The closer my departure from Japan gets, the more I think about how much I’ve learned and changed these past few months. I definitely feel like a different person will be going back to Wisconsin than the one who left it.
For one, I’d say I’m a far more adventurous eater. I wasn’t exactly picky before I left home, but I definitely wasn’t so throw all caution to the wind when it comes to food as I am now. The only thing I’ve been offered in Japan that I didn’t try was raw hamburger and raw egg mixed up together and that was mostly because my stomach had been hurting that day and I didn’t think I would be doing it any favors if I ate such a concoction. Otherwise, every bit of food that’s been put before me I’ve given a go. There’s been more times than I can count where I stuffed something in my mouth and only learned later what in the heck I ate. And now I’m leaving Japan knowing that I quite like squid, octopus and salmon, I really don’t like tuna, okonomiyaki is one of my favorite foods, I don’t mind sushi, and that tempura ice cream is possibly the greatest thing ever invented.
The above paragraph can be viewed as another example of a way in which Japan has changed me: I’ve settled on opinions that I didn’t even know I had. Leaving Japan, I know how I feel about the Futenma Air Base, for example, and kisha clubs. I can have a conversation about Japan/US relations throughout history or discuss orientalism and nihonjinron. I know who the burakumin are and who Hatoyama is. I can tell you about Tulle Lake and talk about defamation laws in Japan. I can even sign my name in Japanese Sign Language. So while I’ve had more academically challenging semesters in the past (more papers, etc), I’ve learned quite a lot this semester.
And more than just widening my palate and learning a bunch of stuff about Japan, I came to understand a lot more about my own nationality and culture. Before I came to Japan, I never really considered American culture as legitimate (for lack of a better word). I thought the United States was just this salad bowl of things taken from other, more interesting places and dulled down, but that we didn’t have anything that was purely American. Now I can see that, yeah, the United States does have a unique culture of its own and that while Americans have ties and ancestry from all corners of the world, we have a set of ideals that binds us together to make us distinctly American. (Though the political talking heads might have us think otherwise.)
Being in Japan, I’ve gotten the smallest sliver of a taste of what it might be like to be an immigrant. It sucks. But seriously, now whenever I think about how people get so up in arms about having Spanish next to English on labels and things, I get really, really annoyed and I see it for the xenophobia that it is. Learning a language is hard. Balls hard. And being in another country where you don’t speak the language, where even if you do speak it you can’t pick up on all the cultural nuances, it’s scary and beyond frustrating. You feel like an idiot 98% of the time and I’ll admit, there were a couple of moments this past semester when I had a good cry because trying to learn Japanese felt so futile and pointless. I can’t begin to imagine picking up everything and moving to permanently live in a foreign country where they don’t speak the same language as you do. Before I came to this country, I’ll admit, I didn’t know quite where I stood on the issue of immigration. Now that I’ve experienced for myself a little bit of what it might be like to be an immigrant, I know where my sympathies lie.
Speaking of xenophobia, I don’t think I ever truly realized how isolated the United States is from other countries. It’s like our mentality is to see the world from only one perspective: ours. We think Africa’s a country and we think Japan and China are synonymous with one another. Most people in the United States don’t have passports and have never been out of the country, not even to Canada or Mexico. We get upset when our president is diplomatic with world leaders and we expect other people to learn our language, not the other way around. In school, we’re taught American history again and again, but we only get one year of world history. We only know one piece of the whole (and I would argue we don’t even know that piece very well). What I don’t understand is why. Why don’t we know our neighbors better? Why are we constantly going around with this “us versus them” ideology? As Zefron would say, we’re all in this together. ;)
Last August, it was like I was looking at a pointillism painting and only seeing dots. Now I feel like Japan has caused me take a few steps back and I can actually see what image those dots form to make. I’m so, so grateful for this fine adventure I’ve had the privilege to have. I truly feel like it’s changed me for the better and I can’t wait to see and experience more of this crazy, fantastic world we live in.
I’ll see you in England.
