Samui

Well, I'm back. Back to Japan, back to writing this blog. In case you were unaware, I was in America from 23 December to 9 January to visit my family for Christmas. I won't belabor what a wonderful break it was beyond mentioning how truly special it was to have my entire immediate family together. And of course I'm also thankful for being able to see almost all of my extended family and even a few friends. I ate my full of Mexican, American-Chinese, celestial-grade coffee (well, drank), Wendy's, and even had a delicious treat of Middle Eastern.






And before you pop the obvious question, my answer is not really. Maybe my four months wasn't enough time. Maybe I'm still connected enough with friends and family that the return didn't phase me. Maybe Japan isn't that different. Eh.
It was like stepping into old shoes, hopping on a parallel railway line, or experiencing a dream that took until the ninth to wake up from and face the challenges of life in Japan once again.
I say challenges because as happy as I was upon returning to Kawasaki, the most notable aspect of the whole reverse-culture-shock followed by reverse-reverse-culture shock was my newfound(or at least heightened) frustration with Japanese. My first day back to school felt like a barrage of unintelligibitities. It's not that I got rusty with my Japanese, but that I became lazy. Lazy from the ease of perfect comprehension and articulation I experienced in America.
I'm getting back into the swing of things and I think our trip last weekend helped a lot. I don't know if I've mentioned them before, but a while back Nori introduced me to two of her (Japanese) friends named Nagisa and Nana. Speaking with them this past weekend allowed for communication without the anxieties of politeness that accompany my interactions with co-teachers at work.
But more importantly, the excursion spearheaded by Nagisa saw the four of us making a pilgrimage to Sendai's Donto Festival. While I'm still shy on a few details, what I understand is that families take their special New Year's entryway display(think symbolically and religiously infused wreath) to the local shrine to burn it as an offering for good health. But that's only half the story. The festival is also for companies who have a few lucky volunteers in freezing weather, in ceremonial(minimal, the men didn't even have shirts) outfits walk all the way from their company office to the shrine to burn their own offering; in this case for corporate good fortune.
And as extreme as this sounds, it wasn't just the fringe traditionalists who braved the chill in their skivvies. Many, if not all, of Sendai's companies were represented by a troop of 8 or so dedicated employees. I saw signs for the railway company, sushi shops, and I think even McDonalds.









In Japanese, it is common to utter individual adjectives as one's commentary for a situation. For example, kawaii(she's so cute!), oishii(This is really tasty), or hayai(It's a bit too soon for that). Well, today, the word uttered on hundreds of lips--both of the clothed and bare--was the title of today's post, and I doubt I need to translate.