Attempting to capture Japan with words or pictures is futile. You may come close, but the closer you get the more it slips through your fingers like sand. As with any experience, human means of explanation just cannot recreate the actual event for those who did not experience it first hand.
I wish I could share the raw experiences and sights and sounds and tastes but it just cannot be done. For that reason, I have been somewhat reluctanct to update my blog recently.
But let me try anways.
Being here is like being in a dream in the sense my everyday "Japan" life feels completely seperate from my "real" life. These lives are intertwined, and this life will affect the other, but right now I am floating in this dream life. Yes, I have been here roughly 3 weeks, but I am not the same person I was 3 weeks ago and that person I was 3 weeks ago seems very far away.
But even though the stage is arranged differently, the actors are still the same. Which is to say, people are people no matter where you go. Why this should come as such a startling revelation is beyond my comprehension, but I venture to guess that each of us harbors the idea that "WE are this way and YOU are that way", no matter how open minded you think you are. I didn't realize my mind was so cloistered until I found myself thinking "people all over the world are in fact moving around the world the same as I am" and was taken aback by that revelation. Recognizing that I should not have been taken aback was eye opening in and of itself.
Being outside of my "real" life has freed me from thoughts, feelings, stereotypes, and habitual actions that previously inhibited me from experiencing my previous life to the fullest. Coming to Japan cleanly broke these societal chains, and has made me a much more confident and well-rounded individual, and as cheesy as it sounds, I am really proud of it.
And I think it will only get better from here.
I apologize for getting all philosophical on you!
