"So, How Is Japan?"

AKA: Leslie really isn't as dumb as she sounds in most of this post.

Several people have asked me over the weekend about how I am adjusting to being in Japan. Since I haven't answered this directly in any of my posts, I thought I'd go on ahead and do so now.

The other day, I was walking to the local mall ("Joyful Honda") and thinking about the fact that I am, in fact, living in Japan. As stupid as it sounds, I honestly forget this fact most of the time. The only time when I truly remember that I am living abroad is when I am walking somewhere and see the roofs of the buildings around me, or the grave sites, or the rice fields. It's just a little hard to ignore those blatant differences.

So, I was walking to Joyful Honda and thinking about the fact that I only rarely remember that I'm in Japan. My train of thought went a little something like this: "I mean, it's not all that different here, really. I don't usually notice the language difference when I'm at school because I tend to be working on something in the staff room and tune out the talking of the people around me. Plus, after years of watching anime, the sound of Japanese isn't too unusual to me. Yeah, there are a lot more Asians around than I'm used to seeing at once, but it's not like I've never been around a group of Asians before. And it's not like being surrounded by strangers is all that unusual, as I rarely ran into someone I knew when I was out shopping or whatever at home. [At this point, I was almost entering the mall itself, and getting a lot of stares because I'm a foreigner.] I guess I could get stared at in America, too..." And this is when I realized that everything I had been thinking was utter crap.

I honestly don't know why I feel so at home here. When I think about the differences in food, social norms, language, and the way I live my life here (no car, almost completely illiterate, a teacher, and so on), I barely see anything that resembles my life stateside. Despite these differences, I truly feel at home here. In fact, since I moved into my apartment in Ota, I haven't had a single moment of "oh my goodness gracious, why did I think coming to Japan was a good idea?" worrying. While I have been, and to a certain extent am still, anticipating some sort of breakdown in October, after I've had a month of classes and whatnot, I have to admit that there are only two weeks left in September and I'm doing really well.

I am more upbeat and happy here, on a consistent basis, than I have ever been in my life. A good part of this is because I am almost constantly "on display." As I'm a foreigner, I attract a lot of attention when I'm out and about - let's face it, I stick out like a sore thumb here! Foreigners are usually treated with a little distance, either through shyness or through some preconceived (negative) notion, so I try to look happy and friendly whenever I'm out to battle these thoughts. In addition, the best way to keep the attention of my students is to be as upbeat, energetic, and goofy as possible. It's hard to act energetic, happy, and friendly all the time without actually becoming energetic, happy, and friendly. That being said, I do not have any reason to be sad while having a million reasons to be happy. My interactions with people here almost always take a positive note, and I say "almost always" because I was taught to avoid absolutes if possible. There are also a bunch of Assistant Language Teachers in my town (around 20, total), and Caitlin, another JET that I have been hanging out with since I arrived in Japan, is only a 25 minute bike ride away - if I am really in need of a native English speaker, it's not too hard to find one.

In short, things in Japan are great! Things may change once it gets cold (it's easy to be despondent when you're freezing your butt off), but until then, I'm pretty sure that I will love every day I spend here.