beach and in the water, soaking up the sun and appreciating the confidence your new bikinis gave you had you forgetting your phone, but not Calum, he was still dancing through your mind, wishing he was with you, but it never quite occurred to you that you hadn’t heard from him in a couple days. A couple days into the vacation you were standing up from your towel, brushing the sand that had built up on your thick thighs and your ass, leaning over to tuck your breasts back into your bikini, as you were bent over you saw your phone screen lighting up as it began to buzz, moving the sand particles around it. You picked it up, swiping across the screen to unlock your phone, ignoring the almost 100 unread messages from the past 3 days and clicking on your boyfriends icon and bringing the phone to your ear. “Hello?” you spoke as you heard the phone connect on the other end, hearing a sigh of relief before a familiar and greatly missed voice began to talk, “Y/n, where the fuck have you been, I swear to god I was just looking at flights to where you are, babe I have been calling and texting multiple times a day and you didn’t answer any of them, what happened?” you were smiling widely at you caring boyfriends words but your silence was taken for something else, “Did something happen while you were there, did you meet someone else? Fuck please don’t tell me you met someone else,” you heard his voice break and all it did was make you want to hold him. “Cal, no, I didn’t meet anyone else,” you giggled, “I just haven’t had any reception here and I was so busy that time just slipped away from me, Bubba boy, I could never meet anyone to replace you!” you reassured him, a smile on your face, one that felt like it was going to stick around for a while. “Thank god, babe I was so damn worried, I was so caught up in thinking that something had happened to you, I am just so damn happy that you are okay,” he sighed, “But I think you owe me, when you get back from your vacation I want those thick thighs wrapped around my head as I make you cum as many phone calls of mine that you missed,” his sudden brash attitude took the breath from your lungs but he immediately reverted back to his ‘I have missed you so desperately’ attitude as he spoke a soft “I love you, baby,”. “I love you too, baby boy,” you hummed in response, thinking of what was in store for you when you got back home.

@mylilbreadstick @cthoodsthetic @isabella100 @dont-drop-that-lunchable @moancurly @numberonepoetryexpert @heartbreak-5sos @neonsgravestone @calumsbitch4ever @lukethecalumstan @caswinchester2000 @damselindistressanu @dickmedownashton @myloverboyash @soyuuuh @blahehblah @aulxna @allamerican-betch @ghostofcth @boyfriend-cal @babylon-corgis @rainingcalum

75 notes · View notes

aoibaratraveler · 4 years

Text

A Look Back At My Time In Japan Part 1!

Time for some Japan nostalgia!

I was hoping to write this much sooner than now but between settling back after our road trip, finding a job and then finding time to organize my life during my days off has been difficult!

This will be part of a three semi-detailed/summarised blog looking back at what I can remember from living in Japan three years ago; since I was too much of a fool to document it back then but then again I was having the time of my life so that can be a good enough excuse I guess, right?

Part One will be my first month in Japan where I was living in Tokyo with a friend who graciously let me stay in her apartment. Part Two (and maybe three) will be my four months living, studying, and working in Nagasaki and Part Three (or 4) will be my hitch-hiking back-packing trip around Japan in what was my final month of my six months living there!

Pre-arrival/Arrival in Japan and First Impressions:

I was excited beyond belief that I was finally going to go live and explore Japan and be away from home for the first time. I was also super nervous, the preparation to study abroad was pretty intense for someone who had never done it before and for someone who had never gone through the paperwork of visa application, passport renewal and getting all the documents together for the study abroad application itself. Once that was settled though it was just the wait to be able to go (maybe I should write a simple how-to of my experience with the study abroad application and why I think every university student should do it?). I purchased my departure ticket to be on 29th February 2016 which I thought was pretty cool since it’s not every day you get to fly on a leap year. About six months prior to this I had met up with a close friend of mine who was about to leave for a year to participate in the JET programme and she, we’ll call her L, invited me to stay with her for the month of March in Tokyo to sightsee and hang out before my study program would start in April and of course I took her up on it!

In the days leading up to my departure, I really went all out and planned my own going away party with all my friends and had the best time with an escape game, archery tag and a poutine party. The bf, who at that time was just a friend, met up with me beforehand and helped me pick out a bunch of Canadian souvenir type things to bring with me to Japan so I could give to my homestay family. It was a fantastic day and very special so I had no idea that on the day I was set to leave that one of my other close friends, A and the bf planned to sing me a going away song at the airport (to be clear, the bf didn’t actually sing, A did and he provided the music on his laptop and speakers). This tidbit may a bit unnecessary in my nostalgic walk down memory lane but it is just part of what made those six months some of the best times in my life.

Anyway, enveloped in jitters and excitement I boarded my plane to Japan to start my journey, or as the Japanese say “tabi” (旅). I flew into Haneda airport which is quite central to Tokyo and I then found myself squeezed into a sea of evening commuters on the metro. Unfortunately, when I got off the metro and proceeded to take the escalator out of the station…I dropped my suitcase down it and one of the wheels broke which made walking around Tokyo a tad difficult. At that time I hadn’t realized that there was free wifi pretty much everywhere in Tokyo and while trying to find my friend’s apartment…I got lost for about an hour. It was pretty funny and I wasn’t too worried, to be honest, but I did feel bad to be keeping my friend waiting. I found a payphone to try and call her to tell her what was happening but I ran out of change while on the call (had a bit of leftover change with me from when I had first vacationed in Japan two years prior). After a while of walking around and trying to follow google map’s offline directions, I found a koban (a small police station) and gave the police officer the address that I was trying to find. The police officer was very kind and accommodating and pulled out a map to show me where I was and where I was trying to go (which actually wasn’t too far away…I was walking in circles). He then copied down the address on a big piece of paper with some instructions and hailed a taxi for me since he figured it was late and I should just take a taxi which I didn’t mind. I got to my friend’s place in no time at all and settled myself in.

First Two Weeks in Tokyo:

In my first few days, I took out my Japanese textbooks so I could prepare myself and brush up on things to be ready for classes at my university in Nagasaki and because I was planning to be staying with a homestay family that could speak no English…..well, being that I am pretty much the queen of procrastination, those collected dust pretty fast. Since it was a small apartment and I had a suitcase and big travel rook sack with me, L’s sister advised me to just send it to my homestay to be stored there in the meantime. The Japanese postal service is amazing and although my suitcase was pretty big and heavy they had no problems with shipping it to my homestay in Nagasaki the same day.

L’s neighborhood was quite cute and quiet and super pleasant to explore. It was pretty suburban and away from the hustle and bustle of central Tokyo which I greatly appreciated. Since L had work, I often explored on my own and was able to borrow her sister’s bike to further acquaint myself with the area. One of the days I borrowed her sister’s bike, I rode to Arakawa river which is a huge river just outside central Tokyo. I brought my textbooks along and thought I would spend a quiet afternoon just revising next to the river. I didn’t. Instead I rode the bike along the river and took everything in. There were other people there on runs, some guys practicing skateboarding and an old man playing the saxophone. When I finally got around to sitting down and opening up my textbook, a friendly old man walked up to me and with a big smile on his face asked me what I was doing there and why I was in Japan. I told him and we had a pleasant conversation at the end of which he handed me a bag of something from his garden–I think basil? And then told me to enjoy Japan. I didn’t exactly know what to do with this bag so I just gave it to L’s sister who had been doing most of the cooking in L’s place to include in whatever dish she was next going to make.

In the following days, I did all the typical touristy stuff in that I spent an entire day at one point just walking to and around central Tokyo and taking as many artsy photos as I could manage with my old phone. I explored around the Tokyo Sky Tree, perused Sunshine city—definitely made sure to check out all the Ghibli and Sailor Moon items I could find and get a spectacular view from the 59th floor (the place has 60 floors but you have to pay from the 60th and I ain’t about that life).

