so what do you think?
With all the talk of who is correctly seeing/feeling/touching/tasting Japan going on out there, I started re-reading my journals that I still have (some were lost in a huge computer crash on my Powerbook 1400 in January of 2001) and found a few entries I had penned about that country while living there.
Novemeber 12, 1999
tokyo
1. i own a mobile phone that looks like a small plastic toy but in fact allows me to communicate with people all over the planet.
2. as an american i cannot understand the japanese concept of group harmony as being more important than individuality.
3. i work with people who do not reflect on their lives.
4. i am more popular amongst my friends in the US now than when i lived there.
5. the confusion i feel in and about this country is comfortable for me.
January 17, 2000
tokyo
back in america, you never wonder what people think.
they shout their thoughts,
opinions hitting you from all directions, sharp as knives.
but here silence fills the room,
thick as water in the mississippi river. it coats my thoughts,
my anxieties about
your true feelings.
January 23, 2000
tokyo
I like Tokyo but I don’t love it. I don’t love the country or feel any deep connection with the people. I’m not interested in ancient Japanese traditions, and I while I would like to learn the language, it’s not a huge priority for me. Yes, it’s a difficult language and I guess it’s very interesting, at least to some people, but I get along better without it, as I believe I prefer the personalities of Japanese people who have learned English compared to the dyed in the wool monolingual Japanese.
June 5, 2001
tokyo
(These passive-aggressive Japanese, they’re beating me at my own game).
June 6, 2001
tokyo
Japan:
1. It’s a social pressure-cooker that might blow at any time.
2. It’s a place that can support the existence of public baths, where sex doesn’t enter the mind of anyone who goes there. How strange.
June 23, 2001
tokyo
1. Domestic harmony creates aesthetic self-satisfaction.
2. Robert duckworth will settle for nothing less than world domination, regardless of the cost.
3. I have to escape from this country before it’s too late.
4. Tokyo is a claustraphobic city physically and socially.
Comments
I was a teacher at GEOS in Kagoshima a few years ago and really enjoy reading stuff like this. I'm glad I left when I did, my memories of life there are very, very happy ones, but you are so right about the pressure cooker feeling.
Posted by: Sarah | November 30, 2004 8:28 PM
rod,
i love this one!
>2. Robert duckworth will settle for nothing >less than world domination, regardless of the >cost.
the greatest cost turns out to be to myself!
kiss,
r.
Posted by: r. | December 1, 2004 1:51 AM
what does it mean 'socially claustrophobic'? smth like cast system?
Posted by: porandojin | December 6, 2004 11:31 PM
I mean socially claustrophobic in the sense that it was hard for me to escape a constant and strong feeling of social obligation to others. For example, in the west, I can chat about most anything and have an uncensored conversation on a train, turning off the part of my brain that might be concerned about what others think. Over here, we have the excellent ability to Simply Not Care. In Japan, I never had that sense, I always felt that extreme discretion must be used at all times while speaking in public space. I found this to be tiring, it made me grumpy. And I am really not a loud person to begin with.
Posted by: roddy | December 7, 2004 12:35 PM
americans can never enjoy japan because their too ignorant of different cultures full stop. america is just too big to think about the outside world.
Posted by: david | June 28, 2006 5:12 PM