Since Japan…..

I remember writing a blog a few months ago about what to do with this blog once I got home.  Leave it as a memento from Japan?  Keep writing once I return?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  I was such a dreamer!  Since being back, our lives have DRASTICALLY changed.  I used to say that it was a “busy” day at school if I didn’t have time to write a blog.  Now I’m damn lucky if I get a five minute break to check Facebook. 

Since being back, Ian and I hit the ground running.  We arrived back in Paducah on a Friday, went around surprising everyone that Saturday, took Sunday to laze around and rest, and began running on Monday.  I had exactly one week to meet with my supervisors, learn new policies, draft syllabi, and organize everything for classes that started on the following Monday.  I was so completely dumb to think that one week was long enough.  Ian started working full time at Purple Toad Winery.  Meanwhile….we were adjusting to life back in the States, visiting friends and family, and setting up our new apartment.  There was zero time to rest.  It was a whirlwind!

Little has changed since.  I’m currently working three jobs (two teaching and one serving jobs) and make about half of what I made in Japan with zero benefits.  I work about 60-70 hours a week, and Ian works about 50.  Needless to say, the days of lounging around by the TV or taking a day trip adventure somewhere are quite over for the Reeds for the mean time. 

Adjusting to this lifestyle and having reverse-culture shock having been something else!  It took us a few weeks to 100% grow accustomed to driving on the right side of the road.  Weeks after being back, I’d reach for the gear shift on my left only for my hand to smack into the door, or Ian would pull out onto the left side of the road only to correct himself onto the right, or I’d reach to turn the blinker on only to accidentally turn on the windshield wipers.  The first few times driving on Lone Oak Road stressed me out.  I felt more comfortable driving on downtown Kumamoto City (a little bigger than Nashville) streets than I did in my own hometown!  Ian agreed, and we came to the conclusion the reason of this was because there are terrible drivers in both countries, but there are different things to watch out for.  For example, road rage and tail gating are big issues here but not really a big deal in Japan.  However, in Japan one must be on constant lookout for someone cutting you off, or the randomly parked car around the blind curve on a mountain road…..definitely not something to worry about in mountain-less western Kentucky!!

In addition to driving, pumping gas is also a bit of a change.  Instead of pulling up to the pump, rolling down the window, saying “reg-goo-lar mantan onegaishimasu” and watching the gas station attendants flair to life as they wash the windshield, check tire pressure, fill the tank, etc, I had to do it all by myself.  My first time at the pump I sat in my car for a second before it dawned on me that I had to pump the gas MYSELF.  Then I stared at the pump for another second trying to remember how to work it.  Don’t laugh!  I hadn’t pumped gas in two years! 

The first time I went to Walmart, I was in absolute shock….Walmart is HUGE!!!  Dear America, do we REALLY need ALL of those snack food aisles???  Even though I went to Walmart to get groceries to stock our pantries, I left with very few items in my basket.  With so many choices of food, I was overwhelmed with what to actually get!  In addition to the food choices, I felt like an ant wandering up and down the aisles full of EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING THAT I COULD READ.  However, the worst side effect of Walmart was the people.  *sigh* I never realized the amount of weirdoes and rednecks who shop at Walmart until that day.  Good gosh!   

Japanese has slowly trickled out of our vocabulary, but it doesn’t stop it from being a sweet and endearing way for Ian and I to communicate with one another.  We’ll tell each other to ganbatte through tough situations, ask each other if we need hashi to eat with, complain that the weather is too atsui, that we should janken to decide who doesn’t have to take out the trash, or that some situation is taihen.  Although people sometimes wrinkle their brows at the words we use, it has kind of become our own secret language that we can communicate in.  Neither one of us think twice of using Japanese words with one another, but occasionally we’ll say something to someone who doesn’t understand us.  For example, I wanted to ask a grocery store clerk a question the other day, and I almost said, “Sumimasen.” I had the “s” sound forming on my lips before I switched to “excuse me.”

As I catch up with people, I’ve had them ask me some pretty interesting questions or say things about our two years over there, such as:

Did you have air conditioning?  …..yes.  Of course.  Japan is a first world country.

You must me happy to be back among your kind.  …….”my kind”?  What exactly does that mean??

Were there any animals in Japan?  …..DUH.  Even in the harshest and hottest desert or coldest and cruelest tundra, there are animals.  So yes, there are animals in Japan.

