Been awhile

A pretty long while. A lot of stuff has been going on, so I feel pretty justified in not posting for so long. Long story short, my mom came for almost 2 weeks, we traveled around Japan, and then the day my mom was to leave I found out that Jason was coming to Japan, the very next day. It should go unsaid, but I'm fucking tired. Compounded with that, almost every spare moment I now have is taken up wining and dining with my host mother, which is actually AWESOME, but shes got this thing about me not sleeping late, which is going to kill me eventually. Shikata ga nai.

I'll post pictures eventually (or will I?) of the places my mom and I went. The list: Hakone (great views of fuji and this crazy ryokan (japanese style hotel) where we were literally waited on by these japanese maids and butlers during 8 course meals), Koya-san (a mountain upon which one may choose to stay in a buddhist monastaory and pray with the monks in the morning, also, home to a sprawling necropolis hidden in a forest), Hiroshima (where everything is closed on during the new Year's holiday except for chinese food restaurants) and Kagoshima (hanging out next to a relatively active volcano island... gets approval from the mad scientist in me). My mom and I got along surprisingly well during this trip. Meaning that we only hated each other 77% of the time. This whole thing was a whirlwind tour in the westernly direction of Japan, so traveling was quite hectic. This was one of the least planned trips I've ever done, with no thought given to travel times or train scedules, much less what attractions we actually wanted to see. Despite this, things went pretty well. I became a lot more confident in my Japanese, as I was responsible for the livelihood of two, and my mom's extensive knowledge of Japanese begins and ends with an extremely uncouth way of saying thank you. Contrary to what she may say, I can almost guarantee that no one knew what she was saying.

Interestingly (or depressingly, take your pick) Japan kind of all looks the same, at least everything aside from hokkaido. Of course, I've never been to hokkaido, so I have no clue if even that had any truth to it. I guess this is the point to reveal that my trip is put in the context of this book I'm reading, Dogs and Demons, which is a non-fiction account of why Japan is toilet. And by that I mean, why Japan is destroying it's natural ecosystem and culture in favor of a bureaucratically induced, unchecked, and seemingly mindless lust to modernize, or at least give off the impression of modernizing economically (I mean, truly, who cares about medical or environmental or architectural or safety advances appearing in other nations? As long as a country is constantly producing roads that go no where and dams that completely change the natural waterflow of japan and leave a homogeneous labyrinth of concrete embankments, doesn't that mean that a nation is on the path to success and harmony?) with no mechanisms in place to allow Japan to make the change from a modernizing to a modernized nation. But you know, enough about that.

Jason is currently in Kyoto now, for 2 days or so. It's great having him here, actually, so great that I wish each and every one of you could come visit me individually for a week or so. I've been a bit worried about changing so irrevocably on this study abroad that I will cease to be able to relate to my friends at home, who I value so immensely. But if anything, Jason being here reminds me what kind of person I want to be and what kinds of things I want to be doing, and how the way I've changed as more to do with how I interact with the world as a whole then my principles or self. I still latch onto the things I used to love, and the kind of people I would like back home, and mentally reject everything that doesn't fall into that frame. The real difference is that now I'll go out and do those things that I know won't satisfy me or that I'm uncomfortable with or even like. And in some ways, I've become more tolerant of other people, which, instead of making everyone the same in my perception, actually allows me to really appreciate the people that are spectacular even more. Of course, this all bullshit, and there are things I'm still uncomfortable doing, and I'm probably just clinging to the things I'm used to as opposed to truly embracing the new things. Yeah, ok. I'm having fun here, but I'm really looking forward to coming back.

I found what I was looking for. A place in tokyo that I can truly say is my place, the place I want to be on the weekend or after school or I want to take people to show them how cool it is. You won't find it in any guide book and a lot of people in tokyo have never heard of it (although, just like everything, now that I know about something, it seems like it's everywhere and everyone and their mom knew about it already). Shimokitazawa, friends, Shimokitazawa. It's the one place I've gone and, instead of being dissapointed and dejected, has surpassed my expectations.

See, the thing about Tokyo, or the majority of it, is that it has a lot going on and stuff, but a lot of it is stuff I could care less about, an overabundance of bars, expensive food, clothing boutiques, and pachislo (pachinko and slot). It is, in fact, the very opposite in Shimokitazawa. I even want to go into the stores, seeing as many of them are second hand clothing or junk stores (one crazy toy store with, of all things, retrogames and sesame street books). Also, a great used cd store, with things for as little as 3 bucks (most new cds in japan are a standard 30) and an awe-inspiring selection, with a feel of an indie cd store back home. Also, the people feel authentic. Wait, what? Sorry, i just confused myself. This is the one place I can talk to people on the street and not only do they not lie to me, but they are real people with open interests and insecurities, but want to interact with me on a real level, as oppossed to just practicing english or getting off on the fact that I am a white person. One of the wiaters at the burger place we went to actually personally walked us out of the restaurant with us and continued to wave at us until we were out of sight, after we had been talking to most of the wait staff for the majority of our time their and the rest of it was spent reading the book on American advertisements they had given us to read. And that was they guy who confided that he was anxious when we came in because he knew absolutely no english, and if we didn't speak japanese he wouldn't have known what to do. That has never happened to me in any restaurant before, ever, anywhere.

Also, I stumbled upon a short film cinema and an independent film cinema. Pardon? Yes, the very thing that I have a tremendous interest in back home and have had no outlet for in Japan, film, has been delivered to me with no more difficulty than walking around for maybe an hour. I was, and still am, ecstatic.

To back track a little, and go off on a tangent, playing in the cd store was this all female punk band (called the romanes, and is a ramones cover band, with all the songs in Japanese, we found out later). The Romanes were great, and Jason and I barely realized they were playing covers, but during the lull inbetween tracks, we were confronted with an unapetizing post-rock drone. What was it, we wondered, that was disturbing our enjoyment of this delightful Japanese punk? Guess what, it was a video display of radiohead's new album. For me, it was the last nail in the coffin. Radiohead's new album is a bunch of pee-pee doody. It sucks, and I never want to listen to it ever again. There. I'm done for now.