Today begins a new adventure for me. I am travelling solo to Japan for 19 days.
It still hasn’t really sunk in yet.
Last night, Aubrey dropped me off in Toronto so I could hitch a ride with Tzachi (my Israeli brother) who was already taking someone else to the airport. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:34am, requiring me to be at the airport, well, pretty flippin’ early. Tzachi is an extremely early riser, and was going to the airport anyway, so I was grateful for the lift. Aubrey was going to drive me, which would have totally wrecked his work day today, especially considering he got a call and had to work until early this morning.
I woke up just after 3am, and found out that my flight had been delayed by over two hours. Hopefully I will still make my connecting flight in Minneapolis.
I just wanted to send this out now, to warn you all in case you want to unsubscribe. I am hoping, as usual, to document this crazy adventure, and capture some of my feelings as I return to Japan after all these years.
For those of you that don’t know, I lived in Japan for a year in 1995-96. It was an amazing experience. I was on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program. I lived in a small town called Kazo around an hour and half out of Tokyo, and worked as an assistant English teacher at four middle schools. I was one of maybe 4 foreigners in the whole town of 50,000 people.
When I arrived, I barely spoke any Japanese. Except for the English teachers at the school, almost no-one spoke any English. Moving to Japan in some ways felt like moving to another planet entirely. Everything was so different, even when they seemed the same on the outside. For example, it was extremely hot and humid when I arrived and there was a 7-Eleven around the corner from my apartment. Excited for a cool refreshing taste of home, I eagerly ran in to get a Slurpee or a Big Gulp, only to find an entire wall of dried fish snacks, and many other completely unrecognizable items – not a Slurpee in sight…
That year was a huge learning experience for me, and taught me a lot about myself. It was the first and only time in my life I lived completely alone without family or roommates, and I had to learn how to navigate a completely different culture, not as a tourist, where I could barely speak the language. There is some poetic symmetry in me returning now, taking this adventure alone, for the first time in over 25 years
I was extremely fortunate to have been “adopted” by my Taiko drumming teacher, Yasuhide Mori and his family (more about them in a later post), which changed my whole experience in Japan. I have been very lucky in my life to have been the recipient of many acts of great kindness from complete strangers – this has definitely shaped who I am now.
I did return to Japan 5 years later with Aubrey and our friend Danny Rostenne for about 2 weeks in 2001. Many things had changed in that short period of time, I can’t imagine how much things have changed since then.
For my 50th birthday, I started hatching a plan to come to Japan with our whole family, but my 50th ended up being during the pandemic so it never happened. I did however start studying Japanese on Duolingo, and have listened to some Japanese language study podcasts. I also did a little bit of online tutoring, especially in the past few weeks leading up to this trip. I am sad to report that I feel that my spoken language skills are inadequate in spite of keeping up my Duolingo streak for 770 days. I have decided to consciously let my streak go, and have quit Duolingo for the meantime. I will be having plenty of time to praactice over the next 19 days, and will probably not want to be on the app. Our plan now is to still come to Japan as a family, perhaps in December of this year.
So why am I taking this trip now?
My eldest son Erez, who is just two years younger than I was when I moved to Japan, is doing a three month engineering coop placement in Japan this summer. He will be busy, and doesn’t need my help to set up, but I jumped at the chance to spend some time there. Well, sort of. I wanted to jump at the chance, but mulled it over for a LONG time. I only actually booked my flight two weeks ago. I kept finding reasons why I shouldn’t go, but I am really glad that I finally decided to do it.
Although I have planned much of the trip already, I have left a lot of time open as well for spontaneous decisions. I am landing in Tokyo on Friday afternoon and have left myself the weekend to adjust to the new time zone (13 hours ahead of mine). On Monday I will be starting a week of Japanese classes with a strong focus on conversation. I will be staying at an airbnb a 10 minute walk from the school. It is located right in the heart of Akihabara (Electric town). Next weekend I will be visiting the Mori family in Kazo. I can’t wait.
These blogposts are primarily so I can document my adventures for myself, but if you choose to come on part of this adventure with me, I apologize in advance for the bombardment that is about come.
My plane is about to board, so I will sign off here without even proofreading…
頑張って ください!
Gambatte Kudasai!