Life lesson in 3 hours.

Some of you might know, I was in Japan over the New Years.

It was such a heart cleansing trip back to my home country.

washing my hands, and washing my heart.

During the trip, I had such an amazing experience in just 3 hours,

and I learned a life. 

It might become a bit long story, but please enjoy !!!

The reason I was able to go back to Japan in the New Years season (highest season),

is because I went back to Japan two times with my three children in a past 5 years.

 I had accumulated enough mileage points, so I only had to pay for the fuel surcharge. 

Otherwise, it is too expensive for me to go back there during the New Years time.

However, the mileage ticket is not very flexible. 

I wanted to complete this trip in 10days, since my husband would be left behind with

our three children.  But the shortest itinerary was for 16 days. 

And the only schedule that I could reserve was 

To Tokyo ; Dec 27,

Tokyo to nagasaki on Dec 28,

Nagasaki to Tokyo on Jan 6th,

Tokyo to Vancouver Jan 12th.

I thought the stay in Nagasaki is too long, so I kept the ticket on 6th,

but booked a separate ticket on January 4th with my down's syndrome sister, 

so then I can spend more time in Tokyo.

However, while I was in Nagasaki, my sister got sick, so she had to 

cancel her flight. 

On 4th morning, I went to the airport by myself.

The real story start here !

I arrived the airport and did the automatic check-in. But the machine spitted out

a ticket said,

"Check-in has been closed."

In my mind,

"What does it mean by that? Did I arrive here too early?"

A customer service found me when I was standing around and thinking.

She said,

"I am afraid, madam, but this flight has taken off 20minutes ago." 

"Wwww What?  The departure time is 10:35am, isn't it?" 

"Madam, I am afraid to say, but, the arrival time is 10:35am, and the departure time

is 9:05am."

Great. I missed the flight.

With the most silliest, dumbest reason,

by misunderstanding the arrival and departure time.

"Madam, would you like to be on a cancelation list?"「

.... Well, today is January 4th, one of the most busiest time in Japan. I don't think

there will be any cancelation, and look at this place packed full of people.

However, I put my name on the cancelation list, JUST IN CASE. 

Meanwhile, I prayed and begged to someone out there,

"Please, please get me on the earliest flight today!  Pleeeeeaaaaaase!"

But I missed one flight, and the second flight.... I thought it was impossible to be on the flight today,,,. 

Then I noticed my mind started to think differently, or numb.

I started to think,

"Please get me on the best flight for me. There should be a reason that

I missed the flight, so please show me the good reason."

I sat back and I opened my macbook to check a email box.

There was an email from my cousin who works at Japan Air Line ( the airline that I book the flight with mileage point), and she said

"Hi Mari, if you don't use the mileage ticket for the flight on January 6th, the flight

 between Tokyo-Vancouver will be automatically cancelled, so you should contact 

the customer service asap."

"Automatic Cancelation? I don't know that!"

（Probably, I did not read the "terms and agreements" as usual.）

So I became creative, and asked the customer service if the mileage ticket on 6th 

could be transferred to today's cancelation list. 

However.

"Madam, I am afraid but you can not change, nor cancel this ticket because this 

is booked with the mileage points. If you do not get on the reserved flight on 6th,

the flight between Tokyo and Vancouver will be cancelled.

I suggest you to use this flight, if you can. " 

I felt a chill on my back.

Goose bumps everywhere.

In my mind,

"Thank goodness, I missed the flight this morning!  Thank you for the guidance!"

If I got on the flight this morning (January 4th), I would not get on the 6th flight,

because I would be in the destination city already, and automatically

the flight between Tokyo and Vancouver would be cancelled.

Without knowing, I would go to the airport with the excitement of

going back to Vancouver and would find out that I lost the flight.

I would have to purchase the one way ticket between Tokyo and Vancouver,

that would cost me over $2000. 

Phewwwwwww ~~~ .

Cheap trip to my home country would turn out to be super expensive trip.

My face turned bright all of the sudden, and told the customer service,

"OK! Thank you for letting me know! I would use the 6th ticket. Could you

please cancel my cancelation list? "

Customer service lady was confused. 

"O, Oh, Are you sure?" 

With $4 as a cancelation fee, and the entire amount of the ticket on 4th was refund.

As I finished the entire process of refund and cancelation, I heard the announcement

said,

"Cancelation list number 105, please come to the counter."

... That's my number. But I don't need it. 

The story continues, still, so don't stop reading!

Meanwhile I was dealing with the refunding, I received a text message from

my older sister.

"Yuki isn't feeling so well, and the doctor decided to do some tests."

Yuki is my sister who has a down's syndrome. (Her flight was canceled because

she wasn't feeling well, that is why I was at the airport by myself.)

I said,

"Well, I missed the flight, so I am able to go back to Yuki's place."

