Travel to Live. Live to Travel

Seriously, stop staring at us.

What was cute at first has become really annoying. I know that China has only been open to foreign tourists for little over 25 or so years, but this is just ridiculous.

Everyone stares, but the worst offenders are men. There have been times where a guy on a bike can’t stop staring he’s almost killed himself by running into cars. Sometimes men will stop in their tracks and do a 365 turn as they follow us down the street. Random people will run up to us and I know they’re making fun of us somehow but I don’t know what they’re saying…

I mean, after 3 years in the Japanese country-side I thought I’d be immune to it, but I guess not.

Ah well…

It’s pretty cool that all my leggings and leg warmers that I brought back from Japan are going to be super fashionable soon (if not right now.) In Chicago, my friend Marc and I counted how many girls were wearing them–we only counted 3 (not counting me, and one of the girls was Japanese), but I guarantee come a few months it’s going to be the biggest (some would say, most horrible) fashion thing since, uh, let’s go with Uggs.

It took me awhile to really warm up to leggings in Japan, but several years of seeing it and one will break.  I never really thought that the look would make it to America, but then I saw this blog post about what Carrie was supposed to be wearing in the Sex And the City Movie and she looked like a Japanese teenager. Oh, and of course the Olsen Twins and Lindsay Lohan (who are apparently style icons, meh) just wear Japanese fashion 2 years later, so it was bound to happen.

Now, when America starts wearing colorful tights…then I’ll be really happy.

I returned to America yesterday. The flight was fine minus the otaku who wouldn’t be quiet next to me. The lovely Julie and Caroline picked me up and entertained me. Despite (or maybe because of) not sleeping on the flight properly, I was very aware of just how weird America had struck me. I guess it’s culture shock….? Here’s a small list of the things that had me really weirded out (though to be fair, I am in Chicago so maybe some of this really is just Chicago shock)

- I was surprised at the drivers. I always thought, even while in Japan, that American drivers weren’t as nice as Japanese ones, but I realized that wasn’t the case. For example, we were trying to make a left turn and a man stopped to let us pass since it was a red light. Nice of him.

- Damn, everything is so spread out…and concrete. So is Japan, though (concrete, I mean). But Shimane found ways to stick vegetable patches and rice fields in whatever scrap of land they could find.

- Everyone is so…big. Either in the overweight sense, or just in the big sense. Taller, thicker. I once again felt short and that my breasts were completely inadequate.

- Food portions, good lord. I know I went to Cheesecake Factory, which is just a ridiculous place to go to see food portions for the first time, but seriously. The appetizer salad was bigger than the biggest share-size salad in Japan I’ve ever seen. The glasses were so big I couldn’t hold them in my hand. I felt like a little girl at the dinner table. The food was delicious, but it’s too much flavor for me at the moment so that might take awhile to get used to.

Perhaps I’ll have more things…but at the moment, it’s 6am in Chicago, but my body is crying at me for dinner. Time for leftovers!

I know it’s not the same because the Japanese language doesn’t exactly have naughty words the same way we have naughty words (though don’t be fooled, there’s plenty of shit you never say in polite company), but I will never ever get over hearing 3rd graders in elementary school screaming the following:

“Oppai!!” (Tits!)
“Chikubi!!” (Nipples!)
“Boku okama da!!” (I’m a tranny!)
“‘Chinko’ eigo de nan to iu no?” (How do you say penis in English)

Maybe more so than the fact the kids say it is the fact the teachers smile and laugh. I can’t help it, I’m a prudish American. I have a mouth like a drunken sailor, but I still cringe when I hear kids saying stuff like that.

Then again, I also cringe when people ask me things like, “Oshiri ga itai no?” (Does your butt hurt?) Let’s not talk about my butt, your butt, or anyone else’s butt. Japanese people are always really shocked when I tell them we don’t discuss breasts and butts in polite company, they always reply with “but…but…American TV is nothing but showing that stuff, why can’t you talk about it?”

Touche.

Hugh and I have been in Langkawi, Malaysia for the past couple of days. The trip to Singapore and then Langkawi was blissfully event-free, thank you very much, Singapore Airlines. Nonetheless, we were very pleasantly surprised to arrive at our hotel where we were met with a spicy ginger-lemonade and a minty cool towel.

Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, and despite being in a very touristy part of Malaysia I can really see the influences. This is the first time I’ve ever been in any degree of Islamic country. As this is a tourist area and we’re a bit far from the mosque, I don’t hear the call to prayer. But if I were a devout Muslim, there is a very thoughtful sticker on the ceiling of my hotel room pointing me in the direction of Meccca. There’s also a complete lack of pork-products in any of the restaurants. Instead we have been dining on things called “turkey ham” and “beef ham” (which is not as delicious as beef sausage.)

Then of course there is the fact most Malaysian women wear headscarves. Despite the fact I don’t think I wear terribly revealing clothes, I do feel a bit skimpy-dressed. I’ve taken to carrying a shawl around with me to drape over my shoulders in certain areas. This is also the first time I’ve seen so many women wearing chador/abaya (head to toe black robes with just the eyes visible.) I must admit I was a bit shocked to see a woman in a chador walking with her husband down the beach. They were laughing and giggling and being a young flirtacious couple, except for the fact that she was fully veiled. As we walked by them, the girl watched us intently with her eyes and I got a hold of her designer jeans and cute sandal shoes peeking from underneath the robes.

What I suppose surprises me the most about the women who are fully veiled are they are often accompanied by men wearing t-shirts and board-shorts and sandals. I fully support any woman who wishes to veil herself out of respect for herself and religion, but it seems more than slightly unfair that the guys can run around looking like sloths.

Shouldn’t they at least look respectable too?

Trouble in Nagano
Originally uploaded by Janelle (Himene).

I was watching the Olympic torch relay go through Nagano on television when I saw the craziest thing:

Man BICYCLE KICKS police man. Seriously. Like, video game style. Come on guys, keep your kung-fu to yourselves!

On a more serious note, it looked like a bit of a mess. The Japanese police seemed vastly unprepared for the rowdy protestors, which the Japanese news makes VERY sure to note are “Chinese overseas students” and “Pro-Tibet Asian foreigners,” Though honestly, it’s extremely rare to see police doing anything in Japan except give people directions. I always feel embarrassed about asking cops how to get to some hotel–shouldn’t I leave them alone to go fight crime? Well, it’s nice thing to not live in a country where you see cops carrying M4s around.

You know how a last month I posted saying that people were asking me if I was pregnant? Well, yesterday I got a step-up on that: I was congratulated on my baby.

PEOPLE. WHAT?

A lady from one of the schools I visit was all, “ooh and we were all wondering who should congratulate you on your baby,” Wait, wait, back the hell up woman, what baby?

“I’m not pregnant!” I admonished,

“Oh really….oooh where did we hear it from? Someone said you were….”

“Why did you think I was pregnant?” I asked in my most polite voice. Just be honest and say it’s cause I’ve gotten tubby around my middle, I thought darkly, while my face showed a friendly smile and the finest in Japanese tatemae.

“Oh, I don’t know…your face seemed glowing and full, like the face of pregnancy!”

At this point I bit down my tongue and held back the urge to say, “So you mean cause I have a fat face?” Instead, I countered with this gem:

“But, but… I’m not even married!” I said shyly.

“Oh, well, you know… we thought you were being a modern woman and were going to hang in there and have one anyways.”

I give up, Japan. I get it, you think I’m fat. Yes, I will start going on an even stricter diet and start working out now. Thank you, just when I thought I was making progress with my weight.
…
Wait, wait…hold the phone! They thought I had HAD a baby already, so that must mean I AM making progress with my weight. Well, hot damn! Apparently my perfect body weight was when I was 85lbs and had twig-legs, back then all the Japanese girls complimented me on my tiny face and skinny legs. I think I’ll just stick to my bigger boobs, fuller thighs, and ghetto booty. I like it better, my boyfriend likes it better–leave me alone, Japan!

Recently the Hiroshima High Court reversed a life-sentence on a man convicted of killing and raping a woman and straggling her baby. The judge slapped the death penalty on the man instead full story.

The case is interesting because the man was 18 at the time, a minor according to Japanese law, so people believe this was done to send a message to would-be youth criminals. Recently, there’s been a rash of violence committed by young people in Japan. The numbers aren’t that high comparatively, but in the US we have guns. Any idiot can kill someone with a gun, usually much to their chagrin. A knife takes some nerve, let alone skill, to hack a body to bits.

