I opted to take human anatomy and physiology in high school, thinking physics wasn't going to be my thing. I have a nagging feeling that I am soon to learn one of the undisputed laws of physics. Am I in a bubble and is it about to burst? I'm not talking about the housing market either. *photo courtesy of Photoshop Phursday and no McDonald's doesn't look like that in Japan.
Why haven't I experienced culture shock? I would kind of like to get it out of the way. It has been 6+ weeks since I arrived in Japan and it strikes me every few days that I feel so completely normal and comfortable here. It is becoming my mantra when people ask me how I am liking it in Japan. "Just great, I feel so completely normal and comfortable here," I say with my trademark toothy smile. This is peculiar given that my house is pure chaos...between the boxes that I frankly am not interested in unpacking at the moment, despite them dangerously teetering on the top step, the kawaii girls who have reached a new level of unruliness and the fact that WTF Husband is no where in sight. Okay, those actually aren't abnormalities in my household, that's pretty much the norm. Still I wait. Wait, wait, wait. "Oh culture shock, where are you, come out-come out wherever you are."
Given that I am thousands of miles away from home, living in a foreign country...a really foreign country with no less than three strange alphabets...I keep expecting it to hit me. Instead, every time I walk out of the gates of the base, I feel exhilarated and somehow enlightened, like thousands of years of Buddhism is welling up inside of me. I'm living in Disney World only bigger and better. And the goosebumps don't go away. This place I now call home is magical. I love how the streets bustle but in near silence, how the girls behind the counter at Vie de France bakery always giggle and wave to me as I pass by their shop or when I walk in cheerfully greet me by saying "Irasshaimase." I admire the incredible attention to detail, how even at the 100 Yen store, my items are carefully wrapped and taped up in a bag. How the smell of the fish market on Blue Street sort of thrills me instead of repulses. Everything is refreshingly new and exciting and wonderful. I want to hang my laundry on the patio to dry, eat rice and drink tea all day long and go to sleep on a futon.
This is where I wish I took physics. Perhaps if I had studied
instead of toe bone connected to the foot bone, foot bone connected to the leg bone (ala Dem Bones,) I could better prepare for the inevitable. What goes up, must come down. The culture shock is out there, lurking behind a street corner waiting to tag me. And so I know I will fall from this culture-high I am on. My bubble will burst and I'll be left in a tiny puddle of shock. Until then I am going to continue to smell the cherry blossoms and think of it as the most intoxicating fragrance ever to pass me by.
2 comments:
If this is your first year here take a sudafed before you party under the Cherry Blossoms. A LOT of Americans have HUGE allergies this time of year here.
It took me almost a year for CS to hit. By then I had a great group of friends here.
From what I hear I will go through CS again once we move to Sasebo ,due to it's small size..
Never had CS either...love it here, would retire in this beautiful and dignified country if I could. I've enjoyed reading your posts as well...much more informative than mine. Thanks for stopping by Big Harmony--hope to hear from you again!
Post a Comment