Don’t fear, I Haven’t Gone Anywhere

Back in Seattle!

Long time no update! I don’t have much to report, really, aside from the fact that my JET contract did, in fact, end on 7/29 and, on 7/31, I returned to the United States. So for the next while, probably a year or so, I’ll be blogging from the Seattle area about my Stateside adventures. It won’t be the same sort of interesting as Japan was, but I’ll try to keep it from getting too heavy on the minutiae of daily life in the Pacific Northwest.

Currently, I’m unemployed, but I’m sort of taking the month of August as a holiday, so that doesn’t worry me yet. I’m seeing friends, spending time with my sister, and getting some stuff sorted out before I start properly job hunting. I’m also not aiming for long-term, career-like employment, so that broadens the field somewhat. I just need to make some money and have something to do until I figure out my next move. I’ll get back to you on what exactly that move is going to be.

So far, aside from just enjoying being back with my family, the most exciting thing that’s happened is a day spent with one of my two high school best friends, Hannah, who I hadn’t seen since 2007. She went to university in New York City and has stayed over there, so it had been a while since she’d made it back to the west coast. But her family came out here to have a holiday in the San Juan Islands and we spent Saturday the 5th together.

We met up at Pike Place Market and had a leisurely sort of lunch at a random cafe. She hadn’t been in Seattle for a few years and I hadn’t spent time there for about a year myself, so we just picked a place that looked promising. It was nice – fairly quiet and relaxed and perfect for chatting and catching up. We also went into Border’s, since the company folded and everything is massively on sale, and then went to meet up with her father and half-brother at their hotel.

A mediocre photo of Pike Place Market.

It was really nice talking to her dad, actually, because he also did JET (in 1989) and speaks Japanese, so we talked in Japanese a bit and also talked about Japan and the program and whatnot. I’m really worried about losing my Japanese, which is pretty good after a year on Shikoku, so the chance to use it like that was great. I also saw her grandparents for the first time in years (I stayed with them when I visited her in New York back in 2006) and it was just really pleasant.

Then I got a bit of a good surprise when I was offered a ticket to Porgy and Bess at the opera house at the Seattle Center. I didn’t know much about it, but I do like opera well enough and was definitely happy to accept the invitation. Hannah’s brother’s friend also came with us, so it was just the kids, so to speak. I had a really good time and it was so nice to spend time with Hannah again. We’re going to try to keep in touch better and this was a good start.

A night at the opera.

And so far that’s been my major excitement. But this weekend I’m heading out to Whidbey Island for the Coopeville Arts and Crafts Festival, next Thursday I’m seeing Les Miserables with my friend Dana, next weekend I’m off to Salem to spend time with my friends down there, and at the end of the month I have a trip up to Canada to visit family, so stuff is happening. It’s very good to be home.

It’s Yukata Season!

There were a lot of photos being taken at this party and I love this one because it's so natural.

Summer in Japan, as far as I’m concerned, is… well, it’s hot and humid and filled with massive bugs, but aside from that it’s the one time of year when even foreigners can dress up in traditional Japanese clothes and not have it be totally weird. It’s still a little weird, because most Japanese people are shocked and amazed by foreigners doing Japanese things, but when half the people around you are dressed the same way you don’t stand out too much. The traditional clothes in question? Yukata.

A yukata is a light, casual kimono, traditionally made of a single layer of unlined cotton. Being inexpensive, both of mine are polyester. Technically, yukata are also bathrobes (the word means “bath clothes”), and nicer onsen supply them after you get out of the bath, but I’m talking about the summer clothes variety. You see them a lot, especially at festivals, fireworks displays, and markets.

I’ve worn yukata twice in as many weeks and I just wish I had another excuse before I leave Japan since I’m unlikely to have many opportunities to wear them once I’m back in the States. Since I have two, though, I might try to find a chance and make someone wear one with me. Strength in numbers and all that.

A better shot of the above yukata, with Zung, my upstairs neighbor.

As you might be able to tell, I really like wearing yukata. I have two, after all (completely different from each other – I didn’t buy the same thing twice or anything lame like that). They’re really pretty and elegant and more comfortable than they look, especially in the heat. You’d expect something long and wrapped around you would be hotter than hell, but it’s no worse than anything else you could be wearing here in the summer. The obi does compress your diaphragm, so if you go for karaoke, like I did both times I went out, singing is a bit of a challenge. But your posture is pretty great!

