Touch Each Other

Touch Each Other

Six days. I'd known these people, really, for six days. Our training group in Okayama consisted of twelve people, of which I've made lasting friendships with more than half of them...in six days! I suppose it's like the connection formed when you experience something life changing...well, it's not LIKE that...it IS that. Twelve people gather together in a totally new country with only each other to rely on to adjust to a new life. Aside from sleeping time, we were together all of the time. We all went through the intense training and depended on each other for ideas and support throughout the week. Even apart from the work end of the week, living life in Japan isn't easy right away. Granted, you can feed yourself and take care of necessities but when I took a few minutes to examine the situation, I realized how grateful I am for these people. I'm reminded of a shot in "Garden State" where the camera focuses on Zach Braff and the world is a giant blur around him. Although in America, you wouldn't really chat up a stranger but you could if you wanted. Or you could, at least, hear your own language...read your own language. Everything being so different gives me an unfamiliar form of loneliness. I know what I signed up for and I haven't regretted it for a second but I'm trying to describe the way I feel. Our training group has a follow-up training scheduled for November but there's no way some of us will wait that long to see each other.

I'm luckier than some in my group because one girl, Lauren (in the picture of a table of food with three girls on one side - she's the one nearest to the wall), is living a short train ride away in my town so we've spent this weekend hanging out. Also, three other guys are close and two more girls near Hiroshima (the other two in the aforementioned picture) - which isn't a big big bitch to get to...I don't think! Plus, I found a half-sized, more neurotic version of me - his name is Jeff...who bought an awesome t-shirt that just says "Describe Preparations"...as you can see in one picture. Along with us in that picture is one of our trainers, Javaria. Javaria, Kurt (red shirt and tie) and Randal (white shirt, blue tie) are regional trainers and taught us way more than we could ever retain. Not only were they great trainers, they were so helpful with all of our adjustments and they were so much fun to see everyday, any negative parts of training week were minimized. Ok, maybe I wouldn't be so positive about anything if all of these people didn't think I am hilarious. Thankfully I'm hilarious.

I'll move on from the kinda sappy stuff. Five of us boarded the first train out on Sunday morning; Lauren and I were the first two to reach our destination city. As we exited the train, four people basically ran at us. Three of them worked with Lauren's branch school and the last was my manager. I refer to her as manager and, truthfully, I don't know her actual name right now. Well, Manager brought me to my apartment where I met the outgoing teacher. Good thing - the apartment is not nearly as small as I thought. The 'bedroom' I guess is 9x12 but I have a 'living room', mini kitchen, toilet room and shower room. I haven't taken pictures of yet but I will soon. Bad thing - I don't have any tatami mats! Tatami mats is the unit of measure for living space and it's that straw looking matting that you've probably seen in traditional Japanese eating rooms, tea rooms or bedrooms. Lauren has tatami mats; I got screwed. Oh well. My "bed" is ultra-thin - I may get sick of it and find another futon set to pad it some more.

So yesterday, after I sweated half of my body weight with being professionally dressed and carrying things a few blocks through town, I got a chance to change and meet the outgoing teacher, Sarah, and the other teacher at my school, Brenna. We went to lunch at a place around the corner for okonomiyaki. Holy shit...it's remarkable. Oh, we saw a building down the block from me that shows the Himeji slogan "Touch Each Other". After a nice three hour nap, we all met back up and went to a beer garden - which was a nice little setup on the roof of a building...comes all you can eat and drink for $29, four hours. Once the alcohol took over a little, I arm-wrestled some locals and then led a wave of Kampai to the bunch of old folks in the garden. Kampei is cheers - but not just that, it's the cure to awkward silence or lack of communication based on language issues. We visited the Himeji castle again - this place has a huge moat. I'm convinced there are ninjas guarding the castlbe - stay tuned for confirmation and then capped our night with two more hours of karaoke.

Today I met Lauren, her co-teacher Mike and another teacher from a neighboring town, Jennifer, for lunch at this place near me called Vegetable Cafe. They have daily lunch specials. For lunch today it was miso soup (surprise!), rice (surprise!), potato dumplings, asparagus, tomatoes and green/red pepper. I know I'm a big fan of superfluous language but these are the greatest vegetables I've ever tasted...ever. Ok, although we did more today, the most notable part again occurred at the castle. As we walked the perimeter, I noticed a white girl reading in this little gazebo thing and I waved. She said she was surprised to hear so much English. We began talking and found out that she's from Nebraska and went to Saint Mary's College in South Bend. Not only that, but she knows my friend, Rachael!! For anyone that would have a clue, her name is Megan McCandliss (no idea how to spell it but it's close to that). I've got her phone number so hopefully you'll all here more from her. Of course, I do not yet have a phone so that might have to wait. Well that my friends exemplifies the statement - 'it's a small world'.

Bye bye for now - pictures of the apartment...like you'll have a clue how big/small it actually is...









Brenna rocks
Mike, Brenna, Lauren, Sarah, Emily
Touch Each Other