Ian funnies and what I’m going to miss about Japan

So……first I have a couple of funny Ian stories to tell that I haven’t told yet. 

Last Friday Ian had to go to the city for work, so he met up with some of his guy friends that night.  I knew he would be getting in late, so I didn’t wait up for him.  I don’t remember him coming in, but I remember waking up around 5:30AM and seeing him on the computer.  I asked him why he was awake and told him to come to bed…..to which he responds, “We should get a puppy.”   I was completely thrown off by his statement.  That’s not exactly what you expect to hear at 5:30 in the morning.    Apparently Mr. Ian had drank coffee or some other highly caffeinated substance because he was WIRED.  He took that moment to explain to me that the guys were talking about dogs, and he decided to come home and started researching what our first dog should be.  Um…..ok.  Since it was 5:30, the first hints of morning light were creeping in, and Ian suggested that we stay up to see the sunrise.  WHERE WAS ALL OF THIS ENERGY COMING FROM?!?!  I told him that he was crazy if he thought that I was waking up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning to watch the sunrise.  Thanks but no thanks!

Last weekend, Ian and I had a fight about his stuff.  He tends to leave his things just sitting around, and since it’s winter, we’re pretty much living out of one warm room in our house.  It doesn’t take a lot to make the room seem cluttered.  His camera equipment takes up a whole dang corner of the room, he’ll leave his guitar just sitting out in the open, and he has no qualms about leaving his work papers floating anywhere around the computer area.  It.  Drives.  Me.  Crazy.    I HATE for all of that crap to be out in the open!  However, he apparently has a method to the madness.  If I clean up or move anything, he notices.  He’ll ask me where I put his ____.  I respond with, “In its place.”  I’m pretty sure that it’s universal that there’s nothing quite like those three little words uttered from a wife to a husband to get under a husband’s skin.  Ian HATES whenever I say that because what I consider a suitable place for his ______ is not what he considers a good place to be.  How did we solve this situation?  …..with a compromise, of course!  Ian cleaned out a section of the closet, crammed a shelf in there, and put all of his stuff into that hidden area of the house.  I promised not to touch any of it as long as he kept the stuff in there and not out in the open.  Since Ian is always talking about wanting a “man cave,” (a room in which he can leave his crap wherever he wants to, and I’m not allowed to touch it) but our house is too small to donate an entire room to his cause, I nicknamed the closet space his “man cave.” 

Since getting back from Australia, Ian and I have been getting serious about going home.  I know that it’s still six months off, but time will go by quickly, so we have to start planning.  I mentioned in one of last week’s blogs that we booked our flights home and are having a couple days layover in both Tokyo and Hawaii (YEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!)  However, we’ve also been looking into jobs, housing, and insurance…….big kid stuff.    I emailed my former bosses at both WKCTC and MSU, and I can go back to both schools for fall semester.  The fall schedule isn’t out yet, but I’ll be at WKCTC on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and at MSU on Tuesday and Thursday.  What really stinks is that since I haven’t been an employee at WKCTC or MSU for two years, I have to go back to through the application process.    Most of it is online, but WKCTC has an intensive seven page application online that is basically a resume builder.  It would be great if I could just send in my resume…but alas.  This is a hoop I have to jump through.  MSU takes the cake, though.  Their application is sixteen pages long, and that’s just the stuff that I can do FROM HERE.  Once I get back in August, I have to go to campus and fill out more application stuff.  Blarg! 

Ian has been looking into jobs as well, brushing up his resume, and sending it out.  He’s going to keep his current job and do what he can from the States: phone interviews, voice recordings, etc, but that isn’t quite enough to make ends meet, so he’s been looking for something more full time.  As we make preparations to leave, it’s becoming a reality:  we’re leaving Japan for good.  While it would be nice to come back, I really, highly doubt that we’ll ever come back to Japan.  We’re leaving our crappy little car that we have become endeared to, REALLY good friends that we may or may never see again, our beautiful little mountain town that we love, and so, so much more.  Once we get back to the States, it’s almost like it’s back to reality.  No more amazing winter vacations to another continent, no more easy teaching job, no this, that, and the other!  I started making a list of all the things I’m going to miss when we go home.  While this list isn’t inclusive, (I normally add something to the list a couple of times a week) it’s a pretty good start.  They are in no certain order.

