Japan -- I hardly knew kimi!

Kimi is informal japanese for "you" -- so DON'T say it to your boss or you may have to chop off your arms like the samurai used to do.

Anyways, I'm feeling sort of in a reflective mood this afternoon, so I figured I’d sit down and write out my last entry as a part of the TUJ program in Tokyo. I leave for Phuket, Thailand in just two days (!) and it kinda hit me today how much I’ve been through here and how I’ve grown to adore this place. Sorry if this is sort of a mish mash of things, but hopefully it’ll end up as some sort of coherent pasting of words that will sum up this experience here. But fear not! If possible (i.e. if Internet is available) I will post an entry or two from Thailand and force you all to weep endlessly over pictures of me sitting on the beach. Just when you thought I had a sensitive side!

I’ll try to prevent making this article too mopey, since I think it’s more important to look back on my experience and smile instead of the opposite. Sure, it’s okay to be upset about leaving and all, and I surely am, but it’s much more refreshing to think back and say “Well goshdarn Dan, you did it!”

Before writing this I actually took a glance over my first entry which I first arrived to Japan and it really gave me a sort of perspective on it all. Then I looked at my next entry, and the next, and I pictured a line graph that went up and down like a rollercoaster plotting all of the ups and downs of the past three months. Surely, the first few weeks had more extreme ups and downs than the rest of the trip – I was excited out of my skin and jet lagged and homesick and lethargic and overstimulated all at the same time. The funniest part (or at least most thought-provoking) of looking back at the first three or four weeks is how much the people I associate with have changed. For the first few days, everyone sort of made those convenience friendships – we’re all 50,00 miles from home, perhaps for the first time in our lives, and all really need are people to surround ourselves with to prevent falling into that bottomless hole of loneliness right from the start. That’s one big thing I’ve learned – loneliness is a killer, especially in a new place. Sure, I did tons of neat stuff on my own, but no matter what I needed that base of people I could come back to and just be around. And there were times were I wanted to strangle many of the people that I live with – and some of them still bother me – but I think it was extremely beneficial to have to cope with all of these people at once and realize that it’s impossible to like – and be liked – by everyone you meet.

I look back at the people I hung out with the first few weeks and the people I’m with now and see there’s a clean cut between the two – not one person I went to lunch with on my first day in Japan is in my “group” now, and I think that’s one of the mysteries of friendship. There was a point (and I remember it distinctly) when I realized that I needed to find a new group and I think that happens with everyone at some point.

The first few weeks were incredibly difficult due to a variety of reasons. Of course there was the general homesickness and culture shock and all that. I also felt that I was here for a completely different purpose from everyone else – the people that just sat around on a weekend on watched South Park for eight hours – and that really bothered me. But it was something my dad said that really turned it around for me and that was that I didn’t always need people around me and if they didn’t want to do stuff then forget them! Once I started venturing out on my own every once in a while, the whole experience turned incredibly great and I’ve been riding that wave ever since. And after a few weeks, I did meet people that I wanted to be with and am incredibly happy that I did. That changed it all. There’s no sense in trying to go it alone, because it makes it all that much harder. So to conclude this little rant about relationships (and to perhaps wax sentimental), the people I’ve met here were just as valuable as the experience itself and I think I would’ve enjoyed it much much less if I wasn’t around them.

Okay! Enough with the heartfelt stuff! Japan ROCKS! And I mean that more than you’d imagine. This place is magical. More magical than Disney Land. Being here is quite a unique experience, because it’s clear that you’ll never ever see a culture quite like this every again. Sure there’s the superficial stuff – yeah, they’re all shorter than me and are always running to everything and push people on trains and what not – but it's the nuances that really fascinate me. And, despite what many people might think, Japanese people do not hate foreigners – they honestly just feel a bit overwhelmed by them. It’s mostly the language barrier, at least according to my speaking partners. A good percentage of Japanese people know English (though not a large percentage by any degree – if you are looking for a place where you can vacation and get by with English, don’t come here – most places, even in Tokyo, do not have English anything in them – this was quite surprising at first, actually) but the problem is their confidence. Japanese people have a tough time forming English sentences in their heads and then actually saying them. Their reading skills are actually quite good. But once I started taking the extra effort to meet people, I really met some of the nicest people in the world.

One of the cool parts about being a foreigner is that everyone is interested in you, no matter what. Everyone wants to know where you’re from, what made you interested in Japan, why you’re here, what you do in the states – and they are genuinely interested in it all. I would surely come back here just for the people.

Man it’s tough to summarize this experience in a blog entry. I don’t really know where to go from here, so I guess I’ll just revisit those five goals I listed at the beginning and see where I’m at.

1. “Become really really really good at Japanese” – I would probably addend that to one “really”, though I still have miles and bounds to go before I’m fluent. This last half of the semester, when I had speaking partners and just spoke more Japanese in general, contributed to most of this advancement in skill. The biggest thing is that I can read a ton more characters than I could at the start, which is quite nice. I still need to work on my listening – some conversations just sound like people are saying “Whiirrrrrrr” really fast.

2. “Travel. Travel. Travel” – I can say with confidence that I’ve taken this goal head on and beaten it to death. I really have seen a whole lot of stuff. To be specific, in Tokyo: Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Roppongi, Asakusa, Nippori, Yanaka, the Imperial Shrine, Meiji-Jingu, Ikebukuro, Ueno Park, Odaiba – and there are about 50 other places I didn’t list. Outside of Tokyo: Yokohama, Kawagoe, Hakone, Nikko, Mt. Takao, Nagoya, Kamakura, Kyoto (in two weeks), Phuket (on Saturday). So NO ONE can say I didn’t see stuff. Because that’s just NONSENSE.

3. “Make friends. Awww. Shut up” – See above. And shut up.

4. “Challenge myself to go outside my comfort zone” – YES, YES, YES, YES and YES.

5. “Eat any 5 (or more) of the following: eel, octopus, a part of the fish besides the yummy parts, fish eggs, some weird vegetable that I can't pronounce, abelone, natto (fermented soybeans), etc.” – well I didn’t actually eat any of those things, but I think chicken penis trumps them all and then some. Yeesh

This trip has been extremely successful and studying abroad was surely one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It was been rewarding beyond belief and I will find some way, no matter what, to work Japan and Tokyo into my future plans in some way, shape, or form.

Again, look for an entry or two from Phuket and maybe one more when I get back, but besides that, it’s been fantastic writing this blog out and sharing my experiences with everyone here. I hope you all have enjoyed it and laughed, cried (if you cried, you’re a little baby), and guffawed along with me during my three and a half months here.

Minna-san, doomo arigatou gozhaimashita! (THANK YOU VERY MUCH EVERYONE!!!!)