Look What I Found! January 5, 2009

My blog.  I lost it, but I just found it underneath all my dirty clothes and empty cup noodles.

I’m actually sick today, which is uber lame, because I had plans (big plans) to visit DenDen Town, the otaku district in Osaka.  Oh my god I was gonna buy so many games and even a few consoles.  You see, me and friend of mine (Anne) finally found DenDen Town last night.  But we arrived around 8:45 PM, and the city had already went to sleep.  Honestly–this is a world-famous nerd district in a world-famous city; how do you shut the shit down at 8:30?  The only places open were hentai stores, which are not in short supply in DenDen Town.

Instead of flashy lights and loud video game OSTs blaring through the streets advertising the too-many game stores next to next to next to each other, all the lights were off; all the stores’ garage doors were shut over the entrances, and a huge number of homeless guy (only guys) were making their homes for the night.  The homes were fairly nice.  Well, some of them.  Mostly cardboard and blankets, the houses–well, lean-tos or whatever–were just one-man forts with sometimes pretty comfy-looking beds.  One guy even had the decency to take his shoes off and leave them outside his fort like a good little Japanese man.  And they weren’t frightening in the least–I’ve learned that homeless people here to badger people for anything, I think because they know they won’t get anything.  Japanese people are very good at pretending not to notice things in public they wish not to interact with.  Anyways, we didn’t hang around the ghosted Osaka but for a few minutes.

So, hopefully I’ll have the drive to go tomorrow!

Really, friends, how long has it been since I’ve pressed words?  I see my friends gave up for a long wordpress hiatus.  Anyways, I guess a lot has happened since I’ve talked to most of you last.

Let’s see:

I got really homesick during the 3rd month slump.  It is said that, if you study abroad, at the 3-month mark you hit a low low: homesickness, culture shock, difficulty with the language, loneliness, etc.  I experienced all of this.  I just love my close friends in GA, they’re as perfect as friends can get, I think.  And I’ve met very few people here that I can be really real with, whom I really trust.  I began to severely miss American food: Mexican, pizza, sandwiches, sweet tea, vegetables, all that stuff.  This was part of my culture shock, which, in my case, wasn’t exactly shock, but rather a fatigue.  I was sick of ordering my food in Japanese; I was sick of not being able to drive; I was sick of the long, polluted commute to school–to anywhere, really; I was sick of not being able to talk back to anyone–not in a mean way, but just for clarification of what I want to eat, or how I want to pay for a video game, or what I meant by the question I asked in class, or even what I meant by what I said to a Japanese friend; I was sick of not having a house to hang out at, forcing us to pay for a Starbucks coffee or a beer or a meal just so my friends and I could have a place to sit and talk; I was sick of everything being so expensive; I was sick of not having easy access to videogames (I know–in Japan); I was sick of not having easy access to books in English; I was sick of my shitty bathroom; I was sick of not having a girlfriend; oh my god I was sick of just being in Japan.  And I still am annoyed by a lot of these things.  But after a lot of complaining, a lot of pining, and a lot of time, I learned to adjust to what I’m able to do here, and what I must do here as well.  This is stupidly obvious, but let me say that Japan is not like America, guys.  It’s so different.

I mean, imagine daydreaming about sleeping in your own boring bed in your own boring room in your own boring Douglasville.  Or daydreaming about being able to buy a CD off iTunes or legally watch The Office online because you’re in America and it’s allowed there but not here.  Or drooling at the thought of endless chips & salsa.  It’s really little things that I want, but I want them so bad, you know?

Anyways, I’m doing okay now.  Although I think about how much fun home will be in a few more months.

My mom, dad, and Sarah came to visit me over this two-week-long holiday break I’ve had.  We went and saw lots of cool places, which you can see pictures of on Facebook.  I also showed them the slightly more mundane normal daily life I have here.  They said they appreciate what I’m doing here more, now that they’ve experienced it firsthand.  They loved being here, and I loved having them.  But in a day and a half, I’m back to reality with finals week.  Blech.

I’ve come to like red wine a whole lot.  It’s probably my favorite type of alcohol these days.  I still hate white though.  Blech pt. 2.

My Japanese skill has skyrocketed, but nowadays it’s not getting better fast enough.  Probably because I don’t study, but I’m still unsatisfied.  To give you an idea, I cannot understand anime.  I can read manga, though.  I need my dictionary to look up words constantly, but reading Japanese is so much easier than hearing it–you don’t miss a sound, you have kanji to separate all the homophones, etc.  So I’ve been reading this manga called 魔王 (Maou), which means devil, and it’s pretty cool.  Learning Japanese from manga has become my favorite study method.  Speaking with Japanese friends is great and useful, but still a bit nerve-racking.  Manga wins.

Shoutout to my buds in the ‘boro who had some precious materials undeservedly taken away from them by the evil in the world.  I’m not a huge fan of humanity, and you guys probably aren’t either, but as best you can, try to be happy.

I’m getting surer about returning to America for the majority of March.  I’m gonna wig out if I do.  I’m gonna be so happy.  Foreigners and Japanese people alike have been telling me that returning home is a waste of my 3-week vacation, but fuck that.  How can anyone that hardly knows me gauge what I want to do with my life accurately?  This might sound a bit silly given that I’m living in Japan for a year, but my good friends will understand because they know me: I’m not a traveler.  I don’t have the heart for it.  I don’t even go on roadtrips to Florida and shit.  I like home.  I like different cultures and languages and all, but it’s not imperative to me that I see the DMZ in Korea with my own eyes, or drink snake’s blood while I cruise the Great Wall, or even see Tokyo.  I might go somewhere, but it doesn’t bother me knowing that I might not see these places this year.  I came here to be immersed in the Japanese language; to get a taste of Japanese culture that I’ve been interested in for a long long time.  I came here this year because it was absolutely the most convenient year for me to travel.  But I won’t travel much after this if I don’t have to.  Well, that’s my current mindset anyways.  I mean, I don’t even want to do JET anymore.  One year of this place will be enough I think.

I’ll post more soon; perhaps a vlog because I know those are easier to take in than text walls.  Stay cool.