In recent news:
- a British girl was hacked to bits, her body found in a tub full of sand on the balcony.
- A young man who ran through a station with a knife stabbing people randomly
- An 18 year old who pushed another man off a train platform onto a platform
- 23 year old man buries a student alive
- Random old ladies being stabbed in Fukuoka
- Random youth picks up a child and throws him off a pedestrian walkway onto incoming traffic

You may have noticed many of these are not crimes of passion, they are random acts of violence. When asked their motive, killers have answered, “I just wanted to try killing someone.” This scares Japanese people, and rightfully so. I don’t really know what percentage of crimes are actually random, but I read a poll last year that something like 90% of Japanese people feared an attack by a random stranger. So because of all of this (and a lot of other things) Japanese people are asking, “why?” Naturally, there’s the blame on video games (the random station stabber liked ninja games, apparently), broken families, etc. The usual suspects. But we all know this stuff is not the cause, so what’s the real issues here?

I would say part of the blame is the general lack of psychology/psychiatry in Japan (though this is changing, and thank god). There are plenty of people who need serious psychiatric help out there who have nothing but the intarwebz to ruminate on. You think we have psychos in America? Try having psychos in a country where people (up till now) didn’t believe in psychos, just poor parenting.

I also think in Japan there’s a lowered empathy for other humans (stay with me here), which I don’t blame on the Japanese themselves. It’s not a cultural thing, just an aspect of modern society. Take the view towards women: no one seems to care that 50 year old men lust after pre-pubescent girls, unless of course that girl gets raped (but if she just gets felt-up in a train or dates her teacher, that’s okay). But she’s going to need to prove she wasn’t asking for it. At convenience stores little boys can see magazines of anime girls tied up with semen dripping off their breasts, they know their fathers go to strip clubs and sex clubs while their mothers cook dinner, they can watch TV shows where men stare at young girls and measure their breasts and ask them to jump up and down (we have that too, but in America it’s generally considered chauvinist). What are women other than objects then? It’s said the reason that it took until the 1990s for the birth-control pill to come to Japan is because doctors didn’t want to lose their main source of income (abortions). The bullying problem is notorious and shocking here that elementary school children threaten and commit suicide. Kids come to school obviously physically abused at home, but people just turn the other way because they don’t want to get involved. Japanese people care about what other people think of them, but a lot of people don’t really think about what other people feel.

A lot of Japanese commentators and academics see the same problems, but instead of doing anything about it they just yell at young people on tv (Hosoki Kazuko, anyone?) which makes for quality programming, but not quality society. One of my host fathers complained that Japanese young people don’t know how to empathize anymore (actually, he said that their hearts don’t feel anymore–eesh), he pointed at lack of keigo (polite language) as a surface sign–I don’t know about that, but clearly there’s something out there people are worried about.

I’ve been told by older Japanese people it’s all the fault of us god-awful young people and our lack of morals, but who teaches the morals? No one. Exactly. So many parents tell me they’re worried for the future of Japan and kids are too spoiled and bratty these days, but they do nothing to discipline their children. So for me, I blame the older generation. Nowadays, elementary schools have morality class (which they never needed before–so what changed? discipline, mostly) and the stuff they teach sounds a whole lot like Common Sense 101: “if you hit someone, it hurts them!” Teachers like to ask me, “how do Americans learn to be moral?”

Um, church? Fear of eternal damnation and being poked by goblins in hell? I’m agnostic (functionally an atheist), but I will say a *little* spirituality isn’t always such a bad thing. Is what keeps you from sleeping with a 12 year old the law, or is it the inherent belief somewhere that doing so is morally wrong? I used to believe in moral relativity and boo on religion and boo on spirituality…but after living in an extremely secular place and befriending so many people from very secular places I guess I will say that it’s made me change my mind on the importance of a strong moral compass based in SOMETHING (vegetarianism, Buddhism, Xenu–whatever).

Or maybe this is all just fear tactics? I’m fairly certain most advanced countries have a, “oh life was so much better in the 1960s!” wave of nostalgia.

Our global generation of degenerate slackers is doomed! Or maybe we’ll all be fine. I’m going to go lock the door now, anyway.

There’s this website I love called Stuff White People Like. It’s actually better described as ‘Stuff Liberal Yuppies Like’ since I know plenty of white-folk who don’t care much for any of this, and plenty of non-whites who do. Case in point: I fit into 99% of the stereotypes. Oh dear god, have I turned into a yuppie already? I’m too young! And also not technically urban.

Observe the following on an entry about travel.

Upon returning home, they will also find an affinity for a particular beer or liquor from a country they visited. They use this as an excuse to mention their travels when at a bar. “Oh, I’ll have a Czechznlishiyush Pilsner. You see, that was my favorite beer when I was travelling through Slovenia and the Czech republic.”

