Everyone needs a happy purple llama on their blog
It’s Michiko’s twin! (and she’s an alpaca)
Well, kids, I am finally coming out from my reverse culture shock. It only took almost 3 months.
I definitely went through ALL of the stages. The best thing was, I knew what I was getting into, and I thought I could beat it.
I started in the Honeymoon stage, visiting family and old friends, soaking in my new life in America. Everything felt as if it was falling into place.
Then I hit the Culture Shock. I realized I was living at home again with no internet, no money, no freedom. So I dove into projects around the house trying to regain some sense of sanity. I also found a part time job selling coffee and books to make a bit of spending money.
Even though I felt as if I was making progress through the culture shock in my Initial Adjustment phase, I still felt like I was losing my individuality that I worked so hard to build in Japan. I also could see my bank account BLEEDING money, no matter how many paychecks I received. Going from $3000/month to about $600/month screwed me up a lot. This on top of trying to maintain an international relationship really just put way too much stress on me. So, the easiest thing to do was just withdraw. Take myself out of the equation.
This lead to the Mental Isolation stage. I started avoiding everyone intentionally at first but then it became second nature to not reply to texts or calls, or to initiate any kind of contact with the people close to me. I had a better relationship with my Netflix account and the staff at fast food places than my own family and friends. This went on for months, and I tried to push it all away and put on a brave face at work and in front of people I needed to associate with. I would come home exhausted and emotionally drained.
And through it all, I have come to the Acceptance and Integration stage. Maybe it has something to do with school starting in a few weeks. 10 lbs later, or should I say heavier, I joined a gym, and I am trying to go regularly. I get along with my coworkers and genuinely think they like me too. I am trying to honestly assess who is valuable to me in life and trim the fat. So much time away changes so much, and it’s hard to see it at first, and it’s also hard to tell someone you care about, “there is really nothing keeping us together anymore” no matter if they are a friend, partner, or even family member.
I can not believe it will be August next week. It is hard for me to fathom because I pretty much spent this summer in a culture shock induced coma.
I’ve learned that this is something everyone has to deal with in their own time. Culture Shock or reverse culture shock cannot be avoided. It will sneak up on you and wreck your shit unless you’re prepared to go along for the ride.
Released today in Japan. Will be mine soon…
(via bisharp)
im going to japan for my first time on thursday. so many emotions obviously im searching tumblr for people who know more about it than me! but yeah im not sure what to expect! lol im gonna be spending some time in tokyo and sendai. any advice? suggestions? to calm my crazy nerves and all? haha
おめでとう！I hope you have a wonderful time. I have all of my Japan posts tagged, so read through and see if there is anything there to help you, interest you, etc.
Tokyo is crazy busy, but full of so many fantastic things to discover. Check out my friend Vivian’s blog for more Tokyo info.
Sendai is still feeling the effects of last year’s earthquake/tsunami, so if you plan on staying long enough, there might be some great volunteering opportunities available.
It’s hard to answer specific things here, since you’re anonymous, but message me again with your email and I’d be glad to help you out!
On keeping in touch
I’ve probably written before how I am horrible at keeping in touch with people. Even friends in the same area code are hard to keep up with, because of conflicting schedules and prior engagements.
You can imagine how difficult it is to keep in touch with people in Japan.
When I came back to America, I bought an iPhone so that I could simply use iMessage to keep in touch with all of my international friends using iPhone. It was convenient; there were no special apps to download, nothing fancy about it, the message screen turned blue instead of green. Well recently it’s been going crazy. Some messages get lost, I get duplicates of others (sometimes as a regular text message and iMessage). The problem is, international text messages cost extra money not included in my unlimited texting plan.
So I tried to use Viber. It’s nice, but it really doesn’t have anything that is unique to it. I was looking for something a little bit special. Then I found an app called LINE.