When I arrived at Yuki's place, she was all nervous about the medical words like

"Gastroscopy" or "Local Anaesthesia" 

so I told her,

"I will be with you tomorrow at the test, so there is no need to worry."

She looked a bit relieved as she understood that I would be with her at the test.

The next day, I went back to her and stayed with her during the test

by rubbing her feet and doing Reiki. 

Everything went well, and they did not find anything wrong in her stomach,

so she went back to her home and had a lunch.

She kept saying to me,

"I am so glad you were able to be with me..."

"I really liked that you rubbed my feet all through the test, that felt good."

"Thank you for rubbing my feet..."

"I was a bit scared, but I was OK because you were there..."

I was so glad that I was able to be there with her. 

Thank goodness, I missed the flight.

She was so relieved after the lunch, and kept telling me,

"Mari-chan,,, so silly you,,,, missed the flight."

"What time is the flight tomorrow?"

"Did you check the time and make sure?"

"Be at the airport early, OK?"

She was trying to make sure that I would not miss the flight again.

Her mental age might be younger than me, but she is my big sister. She does not want 

to see a little sister making a silly mistake and being hurt. 

The 3 hours at the airport, and 2 days after I missed the flight, I learned 

the life lesson.

When I found out that I missed the flight, I thought,

"Big mistake! How dumb I am! I messed up the trip plan!"

But there was a big reason that I missed the flight.

First of all, people just don't miss the flight because of their misunderstanding of the arrival and departure time. But it happened to me, miraculously.

And it happened at the busiest time of the year, so then I was given some time

to think while waiting for the airplane.

Because I had a time to think, I checked my email. 

Because I had a time to check my email, I found out that I might be going to lose

my ticket to Vancouver.

I was able to find out that it was a perfect thing to miss the flight.

I was given an important role to support my ill sister during her stressful 2 days.

I couldn't have never imagined all the dots would be connected

at the time when I just found out that I missed the flight.

But when everything has done, I can see the dots are connected.

I think, if applies to the life, just in a bigger scale. 

There is always reasons when there is the moment I think

"I made a big mistake!", "This is the end!"

I don't have to know the reason right away.  Do my best, but not struggle, and 

just leave it up to the Universe. Then things will go however it supposed to go.

Relax, Relax.

If I panic and think,

"I got do to something! I should do this and that and everything!" 

and stress myself out to do unnecessary thing, things might not go how its

supposed to go.

Anyways, I think "the life lesson" was in that 3 hour in the airport.

For sure, my mom and dad from the other side were a bit panicky 

and they made the dots for their girl's "follow the dots" game.

That's all for today...

Truffle Chocolate

The colour of the town is filled with Red, Pink, Hearts.


Yes, the Valentine's day is coming up soon.


A year ago, I wrote about how different the Valentines day between Canada and Japan.




I used to hyped up with the Valentines day's event when I was a teenager ~ early 20s. Valentine's day is the day that girls get to give chocolate to a boy and tell "I love you." 


Also, often girls give chocolates to male friends (not a boy friend but good friend),
to show the appreciation for the friendship. (That could turn into a romance, sometime!)


Also female workers give chocolates to male co-workers and bosses.


So this time of the year, Japan is filled with chocolates!


Same as in my house, when my mom was still alive, this season was usually
the chocolate making days.


My mom used to be a cooking teacher, and she has so many recipe that she had left
for us.  One of them is,,,

"Truffle Chocolate"

We used to make thousands of those at home, wrapped nicely and sell them for friends and families who wanted to give chocolate for their romances, partners, friends,

co-workers, bosses etc.  

If people buy truffle chocolate at store, it would be very expensive, so they would buy

from our kitchen !

But 1997 Valentines were not as fun as it used to be, because my mom wasn't feeling

well at that time. We did make truffle chocolate, but just for ourselves and not

for sale.

10 days after, my mom passed away.

A year later, I made truffle chocolates by myself, because people wanted to buy, but it wasn't fun anymore.  So I stopped making them.

Since then, I just did not feel like following this particular recipe because it was bringing

back a sad memory.

However, I think I got over it.  Since I went to Japan, I finally feel like I let go of

the last bit of grieve that I was carrying around. (At least for now.)

When I was in town today, I saw the pink and red and hearts and chocolate all over 

the store, and naturally my hands reached to the ingredients to make truffle chocolates. 

I pulled out my mom's recipe and called my kids and started to make the truffle chocolate

for the first time after 14 years.

Anyone would like to try? Come as soon as possible before they are eaten up !

Leanne Day 45

It has been a while since I wrote about Leanne.


While I was in Japan, from Day 15~ Day 31, my wonderful Jikiden Reiki co-workers were in shifts and continued the Reiki treatment for Leanne. Only days we skipped were Sundays.


A wonderful community of Reiki people are slowly but surely growing in this
little town, Chilliwack.