Well, your eyes aren’t slanty, so I guess you didn’t become one of them.  …..OMG, RACISM! 

Where are you going next?  ….Uuuummmm….we JUST got back and are JUST settling into our lives here, so no where right now.  Where would I LIKE to go?  Well…that list is endless…..

The most popular question I’ve been asked is “Aren’t you glad to be back?”  The answer to this is most definitely yes and no.  We left some of our best friends in Japan.  We left a place that we called home.  It was hard to leave Paducah originally, but we always knew that we’d be back.  Leaving Japan was a billion times harder because we knew that we’d most likely never be back or see a lot of our friends again.  Coming home for us was bittersweet.  We’re glad that we did it, but it didn’t make the bitter part any easier.

I absolutely and positively love to talk about my experiences in Japan.  I’ll talk to everyone and anyone who will listen.  In September I did my part as a JET alumni by speaking at the JET table at Murray State’s Study Abroad Fair.  I absolutely loved that day.  During the four hour break between my classes, I talked to potential JET participants about my experiences and what they could expect if they joined the JET program.  I could see their eyes lighting up with the idea of potential.  Their excitement excited me!  Since the study abroad fair, I was contacted by the JET program coordinator for the Nashville area and asked if I would be the JET representative to MSU.  HECK YES I WILL!!!

……and I guess this is how I end my blog about Japan.  Despite what we say sometimes, we are happy to be home.  Has our sense of adventure been quelled?  NEVER!  Are my blogging days over?  NEVER!  We’ll see just where the wind blows us and what happens to us.  Maybe the next blog of mine that you read will be titled: There and Back Again: A Peace Corps Adventure or There and Back Again: A Motherhood Adventure.  If one thing is certain, it’s that Ian and I love adventures.  We haven’t had our last, so stay tuned for the next one!! 

So Two Months Later….

Okay, okay, okay….I know.  While I had the best of intentions to write about Tokyo/Fuji/Hawaii/coming home, life happened.  Both Ian and I have been RIDICULOUSLY busy since we’ve been home.  I’ll get to that in a second, but first I did want to briefly catch up on where I left off.

Leaving Yunomae behind was incredibly hard.  Since I’ve been home, I’ve had so many ask me, “Aren’t you glad to be back?”  Well, honestly…yes and no.  That tiny mountain town gave me so many beautiful memories and allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people.  As we left, my students and co-workers lined the street with banners while waving goodbye.  Needless to say I bawled halfway to Hitoyoshi before I regained my composure.  It was so sad to leave so many good memories behind!

Anyway…we flew to Tokyo and promptly made our way to Mt. Fuji that night.  Fuji is the tallest mountain and most widely recognized symbol of Japan.  Most people climb Fuji in order to watch the sun rise.  We hiked through the night in order to complete this task.  I have never felt more like I wanted to die than on that mountain.  While the three of us (Ian, Melissa, and I) enjoy hiking, we all agreed that we started the hike on the wrong foot by being sleep deprived, dehydrated, and hungry.  Couple that with the progressively thinning air, the despair of hiking in darkness, and all three of us were completely BEAT by the time we made it to the top.  While sunrise was absolutely beautiful and an incredible sight, we found it difficult to enjoy as we huddled together for warmth.  Even though the temperatures at the base were sweltering and muggy, at the peak it was like stepping into a windy freezer.  Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!  While the way up was strenuous, the way down was tedious.  It was a steep slope of volcanic ash the whole way down, so slipping and sliding was just part of it.  I was getting so tired and worn out that one time I slipped, busted my butt, and just wanted to give up on life.  I had a little breakdown, to which Ian comforted me with the last of our water, peanuts, and his wise words, “Sweetie, I know you’re tired, but there’s only one way off this mountain, and that’s with your own two feet.”  Whenever we reached the base camp, the three of us had a two hour wait before our bus came, so like hobos we laid down on the concrete sidewalk and fell asleep.  Yes, we were that tired!

 

The next few days Ian and I spent exploring Tokyo.  Unfortunately, Melissa had to return to Kumamoto since she only had so many vacation days to blow.  Ian and I explored well known tourist attractions like Tsukiji fish market (the largest fish market in the world), Sky Tree (the tallest tower in the world), Madame Tussand’s wax museum, Odaiba’s waterfront, the Rainbow Bridge, Asakusa’s trendy neighborhood, Shibuya crossing and Hachiko’s statue, Ginza’s ridiculously overpriced shopping district, and several other fun things.  While Tokyo was super fun to visit, I would never, ever, EVER want to live there.  I felt like I couldn’t stretch out my arms out without touching people.  The metro-Tokyo area has over 35 million people living in it.  Waaaaaaaaaay too many people for me to feel comfortable!!

