Live from Japan!

I love that I find so many little surprises here, around Japan. It seems that their attention to detail, to the small and the tiny, crops up every now and then and just makes me smile.

Take this example…

There, in the tiniest little crook of a tree, someone set up a little shrine. And, not only that, but offerings (a stack of little one yen coins) had been left behind as well. So tiny, so amazing, and I’m so glad that I was paying enough attention to what was going on around me that I noticed it. I’m sure there are hundreds of people that walk by that very same tree each day without seeing a thing.

So, there is something absolutely extraordinary about the Japanese. They, at times, are the most meticulous people that I have ever met. Most of the time I find this charming and refreshing. Everything they do comes out looking so extremely beautiful and gorgeous.

Take, for example, buying a present and having it gift-wrapped. When done in Japan it almost always resembles the scene from Love Actually where the married man is buying a necklace for a woman at his work and Rowan Atkinson offers to gift wrap it. Well the gift-wrapping takes several minutes, involves many steps and sprigs of holly. Here it is this way, ALL THE TIME. The upside is that the gift is always gorgeous. The downside is that it takes a substantial amount of time.

This same concept doesn’t only apply to gift-wrapping. The meticulous attention to detail is pervasive in many aspects of the Japanese lifestyle – from homemaking, to being a good employee, to being a student. And, I must say, when it comes to my students, it can drive me crazy!

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While visiting Kyoto with Rachel we spent a good amount of time just wandering. We wandered through city streets, we wandered through temple grounds and gardens. We just took it all in without too many plans or ambitions and, I must say, it was really good.

One of my favorite things that we found during all of our wandering, was these really strange trees.

They were all perfectly manicured in the same, bizarre way. Each had a single branch that was allowed to grow upwards to the sky. That branch had a single tuft of greenery right at the very top, and that greenery was responsible for collecting all the sunlight and energy to support the very strange tree. I have never seen anything quite like it.

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Ever since I went back “home” for a visit, I feel like I have been noticing more of those little bits of Japan that annoy and bother me. It is almost like two weeks away was enough for me to forget about them, only to come back and see them again with fresh eyes.

One of the things that has been annoying me most is the prevalence of katakana English and how it makes communicating in English, or in Japanese for that matter, difficult.

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We arrived back in Japan last night and it was good. It was good to be in America, visiting family and friends, but it felt so good to be back in the tiny apartment that we have come to call home.

This trip really made me question and rethink what I think of as home. I have been forced, out of necessity, to consider our place in Gifu as home for the past year. It wouldn’t have felt right to live here for such an extended time while continuing to consider America our home. I didn’t want to feel like a visitor, a traveller, for the two years while we lived here. And so, over the past year or so, without even noticing, I have come to call our place in Japan home. Funny, I don’t just call it home because that is where our stuff (well, some of it) is, I have really come to feel that way.

Our apartment here is small, especially after comparing it again to the hugeness that is America, but it is cozy and it suits us well. It is filled, sort of, with things that make it feel like home. Some of those things have been inherited from JETs of the past and some of those things were brought by us, and some have been accumulated as time has past. Nevertheless, it has become our home and I am glad about that.

Last night, after more than two weeks being visitors and guests at various homes around the Midwest, it was good to sleep on the futons that we have come to be so comfortable in. And to bathe in the nice, deep ofuro that we have come to love.

As odd as it is, I must say I am really glad to be back. To be back home.

When we came back to the States we knew that the differences between the U.S. and Japan would be numerous and obvious, but some have been rather funny. For instance, when we were shopping at Kohl’s the other day.

Aaron was just looking for a few pairs of pants and I decided to wander off to find the toilet. I went to customer service, thinking it would be faster just to ask where it was, rather than wandering through the huge big-box store myself trying to find it.

“Excuse me, where is the toilet,” I asked.

“It’s in the bathroom,” said the completely unhelpful customer service person.

“Thanks a lot. And where might the bathroom be,” I inquired, clearly a little frustrated.

