Seven Months In

(Big Danger in Little Osaka #15, 2009)

It’s now been seven months since I arrived in Japan. In that time the suffocating heat of summer has turned to harsh cold, seemingly without the smooth, creamy bits in between. (Sometimes it gets so cold that I could swear, in a moment of frost-addled madness, that I’m back in the Valley). My students no longer regard me as a strange curiosity but more as a cool older brother who teaches them dirty words and buys them alcohol (metaphorically speaking, of course – that kind of shit can get you fired). Fuse, for all its griminess and inappropriate graffiti, has endeared itself to me. It’s hard to walk through a local park and see kids playing on the swings, old men playing chess and teenagers practicing their synchronised dance routines and not feel some affection for the place.

I feel comfortable in Japan now and I think people can somehow tell. It used to be that when I approached someone for help, such as a shop assistant or train guard, I would see a look of panic in their eyes as they struggled to think of how to deal with a foreigner who presumably speaks no Japanese. Old people would look past me in the street, even after being given a cheery greeting. Now, though, things are different. The look of panic in shopkeepers’ eyes is gone. Children will greet me on the street with an emphatic “hallo!” or even take a wild stab at my name: “Michael! Michael! Uh… John! John!”. I wasn’t completely clueless when I first arrived in Japan, but perhaps subtle differences in everything I did screamed “foreigner!” to those around me. Maybe now that I’m more comfortable and in tune with the way things work, I’m not so conspicuously foreign and people feel more relaxed around me. Of course, I still get stared at on the train by young children, but I think Japanese society in general has warmed to my presence. It’s probably just my imagination.

During the winter break (which is your summer – for those of you still not getting this, I’d advise just giving up now) I decided not to re-contract and will be leaving Japan in August. So, I have about five months left to squeeze as much out of this country as I can. And man, is there a lot of, uh, juice to be squeezed. I’ve barely scratched the surface of Osaka city itself, let alone the greater Osaka area. Then there are the surrounding cities of Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe (of temple, deer and earthquake fame, respectively), which are all a relatively short train ride away. Beyond that the bulk of Japan remains unexplored. It’s not a huge country but they do pack a lot in, and since I have limited time left (during which I should probably, y’know, keep going to work) I’ll have to spend it wisely. No more weekends getting drunk and hanging around with high-class prostitutes for me, it’s time for some authentic (and column-space-filling) Japanese experiences.