Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Adjusting
Day one in America, these were the things that seemed weird to me:
No tray to put my money in at cash registers. Where do I put the money?!
All the choices I had to make ordering dinner at a restaurant. What kind of salad? Which two side dishes? How did I want the steak cooked?...it was like a frakking interview!
Strangers talking to me/not being terrified to talk to me.
How small American cellphones are.
Happily, America has:
Shoes that fit me in womens' styles.
Cheap, delicious pizza.
PBS.
Hugh Manatee.
No tray to put my money in at cash registers. Where do I put the money?!
All the choices I had to make ordering dinner at a restaurant. What kind of salad? Which two side dishes? How did I want the steak cooked?...it was like a frakking interview!
Strangers talking to me/not being terrified to talk to me.
How small American cellphones are.
Happily, America has:
Shoes that fit me in womens' styles.
Cheap, delicious pizza.
PBS.
Hugh Manatee.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
a few more little things...
I will miss...
The Shinkansen. Best way to travel, period.
Amemura, or America Town, in Osaka. It's to America what our Chinatowns are to China.
The hideous things Japanese McDonald's come up with. The breakfast McHotDog. The Egg Double Mac. The list could go on and on. You don't need to eat them to enjoy the ridiculousness.
Buying sushi at the convenience store.
Japanese convenience stores in general.
No tipping but still having service twice as good as the States.
Streets filled with paper lanterns during festival season.
The cuteness of Japanese kids. Sometimes I think the dopamine rush they give is the reason I stayed so long.
Onsens. Public baths are just not something Americans do, but it's really pretty delightful. Especially if you get to drink beer and eat ice cream in the nude. Oh yeah.
Seasonal Kit-Kat flavors. Salty watermelon, green tea, blood orange, and so forth. Some are better than others, but it's like Pokemon, gotta try 'em all!
Capsule machine toys. Way cooler than the bouncy balls and cheap rings we had as kids.
Puri-kura photo booths. Sometimes you DO need that much glitter in your life.
The Shinkansen. Best way to travel, period.
Amemura, or America Town, in Osaka. It's to America what our Chinatowns are to China.
The hideous things Japanese McDonald's come up with. The breakfast McHotDog. The Egg Double Mac. The list could go on and on. You don't need to eat them to enjoy the ridiculousness.
Buying sushi at the convenience store.
Japanese convenience stores in general.
No tipping but still having service twice as good as the States.
Streets filled with paper lanterns during festival season.
The cuteness of Japanese kids. Sometimes I think the dopamine rush they give is the reason I stayed so long.
Onsens. Public baths are just not something Americans do, but it's really pretty delightful. Especially if you get to drink beer and eat ice cream in the nude. Oh yeah.
Seasonal Kit-Kat flavors. Salty watermelon, green tea, blood orange, and so forth. Some are better than others, but it's like Pokemon, gotta try 'em all!
Capsule machine toys. Way cooler than the bouncy balls and cheap rings we had as kids.
Puri-kura photo booths. Sometimes you DO need that much glitter in your life.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
adrift...
and now, i am homeless and wandering. Achan has been kind enough to offer me her home when i need it, and it turns out that it was sooner than i anticipated.
when i had originally planned on leaving Japan the 16th of August, it was under the impression I would be in my home until the end of my contract, August 5th. But the new folks moved in a week earlier than that. While in most cases this would mean the board of education would put the new folks up in a hotel til their predecessor was prepared to leave, MY board of education basically said "well...good luck getting out!" and that was that. it does reconfirm for me that i really can't work with them any longer, nice as they are most of the time, because the level of cluelessness is just astounding.
anyway, what i had planned on having as a little over a week of wandering is now a little over two weeks. i have plans for some of those days, places to be and people to see for the last time...but others are just blanks in my daily planner. no clue where i'll be or where i will stay. i really feel like i can only rely on one person's hospitality for so long before i become a nuisance. thankfully, i'm not a penniless wanderer. should i need, i can get a hotel or catch a train someplace. but having spent more in 4 days than i normally do in a month when my friends were visiting makes me hesitate to spend more than i need.
really, this post is just me bitching. nobody really wants to hear that, i suppose. but i think i can sum up what i really want to say in a few words that everyone can agree upon.
being homeless sucks.
when i had originally planned on leaving Japan the 16th of August, it was under the impression I would be in my home until the end of my contract, August 5th. But the new folks moved in a week earlier than that. While in most cases this would mean the board of education would put the new folks up in a hotel til their predecessor was prepared to leave, MY board of education basically said "well...good luck getting out!" and that was that. it does reconfirm for me that i really can't work with them any longer, nice as they are most of the time, because the level of cluelessness is just astounding.
anyway, what i had planned on having as a little over a week of wandering is now a little over two weeks. i have plans for some of those days, places to be and people to see for the last time...but others are just blanks in my daily planner. no clue where i'll be or where i will stay. i really feel like i can only rely on one person's hospitality for so long before i become a nuisance. thankfully, i'm not a penniless wanderer. should i need, i can get a hotel or catch a train someplace. but having spent more in 4 days than i normally do in a month when my friends were visiting makes me hesitate to spend more than i need.
really, this post is just me bitching. nobody really wants to hear that, i suppose. but i think i can sum up what i really want to say in a few words that everyone can agree upon.
being homeless sucks.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
More things I will miss...
