Sakura at Tsukuba University - A Piece of Heaven on Earth

Though I am pretty late and the sakura has left already but I gotta write this pending post.

I just found that I have not written any post on my university despite of the fact that I absolutely LOVE this place. University of Tsukuba has the largest single campus in Japan and anyone who loves nature will instantly fall in love with this place (like I did). I remember one of my friends who visited from Tokyo said that this place has got too much green! Tsukuba is not that far from Tokyo; if you get into the rapid train of Tsukuba Express then you will reach Tokyo's Akihabara station in less than an hour. But this place is a much better one to live, especially for students. Cause I don't have to get into rush hour trains to go to school, it is very beautiful and peaceful here and it has got the perfect combination of urban and rural characteristics.

So let's get back to the sakura (cherry blossom) talk. This year the weather had been really nice compared to last year as it rained a lot during that time. And we got the news that it will bloom earlier this year because of heavy snowfall. There is a scientific explanation that the cold temperature caused by snow wakes up the flower buds early. I still have to read the scientific paper to understand the mechanism.

I was waiting eagerly for spring this year, thought I will visit all the beautiful places as this could be my last year in Japan. Then everything was scattered in my life in a single night. When I came back to Japan on 4th night I saw the cherry petals floating in the air and lots of petals on the road. Then I was dead tired and jet lagged till the next day and the following day it rained. So I thought there is no chance that I will be able to see cherry blossom this year. But to tell the truth I did not feel that urge either...

But probably we were meant to meet!
After my father left I got very sick from the panic and shock. For unknown reason I used to get chest pains and it started to occur very frequently. I tried to stay calm as much as possible but nothing helped..I could not sleep at all and I also had severe chest pain while my journey back. So after coming back to Japan my mom and sister kept telling me everyday to visit doctor. I did not feel better as the days passed, so when I got some free time on the day before my class started I went to visit the health center of university for the first time.
And that is when I found this small piece of heaven on earth! The place is near Amakubo Ike (pond) at our campus, on the opposite side of Art faculty（筑波大学 体育芸術専門）.

There was pink and white sakuras, lovely flower petals were beneath my feet and touched my face while floating in the air. Mild breeze touched my hair and late afternoon sunshine touched my face. I have seen many beautiful places in last 5 years, but the difference with other places in Tokyo is, no one is fighting to get a place under sakura tree for hanami, only few students sitting here and there, chatting, singing. I also found a place by the pond and felt that our lives are same as these flowers, with different time span...nothing will last forever but as long as we are alive we should give our best and make full use of our time. Someone said that it doesn't matter how many years you were alive but what matters is how many years you live after you leave this earth. That afternoon was not very long but the image will stay in my mind for a long time as it helped to relief my bereaved soul. I also wrote a letter to my dad thinking that he is doing well in a much beautiful place than this.
Sharing some more photos of that beautiful  place :)

Losing the person you love the most..

I loved him the most in my life. He was the most handsome person in this world, he had the perfect combination of merit, knowledge and kindness. I could never think of anyone else as my role model except him. We had the longest relationship, since I was born..Yes, I am talking about my father. To almost every girl her father is the most lovable person in her life. She knows that he would not hurt her even if her boy friend or husband does.
And I lost him...I still cannot believe this, and it hurts to say he 'was', not he 'is'...I could never imagine I will face the biggest loss in my life so early. And I could not even see his face in last 1.5 years...I was waiting so eagerly to visit home once I settle down everything with my grad school...I wanted to see him smiling proudly but I could not even say him a proper goodbye...I become squeezed in terrible fear each time I look back to March 19th night...I still do not know how did I pass those couple of days. Flying from Japan with this unbearable shock and pain, facing the most difficult situation in my life...how could I even say goodbye to a person who was healthy before a day and went for his work?

We all take our parents for granted. We are used to seeing so many people dying around world everyday, but can we ever think for a single moment that this can happen anytime with the person we love the most?

I have changed a lot after my father left me alone...I have learnt that this world is full of fake people...And I have learnt that no one, absolutely no one except your own family member will ever know what is going inside you...No one can imagine that I feel like a paralyzed person, as if someone cut me into half...the emptiness inside me cannot be fulfilled by anything else in this world...How would it be? When I want to talk to him badly can anything else take away that depression?
People say that time heals everything...but I know this wound will be fresh forever....

