*... everyone around me is a total stranger...everyone avoids me like a psyched lone ranger...everyone... ((turning japanese, i think i'm turning japanese, i really think so)) ...*
Friday, August 23, 2002
*... I'm off again!...* In about 1/2 hour (it's 8am right now for me) I leave for Niigata on the bullet train (shinkansen). We have to drop off one guy a little in the trip b/c he's headed off to Joetsu, which is in the south part of Niigata. Then it's off to Niigata City, where I shall meet entirely too many people for me to keep straight. And after all the worry about omiyage, it won't even matter since they will all be packed in my luggage which I will not get until Monday. So too bad for them!
I've met some pretty awesome people today, but we are all parting ways this morning. Hopefully I will keep in touch with quite a few of them so at least we can do a little "tatami time sharing" and I can crash at their places should I decide to travel. We were all supposed to go out last night for a little romping through Tokyo, but I missed the group and by the time I got to the pub we were supposed to rendezvous at, it was closed. And not just closed for the evening, but as in shut down, no more, nai desu. So a new acquaintance and I wandered around the streets of Tokyo and I was fortunate(?) enough to be the subject of a couple Japanese men who wanted to practice their stunning English skills... riiiight.
Tokyo itself was so way cool, like Vegas but more lights and a little less gambling. But Vegas is the closest comparison I can think of. Vegas with better food. The food is so good, and so far I've managed to stay away from the really fishy stuff. I'm kind of bummed I didn't have my camera with me last night, but I shall return to Tokyo for sure, and let you all see.
Gotta go checkout and get on the train. 8:17 AM
Thursday, August 22, 2002
*... I'm here!...* Ahh, welcome myself to Japan... Time is seriously pressed for me right now, as I'm supposed to be at yet another terribly gripping orientation/ceremony with 9 million speeches about "I hope you will enjoy my country" (I have so far...) and "don't eat McDonald's all the time, please" The trip over here wasn't too bad at all. The food was edible and the video games in front of me kept me quite entertained. The only serious challenge for me so far has been the fact that I just found out that I won't have access to my luggage until Monday. It's Thursday for me today. So 4 days living out of my backpack. Not a suitcase, a backpack. Whee. Should be an adventure... a kind of stinky one, I'm guessing. And if they keep giving me more handbooks and materials, I'll have to wear paper strategically placed, as that is all that will end up fitting in the backpack!
Tomorrow I go to Niigata City on the train; probably a 4 hour ride. I'm not sure what will happen after that, but I'll write again when I get the access. Peace out! 6:16 PM
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
*... down with TIME! ...* I have decided that time is a wretched horrible unit of measurement. Why is it that '1 day' can sound like a huge amount of time at one moment and at a later moment sound like nothing at all? Why is it that 1 day sounds like more than 24 hours? Or 1 year sounds like less than 365 days? Is 3 weeks more than 21 days?
maybe it's just me.
in less than 24 hours I will be boarding a plane with 2 suitcases and 2000 bucks to start a new chapter of my life. Who knows how long that chapter will be. Sure, my contract is for a year, but if this past year has taught me anything (well, it's taught me TONS of things, but primarily:) it has taught me that plans change. PLANS CHANGE. PLANS CHANGE. I guess I'm planning on coming back after a year (after all, my mom refuses to store my stuff for any longer), and I guess I'll see about doing grad school. But you know what? I have 365 days (roughly) to figure it out. And that doesn't seem like that long. I do know that there are people out there that 1 year is like forever. "What? You're going to be gone for a whole year?! sad!" whereas I'm sitting there saying "it's just a year..."
I have to say that this year has been absolutely amazing. I've seen the best of times and the worst of times over the past 12 months. My lowest lows and my highest highs, and in retrospect I wouldn't change a minute. Of course, at the time, I was probably like "augh, kill me now, this sucks!" but I have laughed and cried and GROWN so much that I'm so life is better for going through it, and has endless potential ahead of it. How exciting.
