What struck me about America...

I'd heard of reverse culture shock before returning to America for my vacation last month but I still found it strange...  I first noticed it even before I arrived home when I was at the San Francisco airport going through customs before getting on my flight to Boston.  As I was waiting for my luggage and looking around the room I could've sworn that I recognized several of the other people standing around.

My thoughts went something like this:
Hey, is that Stephanie from college over there?  I haven't seen her in ages!  What are the chances that she'd be in the same airport at the same time?  [upon closer inspection]  Wait, that's not her.  Though that woman is the same height and has the same blonde hair...  But wait, that man over there has to be Kevin that I met during that college campus tour several years ago, right?  I met him in California after all, maybe he lives around here?  [upon closer inspection]   No, that's not him.  Though that man is the same height and has similar glasses...
Basically my facial recognition skills for non-Japanese faces had apparently degraded in the months that I'd lived in Japan...

I also found that many everyday things and events in the US had become surprising to me...

Once I arrived in Boston my mom and brother picked me up from the airport (luckily I recognized them).  Even though it was around midnight I was wide awake due to the time difference and blabbed about who-knows-what as we headed back to my mom's condo.  As we were driving I couldn't get over how wide the roads were, and as we got onto the Mass Pike (Massachusetts Turnpike) I was a little freaked out by how many lanes there were (I mean cars could pass us on both sides!).  Don't get me wrong, there are multi-lane highways in Japan, there just aren't any where I live.  The closest real highway to Minamisanriku is called the Sanriku Expressway and it is usually one lane wide (though there are two when you approach exits and merging lanes).  Cars can also go much faster on US highways, oftentimes the speed limit is 65 mph (~105 km/h) in MA but on the Sanriku Expressway the speed limit is about 43 mph (70 km/h).  Anyway it wasn't until the next day that I noticed how big the cars are in the US; even the smallest ones would get a white license plate in Japan.

The roads are so wide!

When I got to my mom's place not only did it seem very large but there were tons of places where one could sit down.  There was a dining room table with four chairs, two tall bar-stool-type chairs by the kitchen counter, and a couch and armchair in the living room (and that was just the first floor)!  In fact, overall things in America seemed way more comfortable and convenient than they are in Japan.
I noticed that:

- buildings were warm inside (even places like closets and hallways)!
- windows were double-paned and thus fog-proof!
- kitchens had ovens and dishwashers!
- not only were there washing machines, there were also dryers!
- there were no squat-type toilets!
- every sink had a hot water supply!
- roads were plowed!

So much snow but the roads are kept clear!

In fact, everything was so convenient that it made me a bit angry.  I think that it was partially because all of the above things on the list are so difficult in Japan but mostly I was angry because no one in the US seems to appreciate all the things that make their lives so easy!

Anyway, on a more positive note I got many hugs from my family members which I wasn't really used to after all the bowing that I do in Japan.  I was also happy that I finally felt literate again since I could read all of the signs, warning labels, and even advertisements again.  In addition, everything seemed very close-by; there were two movie theaters less than 20 minutes away!

I had created a list of food to eat before arriving in the US and I managed to eat at least a piece of the following:

sourdough bread
wheat bread
balogna
ham
a piece of a full-sized cake (not roll cake!)
a piece of pie
coffee ice cream
peppermint bark
several bagels
several muffins
gingerbread
croissant
Cape Cod potato chips
Chips Ahoy! cookies
Smartfood popcorn
baked Cheetos
Regina pizza
Panera panini
Trader Joe's chocolate
Mom's pot roast
Mom's macaroni and cheese

My brother, Mikey, and I drove up to Maine to visit some friends and I couldn't get over how flat everything seemed.  Massachusetts has its share of hills (left over from glaciers and whatnot during the last ice age) but it's nothing compared to most of Japan.  The hills and mountains in Japan are so steep that they cut into the horizon wherever you look but in the US you can see the entire sky.

I took several pictures of sunsets while I was back home...

