Expectations & Observations

This is not really chronological or stemming from any specific experience, but since I've mostly just been bitching about the weather or raving about the various cool stuff I've bought/seen/done, I felt it was time to do a little writing about the more "profound"-ish thoughts I've had since being in Japan.

First of all, my overall reaction to Japan "in the flesh", as it were, is that I'm a little underwhelmed by the supposed cultural gap people have been telling me since I first took an interest in the language. I am of course aware that my particular situation is pretty darn cozy and designed by all the higher-ups involved to make my stay as pleasant as possible. I have in no way, shape, or form been dumped smack in the middle of Tokyo and left to fend for myself. By and large, the people in this program have been well pampered. But. BUT.

My trip has not occurred in complete gaijin-friendly isolation. I'm walking around Tokyo every day, I have to explain myself to Japanese people when there's an issue or if I need something, and I am almost daily asking for directions home from people working in the convenience stores. It's not home; I have to step back and consider how to handle situations using the things I've been learning the past few years, and it can be frustrating and draining to have to speak and verbally comprehend a language I have only a passable grasp of day in and day out. And yet I cannot see it as being, at least for me, something I could not handle in the long term. Things don't get easier in anything resembling a linear fashion, but they do (almost invariably) get easier.

I do feel I was well-prepared for this trip. What some might have found to be completely shocking or abhorrent were mild to somewhat irritating inconveniences that really just amounted to a different (and more often than not more effective) way of accomplishing the same thing; cultural differences were anticipated and actually less of a probem than initially predicted; particular instances of weirdness were generally taken in stride; communication was never smooth, but it was successful.

I don't notice people starting at me. I don't really feel isolated. The cultural customs are familiar and while not always to my taste, can be well dealt with. I'm having a hard time not just saying, "What is everyone's problem? Why do people seem to breakdown over here?"

I also think that my personality is helping me out in that respect. I'm the kind of person who naturally tends to isolate and insulate myself from psyche damaging stress and people by being what I would call self-contained. Things that don't directly impact me rarely make it into my mental priority que of things-I-give-a-shit-about*. I prefer to be alone most of the time, and while I've never had a problem getting along with people, I also don't go out of my way to be anybody's friend. At any given time I'd say I have, at most, two or three really good friends, and maybe a boyfriend, in my close social circle. And that's fine with me.

Maybe it really just boils down to my disposition. I'm psychologically compatible with life abroad...by virtue of being an introverted, selectively-apathetic loner.

Hm.

*Exceptions to this rule being things that I find anti-scientific and/or anti-logic, such as religion, alternative medicine, George Bush...