Remember: when disaster strikes, the time to prepare has passed. --Steven Cyros I think it was during my first few months in Japan that the news brought up the concern of the biggest typhoon of that year.
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“When you arrive at the destination, never forget where the journey began.” The journey to Japan was truly an escape. From my marriage. "Let those who wish have their respectability--I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy, freedom to search in the farther most corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous, and the romantic" --Richard Halliburton I guess that is what Japan was to me--freedom. My whole life, I have lived with someone else, always had to be conscious of how I behaved and how it would affect them. In Japan, I lived alone. Well, not necessarily. I mean, I had Rodger and Ariana just next door, across the balcony, and Meagan was down the way, as well as all the other teachers in the building, but I was living in an apartment by myself. No roommates, husband or family. I did buy two goldfish after a few months, though--Aragorn and Legolas. They were pretty awesome company. Didn't ask for anything except food every once and a while. "That's what I like about traveling--you can sit down, maybe talk to someone interesting, see something beautiful, read a good book, and tha's enough to qualify as a good day. You do that at home and everyone thinks you're a bum." --Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan Towards the end of my adventure in Japan, I was sitting on the sunny side of the train on my way home from Midori no Mori. There was a group of young foreigners--20s--standing in the same train car, talking amongst themselves. I wasn't in the mood for talking to other foreigners (I was of the mindset that this was my territory; my piece of Japan--as some long-term expats come to think), so I had my earbuds in.
Close to my stop, I removed the earbuds and put them away. That's when one of the males came over and asked me, "Where are you from?" "America," I answered, as nicely as I could. "Yes, I figured that, but where?" "Oh," I said, flustered and slightly offended--only foreigners would be so direct. "I'm from Iowa." "Oh, we thought you were from New York or some big city place." "No, I'm not." I responded, offended, again. This time at his lack of appreciation of where I came from. "What is traveling? |
Myself
Video blogger and now a blogger as well. My life in Japan has changed me for the better. However, it wasn't easy... Archives
September 2016
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