The End, Part 2: Reflections (反省)

When it comes down to it, you really can’t quite describe the way it feels to leave a country you’ve resided in for almost a year and finally go back home. The closer you get to the date, the more you start resisting it and throwing an inner temper tantrum (“iya da! Iya daaa!”) because you realize how close you are to having your entire life for the past several months completely stripped away and replaced with a different one. That includes all the bonds you’ve made with fellow exchange students, Japanese peers, teachers, and host families; your daily routine; the things you eat; the things you see on the street or on TV; the language being spoken around you; the mindset; and…yeah, pretty much everything.

Even for those who like change, it can be somewhat daunting and jarring. Even if you’ve had pangs of homesickness, it doesn’t make it any easier to part ways with comrades from club activities, or people going to school across America from you. I’ve resolved to come back starting next summer to teach with the JET program—mark my words!—but that still seems so far away. And there’s no guarantee where I’ll be placed…I could be worlds away from Kyoto.

And now I’ve been back for over two weeks and I already can’t believe how long ago my final lunch with my Japanese class (a bento box picnic at a fork in the Kamo River) feels...but it was only a month ago. There is minimal reverse culture shock because home/America is like my template for everything. Okay, maybe it’s still a little weird to see such huge cars—SUVs are not a thing there—and people—everyone in Japan is roughly the same slender body type. It’s nice to have trash cans everywhere, but I miss the convenience of pre-warmed toilet seats, vending machines on every block (selling hot milk tea and coffee!), and being able to walk into a convenience store and buy a beer or a cheap snack like an onigiri (rice ball with fillings). It’s definitely nice being able to drive again, though—I had a love-hate relationship with the Kyoto city bus system that was more hate than love.

When seeing old friends up at Tufts, I got asked “How was Japan?” a lot. That is a lot harder to answer than you’d think. I should’ve come up with some witty summary, but in most cases I said it was not as weird as people made it out to be, but still sort of crazy and of course awesome, then shared an anecdote or two (like the time these random Japanese guys paid for some of us to dress up in cosplay and do karaoke with them. Yep, that was a night to remember). If I could have shared something I’ve learned off the top of my head, I guess I would have said that while it’s hard for an outsider to fit into Japanese culture, we’re really not as different as it seems. The people I met over there enjoy a good meal like us (albeit more mayo-filled), and a drink with friends just like us (emphasis on the drink), and procrastinate and have crushes and insecurities and think it’s awkward when an ex puts up pictures with their new boy/girl on Facebook.

The only thing separating us folks of different countries from bonding with each other is the language barrier, which is why I want to keep working on my Japanese until I’m fluent and can make more long-lasting ties. I also want to help teach English to kids there so that there is less of this anxiety towards English that prevents Japanese people from becoming real friends with Westerners, and from going abroad.

Language connects people. That’s why I’m gonna keep improving, even more than I did this past year, which was a lot, but still. Onward and upward.

That’s all for now, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading this to the very end. I could have updated more in second semester, but I got all busy and I’m sorry about that. Blogging stuff from abroad is hard because you want to share everything, so it’s a daunting task. Still worth it.

See you next time—maybe when I’m a JET. Peace.

In the Osaka Museum of History. Why so serious?

The End, Part 1: List of Special Achievements Unlocked While in Japan

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So I’m home now. Le sigh. I wish I knew how to quit you, Japan. ;_;
But anyway, here is some pretty cool stuff I did (in no particular order):

• Ate Christmas cake as my birthday cake with my family on a shinkansen (bullet train)
• Saw a Lizst-themed classical concert at the famous temple Kiyomizudera, all lit up at night (thanks host mom!)
• Saw apprentice geisha dancing and playing instruments expertly in a lovely theater in Gion (thanks again, host mom!)
• Petted a capybara (they feel like hay, but are cute and chill)
• Had a hairclip stolen by a sneaky squirrel-monkey:

• Had a ridiculous night with some classmates involving cosplay and deluxe karaoke, paid for by some weird random nihonjin guys
• Wrote an essay in Japanese (for a class other than language class)
• Got interviewed about farts by a random Japanese comedian in a black bodysuit:

• Performed in 2 choir concerts with the esteemed Kyoto University Gasshoudan
• Sang "I’m Yours" with 2 American friends at an in-choir event—and won the grand prize by popular vote (Watch here)
• Soaked in hot springs in the snow, and later in a windy cove by the water
• Went to KOREA! Without really knowing any of the language.
• Walked around the city in kimonos for free with my KCJS buddies, staring at the plum blossoms and also getting stared at:

• Went to a J-Rock festival and saw 3 of my favorite bands in one day
• Worshiped at the shrine where the sun goddess Amaterasu is housed in Ise
• Made Valentine’s chocolate for the first time:

• Led the search for my dad’s missing passport all over Tokyo (he did not get it back)
• Signed the emperor’s birthday registry (it's the one on the far left):

• Went on a date with a cute Japanese guy
• Dispelled stereotypes to said guy, such as the American diet consisting of burgers and Coke
• Got prize money for being one of four people in KCJS to “exemplify the spirit of the program” (which apparently had something to do with throwing myself into my CIP activity, the choir)
• Lugged over 100 pounds of stuff back home, with a transfer in San Fran ("Strong women, strong girls!")

