My friend Kat and I have been living in Japan for about a month now, teaching English. So far things aren't so very different. Yesterday I was sitting by a fountain near my apartment watching a familiar scene - a group of children playing with the water; playing with empty bottles, their mom sitting on a park bench watching. It was when I realized the kids weren't pouring water onto the concrete haphazardly, but were actually writing in Japanese that I remembered, "oh yeah. I live in Japan now..."
I do a lot of gesturing these days. The same motions that work for the kids in my classes get the point across to strangers and train conductors when I'm lost. The other night after we went to karaoke, Kat invited some of our new friends back to her place to play cards. I ended up "talking" with a group of Japanese speakers using a pocket phrase-book. So I'd look up one of the maybe 5 conversation topics - what do you do in your free time? and then they'd try to answer in English or point to something from the list in the book. I'm into the idea of a guided conversation. I'd like to make some kind of communication device or book or machine.
I'm never really aware of being a foreigner until I see another foreigner. One thing that really is different is the acceptability of befriending strangers. It's like being a kid. You're four and you're at the playground and you see someone playing in the sandbox and you want to play in the sandbox. So you just go over and say, "wanna be friends?" It kinda works like that here.
All the Westerners hang out in Seattle's Best Coffee shop because they have free wireless internet and you can get real, unsweetened coffee (you can buy coffee in vending machines and in convenience stores here, but it comes in a little lukewarm aluminum can and it's sickly sweet). A couple days ago we just went up to a couple people there speaking English and asked where they were from, why they were here, etc. Next thing we know, we're going to a Russian BBQ with them.
Seeing 500 Buddha statues on a hillside is also a bit different.
So are beauty smile trainers and matching clothed dogs in strollers.
