Come Full Circle

It has officially been a year since I moved to Japan. So many lessons learned and so many good and bad experiences.

Let's recap.

I came here full of hope in improving my Japanese. A few months ago I realized that I had not a single Japanese friend that I only spoke Japanese with. A crippling realization in my goal to speak fluent Japanese.

I gained 18 pounds. Became deeply depressed because of it. Shopping in this country became a NIGHTMARE. Given that the women here are toothpicks to begin with, my weight gain only exacerbated the situation. Yet after months of struggle, I have been able to lose close to 14 and a half pounds. Four and a little more to go.

Lost TONS of confidence as a woman because all the guys I hung out with here seemed only to be after Japanese women. It took a while, but I finally realized that I couldn't care less. Yet, I'm so thankful for the experience because it made me search within and find my own beauty (I know, I know, that was such a cliche). But for some odd reason (who would have thunk it? ;) ), I had been relying on other people's opinions to feel good about myself. Enough of that nonsense.

Realized that as someone who considered herself hardworking, I seem to lack tremendous discipline. Found out that if left to my own devices, I would just as well become a recluse and do absolutely nothing. A product from the lack of continuous stimulating work at school.

Met an amazing Japanese woman who has become such a wonderful example of God's love. Sometimes I think I'm especially blessed. To move to a country where 98% of the population don't believe in God, to be placed in a small farm community, and then to run into a God fearing Japanese woman not 2 minutes away from my house. Now that's God's steady hand in my life.

My sister came to visit. Her first visit across the Atlantic, nope, I think she took the pacific route. Anyhoot, her first visit this side of the hemisphere. I am SO thankful that she was able to get that experience. SO thankful.

School functions, problems with student motivation, partying, culture shock, unconsciously internalizing the customs, losing interest in Kendo, visiting South Korea, finally getting over my ex, finding out and being in shock that I could no longer apply for the Rhodes scholarship (pass the age limit), family craziness abounding (still wondering when it will end), etc, etc...


And yet after all that, what's Next? What will this coming year bring? Who knows? But I know one thing for sure, I'm going to try to be more proactive about my moves. I feel like last year things were happening to me, with so much to take in and so much to do, instead of me doing things.

And to keep me focused I have devised a list of must DOs for the next and hopefully last year here.

Swim with dolphins one more time.
Learn to Surf.
Learn to Snowboard.
Visit Okinawa.
Travel outside Japan more!
Go horseback riding.
Go to Tokyo Disney Sea.
Go to Kyoto in the fall.
Make Japanese speaking friends!
Take the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency test) and pass!
Start up Kendo again.
Pray more.
Join the archery club at school.
"Sing" at a Japanese wedding (that would be a good one ;) )
Visit Shikoku (securing landing on all four islands in Japan)
See the third and last site and achieve going to the three most scenic sites in Japan.

An Interesting Experience

So this year a new round of folks were contracted to provide lunches for the children at school. The new school year started in April. Around the same time I stopped cooking as much, actually I literally stopped, and thus had no leftovers for lunch. So I ended up buying lunch at school. No problem, eh?

One of the new lunch stands was manned by a few men. They all seemed pretty chill until one of them became really persistent about being friends. So persistent that I actually stopped buying lunch from that stand and avoided that area all together. Yet, somehow, after relentless pursuit I ended up agreeing to meeting up with this persistent one on a weekend. He reckon since it was vacation I had no excuse. And after successfully avoiding the man the whole semester I was trapped.

So, I headed out to his summer shindig and what do you know? I had one of the most amazing times in Japan to date. That day I didn't speak a lick of English. Great Japanese practice! All of his friends only spoke Japanese and he himself doesn't speak English.

I went jet skiing and drove a jet for the first time in my life. Stellar. I met crazy Japanese folks. The ones that are COMPLETELY opposite to the ones I work with. These people knew how to have fun and they didn't care what society had stipulated their roles to be.

Anyhow, it turned out that we were on a "date," as he kept telling all his friends when we went for dinner afterwards. I didn't have the heart to say otherwise.

