Japan: A Beginning (Part 2)

[I didn't explain this in the previous post but this and the previous one are ones I wrote last month while I was still disconnected :P]

August 18th.

Not sure what I’m going to write but I feel like writing anyway. I’ve officially been in Japan for about 18 days. It’s interesting though. My life is so different from what it was in July; from what it was two years ago or ever. There’s something about being in a foreign country that makes you think a lot. Introspection has always been one of my fortes, if you can call it that. But here, as much as my current situation affords an overflow of free time, which consequently leaves my mind free to deeply consider myself, I’ve found sometimes I just look out the window and stop thinking. There’s a big green hill right beyond the road behind my apartment, which my windows face. I guess technically they’re not as much windows as they are glass doors. In any case, maybe it’s the small-town…ness of it all that’s slowed me down. It’s likely partially the fact that “my life in Japan hasn’t really started yet.” That idea’s been my explanation for a lot of my feelings so far. Course, that’s not precise. I’ve been living here now for almost 3 weeks! But as it is, I have very little human contact, no “friends” and my job hasn’t really begun at speed. Students are still on vacation so there’s really very little for me to do. I do keep busy though. I’ve been able to catch up on a lot of the reading, gaming and even studying of Japanese that I’d put on the back-burner (and, to be honest, probably will once my life here “starts”). I’ve also been unable to communicate with any of my old friends because I haven’t had internet so that’s also given me even more time to myself. I’m hoping at least that bit will change tomorrow when I get my cell phone. Planning on getting as unlimited a data plan as I can get my grubby paws on *evil glimmer in his eyes*. As a side note, Japanese television is hilarious. I have access to 5 channels and from what I gather, 80% of Japanese shows are some form of variety show. I’d like to think this is not an exaggeration.

Actually, I’m gonna make a digression out of that side note. Japanese TV has occupied a surprising amount of my time. I honestly didn’t think I was going to end up watching much TV while I was here but lo and behold I’m actually starting to keep tabs on some shows. Namely, and to my personal shame, I’ve somehow gotten hooked on a show called 花ざかりの君たちへ　いけめん　パラダイス (hana zakari no kimitachi he ikemen paradise) and I wish I could translate that mouthful for ya. I was going to attempt a translation but I almost went all orz on the floor just now upon realizing what the title might be in English. (orz is an emoticon, imagine a person bowing down on the floor where the o is the head, r is the arms and torso and z is the legs, bent) Anyway, you’ll have a good enough idea when I tell you that the show’s about a girl that pretends to be a boy in an all-boys school. I first saw it because it’s the show right before the anime I like to see (which, incidentally is always at the same block of time in the same channel… and hanazakari plays every day). And now, for better or worse (read: worse. Definitely worse) I’m hooked. The show is so ridiculous in so many ways that I realize about 14 times per episode how much of a guilty pleasure it is and how cautious I’m going to have to be about whom I share my interest in the show with. Knowing me, I’ll tell everybody I talk to. I’ll run it through the English teachers before I talk to the kids about it though *cough*. Besides hanazakari, I’ve found Japanese television to be pretty darn educational! Did you know there’s a giant golden beetle in Indonesia? That electric poles here are numbered? That a giant bear about 3.5 meters attacked a number of villages in Hokkaido at some point in the past? That Japanese people are apparently ALL foodies? That I’ve seen the same ponzu commercial exactly nine thousand eight hundred and fifty two times (and counting)?! *phew*

I haven’t been too adventurous yet. I keep wanting to go try out a gyoza restaurant nearby but it’s just so against me to go to restaurants on my own. I suppose it can’t hurt, right? And the food may end up being extraordinarily delicious and make me become a usual and be friends with the owner and and… well, we’ll see about that . However, in the meantime I generally just go to the local combini (convenience store) or Pal (closest supermarket) when I’m scavenging for food. One of these days I’ll go to that gyoza restaurant, alone or otherwise! Time’s a-counting down though. Finally (hopefully) getting my phone tomorrow and then this Sunday I’m going to Matsue (Shimane’s capital) for the Shimane orientation with the rest of the new Shimane JETs! Should be fun even though I’ll have to wear a suit in good ol’ tropical summer weather again, hooray! And school starts the week after that! Can’t wait to give a speech at the school! Ok, I can wait. Forever, in fact. No, just kidding. Public speaking may not be one of my strong points but I’m really excited to start teaching and hanging out with the teachers and kids at school. I’ve been thinking about this going back to school thing a lot too. I think it won’t have fully sunk in until I have to get ready in the morning for that first day, butterflies in my stomach and all. I’ll be able to have lunch with the kids too, which is gonna be neat… until they make me try natto (fermented soy beans) D: It looks gross, smells gross and probably doesn’t taste great either but they gotta eat it for some reason, right? I’ll give it a try, I suppose…

