More to say... the transistion back...

It's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post. I thought that there was really nothing more to say. To some extent I can't really post about *new* Japanese adventures, but most recently, people have asked what's the transition back like ?

Is it really different coming back?

Getting back in the swing of my original American lifestyle has been challenging in some ways and easy in others. Truth be told... I love America and everything about it. However, a piece of me wants to go back to Japan. The difference between the two places is really "me" (as in my place here verses there). In Japan, I'm a "Gaijin" or foreigner. I'm the minority, but it's not isolation. When you're abroad you can see America from a third point of view. It's like going into space to get a different perspective of earth. Somehow I enjoyed being somewhat of an American ambassador... I suppose that as I continue to live here I'll have more to say on the topic.

I've heard people here (in America) say that they feel like they're becoming the minority due to the increase of immigrants moving here. Perhaps that maybe, but it's nothing close to being the only white Amerikan guy on the train.

I don't want to forget everything I've fought so hard to learn and experience. In some ways Home feels foreign... I don't know why it does, but it does. If anything, I truly want to feel at home and I'm very happy to be home. I only hope that as I slowly unwind and transition back into Lewis and Clark, "American," college my day dreams about Japan and Sapporo won't distract me to much.

~J

P.S.
American T.V. has come to me as a great shock. To go from Japan's light hearted game-shows, cheezy drama's, and easy going news to America's crude talent shows, deep-seated dramas, and overly traumatizing news is something of an eye opener.

I'm back home everybody!

Happy New Years everybody… I’m happy to say that I’ve landed back in the United States. It feels good to be home.

A lot of stuff has happened between when I left you all and now. For starters, Tink and I went to Meiji Shrine on New Years and then the next day went and saw the Emperor of Japan! What an amazing trip it’s been.

I assume that everybody out there has read the little paragraph a the bottom of this blog…

“The adventure is not about people or places or culture. The adventure is what you make it when you're in the middle of it. Seize the day and make it your own. This adventure is about me in a world apart of my own. What doesn't happen is just a part of the adventure as what does happen... Life happens so make the best of it.”

From the day I wrote that, to today I still believe that everyone can have the same adventure as me. However, what of Japan? What of the Japanese? Have I learned any valuable lessons or skills while I was there? The answer is this…

Japan is one of those places that mystifies you with its rich mixture of old tradition and new technology. As soon as you think you’ve witnessed something so magnificent that nothing else could match its “coolness” you’re faced the next day with yet another sight that baffles the mind. I’ve learned that you cannot “do it all” and I have also learned that “you can’t do it all by yourself.” The friends I’ve made along the way have helped me learn just who I am and for that I want to thank them for their companionship.

Japan might seem like the a Far East Asian country that holds it’s secrets deep behind a developed wall of courteously and politeness. In some respects, that is true of them, but it is not who they are. What seems like a system of Honor and Politeness is in fact the result of years of training to be that way no matter what. If one finds a way to peel off that layer they’ll find a group of people much like us who face the same challenges as us and have very similar opinions as us. While it’s easy to call them “Asian” and “Orientals,” after living with them I think that they are more western then we think. In fact, Japan is very “western” and because they are very western (from their clothes to (most) their toilets) it wasn’t hard to adjust.

Like everything else in the world, the concept of “Westernization” is becoming more and more like “Globalization.” Globalization is the common standard of living from one 1^st World country to the next. However, Japan holds on to deeply rooted traditions that make Japan, Japan and not America. As an American I thought I knew just what was American and what wasn’t. I quickly learned that what I thought was uniquely American was really Globalization and what I thought wasn’t American I found out was. For example, upon arrival I searched out a bottle of Skippy’s peanut butter. Skippy’s I thought was so uniquely American that I knew it’d be hard to find, however Skippy’s can be found in most Groceries Stores. There was another case in which I stumbled over some corn dogs. I asked the guy what that was in Japanese and he gave me one of those looks like “are you crazy?” He told me that they call them “American Dogs” and he was convinced that it was an all American food. Things like that are what make up this “culture shock” that is sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Overall, I’ve learned more then a language, I’ve learned a culture. The adventure by far was a success because I kept in mind that, the adventure is what you make it when you're in the middle of it. Seize the day and make it your own.

~J out