The first night I went out in yukata, it was the official ALT farewell party, with most of Matsuyama’s English teachers, the Board of Education staff, and a few other peripherally related people. It was in a bar that’s frequently used for these sort of parties and the theme was yukata. Clearly. There were probably about 40 people there, maybe half of us dressed up in yukata (or jinbei, which is another traditional summer outfit, made up of a jacket-like shirt and matching shorts). And one woman came in a sari, just to be contrary. She looked fab, though.

And it was a lot of fun! I’m usually not super keen on those parties, because the food is mediocre and they’re always kind of expensive for what you get, but that one was nice. We took a lot of pictures, I got to see some people who I will probably never see again, and the food wasn’t terrible. There was a really nice basil pizza, at least, and lots of fries. After enough work parties in Japan, you learn to be grateful for the one or two genuinely tasty food offerings.

So that was yukata outing one! Then, on Saturday (7/16), I got together with my friends Lauren and Nicky and we busted our yukata to go to the Matsuyama summer night market. The market is every Saturday from mid-June through July and there are always lots of people in yukata and jinbei, so it was a good opportunity. Lauren had never worn a yukata before and I had never worn my other one, so we jumped on it.

Eating delicious, delicious ramen.

Like I said, my yukata are very different from each other. I like the black and red one a little more (it’s actually a black and dark purple checker pattern), but the gray and pink has a completely different feel. The gray and pink one is also more cute and unusual – the dark base with flowers is a much more typical design. The red obi is pretty young, though, too showy and ostentatious for older women, so I promise I’m not dressing like an old lady.

Anyway, our plan for Saturday night was simple: our favorite ramen shop (Ippudo, which serves Hakata ramen (pork broth) and apparently is also in NYC), then the market, then karaoke. And it was lovely. I had a really good time and we didn’t get too many odd looks (though I’m pretty sure one guy snapped our picture as we walked past him). If I don’t have another chance to dress up for a while? I have no complaints about Saturday’s outing. It was an excellent way to spend a Saturday night.

And of course we did yukata purikura. Obviously.

A New Venture

Friends, I have a confession to make: I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I get asked a lot, probably because I’m old enough that people think I should know, but I don’t have an answer. I tell them that, well, I’m going to go get an MBA because it seems like a smart, practical thing to do and I miss being in school. I tell them that I want to continue studying Japanese (though that has since expanded into also reviewing my Spanish and now tackling basic Hungarian because I’d love to be a proper polyglot). I tell them I want to travel. But none of those things are careers because, well, I don’t have aspirations that specific at this point. I want to do a lot of things and I’m not ready to settle on one at the exclusion of all others. I’ve got time.

However, one thing I would love to be is a travel writer. Any kind of writer, really, because writing is like breathing for me (I honestly don’t know what I’d do with myself if I didn’t write), but I love to travel and it would be amazing to combine the two. So I’ve decided to start a travel blog. A lot of the early entries are going to be based on material from this blog, but this blog is by nature personal and I want to try my hand at something more informative and of general interest. Also on a proper posting schedule, unlike the random, sporadic attempt I’ve made over here (sorry, guys). I’m still going to keep this blog going, of course, because where else would I talk about my life? But I want to do something different, something new, and this feels good.

If you’re interested in checking it out, you can find it here at The Half-Open Window.

As for Haecceity, I’ll be back this weekend with a post about yukata season here in 日本, complete with pictures of me and some friends and fellow ALTs dressed up. 15 days till I head back to the States and still 2359024.5 things to do, but I’m getting there.

Interlude: Japan’s Anti-Nuclear Protest Music

Yes, I’m taking a break from all the move-related stuff to talk about something that isn’t getting much attention: Japan’s wave of anti-nuclear protest music. Basically, in the months since the earthquake there’s been a pretty decent movement of protest songs, but they aren’t really getting much play because the radio stations and record companies are avoiding them. My favorite is the following, by Kazuyoshi Saito. He took one of his own songs, called ずっと好きだった and rewrote the lyrics as ずっとうそだった (it was always a lie). And then got in trouble with his record company for releasing a video of it on the internet. But once you’ve put it out there, there’s no way to take it back (the internet is basically Pandora’s Box), so it’s still easy to find. Like right here. I’ve translated it to the best of my abilities, more for curiosity’s sake than anything else. I just think it’s fascinating.