Now I feel guilty that I have been away from home for 5 years...only if I knew something like this might happen in next 5 years I would have done my best to keep in alive...I only wish I could get back him only once....Death is surely the most terrible thing we can ever face...

I love you baba...And I only wish you stay well in heaven..please come to see me sometimes..I feel terribly lonely without you...I want to hear your voice..could you please come to my dream tonight? ..... :-(

Please come back....

Undomestic Goddess and my thought

I just finished Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella last night! :D

I should not have touched the book at the very first time cause I know when I start any book by her that's the end of my day and I would not be able to sleep until I finish the book. Her books are like magnet! When I start reading I can't stop, I'm reading while eating, reading while walking, and last night I was awake the whole night and finally slept at 7 of morning! :p

So the book very thrilling. By the main character Samantha I can see myself, how being a careerist turns me into robot sometimes. But I have felt a little bit of extremity in her behavior. In real life Samanthas like her would be little more pragmatic if she has an IQ of 158. But it's novel and it is supposed to be dramatic anyway. 

The best thing I have learnt from the book is, however important career can be to us, it cannot buy us personal happiness. I personally would not go after a career which would ask me to wring out all the fun and love from my life. The book just reminded me those feelings again. When Samantha and Nathaniel walked along the countryside roads I could feel that for real and I knew that it's really the most important thing in our life - love! But of course real life is not that easy and I would prefer to try my best to keep balance.

After reading these awesome books -

Undomestic Goddess

Can you keep a secret?

Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

Shopaholic Ties the Knot,

Next on my list are-

Confessions of a Shopaholic and Twenties Girls :) 

But I have to make sure not to touch those books until I am done with my important works! (fingers crossed :p)

Another fantastic book I have been reading is Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. I will write on that after I finish reading the whole book. But so far I have read I am really impressed and I would highly recommend this to everyone! :)

Messenger of Spring - Plum Festival at Hakone (箱根梅まつり)

So I have not been writing for a long time here, cause I was tired of writing for last 6 months. All those AW essays for GRE, short essays for TOEFL, my research paper, then all those SoPs and personal statements for grad schools....Gosh..I had few things to write about in my head. But then I was just tired of all these...
Then when we were kind of done with all these, me and my boy friend promised each other that we will have a day off when we won't think about career stuffs, studies and just hang around happily! Well, we realized that we did not travel anywhere except our cities in last three years, we were totally buried under all sorts of exams human being can probably have! So it was the perfect time to take a break!
It was funny that we had not been to Hakone in these 5 years of living in Japan though it is one of the famous tourist spots which is very close to Tokyo. So on 19th February we headed off for Hakone. Though there was the terrible snowfall on 15th in Japan and things did not get better by then, but we did not let us stop our awaited date!
We were really excited after reaching Hakone, it was lovely small city where you can stay away from hubbubs of city life and walk peacefully holding warm hands of each other :) Well, Hakone is actually pretty warmer than where I live and the plum flowers were already in full bloom at some places. I had pre-planned to visit the plum garden. Though later we found lots of attractive spots where we wanted to go but thanks to the snow, all routes were closed except train. So we decided that we will go to the rest of the places next time and go with the previous plan.
The plum garden of Hakone was not the best I have seen but still covers a huge area and was very pretty. It was a little cloudy day, so Mount Fuji could not be seen well. But I could spot it for a while and I was happy with that; well I had to be, to my bad luck I never get to see this beauty properly :-(
It was good day over all. Got to meet some sweet people over there.One granny offered us some free appetizers, another grandpa offered us to taste free oranges and a nice guy offered to take a couple picture for us :) And one more thing, the food! I would not forget the special Tofu I had there, it's the best Tofu I have ever had!! At least I will go back again for to taste that! :p
So I am sharing some pictures here from Hakone Ume Matsuri (Plum Festival), hope you will like!
Cheers!

In the red land of Kochia!

