California I'm Coming Home

Well, it has finally come time for this fourteen month adventure to come to a close. Tomorrow I head home to Berkeley. And I am excited. The last two months, unemployed, living out of a backpack have been incredible and as intended served as a needed buffer between ending my time here as a JET and going back home to do whatever is next. I no longer feel restless as I did in July, the traveling and the farm having calmed me down and prepared me to get on that plane, though as I said when I came to Japan last year, it has not all yet hit me. Perhaps with me, the delayed reaction is always the case when I transition. For now I will just move through the motions and wait for it to all sink in; this last year, the change in culture, mannerisms, noise level, language...I will just let it drip down slowly.

So, I shipped off my last box yesterday and am hoping that my two huge suitcases do not weigh too much (or we are in for a repeat clothing shuffle, as was the case in JFK last July). Today, I wandered through the Wakayama castle and tied up loose ends, went to an izakaya with a good friend and had some beers, low key. I went to my last onsen down in Shingu, a healing pool of only natural spring waters that was a resting place for pilgrims along the Kumano Kodo trail. My last Karaoke trip, was a crazy four-hour marathon with Christina, the latter half of which I do not remember, but to say the least, she is now a convert. Last week I trained it to Kyoto for some touring and shopping and finally saw Ryoanji Temple (I had tried on every previous visit) and the quintessential zen rock garden. On Thursday, I said a tearful goodbye to my grandmother's second cousin in Kishigawa, I hadn't realized that he had realized who I was. That was a bit difficult and made me remember the ties I/We have here and that I will be back.

But for now, this visit, this section is ending. So, goodbye to the narrow streets and driving on the left side. Goodbye to the squatter toilets and flushing sounds to hide the pee sounds. Farewell to beer vending machines, convenient combini's, tako yaki stalls and Onigiri. See you later rice paddies and burning Momi, screeching Cicadas and clear rivers. Goodbye Onsen and free tissues. I will miss you, prompt trains and buses, politeness (though at times fake), good food and safety. Goodbye Japan, it's been a good trip. Until we meet again, mata ne.

Old School

After returning from the fast-paced, filled-to-the-brim travels in SE Asia, I decided to spend the bulk of my last month in Japan in Shingu with the Saigusa's whom I met at a volunteer camp last Spring, living a more simple life. I was there with Yukisan and Saigusasan and a few WWOOFers, Sumie and Yuki, living, eating and working together. My days were filled mostly with helping to farm, cook, bake bread (they are starting an organic bread bakery there in October), walks to the river and a lot of reading and writing and talking. We ate what we picked, and the pickins were good: sweet potatoes, pumpkin, cucumbers, goya and home grown rice, oishii! A have some new recipes up my sleeve now, as well as some new music courtesy of Yukisan that will always remind me of my time there, at the end of the short tunnel, across the river. Sumie and I also took a full day, ten hours, to hike through the kii mountains on the ancient Kumano Kodo, from Hongu to Nachi. A challenge it surely was, but walking through the clouds at five-thirty in the morning makes is all worth it.

It was over the three weeks in Shingu I experienced the rather interesting combination of reading Thoreau's Walden and studying for the GRE, reflecting on the last year of my life as I return home and also trying to figure out what is next. I felt very conflicted at times, possibly the reading material was a source of that, but as I adjusted to the slow pace of life, the time flew by and I was very content. The hours of three to five everyday tended to be rest time and in a moment of internet withdrawal, I finally figured out how to get internet on my keitai and only being able to access my alternate email account,happened upon an email thread with a friend from right before I came to Japan. The correspondence centered around me being anxious to leave for Japan and his reassurances that it would be more than fine, but rather a mind-opening free-fall of sorts. It is always strange to reread such emails so much further down the line and it inspired reflection on the year. On a walk to the river one morning I began to make a list, of which here are some bits:

Some things that I have learned this year about myself, Japan and my opinion of both:

-that being an ESL teacher is not my calling, though I have enjoyed it most of the time
-that I am thankful to be a native English speaker, though I wish I had been raised bi-lingual
-that I have very little self discipline when it comes to learning a language and will find any excuse, including this blog, not to study
-that I need to work on this
-that I love living in the country, but crave city
-that I love Japan, but am frustrated with some of its ways
-that I love Karaoke
-that I prefer ohashi to forks and "itadakimasu" to nothing
-that convenient stores can be just that
-that American school lunches have a lot to learn from Japanese kyushyoku
-that despite some questionable tactics, there are some core ideas embedded in Japanese education that American schools could benefit from (necessary explanation on this idea noted)
-that a Friday night at home alone, listening to the frogs in the rice paddy, is sorely underrated
-that I will never come to prefer the squatter
-that cars can squeeze through far narrower spaces then you think, but also that there are far too few bikes on the road in the U.S.
-that I want to live near my family
-that being Japanese American and being Japanese is very different (yes, I know this seems obvious), though they share many of the same mannerisms
-that it has been an incredible, incredible year

some Vietnam photos

Junks


Halong Bay


Cat Ba Island


Hanoi's Old Quarter


after hours


Uncle Ho's car collection

some Cambodia photos