EDIT: Sorry for the continued text heaviness of this post, but I wasn't able to write about my actual departure, so I thought I'd do so here. Leaving Japan was very hard for me. I don't think I've ever experienced such an emotional roller coaster before. I was happy and excited to come home and see my family and friends, but also devastated to leave what had become my Japan home. I cried saying good bye to my awesome speaking partner, Rina, I cried (multiple times) saying good bye to my wonderful-beyond-words host family, and I cried on the plane as I said good bye to Osaka and I cried on the plane as I took off from my layover in Tokyo saying sayonara to Japan. I feel like I left a part of myself behind in Japan and I dearly hope I'll be returning one day. I became close to some great people and made a lot of fantastic friends who I'm not ready to say a permanent good bye to just yet.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Hiroshima
(note: written last Monday)
Last weekend I went to Hiroshima with two friends as a sort of last big hurrah. Hiroshima was one of the places I most wanted to go during my stay here in Japan, so I’m really glad I finally had the opportunity. I woke up incredibly early Saturday morning and my host dad drove me down to Hirakata station to meet up with my travelling companions. We took a train to Kyoto and then from Kyoto went to Hiroshima via shinkansen. The shinkansen was on the expensive side (even with a student discount), but it was a very cool way to travel. It was almost like being on an airplane, only on the ground instead.
We made it to Hiroshima in about an hour (it took us six hours by bus on the return trip to Osaka). After that we promptly got lost looking for our hostel (one thing I’m looking forward to in the US: street names!), but eventually found it after twenty minutes or so of searching and asking for directions. It was my first experience at a hostel, so I have nothing to compare it with, but it was incredibly nice and clean. Much better than a lot of hotels and motels I’ve stayed in. I especially liked the beds. I don’t think I’d realized how much I’ve missed having a soft, downy comforter until I climbed into my hostel bed later that night (the blankets I use at my home stay get the job done but are on the thin and scratchy side).
We left our hostel after checking in and took a tram and then a ferry to Miyajima, which is this island that’s about ten minutes or so away from the mainland. Approaching it, it was so mountainous it kind of reminded me of Jurassic Park. But no dinosaurs met us when we walked off the ferry, just deer! Like Nara, there were deer walking amongst the tourists. They look cute, but watch out. One of my friends and I decided to buy ourselves some ice cream cones and we quickly learned that deer like ice cream too. We had a mob of deer following us around, nudging us, and staring us down (one even tried to rise up on his hind legs to get a taste of my ice cream cone). The Japanese people around us were pretty amused and though a nice woman took pity on me and tried to rescue me by attempting to get one particularly intent deer’s attention off of me, the gang of deer wasn’t satisfied until I relinquished my ice cream to them. (And even after that they were still shoving their noses into my pockets and my hands, looking for more food!)
But the reason we went to Miyajima wasn’t because we wanted to be harassed by deer. Miyajima actually has a huge torii gate a little ways off shore. It was really cool to see it rising out of the water. It was a cloudy day, so the torii definitely brightened up the horizon. I don’t know what it is, but I really find torii aesthetically pleasing. Suffice it to say, I took plenty of photos.
While we waited for our return ferry to pick us up, we wandered through a couple shops and I polished off the rest of my Christmas shopping. I’m really excited to give gifts this year – though I’m worried they won’t all be well received (I did my best!). We had lunch at a tiny little restaurant. I had donburi (beef, egg, onion and rice). I need to copy down some Japanese recipes before I leave because there are quite a few things I hope I can make when I return home/am fending for myself in England.
Once we were back on the mainland, we took another tram to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. First we wandered around the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, which used to be a government building/city hall. The atomic bomb was dropped almost directly over it, so it’s still standing (though in ruins). We also saw a section of the park that has a bunch of glass cases filled with paper crane chains. (If you fold a thousand paper cranes, you get to make a wish that will come true.) The paper cranes were folded by school children and the like so that their wish for world peace/no more atomic bombs would be fulfilled.
We then headed to the Hiroshima museum, but before we could get there we were stopped by Jehovah’s Witnesses. (They really are everywhere!). We didn’t quite know what to do to escape (the museum was closing soon), but luckily one of my friends pretended to get a phone call from another friend and we excused ourselves, saying we had to go meet him somewhere. Our escape successful, we entered the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It was packed and near closing time, but we still managed to see everything.
In school we’re never encouraged to see it from the other side. The United States is always in the right, always valiant. So seeing an aspect of World War II from Japan’s side was really eye-opening for me. Walking through the displays of tattered clothing from the blast, stopped watches, and other mangled objects and thinking about their owners was really jarring. The museum had two models on their main floor: one of Hiroshima before the bomb and one after. I don’t think I ever quite realized just how flattened the city was. There was barely a building standing. Hiroshima was a wasteland.
I think, for me, the three things that affected me most strongly was the little blurb about dummy bombs, an elementary school uniform and a paper crane. Let me explain. The dummy bombs chart/description was about the number of dummy bombs the United States dropped on Japan prior to the atomic bomb. A different technique was used with the atomic bomb, so pilots had to practice. This practice came at the cost of Japanese civilian lives. To me the idea of killing other people for the practice seems incredibly reprehensible.
