Moment of Truth

So, this is it. I am here. I am living in Japan. I have a washing machine, a bicycle, and pot with two plants that I named Hikari (it means "light"). Slowly but surely, I am settling in. And so far, not a single panic attack. No sobbing in the middle of my living room floor as I unpack a mix cd a friend made me (our keynote speaker at orientation), no collapsing into a weepy mess in the middle of a supermarket (his friend), not even any magic fixing words when I wacked my head on the bathroom doorway...again. Perhaps my moment will come in the more depressing Stage 2 of culture shock when I realize that I never fully appreciated being able to bake more than 4 cookies at once and that wacking my head on the doorway is no longer just an amusing anecdote to make friends with Japanese coworkers. ("ooooh, hahahaha, silly giant gaijin") But for now, things are pretty darn genki, better than genki actually.

Contrary to the "Every situation is different, but my supervisor hated me/I had to live in a cave with only face-sized spiders for friends/my students were demon spawn plotting to take over the world..." sorts of stories from Tokyo orientation (and the horrifying pathway my own vivid imagination went down), my supervisor is a 5'11", 97 lb. Japanese super hero. My apartment is lovely (check out the video, but now imagine a dining table, a washing machine, and a very small plant). And the students seem like pretty standard issue middle school crazy. My presence never fails to elicit one of the following reactions:

- terror, wide-eyed, deer in the headlights, terror
- uncontrolable fits of giggles
- rib bruising nudges ("You talk to her." "Shut up! You talk to her!")
- flat out denial ("...if I don't look at her, maybe she will disappear...")

But I came prepared. Slowly but surely, I will win them over. I will seduce them with my stickers and tendency to make a complete fool of myself. Because everyone knows, the fastest ways to a middle schooler heart are persistance, prizes, and making yourself look more ridiculous than they feel. I am ready to deliver on all accounts.

Apartment Tour!



p.s. We really do live in the age of technology. A quick "apartment tour japan" search on youtube will get you inside the apartments of approximately 90% of JET participants. The first video for "apartment tour kanazawa" is a guy I work with. I now covet his balconies, but not the crazy office workers that look in his bedroom window.