Watching the bats flying around the glow of the all-night gas station below my window.
My orange bicycle. It's been my trusty steed through rain and shine. Mostly rain, these days.
The old ramen shop up the road, run by the guy who always wears galoshes and his daughter who practices her English when she pours us water.
Live shows in Japan. Even for big acts, the spaces are much more intimate.
Uni Qlo. Way better than Old Navy.
Cheap cigarettes. Then again, maybe not.
Capsule hotels and love hotels. The best ways to crash after late night fun with friends in the city. The U.S. is sadly lacking in these options.
My keitai. More like a beloved pet than a simple device, canceling it is like having it put down.
My orange bicycle. It's been my trusty steed through rain and shine. Mostly rain, these days.
The old ramen shop up the road, run by the guy who always wears galoshes and his daughter who practices her English when she pours us water.
Live shows in Japan. Even for big acts, the spaces are much more intimate.
Uni Qlo. Way better than Old Navy.
Cheap cigarettes. Then again, maybe not.
Capsule hotels and love hotels. The best ways to crash after late night fun with friends in the city. The U.S. is sadly lacking in these options.
My keitai. More like a beloved pet than a simple device, canceling it is like having it put down.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
going home means leaving home
one of the things i will miss most about Japan is my apartment. the actual living space i've had for the last three years.
aside from the home i grew up in, this is the place i have lived the longest. it's also the only space that i've had that's totally and completely mine.
i've loved this place from day one. the smell of the warm tatami, the sliding paper doors, the western-facing windows looking over the town...these were part of it's natural beauty. The sloping wall in the living room, the weird little hallways that were there for no reason, the cork-covered kitchen walls, the balcony you had to go through the shower to find...how could i not fall for such a cozy, kooky space?. it suited me so perfectly. i wouldn't have wanted to live anywhere else, even if i'd had the choice.
i worked to make it my home, to share the comfortable feeling it gave me with others who came to visit. art filled the walls, music and incense shared the air. i was once told by a friend that he hadn't been in a place so welcoming and relaxing in a long time. that was exactly what i was going for.
memories of good times here are plentiful. movie nights where every space was filled with people and conversation. sunday morning jam sessions with coffee and open, breezy windows. spontaneous waltzes in the kitchen. cold nights snuggled under the kotatsu's electric glow. throwing mikans out the window onto the empty highway late at night. they are particular to this place, to this time in my life.
each summer when it was time for other JETs to move out of their homes, they came to stay with me. last summer i put up a sign that said "Welcome to Hotel Mellen - We're happy to have you". i never took it down. it's on my door and will be until the day i leave. the day i need someone to share the same hospitality with me as i am displaced from my home.
this apartment truly is home to me, just as much as my family's house in america is. maybe even more so, as it has been mine alone to create.
and leaving my home is very, very hard. i will miss it dearly.
aside from the home i grew up in, this is the place i have lived the longest. it's also the only space that i've had that's totally and completely mine.
i've loved this place from day one. the smell of the warm tatami, the sliding paper doors, the western-facing windows looking over the town...these were part of it's natural beauty. The sloping wall in the living room, the weird little hallways that were there for no reason, the cork-covered kitchen walls, the balcony you had to go through the shower to find...how could i not fall for such a cozy, kooky space?. it suited me so perfectly. i wouldn't have wanted to live anywhere else, even if i'd had the choice.
i worked to make it my home, to share the comfortable feeling it gave me with others who came to visit. art filled the walls, music and incense shared the air. i was once told by a friend that he hadn't been in a place so welcoming and relaxing in a long time. that was exactly what i was going for.
memories of good times here are plentiful. movie nights where every space was filled with people and conversation. sunday morning jam sessions with coffee and open, breezy windows. spontaneous waltzes in the kitchen. cold nights snuggled under the kotatsu's electric glow. throwing mikans out the window onto the empty highway late at night. they are particular to this place, to this time in my life.
each summer when it was time for other JETs to move out of their homes, they came to stay with me. last summer i put up a sign that said "Welcome to Hotel Mellen - We're happy to have you". i never took it down. it's on my door and will be until the day i leave. the day i need someone to share the same hospitality with me as i am displaced from my home.
this apartment truly is home to me, just as much as my family's house in america is. maybe even more so, as it has been mine alone to create.
and leaving my home is very, very hard. i will miss it dearly.
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