The elementary school uniform was in tatters and shreds and it was hard not to think of my own host brother and sister. Little kids suffering and dying in the most horrendous of ways is stomach turning to anyone, but when you can imagine it happening to someone you know and care about, it’s truly horrendous. As for the paper crane, one display told the story of this sixth grade girl who contracted leukemia due to the radiation from the bomb. She folded a thousand paper cranes (and eventually more than that) with the hope that by doing so her wish to become well again would come true. It’s hard to put into words what seeing her little paper cranes and the photo of her, this little girl, in a coffin filled with flowers was like.
The museum really made me marvel at what people are willing to do to other people and I can’t help wondering what the world would be like if we put as much effort into helping people as we do into killing them.
After the museum, we decided to cheer ourselves up by looking at all these beautiful lights on a nearby main street and eating some ice cream at this place reminiscent of Cold Stone. We went window shopping for a while as well, though I didn’t buy anything besides omiyage for my host family. (In Japan, when you go somewhere on a trip you’re expected to bring back a souvenir or gift of some kind.) I bought some whiskey bon bons for my host parents and some chocolates for my host siblings. I think my host mom and dad especially appreciated the bon bons. (They were gone in a matter of minutes!).
We ended up not going out to eat and just hitting up a convenience store instead. I wasn’t hungry at all, so I stuck with water and bought a cinnamon roll for the next morning. We headed back to the hostel and managed to find it after getting lost again, and gratefully crawled under our warm, cushy blankets.
W e woke up early Sunday morning to check out of the hostel and after getting lost (noticing a theme here?) we managed to find our way to the bus that was going to take us back to Osaka. I was a little worried about the six hour bus ride, but it went by surprisingly fast. Hopefully my long plane ride home will feel just as short. I read a book (Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki), ate my cinnamon roll, and wore down the battery on my iPod. After we arrived in Osaka, we took the subway to Hirakata station where we ate at Mos Burger (the Japanese equivalent of McDonald’s only, you know, actually tasty and filling) and then went our separate ways.
I came back home, had dinner and then realized I hadn’t studied at all for my Japanese test the next morning. I stayed up late to study, but I’m not sure it saved me. I guess we’ll find out when I get my test results back.
I have four exams left and a paper to write, but after that I’m free!
Last weekend I went to Hiroshima with two friends as a sort of last big hurrah. Hiroshima was one of the places I most wanted to go during my stay here in Japan, so I’m really glad I finally had the opportunity. I woke up incredibly early Saturday morning and my host dad drove me down to Hirakata station to meet up with my travelling companions. We took a train to Kyoto and then from Kyoto went to Hiroshima via shinkansen. The shinkansen was on the expensive side (even with a student discount), but it was a very cool way to travel. It was almost like being on an airplane, only on the ground instead.
We made it to Hiroshima in about an hour (it took us six hours by bus on the return trip to Osaka). After that we promptly got lost looking for our hostel (one thing I’m looking forward to in the US: street names!), but eventually found it after twenty minutes or so of searching and asking for directions. It was my first experience at a hostel, so I have nothing to compare it with, but it was incredibly nice and clean. Much better than a lot of hotels and motels I’ve stayed in. I especially liked the beds. I don’t think I’d realized how much I’ve missed having a soft, downy comforter until I climbed into my hostel bed later that night (the blankets I use at my home stay get the job done but are on the thin and scratchy side).
We left our hostel after checking in and took a tram and then a ferry to Miyajima, which is this island that’s about ten minutes or so away from the mainland. Approaching it, it was so mountainous it kind of reminded me of Jurassic Park. But no dinosaurs met us when we walked off the ferry, just deer! Like Nara, there were deer walking amongst the tourists. They look cute, but watch out. One of my friends and I decided to buy ourselves some ice cream cones and we quickly learned that deer like ice cream too. We had a mob of deer following us around, nudging us, and staring us down (one even tried to rise up on his hind legs to get a taste of my ice cream cone). The Japanese people around us were pretty amused and though a nice woman took pity on me and tried to rescue me by attempting to get one particularly intent deer’s attention off of me, the gang of deer wasn’t satisfied until I relinquished my ice cream to them. (And even after that they were still shoving their noses into my pockets and my hands, looking for more food!)