“If you walk around this country, there are 54 nuclear power plants
Textbooks and commercials were always telling us “it’s safe”
They cheated us and now their excuse is “it was beyond expectations”
I miss that sky, ticklish black rain

It was always a lie
It’s all coming out
It really was always a lie
That nuclear plants are safe

It was always a lie
I want to eat spinach
It really was always a lie
You knew it would happen

We cannot stop the pollution in the air
How many will be exposed to the radiation before the government realizes?

Did those who escaped from this town find good water?
Please tell me
No, I don’t want to know anymore
Because now there is nowhere we can escape to

It was always shit
Toden, Hokuden, Chuden, Kyuden*
Though I wouldn’t continue dreaming anymore

It was always shit
But they still want to continue
It really was always shit
This feeling that I want to act

It was always shit
It really was always shit”

*Toden is Tokyo Electric Power Company, Hokuden is Hokkaido Electric Power Company, Chuden is Chubu Electric Power Company, and Kyuden is Kyushu Electric Power Company. If you aren’t sure, Toden is TEPCO. It’s just that Toden abbreviates the Japanese while TEPCO abbreviates the English (den is short for denryoku – electric power).

I hope this was of some interest to someone. If nothing else, it was good Japanese practice for me and that’s always a plus.

So Tired of Cleaning… Already

My apartment check from the Board of Education is tomorrow at 5, so I spent a good chunk of today watching review videos at The Cinema Snob while sorting out  all the paper and cardboard (to be taken out under cover of darkness) and getting a couple of boxes taped up and ready to be shipped. I don’t think they’re looking for how clean the place is, since I’m not moving out for almost a month yet, so much as making sure nothing needs to be repaired or replaced. Nevertheless, it’ll make me look better if I’m obviously working on it, and getting trash out is visible progress. I’ve also taken some stuff down from the walls, dumped a lot of drain cleaner in the shower drain, and cleaned the bathroom sink. I’ll try to get to the dishes tonight before calling it good.

I’m already kind of sick of this ordeal, to be honest. At least I still have four weeks, and I’m planning to use the last of my vacation from 7/21, so I have time, but it’s a pain in the ass. Especially since I’m apparently supposed to get rid of everything non-essential (so if it’s not furniture and appliances, it needs to be gone). I don’t like that because I have non-perishable food that’s never been opened and I have serious issues with just throwing it away. I’m going to try to talk to my successor about it and then tell the BOE that, it’s fine, they know that there’s going to be stuff here. Because that is seriously もったいない.

In other news, today I spent way too much money at a stationary store. My new thing is scrapbooking (except not really – they’re more just decorated photo albums) and Japan has fantastic scrapbooking supplies. At least it’s not big stuff, so it shouldn’t add too much to my packing up to go back to the States. I also got stuff to make little thank-you cards for the English assistants I’ve worked with this year, my boss, and the JET support person. And probably not for a bunch of other people because it’s way too easy to let that spiral into making 3529031 cards and not getting any rest until August.

As a final note for this fairly lackluster blog post, this weekend was a bit sad because my friend Alicia left Japan to return to Trinidad (her home country) yesterday. She has an important job interview, so she broke her contract to leave three and a half weeks early. So that was sad and I already miss her a lot. We did get to do a last round of purikura last weekend, though, and I saw her Friday night when she was getting the last of her stuff packed up and taken care of, so that was good.

Alicia (top), me, and my other JET friend Nicky last weekend

And that’s it for tonight. I’m thinking about doing some video blogging at some point, even though that’s not my usual medium at all, just for the hell of it. My MacBook Pro has a webcam and it can do video, so it’s not like I’d need any special equipment. We’ll see if I ever get around to it.

The End Times Are Upon Us

That sounds way more ominous than what’s actually going on. What I’m really referring to is the impending end of my JET contract: 32 days from tomorrow I’m off, which means I need to get my apartment cleaned and all my stuff sorted out and packed up… sometime before then. And, let me tell you, one accumulates a lot of stuff in a year. I don’t even know where it all came from, but I currently have a stupid amount of paper and cardboard chilling in my kitchen waiting to be removed from the premises.

Where did it all come from? And why didn't I throw it away months ago?

You can also see the edge of one of the boxes I’m packing up to ship to my parents’ house.

On the plus side, when I’m not flailing around trying to clean and consolidate, this move is forcing me to seriously downsize my wardrobe. Since I do have limits on how much I can take back, I’m getting rid of a lot of stuff. I have two piles going in my bedroom: the stuff that’s in good enough shape to sell to Off-House, and the stuff that’s just going to the bin. Some of it is practically new, because I bought it right before coming to Japan, then dropped a ton of weight, and the rest is either worn out or things I never wear. I tend to get sentimental and keep clothes, but I can’t afford to deal with things I don’t use, so out with them.