 

After our few days in Tokyo, we kissed Japan goodbye and headed back to the USA!  The most exciting part of our journey was the three day layover in Hawaii.  If you are traveling to or from Asia, I definitely recommend trying this!  Not only was it a wonderful way to break up the long journey, but IT’S HAWAII.  (Added bonus: jet lag never affected us!)  I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to the islands, but if not, we can at least say that we’ve been!  Three days was barely enough time to scratch the surface, but we made sure to squeeze every last little bit out of it that we could.  As soon as we got there, we checked into our hotel, grabbed lunch, and hit the crystal clear, warm, and sandy beaches of Waikiki until sunset, where we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen.  On our second day we took an island tour in which we visited Pearl Harbor, Dole’s pineapple plantation, the famed North Shore beaches, the ranch where Lost and Jurassic Park were filmed, a macadamia nut and coffee bean farm, and Pali lookout (the best lookout spot on the whole island).  I felt like we saw a ridiculous amount of things in just one day!  Our final day in Hawaii was spent hiking Diamondhead, the volcano that towers over Waikiki’s beaches.  I hiked past people who were pulled over to the side of the trail huffing and puffing.  After Fuji, Diamondhead was basically like walking up a large hill.  That afternoon we laid on the beach wishing that we had a few more days in Hawaii but knowing that we had a plane to catch.

 

I was hoping to sleep a little bit more than I actually did on our overnight flight to Las Vegas.  After that, it was Vegas to Dallas, and Dallas to Nashville.  I really enjoyed flying across country and seeing the landscape change from the jagged West Coast to the tall peaks of the Rockies to the desert of the southwest, across the brown plains of Texas, and finally to the green woodlands east of the Mississippi.  Our friends, Adam and Alison, picked us up from the airport in Nashville.  Apart from them, only two other people (my sister, who lives in Lexington and Ian’s dad, who lives in Boca Raton) knew that we were coming home on that day.  SURPRISE!!!!  We told everyone that we would be back on August 15th when in reality it was August 9th.  When we bought the tickets in January, we decided that it would be incredibly fun to surprise everyone.  By far, going around town and surprising everyone is one of the BEST memories I’ve made in my life.  Instead of deciding whose family should be the first to see us, we decided to surprise our friends.  They were in shock to see us, and there were hugs and lots of chatter. 

 

We spent the night with David and Lucy.  The following morning we woke up early to surprise my family.  Since it was a little after 7 AM, I wasn’t sure if Mommy and Daddy would be up, so we went to Grandmother’s.  We rang the doorbell, and Grandmother came to the door in tears.  She squealed, hugged us, squealed again, and told us what a blessing it was to have us on her doorstep that morning.  I’m pretty sure that she hugged me about twenty times that morning.  She’d start talking about the weather or some distant family member and then stop what she was doing to hug me and tell me how much we were missed.  Daddy and my brother, Aaron, also popped in for their morning coffee.  Both of them stopped in their places when they saw Ian and I at the kitchen table.  Aaron froze, looked down at his phone, back up at us, and said, “What day is it?”  Ha, ha, ha!  Those surprises were priceless!  The best surprise of all was Mommy.  Ian and I wandered across the yard to my parents’ house and found Mommy in the living room on the phone with my sister.  I strolled up in the kitchen like I owned the place, and once she saw me, she freaked out.  (I wish I could share the video with y’all, but I have sworn to Mommy to not post the video online because she thought the way she reacted was embarrassing.)  It was rather hilarious!  As soon as she saw me, she disregarded the phone conversation she was having and screamed, “WHAT?  WHAT?  WHAT IS HAPPENING?  HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?  WHAT?”  Honestly, the video is HILARIOUS.  After that, it was off to the Reeds, who reacted with the same amount of disbelief of everyone else.  We surprised Ian’s sister, Bridget, at the boutique she works at.  She began greeting us like regular customers, “Hi, can I help you—HEEEEEEY!!!” 

I think I’ll stop here because this concludes our journey home, but there’s so much more to write about.  A LOT has happened in the last two months!