In the News

Everyday when I wake up, I browse through a fairly wide array of web sites: Facebook, Gmail, YouTube, CNN.com, BBC online, etc. I check the weather, make sure I know the bus or train times I'll be working with, look for directions around town (because I have lived here for almost a year and still get lost in my tiny section of town), Skype with family or friends, and listen to online radio. If my computer could create meals and take out the trash, I could potentially never need to leave my apartment (except for the whole real relationships and a job thing).

I think in America, though the majority of the population can probably live fairly detached from the internet, many of us can scarcely remember a time without it. Nearly all businesses have converted from boxes and boxes of old paperwork to streamlined databases (I spent more than one miserable summer doing this for different companies). Even my doctor back in the States inputs all of my health information into his Tablet PC. If we miss a TV show or can't record it on the DVR because we already have two shows recording, we can get online the next day and catch up on our favorite series.

All of this is to say that, despite its reputation, the majority of Japan is still living in the Dark Ages of technology. I stumbled across an article from the BBC online that sums this up pretty well. Despite my easy access to incredibly fast internet and other high tech wonders, many businesses in Japan still use duplicate and triplicate forms for bookkeeping. Banks are a nightmare. Government offices when I first arrived seemed to step out of the 1980's. Even switching internet was a pain because it seems like the company that installs the lines doesn't connect with the company that switches the internet itself. Check out the link below if you're interested...

Revealing Japan's low-tech belly

If you're still reading, one quick note: I will be home for summer vacation in less than two weeks. I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and seeing my family, but I'm most interested in escaping the summer heat for central air. See you soon.

Peace.

Holy Heatwave

I like summer. I like it a lot. I think I always have. Summer just has a lot to offer. Summer is the time of year when it stays light until after 9:00. School's out, so even if I've had a job, and some of my worst have been during summers, there is considerably less stress. My birthday is in summer (technically late Spring, but summer vacation had/has always already begun, so I call it summer--take that, equinox). Everywhere is air-conditioned, and since I'm a burning inferno year-round, summer is basically the one time when I enter a building/room/car and don't have to offer a fire safety suit to the people near me. Also, with the summer holidays from Memorial Day to Labor Day, I am almost always guaranteed grilled food at every event. What's not to love here?

Enter Japan. It is July 6 here, and I am already wishing for the days when I can pull out my winter coat. I saw my scarf in the drawer and a montage with faded edges began running through my mind of shoveling snow on Valentine's Day and getting stuck multiple times in the snow. I remembered the times walking back to my apartment after a long day at the library with my scarf wrapped around my mouth and nose because I was worried about my lungs freezing. I even thought longingly about the nights this past year in Japan when I slept with gloves and a scarf at night to try and stave off the icy grip of an uninsulated-apartment winter.

This is what the Japanese summer is doing to me! Let me try and paint a picture of the last month...

First, imagine Tarumi (cue dream sequence)... apartments and houses line the road, children run down the sidewalk from school in their summer uniforms, and people walk their dogs or chat with friends as they walk to and from the local grocery stores. Now, drop a ridiculously humid haze over everything. Turn up the temperature to the nineties. Add those wavy heat mirage blurs to the road ahead. Filter in exhaust from the buses and cars. Also, throw in some mutant large beetles, centipedes, and spiders that hang out if there's a tree within a kilometer.

Great. Now we have the setting for the perfect summer dream. Next we need to build the scenario. On trains and buses, air conditioning may or may not be turned on, and if it is turned on, the vents conveniently seem to blow only to the places where people are least likely to sit or stand. In the shopping areas, the temperature is well controlled, but in the workplace, it seems to be virtuous to work in steam sauna-like conditions. 95% percent of the population carries a fan (yes, the asian style fan that is such a novelty in America) and a less elegant towel to wipe away the gallons (or liters) of sweat, because a small wedge-shaped piece of paper, as it turns out, does nothing except look elegant as it gently wafts super-heated air over your shiny, damp face. I think the fan is meant to pull attention away from the hot mess you become as the sweat saturates the upper half of your body (note: right now you might be thinking, 'yeah, but you're overweight,' but I assure you, I am not in a minority of grossly moist people kickin' it around town). Also, if you happen into a restaurant, be assured you will be met with a nice piping hot cup of tea (with free refills!). Ah, famous Japanese hospitality.

This is my summer... Oh, and by the way, school is still in session, grilling out is considerably less common, and it starts getting dark around 7.

Sigh. It's tough working a job that only has about 11 weeks of vacation spread out conveniently (and coincidentally) around major US holidays and living near some of the most famous culturally rich locations in the world doing a job I'm happy to be doing most days. I'm basically living in a giant open air dungeon. I guess I should get over the slightly uncomfortable rainy season, and accept the fact that my love for summer is based on a prescribed set of luxuries afforded me by my thermostat-controlled culture.

Incidentally, I am now accepting applications for a new favorite season while I live in Japan. Resumes can be attached in the comment section below.

Peace.

Some Enchanted Evening

I know, I know, putting two blogs together within a week is not a big deal for the average person, but I'm on a roll.

When I first moved to Kobe, the first few days after I had been left alone to settle in, I had a difficult time figuring out what to do to fill my time. I hadn't met anyone, classes wouldn't begin for another week, and it got lonely even though I spent considerable time with my family and a couple friends on Skype. I remember even bookmarking a website for ways to combat loneliness (which I later deleted so that someone using my computer wouldn't think I needed loneliness advice so much that I favorited a website for it).

Anyway, one of the first memories I made here was going to walk alongside the bay to see the Akashi Bridge. In high school, I did a report on the bridge (the longest suspension bridge in the world), and it was exciting that I was going to be living about a 15 or 20-minute walk away. The first time I went, it was early evening and I walked westward toward the bridge as the sun began to set. I remember the way the clouds changed shades and the sky changed color, eventually fading to black. Mostly, though, I remember thinking about the sunsets I spent with friends and family back in America.

Since that evening, whenever I happen to notice the sun setting I consciously devote a few seconds to remembering that, even if only in my memories, I never need to feel alone. I also try to bookmark that new moment so that in the future, the sunsets I see radiate with new memories I have made and am making here in Japan. Incidentally, it's a bookmark I don't feel ashamed to have people see.

Earlier this evening, I headed down, as I have quite a few times, to watch the same sunset that I saw when I first arrived in Kobe, but this time I had my video camera...

Now, I have a way to bookmark the sunset and share the memory. I hope for many more sunsets to come. If you're reading or watching this, let me know what sparks memories or helps you when you feel alone.

Peace.

As before, if you want to see something in particular or want an explanation of some part of Japanese culture, missionary life, etc., just leave a comment letting me know.

Where am I?

This place looks vaguely familiar, like I've seen it somewhere before...

Hey everybody! I'm only almost 8 months behind on my planned blogging outline for Japan, but maybe better late than never? I was reading through my previous posts (which, incidently, ate up about 5 minutes) before I made this post, and I realized that A LOT has happened since my initial posts. It's amazing how life continues evolving and shifting when you're not looking. Japan now feels like a pretty normal place, and I feel fairly confident as an English teacher coming up to the end of my first year here.

For those interested, I finally used the video camera my parents bought me for my birthday last year (the footage was actually shot on my birthday this year) and put together a little clip from one of my days out around Tarumi, the neighborhood/town where I live in Kobe.

I hope you enjoyed the short journey. I could write more, but maybe if I don't write everything in one post, I'll be more inclined/feel more obligated to update this more often.

Peace.

NOTE: If you are curious about any specific aspects of Japanese culture, or if you want to see something in particular from my life here, comment and let me know and I'll try and either post a blog, photo, and/or video response.