At the end of my first week in Japan, I made my way to an Airbnb hostel where I would be spending the next 4 days. This place was pretty interesting and my first real hostel experience. Everyone there was really friendly and I became quite close with my roomie who was the embodiment of a stereotypical German woman in that she was tall, pretty, had long blonde hair and sky blue eyes. She was in Tokyo for a mini-vacation from where she had been staying in Hokkaido and basically just wanted a change of pace. We exchanged stories, shared a few laughs and went sightseeing together. We are both fans of anime so we decided to check out Akihabara and since neither of us wanted to go to one alone, we decided to go to a maid cafe…and boy was that an experience. Firstly, it was super expensive so props to the girls who work there because they probably make a ton of money but it was also just very awkward. The maids put on a performance and called us “master” and refused to take any orders for food from us unless we put our hands up to our faces like cat paws and said “nyaa nyaa” first. Afterward, we did the very cliche anime couple thing and went to ride a pedal boat at Ueno park; it was a very silly but funny day. In the following days at the hostel, the roomie and I explored Shibuya crossing, the Hachiko statue, the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno on a rainy day and went to a Pokemon center where I purchased a little Charmander souvenir for the bf (who was then just a friend). It was definitely a very cool little pocket of my time in Tokyo. I ended off my first two weeks in Tokyo by visiting the imperial palace and exploring the royal gardens and…..go to the Ghibli Museum! The Ghibli Museum was beyond impressive and I definitely teared up a bit to be there. It was so cool, we weren’t allowed to take any photos from inside but it was like being transported to another world. On top of the museum was a life-size statue of the robot from Castle in the Sky and inside the museum were all these cute little bits from the movie and a mini theatre where you could watch original Ghibli film shorts. There was also a lovely gift shop with so many beautiful items like illustrated postcards; I purchased a lovely illustrated postcard of the Ghibli museum during the day…which I inevitably misplaced (I’m terrible, I lose everything).

Second Two Weeks:

I met up with a Japanese friend who I had met in Vancouver and we went for a day trip to explore Kawagoe also known as “Little Edo”. I say day trip but really it wasn’t until I got there that I realized that Google had lied to me when I searched best day trips from Tokyo because as lovely as Kawagoe was, it wasn’t worth a “day trip” because it was so small that it could be done in an hour or two! It was really quite funny, to be honest. It was very pretty and had loads of old-style architecture from the Edo period, hence where it got its nickname but there wasn’t all that much to do and a bit expensive to get to so after a couple of hours of walking around and trying to make our money’s worth of the train ticket to get there we decided to head to the next biggest spot to explore; Yokohama. Yokohama was definitely very fun and vibrant and the Chinatown there was great. We snacked on a bunch of samples and enjoyed the pretty night lights of the area. It was certainly a day with a lot of contrast.

The next day was great because the next day L and I headed to Taiwan! L managed to get a week off and so we thought why not explore Taipei during that time and get a little break from Tokyo. I, unfortunately, did not know the geography of the city too well and when I booked the Airbnb it ended up being too far from the centre of Taipei city and hence too far from any convenient connections to explore outside of Taipei PLUS we went right in the middle of the rainy season so it was a bit difficult to do any fun outdoorsy things. We still made the most of our time there and had a lot of fun. We ate at a few night markets and tried a lot of food, explored the area near our Airbnb, visited a cafe that was owned by a family friend of L’s and went to the National Palace Museum which housed tons of historical artifacts from China, it was pretty grand. Even though we spent the last two days of our trip sick in bed I’d still go back to Taiwan again to explore more of what the country has to offer and try more of the food!

Last Week in Tokyo + Night in Fukuoka:

I spent the majority of my last week in Tokyo just chillin’ really and preparing for my departure to Nagasaki, although I did go with L and her sister to do some lesser-known sightseeing in parts of Ginza and did the obligatory visit to the Tsukiji fish market to taste a delicious array of food. As well as some egg on a stick. Good stuff. The last bit of sightseeing that I can remember for that week was in two really interesting parts of Tokyo that not many people think to visit when they explore the city (well this was back then, it seems to have gotten a lot more popular now) known as Yanaka and Nezu. These two neighborhoods make up what used to be Tokyo old downtown and have really kept their old-timey style. Walking through these neighborhoods felt like taking a trip back to the Show era of Japan and walking through the Yanaka cemetery felt very mysterious and cool. I gotta be honest though, as pretty as these places were, I mostly remember them because of the delicious beef korokke and taiyaki that I had there. 10/10. I’m only in part one of my nostalgia blogs but I’m telling you now that I basically ate my way through Japan.

So it was my final night before heading to Narita airport for my flight to Fukuoka and what did I decide to do? Laundry. Except L didn’t have a dryer and the weather wasn’t warm enough for my clothes to be dried fast enough to pack them up and I’m not sure what exactly happened but I think I broke the washer or something because for some reason the water didn’t drain so it wouldn’t have mattered if she had a dryer because my clothes were soaked. With only an hour to go before I had to be out of her apartment (L was asleep and I had decided to just not sleep that night since my flight was so early and I had to leave her apartment at 5 am), I wrung the clothes out as best I could, packed them in the new suitcase that I purchased in Taiwan to replace the one that I sent to Nagasaki with the wheel I had broken on my first day in Tokyo and was off. L’s place wasn’t far from the train station and I arrived 20 minutes before the first train of the day so I decided to go grab some breakfast and use the toilet at the nearby 7/11. Many convenience stores in Japan have two floors and a seating area so it’s a really nice place to just chill for a bit if you’re waiting for a train. A bit dramatic but I’ll never forget this day for the sheer amount that happened in a single morning. So I said before that I thought I’d use the toilet before heading off for the train and I guess for the first and only time in my life, I left the door unlocked…well a construction worker walked in on me on the toilet because of course. I screamed, he screamed and then he awkwardly and for some reason, slowly, closed the door while I died of humiliation. Anyway, I finally hopped on the train to Narita with tears of humiliation still in my eyes and also simultaneously laughing at myself. There weren’t many people on the train thankfully but I’m sure I was still dubbed a crazy foreigner in the minds of the people that were on the train. Oh, by the way, I may not have kept a journal at the time in a technical manner of speaking but I did have a daily journal in the form of me texting the bf every day (again, he was just a good friend at this point) and sending him long messages of what I did every day. Having him to confide in all the time definitely helped me to not go insane, especially that day and especially since Japan is ahead of Canada so he was still awake at that point. Once I arrived at the airport, I was to be greeted by the news that my suitcase was too heavy to be checked in without having to pay an extra exuberant amount, why you may ask? Because my clothes were still frigging wet. Well, partially owing to that and the fact that I accidentally purchased a heavyweight suitcase in Taipei…oops. After some reorganization of my suitcase and bag and *ahem* throwing out some things that I no longer deemed necessary to my life, I was finally able to be checked in..rather late (everyone was waiting for me, what can I say? I was a mess). Pretty sure I cried in my sleep when I finally arrived at my seat on the plane and passed out.

It was a relief to finally arrive in Fukuoka and the airport was so close to the main train station! It only took about 7 minutes to get there. I obviously got there really early in the day so I walked around Hakata station and explored the area before meeting up with the rest of the people who were part of my exchange program for the Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies at the hotel that they were to be staying at and signing in to show that I had arrived. Now I said they were staying at that hotel because of course, I wouldn’t be. But don’t worry, this was by choice, why spend the equivalent of $80 somewhere when the true shoestring traveler way is to rough it up somewhere for little to nothing? It took a bit of searching but I managed to find a family restaurant that was open 24/7 and not too far from the hotel (although sadly had no wifi), left my big ol’ suitcase outside (yay for safe Japan) and headed inside for the night where I did my best to study for the whole night, order some food every now and then and eventually pass out for a couple of hours. The next day I met back up with the exchange group, boarded the bus to Nagasaki and headed to the university to meet my homestay family who I would be staying with for the next four months! (spoiler alert: my homestay mother was about an hour or two late to pick me up and I was, in fact, the last person to be picked up at the university…so yea the first of many reasons why my homestay experience was certainly an interesting one).