It is really important to keep practising Reiki for new practitioners and of course for experienced practitioners.  Even though we do Reiki for the same person, each session is
very different, and we learn so much from each session.




In addition, Reiki session is good for the receiver and also the giver, because when we 
give Reiki session, we also receive a reiki session !






Anyways, after I came back from Japan and got over the jet lag, I started to visit
Leanne.  It was such a wonderful moment that when I walked in after I hadn't seen her over two weeks.


She opened the door for me with her sister who was visiting from Montreal for a month, and we talked about the trip to Japan, and we started the Reiki session.  




She was able to lay on her side, which is a good improvement since she was not able 
to lay on her side because of her hip pain. As she is on her side, I was able to place my hands along her spine and the hip.

I wondered,,, if Leanne's sister would like to learn Reiki so then she can also

give Reiki sessions for Leanne...

to be continue,,,

Back from Japan

I am back !


The trip back to Japan was the best one ever.  

Welcome dinner

My sister's family, playful family !

I was by myself for 16days in my home country, so I was able to be "me" , not a mother nor a wife.  

I met my old friends and relatives whom I haven't met for over 15~20years.

I haven't met him for 15years! 

Gymnastic team mates from the college. It has been 18years!

I walked around the home town where I grew up, and visited temples and shrines where

I used to play in my childhood.

Yasaka Shrine.  The colour of the gate is now red! It used to be a stone colour.

Kiyomizu- temple 2nd building, Nagasaki. 

It is funny that I did not notice the beauty of this town when I lived there.  Now it has been 12 years since I left this town, and I see the beauty.

The stone tiles.

The rock walls.

 The street car which I used to ride anytime anywhere was also beautiful to me.

As I walked around, I noticed that the quan-yin statues are everywhere !

Even in front of the store.

Cars and motorbikes are casually parked in front of the Quan Yin statue. 

 It has been 12 years since I spent New Year's time in Japan.  New Years in Japan is like a Christmas in Canada.  Family gathers, Friends come back to old home town.


Visit Shinto Shrine for a Hatsu Mode. Every year, we visit the Shrine to show
 the gratitude for the past year, and set a goal for the new years.

Suwa-Shrine. Hatsu mode " the first visit of the year to the Shrine"

January 1st, 2nd and 3rd. We start the morning with Otoso. Share the sweet rice wine (non-alcohol) to celebrate the New Year.  Usually oldest person of the house hold pour the Otoso to all the family members.

New Year's custom. Otoso.

And, the first calligraphy of the year, Kakizome. Usually draw the goal of the year, or inspirational words.

"Move towards the Dream"

I was blessed to be able to see Mt.Fuji.

Old style window lock.  I think it is so beautiful.

It was absolutely a soul cleansing, a soul charging time.  I did not realize that I needed this
trip so bad.




This is the first time that I really felt that I could live in Nagasaki again. If things ever change in my life, or if there will be an opportunity for my family to live in Japan, I want to go back to Nagasaki.

Leanne Day 14

The Day 14 is a Christmas Eve.


The town is filled with a Christmas colour, people are busy shopping,
kids are excited.


In two days, I will be leaving to Japan, my home country !  It has been 12 years since last time I spent the New Year time in Japan.


New Year time is like a Christmas in Canada. People come back to the home town, family gathering, old friends reunite, gifts and cards exchange etc.

I am so excited to go back to Japan !!!

This is the last day to visit Leanne before the trip to Japan.


Because I really wanted to continue the everyday Reiki treatment for Leanne,
I have asked for people who learned Jikiden Reiki with me if they would be
interested in offering Reiki treatments during my absence. 




Well, I am so grateful that 5 people will be in shifts for two weeks,
and Leanne will be able to receive Reiki treatment every day !




That is so wonderful !




I love Reiki so much, but one of the best part of Reiki is that I get to meet
such a wonderful group of people.  I love the way Reiki brings people together.






Anyways, one of the people who will be visiting while I am gone to Japan,
she wanted to come with me today to join and observe  how I do Reiki treatment 
for Leanne.




That means Leanne will receive a group treatment today.




A group treatment means more than 2 hands on one body.  Some time 4 hands,
some time 8 or 10 hands on one body, which enhances the Reiki treatment
because we can cover more area in the same amount of time.




Today's treatment was, one hand on her weak arm, one hand on the back of her head, 
one hand on her upper back where the spasm is happening, one hand on her right hip 
for over one hour .




During the treatment, she had to move her arm few times because she said that the energy flow was so strong and causing some discomfort on her weak arm.




That is a good sign!

So, the 14 days of intensive Reiki treatment is done today. Next two weeks will be
done by 5 wonderful Reiki practitioners in shifts.


Only thing I can do while I am away is distant reiki.




I am already looking forward to coming back and start the next chapter of
Reiki treatment with her.




Have a wonderful relaxing holiday season, and see you in the New Years.....






With gratitude,
Mari Okazaki