| | So...I'm home. I don't really want to be, but next year, I shall return. You see, the thing I loved most about being in Japan is that no matter where you look, beauty is not far away. There's always something captivating, entertaining, or fascinating to see.
Japan is...
Being able to wear knee high socks without feeling stupid, seeing fog over the nearest mountain (which is also outside of your bedroom window), watching a foreign girl get stood up at Starbucks and witness a single tear trickle down her cheek, two friends riding past your window at 3:20 AM talking loudly about anything, nothing, something, but by the tone of their voices, it's not a waste of oxygen, 50 kids all shouting your name at the same time, watching an old man with a cane fall on the most crowded street in the city, only to be helped up again by his wife and asked if he was okay by an innocent school girl in a yukata, characters from cartoons stamped on everything, real men in U-20 soccer crying on TV and being able to talk about it afterwards, switching up who you talk to on a daily basis, being afraid that the next meal that you'll eat is something you'll despise then remembering there's a McDonald's in walking distance, never having to walk to that McDonalds, seeing modest fashion everywhere, your host father making angry hand gestures towards Osama Bin Laden, helping out clueless foreigners at a festival that takes up blocks and blocks, eating the best soft serve ice cream the world has to offer, having peoples' biased opinions fly right over your head, the sewing skills of an elderly woman who constructs costumes for kabuki theatre and kimonos for weddings, giant hair clips, boys wearing giant hair clips, college guys being scared to approach you and start a conversation, waving at faces you'll never see again and hearing a "Hi" in response, non-electronic sliding doors, coolers, naviagation systems in cars that tell you exactly where home is, the relief after finishing an entire chunk of tofu, wishing and hoping you'll find hontou no ai, watching your family eat sushi 10 times faster than you, random high school boys telling you "I love you," getting candy from strangers, eating it, and not dying, getting towels from banks, guys who walk past you alone and return your smile of foreign understanding, a couple sitting next to you on the Kamo River at night not kissing, just talking, other foreigners smiling at you, other foreigners sharing words with you, being bombarded with sparkly things and loud, upbeat music in peliculas, listening to your host sister play piano, bidding farewell to your older host sister as she leaves for her first night out as an adult, your hand hurting after trying to list all the beautiful things of Japan, the noises of mopeds daring you to try the impossible and catch up with them, but you can't, watching live TV on a cellphone while waiting in line at a restaurant, meeting up with friends and literally talking yourself dry, seeing a child sitting in the front basket of his grandfather's bicycle, a baseball player who makes pitching look graceful, an entire stadium of people letting balloons deflate in the 7th inning, finding the clothes you wore yesterday washed and clean on your desk, music playing to let you know you can safely cross the intersection, blowing kisses to men on parade floats and their bashful grins in return, the young junior salaryman with long hair, mail from a friend from home, glancing outside a classroom window to see the shinkansen at the same exact time everyday, foreign men and Japanese women couples and vice versa, me-ru, complete strangers taking pictures of you in your one-of-a-kind yukata, knowing you are for certain returning to Japan in a short time, seeing attractive men wherever you go, refusing to pack your bags because you're in denial that it's all ending soon, the little melody the trains play at every stop, packing yourself in a little subway train with as many people as you can imagine, small automobiles everywhere you look, a female taxi driver, beautifully colored taxis, looking at Kyoto Tower from atop a mountain and being able to fit it in your hand, elderly Japanese couples holding hands, finally admitting to yourself that you have a liking towards Japanese pop music (only because you hear it everywhere you go!), a cardboard pendant with origami pasted on it, kanji that you understand, learning the kansai-ben, having a second family on the other side of the world.
"Dore kurai mae kara, wasureteta kimochi nan darou"-Arashi
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| | Posted 8/8/2007 6:30 AM - 33 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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