When I moved to Japan about four and a half years ago, I didn't expect to settle down here. Japan was cool and all I thought, but America is where its at. I could handle living in Japan, but I'd rather be in the States.
I've since come full circle since then.
Since I've lived here so long, I've come to realize that just about everything you can get in the US you can get over here, with the exception of Taco Bell and Papa Murphy's Take-and-Bake pizzas. But I'm fat enough as it is without these scrumptious offerings and it makes them taste all the more dandy when I do visit home.
I get cheaper high-speed internet access and pay-per-view pron (but I still can't figure out why a nation so fixated on sex insistes on mozaic-fuzzing all the action spots. I have a great apartment near the mountains but can be in downtown Kyoto in 20 minutes, Osaka in little over an hour. Sure, I'm far from family and friends, but even if I lived in the States it doubtful that I'd see them much more often than I do now.
But beyond this material existence, Japan is full of, well, Japanese people. That means they aren't Americans. Don't get me wrong, I love America and I love Americans, but sometimes they are fucking retarded. The whole political climate, both with regard to individuals and the government, can't really compare to the freedom that I get in Japan. I'm not bashing America at all, but I don't get frustrated with dealing with Japanese in the same way I do with Americans.
Well, I do get frustrated with Japanese people some times, and yes, its because they are fucking retarded, but its in a rather different way. But I don't want to talk about how retarded Japanese people are or bash Americans today.
Japanese society is really changing and isn't as idyllic or polite or friendly as it used to be, but its still pretty good. Young people give old people their seat on the train and cigarettes carry a warning that ciggies are unhealthy so "let's be careful not to smoke too much."
Last week on my way to Rugby practice, my sunglasses fell from my pocket as I was riding my bike. I have these clip-on lenses that snap around the regular lenses that I carry in a separate case. No, not those dorky generic flip-up things that clip on the bridge of the glasses that my dad wears. These came with the frames.
I was despondent at the loss. I've had these glasses for 5 years now and haven't lost the sunglasses. I wear them all the time and couldn't bear facing life without shaded bliss. I was preparing myself for my first encounter with a Japanese optometrist (my frustrations with Japan almost exclusively stem from interactions with the retail sector).
I retraced my steps (pedal cycles?) from the practice ground to home but didn't find them. I didn't expect to really, and was afraid that even if I did they would be broken. There is a police box (koban) near the park by my house and people will sometimes turn in found items there. No dice on that attempt either, but the old cop was really nice and offered to call down to a neighboring koban to see if anyone had turned in something there.
And lo and behold, someone had turned my sunglasses in.
This is probably an anticlimatic story for anyone whose read this far, but I was seriously blown away. Perhaps I was just being unnecessaily pessimistic, but I didn't expect to get them back if I didn't find them myself. In the US, I wouldn't expect to find anything.
I went down and got my sunglasses. The cops there also gave me the phone number and name of the guy who found them and told me to be sure to call him and thank him for turning them in. I did, and he was really excited. Turns out he's been studying English for 15 years (he sounded 60+) and was tickled to talk to me in English a little bit. I told him he sounded great and paid him back for my good feelings.
I still couldn't believe I got my glasses back for a couple days, but I did. Some old guy found them and made the effort to take them to a local police box in case someone came looking for them. I know a guy who has lost his wallet 4 times and gotten it back 3 times with everything inside. I know that isn't unheard of in the US, but I think a 75% rate is a bit higher than you can reasonably expect in a US city of 1.5 million. Tokyo isn't quite as good as other parts though, having adopted an indifferent attitude not surprising when you have that many people in that small of an area.
So that's my tale of Japan. Although it isn't a friendly as it used to be, its still pretty good. People are nice and considerate and it seems like the Golden Rule is in effect more often than not. I can live with that, you know.
Posted by Nutrimentia at April 13, 2003 11:08 PM | TrackBack