Final Impressions [of all of Japan]

Pictures mostly unrelated. They're just pretty.

Meiji Shrine, Tokyo

I started in Tokyo in June, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, ready to take on the world. I soon grew to love konbini soba, chicken nuggets with barbecue sauce, and tuna-mayo onigiri. Two months soon passed and I was pretty jaded to Japan. Not in a negative sense, but in a "this is daily life, dum-tee-dum" sense.

Morioka, Iwate-ken, Japan

Now we get to Morioka. Five months which were rather difficult as I had been here longer than the others, but I did get a few chances to slip away, particularly for the fall break, which was much needed to see a friend from back home.

Japanese Box Crab. Osaka Kaiyukan, Osaka, Japan

And maybe meet a few aquatic friends in Osaka as well.

As the months dragged on, coping became harder. My host family is made of angels but homesickness is no saint.

Hiraizumi, Iwate-ken, Japan

I guess in my current frame of mind with my return to America coming fast it's hard to say what I have learned and gained. It's easy to say "my Japanese is better" but the most important lessons I have learned abroad have  yet to make themselves known. Only time will tell.

Politics

My knowledge of Japanese politics only goes so far. Mostly avoiding the screaming trucks we encountered early on in our excursion. From what I'm told, my host mother is really close to some political candidate and I don't really know much. I'm assuming it's the guy on the poster in front of the inn, whom looks incredibly hopefuly.

We were told to avoid politics. So I do. Not much to say.

Sports

I get hit up about sports a lot in my teaching. I get asked about my favorite teams, my favorite players, my favorite sport overall, and the like. Because I can’t tell the truth about my favorite sport (let’s face it, a female teacher talking about how much she loves target shooting is not really promoting a positive stereotype of America here.) As a native Southern Californian, I’m geographically obligated to support the Dodgers and Angels, which spawns questions about the Dodgers’ Japanese player. Or is it the Angels? This is my dad’s field, not mine.

Pun unintended.

Gender

What an interesting prompt. I say that because even in America I don’t think of gender. Being pretty apathetic to gender and sexuality as a whole I never really thought about the social implications of gender in Japan. Other than not being able to use masculine mannerisms in speaking, I haven’t noticed anything different about being female in Japan. I get treated pretty well, never talked down to, and in fact I’ve found that I can be pitied a lot faster just because I’m female, and it’s rather fantastic when you’re lost and a whimpering mess, I won’t lie.

Globalization

Japan is a surprisingly bilingual country. The road signs have both Japanese and English, many packages have English, and most Japanese know at least one English word. It’s quite interesting since we have prepared, studied, and toiled for this moment when we could finally come to Japan and expected to be able to hit the ground running language wise. Yet we are rather enabled. It’s so tempting and, while it’s easy to just take the bait and use English, I know I’m here to learn Japanese and I feel guilty I take the easy route. It’s a conflict that I deal with everyday living with someone who can speak English quite well. Easy isn’t always the most educational.

Religion

I know I’m a little fish in a big pond, even though I live next door to a church (I believe my host brother said it was a Catholic church) but I see “religion” as Westerners call it all over Japan. The butsudan, or shrine in the family’s home, leaving offerings at local shrines hidden by shrubs in front of malls, tea as a whole, it seems that religion is everywhere in Japan. Yet if you ask a Japanese person “are you religious” more often than not you’ll get “no” as an answer. That does not surprise me in the slightest.

In my opinion, the idea of what religion entails is a very Western idea. We have a concept of what a religion is, how it works, and its purpose and it’s not an entirely one-size-fits-all idea that translates well outside the US border. Shinto is so rich and ingrained in the culture of Japan it’s barely noticeable. Which is unfortunate, since there is so much beauty in Shinto.

Pop Culture

I would like to take a moment to soapbox. I would like to soapbox about something small; “otaku.” This spawned from a small conversation with my host sister, in which I explained that there were some American fans of Japanese animation that wore the otaku label with pride. She was baffled as to why people would willingly call themselves a basement dwelling loser with no social life. I explained that the American definition and Japanese definition were very different. This did not settle her confusion, but the subject was left at that.

Many anime fans are shocked to find out that they are calling themselves losers. After all, in America, anime is a hobby of the worldly geek. They are the geek who transcends national boundaries for their geekery, learning a new language to feed their hobby.

That’s the problem.

While anime is a great way to gateway into learning about Japanese (not pop) culture, several people just… stagnate. That’s the only way I can describe it. If only we could push them.