June 21st-ホストとの日(hosuto
to no hi) [day with host]
I think if one image were
to sum up the sense or theme of today, it would be one of a small two-year-old
Japanese girl—her hand awkwardly, yet desperately, clutching a pair of
chopsticks—the ends of which are stuck into her mouth, her brow furrowed with intent
and tenacity, her eyes fixed on some object off to her left in a way to suggest
something troubling, and a dozen noodles dangling out between her lips into a
small bowl just beneath her chin….
Luckily for me, I took
that picture! Moreover, it is currently
the wallpaper image on the screen of my cell phone and whenever I look at it,
it thoroughly cracks me up—just like many of my jokes do. Maybe since I haven’t been around anyone I
can tell my jokes to and I haven’t been hearing any jokes (in English that is),
I am getting used to telling myself jokes and finding them supremely
amusing. I’m laughing right now and I’m
not even sure why. Well, of course I
hear jokes but they’re in Japanese. That
doesn’t mean they’re not funny though, in fact I think that some jokes are
funnier to me than they are to others who hear them because they’re in
Japanese. What am I talking about? Well, Japanese people tell jokes just as
often as Americans do, but often times I don’t get the jokes. Maybe it has something to do with the
cultural background, that I lack, necessary to the understanding of the
jokes. Although I think the main reason
is that if I don’t understand completely what’s said, it’s hard to catch the
kicker of the joke, point of comedic irony, or the punch line. So, when I actually do understand a joke, I
think my brain grabs onto the chance to laugh and makes it seem funnier to me
than it probably is. I guess I laugh
most often when I’m with Ippei and Satoshi.
They can be terribly witty and funny sometimes. I would liken them to perhaps a Geoff Graham
and Joe Mace from SHF or a Kato Kalan and Michael Wong. Like…individually they’re funny and witty,
but when they’re together it can be truly hysterical in the way they just play
off of each other making a lot of things very amusing. I don’t think anyone who reads these journal
entries, aside from myself, knows those two examples and what it’s like. Well, one person might…Hi Oana! Well, she knows a couple of those
people. Anyway, one funny thing that
made me laugh got me to thinking last week.
No, that doesn’t mean that the last time I got to thinking was last week. The last time I got to thinking was right
now…I’m always deep in thought here. So
it was boat practice and I was waiting outside with Satoshi and Ippei for the
rowing machines (the first year kids were on them). It was actually a nice day I think so we were all in good
moods. Ippei and Satoshi had been up to
their usual pranks and jests at each other.
According to Ippei, Satoshi isn’t Japanese; he’s really from East India or
North Korea. Naturally there is going
to be animosity between North Korea and Japan, but since America also has
trouble with North Korea, Ippei proposed that he and I make a treaty to end
past hostilities and swear our allegiance to each other as allies against North
Korea. So we shook hands, patted each
other on the back and turned to face Satoshi with fingers raised in the
V-is-for-victory sign as if we were posing for photographs for the
newspapers. Maybe it doesn’t sound that
amusing when I retell it, but it was pretty funny at the time. Then I got to thinking. Perhaps I’m just thinking too much (if that’s
possible) but I thought about how if this were 60 years ago (obviously it’s not…but
IF), there’s a very good chance that I would be in the military and so would
Ippei and Satoshi. And although chances
are our paths would probably never cross (given the massive scope of WWII),
theoretically we would be on missions to kill each other. We wouldn’t even give
a fleeting thought to anything but the reality that the other is our mortal
enemy—the invader of country and home—the demon butcher of friends or
family. But instead we can laugh about
stupid things like Ippei’s protein shake made from dead fish from Tonda-Hama
park, share stories of conquests of girls and dreams, and try to teach each
other the national anthems from our respective countries.
Well, there was your moment of deep thought for
today. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get
another one. Well, I guess I supposed I
should probably get to what happened today.
