Genki desu!
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2008
1
3
5
Trip End
Aug 02, 2008
Tokyo,
Japan
Friday, April 4, 2008
It has been over a month since I have been living in Japan - and time just flies. I feel a bizarre mix - where I feel like I have lived here for so long and on another side - that I really have just gotten here. I can say I haven't been home sick yet ... or emotional in any way - which for those of you who know me .. will find that quite surprising!
In the last month I have taught over 150 lessons .... which apparently according to my colleagues is quite amazing for a new comer
Beautiful cherry blossom close to home
. I have met some very interesting people; Japanese surfer, a women DJ, a makeup artist, the top CEO of a big company and the typical Japanese housewife that complains how much her husband works ( which I think she deep down really appreciates). I have been told many times - from foreigners and Japanese - about the Japanese male work ethic. Men would basically rather work long hours, go our for drinks with co workers and never go home than spend time at home with their children and wife. I believe this to be partly true as I have talked to many of my clients and many complain about feeling lonely and wanting to be at home BUT when you take the subway in this city you can't help but start to believe this 'myth?'. Men are out wit coworkers all the time and all times of the day - usually after 7pm they are drunk and they seem to always be procrastinating to go back home .. why? I don't know ... some men tell me their wives are too demanding and boring! Couples and relationships go through stages in Japan (well kinda of life back in Canada) - couples get married usually not out of love but obligation and status - have children and then try to live far from each other. The mother spends most of her time at home with the kids and the man at work earning the big bucks! A lot of women try to get away from this by working but considering women still earn about 66% of what men earn ... its hard to get a high position and work your way up like men. Enough about my sociological observations!
Friends at Ueno Park
General observations:
- they talk about money all the time - asking how much things cost, if it was expensive or cheap .. and in a ride way ... but getting to used to it! For example as I am writing this my sister just said: ' this must be expensive?' talking about Tim Tams ( Australian cookies) I just bought the family ....
- Japanese TV shows - WOW! its interesting all right! We can spend 30 minutes watching people eating bowls and bowls of food - and they find that entertaining! I am still trying to figure that one out!
- girls do their makeup in the subway, curl their hair in restaurants, pluck their eyebrows in subways, constantly laugh with their hands in front of their months (to now show emotion)
- I learned Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world - one of my client explains this by the high rate of bullying that just started recently in high schools - this is a bit naive to assume it only started a few years ago
- In one of my lessons I have to teach to predict .. an example from the book is ' what will happen to you if you walk down the street late at night .... now even though I don't believe anything would happen to you ..
Japanese men celebrating Hanami
. in the West we are so brainwashed with the idea that we will get attacked if we are alone late at night .. well for the two times i taught this .. it took my clients 10 minutes to think of what could happen to them .. its all a bit naive ... One last remark - there are people everywhere in this city .. I do not know where they are all going, what they are doing ... but its intense .. so many people everywhere at all times of the day .. I am never alone ..
Which sometimes can be a good thing .. for example the other night .. I went out for drinks with a friend after work ... the last train stops at midnight .. so I had to run to catch my first train to then make my second .. I was running .. and stressing but I made my last one .. without looking at the direction ... this specific train stopped two stations before my home station .. so I met a friendly women and we walked together for 50 minutes ... and the she walked me to my house .. we even ate cookies together which I offered her and which her accepted no problem ( whereas back home .. you are always told to never accept food from strangers!)
( written a week later) Ok ... so it took me a while before I sent this cause I wanted to attach some pictures about my Karaoke night - Japanese style
Hanami - cherry blosso viewing
! .. it was worth the wait ... I can also say that I have gotten home sick .... but those are the joys and pain of traveling I guess ....
I think of you all lots ....
much love, Raph
ps - Go habs go!!!!
ps - my phone number: 090 8490 3122
my home address: 136-0076,
5-8-13-1301, minamisuna,koto-ku, TOKYO JAPAN
Comments
a month in...
It's weird being somewhere a month, eh? Or at least in that ball-park. Because in regular time it's not that long. 30 days? A blink of an eye. But in a new place it's funny how quickly acclimatized you become. So actually it feels like you've been there for ages. It's like a time warp. The further from home you are, the slower time goes by. Which, of course is accurate if you were flying towards Pluto in a spaceship - so let us assume it is accurate here too.
Also, it makes more sense that you are becoming a little homesick, I wondered it you too had started hiding those emotions away. Glad to see they're still hanging around! Great stories and amazing observations, can't wait to hear more.