NewsFlash: There are forks in Japan.

Everyone seems to be so wrapped up in our visions of Japan. Chopsticks, everyone is small, they all look the same. I find it interesting because being over here, I have something to tell you, we have it all wrong.

I have eaten at probably 15 different restaurants in 3 weeks and I have used chopsticks twice... in 3 weeks. (Well... I used it at home twice while eating but that was just b/c i wanted to.) Twice.

And I don't feel like a giant here. I mean, I don't feel small or average either but I feel like it's not much different than America. Some people are tall, some are average, some are small. I think part of the reason I don't feel short is because all the women here wear six inch heels all the time. They walk so funny. It's kind of disappointing.

As for them all looking the same, I don't see that either. You can definitely tell the differences when you are surrounded by them.

I guess what I am trying to say this is probably why culture shock hasn't really affected me. These reasons and more just show how "Westernized" the culture is and how much we make up all the time.

Airborne

Just Picking Dandelions

"In the waters of ourselves, the young ones hurt." Danette scribbles along the sides of her paper. Trying to find an answer to one of life's many questions. She listens to the speaker prancing on about the laws of Chemistry and how hard this class will be. Numbingly she takes notes. But her focus is on her cursive. The young ones, they always were the hardest to look after.

After years of babysitting and countless terms of nannying. Danette knew this to be true. Yet they were also the most joyous. It was simple to engage them and a young one could find happiness anywhere.

But Danette couldn't.

She struggled for years against depression and she felt the mist holding her back now. She carved into the fog, she chisled the tears away, but seemed to always be met with a new batch to chase. What did those young ones understand that she forgot? How could the simplicity of their lives allow them happiness when the complexity of her own caused discomfort?

She stared at the wall.

She knew she had to break free. What would it be like to be free? She scribbled about laughter and giggling, appreciating and pushing herself forward. How? How did she get to be free?

As the bell rang, she stared at her words. Unable to find the answer on her own. She walked through the school with the same daze as every other day. Approaching her locker, she found her books, carried her guitar and headed toward the long awaiting exit.

She followed the sidewalk mind numbingly. Knowing the way better than she knew her own name. But she resisted. She had her own case to follow. She turned left instead. The park was up ahead. What did they know?


The swingset stood in its mighty grounds. A little boy sat in a swing. His brown hair messed up from the wind and his eyes the color of the grass stuck between his toes. He giggled as his father pushed him higher and higher he went. His name was Adam, she overheard his father say it. Danette watched the scene and remembered how content she would be swinging for hours as a child. Laughing and singing just as Adam was. His father got preoccupied with the baby swing next to him. A gorgeous little girl.

Adam stopped swinging and explored the rest of the playground. He was a pirate on the slide and a cowboy on the monkey bars. He was an astronaut on the merry-go-round and a prince fighting a dragon for his princess near Danette's tree. She wrote the memories down the side of her notebook, as she watched. With the final slash from Adam's sword, the dragon fell. Adam stood imaginary sword in the ground, triumphant. And picked the dandelions next to his kill. Kissing each one as it entered his fist.

He walked over to Danette's tree.

"My princess, these flowers are for you. You are free." Adam said as he gazed at Danette with a smile. Danette took the dandelions with a giggle.

"Why thank you my prince, what should I do now?" Danette asked quietly to the little boy.

"Be happy and play." He said as he walked back over to his father, looking back one last time at the princess he rescued.

As Danette looked at the flowers, she saw through the fog, a little opening, a little crack. And knew her prince had saved her after all.

Where's the lightning?

I have been here 2 weeks. I am surrounded with a new way of life. It's been great. I have been able to pick up basic Japanese. But there is no real need. I feel much like I presume the hispanics feel in America. Everyone is so willing to learn basics of their language that it's okay that we don't speak Japanese. I haven't had to say much other than trying things out and to be polite.

It's different being the only people that speak English. In Tokyo, this felt way more than true. I felt like spies up to no good, speaking in a language no one could understand. We were surrounded and on what seemed to be a mission.

In Misawa, things are different. Since there is a military base here, most of the people know basic English. When going to a restaurant, they say things in English, likewise we say things in Japanese. But it's not scary. It's the basics: Konnichiwa (Hi), Arigoto Gozaimiasu (Thank you), Kuidisai (Please).


The biggest difference is how much we point. We point to our food, point to our size, point to the price.   But I don't feel like much of an outsider.