#lifeinjapan #nostalgia #studyabroad #japantrip #firstsolotrip #japantravel #japan #Travelblog

1 note · View note

kikaiz · 6 years

Photo

If you don’t understand why there’s so many dislikes and uproar about Nintendo’s online service that’s launching tomorrow, let me just provide ya’ll a list, because I feel terrible for the majority of folks that don’t know. And no, this isn’t about the price, it’s about what we’re paying for.

Disclaimer: Let me know if any of this information is wrong with evidence, and I’ll update the info. Everything will be under the Read More so that misinformation doesn’t spread and because frankly, it’s long.

The overall comparisons!

Note: There is a bit of bias here because I am angry and because I don’t care about NES games. Also not everything I’ve listed are things I care about but I know would bother someone out there so they’re in this list. Also here’s the links for the American and Japanese trailers if you’re curious how the dislike ratio has become since this post.

**Price per year**

❎ $60 (Xbox) 🅿️ $60 (PlayStation) 🆘 $20 (Switch Online Service)

**Servers**

❎ Dedicated server 🅿️ Dedicated server 🆘 Peer to Peer WiFi (your own internet server)

**Online and Party Chat**

❎ Need service to play online however, you don’t need it to access apps and services. Membership required for Party chat (thru the system itself). 🅿️ Need service to play online however, you don’t need it to access apps and services or Party chat (thru the system itself). Members also gain a few extra features, including automatic downloads of game updates, early access to some betas, and extended game trials of certain titles. Allows you to share one subscription with all users of the console. 🆘 Need service to play online. Splatoon becomes unplayable offline. No apps available (Netflix, YouTube, browser). Requires smart phone and app in order to Party chat. No Netflix, YouTube, or browser. No themes or messaging.

**Cloud Saves**

❎ Cloud saving for all games as well as free usb transfers. Cloud is also available Free to Everyone and not just paying members. 🅿️ Cloud saving for all games as well as free usb transfers. Unsubscribed members cloud saves are kept for a 6 month grace period. 🆘 Cloud saves for games except Splatoon 2 and Pokémon. No way to back up data otherwise, despite SD card saving being available on Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. Edit: One week after the service launched, we finally got information that there is indeed a 6 month grace period for your cloud saves if you’ve unsubscribed. (Technically 1 year, 6 months, 22 days for this information if we’re counting from when the switch launched.)

**Free Games**

❎ 2 free Xbox one games and 2 Xbox 360 games every month, all new triple A quality. If you unsubscribe, you’ll lose access to these games. However if you resub, you will have access to them and their saves again. Xbox 360 games can be kept regardless of subbing. (Note: xbox 1 is backwards compatible that’s why I’m listing Xbox 360 info) 🅿️ 2 free new triple A games every month. If you unsubscribe, you’ll lose access to these games. However if you resub, you will have access to them and their saves again. 🆘 20 NES games. That’s it. Just these twenty 33 year old games with “more to come”. However they will cycle. When 20 new ones come the old 20 are gone and you do not own them. If you are away from wifi for 7 days (whether that be a storm or a vacation), you cannot play the NES games you paid for. Edit: The co op plays with friends seems seamless and fun for games I don’t plan on playing. WARNING: Do not use the CRT filter on the NES games because they’ll have a temporary “burn in” effect on your switch screen due to how the pixels vibrate. This eventually goes away on its own over time (and not by turning on and off your system) but I wouldn’t chance it, personally.

**Game Discounts or Special Offers**

❎ Many discounts for members but there are a few sales for non members too. 🅿️ The store regularly has discounts for everyone. However members may get a better deal. If a game is 60% off for a regular, it could be 80% off for a member. 🆘 So far the only special offers are NES controllers (only available if you’re a member of the Online service. This means you’ll be paying $80 total) and exclusive sports gear for Splatoon 2.

**Other Info** 🆘

https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/13/17855056/nintendo-switch-online-launch-user-accounts-unlink-how-to

A personal rant from a Splatoon fan! 🦑🐙

When I’d heard about the online being mandatory for Splatoon 2, I was saddened but I understood, especially under the assumption that I would be paying for servers to run to improve disconnectivity drops. I had no problems with just that. And the price was affordable for me to boot.

Then I learned that I cannot back up my save data. I heard about 3rd party docks bricking switches and losing saves, of people who’s switches were stolen at E3′s and losing their saves.

Then I learned that Splatoon 2′s saves aren’t tied to the account or to Nintendo but to each individual switch itself.

Then I found out cloud saves will not work on Splatoon 2 and upcoming Pokemon games “to prevent cheating”. So not only can I not back up by SD card like we have been for the last 12 years, but I can’t save my 700+ hours of Splatoon at all. All to prevent save scumming... despite there already being plenty of Splatoon hackers already that do a lot worse than save scumming. And there are solutions to these problems so that cloud saving is possible for every game!

I just can’t protect my Splatoon 2 data... Not all the weapons I’ve bought, every outfit I’ve bought and leveled up, not my ranks. The only game I would actually care about losing my progress cannot be backed up.

Then I found out I’m not even paying for a better server. It’s going to continue to be peer to peer using our own wifi.

I do not play other online games. Sure some games I would love to play with friends like minecraft and dragon quest builders 2 and pokemon, but I can live without it since local multiplayer is still free. Splatoon however becomes unplayable offline. You cannot even go to the store to buy new outfits. The only part of Splatoon I could play offline are the single player mode and DLC but I’ve already 100% those.

The Splatoon series is my favorite... It’s the first time a game made me feel good about myself and my aim and actually made me improve myself irl. I don’t mind paying for online if I’m actually going to get something out of it. It’s been over a year of delaying this online and they haven’t changed anything for me.

I’ll probably cave in the end... I just love Splatoon so much and I want to play all the new updates and keep getting better. But for now, I’ll try to boycott for as long as possible, maybe use my 1 free week trial for the October splatfest if it’s spooky. But until then, I hope people who will boycott with me will return to Splatoon 1 until Nintendo adds something. I don’t expect this boycott or our message to get to Nintendo in the end. I think there are already too many people blinded by the cheap price and lack of information and upcoming Smash game. I don’t want to pay for something like this.

What would make me feel better about this service:

I just want to know that I won’t lose my Splatoon progress if my switch gets damaged or stolen.

I want confirmation that my Splatoon progress is tied to my account not my system.

I also think Cloud Saves in general should be free for all if there’s no other way to backup saves. (I would say give us SD card backups but I don’t believe games like Splatoon and Pokemon should have those because that’s local save scumming and we don’t want that.) Right now, Nintendo is the only ones charging us to protect our saves.

I want a word from Nintendo that servers will improve in the future, otherwise Peer to Peer should be free and dedicated servers should be paid for. I know for sure that hardcore Smash players would pay for dedicated servers.

Personally, I don’t mind about NES (because I won’t play them) or the phone app (splatnet2 is great and I can just keep using discord or like the actual phone). HOWEVER, I really really need a real way to block/ban players in splatoon 2 in-game and not using the App, (as well as a way to Un-yeah a post in the lobby from accidental clicks but that’s more a splatoon problem than a phone problem.)

Sure what I asked for is taking out all the good stuff from the Online service but imagine this. Imagine if Switch Online actually had things worth paying for. Imagine your themes and browser apps and mutual best friend messaging. Imagine games other than NES coming to that service they’re providing eventually. Imagine bigger sales available on eshop that notifies you when games on your wishlist are on sale. It’s so cheap many more people would buy and keep a subscription without all this controversy. It’s taken them a year to pull this off and they’ve got nothing for it. Why? Because they know people will pay for it anyway.

I want to be wrong about all this, trust me. At the very least, Nintendo is at fault for making about 18k people really really upset and anxious with poor communication.

FAQ

“You knew you were going to have to pay for a service so you shouldn’t have bought a multiplayer game like Splatoon.”

