Finally getting a chance to sit down and write a bunch about my journey thus far.
Staying in on a quiet Saturday night, showered up and full of soba noodles, listening to Boredoms and relaxing on my ふとん。But where to begin? I guess i'll just reiterate what i've posted earlier about my living situation, etc. and see where this goes.
School is good, it's school, but I guess i'd rather be doing it in Japan than anywhere else. I've made some good friends, some American, some Japanese, and there is never a lack of excitement on a Friday night out in Tokyo. (I usually only go out once a week -- save me some yen and spend hang-out time with ultra rad host parents. So when I do go out, there usually isn't any sleep involved. Japan is beautiful at dawn...). I live with Katsuhiro Sugou and his wife Tomoko, both about 32 years old. They own a nice and seemingly pretty new/modern Japanese style house in the Minami Masuo neighborhood of Kashiwa City, Chiba-Ken. Chiba is the prefecture (state, i guess) above Tokyo-to, which is the "state" containing most of the greater Tokyo area. What makes the house traditional Japanese style is most noticeable upon immediate entrance of the front door, where there is a "genkan", or entrance area, where you take off your shoes before stepping up a single step to the main level of the house. A single toilet has its own tiny room upstairs, while the laundry/sink room is downstairs, which also has a sliding door into the bathing room, which is pretty much a giant shower. You sit on a little bench and wash yourself under the shower, and only after you are clean do you get into the bathtub, which is probably a good 3 and a half feet deep. It's boss. uuuuuuuuuuuuugh anyway, I have my own room upstairs, its pretty spacious in Japanese standards, blahblahblah. If I keep this up I will describe every detail of the house. Maybe i'll post a virtual-tour-video. Yeah, I'll do that. Moving on.
Every morning before school I wake up, go downstairs, exchange "ohayou gozaimasu"s with Tomoko san, sit down with whatever insane breakfast she's cooked up, which is usually something that would never be considered "breakfast" in the states except for the occasional eggs and buns. I clap my palms together and say "itadakimasu" before i eat, and "gochisousama deshita" when i'm done. Walk down the street to the bus stop, grab a cold can of Boss Coffee from the vending machine for 120 yen, throw on the headphones and take a 15 minute ride to Minami-Kashiwa train station, and sit on the train for a good hour and 15 minutes until I get to Azabujuban, the area of Tokyo that Temple University is in. I've really grown used to the long commute, and rather like it now. Plus, there are plenty of fun things to look forward to during the train ride on an average day: Japanese people seem to fall asleep the second they close their eyes or something, so its pretty great watching all the commuters dozing off and sleeping on eachother's shoulders. I also like seeing business men playing Gameboy or reading comic books. Which is completely normal. The best thing though, which i've only seen a couple of times, is what seems to be a super-formal goodbye between acquaintances that I have dubbed the "sugoi sayounara". Sometimes you'll see two people, usually older, chatting on the train, and when it becomes time for one of them to get off the train, the magic begins. The train comes to a stop, and both parties stand up. They shake hands, bow, hug, pat each other on the shoulder, laugh, say ultra-formal goodbyes, etc, for at least a good 30 seconds. The leaving party walks away, smiling and waving, while the other remains standing, waving, bowing. The train starts moving again, and the person outside the train will start walking or running along side waving goodbye and bowing, returned by laughs and waves and bows from the other. I wish you could see it happen, cuz words don't really describe how awesome it is. Its only kind of happened to me once, when a young mother and her 2 year old daughter sat next to me on the bus. I said konichiwa to the little girl, who got really scared but returned the gesture when her super cute mom told her it was okay. I got off the bus, without really saying goodbye, and thought nothing of it. As I stood at the crosswalk waiting for traffic to stop, the bus took off in front of me and out of the window the mother and her daughter were smiling and waving goodbye to me. It absolutely made my day like nothing ever before.
Which has really had me thinking about the true beauty of the customs and values of the Japanese that have clearly been around for centuries and aren't going anywhere fast. Japan having the second largest economy on the planet, but in arguably a deeper recession than our own (and has been for about 20 years now), shows absolutely no signs of falling morale. People are as up beat as can be, so kind to everyone, honestly caring about people other than themselves, really putting others before themselves. As -san is used after a person's name, the suffix -sama is used for kings, gods, and other figures of higher importance than your own. Another figure that gets the -sama treatment is the word "Okyakusama", meaning "customer". This is just another great example of the care and and honor that the Japanese never fail to show even when the times might be pressing upon themselves. I am writing a lot. Kinda feels... good????????!?!?!?!?!?!?! ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Language. Japanese is super fucking hard. Pardon my French but 'tis true. I am happy to say I can understand a good 70-80% of what I hear in conversation, on TV, whatever, but speaking is a different story. I am always trying to form my speech as a direct translation from how I would say it in English, which I am finding out the hard way is the completely wrong tactic. Japanese was created a zillion years before any Latin influence, and is therefore a completely different means of communication. It ties in very close with the culture. I'm all of a sudden running out of things to say. I'll stop for now. Japan is the most beautiful place I've ever been, anyway, and at this point I feel I would be content moving up north and working in a rice paddy for the rest of my life. I thought time was flying by, but thinking about the night I first arrived honestly seems like 4 years ago. I am no longer baffled by the fact that i'm a student in Japan, though I can't say when that feeling left, cuz i'm not sure. I feel like i've lived here my whole life. It's become so much more of a full immersion than a tourist trip, I've found so much more joy carrying out my daily routine than consuming and being entertained in the megalopolis of Tokyo. Though I can't complain when that's the case. The people, the language, the smell, the food, the simple and peaceful lifestyle, and ease of transportation, the friendly people, oh wait I already said the people. However, I have been learning a lot about the heavy corruption that takes place in the Government, and while that is obviously not a good thing, I guess I kind of feel like that's just the case anywhere and everywhere in the modern world, and I frankly don't really care at this point. Maybe politics isn't really where my interest lies after all. Maybe it never did? Or maybe i'll be prime minister.
Whatever, I don't feel like typing a bunch of stuff about the Japanese government right now. Maybe another time when I'm feeling a bit more oppressed. Oh the ramen here is really exquisite too. I'm a fan of the spicy miso.
So in conclusion:
Highly volcanic islands in Asia are where it's at. Honestly!
つづく
i didn't take this picture. yet.