(Late Post, February) "Clever Putty"

Oh jeez! Sorry guys, I realized I typed up this post back in late January or early February and forgot to complete it. Well, better late than never! Eheh...

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So here's the lowdown. Not much has happened the first couple weeks of the semester except that my coffee dependency has reignited and is back with a vengeance. Oh, and that women's issues class in Japanese that I mentioned? No assignments so far, and it will probably stay that way. SWEET. I just have to understand what the teacher says and the handouts she gives us. (Is this the life of a real Japanese college student? According to my sources, it is. Lucky bastards! Just kidding, they go through hell to get into college, so it's even.)

I do have a couple vignettes though. Yesterday I went with some friends for lunch at our awesome Thai place ("Asian Restaurant"). The previous time, I had tried to order this Thai red curry with pork and vegetables on rice, just without the meat. When I asked the waitress, she acted awkward and told me it wouldn't taste good. (まずい。おいしくない。) I pressed the issue a little bit but gave up and ordered something else.

But this time my resolve was strong! I was back for a rematch and I was going to win! Rachelle told me to put my foot down, like literally put it on the table, that'd show them. As it turns out, I didn't need to go that far. The same waitress came and I asked for the same thing, and she pulled the whole "it's not tasty" thing again, but I explained that I had ordered the green curry without meat before and liked it, and now I wanted to try this one. After struggling a bit and saying she didn't know if they could make it, she asked another nearby employee something in Thai, and then told me they could. Yesss, thank God. And then I ate every bite because guess what, it was friggin' delicious. Take that! (Clearly the lady has never tried anything vegetarian before.)

After that victory, we dashed frantically and uncomfortably back to campus ("curry running," we called it) for the Friday afternoon Kyoto Artisans class, where Akira Kurosaki, a woodblock print craftsman, had set up his stuff to do a demonstration! Holy shizznit! After lecture-type stuff, he showed us how he carves a block and how he gets the ink onto the paper in different layers. Then we got to try our own with black ink! Sooo cool! Mine weren't the best, but they are now hanging in my room. Oh, and when our teacher Bethe-sensei kept mentioning the Silly Putty (a.k.a. sticky-tack) he was using to hold the board down, at one point he just smiled and said, "Not silly. It is very clever." Bahahaha. Mr. Kurosaki, you are awesome.

Also on Friday, I escorted two of my friends to Kyodai choir practice, which they seemed to really enjoy! It was my first time seeing the choir since Dec. 18-ish, so it was nice going around and saying hi to the gang again. Three more KCJSers are coming next week, so it'll basically be a gaijin takeover. Woohoo! On another note, although it's already been a month since b-day/Christmas, got the Happy Birthday song sung to me by the altos and then later by everyone--me and this other guy sat in the middle, which was equal parts nice and embarrassing. I also had to sing a part in this song from the choir book called Vive la Compagnie that birthday peoples always sing. It was really high and I was nervous so I flubbed the lyrics at first (I can read, promise!), but did alright when the conductor let me start over. It was so.... gaaahhh, why is there no word for awkward in Japanese?

以上です！ That's all for now folks.

Hisashiburi (Long Time No Write): Winter Break Tales

So it's been a while...no, I don't expect you to forgive me. From now on I'll probably do mini-posts so this blogging thing doesn't seem as daunting for a lazy arse like me.

I guess we should get this catch-up over with, then...End of the semester was stressful as usual, but also sad due to all the fall students leaving. Immediately after the closing ceremony/luncheon at the nearby Bon Bon Cafe, I headed out to the airport with three friends...and went to KOREA! Woohoo! I wasn't there for more than a few days, but I want to go back sometime after I've actually learned some of the language, and when it's not the dead of winter. (Thanks, Seoul, for nearly giving me frostbite.) I've been describing it to my Japanese compadres as "like Japan's cousin," but to my native English-speaking peeps I've said it's like an alternate reality Japan with some China thrown in there somewhere. I mean, obviously it has its own culture too; that's just the impression I got. We saw Busan (port city) and Seoul and had a great time (went to lookout towers in both cities, haha).

Angel-in-Us Coffee (appears in City Hunter!) :3 The interior was adorable...and three floors

 ...and Christmas tree in a square in Busan!

N Seoul Tower. Imagine this amount of city-ness in 360 degrees. Whoaaa.

There was a plethora of cute cafes (they love koppi! aka coffee), pretty Christmas lights/decorations, and couples. Well, surely there's couples in Japan too; they just do a damn good job of hiding it. Like ninjas. (Woo, stereotypes~) We also went to a club--my first real one--called Cocoon which was basically epic squared.

Oh, and then Kim Jong-Il died just in time for me to get out of the area beforehand, ehehe.