Traveling with my brother was fun.  The town we went to was about five hours away but that didn't seem too bad when I considered that decent groceries are an hour away from Minamisanriku.  We spent the night in Maine and overnight we got about 16 inches (~40 cm) of snow.  Luckily it was very light and fluffy so we were able to dig out the car without much difficulty.

Our friend's Bernese mountain dog sitting in the snow

There were only a few other things I noticed in the US after I had been there for a few days:

- lack of surgical masks - people are obsessed with them in Japan and will wear them to prevent illness - which does not work just so you know
- perfect teeth - wow, you can tell that it's an obsession in the US
- cheap prices - I mostly noticed at the movies and at the gas pump - I created the following table using today's information:

Of course there were some changes around my hometown as well but to be honest I think there were more changes to Minamisanriku in the three weeks that I was gone.  I'll have to take pictures around town again to show you what I mean...

Finally an update!

So, I'm back in Japan... actually I've been back since the 10th but I was severely jet-lagged that first weekend (and severely lazy the second) so if I had written anything it would have made even less sense than usual.  Monday the 14th was a holiday (Coming of Age Day) and on the 15th and 16th I was in Sendai for the Miyagi JET Skills Development Conference.  I had to present during a workshop this year so I was kinda stressed out beforehand.  Risa-sensei was slated to present with me but she was even more stressed out than I was so we ended up splitting the work so that she was the one to prepare all the handouts while I did the presenting.  The presentation itself went OK, I mean I was only presenting to around 25 people so it wasn't too nerve-wracking... I felt bad though since this year at the conference the participants didn't get to pick which workshops they attended so I think there were several people in my workshop who wouldn't have chosen to sign up for it.

I may write more about the conference later but for now I wanted to post a few leftover pictures from the fall.

Sam's finally here!  This is from the first time I saw "Froot Loops" in Japan.  Apparently they've changed the name but coincidentally the name they chose is the same as an off-brand variety common in Massachusetts.  Also, why is it "ring" and not "rings"?  Is there only one in there?

I took the following picture quite a while ago when it was still pretty warm out.  Back in the spring people were expecting the summer to be tough due to an energy shortage from the shutdown of most of Japan's nuclear power plants.  Thus in the spring many people bought vine plants to grow over their windows to naturally bring in shade (and cooler air) without using a fan or A/C.  Most of my schools had vines growing on nets outside and one of the most popular types of vine was from the 鉈豆 「なたまめ」or "sword bean" plant.

 

 I put in the red pen for perspective.  Pretty amazing, right?

 One day while I was at school one of the elementary teachers put a small plate of pink stuff in front of me and told me I had to try it since it's a traditional fall specialty of Japan.  It turned out that it was pickled flowers (they weren't very good but I felt obligated to eat them all).

 Here are some pickled flowers on sale at the supermarket (you can see some peppers to the left).

And now, for a special edition of Let's Learn Engrish!

 The small text reads:
"Cherry Cookie [written in cursive that surprisingly does have the letters connected]
It is a cookie baked in brown by using enough fruits that fully bathe in the blessing of the sun.  delicious to you..."

Wow, they tried hard for this one but their attempt to be poetic kind of backfired.  Is it the dried fruit that is supposed to be the "brown"?  Also "delicious" should be capitalized.  I think I would change the first "in" to "until" also there should be an indication of past tense in the part of the sentence about bathing in the sun since the sentence started out by using "baked."  After that it would be better but still kind of odd English.

The picture is a bit blurry but to the bottom left of the label over the "Crispy Gaufrette" section it says, "Pudding-Flavor Cream Sand" this will probably make more sense if I tell you that the Japanese abbreviation for sandwich is サンド "sando" so hopefully this treat is in fact a pudding-flavored cream sandwich and not just some flavored sand.

Finally, what might be my favorite can of food ever... technically it's a can of 「マフィンタイプ」"muffin-type" bread that lasts for many years and can be saved for emergencies.  This is actually the one can of food that fell off the shelf during that earthquake last month.

Can you read the tab?  It says, "Hi, MIDGET"  I had to get Anne to read it to verify that I wasn't just seeing things...  I'm not sure what to say about this one since I have no idea what they were trying to say... haha.

Anyway, have a good week!