Time & Ironies

I realize there has been an inordinate amount of silence from me since my last update. There are probably a few reasons for this, or what some might consider excuses.

The first reason, is that the longer I am in Japan, the more detached I feel from my home in Washington. Not in a geographical sense, since Washington will always be considered "home" to me, but in a relational sense. The world continues both here and there, and I am in this one, not that one. So that one exists without me in it, and moves forward, leaving me feeling that I don't fit there anymore. I figured this could happen, but how odd the sense is that your world is essentially no longer your world. So, in sum, this sense of detachment has left me less motivated to update... not that I don't want to share the goings-on with everyone, but simply that is asserts itself as less important... due to its normalcy.

Secondly, there was a wedding. Yes, my wedding. I don't care to write about the details on this blog, but this May wedding, around my birthday, was another distraction from writing and so has been the subsequent transition.

What else? Perhaps the feeling of normalcy. Things aren't new anymore. Not like they were anyway... the sparkle and dazzle has faded into somewhat of a matte. Things just are what they are. This doesn't mean I don't question things or wonder about them, but for the most part, things just are.

Lastly, it is time to say goodbye again. Not to Japan, but to Fukuroi. I just found out that I will be transferred to Shimada High School, in Shimada, Shizuoka. David will be going to Shimada Technical High School (also in Shimada). So, we're definitely happy we are placed close together and also excited about our new surroundings and starting a completely new life together. Just in these moments I'm also quite sad to say goodbye to some of the students and teachers and others I have met and built relationships with, despite the language barrier. Yet, it is time.

And moving. Again. It seems that, moving once a year has become a tradition for me. Every year, I pack up and move everything to a completely new apartment. In some ways, this probably helps me not to accumulate too much stuff, in other ways, it doesn't give me a sense of home yet. I'm hoping eventually, David and I will be able to develop that somewhere... and I'm sure we will. Then I can get a cat.

Things in Japan - the bugs are back in full force, and more so then the last time I said this. I kill about 2-4 mosquitoes (in my apartment) a day. I have bug bites that continue to appear. There are tiny little bugs crawling around. A few weeks ago a giant centipede suddenly appeared, sitting on a pair of pants. I screamed, grabbed the vacuum, and kept screaming as it kept maneuvering away. Then, as I was grabbing my trash bags to put out for collection, a giant spider suddenly started scampering out from beneath them. Again, I screamed, dropped the garbage bags, grabbed one of my shoes and kept trying to throw it at the spider (while screaming). Eventually I got it. Now I always pick up the garbage bags with caution.

I've also had two wasps try to build nests around my apartment. They are dead now.

I don't know what it is about me that the bugs love so much. Dirty little pests.

I've also been noticing various ironies in this dear country. For one, modesty here is an irony. Japan doesn't really have a taboo on nudity like Western countries do (although that continually changes). Yet, they are quite stringent about things like women ALWAYS wearing panty hose with skirts, especially to work. Even if they aren't going to work though, they still wear them. No one ever goes out without them. Or, the fact that in the U.S. at least, women tend to err on the side of caution, by wearing underwear with panty lines with dress pants and such. Japan however, seems to not even know what a thong is, or invisible panty-line underwear, because you can always see it. Same with bra lines or wearing a bra under a white shirt. There seems to be some strange misunderstanding about white shirts - do people really think it is fine to just wear a bra under that? Everyone else can see it. It makes little sense... why where panty-hose when you're showing off your underwear? And that... is a Japanese irony.

Or the fact that, they are so meticulous about sorting trash and yet, in my city at least (I believe it is different among different cities) everyone throws their paper and cardboard into regular burnable trash, instead of recycling it. I think Shimada has a stricter sorting policy than Fukuroi though. We shall see.

Of course, every culture has its list of ironies... it just seems that Japan's are almost too ironic in some ways - and also given it is not so much a diverse nation as places like the U.S. are. Needless to say, it keeps things comically interesting.

Well, I must go for now. My short break of iphone games seems to have left me with 6 mosquito bites on my leg... I don't know how it got that many so fast, but I need to go put something on these... Sigh.

More to say another day.