LINE is a messaging app started in Japan (the only other people I know who use it are Japanese) and you can message and call your contacts on LINE for free. There is even a PC or Mac version so you can get your messages on your desktop. It’s pretty fantastic.
My favorite part are the stickers. Instead of using emoji, you can insert full, cute stickers to show how you’re feeling.
LINE also has a camera app you can download to take photos. It works a lot like Instagram or other editing apps, but you can insert the stickers I mentioned before right into your picture.
Pretty cool, right??
So if you’re having trouble keeping in touch, check out LINE. It’s free and adorable. The stickers are enough to make you want to keep messaging people.
No iPhone? LINE is available on PC, Mac, Windows Phone, and Android!
It’s so hard to believe that it has almost been 3 years since baby Yota (陽太) was born. The first picture was taken in December 2009, a few months after Yota was born. I saw my friend Yuko today for the first time in a few months, and she now has another baby named Koharu.
Yuko was my first actual close friend to have a baby, and baby Yota and I spent so much time together the past few years, I’m really really going to miss them.
A month before Yota was born, my aunt had a baby, so I am hoping somehow in the future, Yota and my aunt’s daughter can meet and fall in love!
This is what my life has become. 4 bags: 2 checked bags, both currently at the 15-16 kg mark (I’m allowed 23), one carry-on, and one backpack. I’ve already thrown away almost 5 FULL bags of things I don’t need anymore, and I’m barely halfway there.
I don’t even have time to feel sad because moving is such a pain.
I just found this…………
GEOS people, do you remember doing this craziness?
I bought this Mickey Mouse shirt back in 2006 when I was a student at Kansai Gaidai. I had it for 6 years without ever wearing it again mainly from embarrassment or gaining too much weight to not be able to fit into it.
Well, I wore it again for the first time on Saturday, and it helped me to feel my Japan experience has come full circle.
Sunday nights are dinner and a movie nights with the Yus. They have been for the past few months. We’ve watched such gems as Transporter 1 and 2, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Alien vs Predator, etc., whatever is on Sunday night TV.
Tonight we made エビマヨ (Ebi-mayo, or deep fried shrimp with mayonaise) with asparagus fried in the same batter. We used pancake mix instead of flour, and it turned out delicious. We also made scones from scratch, but we saved baking them for tomorrow morning’s breakfast.
The movie on TV tonight was “War of the Titans” or something like that, and I really didn’t like it the first time I saw it, so we decided to watch “Sherlock Holmes 2.” As most sequels go, it wasn’t as good as the first. I was really upset about what happened to Regina George (if you don’t know, I won’t tell you). As usual the Yus fell asleep, so I am in the process of trying to explain the movie that I didn’t really understand.
Another great week in Osaka has come to an end. Only 2 more left!
My friend Shawn is in town from America, and we are currently running amuck around Kansai. I couldn’t imagine a better way to be spending the beautiful weather we’ve been having!
Yesterday we did Osaka, today we went to Kobe (and snapped this photo), and tomorrow we’re going back to Kansai Gaidai, where we studied abroad together.
He leaves next week on Wednesday, and after that, I only have a few more days myself. I need to start packing and preparing….
Another beautiful day of 花見 (hanami - a spring celebration where people have a picnic under the sakura trees) yesterday with my old coworkers and friends. It was unbelievably warm, and the sun was a bit too strong, so check out the awesome sunburn I’m currently sporting.
I’m so glad I decided to stay here long enough to see the sakura one more time.
On the weekend I went to a wine shop in Toyonaka run by a mom from my old class. Ever since I finished working, she has been asking me to come visit, and so I finally had some time and I went over.
It’s normally just a wine shop, but there are a few tables so if you want to do wine tasting, you can.
Because I came, other moms decided to bring their kids after school and we had a small wine party.
It was great to be able to talk to the moms outside of school, and the kids also seemed so happy with their new class, it made me feel better about leaving.
If you’re ever in Toyonaka, check out HTS. They have a great selection of wines with some good cheese and cured ham to go with it.