“Oh, it’s right around the corner.”

And so I went, off around the corner in search of the bathroom (or toilet). Now I know, people don’t usually walk around asking for toilets around here, but come on! The lady at the counter clearly knew what I wanted and yet she gave me a completely off-base first answer. It, in many ways, feels like I am back in Japan, standing at the counter and asking for a “fried potato” (what they call french fry) only to have the employee stare back at me, dumbfounded. As soon as I repeat myself and say, “furaido potato,” they get this instant look of understanding and I am immediately given what I have asked for.

This being back in America stuff, it’s kinda weird.

Poor, sad, neglected blog. How I have missed you. I have missed writing. I have missed reflecting on our adventures here. I have missed sharing some stories and getting reactions from our friends and family back home. I want to be better but I know better, especially with our trip home tomorrow, than to make any promises.

We will post while we are away. When we can. We even have a little contest planned to help get you all excited about reading our site during our second year here. Should be a good time.

But for now, rather than being all apologetic about not writing (after all, sometimes life happens and that’s okay), I will distract you with a little story from my school.

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So, yeah, still a little quiet around here on the blog. We are getting packed up and ready for our trip back home. I can’t believe that in just 4 days we will be winging our way back to the States. Only for a visit this time, probably more permanently next year.

Anyways, the trip home is completely occupying my thoughts and my time. I can’t stop daydreaming about all the people we are going to see, all the nieces and nephews we are going to snuggle with, all the stories we are going to tell, and all the catching up we are going to do. Hard to imagine that we are going to attempt to do it all in just 15 days. And that doesn’t include all the eating and shopping we want to accomplish.

It is going to be awesome.

Right now our apartment is a pretty big mess. While talking with Rachel (Aaron’s sister) on the phone on Sunday I started tearing everything apart and getting things packed. Although the packing process began, as it usually does, with things being thrown and strewn about. And that is about how our apartment is right now.

Work is insane, tying up the last few loose ends before I leave. But it is a good insanity, a mostly manageable insanity (I hope).

I just can’t wait. Wonder how many hours it is until we come home…

sit next to me?

Today I had a first-period class and I decided to take the bus to work. When I arrived at the bus platform, the line of people was deep. Luckily I got myself a spot in line which would, virtually, guarantee me a seat once the empty bus pulled up. Score!

As I waited the five minutes for the next bus to arrive, the line got longer and longer. Just looking at the line, I knew it was going to be a full bus and we were only at the first stop. It would surely fill up even more with each stop we would make.

Once the bus pulled up everyone boarded in an orderly way. I was able to snag a window seat near the front of the bus and I scooted in as far in as I could, putting my bag on my lap, allowing more than enough space for another passenger to sit beside me.

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-edit3: Oh boy, do I dare to dream that we are really back? Is it possible? Now that I have found several hours to dedicate to getting us back online here we are. So, add us back to your reading lists. We seem to be back! After many trials and tribulations, we have moved to a new host. (Thanks for the rec Josh.) I am hoping this will take for good. I am glad to be rid of our former host. This one seems to be a bit more responsive (YAY!), although a bit more expensive (doh!). Still, we should be able to get more out of them, we have a couple of new projects on the horizon. Keep an eye out for them.

-edit2: Well, the problems have returned. I will be working to fix them again, however if I cannot resolve them I will be looking to switch hosts. Anyone out there have some recommendations of a host the use and like? email me.

-edit: okay finally we are back for real. I still have no idea what caused this problem, but for the time being it seems I have resolved it.

Sorry everyone about the downtime, we have been experiencing some major problems with how our website is being hosted. But now it should work more or less correctly. We should be able to do some updating, and behind the scenes I will continue working to correct the problem.

Things are still not working correctly, you may notice that the web address you see at the top is not the one you would expect. I am still experiencing serious problems with our installation. I am not sure what is causing these problems at this point. But it may be necessary to so quite a bit more work to get thing running as they should.