A preface
I wouldn't really consider myself the "blogging" type, as I generally don't like to publicize my life. But I've received plenty of advice about keeping some kind of journal on my little adventure, for both my own and others sake. After thinking about it, I think these individuals are right, and now is a good time to start such an endeavor.
I leave for Japan in about 10 days. Weird to think how different everything will be for me in about 2 weeks. Packing/thinking about packing will probably take up most of these last days, though I hope to squeeze one last trip in. Boston if I get super ambitious (and get some money), though I'd like to take one last trip to Lancaster as well.
Just to warn everyone don't expect pictures too soon after my arrival, I won't be leaving with a camera. Our house has only one digital camera that is pretty old, and I'm not sure I want to go through the process of developing photos in Japan, at least initially. But I figure why not buy a small piece of consumer digital technology while actually living in the land where so much of it comes from. I also assume the camera will be able to morph into some kind of dancing robot, an added bonus.
For everyone's information, I will be living, bureaucratically speaking, in Takasaki-shi in Gunma-ken, 50 or 60km northwest of Tokyo if I remember correctly. More accurately I will be in (former) Gunma-machi, a small suburb of the small/medium sized city of Takasaki, which has been legally fused into its nearby city. The Japanese love bureaucratically combining smaller areas into convenient population zones, making it that much easier to obsessively organize society without directly dealing with locals. Really any information about my upcoming life in Japan is still a mystery to me, though my predecessor Debbie has been unbelievably helpful in sorting things out for me and giving me some helpful insight into our area. The only part that scares me is the apparent need of a car to get around. I'm not really a huge fan of driving in the States, even with our big roads and English road signs. But driving in a place with narrow roads, Japanese road signs, and where they drive on the LEFT sort of freaks me out. Plus what 21 year old wants to pay for a vehicle in a country famous for its public transportation? Oh well, I guess its famous for its little efficient cars too.
This will be my second time living outside of the States for any significant period of time, though the place and circumstance are quite different. I'm not a student anymore, I will be a worker, Just like the many million other Japanese people I will be surrounded by. Though I suppose in both cases there is some greater program that sort of babies me. Not to mention both Denmark and Japan have governments that kind of baby their population, at least compared to the not so maternal US gov. The similarities strike me sometimes; both Scandinavians and Japanese love technological gadgets, sleek inhuman modernism, prohibitively expensive everything, trains, throwing themselves in front of those well maintained and punctual trains, and drinking pretty good beer. At least this time around my height won't be an embarrassing blow to my masculinity. I don't expect to have any trouble reaching the ceiling bars on the subways in Japan. And I hope never to relive the moment I walked into a bathroom at a Danish bar, only to find a urinal slightly above my reach. Funny how whoever put that urinal there simply assumed anyone with a penis must be AT LEAST six feet tall.
Japan is obviously a very different place than anywhere in Europe, even if many of their institutions are borrowed from there. I found Danes to be remarkably impolite (though still friendly somehow) and their demeanor incredibly casual. But the Japanese LIVE for politeness and formality, as anyone whos studied the language frustratingly knows. They practically have a whole seperate set of words and grammar for those important and frequent moments when being as polite as possible is of the utmost importance. Sounds more British to me really, only without the sarcasm. Something about small island-country people makes them think that stuffy politeness and hiding your true feelings behind roundabout dialog is the best way to run a society. Maybe all that leftover energy was concentrated into nationalism and conquering the world?
I don't REALLY know anything about Japan, because I've never been there. But I do know that after studying the language for two years they must be at least a little crazy to remember all those damn Kanji. I do like noodles and seafood a lot though, so I should be ok. In the mean time, I'm just tellin myself to keep my eye on the prize... eye on the prize...
-Aaron
posted by Aaron @ 5:48 PM
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