I’m sure you’re wondering what the description of the image I opened
with has to do with today and why, on Earth, it would represent the entire
theme of today. I guess I just put it
up there so you would have to keep reading my ramblings—I know you’re dying to
find out! Perhaps I’m employing a
little Sidney Sheldon strategy here. I’m
going to leave you with a painfully suspenseful cliffhanger, and then the next
chapter is going to be about something completely different and you’ll have to
get to the chapter after that to find out what happened after the
cliffhanger. Maybe I should start
making journal entries that way—like end an entry with something of a
cliffhanger and you’d have to wait for the next installment in the serial in
order to get your fix of drama. Like,
what if I ended this journal entry right now with, “…but today was a pretty
ordinary day. I ended up going to an
all-gyoza restaurant with my host parents and Kouki. It was pretty good but my breath stinks of garlic now. Ok, it looks like there are some people
walking down the street outside my window now.
It’s definitely too late and dark for people to be going for a
walk. What the heck? It looks like they’re wearing white gowns
and some of them have straight jackets on.
They’re coming this way…!!!”
If I wrote that, you’d HAVE to keep reading! I have a good feeling though that by now (almost 3 months since
the entries started going up), the people who still read my entries could be
called “my loyal fans.” The
weak-hearted ones (or the simply lazy ones who don’t really care what I’m doing
here), gave up a LONG time ago. So,
chances are I don’t have to worry about losing my dedicated readership. I wonder if all those people that read the
first three journal entries and came whining to me about how they were too long
are going to ask me all kinds of annoying basic questions when I get home. Like, what’s something they might ask that
would make them look really stupid and insult me with their ignorance…? Something like, “Did you join any sports
clubs at your school in Japan?”…or… “Did you live with a host family or on your
own?”…or…”Did you make any friends?”…or… “What was the beautiful weather in
June like?”…yeah…those kinds of questions would really make my blood boil. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen though. I’m going to assume that someone who doesn’t
care enough to read my journal entries or even send me an e-mail requesting the
information that they really care about is also someone who won’t bother to ask
me all kinds of questions when I get back.
I wonder what it’s
going to be like when I get back. It’s
going to take some adjusting I imagine.
Will it be hard and painful like it was the first time I came back from
Japan? Will I just be happy to get back
to a more normal and comfortable life?
Will I have a mix of feelings that I will take a long time to
understand? What will it be like to be
surrounded all the people that I miss now and want them to understand what it
was like or what I’ve been doing, and yet have no way to get them to understand? If everyone who I want to understand had
come though, they’re experience wouldn’t have been my experience and they still
wouldn’t understand. I don’t think that’s
such a bad thing though; everyone has to have their own experience or
interpretation of something. And it is
really truly important for my family and friends to completely understand what
it’s like to grind the heal of your shoe into the slippery pavement to stop
your bike at an intersection while weaving in and out of middle school students
oblivious to their surroundings as they hunker beneath their massive umbrellas
in the deluge of rain that pelts my face and hair with water as it showers my
mind with memories—for good or for bad?
Maybe it’s not that important; there’s nothing wrong with each person
having their own reminiscences and episodes that no one else will ever be able
to completely understand. After all, I
think that’s one of the things that makes us human…that makes each of us an
individual in the first place—and in the last place when death is the very next
experience.
Wow…am I getting really
morbid and macabre or am I just being deep and mysterious? I don’t know which one it is so I think it’s
time to give this journal entry a cold shower and talk about something more mainstream. When I was with Yumi yesterday it made me
think about what it might be like to come home. She is in a very similar situation now as I will be in about 6
weeks when I get back to America. As
she unpacked some boxes that she had shipped her stuff in from America taking
out clothes and souvenirs I saw myself doing the same thing in front of my
family as she was in front of her mother, me, and her friend. I asked her how she feels now that she’s
back in Japan. She said that although
she’s happy to be back home, she’s going to miss all the friends that she made
in America. I guess that pretty closely
assesses how I imagine how I’ll feel about the situation. When I have big suitcases with me, it’s dark
outside, and I’m walking across the driveway towards the back door of my
house. As I approach the door the dog
comes sliding towards the screen as quickly as he dashed out of the sunroom. I still have the stubs from my plan ticket
in my pocket and the taste of airplane food on my breath. Only hours before I was on a train out of
Shinjuku station (the busiest train station on the planet) headed for the
airport…gliding along the same tracks that brought me into the nerve center of
Japan…that blasted me off along this journey that I still live every day. I’m not really hungry but I have a TV dinner…my
first in over 4 months. I watch a
little TV. I try to use my computer
that my parents have almost certainly destroyed through irresponsible ignorant
usage. I don’t know what to do with
myself…where to sit…what to say…what to think…where to go…how to feel. How can I see this all so vividly now? I’ve been in that situation many times
before. That is always the worst day of
any trip…for me anyway. I guess if you
had a really horrible trip and all you wanted was to be home to whole time, it’d
feel pretty good to finally get home.