And as I say all of this, I lay on the floor of my empty room, ready to switch off my computer and pack it away, tears sneaking their way down my cheek. With as much excitement as there is awaiting me, it's still hard to say goodbye. Especially to Darius and to this apartment (not so much the traffic, more like the idea of this apartment). No more shouts of "tadaima!/okaeri nasai!", no more Iron Chef-a-thons, no more crazy roomie to share (damn good) margaritas and appletinis, fawn over new clothes and boy stories and crazy customers and millions of inside jokes (Dirty POP!). And no more snake dress. Sad.
whoops. 3:54 PM *... PACKING BREAK! ...* Okay, let's be honest. I haven't started. Still.
It's kind of tough. I keep pulling out things that remind me of people and places and good times and then I get all sad. Yesterday was especially challenging. Not necessarily the "goodbye" part, but more the realization that I, being the social beast that I am, am not going to have the daily or weekly doses of the people that add such spice to my life. And I do know that I will make new friends (lord knows I now have enough beef jerky to make the entire country my BESTEST friends ever!) But still, "make new friends, but keep the old... one is silver and the other's gold." I like gold.
Karate is a great example. I have to admit that for the most part I have it in my head that I don't do karate for the sport of it. I do it for the rousing social scene. And I'd still say that's 75% of it. The people are like my extended family, which is not an uncommon comparison. But after watching kumite practice yesterday, I was kind of bumming I didn't have my gi so I could mess around with them. Ask me 6 months ago and I NEVER would have said that. I'm a delicate flower. Who just my punch you in the face, apparently. (Alright sensei, you were right, I guess I am a fighter... but I'm not happy about it.) Watching them made me think of how much I'm going to miss the skills as well. Somewhere in the midst of karate social hour, I got to like the sport of it. I wonder how that happened. I think Ophi did it. Way to go, Ophi.
* eYeS/hAiR/wEiGhT. brown/reddish?/yes. * cUrRenT wHeReAbOuTs. back back to cali, cali * bEdTiMe. my body has decided to forgo sleep for now. * fOoD. it has also decided it's anti-food. * pHrAsE. ahh! too many people speaking English! * mOoD. i feel weird, yo. Like twilight zoney, in another world weird. * tUnEs. i get to listen to the radio in my car again! * qUoTe: "whereas i am trying to read in the succession of things presented to me every day the world's intentions towards me, and I grope my way, knowing that there can exist no dictionary that will translate into words the burden of obscure allusions that lurks in these things."
*"One, seven, three, five -- The truth you search for cannot be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean; the dragon's jewels are found in every wave. Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, and in the next." Zen Master Hsueh-tou
* tHiNgS i WiLl MiSs... *
* kaori (kojima) and mariko, kaori (honma), marika and etsuko, setsuko, nakano and sakai (aka "the boys"), kelly, alan
* most of my students
* some of my teachers
* the Shin Ken Kan crew
* my granny bike (a little)
* speaking Japanese
* traveling
* tHiNgS i WoN't MiSs... *
* the staring
* the bus
* being bored outta my gourd
* sleeping on the floor
* the Japanese Way
* secondhand smoke
* the fashion
* jApAn, AkA tHe LaNd oF... *
* "We Don't Believe in Cilantro"
* "We Don't Believe in Towels"
* "Obscurely-Sized Paper"
* "Flouride is Foreign"
* "It's Rude to Eat on the Streets, but it is Perfectly Acceptable to Blow Smoke in your Face"
* "9am is Too Early for Stores to Open"
* "We Just Make the Technology, We Don't Use It"
* "Central Air? Never Heard of It. Central Heating? Nuh-uh. Heated Toilet Seats? Well duh, of course!!"
* "Deodor-what?"
* "Open 24Hrs = 7am - 10pm"
* "Our Knees Don't Freeze"
* "We Want to Speak Like Americans and Look Like Americans and Act Like Americans, But We Don't Actually Like Americans"
* "Hey, Free Beer!"