I was under the impression for over a year with no other info that I would be paying for dedicated servers along with the Online.

“Stop complaining, this was a really long free trial and you knew that.”

Yep! And they kept delaying it. And delaying it. And delaying it. So I think we were all assuming Nintendo had a big surprise they were delaying all this for to make it worth the wait. It’s not.

“It’s $20 a year, that’s way cheaper than the competition. Of course it’s not going to have a lot of offers.”

Yes, I agree! But for me this is less than what I expected and trust me I was not expecting much. This is less than the basics.

“So you bought a $300 switch, $60 game, $20 DLC, and $70 pro controller but you can’t pay $20 a year? Sure.”

I want to pay $20 a year for a service not a hostage situation. Sorry if I seem upset about having a gun to my head.

“The Wii U was a failure. Nintendo needs the money. Do you want them to go bankrupt?”

Don’t sympathize with billion dollar companies like they have feelings. We have problem of treating large companies like people instead of money producing companies, especially if there’s nostalgia attached. “Don’t be mean to Nintendo, they’re having a rough time.” The sooner more people realize this, the better. And no they’re not in need of money. They have $10.5 billion in the bank. For some perspective that’s 35 million switches. For further perspective if just one second was a dollar, that’s 333 years. They’re fine.

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”

Because I want Nintendo to succeed. I don’t want them to have EA levels of controversy. I don’t want them to worm their way to EA levels of anti-consumerism. We already have loot boxes in a free mobile game. And now the free online we’ve had for 12 years is under a paywall. I’m not mad about either of these. I just don’t want it to get any worse than that. I don’t want Nintendo to think they can get away with the bare minimum just because “they’ll buy it anyway.” Nintendo has been making great leaps forward with the switch but things like this severely set them back.

#nintendo online #splatoon 2 #vote with your wallets #the animation for the service was cute but the service itself angers me rn #make it better so i can play splatoon again with peace of mind #i honestly just feel like luigi throughout the entire trailer #i'll probably come back to this and make the list less biased but gosh i feel like im being ripped off #i literally got selected for a random survey from nintendo just now lol i think it's for the site itself tho

79 notes · View notes

sedeso · 6 years

Text

Preparing to Travel Abroad Alone at 18

Turning 18 and beginning my gap year planning, I’m faced with the realities of “traveling alone.” My parents are against it, random relatives are praying for me, everything is so expensive, and what am I actually doing? It took a while for me to reconcile being my own support system because of my parents’ disapproval, but I am ready for this experience.

In September I will be going to Balgue, Nicaragua for 3 months to intern with an organization called Project Bona Fide. My internship is focused on sustainable agriculture and herbal medicine. I’ll be learning permaculture practices, tending the herb garden, and attempting to create a local shop for the farm’s herbal remedies. This in tandem with improving my Spanish and participating in the many workshops and excursions at the PBF Farm.

I got into contact with PBF and this internship through an organization called Omprakash, which matches volunteers and interns with nonprofits and other organizations worldwide. They provide an incredible pre- and post-departure support team, with an online classroom dedicated to global development and volunteerism. Through them I am doing crowdfunding for my trip, getting discounted travel insurance, and have a mentor! I really recommend their organization for anyone looking to travel abroad and have it be more than a vacation.

There are multitudes to my gap year, I will be completing my yoga teacher certification, returning to Antigua, and possibly doing a volunteer trip through Omprakash. It really all depends on my finances and flexibility, but I’ll keep you all posted!

So I’m Caribbean. The only time I’ve traveled alone is to my mother’s home island and country Anguilla. And that was to stay with my aunt the entire trip, and travel back with an older cousin of mine. I know the ins and outs of air travel from going to Anguilla and Antigua with my family all throughout my life, so this shouldn’t be that daunting right?

Right! I am excited to not have to juggle 3 bags because we always bring things for family and to be able to stick to my schedule. I am flying to Managua in September, where I will meet up with 2+ other interns and we will travel together to the PBF farm. Thereafter, I will be with PBF staff, interns, volunteers, and the surrounding community.

Oh, but it is that daunting. As I mentioned I’m Caribbean, and my parents are fighting me tooth and nail to get me to call off this trip. I can do another post about why I am going to take a gap year at all if you’d like. Their concerns are rooted in safety, which I acknowledge. I’ve always wanted to take Krav Maga defense art classes, and will likely be doing so sooner rather than later to appease them.

Human trafficking is a very real threat, and tourists are such easy targets. Literally fuck being a tourist. I hate the idea of walking into a new place ready to drop a ton of US money, look stupid, and appreciate the scenery more than the people around you. So many people that travel and volunteer do not have this attitude but you will always note the tourists in any place you go.

Making yourself into a target is a for sure way to get pickpocketed and even kidnapped not only in Central America, but all over the world. I advise you not to be flashy with money or gadgets, and to just enjoy your time without taking a photo of everything.

Some other tips I’ve made up or come across for keeping yourself and your shit safe:

Get a money belt thing, its like a flat fanny pack u can wear under your clothes to make it way harder to pickpocket

Know where you are going, download the google maps in wifi BEFORE you even leave for your trip

Do not look at your map on the street, rather duck into a store or cafe (looking lost makes you a target)

If you have a daypack and are going through a busy area wear it on your front

Try to know as much as you can of the language where you are going (being confused makes you a target)

Make a female friend, ask them where not to go and safe areas

Do not have both headphones in in public places

Snap a picture of your cab’s license plate before you get in it.

If you stop to buy tickets or anything where your attention is away, put your bag between your legs or in between your body and the counter instead of beside you

Don’t feel guilty about saying no to anything

Know how to use the emergency call function on your phone, for if you have no service or wifi

Have scheduled calls with someone back home

I plan on using all of these tips myself, and will be documenting my gap year travels here and on youtube (videos coming soon)

I am also new to blog-type posts, so any feedback or constructive criticism is welcome, stay safe and love you all!

84 notes · View notes

copperbadge · 6 years

Text

Answers About DIY

rsfcommonplace replied to your photo “Masking tape...”

Decorative edge trim or unexpected googly eyes as disguise?

I do feel like I should maybe paint it black and when someone asks about it go “what black-filled crack in the paint?”

meatball42 replied to your photo “Masking tape...”

My mom (former house painter) says a) use blue painters tape instead and b) if you can't, take the cutting tape off as soon as it won't make the paint run to do so

Oh, that was blue painter’s tape -- but unfortunately I realized after that “sharp edge” blue painters tape really means “sticks extra hard to whatever you stick it on” :D Fortunately most of the rest of that roll is stuck to metal without paint on it, and most of the stuff stuck to paint is normal painter’s tape.

amazon-x replied to your photo “Masking tape...”

you're going to have to sand and Spackle that.

That was my first thought! “Goddamn now I gotta spackle the ceiling.”

I should have just bought the big bucket of spackle. I’m on small tub of spackle #3. On the other hand, once you use up the spackle and give the tub a wipe-down, it makes a handy cup for paint when you’re doing detail work.

altheterrible replied to your photoset “Before and after....”

when I was looking at the before pic, I tried to wipe my laptop screen because I couldn't figure out what was all over it. The wall looks MUCH better now.

It’s amazing how much nicer the place looks just with the stains on the walls painted out. There were so many of them too. I have genuine concerns about the people who lived there before I bought it -- like, what exactly were they doing that the wall has a big black stain there?”

clockways replied to your post “Every post you make...”

If you give it a good clean, the wood color would be nice with the green already. Or just cut place mats the size of the steps if you're worried about water from plants.

niennanir replied to your photo “Services being held...”

the more I look at this ladder the more I don't want you to paint it. Sand that baby down and epoxy it, it's got gorgeous bones

It does look good in some of those photos, doesn’t it? It’s just so covered in grossness -- the wood looks nice, but the rungs and such looks pretty disgusting up close, and there’s what might be a rust issue with some of the hardware. I’m still considering it, and I might just paint the rungs, but it definitely could do with something to cover up all the weird stains.