TRUE. I must admit more than once I’ve said something like, “Oh this Thai is good, but not as good as in Thailand.” Seriously, it’s true. Fellow traveler, you know you’ve done it, regardless of your ethnic background.

The site is hilarious though, whoever writes is either a brilliant white person with amazing self-awareness, or someone non-white but with an anthropologist’s eye.

My friend desslok pointed out another one called Stuff Asian People Like, but I didn’t find it as funny, and sadly, couldn’t relate to it at all. That’s kind of strange, actually.

Whale Meat Steak..
Originally uploaded by Janelle (Himene).

Minku Kujira…or in English, whale meat.

I’m not a vegetarian. However, I have always been bothered by the Japanese take on whale meat. They constantly claim it’s for scientific research and not primarly for consumption, as you can see in this photo it about $5.00 for about 300g. To put that in perspective, that is LESS than the cost of beef in Japan. Furthermore, this is a typical grocery store in rural Japan–not a fancy food store. I’ve actually had it for school lunch before! They must be killing a lot of whales to sustain that, and we all know that they are and it really isn’t for scientific research.

Yes, yes, I’ve had whale. No, I don’t really feel guilty for it. I don’t know what’s worse, killing the poor thing under the guise of science or me throwing out food when people are starving in the world because of my (hypocritical) moral indignation. I’ll admit it’s delicious, at least if it’s been deep fried (but what ISN’T delicious when deep fried? Okay, okay, the Midwest girl in me is coming out…)

Like I said, I am no vegetarian–and while I say I’m not that into animal rights, I didn’t mean I go kicking puppies or anything. On the contrary, I pay about $5 for six eggs because I make the effort to buy honest-to-god free range eggs (and not ones that claim to be free range and aren’t really.) I’ve made every effort to educate myself on how animals are treated in industrial farms and try and stay away from that.

At the same time, I disagree with notions that we shouldn’t eat whale because they are smart or cute. Sheep are pretty cute. Pigs are quite smart as well. In my head, there’s no hierarchy for which animals we can eat and which we can’t. Harpooning whales isn’t anymore or less horrifying or disgusting that shooting a metal bolt into a cow’s head. I think we should stop deluding ourselves and really understand how we go from cow to red cubes in white styrofoam tray. If finding out that cows get shot in the head disgusts you, then go vegetarian. The less you know about the food that goes into your body, the more dangerous that is. The reason we shouldn’t eat whale is because by most accounts they are endangered, or at the very least, threatened. On a global scale, there are far more deer and rabbits than there are whale.

I also have a problem with the guise of scientific research. Why exactly do they need to kill thousands of minke whales a year? Uh, for science? Unless of course, the scientific research is this: The Thesis Of Whether Or Not Feeding School Children Whale Will Cause Them To Be Lifelong Consumers of Whale

So spring has sprung and that means a bunch of new people in my office and that means an obligatory string of drinking parties. I have a new fellow CIR from Korea and it’s lovely to have some life in my group again. Group dynamics are a funny thing, aren’t they? It’s amusing than within the first day that the new girl arrived she noticed there was something off about my group’s dynamics and asked me about it. Sorry if I’m being vague, it’s a public blog.

I am sad to admit that this year I took a very shocking amount of sick leave, on the tune of once a month on average. However, in one year did ANYONE scold me or talk to me about it? Nope. It came up during the obligatory drinking party though (search my old entries for an explanation of what an “enkai” is). My old boss (who was moved to another section) told me in a drunken haze how much he loved me and how he was so worried about me always being sick and how I must take care of myself because he reminded me of his daughter (while he was telling me I also looked sexier with my new short hair.) Drinking parties are when the criticisms, the new proposals, and any sort of productive communication happens. I can absolutely take it, I just find it sad that it can’t be done without alcohol.

Maybe it’s just me being too American, but I just really dislike how no one can tell anyone directly to do anything. The JET program would be much better if supervisors just straight up said, “Hey, stop wasting our money and playing on the internet all day!” It would save time, money, and help relations.