On the 17th of last month (October) I had the chance to take a day off from my super packed schedule as I was done with a series of exams. So me and my friends decided to visit the Hitachi Seaside Park again. If you have seen my post of tulip and Nemophilia then you already know that the park is a really beautiful place and a great show of nature is always waiting for you out there! This time we went to explore the red land of Kochia, very cute shrubs!
Luckily the weather was really beautiful that day with azure sky and little chilly wind of early autumn.
This is actually a very rare piece of beauty which you can hardly see in any other parts of Japan.  I had been waiting to see this beauty for long, so I was super excited!
So we arrived there before afternoon and when we entered the park we were totally blown away by the beautiful red carpet created with Kochias. Those of you who do not know Kochia from before, they are roundish shrubs, look like a big egg on earth! They are born green and when the autumn arrives they start changing colors to magenta-red. They are very cute and you will feel like cuddling them but when you touch them they would not feel that soft :p
There were also Cosmos and lovely pampas grass (^-^). We walked around the park in afternoon, had ice creams and light meal, watched a dramatic sunset and returned happily while cherishing the day!
I will be sharing two pictures from the day though I have some hundreds of pictures in my camera but do not have them all in my pc right now. Hope you like them! :D

Beautiful Kochia!

Sunset at the red land

Believe in yourself and make a change

How many times does someone ask this question to himself/ herself?
What are we?
If you just forget about the differences among all the people around world and think of everyone as a simple human being then we are nothing but a macro piece of 7.117 billion people! Isn't that amazing? How small and less important does it feel?
These billions of people are all striving for their own existence. Some might not have the tiny drop of water to live and they are just happy to find themselves alive the next day. Some might be living in a country which is going through war and passing each moment with the uncertainty of life. On the other hand some privileged people (like many of us who are passing time on internet now) are just thinking about why can't they have proper sleep at night or why the dinner tasted awful last night....
Yeah, life is different for all individuals and we gotta accept this. We cannot change the fate of every unprivileged one in this world. But we can at least try to help them from our own position. If you and I stop thinking rationally and be struck by the cruelty life brings to those helpless people it won't help a bit. Believe me you're making the situation worse.
Stop for a while, think about yourself, your situation, your ability, what you can do now....and what you can do for them. You spread your power among ten and those ten will take it to hundreds and millions and billions.
You gotta believe in yourself and you have to find out what's in yourself. It's good to look at others and find inspiration but that often tends to depress people by making them think that they can't do what those successful people did. Surely not everyone is blessed with the same abilities.
But everyone is UNIQUE! You are what you are and no one else can be you. Isn't this amazing enough to believe in yourself? So wake up for your sake and for those who need you and you can make a change for sure :)

Life is all about...

What this life is all about?

A question probably you shouldn't try asking yourself.
If you're feeling vulnerable then you might wanna avoid this question.... that's what I tell myself.

But damn me...most of the days I end up thinking, I'm losing one more day of my youth and what am I actually doing? Am I doing what I am supposed to do? Am I in the right path or I am deviating too much?
But again I think I don't even know what's gonna happen to me the very next moment...specially when those huge earthquakes attack and I'm alone in my tiny room I feel is this moment worth living for? Am I thinking too much?

May be I am thinking too much about myself which I shouldn't definitely do...I can see there are so many people who are living in the worst situation in this world. They have a 'life' and I have a 'life'. They are fighting every moment to survive in this cruel world and at least I know I am able to live by my own.
And I hate the fact that some people have to admit their lives just because they are not born as a fortunate one in this society, like the child whose father is a rickshaw puller or whose mother is a sex worker. Could he or she decide how his or her life would be?
We are not given the power to choose our family, we cannot decide how we will look, we cannot land from heaven to the country we want to live in, we don't decide to have a white or black skin either. Then why do we discriminate people depending on all these factors? Why do we make life so complicated?

Yeah..the more I think about these all the more I feel dizzy cause I know I cannot solve any of these problems alone. What I can do at best is educate and train myself to be a better person.

But then another me comes out who cries over the trifling matters of life. Yeah, I know there are hundreds and thousands of people living in this world. Everyone cares himself or herself the most...no one really gives a shit at what I am or how I am. But why would not I think about the tiny problems of my life? I have got only one life.....
Or how about finding some way to split up my life and share with as many lovely people as possible? I know I have one life and I want to enjoy it to it's best but I don't wanna grow up as a selfish, materialistic person....may be it's not worth crying over one personal problem...I will collect the smiles of hundreds and erase my pain with those...that's how I want my rest of the life to be...