Admittedly some of those weird stains are from me putting paintbrushes on it.

sailorsol replied to your photo “Services being held...”

Can you bless rollers too? I start set build next weekend for our spring production and I do not have undergrad slave labor.

I BLESS YOUR ROLLERS AND YOUR TRAYS, may you spill nothing and have no lower back pain.

tehnakki replied to your post “re: getting a new thermostat...”

my nest changed my life!!!! wifi thermostats are amazeballs. and they are super easy to install, but txt me if yo need help.

Yeah, I’m big time excited at the idea of an app that can program my thermostat. And this one, while not a Nest, apparently has a doodad where if you go outside a certain geographic range it automatically senses that you’re on vacation and goes into “nobody home” mode, which is amazing.

catinthecoop replied to your post “re: getting a new thermostat...”

I don't have a nest, but I managed to install a fancy wifi thermostat twice. Once in a 60s era apartment and once in a 50s era remodeled house. You should be fine. Just TAKE A PICTURE of the original wiring before you start. I cannot emphasize that enough. Once you’re knee deep in wires is not the time to realize you goofed.

Very sensible advice, other people have said similar. Plus that way I can share with you all the gross crusty one that’s there now before my nice new one is put in! :D

niennanir replied to your post “In your refurb quest...”

peel and stick vinyl tile is heat and wear resistant, stupid easy to install, and in many patterns less than $1 a foot. It's a great choice if you want to do something fresh but don't want to lay down a ton of money. It won't do a lot for your resale value but if you want to put off professional reflooring for a good 10 years it's peachy.

I do think there’s probably enough left in the box I found to do the kitchen...I’m wondering how hard it would be to pull up the tiles that are there now. Perhaps it’s time to grab a chisel and investigate!

3pennyjane replied to your post “In your refurb quest for your new place, have you looked into the...”

Jezebel did an article on DIY vinyl tape flooring. It looks like a fair amount of work, but it’s inexpensive and not out of your skill set. Here for instructions and here for an example that doesn’t make the eyes bleed.

I was gonna say, that first one is VIVID.

I can’t deny that it looks like a lot of fun, but my knees are whining just thinking about it :D

onceuponacupoftea replied to your photo “The last of Murder Wall.”

Can you stand figurines on the top of the bottom frame piece? Make a little tableau with it?

I think I’m going to go with my original idea of putting hooks in and hanging my keys on them -- this is YET ANOTHER Chicago condo with a door that you literally can’t set to unlock. No matter what you do to the knob, if the door closes behind you it locks. So like in the place I’m in now, I want to make sure the last thing I see before I open the door are my keys, as a reminder to take them with me. How better to remind me than a big red square where they hang? :D

#onceuponacupoftea #3pennyjane #niennanir #catinthecoop #tehnakki #sailorsol #clockways #altheterrible #amazon-x #meatball42 #rsfcommonplace #sam bought a home

39 notes · View notes

vesperdynamite · 6 years

Text

I’ve taken up writing again, or kinda, idk man. It’s supposed to be horror but it is what it is! Anyways, I wanted to share this with people who’d be less biased so tell me what you think of it!

I remember when I was younger my grandparents had a little bit of property down south of my hometown. It wasn’t much though, just a small cottage surrounded by forest and a dirt road going just across the front of it and stopping in their driveway. I remember when my brothers and I were young we would run around out there, sometimes supervised, sometimes not. The woods somehow were full of bamboo, patches of it just big enough for a 10-year-old to hide in well enough not to be seen for several hours. The three of us would sit in these patches, carving out little hideaways for ourselves, reading, listening to the cd player one of us had brought, picnicking. That might sound odd but it was truly a good time, an innocent time.

One summer afternoon, as we were sitting in one of these clusters something strange happened, a kid came up to us. She had to have been the age of my youngest brother, 6 or so, wearing an aviator jacket. I remember thinking how strange it was and commenting on it and never getting an answer to my question. The only thing she said was “Do you wanna play?” My brothers and I weren’t as shocked as one might’ve guessed we would be. There weren’t that many people on this road or the paved one it led to, so we weren’t surprised that maybe one of the grandchildren or child of another resident had taken to wandering the roads or woods as we had. So when she had asked us to play with her we didn’t even respond, we just stood up and played with her for hours until we were called in for dinner as the sun set. We all waved by to the little girl in the bamboo and ran back to the house, laughing as we went.

My grandmother is a short woman with black hair while my grandfather could be described as Santa, all he’s missing is the long white beard. They’re very kind people, always have been. Very Christian as well, praying before every meal, going to bed and waking up. We prayed with them of course, being children and all. I remember asking my grandmother asking about the little girl and suddenly we were all being whisked off the property by my parents within the hour. For the second time that day I had not gotten a response to any questions I had asked, an oddity for my curious 12-year-old self, I was entering middle school and considered myself an adult and above not getting the answers I wanted.

When I got home I asked my parents what was wrong with my grandparents and why they hadn’t answered my question. I knew something bad had happened out there from their reactions but no one had told me exactly what had happened. My exact question to them was “What happened to the girl in the fluffy coat?!” there may have been a foot stomping as well.

My exasperated parents sat me down and told me that near the beginning of World War II a German family had moved in on that dirt lane, long before grandparents had owned the land, and the husband went off to fight for America. He came back before it ended due to injuries, a changed man. The family lived there for years, having many children but only one daughter. The pilot treasured his daughter more than his own life. He put everything he had into her wellbeing. Then one winter night, she had been sent out to try and draw water from the well out back. She pulled her fathers oversized coat on and went out. Then the pilot snapped and picked up his service revolver. He shot his wife and four children before shooting himself on the front lawn.

After not seeing any of them in town for a while one of the wife’s friends went with her husband to check on them and they found him laying spread eagle in the weeds. Using the phone inside the husband dialed the police and the wife went to check on her friend and the children. Some animals had gotten into the house somehow and had eaten the corpses of all the residents inside. Once the police came the family friends left. The police counted four bodies inside the house and one outside it. The body of the daughter was nowhere to be seen. After searching the woods, they found her in the well, her body having become bloated due to the water exposure.

“Now they demolished the house so your grandparents didn’t buy that house.” My mother hurried to assure me. “The family lived closer to the main road and eventually your grandparents bought the property and expanded further into the woods.”

Hearing the story put me off of going out into those woods for a long time. I stayed with my grandparents occasionally but took to reading in the den, where I could be seen and see my brothers on the lawn, and I noticed grandfather took to keeping his rifle case closer to his recliner.

The older I got the less I went out there. Eventually just stopping altogether. That is, until I heard they were going on vacation during the upcoming summer and needed someone to house sit for them, tidy up and make sure their plants survived. Now at age 20 I had just finished my second year of college and was looking not to be bothered by family, the cottage out in the woods became a blessing to me. A place I could live on my own at, food, drink, and wifi all paid for.

I spent the week before my grandparents left helping them prepare and pack, they were going to Big Bend, California, Illinois, then back home. The journey would take them the better half of the summer just to get around the country and I was so excited to be truly on my own.

The first month consisted of my going to work, and binging cop shows and other things that I could find online, staying inside as much as I could, eventually I grew bored of that and decided to pull my boots out and go for a hike. I had a good chunk of land at my disposal although I was still put off by the story of the little girl I figured it was just a story and nothing more.

Grabbing a book, a soda, and a sandwich I tossed them into a satchel and set out. After a coupe hours or so I found myself a nice little patch of bamboo with a flat little circle in the center and decided to take my lunch. I lost myself in the book until I heard a small voice call out to me. “Do you wanna play?” Looking up I didn’t see anyone and decided maybe I should play some music and put my earbuds in, and headed deeper into the woods.