On another note, I'm afraid of my budding addiction to K-dramas--two friends from the trip got me and the other friend hooked on City Hunter afterwards, which is sort of the Korean Batman plus Death Note cat-and-mouse plus a revenge plot, romance and humor, but even better than it sounds. Now after whipping through that, I'm on a period drama called The Princess's Man, but I'm worried nothing will ever make me feel the same again. Sigh.... (Well, it'll be okay; I thought the same thing after finishing FMA: Brotherhood. And I'm fine now.) I mean, check out the soundtrack here--so BAMF.

Love it like a fat kid loves cake. No, like a heroin addict needs their fix. Too bad it's over...

Then there was the Kyodai Choir Christmas-kai (Xmas party?) that I helped plan for, involving small group performances of songs, skits, etc., plus party games (like musical chairs), with small prizes at the afterparty afterwards. It was a 大成功 (big success)!

Few days of rest, and then off to Tokyo to meet my dad and be his guide before the rest of my family showed up! Helped him with some meetings and got to do some sightseeing, which was great until he lost his passport. Urgh. (For the love of Jizo, why can't the adults be responsible?!) So that wasted some time, and we missed the Emperor's speech at the Palace on his birthday, but made it in time to sign our names in his birthday registry.

Mine's the far left--it says my name and Amurrcuh. Yeah!

The others showed up and we were total tourists and went to Tokyo Tower (right next to the hotel, how can we not go?). My family basically Gaijin Smashed all over Japan, with my sister eating more seaweed packs per day than a chain smoker smokes , and my brother proclaiming everything "honorable" or "dishonorable," and my mom and dad just generally being awkward and speaking random phrases (i.e., domo arigatou--which no one says, it's arigatou gozaimasu). From Tokyo we went to Hakone (on Christmas/my birthday mind you, so it was stressful, but we ate "Christmas cake" on the bullet train so it's okay), where we stayed at a mountain ryokan (Japanese inn) near Lake Ashinoko (with a fake pirate ship and a cablecar, whee!) with onsen/hot springs and elaborate kaiseki meals. Getting used to the whole nakey thing was hard for them (I totally understand that feeling), but eventually even my sister was willingly going in. And man was it worth it--so relaxing!

The "money shot": pirate ship, Fuji (in the middle), tori-i (red arch).

Figuring out what the meal was and how to eat it was a feat for us.

Then off to Kyoto, where I showed them the Doshisha campus, Kiyomizu Temple, et cetera...And on my mom's birthday, we went to a monkey park on a mountain and saw adorable baby Japanese monkeys (nihonzaru), then dyed our own indigo T-shirts/banners with white designs at a local craftsman's. Oh, but before that we went to Nara and got attacked by hungry deer (think seagulls in Finding Nemo) and saw one of the world's largest Buddha statues at Todaiji Temple...it was my fourth time, NBD. My dad crawled through a child-sized hole in a pillar that brings you enlightenment in your next life, which finally gave my brother the courage to do so too. Yay!

While we're on the Todaiji subject, next to that pillar there was this little kid who just looks at my dad incredulously and goes "Gaikokujin?" (foreigner?) Which I then point out to him and my siblings, who are of course amused. My dad (who actually knows zero Japanese beyond "domo arigatou") replies, "Nihongo?" (Japanese language?) The kid nods in wonder. Dad corrects himself and goes, "Nihonjin?" (Japanese person?) The kid nods again in amazement, then goes back to his dad.

...I dunno, just thought it was cute and funny. (*⌒―⌒*)

Sure they seem cute, but wait till they see food---like sharks that have smelled blood... 

Yay Gollins at Todaiji. That building's the world's second-largest wooden structure FYI.

We parted ways on New Year's Eve as they went to Tokyo to fly out (there may have been some tears...I seriously miss those guys already), and I went to Kanazawa to crash with a Tufts friend while my host parents visited their parents' homes for the three-day holiday. Tufts folks, hear me: even in Lewis, you are FAR better off than in a Japanese university's international dorm. Just...I don't even. The people I met were really cool, but the weather sucked and there wasn't much to do (as the students agreed) beyond Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen (one of the top three Japanese gardens), and maybe karaoke or drinking downtown. Also, snowww. So much of it. And no shoveled sidewalks. (After going there and Seoul, I don't mind the cold in Kyoto nearly as much!) Then the snow followed me back to Kyoto, and there I stayed until...now! I hung out with people a few times though, like when my kouhai (underclassman) from Tufts' JCC came down to visit and we went sightseeing--there were people in gorgeous kimono for their 成人式 Coming-of-Age ceremony! And we went to Fushimi Inari, a shrine dedicated to the fox god up on a hill. You've seen it in Memoirs of a Geisha--the one with aaaalll the orange tori-i arches.

Hatsumoude--first shrine visit on New Year's...so crowded! 

Awesomeness of Kenrokuen, take 1

Awesomeness of Kenrokuen, take 2

And then the new spring semester students showed up, we had some getting-to-know-you dinners, and here we are in the first week of class. Huzzah! (Here we go again...) This time I'm going to take a course on women's issues in Japanese--woah snap, can she handle it? Find out next time on Natasha's Awkward Adventures!