That isn’t my case though. Yes,
there have been many times when I thought to myself that I’d rather be home and
here doing whatever I was doing…or not doing anything. Heck! (this is the PG journal, remember?) I
even had a few moments like that today—moments when I asked myself why I really
needed this and wouldn’t I be happier if I were at home. But I don’t truly want to be home. Well…at time I do…but then I think about
it. I think that if I could just
instantly be home (my magic perhaps) and this whole thing could be over
instantly, would I want that? And I
always answer with a “no.” I’m not done
here and there are still things that I’m looking forward to, still experiences
I want to have, and still all those things that I can never see coming, but
could possibly be some of the best things I get a chance to do here! Speaking of magic and topic of laughing at
my own jokes, I’m reminded of a funny incident (one that I found funny) last
night. So I was exchanging e-mails with
someone I know at school and I asked that person for their friend’s e-mail
address. I got it and sent an e-mail to
the friend. When the friend responded,
she asked me how I’d gotten her address.
For some reason I’ve always wanted to use the word 魔法 (mahou) or 魔力 (maryoku) to explain my ability for
something. What do those words
mean? The first means something like, “sorcery”
“witchcraft” and the second means “magical powers.” So, I got her address through my magical powers.
HAHAHAHAhahahhaaaaaaaaa! Why is this
funny to me? Well, firstly I guess it’s
slightly amusing that one might come to know someone’s e-mail address through
magical powers. But I think the main
thing that tickled me about it has to do with what I mentioned above. Think about this…how long might you have to
study a language in high school to actually get to learn a word like “sorcery”
or “magical powers” from the textbook.
But when I’m hear, I learn all kinds of words that are “necessary” for
conversation but you would probably never learn under normal circumstances (a
classroom). So I was amused by the fact
that I got a chance to use what I would consider to be an obscure or rarely used
word in regular conversation. I also
asked her what she was doing. She
replied by telling me to use my magical powers to tell what she was doing, so I
said that she was exchanging e-mails with me.
Well, it’s getting late so I think I’ll talk
about what happened today. Today I didn’t
go to practice at all because they’re all in Nagasaki. Today was the first day of competition. I wonder how they did. Anyway, I woke up at 9, showered, and got
dressed. Then around 10:30 I went out
with Mom and Kouki to Saito (about a half our drive away). We first went to the sight of the burial
mounds that date from the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. I saw the burial mounds (there are quite a
few) as we drove by but we didn’t get out of the car to look or take a tour or
anything like that. Instead we went to
the visitor center of the burial mounds place.
Out front on the lawn we sat down and I played soccer, golf, and baseball
with Kouki for a while. It was one of
those days where it’s very gray but it’s warm and there’s kind of a glair and
you don’t know whether to call it nice whether or bad weather. Given that it wasn’t raining I figured I didn’t
have a right to complain. After a while
my host mother’s cousin showed up to join us with her two daughters (ages 2 and
6). I just lied down on the grass for a
while and then we all went into the visitor center where they had some pictures
of people doing ancient-type activities like shooting bows and arrows, making
clay pots in fires, and beating drums.
It was mostly just a gift shop.
Apparently you could actually do these ancient type things that also
included, but were not limited to, arrow making, stone pendant making, bone
tool making, and cooking. I guess it
might have been interesting to do something like that. The problem was that the shortest of activities
were supposed to take 2 hours….the longest one 8 hours. I didn’t have the energy or patience to make
something for two hours while Kouki made a fuss about how he was bored and
wanted to go home. So we left and went
back to my host mother’s cousin’s house.