The woods grew thicker the deeper I went, trees becoming closer and closer together, sometimes so close they started to look like people out of the corner of my eyes. I decided it was probably time to head back home and turned to make my way back to the cottage. And I know it was my brain playing tricks on my but I swear that I saw a little girl in the distance on my way back.

As time went on I eventually braved going deeper into the woods, staying out there until I could just hear the night creatures start stirring around me. I soon found the well my parents had spoken of in the story but it was much less than I had ever thought. In my young age I was picturing a large stone circle with a wooden frame and a bucket with rope. What I found was a small wooden thing that came up to my waist that was boarded shut once upon a time but had buckled under some unknown pressure.

That’s when I heard the gunshots. Five shots were fired in total. Three in quick succession, one that followed it about a minute after and then one last shot. Then silence. No animals made any noise, no bugs crawled. I discovered that after that last shot was fired I held my breath until I absolutely couldn’t any more. I couldn’t pinpoint the direction the shots had come from so I couldn’t go the other way. I just sat on the edge of the well waiting for something else to happen.

I sat there all night, playing games on my phone until it died and after it did I went back to the cottage. It sat undisturbed. I circled around it and found no holes in the sides or doors and went in, holding my puny little pocket knife like I had seen action heroes do. Nothing was wrong in the house. On the front lawn was a pistol. This was when I suddenly realized I had to call the cops. Shots had been fired and they had probably come from this gun. The police came, took my statement and the gun, telling me it might’ve been a hunter or any of the neighbors practicing, because noise does travel.

I didn’t sleep at all that night and when I did finally fall asleep the next day I could only dream of that little girl, her body tossed into the well by the man that loved her more than anything. I found my grandfather’s rifle and set it up next to the chair like he had so many years before. I wasn’t going to let ghosts get the better of me.

A week after I found the pistol I got a phone call from my grandparents asking if everything was alright. I said that everything was absolutely fine and I had just gotten a little worked up over nothing was all. After reassuring them for half an hour I decided that it was time for me to finally face this little girl or whatever was actually going on.

Setting out to city hall or wherever the city kept their records, I had to know if this family had really lived there or even existed. After spending three days searching I found that the ‘Werden’ family had indeed lived on the property and murders had occurred on the property but had not been committed by the father. They had been committed by a stranger that had heard of German people living on American soil and decided they were Nazis.

Jacob Sorrenson killed the Werden family in cold blood, executing them all on the front lawn, youngest to oldest. He was only caught because he bragged about it in the bar hours later. They could never find the body of the little girl though. Sorrenson claimed he killed all of them but would never reveal the location of the little girl’s body. Feeling sickened I went to my parents’ house and slept on their couch for the night.

Going back out there the next day with fresh eves I decided to search for the possible grave of the Werden girl. I didn’t know what I’d do if I did find it, I just knew I had to. I spent the rest of the summer looking for anything that could resemble a nearly 60-year-old grave, researched what could possibly indicate a body is buried somewhere but found nothing out in those woods or near the well.

Eventually my grandparents returned from their trip and asked me if I was okay and I confirmed that I was indeed fine, I had just been a little spooked. After all, how do you tell someone they built a house on the grave of a little girl?

#fiction #writing #writing again #horror kinda #want to submit this to a podcast #or record it myself who knows what'll happen

1 note · View note

type-a-nomad · 6 years

Text

First REAL weekend in South Africa-- Sat Feb 17- Mon Feb19

Weekend

Feb 17 Today I went on a surfing day to the beach at Big Bay. The beach faces the main city of Cape Town and you can see Table Mountain looming over the entire place. The view is spectacular. Basically, the premise of the surfing day was a collaboration between two NGOs in Cape Town dedicated to helping the kids in the townships get out of the townships through extracurricular activities. One of them is SAVE Volunteers (my people) and the other is Wings, an organization started by one of the SAVE employees from Norway who raises money to buy surfboards and wetsuits for the kids here. Surfing has a reputation of being kind of airhead-y or unambitious, something people who just want life to be easy and relaxing seek out. The organizations I am working with prove that wrong on so many fronts. The most critical, to me, is the water. The ocean is so powerful and so healthy. I might be the only one, though this is unlikely, but when I go into the water, I am entirely filled with energy and life and consciousness. Further, physical activity is so important for mental wellbeing and it helps these kids channel energy and frustrations from the hardships they experience daily into something that isn't self detrimental (like joining a gang or being swept up in the alcoholism and drug addiction that plagues a good amount of their parents and family members). Another critical part is the challenge. There is a very tangible outline of success: getting up and surfing the wave. Thus, surfing is saving these kids’ mental wellbeing. Or at least aiding it. It’s incredible to see how appreciative they are for everything. They are so excited to be there and are having fun from the second they show up till the second they leave. I went into the water for about 45 minutes. The waves were enormous. I have never experienced anything like it. There were swells of 10 feet. A lot of the volunteers didn't go out because they were so uncomfortable with the swell. Apparently, the waves being this big is rare. But, this is the first time I have surfed in a year and I was anxious to just try. So, I forced myself into a wetsuit and decided to make myself uncomfortable because that’s why I'm here— I’m not about to live timidly even though a lot of my brain wants me to. Carpe this fucking diem. All that. When I got out of the water, after being crushed by many waves and ignoring the cramping in my shoulders from paddling, I was starving and grabbed my German friend, Nicole, to go to a smoothie place right near the big beach. When we got there, I noticed they had wraps so I got a breakfast wrap. I know this is super boring. Who cares what I’m eating? Right? Except it’s actually a big deal, because I only eat carbs for breakfast and lunch and my body is not used to only having a small amount of protein at dinner on good days. I’m trying to go shopping more to supplement the fact that I just eat peanut butter toast to survive here because I’m so emotionally and physically exhausted all of the time from giving every piece of myself to the kids that making something more than that is basically impossible. When I got back, I had potato salad and meatballs out of the fridge that was apart of the dinner the night before. It was yummy but also a second lunch at 4pm and, thus, I was not very hungry when dinner rolled around at 6pm. I got my portion of pasta and put cling wrap to save my rations for the next day. I ate the salad and then most of a chocolate bar that I bought and designated as my “emegency chocolate bar”. I guess craving sugar constitutes an emergency for me.