I did discover the wonders of the M-Bag, though, for my books. If you’ve never done any major international shipping, the M-bag is a cheap rate for printed material (and nothing else). My bag of books is 6kg and my bag of dictionaries and Japanese study materials is 9kg because dictionaries are heavy. I’d like to send them together, though, because 15kg is ¥10,000 cheaper than one 6kg and one 9kg bag separately. Either way, it won’t be more than ¥14,000 ($173) and that’s really cheap for the weight. 15kg, by the way, is 33lbs.

When all is said and done, I’m probably going to be shipping four boxes of varying sizes (guess how many boxes I had in the closet), by SAL (cheaper than air, less worrisome than ground), plus the books. Which isn’t too bad. I’m pretty okay with that amount.

So that’s where I am at the moment. Busy busy busy, but looking forward to going home for a while.

(Note to self: buy packing tape tomorrow.)

Tokyo in June

It's Ueno!

Last weekend (6/18-6/20), I went up to Tokyo for one last time before finishing this job and saying peace out to Ehime. I fly out of Narita, back to Seattle, on Sunday 7/31, and there are no national holidays left till Marine Day about 10 days before I leave, so this really was my last chance. And it was nice! Tokyo stopped being exciting for me a while ago, since my first time living in Japan was in Saitama, which is basically the Tokyo metro area, and I’ve been up there several times in the past year. But I still love the city and my next Japan adventure is definitely going to be Tokyo-based, so I wasn’t bored spending a weekend up there.

Anyway, I went up Friday night after work, on the last train, and it was stupidly packed. I was getting over viral plague and coughing a lot, so that was unpleasant, but I was really lucky in getting a seat on the shinkansen at Okayama because about ten people in my car were left standing. I did get stuck next to a business who splattered me with his chu-hi, but I lived. I don’t know why, but every train was crowded that night. It was really tight on the Yamanote train I had to take from Tokyo Station to Ueno, too.

Saturday, predictably, I shopped. Originally, I’d hoped to go out to my host family’s that day, but I had trouble reaching them on the phone and it ended up being put off till Sunday dinner. Instead, I spent the day bopping around town spending money. I did some shopping at 109, where they were having a sale that was never fully explained to me, and bought a couple of things in between having some nice chats with staff shop. One of the reasons I really like shopping at Gal brand stores is the customer service – most of the shops don’t have that many employees, so chances are good that you’ll see the same people every time you pop in. Since I don’t live in the Tokyo area, I don’t have that so much with 109 stores, but I definitely have go-to girls at the Spiral Girl and Murua in Matsuyama.

Sunday was definitely the highlight of the weekend, though. Late morning, I headed to Shinjuku to meet up with Sara Mari from Moments Like Diamonds and it was so much fun. Sara is delightful and I had a really lovely time chatting with her all afternoon. We went to Italian Tomato (やっぱり) for lunch and ended up sitting there for a couple of hours chatting, then we walked around a bit, including a wander through Alta. I had to go out to Kawagoe at about 4, but before that we, of course, had time for purikura!

Purikura: activity of choice for Japanese schoolgirls and young foreign women.

In the arcade, we tried our luck at the UFO catchers, but neither of us did very well. Unlike my sister, I kind of suck. But the puri was fun – the machines always make you look so good. The newer machines, like the one we tried, also enhance eyes, which is a little hilarious when you already have big eyes like both Sara and I do. This one wasn’t bad, though, I’ve definitely had some make me look like an alien.

Then, like I said, I was off to Kawagoe to see my host family. We had sukiyaki, since they know how much I love it, and I got to see one of my host sisters, and it was nice and relaxing. I always feel really nostalgic when I go to Kawagoe, since I used to live there, and being back at the Minagawas is that nostalgia times ten. Just like when I go home (as in, to my parents’ house), I know how their house feels and smells and where everything is and it doesn’t feel like being a guest so much as visiting family. Which is a good thing – one of the reasons I’m more attached to Kanto than to Shikoku is that I have roots and history there in a way that I just don’t here.

So that was my Tokyo weekend! The last for a while, but I do plan to come back to Japan for language school next year (July, not June, since Mariel’s high school graduation is in June), so it’s not like it’s the last time ever. I would have been a lot sadder leaving without that in mind. Instead, it was a much needed break and now I can try to focus on getting everything sorted here. Almost exactly five weeks till I’ll be back on US soil.