But the reason we went to Miyajima wasn’t because we wanted to be harassed by deer. Miyajima actually has a huge torii gate a little ways off shore. It was really cool to see it rising out of the water. It was a cloudy day, so the torii definitely brightened up the horizon. I don’t know what it is, but I really find torii aesthetically pleasing. Suffice it to say, I took plenty of photos.
While we waited for our return ferry to pick us up, we wandered through a couple shops and I polished off the rest of my Christmas shopping. I’m really excited to give gifts this year – though I’m worried they won’t all be well received (I did my best!). We had lunch at a tiny little restaurant. I had donburi (beef, egg, onion and rice). I need to copy down some Japanese recipes before I leave because there are quite a few things I hope I can make when I return home/am fending for myself in England.
Once we were back on the mainland, we took another tram to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. First we wandered around the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, which used to be a government building/city hall. The atomic bomb was dropped almost directly over it, so it’s still standing (though in ruins). We also saw a section of the park that has a bunch of glass cases filled with paper crane chains. (If you fold a thousand paper cranes, you get to make a wish that will come true.) The paper cranes were folded by school children and the like so that their wish for world peace/no more atomic bombs would be fulfilled.
We then headed to the Hiroshima museum, but before we could get there we were stopped by Jehovah’s Witnesses. (They really are everywhere!). We didn’t quite know what to do to escape (the museum was closing soon), but luckily one of my friends pretended to get a phone call from another friend and we excused ourselves, saying we had to go meet him somewhere. Our escape successful, we entered the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It was packed and near closing time, but we still managed to see everything.
In school we’re never encouraged to see it from the other side. The United States is always in the right, always valiant. So seeing an aspect of World War II from Japan’s side was really eye-opening for me. Walking through the displays of tattered clothing from the blast, stopped watches, and other mangled objects and thinking about their owners was really jarring. The museum had two models on their main floor: one of Hiroshima before the bomb and one after. I don’t think I ever quite realized just how flattened the city was. There was barely a building standing. Hiroshima was a wasteland.
I think, for me, the three things that affected me most strongly was the little blurb about dummy bombs, an elementary school uniform and a paper crane. Let me explain. The dummy bombs chart/description was about the number of dummy bombs the United States dropped on Japan prior to the atomic bomb. A different technique was used with the atomic bomb, so pilots had to practice. This practice came at the cost of Japanese civilian lives. To me the idea of killing other people for the practice seems incredibly reprehensible.
The elementary school uniform was in tatters and shreds and it was hard not to think of my own host brother and sister. Little kids suffering and dying in the most horrendous of ways is stomach turning to anyone, but when you can imagine it happening to someone you know and care about, it’s truly horrendous. As for the paper crane, one display told the story of this sixth grade girl who contracted leukemia due to the radiation from the bomb. She folded a thousand paper cranes (and eventually more than that) with the hope that by doing so her wish to become well again would come true. It’s hard to put into words what seeing her little paper cranes and the photo of her, this little girl, in a coffin filled with flowers was like.
The museum really made me marvel at what people are willing to do to other people and I can’t help wondering what the world would be like if we put as much effort into helping people as we do into killing them.
After the museum, we decided to cheer ourselves up by looking at all these beautiful lights on a nearby main street and eating some ice cream at this place reminiscent of Cold Stone. We went window shopping for a while as well, though I didn’t buy anything besides omiyage for my host family. (In Japan, when you go somewhere on a trip you’re expected to bring back a souvenir or gift of some kind.) I bought some whiskey bon bons for my host parents and some chocolates for my host siblings. I think my host mom and dad especially appreciated the bon bons. (They were gone in a matter of minutes!).
We ended up not going out to eat and just hitting up a convenience store instead. I wasn’t hungry at all, so I stuck with water and bought a cinnamon roll for the next morning. We headed back to the hostel and managed to find it after getting lost again, and gratefully crawled under our warm, cushy blankets.
W e woke up early Sunday morning to check out of the hostel and after getting lost (noticing a theme here?) we managed to find our way to the bus that was going to take us back to Osaka. I was a little worried about the six hour bus ride, but it went by surprisingly fast. Hopefully my long plane ride home will feel just as short. I read a book (Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki), ate my cinnamon roll, and wore down the battery on my iPod. After we arrived in Osaka, we took the subway to Hirakata station where we ate at Mos Burger (the Japanese equivalent of McDonald’s only, you know, actually tasty and filling) and then went our separate ways.
I came back home, had dinner and then realized I hadn’t studied at all for my Japanese test the next morning. I stayed up late to study, but I’m not sure it saved me. I guess we’ll find out when I get my test results back.
I have four exams left and a paper to write, but after that I’m free!
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