Ew, I just remembered the mountain of e-mails and flood of tweets I haven’t read. Ok tweeps, please forgive me but I’m going to start at 0 on my tweets. To be fair, I may actually have the time to go back and read what you’ve been saying for the past few days but I think it’d be bad to try and go back to July 31st tweets and start from there. Not sure my body could take it. My emails though I will read in their entirety and answer any that need answering. Hopefully that won’t take a month to do as I’m sure I have at the very least over 100 emails and that’s probably a gross underestimation. I also won’t really have internet per se for another two or so weeks but at least I’ll be able to check my mail and twitter on the phone *crosses fingers*. I think I’ll leave it at that, friends. It’s already tomorrow (the 19th now) and even though I’m sad because I’ll probably have to miss hanazakari while I’m out getting a phone but it’s ok because I’m bound to have to miss it while at school anyway! Plus, whenever I get innerwebz I’ll probably be able to stream the episodes >:3 GUUUDO NAITOOOOO~~~~

Japan: A Beginning (Part 1)

Today is August 9th, 2011. I’m in Japan. At the time of writing this, I don’t have internet. I don’t have a cell phone. I’m technically not yet working either. I’m channeling Emily Dickinson, instead: reading and reading and playing video games. Ok, so she probably didn’t do much of that last one but that’s because she was born when she did. Being a good hikikomori (look it up), she would’ve totally been all about the harvest moons and the WoW and what not. *ahem* Despite the tone the first few sentences of this passage may seem to carry, I’m not begrudging, in any way, my decision to come be a teaching assistant in Japan. Even my current situation I am trying to make the most of. I have already finished Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and am about halfway (or more) through inFamous, put several hours into Mass Effect and restarted Magicka. And that’s only on the gaming front. Though, to be honest, I’m only halfway through Lewis’ Mere Christianity. (I do so enjoy his writing)

I’ll backtrack a little bit and then meet again at the present, so as to update you, my friends, a bit more; give you a better picture of how and why we got here. Actually, the ‘why’ should be clear at this point so I’ll mostly skip it. So then, let’s go back to the beginning of the month. On july 30st, after a sleepless night of busy packing – of course, I had done oh so little packing up until the day I was flying – my dear (now ex-) roommate Mike and his lovely girlfriend Jing drove me to the airport for our goodbyes and my departure. As a note, I’d like to defend myself of the judgments I’m going to be rude enough to presume you had by saying I didn’t just leave packing to the last day out of laziness and procrastination. To be sure, there’s probably a time in which I could’ve done more towards it than the last day, but I would be lying if I said I had that many free moments in the 2 weeks prior to my leaving the US. Those last two weeks, I’ve been saying for a while, were the busiest I remember having. Ever. Well, at least so far. Even holidays at TP don’t quite compare, and that’s saying a lot! Of course, it wasn’t all work. I was busy meeting with people over meals and preparing all sorts of things for my leaving, not the least of which was doing things like selling my desktop computer, laptop and car – only the first of which was, thankfully, a painless and quick process. I must also say, I don’t regret all that in the least. I don’t really know how I could’ve done it any differently.

Continuing, my sleep deprivation ended up being quite the blessing. Sleep does not come easily to me when riding a plane but that 10 hour flight was made much shorter thanks to how horrendously tired I was after settling in with a nice pillow and a reclined seat. While we didn’t have the kind of seats that recline into a full bed, they did recline more than your average plane seats and made for just enough comfort for me to sleep several hours, if my memory serves me. The flight was largely uneventful and the food wasn’t stellar but it was well enough to suffice. We did eventually land in Japan and so began my feeling of bewilderment… and jetlag. At this point another feeling began to grow in me. It only got worse during Tokyo Orientation too. Snapping back, we get off the plane, go through customs, get our suitcases, cart them over to the busses (at this point I’m skipping a particular little hiccup which eventually came to nothing so I’m deeming it a moot point ;), gave them to the nice people that would ship them over to our future place of residence, got on the busses, got to Tokyo from the airport, checked in and finally got to rest up for a few minutes at the hotel room.

On the way to the hotel I noticed two things worth mentioning. One is that the climate was uncharacteristically cool for the area, something we can all be grateful for, especially the fellow JETs that were helping lead us where we had to go who had to stand outside all day. The other is that it was during this trip to Tokyo that I first began to have flashbacks of home when I looked out the window. Despite driving on the left side of the road, most of the greenery, and even some of the architecture, was strangely reminiscent of Puerto Rico. This is a perception that has since not died down but been reinforced the more of rural Japan that I see. Certainly, this is probably part of the culture shock phase they told us about during orientation where you’re still wearing your rose colored glasses and while everything is new, everything is somehow also wonderful, great, and very familiar to wherever you’re from. That said, the feeling I mentioned earlier that began once we landed in Japan and went on to be amplified and accentuated by the orientation is this: what have I gotten myself into?! ***Spoiler alert*** This feeling has, in fact, died down quite a bit so there is no need for alarm. Also, the only times I’ve so far felt homesick at all have come as a result of my having difficulty communicating and so are only reflections of my not wanting to work hard to do something that was quite natural and simple previously but I should’ve seen it coming and it’s really not that bad, when all is said and done. After all, this IS an adventure, and what good is adventure without a little danger and adversity?