But what left me puzzled that whole day was how everyone, his friends and workers, paid such close attention to all my needs. Do you want anything to drink? Are you hungry? Here, let me take that for you, etc.... How everyone was quick to do whatever he asked for. I mean I know that in Japan, workers are very hardworking, subservient, but something about the interaction between him and his left me puzzled. And then again, I couldn't say that the huge tattoo on his back helped... But of course I'm imagining things.... Right?

Anywho, apparently that was my first date with a Japanese national. Crazy, ne?

An Amazing Weekend

This past weekend was unbelievably amazing. I had the coolest opportunity to go swimming with dolphins on Miyake Island!!!! A boat ride about 7 hours south, southeast of Tokyo. Man it was so much fun. The experience was amazing. The dolphins got so close at times it was scary. I even got to see a couple of baby dolphins. How crazy is that?

The water there was a deep blue that I had never before seen. Just breathtaking. I realize now, why people can be so attached to the sea. Being there this past weekend made me want to experience island life for a bit.

A friend there is the only westerner on the island and I can only imagine how her life must be. She has the opportunity to get really close to the people there and see a different side of Japan that I can only glimpse into. Good for her.

Umbrella

I'm really feeling Rihanna's umbrella song. It makes me want to get things done. So every morning I wake up and play it. And every morning I go to school with the song rolling around in my head. Humming it's tune while writing instructions on the board. It's intoxicating.

Shunned Without Even the Chance to Try

So, for the past couple of months I've been thinking about my next move after JET. What I had wanted to do for soooo long (years really), was quickly and uniformly snatched up form me when I read the requirements and found out that I was too "old." Never had I even thought of that as a hindrance. My age?! Wow, that was a kick into reality. It makes me wonder and look back on my moves in life thus far. But if I had to go back I wouldn't change a thing, so that just means I was never destined to get that award. But realizing this is sooo surreal.

D, I love you so much. I know we're going through some tough times, but we have to hold on! There's a reason why everything in our lives seem to be crazy. If you think about it, we're defying statistics and going against every grain in our line. Of course it won't be easy. So, hold on and let's find solace in each other so that we can keep kai-la together. I love you so much.

The "Football" of Japan

A week ago my school had a "pep" rally for a prefectual baseball tournament. I couldn't have been more surprised by what came of the event.

Classes were canceled, boys not girls were cheerleaders, baseball stars had their own chants and dances, teachers were stage entertainers. It was bazarre. The school went crazy for the event. Unlike schools back at home though, i.e. american football homecoming games, other clubs didn't come out and display their talents.

It was an interesting experience though, to see how much attention was given to their baseball team.

First Real Personal Social Event

Okay most of you, albeit that's more like all of you, don't know that this past January I was elected as the social coordinator for the English Teachers in my prefecture (or State). I didn't really want the position, (I was hoping for president-but being too shy about it I ended up not nominating myself thus, not getting it.....)but anywho someone nominated me and I thought, "eh?, what the heck?." Boy, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Personally, I think being the social coordinator is a WHOLE LOT more work than being president, although we have an excellent president and he's doing his fair share of work. I have to use my Japanese (which is a blessing because I was beginning to feel like I wasn't using it much here..... funny, eh?), organization skills, and diplomatic skills (which is hard!). I can no longer be a friend, I sometimes have to be the "boss" and set my foot down. And sometimes making decisions about close friends that didn't follow the rules can be tough!

We've had three official events already, but this past weekend was the first one that I actually attended. The first one was organized by the second coordinator, the second by myself although I didn't go.... and this third one myself (but of course with tons of help from the council...), but this third event was very different because so many details needed to be thought after. We had a barbecue at a beach site near my area, and tons of things that could go wrong did go wrong. But.... I learned so many lessons...

1. Calm down and relax
2. CALM DOWN and RELAX
3. Work on my lateness. It's a ban in my existence, but I really need to work on
it... especially when other's are depending on me to be somewhere at a certain time.
4. Understand that things will never be prefect and that I need to be quick on my
toes to improvise. Keep the flow moving and doing so without making people feel
as if some thing's wrong.
5. Being understanding with the people you work with. They make mistakes too, except it, don't criticize them for it and MOVE on.
6. BE CALM AND RELAX

I'm sure there will be more on the adventures of the coordinator sherls....