Back to Tokyo
Indeed back to Tokyo. Not very much to say, again lost in translation. I doubt I really want to say anything at this point. The Japanese language confuses me. It is frustrating to not be able to communicate. Is it how it is when you isolate yourself from other people? Solitary-among-crowd sort of deal?
I was thinking of going out for a walk in Tokyo, but I think I'll keep it for later, 5PM-ish. I've typically slept 5-7 hours per night since getting here, and not so much feeling it (I usually necessitate 9 hours to feel comfy). Maybe that the sort of rhythm I need to feel revigorated despite a flagrant lack of sleeping hours.
Now that I've a bit of time to think... Well, most of it went to the postcards already.
One first thing is that I am not at all feeling homesick (despite being frustrated with the language, etc). It's only been four days, yeah, so I'd have a problem if I felt homesick. Anyways, I feel good for being here. To me, now at least, Tokyo seems like a translated version of North America, minus the subtitles (sometimes Uri will fan-sub for me). I'll be on my own from now on, and this is going to be challenging. I don't quite feel the same way as in Montreal. I've the impression, being away from the parental house, that I now have to take care of myself. Basically I felt the same when I went back last time, and perhaps this time it is even more true, because I'm not doing it in-despite-of. Well, and so it's just a matter of time that I reach a point of no return.
Japan has been interesting sometimes, and mind-dulling some other times... no, not mind-dulling, but disillusionning. I understand Uri's point of view now. Japan is a country like any other. It might also excel in many things we notice when living overseas, but it also might be the worse in certain other things. One noticeable trend is bad urban planning. The buildings are typically butt-ugly (it's pretty on pictures, but try living here XD), and houses have a fantastic lack of isolation. People buy those phat portable kerosene-fueled heaters to warm their houses when they're awake, and then go on to sleep in triple-quadruple layers of blankets (along with the electric one). It's not a bad country. There's just a difference between its idealization and reality.
No sakura yet. It's been damp, and ugly throughout Japan for the past few days, so I wouldn't be surprised if the sakuras don't start flowering before next week...
I should be going out to Harajuku and look for that Totoro shop for Ally. Woaw, that girl's good. Anyways. And then I'll choose where I want to roam... Uri thinks I could see it all in books. The stuff about vacationning, for him at least, is to meet people. I don't think I'm not so different, except that I'm not good at it. Some people are good at meeting strangers. I have to try really hard, but it's been coming along pretty good so far (might not be the easiest thing to mingle with the Japanese, but I've now an excuse to talk to HK people, or other gaijins).
I met all those people. One Cantonese/Hongker couple, probably slightly older than my parents, from Montreal, who were sitting next to me on the Chicago-Tokyo plane. Their daughters were comp sci majors at McGill a few years before I started mine. And then an American expat, on the Narita Express, who stayed in Japan for 20 years already, and who owns a vineyard in California. He helped me to find my way from Tokyo Station to where Tante Ghyslaine lived (the trek from there to her place was quite an adventure if I didn't already talk about it.
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