You know how those men’s magazines claim that women never say what they mean?  ”YOU know why I’m mad!” and “I GUESS you can go to the poker game tonight, but….” [Men's Magazine Decoder: If you go to the poker game, I'll be pissed when you come home] Imagine dealing with that every single day of your working life. I’m not really frustrated by it since I’ve gotten used to it and often use it to my advantage, but sometimes I just want to shake someone and scream, “If you want me to serve tea to the mayor, just ask me!” It takes far less energy to tell me to do it than to be all, “So, the mayor is in the guest room and….he likes tea…and….well, the tea set is over there…and, the usual tea lady is on vacation soo..(continued)”

Oh well, that’s just how it is and there’s nothing that can be done about that (how very Japanese of me to say that!)

So in the past 6 months, about 10 people have asked me if I was pregnant. 2 of them within the last 2 days.

At the moment I weigh 110lbs (at 5’5)…

I know I have gained weight (and as I typed that sentence my self-esteem did a recoil) but geez, pregnant? Really?

So, ever since I’ve moved to Japan I’ve been fascinated by this whole industry of eye drops and eye washes. The fact that I don’t actually even know whether or not eye washes exist in the U.S. suggests that we don’t seem to consider it a need great enough to advertise on mainstream media.

However, in Japan everyone’s got the eye drops. After seeing basically everyone I know dump random colored fluid in their eyes (um, pink eye drops?) I decided I should probably get myself some what with allergy season and all.

First problem — when you have no brand loyalty, shopping becomes difficult. You buy the toothpaste you buy because your parents probably used it, or something. I was faced with an aisle with all sorts of cartoon characters, special offers, cute bottles, drops for women, drops for kids, drops for smokers…. um? I picked up one bottle and saw an ingredient was GRAPE JUICE. Pass.

Second problem — what is this “cooling” gradient? Nearly every box I selected was like, “Now in Super Cool!” or “Low Cool”… uh, okay? In the end I randomly selected a non-cool eye drop and a cooling eye wash.

Trial 1: Non Cool Eye-drops – Just like normal eye drops, except the bottle is cute and looks like a miniature perfume sample. Mine was also not some weird color. Nice and clear, like I’d want something going into my eye to be.

Trial 2: Cool Eye wash – So, you pour some of the stuff into this cup and throw your head back and stick it to your eye. Then you open your eyes and blink a few times.

Blink, blink…

You can see from my fourth photo that the reaction that followed was horrified amusement. Okay, so cooling means MINT FLAVOR IN YOUR DAMN EYE. This did not “cool,” unless by cool you mean like those super minty tic-tacs that burn your mouth. What followed was me shrieking for about 30 seconds about my eyes burning…and then, well, peace. Enlightenment. My eyes felt….soothed. Cooled, if you will. Furthermore, after looking at the cup I could see tons of floating bits of junk, pollen and dust that had collected in and around my eyes.

Sick. I guess there is a need for eye wash after all.

One of the best things about my job is that I have the liberty to create and execute my own events. Two years ago me and an ex-co-worker started (bi-)monthly cooking classes, despite the fact neither of us were particularly excellent cooks.

I just held my 9th cooking class yesterday and it was one of the best yet. We did Thai cooking and I was just really pleased with the outcome. One of the biggest frustrations are the crotchedy housewives who join and complain about everything. Some Japanese women go crazy if you tell them, “cut it however you want,” or “put as much pepper as you like,” for some of them they must know EXACTLY how many milimeters to cut a cucumber or exactly how many teaspoons of pepper goes in…and anyone who cooks knows that it is rarely EVER so precise (except in baking). I’ve hosted classes when a group of women snickered to themselves, “hah, just like an American to be so sloppy,” when I said that it didn’t matter how you cut the carrot as long as the pieces were bite size.

Ah well, cultural differences, right?

Luckily, those sorts of people rarely ever come back, and instead I have a bit of a following of people who come every month to learn new recipes. I love that they’re always so shocked the ingredients mostly come from the local supermarket. But I mean, it takes an outsider sometimes to tell you about the things you never notice. For example, I never noticed the grocery stores in Indianapolis only sell 3 kinds of cheese (mozerella, american, and cheddar) until Hugh (who is used to seeing more in Melbourne) pointed it out. Geez, what is gouda cheese anyways? (Note: I know now, because my little town in Japan only sells 2 kinds of cheese, one which is gouda.)

I’m never going to “internationalize” the whole city, but I am very pleased when I see that I can make a difference on a smaller level.

The other day a Japanese friend asked me, “So, how do you show that you are listening to a person in America?” I sat there for a moment and thought about it, completely at a loss. “Well, what we DON’T do is nod our heads and say ‘yes’ like Japanese people do,” I replied. This was met with perplexedness and lots of “heeeee??” (waaaaah??)