We ate some snacks and my host mother and her cousin talked and talked
and talked and talked. My host mother
just LOVES to talk. I guess that makes
things easier sometimes because I don’t have to worry about my side of the
conversation. She takes care of it for
me most of the time. In the car on our
way to the mounds this morning I was trying to read some Japanese phrase book
but she stopped me every 15 seconds to talk about something! It was pretty annoying but I didn’t want to
be like, “Helloooo…I’m trying to learn something here!” because I’m supposed to
be communicating with my host family and whatnot and not be rude, so I just was
patient. I was supposed to teach English
to the daughters of the cousin but when they got me to start the lesson the
daughter (the older one) was too shy to do anything. In fact, the entire day I did not hear here utter a single
audible word! So we went through some
basic phrases about name, age, favorite color, and serial number. We did the ABC’s too. I must have learned a lot because I was the
only one talking. So after that I just
turned back to watching Tom and Jerry cartoons on the TV that they had
put on for the little kids. Of course
it was dubbed in Japanese but that stuff isn’t exactly Shakespeare and I was
able to understand it without a problem.
After cartoons we all walked a few blocks away to a tiny little ramen
noodle shop where we all god ramen.
Then came the situation found at the top of this page. It’s pretty interesting and amusing watching
little kids try to eat. And it’s sad
how parents, or mother at least, don’t even get to eat until their little ones
are half finished eating. I must say
that after being around Kouki and his mother for a week (yes, it was a week as of today) I have had second thoughts
about wanting children someday. I’m
sure it would be different to have your own children instead of just watching
parents with their children. But still…it’s
like…when you have children you lose almost all the time that you used to be
able to spend with your spouse and life itself begins to revolve around the
wants and needs of the children. Like,
I listen to what my host parents talk about over dinner. It’s always about Kouki…something he did or
something I did with him, or something like that that happened that day. They don’t seem to have anything to say to
each other anymore that doesn’t stem from the little one. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but I’m sure I’m
right to some extent. Kouki would
certainly benefit from having a sibling—at least then my host mother might have
some more time to do what she has to do instead of worrying about entertaining
Kouki all the time. Although, if there
were another little one it could just mean twice the work that she already does
for one. But think about it…when does
having kids begin to pay off? When they’re
little they demand so much attention, time, energy, and care. And when they start to become more
independent and self-sufficient when they’re teenagers, they begin to hate and
resent you and they want to leave!
Where are the perks?!?!?! What
if they don’t even get good jobs? Then
they can’t even support you when you’re old and gray! I guess the only way to find out is to actually have kids…but…as
far as I’m concerned, that is NOT in the 4 year plan (the current plan). Maybe some day….we’ll just have to wait and
see. At least if I had children some
day I could bore them to tears with stories about Japan hahahhahahhahahahhaha…yeah…I’d
say that counts as a perk! Well anyway,
after we got back from Saito city I took a nap for a couple hours and so did
Kouki. Then around 7pm we headed out to
the gyoza (fried dumplings) restaurant for dinner. At first I thought I was just going with my host father because
my host mother had said that he was going to take me there. I wasn’t looking forward to that because I
don’t get a chance to talk to him that much and he isn’t all talk and smiles
like my host mother so I wasn’t sure what exactly we could talk about. Apparently he was a real party animal last
night. He and his farming buddies went
into downtown Miyazaki for drinks last night.
My host mother woke up at 3am at realized he still wasn’t home so she
called his cell phone. He apologized
and when he got home at 4am he never went to bed. He just was out in the hallway lying on the floor. Apparently if he’d gone to bed he wouldn’t
have been able to get up to go to work in the morning. My host mother told me how this morning when
she was doing her morning chores around 6am he was crouched in the fetal position
on the living room floor with his head down.
Every time she walked by she would tell him to wake up. He’d lift his head, look at her, and then
when she left he put his head back down.
Heheheh…sounds like someone had a good time last night…maybe too much of
a good time. So the gyoza was very
tasty and yes my breath does stink of garlic…grrrr. Tomorrow I’m going to go see The Matrix Reloaded with Chie. I’m looking forward to seeing it because I’ve
wanted to see it for a while and I just haven’t had time! Ahhh!
I don’t know what we’re going to do afterwards…lunch I suppose…but past
that there’s no plan that I’m aware of.
I guess you’ll just have to tune in next time to hear about my
adventures. Ok, I’m going to go check
the windows for people in white gowns and straight jackets and then I’m going
to post the journal entry that you just read!
-Maikeru