Culture Shock: Stage 1

Euphoria. Honeymoon phase. Open-mouthed amazement. The jitters. I'm there. I woke up this morning at 3:30, needing to use the bathroom after a night of drinking with the members of the board of education, and I could not go back to sleep. A hundred million billion thoughts came rushing through my head and I couldn't stop myself from planning all of the things I would do in the next week, month or year. I couldn't stop, so I couldn't sleep. So in front of the screen door I sat, cross-legged on the tatami mat, watching the sun come up from behind the mountains. Thinking about my future. About my life in Japan.

Oh man, today I am overwhelmed. I can't believe I'm here. I also can't believe I found the apostrophe key and can use it - I've been searching and experimenting and freezing the computer for hours. At any rate, there is absolutely no way I can write about everything I've experienced and felt these last few days in one entry. Rest assured, though, I will be jotting down lots of details as time goes by. This first entry is simply the result of necessity. You know that feeling you get when you have so many things to say that you feel you will explode unless you tell somebody right away? Well, whether or not you know the feeling is largely irrelevant, since I just told you what it felt like. That's why I'm writing today, to get it out of my system. Maybe even to convince myself that it's real.

Today is my third day in Nishihara, the village where I'll be teaching English for the next year (or maybe more). I just got back from opening a bank account at the post office - that's right, at the Post Office. In Japan, the post office is the widest reaching bank, since it has offices everywhere mail goes. To open my bank account, I needed a Certificate of SomethingMaybeResidencyMaybeWork (I'm not really sure since it's all written in Japanese), my passport, and my inka, which is a stamp that says 'Re be ka' in katakana (one of the Japanese scripts used largely for foreign words) and that serves as my signature. My bank account has no money in it, and probably won't until the 21st of August when I get my first paycheck. At some point in the next few days there'll be some more paperwork for that, too. I also paid the city $5 so that it's ok to use the water in my house and I received a package that I mailed to myself 10 days ago. I had to sign for it, which I thought was odd, in a metaphysical sense I guess. Lunch came from 7-11, which, like all convenience stores in Japan, has a decent selection of lunch and dessert items.

And now I have some down time. I'm currently sitting in the office for the Board of Education, which is my employer, munching on Pocky and generally passing the time until 2, when I'll have a meeting with the elementary school English teachers. It sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but not for me. Ms. Tomoko Yano is my hero. Also my supervisor. She has been doing everything, including translating at every meeting, meal, and welcome ceremony along the way. Apparently she is the only person in the village who can speak English fluently. Between her and Jay Penner, who is my predecessor, I couldn't be more well-cared for. They will each get their own entries later on.