Now even more jaded...

I'd really hate to think that the day I arrive back in the States and people ask me about my fantastical journey the most impressive thing I would be able to muster up would be "Well, the buses ran on time" or perhaps something involving the words "attractive" and "girls". Perhaps I left more orientalist than when I came.

It's all a bit anticlimactic. This city has been my home for eight or so months, and while I feel I've become used to being here there's no sense that I am nearer to what constitutes Hirakatashi, let alone Osaka and heaven forbid Japan in terms of people and culture than when I first arrived.

What being here has helped me to realize, however, is that people are people. Not to homogeonize, but to help distinguish and better communicate and attempt to mesh with folk of both the Japanese and foreign varieties. My impressions when I stepped foot into the country were not of geisha and samurai or wholly neo-Tokyo cyberpunk with buxom anime girls and neon signs dotting every square inch of land owned by mega-corporations, but I did brace myself for unbridgeable gaps that might never be overcome. I did find some, but I found just as much common and uncommon ground as I did when I shifted from Chicago to Florida, or from high school to college.


There are temples and shrines. Yes, you can find katanas and geisha, there are blindingly bright areas in Osaka meant to confuse you into buying Asahi Super Dry or a nice new digital camera, but these things are mostly superficial, I've found. Too many people are caught up in living their lives just as they do in the ever-ambiguous "America" to worry about being Japanese.

Even so, my experience here has been as little more than a student. If I return as something else my impressions will most likely change depending on my priorities. I feel that my journey's only halfway done, if only because I've had my share of green tea but have so far missed out on the onsens.

Japanese People: Quite a few in Japan

That high Japanese population doesn't leave much room for cultural sensitivity (aside from the Little Black Sambo book I had to explain to a young lady why "lynch" might not be the best word to use in most situations).

Moving along. One can't help but be amused at the reactions of a Japanese person who hears that a foreigner enjoys eating nattou. Of course I can't be counted among those, never having so much as touched the stuff, but it's entertaining nonetheless. The idea of a someone so devastatingly non-Japanese consuming a Japanese food seems to be quite mindblowing to much of the population.

This glares into the face of many of the resident population whom I've spoken to that recoil at the mere mention of the word nattou, Japanese-ness notwithstanding. It's one of many examples of the citizenry's tendency to self-homogeonizing, painting a stark line between Japanese and foreign. This is not a trait that's uniquely Japanese, but stick with me for a moment.




The peace sign in photos, origami, insane fashion senses, (relative) purity of spirit, group-mindedness, corruption and trickiness in the female population (at least according to some members of my current family), these are also results of the cultural paintbrush that may or may not be withdrawn once someone takes the time to think about themselves as an individual as opposed to a faceless member of a cultural whole which only exists in the most abstract and general sense.

People continually attempt both inside and outside of Japan to define what it means on a whole to be Japanese, despite many Osakans claiming that they can't stand Kantou-ben and many Tokyo-ites complaining that Osakans are rude sons-of-guns (of course, save for the occasional reference to exotic Hokkaido and questionably "Japanese" Okinawa, 90% of the rest of the country is left out of the comparitive equation). They forget that Japanese people are indeed people, and beyond the basic cultural foundation which is itself quite varied, they are themselves and not part of an imaginary, whitewashed block of sameness.

Backlog - Just do it: Sports in Japan

"So I was at the park one morning and there was a dad there with his three sons. They were running around the track and he was timing them."



Hardcore.

Even beyond the rapid fandom of national competition (Hanshin Tigers, anyone?) sports are apparently big in Japan, not just as something to watch but to do. The number of tracksuit clad students and adults alike, both outside but especially on the campus of our wonderful school, could possibly be said to boggle the mind. You do have your requisite sendentary population, but many of the people I've met here do something, from conventional sports such as basketball to the ever raised-eyebrow inducing Sepak Takraw of which I was a member at Kansai Gaidai for several months (with very little progress, I may add)



It sticks as well. Many of the people who join clubs here were doing the same thing in high school and many of the people in high school were doing the same thing in middle school. This is not sports specific, but seems to be a characteristic and any acitivity that has club-potential in it. The sports folk just seem to wear snappier and more recognizable uniforms. Well, if a tracksuit can be considered to be snappy. That and they turn a toasty brown color in warmer weather. And the bag which has a 50% chance of being Puma-made.