Reflections of Five Months in the Land of the Rising Sun

8/1/10

Since my last post, I have made my way from Nagasaki to Tokyo. I woke up Friday morning to get on a bus for Fukuoka Airport and was surprised to find that a group of the members of the yosakoi team came to see me off (effectively making me cry again). I said my goodbyes to them and my host family before getting on the bus and waving to everyone until the bus took off and I could no longer see them. From Fukuoka, I flew to Haneda Airport and hopped on the trains to Nishi Kawaguchi; back to Glenn and Mari’s place where this whole adventure began.

My friend Alex and I have spent the last two days wandering around Tokyo, going to our favorite places one last time and getting our present and souvenir shopping done before we leave for America tomorrow. Now that I’m out of Nagasaki, I’ve had some time to reflect on the time that I’ve spent there, and I have to say that I don’t really regret it. Yes, the classes were boring and Nagasaki isn’t the most exciting place in Japan, but what really made it worth it was the people. The other kids in the JASIN program were great, and I was able to make lots of Japanese friends as well as from other countries. I now have four families in Japan: Glenn and Mari in Tokyo, Haruko and Taihei in Nameshi, Rumi, Takashi, Ayaka, and Shoutarou in Nagasaki City, and of course my huge nearly one hundred member family of a yosakoi team at Nagasaki University. I think the people that I’ve met have helped Nagasaki become a place that I could come back to.

I’m sad to leave this country, but I think it’s about time. It’s felt a little strange being back in Tokyo after four months, and I can only imagine that I’ll be in for big reverse culture-shock when I get back to the states, but I have a week to rest before I go on a family vacation, and then I’ll be caught up in getting ready to go back to school. And wandering around Tokyo has made me miss certain aspects of home. I started reading a web comic recommended by Naomi called Nothing Better that I’m pretty sure is supposed to be based off of my school, which has made me anxious to go back to the Hill and sip hot chocolate and go traying and cheer my friends on at broomball. Today Alex and I went to the Tokyo Dome and stumbled upon a massive group of cosplayers hanging around and taking pictures of each other, which made me realize that Otakon (which I’ve attended two years in a row) is going on now back in the states, and I kind of wish I could have gone, but I’m in Japan so I can’t complain too much.

I’ve missed my dogs and my cats since arriving in Nagasaki, I’ve missed my sister since she left in August of last year for her own magical journey around the world, and I’ve missed sharing music with my dad and hugging my mom in the mornings as she works at her desk. It’ll be a little odd going home and not eating with chopsticks or ordering food in my native language or actually being able to read everything around me, but I think I’m ready for it. I’ll miss the people that I’ve met here who have made my Japanese experience really great, but as I’ve said before: You never really leave anyone forever. Even if you’re unable to speak to one person or facebook them or whatever, they remain alive in your mind and present in your heart. It’s cheesy and it’s romantic thinking, but I think it’s true.

And so now in the spirit of my sister’s love of lists in her own blogs, here’s one of my own:

Things I’ve acquired since coming to Japan:

-One large stack of quirky fashion magazines
-One love of 抹茶 (green tea) flavored ice cream and frappaccinos
-Three new dances
-Four Japanese families
-One heart-shaped scar on my ankle
-One bike-riding ability
-Eight rice bowls
-One broken sandal
-One new found love of the combination of rice, soy sauce, and avacado
-Lots of friends from all over the world
-One heart filled with joy given by the people that I’ve met throughout my journey

It feels like the past five months have been a dream that I’ll wake up from my first morning in America. I have the pictures to prove that I’ve been to all these places and experienced all these things, but it seems so unreal. Either way, it’s all been wonderful, and coming home will be a bit bittersweet.

東京と長崎の皆さんへ、
お世話になりました。お疲れ様です。また日本に来ます、絶対来ます。皆のことが大好きですよ。また会いましょう、ね？

行ってきます！

See you all back in the States!