The Long Way Over There

I am on the Asian continent. Choppy surf and rightous waves lulled me to a kind of half sleep all night. By morning I was in docked at Busan, South Korea. There has been so much to talk about actually since I have written last, in Osaka. I will try to remember how I have been feeling. I have felt a litte spent lately. My journal entries have been few and far between, and my mind and body have been caught up in the current. I will say first and foremost that it is so much cheaper over here in Korea. It will talk at least a week to get used to spending 1,000 won, the uquivalent of 75 cents Canadian; to 1,000 Yen which is like 12 bucks Canadian. Small tings, small tings. What I have seen so far I like. People are much different then my Japanese friends. Slapping and fighting are expressions of love and peace. At least I think so. I will be on the beach for a week enjoying the surf, sun, and everything else that comes with those particulars. But first things first...

For over a week it has rained on Honshu, the main island of Japan. I was stuck in Osaka that night I wrote a bit on my blog to you guys, but that night it cleared up and I needed to get over to Shin-Yamaguchi, a shinkansen stop onwards to the West of Japan. It was not to be. I was stuck in Hiroshima. But the most lovely sight greeted me when I came down the escalator. Hundreds of stranded commuters who couldn't get over to the West were sleeping on blankets provided by the JR staffers. They also gave us pastry that night and pastry and juice in the morning. I was pleased. It was awkward to do so, but they allowed us to sleep on the train itself. I slept in the Green expensive car of this particular shinkansen. It half sucked but was cool and refreshing. I eventually got into Fukuoka, by way of Hagi and Shin-Yamaguchi. Here is where the action happens.

I stayed with an ex-pat named Tim, through the couch curfing organization. He is a fantastic dude full of piss and sarcasim. Two things I miss back home. Yet what stunned me was his reaction to Japan and the Japanese themselves. I learned a lot from his observations. We forget when we travel the seriousness of our actions. The tourist will walk seemingly aimlessly from town to town, big goofy smile, spend some cash, and then leave from whence they came. Tim was from Chicago originally and was definitely not a person living in Japan with a tourist type of attitude. I have met people who have lived here teaching english and have the attitude of the tourist. It is unfortunately a sickness that many people live with. Some of you may know my attitude towards english teaching in Japan. I won't bore you, but it seems that my ideas ring true towards most of the english teachers. Not all, but most. Tim did that route for one year before he became an engineer and worked within the system and not around it. Most foreigners who come from abroad buck the system over in Japan. One can argue that the system is made to be manipulated by plucky foreign residents, to make a quick buck and move on. I am happy to say that I have met few who emerse themselves within the communities in which they live, learn or attempt to learn the language. You are a citizen, try and be one.

Tim as I have said, emmersed himself for quite some time in Japan, has worked hard not only at his job but to the politics which comes from living over there. He is hilarious but also at times, whether it was his personality or not; hard to say when you only spent four days with someone, he seemed to be very angry. I heard many many stories about his being mistreated by co-workers, groped, lied to etc. at work. It was startling and made me question some of my myths which I still keep in my head about my lovely Japan. These aren't the times of Lafcadio Hearn when a gaijin walks into a bar and is universally loved and admired. It's not true now and it wasnt true then. It was an image bought and sold to the masses. Culture is good at that. I was allowed to see what a real person, a westerner sees in a daily basis only, and this is a BIG only, if they allow to be enveloped by the system itself. Japanese systems are flawed, like ours back home, but we are allowed to disappear a bit into the masses. In Japan you are singled out. You are pointed out. Nowhere to hide. Which is why english teaching seems to be the best route for those who enjoy being blinded by mythos, by what those, who haven't tasted the other side preach from their pulpits.

It's complicated. I am not trying to cast a dark shadow on something I feel to be quite beautiful but with the light comes the dark. Right? Natural. But what Tim showed me was a person who has spent so much time at trying to fit in, at least grinding down the corners of the square in order to fit inside the circle. Not perfect but it'll do.I felt sorry for him. I asked why he didn't leave if he wasn't happy. He said that it was where he has spent most of his time. He wants to make it work. For that I applaud him. Nothing is ever easy if it's worth it. I just hope I don't have the same issues as he does, and did. I saw many of the things that he was telling me when we went over to the Bluegrass Festival in Oita prefecture, near Oita city. I met two Canadians from Alberta, who have been in Oita for about 20-28 years respectively. They came as missionaries but stayed with the heathens. Nice people. For real. I was stoked to be in such a place, in the beautiful mountains of Kyushu watching a classic American style of music. Everybody was great at what they did, playing banjo, fiddle, guitar, steel slide etc. So many acts. It was great. But Tim told me what to expect and I had been warned to not talk about my studying of Japanese history. When I told them that I was 'interested' in Japanese history I was immediately told that it was because Canada doesn't have a very long history. This is why I was 'interested' in Japanese history. For Tim there is the "teacher student" relationship which occurs when a foreigner talks to an older Japanese. I never experience something that intense but I did notice that some of the gentlemen were interested in my interests, yet treating them as a type of daliance, because my country doens't have a "long history." I politely contradict the person I am speaking to and tell him that yes, in fact we Canadians have a very long history even before the country of colonized by the British and French. Perhaps it is the fault of the education system in Japan, the bureaucratic hegemony which lies to its citizens, filling them with a false idea of what the rest of the world looks like or aught to be. But I did realize at the festival that as a foreigner you play not only by the rules of a system which allows you to either travel, or live a life in Japan, but by the entire nation of citizens who have allowed themselves to be indoctrinated by that same system. Shadow play is darker over in Japan.

I am learning. I am trying to see deeper into this culture than I ever have. I am trying to see the real. I have always seen the good, and I continue to do so but more importantly I have seen the bullshit and prejudice which comes from a lot of bureaucracy. It stuns me. I am happier for it.