じゃあ行くぞ！ Well, Let's Go!

The two week trip I made to Tokyo this passed winter break has allowed me what will prove to be a decidedly unique view of Japanese culture. I was lucky enough this evening to meet a friend from Boston College who had just returned from his year abroad in the far east.  After a brief ferry mixup, I picked him up from Sausalito before making the leisurely drive to one of the best restaurants California has to offer... In-N-Out.  After a delicious meal, we drove along the stretch of wealth known as Tiburon before beginning the more arduous journey to Pride Rock (Marin, you know what's up). The usual catching up done, our mountaintop conversation turned to the bond we share in Japanese.  Our discussion of the Japanese language, cities, people mingled with the wispy trails of smoke and  lead to a mutual realization of the difference between our initial study abroad starting points.  While the first day of his year abroad had coincided with his first steps on Japanese soil (and first sight of an in-airport zen garden), my feet first touched Tokyo pavement on the twenty seventh of December, 2009. 

My first experiencing of Japan and its capitol was rife with the shock and awe evoked by the sheer number of people crammed into such small spaces such as train cars and narrow sidewalks as well as the bedazzling array of cuteness assaulting the senses from every shop window and street corner, but that is not what this blog is about.  I stayed with my girlfriend and her family about an hour train ride from the glowing Tokyo metropolis where I was treated as family and met with customs I could not have anticipated.  In about a month, I will be returning to Japan, but unlike my returning friend from school, my eyes have already seen the initial flash of culture that casts the rest of what it means to be in Japan in shadow.  My year abroad will not start with eyes wide open in amazement and mouth agape, but with the focus that comes once the eyes have adjusted to the florescent bulb unexpectedly illuminating a dim room.  The Japanese are not defined by their ability to become sardines in a can or to conceive adorable anthropomorphic kittens.  Rather a Japanese person is everything they are not telling you or the media has thankfully missed.

The only proper way to begin this blog of mine is to apologize.  There will be things about the Japanese that I will not be able to adequately convey in English especially to those who have never had the opportunity to be among them in their homeland.  I've never written a blog before, and I hope whoever reads this will take away something useful and see the world as more than just U.S. and them, whoever they are.  This blog is about the differences in communication noticed by a Communication major that people have no idea exist.  No matter how much this blog ends up being personal opinion or random observation, You can count one thing as fact: Deciding to study Japanese changed my life far more than any other decision I have made so far.... and it was the right choice.

Godzilla's first trip to Japan