Onward we go into orientation! At this point in our story it is July 31st and it’s actually not even the first day of orientation. However, since it is the first of only 4 days in Tokyo I’m just calling that whole ordeal/ride/madness orientation. Sunday night, my roommates (one of them the guy I sat next to on the plane) and I went out to get something to eat. We didn’t stray too far from the hotel since we didn’t want to get lost and were truly famished. After walking around the blocks nearby and eyeing the options we settled on a little ramen shop. It was quite delicious, or so our empty stomachs lead us to believe, and then I had Starbucks in Tokyo. Hell yes! That was one of my first starry-eyed moments in Japan so far. You can imagine why. Second day! Orientation went from 8:30 in the morning till about 8 o’clock at night. Maybe 6? In any case, I won’t bore you with the details. The long and short of it was it was serious information overload. Also, they gave us French fries during breakfast. Obviously, that night we went karaoke-ing! It was great fun. Actually, it was a freaking blast, hahaha! Could you really expect any less from me? Third day! Pretty much the same as the day before except this time a bunch of us from the 島根県(Shimane)* troupe went to have dinner together… and then we went karaoke-ing! During dinner was the first time I was part of a nomi-houdai. To those unfamiliar with the term, think buffet but of drinks instead of food. Yeah, there were people who were drunk before karaoke, where they had more drinks. And after karaoke, where they had more drinks. I’ll withhold their names but let’s just say, they weren’t the happiest campers Wednesday morning when we’re all flying out to Shimane to meet our new superiors. And with that, “adieu Tokyo” I thought as we flew away from the pretty lights and the bustling streets of the chilliest big city I’ve yet been to.

August 3rd we left Tokyo and the 8 of us new Shimane JETs flew to our new homes. That day, unlike the ever-so-kind, cool-ish weather of the day we arrived in Tokyo it was awfully humid and quite hot. At the airport all of our respective supervisors, most with sempai (senior) JETs came to greet us. They were all very nice and from the airport my we went to a ridiculously good Italian place in 出雲(Izumo, the city we flew into). Yes, yes, I know, why eat Italian when you’re in Japan? Why not, I say! And it really was quite good. The portions were actually not get-fat-and-feel-squeamish-when-you’re-done sized, believe it or not. From there we went to 大田(Ohda), my new home away from home… and directly to city hall where I met some of the bosses of the Board of Education! Thankfully, I wasn’t taken to meet the Mayor, as I heard some other JETs had been. After doing some paperwork, my supervisor stayed behind and I went with the two other JETs to get me some groceries at a supermarket. Don’t be fooled, friends. Ohda is a small town but it is not without its luxuries. Namely that supermarket that’s really more like a Target/Wal-mart than anything. And then they dropped me off at my new apartment! A little about the new place: it’s bigger than I thought it would be, fully furnished and I even have a great TV, YAY! The following day we did some more errands like opening a bank account but that night (it was either Thursday night or Friday night) the two JETs from before plus a third and a friend of theirs took me to a fireworks festival on the bay. Let me just say, Disney’s friggin imagineers have to come see this show. Not only did it last about a half hour, they had fireworks I’d never seen before. Cat fireworks, mushroom fireworks, 5-phase fireworks, by Jove it was stunning. Also, the food was ummmmmehhhhhhhh! (that’s Japanese for my-taste-buds-are-exploding-in-ecstasy, btw) One of the culinary fixin’s was a “French dog”, I kid you not. Dunno why they called corn dogs French dogs but hey, we call fried potato sticks French fries so there you have it. Incidentally, they did have French fries but they called it furaido poteto (fried potato, yup).

And since that day there’s been the odd human contact but for the most part I’ve hung out at home playing video games, reading, showering. Even exploring the town a little bit, by which I mean I walked around the block and then came home coz I was sweating too damn much. But hey, at least I scored a killer chocolate croissant and an awesome lemon soda on the way! HEALTH! And today, I even went to my base school and met the principal and the English teachers I’ll be working with. They were all rather nice, of course. So here we are, back at August 9th. However it will likely be a few days, maybe even weeks, before I am able to post this up on my blog since I won’t have internet for a while. Also, believe it or not, but I did leave a lot out of this retelling of the last few weeks but I’m sure you’ll agree this post is already quite long. In our next installment, I’ll probably talk about such titillating topics as: driving in Japan! Taking a train! Shimane orientation! More Karaoke! That speech I have to write and do for my welcoming ceremony at school! Food, food, and more food! Until the next one …which may or may not happen again before I have internet! XD

*Shimane is the prefecture I’m in, think a “state” within Japan… or just wiki it jeez! ;P