1) Mochi.  Mmmmm…..mochi!  Mochi is sweetened pounded rice.  They beat the rice with huge mallets until the rice reaches this sticky paste consistency and then add sugar.  Sometimes the mochi is then wrapped around anco for an even more delicious tasty treat!

2) Anco.  Mmmmm….anco.  Anco is a sweetened bean paste.  I know it doesn’t sound that good, but trust me….it is!  I love anco treats!  Sometimes when we go to the conbini, I’ll get an anco sandwich.  That’s just two slices of bread with anco in between.  YUM!

3) Conbinis.  These are convenience stores.  They are kind of like gas stations without the gas.  You can buy snacks, drinks, meals, batteries, gloves, band aids, magazines, and loads of other random crap there.  Also, you can pay bills, reserve bus/train/ferry tickets, print or copy things, and use the ATM there.  Conbinis are a one-stop shop and are open 24 hours a day.  Hurray!

4) Time with Ian.  Ugh!  This is something that I’m REALLLLLY going to miss.  As is now, we get to spend soooooooooooo much more time with one another than we did living at home.  Due to our different schedules of work, I would wake up early, go to classes, come home around 5PM, and be in bed around 11PM.  Ian would wake mid-morning, go to work around 10-12, get off around 7-9, and want to stay up late.  Plus, he usually worked on the weekends, so his off days were random weekdays that I had to go to school.  If he did have a Saturday or Sunday off, (a rarity) it was a special treat that we got to spend the whole day together.  Here we have none of that.  I get to spend nearly every night and every weekend with him.

5)  Safety and security.  Japan is SUCH a trusting country, and no one ever steals anything from anyone here.  I don’t live in constant paranoia of identity theft, fraud, scams, someone getting ahold of my social security number, etc.  When I go to the ATM, I don’t have to hunch completely over the keypad to ensure that no one steals my PIN.  I have actually given a complete stranger my bank account info so that he could read and interpret the kanji and enter in the information into the ATM.  I would NEVER do that in the States, but you can TRUST people here.  I’m going to miss that.

6)  Milk tea.  I never would have guessed that milk in tea would be so good, but it is!  I can make it at home, but it doesn’t taste the same as the delicious bottled or packet stuff.

7) Vending machines.  Vending machines in Japan are EVERYWHERE.  Driving home along some rural mountain road and get thirsty…..no worries!  There’s a vending machine lighting up the darkness along the side of the road.  Stuck on the train platform with only a minute to spare…no worries!  There’s a vending machine conveniently sitting right there.  Vending machines are WELL stocked with everything from cola to juice, and even hot drinks in the winter time from coffee to corn soup.  I’m going to miss the convenience of them when we go back to the States where there are vending machines only where you’d expect them—outside of malls, grocery stores, etc.

8)  My salary and job.  I have an incredibly amazing salary and benefits package for the amount of work that I do here.  This very well could be the thing that I’ll miss most about Japan.  Considering that while teaching in the States I had to create lesson plans, take and record attendance, assign and check homework, grade essays, keep up a grade book, frequently check my email and answer student questions, all of the administration duties, and everything else that goes with teaching, I’ve got it pretty easy here since I don’t do any of that.  I create lesson plans for my elementary and nursery school days and occasionally create warm up games to play in class with my JHS students. That’s the extent of my duties.  When I go home at night, I don’t have to worry about taking work home with me or getting fifty essays graded by tomorrow.  When we go back to the States, I’ll have triple the amount of work with less than half the pay. 

9)  Heated toilet seats.  Ah, nothing quite comforts your bum like a warm seat in the middle of winter.  It sucks to leave the one warm room of your house to go to the bathroom, but having a warm seat to sit on doesn’t make it half as bad.  If I didn’t have a heated toilet seat, winter would be just a bit more miserable.  Toilet technology in Japan is unlike anywhere else in the world.