In Japanese, one nods their heads and makes comments of affirmation such as “hai” or “ee” while listening to someone talk. The important point here is that this ONLY means that the person is paying attention or listening to you. This does NOT mean the person is agreeing with you. Many foreigners get tripped up by this at first because they think the person they are talking to is in agreement with them, when in fact the Japanese person is just showing that they’re listening. I suppose in America we do this by maintaining eye-contact, and if we cannot, then we’ll go on with, “Uh huh,” “Yeah, and then…?” “Really? Wow…” type stuff. Most people who live in Japan for an extended period of time will pick up this trait and nod along with speakers. It can be really amusing to watch a giant group of foreigners listening to a lecture and nodding their heads along.

Today at the airport I was perusing the omiyage store (shops that sell individually packages cakes and goodies to bring back as souvenirs for the office) when we passed by a group of deaf women furiously signing to one another after sampling one of the goodies. The lady working at the stall was smiling and nodding her head along, though her eyes were looking at something else. It was a really interesting little culture thing… I thought about what my friend asked, what would I do if that was me in America? I guess all I can say is that I wouldn’t nod along and pretend to be “listening” (especially if I wasn’t even “listening” with the organ you need for sign-language…my eyes ^.~)

I’m reading this book called the Omnivore’s Dilemma which discusses how our ways of eating and producing food have changed. Naturally, this made me think about my own relationship with food.

For those who have known me since my teenage years, you’ll know I’ve had a rocky relationship with food. I was absolutely NEVER an anorexic, but I weighed about as much as one, and like an anorexic I disliked eating and was pretty malnourished. It wasn’t a fear of getting fat, it was more that I hated the time wasted eating. Eating was a chore, especially when food itself generally tasted so disgusting. The things that I did eat were absolutely trash. Since I don’t really like Filipino food, my dinners were things like Taco Bell, pizza rolls, instant pizza, TV dinners, etc. which I often didn’t really like the taste of either, I just ate out of convenience.

All of this changed when I moved to Chicago, then later California, and was introduced to a very vast world of different types of food. Friends might think me to be this worldly traveler, but the reality is that I never had Thai food until university, and wouldn’t know real Italian if it fell on me until I moved to Australia. This is when I discovered eating delicious food to be one of life’s great pleasures. I now consider myself fully to be a foodie, a gourmand-in-training, an epicure. I have absolutely no shame in saying I have partaken in a $100 meal. It’s something I do maybe once a year and I don’t consider it expensive considering I save more than than choosing to cook for myself and not eat at McDonald’s. I never liked chain-restaurant food or fast-food in my youth, and you certainly won’t find me there by choice unless I am just really, really being deprived of a comfort food like cheese fries (which I also make myself.)

So now I’m in Japan. What most Americans imagine Japanese food to be is true, but only as true as the image that Americans eat only hotdogs and hamburgers is true. For all the tuna casseroles, quesadillas, roast beef, etc that average Japanese are unaware we eat there’s the konyaku (gelatinous blob), crab guts, and natto (fermented beans) that the Japanese eat. I’m not going to lie to you–living in Japan has actually made me dislike Japanese food in general, with a few exceptions.

However, living in Japan has made me love food in general even more. Living out in the country certainly helps. Seasonal food used to piss me off for the inconvenience, but now I love it. Certain foods (strawberries, corn, etc) are only available certain parts of the year here–but when they are available they taste far more amazing than anything I ever had in America did (my mother shops at Wal-Mart, btw.)

Another thing I’ve grown to appreciate is locally grown food. Lettuce is delicious here, and so are tomatoes, another vegetable I used to hate. I used to think it was quaint that before every school lunch the students would say like, “the corn came from Fukushima-san’s grandmother, and the onions were supplied by Abe-san’s mom,” but now I see it as a great thing. It sustains the community, and it tastes better. Recipes I cooked before in America suddenly taste better here and it’s probably solely because the food is fresher and it’s easy for me to buy organic, or local, or free-range (for real, not just labelled free-range).

I don’t really know if this is better or my health or not, but all I can say is that in America you do not often see many 90-year old people who work on the farm every day or walk several miles up and down hills for fun, but out here it’s pretty damn normal. I’m always struck when an 80-year old grandma can not only out drink a foreign exchange student under the table, she’s in better shape too. It’s pretty embarassing to be schooled by a granny.