What I find funny is that they still will speak Japanese too us. I mean looking back I do the same back home. Hoping they know some words. But I have never been on this end of the spectrum.

If anything I am more nervous of doing something they find disgraceful than I am with learning the language. But everything I read on etiquette tells me that being a foreigner it's OKAY that I don't always get it right. So even that isn't much of a problem.

Buying Bender (my new puppy) was probably the most conversation I had with a Japanese nationalist. Sometimes they understood us, sometimes we didn't understand them. But we got through it, relatively hassle-free.

So I guess what I am saying is the shock was in my head more than it is out here. Things might be different if I didn't live so close to base, if I wasn't with Mike and all his friends.

For now I still see the overcast

I seem to be constantly waiting for the storm to hit.

But I've began doubting... doubting it is even a storm at all.

Leave it to the professionals :)

Here are some professionally taken photos of Shinjuku. Let's just be honest, mine will never look this good.

 

  

 

The Sound of Silence

Sometimes the world is too busy. Look in every town, every person has
A well kept agenda
     A sought after destination
          A person they need to be with.
No one knows how ti sit still and enjoy the silence.
The lull of their own heartbeat
     The waves of their breathing
          The urge to get lost in themselves.
We've been so caught up with different ways to communicate
We are losing the most important one.
    Listening to the voice inside your head as he cheers for you
          As he cries for you, as he helps you and hurts you.
We follow blindly on roads with only one route to take.
The superficial world has become our only goal.
     We are forgetting ourselves.
          We are losing ourselves.
All because we aren't listening to ourselves.
     All because we aren't taking the time to be ourselves.
          All because we couldn't stand to be alone with ourselves.
Take some time.
     Re-introduce yourself to you.
         And welcome the silence.

No Place Like Tokyo

After the Garden we had plenty of other adventures to behold. We went to a 11 story mall. It only had about 4 stores for every floor and most were pretty pricey but it was nice to walk around and enjoy our time together. Mike was looking for a wallet (we never did get one) and I was looking for a kimono. (Wow, are those lots of money!)
We did see some interesting things however.

 The top 2 floors of the mall were a movie theater. We walked up there just to check it out. We found out that The Amazing Spiderman had an early release there. We decided to leave because Mike didn't think the movie was going to be that good.

From the mall we went to the Art Museum. It was Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art. I expected this to be amazing. It was all about Contemporary Art and we were in Japan. Turns out it was just a gallery and it was some French guy's weekend. All the art looked depressing, all of them began to look the same. It was dead quiet in there. In the hour we were there maybe one person whispered to another. it was a place meant to explore art. Not talk about it. No cameras, no noise, just walk and look and walk and look. Needless to say, we probably won't do anything like that again.
Here are some buildings we passed on our way:

I think I found what's left of the Titanic?

We rushed out of there s soon as we could and by this time I had finally convinced Mike that the Spiderman movie wouldn't be just another first episode, that it didn't have Tobey Macguire and that it would actaully be good. As we walked back to the mall, we past a parade. I am still not sure what the parade is for. I have Googled and tried to figure it out but alas, it's beyond me.

We got to the mall, went up the 10 flights of stairs and made it to the theater.
The movie was great. But just like the art museum the Japanese people were quiet through the entire movie. They didn't laugh, they didnt gasp, they didn't clap. It is bizarre feeling so together yet so disconnected from everyone around you. In a tiny part of it, they bring up Tokyo and Godzilla. It hit us both that we were in Tokyo and no one made a noise. I held in my laugh, Mike on the other hand couldn't.  kept trying to get him to quiet down but that would just make both of us laugh more. Luckily, we were pretty excluded from most of the other people so we couldn't have been too much of a disturbance I hope.

After that we headed home, full on popcorn and tired from all our walking and sun and decided to go to bed early.
On our way back to the hotel we passed an interesting building. Mike called it Lego Building (Or Jenga)

But it really explains the society I think. There are holes in every culture, every government, every country. Nothing can be perfect but in Japan they work around those problems to solutions that can make a stand.

Whether it's helping trees who need a lift,




Or the blind find their way,







Or respecting the roots for where they've come from.





This culture cares about what it has built and it recognizes the beauty that it has and it won't let a few holes break them down.

Instead, those holes give them more of a reason to build higher and become stronger.

Thanks for the lesson, Tokyo.