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Published: December 14th 2007
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A few of my favorite students
After a nomi hodai (all you can eat and drink for 2 hours) I have so many thoughts and emotions inside of me right now about my life in Japan and as I have only been back in the states for 3 weeks (and might I add -- 3 jam packed thanksgiving, wedding, moving across the state, starting my US job hunt weeks) I have not yet fully processed them, so please forgive me if I am unable to fully express myself when you ask, "How was Japan?" If you ask I will most likely tell you, "It was amazing," and give you one or two trite bits about how beautiful the country is or how friendly the people are--although I will cringe as I am answering with those words because I think they completely trivialize the depth of my experience. However, the alternative would be to completely overwhelm you with the hours of unrefined commentary and random babbling I have stored up inside of me about the past 10 months (I am of course more than willing and absolutely delighted to share more if someone is genuinely interested and willing to struggle through my attempts to express everything I want to express).
For the moment, I will try to formulate the beginning
of an answer to this question (I say the beginning because I am sure that my thoughts will continue to evolve each day). For a lack of better words, the bottom line is that my experience was truly amazing. If you really want to understand my experience though you must know that it was not necessarily amazing for the reasons the average person who has never visited Japan and only experienced Japan through the movies might think. What was amazing to me about my journey to Japan cannot be found in a single day or moment or site or meal, what was amazing to me about my experience in Japan is not some exotic story about just how different the cultures of the east and west can be. The most meaningful part of the experience for me was not in the instant sensory satisfaction of seeing the Golden Temple or in tasting sushi prepared by a Japanese chef. While it is true that Japan is one of the best places in the world to go temple hopping or electronic shopping or sake drinking, my experience did not completely center upon these things. The truth is that for me the most
Emiko and I
After a delicious lunch at Hotel Associa meaningful part of my time was in the ordinary day to day life that I led. It was my daily existence that allowed me to do the things that were really meaningful to me, observe and gradually develop a better understanding of a part of my ancestry, my grandparents, my mother, the many distant relatives that worked and lived and breathed in Japan and who are inevitably wrapped up in the person I am and continuing to become. I have a yearning inside of me to better understand people and the world we exist in and as a result there is something very sacred for me in uncovering bits of personal history and culture and roots, not just my own but the history and culture and roots of others as well and it was the moments and feelings when I felt I could do these things that I felt most inspired by and that I will remember most vividly.
In addition to my opportunity to learn more about my roots, a few other things that I will hold dearest to my heart in the years to come will be the times I spent with the people I was lucky
The Sato Family and I
After dinner at a beautiful little Japanese restaurant (Sakura) where we had about a 9 course meal. enough to meet in Japan. I was blessed with a wonderful roommate, amazing students, co workers and Japanese friends. I will forever treasure all the wonderful conversations and laughs I shared with these people. I learned something from each person that I met and I am so grateful to everyone who shared a piece of their selves with me.
I am not exactly sure yet why things in my life have lined up in a way that allowed me to travel to Japan or why certain events led to a bit of a premature return but I have faith that I am not completely leaving this experience behind and that I will be able to use it to build towards whatever it is I hope to do next with my life (I am currently in the process of trying to figure that out). I realize that I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to spend 10 months of my life living and working and traveling in Japan, although, ten months is in no way anywhere near enough time to truly soak in all the things that make Japan amazing; the history, the people, the religion, the arts,
Homemade Oden
Made by ichiban (#1) chef--Takako Sato! the language, the food, the mix of modern and traditional...it would take years to fully appreciate all the complexities of the country. I was endlessly fascinated with the different ways that our cultures do everything from eat to sleep to drink, talk, socialize, celebrate, relax, express themselves, think, build, create, understand, love, etc etc etc. I believe that every culture whether it is Japanese, American, Finnish, Kenyan, Indian or Polish has very unique ways of thinking, doing, loving, living etc and I also believe that our lives are infinitely enriched when we open them to things that are new or foreign.There are few things in this world that are more interesting to me than listening to the ideas, stories and thoughts of someone who was brought up in culture different from my own.
I am very happy to be home in the USA -- living abroad is crazy because as it inspires and opens your mind and heart to so many wonderful things that you never even knew existed, for me it also proves that there truly is nowhere in the world like home and nothing in the world like being surrounded by family and friends and loved ones.
I do think, however, that a small part of me will always be a bit torn between being home with family and friends and traveling because there are just so many amazing places in this world to see and life is so short that I think I would be crazy to not go try to explore everything that I possibly can. There is such a big world out there and I still am resisting societal pressure to permanently crawl into the comfort of one corner of the world because I fear missing out on all the wonderful things the world has to offer that I don't even know about yet. There is a quote that goes something like this. "The more I learn, the more I learn I still don't know." Similarly, the more I travel, the more I realize there is still so much out there to see.
I saw and did some pretty neat things in Japan and it would take pages and pages to fully explain everything so I'll try to narrow down some of my favorites...
My top three places in Japan are
1)Shizuoka (because it was my home and has great people, green
tea, and views of Mt. Fuji)
2) Mt.Fuji (nothing compares to nature for me)
3) Kyoto (storybook Japan with lots of preserved historical relics which I love!)
My favorite Japanese foods...
1) Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake omelet)
2) Dorayaki (Pancakes filled with sweet azuki beans)
3) Onigiri -rice balls filled with anything from ume (pickeled plum) to natto (fermented soy beans) to salmon.
My favorite Japanese drink...1) Calpis - a yogurty fruit flavored drink 2) Sweet Matcha -- sweet green tea
My favorite Japanese cartoon character; ANPANMAN!!!
My favorite book by a Japanese author: The Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (you can read it in English and I definitely recommend it!)
My favorite Miyazaki anime film : Tottoro - Kiki's Delivery Service--Grave of the Fireflies
My favorite Japanese words/sayings:
Mottai Nai (Waste not, want not) --
Sugoi -- Wonderful! --
Oishii--delicious --
Kide--beautiful --
omoshiroi--interesting---
genki--crazy, engergetic, fine
daijo boo- I'm okay.
(If you know me well, you should memorize these so that when I slip back into Japanese phrases from time to time, you will be able to understand me and not just think I am crazy.)
My least favorite Japanese word: kawaii (cute--WAY
overused! especially by Japanese women)
Other random favorite things-- Washi--special Japanese paper, Clean streets!, Japanese department stores, Japanese grocery stores, especially QQ (the 99 yen grocery store), hyaku en shops (100 yen shops), Sumpu Park (my neighborhood park), Sengen Shrine (my neighborhood shrine), the overwhelming politeness of the people, the outstanding customer service --you feel like royalty everywhere you go!, the quiet on the trains and in other public places, the general respect people have for each other in public, the bowing, hearing Japanese being spoken, restaurant drink bars, black sesame balance up bars (Japanese version of power bars), seeing women dressed in kimonos, riding my bike to work, smelling green tea on my morning runs.....
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DantheMan
Dan
Hi
I was wondering if you were still in Japan. Obviously, this answers my question. Glad you had a great time. I have really enjoyed your blog. Good luck.