10)  Time.  Since my job isn’t nearly as intensive as at home, I have MUCH more free time here to do…..whatever.  I can spend my entire night reading, watching movies, hanging out with friends, spending time with Ian, attempting new recipes, or whatever I feel like.  I’m going to miss that.

11)  Unlocked doors.  We haven’t locked our house or car in over a year (even the times we went on vacation to the States and Australia).  I feel completely safe leaving my house at any hour of the day and going for a walk.  I’m definitely going to miss this comfort of being so safe!

12) Friends.  Oh, the friends that we have made!  This is also a really difficult aspect of leaving Japan.  Even though most of our ALT friends are from the States, we’re scattered out to the four corners from Hawaii all the way to Connecticut.  Once we leave Japan, we’ll probably never see a lot of these people again.  That’s not including our Japanese, Australian, South African, Portuguese, and every other nationality of friends that we have made.  Thank God for Skype!  One friend in particular, Melissa B, is going to be extremely difficult to say goodbye to.  We’ve shared our ups and downs with one another, traveled together, randomly shown up at each others houses to hang out, and to say the least….she has become our best friend over here.  I’m dreading the day that we have to say goodbye to her and to all of our friends.

13)  Fast internet.  OMG.  Ian and I both LOVE our fiber optic internet.  Even though we live in the middle of no where, we still have better internet than 98% of homes and businesses back in Paducah, Kentucky.  Thank you, Japan!  Everything is going to seem sooooooooooo sloooooooooow when we go home. 

14) Kotatsu.  A kotatsu is a heated table.  The top comes off, and you place a fire resistant blanket over the heating element and place the top back on the table, so it effectively traps all of the heat under the table.  Then you slide your legs (or entire body) under it.  SO.  WARM.  It’s like being in a constant hug of warmth.     I enjoy it and can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep, watched TV, or read a book under it.  That kotatsu is the reason I am fat and lazy in the winter.

15)  Being a celebrity.  I stick out like a sore thumb here, and sometimes it gets on my nerves, but mostly I enjoy it.  When I go to the grocery and one of my cute elementary kids shouts “MELISSA-SENSEI!” and runs at me, it absolutely melts my heart.  Whenever people give us random gifts simply because we’re the foreigners in town, it makes me feel special.  Whenever every Tom, Dick, or Harry I meet on the sidewalk bows his head tells me “konnichiwa” (hello), it makes me feel like a part of the community.

16) Travel opportunities.  OK, I lied when I said the thing I’ll miss most would be my awesome salary and easy job.  I’m going to miss the traveling to new places, trying new things, exploring new cultures, learning, etc.  Back in the States things are so……normal.  There’s a whole world to explore, and living in Japan has really allowed me to take advantage of those.

17) No family/friend drama.  It’s true!  When we talk to our friends and family, they generally only tell us the good things.  We don’t hear about Crazy Aunt So and So and her latest offense or negative gossip.  Even if things like that do come about, we are able to quickly change the subject and tell about some new Japanese experience or ask about something other than Crazy Aunt So and So.  Worst case scenario: our Skype gets a “bad connection” and we have to let the family member/friend go. 

18)  My supervisor.  It is so incredibly awesome to have someone take care of me the way that she does.  Sick and can’t go to work?  Call Sawada, she’ll take care of it.  Have some mysterious mail that you can’t read?  Ask Sawada about it, she’ll take care of it.  Need to make a doctor’s appointment?  Tell Sawada, she’ll take care of it.  That woman is my life saver.  She’s on top of EVERYTHING regarding my well being over here, and I’m going to miss the crap out of her.

19) Mountains.  Ian and I LOVE our mountains.  While western Kentucky has a few hills, there is nothing close to the mountains that we have here.  We’ve always wanted to live in a mountainous place, and here we are.  Waking up every morning and looking at views like this is certainly going to be missed:

OK, I’m going to stop there.  Even as I was writing this, I kept thinking about other things that I’ll miss.    Like I said, this list is not inclusive.  It’s going to be difficult to leave everything behind, but we are excited to be coming home!