Feb 18

I woke up at 6:20 am today because I had a zipline tour that I booked. It was an hour and a half there and the tour was at 9 so we were going to leave at 7 so we would be sure we wouldn't be late. I was a bit loud getting ready because I was so exhausted. Linda, my roommate who is 60-ish, from Canada, and now retired and living in Oaxaca, Mexico. She’s super cool and even says “eh”. It’s very exciting. We are starting to get kind of close. We even gossip sometimes. Anyways, back to ziplining. The way I got into this in the first place was because Natasha, a British girl who lives in my house and has been very outgoing and nice to me so far, was talking about wanting to do it with somebody and asked (out of semi-desperation because others didn't want to do it) me. I’m still not in great physical condition. I’ve had a really bad cough since I’ve gotten here and it is showing no signs of leaving anytime soon. Please, Mr. Cough, you are overstaying your welcome. Natasha and I called an uber at 7. The guy pulled up and seemed nice enough, but I was worried that he was going to kick us out when he realized how far we were going. Directly inland 90 minutes is basically to the middle of nowhere. When he noticed the destination he did something very, very weird. He says “Is this a cash or card trip”, uber doesn't let you pay in cash so I found this very sketchy. We told him it was a card trip, to which he said “ don't have any cash or cards, can you pay me in cash so I can get us all the way there”. Obviously, I am feeling a little more than weirded out at that moment because of all the horror stories we have heard about transportation, safety, and being a woman in Cape Town. However, we were stuck. It’s 7am, we are already out of town, we have to be at this place before 9, and this guy is offering us to take us there, just being sketchy about it. We allow him to pull over and cancel the trip. The quote that uber originally gave us was 750 Rand for the way there (rand to dollars is around 11:1). He says he’ll take 500 Rand for the whole thing. For him, it’s not actually a discount because uber takes 75% anyways and he doesn't need to pay taxes. For us, we save 250 rand. It’s a win-win. We spend another hour in the car. The man driving the uber was named Gabriel and he had lived in Cape Town for 28 years. He didn’t even put in directions to where we were going even though it was way outside of Cape Town. Of course he gets lost. I don’t get why people feel the need to prove how “local” they are by doing things like that. Just use your map. Jeez man. We end up having to put the map into Natasha’s phone because there is basically no service where we were so her wifi hotspot is the closest thing to internet that we had. We roll up to the nature reserve where we are going zip lining, finally, and there is a gatehouse where you need to check in before driving one more kilometer up the road to the actual headquarters/cafe of the zip lining company. Natasha and I realized how far in the middle of nowhere we were, but we figured we could call an uber when we were finished and it would take maybe 30 minutes to get there. The zipline company offers no transportation to or from the middle of nowhere, there is no public transportation anywhere close, and taxis in cape town are basically unusable because they're so sketchy and they will charge you crazy amounts because they know they might get away with it. When we get out of the car, we are told almost immediately that we need to tell our uber driver to WAIT for four hours while we zipline because we will be unable to call one when we are done because we are in the middle of the middle of nowhere. Great!!!! What a reasonable request. The woman at the front desk phones the gatehouse and tells Gabriel to turn around and wait for us until we are done. He is so sweet he says that he will and we don’t even need to pay him. Just 500 Rand there and 500 Rand back. So $50 per person round trip for over 3 hours of driving. Not bad. Ziplining was hard to describe. It was so insane every time I’ve trie dot describe it, it sounds hyperbolic. We were driven in a big jeep-truck thing about 20 minutes through the bumpiest road I’ve ever driven on. Several times I actually thought we were going to tip over and fall down the cliff. The entire thing was so full of adrenaline even the car ride felt wild. We zip lined for four hours. Besides walking to the first platform and hiking out of the canyon, there was literally no walking, just zip lining from mountain to mountain. It was insane. We were hundreds of feet up. Each zipline was 500 feet or longer. Below us was hundreds of feet and then a rocky canyon with waterfalls and rovers throughout it. The drought isn’t as serious the farther you get out of CT so a lot of the vegetation was green and full. There were trees and bushes and flowers and lizards. It was beautiful. The dirt is red and full of clay. Everything seemed so saturated. In our group it was me, Natasha, and a Dutch couple who were in CT for vacation. They were very nice. Every time we got to the next zipine (approximately every 10 or 15 minutes), we had to jump off ourselves. I cannot describe the amount of self control it takes to willingly jump off of a platform above a canyon hundreds of feet in the air suspended by nothing but a wire. We were flying at up to 40 miles an hour suspended hundreds of feet above the ground. Calling it exhilarating feels like an understatement. When I got back to my hostel, I decided to rally and go to the beach before dinner. I covered myself in sunscreen and walked down to the ocean with some girls who live in the same building as me named Sydney, Emilie, and Natasha (same Natasha). It was really nice. I’m reading a book called When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron and every paragraph makes me stop and think about my worldview. It’s totally fantastic and spiritual without being annoying about it. As I am writing this, it is Monday. This morning was rough because I have very little food here besides bread and cereal and whatever is made for dinner. I usually go for peanut butter toast but this morning there was no peanut butter so I just had bread and butter. I thought i could make coffee with a lot of milk for protein and I heated up my milk but then we were out of instant coffee. Thankfully, Coll showed up and handled it and got us new food. Coll is actually superwoman. It is a great injustice that I have not payed tribute to her or her daughter, Shannon, since I have been blogging about my experiences in Africa. Shannon basically runs SAVE volunteers as far as I can see. She is the go-to manager. She runs our lives. From having enough food, to transport, to daily activities, it’s all her (and another manager Robyn who is equally great). Shannon is Coll’s daughter. Coll is around 65 years old and makes dinner for us every night Monday-Saturday. She’s vegetarian and is very evangelical about it. At least 3 days a week I have very long conversations with her about politics, gender identity, sexism, vegetarianism, and general humanity among other things. She’s brilliant without being self important or condescending towards younger generations, even though she totally could be. Did I mention she cooks for over a hundred people every day? Yeah, pretty wild. Today there was no peanut butter or instant coffee and when I told her, all of a sudden peanut butter and instant coffee appeared. Here, where food is not diverse and sometimes scarce, that is nothing short of a miracle. So, yeah, the ladies who run this program are badass and fun in all of the right ways.

Currently, I am having a lot of trouble deciding if I’m leaving South Africa. If you are reading this and have advice, I need it. Fill my ears. I want to be on the beach and the project I thought I was going to go to next is in Turkey and it’s cold and not on the beach. I know this sounds small and kind of self-indulgent and a priority only a teenager would have, but it’s actually a big deal for me. My quality of life by the water changes a lot. Having access to go to the beach, and swim, walk, etc. gives me so much energy. I love the energy of towns near the beach and it makes me want to stay in Table View, South Africa because everything here is set up and I’m near the beach, even though I don’t particularly feel a strong need to do exactly this kind of volunteering for a whole extra month. I have been looking for places in Central and South America because I would love to improve my Spanish, but almost all of those would be working at a hostel which I think would be fun and I could meet lots of people and work on my language skills, but my parents would see it as pretty meaningless and I don’t blame them. It doesn't help other people, it would just be fun, new, casual, and something I probably an experience I would never have again. If anyone knows of a permaculture farm on the beach somewhere where it is warm (besides Australia, I know there are tons there but I don’t want to ask for the money for that plane flight), please let me know. I don’t want to take away from my experience here by looking everywhere for a new project, but I am also itching to go new places after this and only have clothes and supplies to be in warm weather, and the emotional disposition to be at the beach. I don’t want to just sit around. Meaningful work is, well, meaningful, but the environment in which I am doing that work is super important to me as well because I only get one Gap Year and it is going to be a while before I go to do something this eccentric and carefree again. Harvard isn’t a beach vacation.

Peace, Q

2 notes · View notes

cosplaytutorial · 7 years

Text

My World Cosplay Summit 2017 Adventure: Planning a Trip To Japan

Going to Japan is the first step in attending the World Cosplay Summit. Planning the trip can be intimidating if you haven't been out of the country before. The last time Kevin and I went to Japan was about 10 years ago and it was all a guided tour. We didn't have do much planning (his mom handled the booking) but we also didn't have much freedom. We saw a lot of cool sights such as temples and castles, but we didn’t get to do any nerd stuff and we really wanted to do the nerd stuff. This time around we decided to do our own thing, which meant we had to do the research and planning.

Planning

The first step was determining a rough outline of where we wanted to be and on what days. We knew we wanted to go to Nagoya (where the summit was held) on the 5th and 6th of August. We also wanted to spend a chunk of our trip in Tokyo.

Once we knew where we wanted to go we could start looking for flights. If you want a deal and the most freedom, it helps to book far in advance. Take advantage of services like Scott's Cheap Flights and YYZ Deals or other groups that share good deals on flights. We planned our trip a little late, so we didn’t get the opportunity to scope out the best prices, but we were able to compare the difference between landing a bit earlier in Osaka vs. landing in Nagoya. We got a price we were happy with and committed to the trip. With these fight dates in mind we planned out how we would travel:

August 1: Leave Canada August 2: Land in Osaka August 4: Leave Osaka, Travel to Nagoya August 7: Leave Nagoya, Travel to Tokyo August 12: Leave Tokyo and go Home.

Accommodations

Now that our plane tickets were secure, we needed to work out where to stay.

A lot of my friends have used AirBnB in Japan and recommended it. I looked into it and not only were the prices good, but it sounded like they would be great experiences. However, Kevin is a shy individual and he vetoed the idea. So we sought out hotels. If you want to book with airBnB I would suggest paying attention to what they offer. Some of the AirBnBs offer portable WiFi, breakfast and an escort or drive from either the airport or subway to their house which are all very useful. Thought for a western visitor you may want to double check the type of toilets they have, the type and size of beds being offered (especially if you are tall) and what house rules they may have as these may be different from what you are used to.

I gave the Kevin the job of booking hotels and he procrastinated on it. So I decided to start looking into it myself. Since it was the staple of our trip, I started with Nagoya. Cue the most stressful moment of vacation planning for me. I go on the first site and search Nagoya...all the hotel rooms had been booked. All of them for that date. I start stressing, but find another site. All the hotels are booked up. I keep searching. I find a site with some hotels available and it says over 100 people are looking at the same rooms! OH NO! It is 3am, Kevin is asleep, and I have nobody to freak out with. So I start collecting a couple different hotels with a lot of rooms available, and a couple Airbnbs in the area, just in case. I send him the links, feel better, and pop into bed. We can book them the next morning, it will be fine.

So we wake up. I check the links. They are all booked! Even the Airbnbs! I felt my heart sink in my chest. Luckily, with the power of google and refreshing frantically I lucked out! I got a great hotel room (at the Richmond hotel in Nagoya) that happens to be down the street from a cosplay store and a bunch of anime/manga/figure stores. Thanks Agoda! If you are looking to attend the WCS, book your hotel room early so you don’t run into the wall of stress that I did.

Some of the sites we used:

Agoda Rakuten Travel Booking.com Google Hotels (shown through google search)

The hotels we stayed at:

Osaka: Comfort Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi Small room, but very comfortable Great breakfast, mix of american and Japanese that was included with the stay Free coffee/tea at all times Near Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street

Nagoya: Richmond Hotel Nagoya Shinkansen-guchi Booking came with breakfast, mostly Japanese food Offered us complimentary bath salts Keycard needed for elevator

Tokyo: Hotel Gracery Shinjuku We stayed here for the Godzilla head Great location, busy area with lots of food and arcades Right next to a movie theater, there was a Spiderman Homecoming event right outside and we got to see Tom Holland on stage!

Tip: Check different sites for the same hotel, some may offer a slight discount or special deal that isn't available on the others.

Itinerary

Next was putting together a basic list of where we would be going and on what days. I included notes about locations, check-in and check-out times and confirmation numbers. I mostly used this sheet to remember the names of the hotels we were going to since the other information was available through wifi. I also put together a wishlist sheet of locations that would be cool to visit. We didn’t get to all of our wishlist locations but the list helped us plan our days and make the most of the areas we traveled to. I recommend putting something similar together so you can find out about cool things in the areas you are staying and figure out how much the activities cost.

WiFi

There is a lot of open WiFi in Japan. Certain shops, restaurants and convenience stores had open wifi as did the Hotels. The subway systems had open wifi or a sign-up wifi for foreigners. Some of my friends said they used the open wifi to get by and never had a problem, so it is an option. That said, Open wifi has some security risks and is not always reliable, so we opted for a portable WiFi pack.

After referencing the different packs, we went with Ninja Wifi. It was not the cheapest option but it did allow for pickup and drop-off at the airport which seemed easier than attempting to mail it in. We also managed to get a bit of a discount through Kiecan’s promo code.

The Ninja Wifi lasted most of the day with both our phones connected. We used a portable battery pack to keep it charged in the evenings if we didn't make a pit-stop in the hotel. We always had a connection, even on the Subway, which was great.

Tip: Some AirBnB hosts offer portable wi-fi or phones with a sim card. So if you’re staying at an AirBnB, check if you actually need the wifi before booking it.

Travel

I am from the Toronto area and our subway map looks like a sad U with a line through it. Torontonians make fun of it all the time for being so sad when compared to New York or Paris. So Osaka, Tokyo and even Nagoya's subway was exciting to us. It was also really bi-lingual, which made it super easy to navigate. Stops were labled by name and a letter-number combination to make it easy.

In Osaka it looked like the best deal was to get a two day city pass. It came with unlimited travel on the subway for 48 hours (from its first use in a ticket gate) and provided free access to some attractions and discounts for others. Like with most day pass options, you will want to have an idea about how much you are traveling before purchasing the ticket, to make sure it is worth it.

For travel between cities we took the Shinkansen, or bullet train. The Nozomi train took us from Osaka to Nagoya and later from Nagoya to Tokyo. We only made the two trips and so we purchased our tickets for each trip, rather than getting the Rail Pass. The Japan Rail Pass is a special pass offered to foreigners that gives you unlimited travel on certain JR Lines for a discounted rate (see site for more info). If you plan to travel between a lot of cities and want to take a bullet train then it can be a great deal. In our case, we only were making two trips and it wouldn't have saved us money -- so make sure to check that it is worth it for your vacation before purchasing.

There are also standard trains which are slower, and in some cases less expensive, than the bullet trains. If you aren't in a rush then these may be an option as well.

In Nagoya, we only made two trips a day so we paid the cost per trip. The cost of a trip is determined by the number of stops from your location, you can see the prices on a map near the ticket buying terminals. If you aren't using a tap-card like Pasmo or Suica then you can buy individual and day-tickets through these terminals. The terminals have english as a language option so it is very easy for tourists to use them. Make your selection, pay and it will print out a small ticket. When entering the gates you will need to put this small ticket in a slot, it will then pop back out closer to the gate. Pick up your ticket and hold onto it - you'll need it to be able to exit the gates at your destination. If you change paths, you may need to pay an additional fare at the ticket-adjustment station at the subway you are exiting.

In Tokyo, we used a combination of day passes and single-purchase tickets depending on what we did for the day. It may be cheaper to use a multi-day pass, a day pass or the suica/pasmo card depending on how much travel you are doing. This is where having an itinerary can help you plan and make sure you aren't over-spending on travel. Save that yen for arcades and gashapon!

Translation

Kevin and I don’t speak or read Japanese. While there are some people who can speak english and some places with english signage, there are also a lot of people who can't and many situations where you're running into Japanese only text. So to get around we used Google Translate and Google Maps -- this is why the Ninja Wifi was so useful.

Google translate has a great feature that will help you get around: it can use your camera to take pictures and identify text. There are two ways this can work, the first is a sort of augmented reality where it overlays it's translation over a real world image. This is really COOL but also kind of wonky and unreliable for Japanese. It gets stuck translating individual kanji rather than full words. I mostly used it when text was in hiragana and katakana. The other way the translation works is by taking a picture. It will highlight all the text it can identify, and then you can select what you want translated. It can still give you some weird translations (google isn't perfect) but if it is having trouble with a paragraph you can select a couple words and get something that makes more sense. We used this function a lot, especially when it came to food.

I also used a combination of Jisho.org (dictionary) and Romaji.me (japanese to romanji converter) to help fill in the blanks when I didn’t know a word. It isn’t ideal for on-the-spot situations, but can help when you want to ask for something specific.

Otherwise, a lot of signage is in English as well as Japanese. This is especially true on the subway and in the more touristy areas.

Buying WCS Tickets

The English version of the WCS site takes forever to update! It seemed that they were never going to put the information online. They finally updated the site with international purchase information on July 3rd, which is very close to the event. Even with such a close date we got good seats and noticed there were a lot of empty seats in the audience -- so I wouldn't worry about them running out. There are also events going on outside of the Aichi Arts Centre, so if you don't buy a ticket you can still have a good time.

International tickets on sale through a service called Peatix. Payment is in Yen and can be done through credit card or paypal. You will need to create an account to buy the tickets and download an app to display them at the event, so make sure to do this before hand! When we arrived at the summit, the digital tickets had to be shown at a desk where they checked a list of names and provided a physical ticket.

If you live in Japan, or want to buy your tickets there, then you can order them online and pay at a circle K or Family Mart store or purchase them through the terminal at these stores.

Tomorrow’s post will cover the WCS Events and using the terminals to purchase tickets.

#cosplay #world cosplay summit #guide #japan #planning a trip to japan

131 notes · View notes