Lost in Ogawa

Three days ago, Monday June 27th, I finally turned 25 years old. “Great Scott” am I 25 already?! 21 and 18 seems like it was just yesterday. How time flies….I remember when I was younger, I always wished that time would turn quicker so I can become older sooner. However, these past couple of years, the sentiment have been completely opposite. I’ve been hoping time would slow down but it only goes faster and faster. The coming of age is inevitable. Every year, one becomes a year older and there is nothing one can do anything about it except maybe to just lie about your age when somebody asks for it! Turning 25 is no different than turning 24 or 23 but I think somehow, this birthday will leave an impression on me that I will not likely to forget!

First of all, this is my first birthday spent in Japan, woohoo! and what an interesting way to spend my 25th birthday then with my new Japanese friends and local American friends that I’ve only known for about 11 months. Never would I have thought that I would be living in Japan and learning Japanese when I am 25. If we look back at “Tony’s life plan,” first thought up around 18 years old Senior in High School, by 25 years old, I should be finishing up my 3rd year in Medical School. As you can see, I am nowhere near that! I guess that’s why I freak myself out sometimes because nothing so far is going according to my life plan and the only thing that is going according to plan is turning one year older every year! At least I don’t look 25 I think?! What can I say, I’m more of a person that sees the glass half empty than half full. Recently, I’ve been thinking more and more about my future, my career, my life. I know I’m a worrisome freak, I think I get that from my mom. I can’t help it.! I have a theory that subconsciously or even consciously, I’m in Japan because I’m escaping reality and procrastinating my real life from continuing. Any thoughts on that?

Ok, besides all these worries I have about becoming 25 or a year older, which I can talk on forever about, I did have a great time celebrating it. So far, I’ve already gone out to eat with different friends on 3 separate occasions and I think 1 or 2 more times are in the planning. The celebration actually started a week before my bday and going on almost a week afterward. This is the problem when everybody works like feigns in Japan and scheduling to have a meal together is even a challenge. The week before my Bday, I had Okinawa cuisine (Okinawa is an island off Japan near Taiwan. It is like the Hawaii of Japan, warm all-year round). The food was very good and the taste was very reminiscent of Taiwan cuisine. Two things I had that were very interesting: pig ear, and “sea grape,” which were these green strings of tiny beads. I think they’re just some type of edible sea grass. They taste better than they sound actually! Then the weekend before my Bday, I had my own little gathering in my town at a local yakitori (meat on a stick) joint where my local buddies and I usually hang out to eat and drink. We’re friends with the family that run the place so they were very accommodating. The chef, and also the owner of the place, roasted a whole chicken for me and my guests and bought me a cake without charging us any extra for it. It was really nice of them. That night, it was good eating, talking, laughing, and lots of beer drinking! Finally on the day of my birthday, I had dinner with my two closest Japanese friends who I first met in Taiwan last year. We had all you can eat sushi and I don’t mean buffet style like Todai in LA. We had a sushi chef to ourselves and we order from the menu what sushi we wanted to eat and he would make it right on the spot in front of us. It was very cool and it was probably the best sushi I’ve had in Japan so far. One of my friends on the other hand kept eating the fish part of the sushi and leaving me the rice portion. She wanted to make sure I had plenty to eat! All and all, I can’t complain too much about my birthday. Yeah, I’m not spending it with family or close friends but I still got a card for my birthday exactly ON my birthday and I got greetings from many friends back home. To all of you that sent me a greeting: Thank you and I will write you back soon……..I hope!

For the past three days, I was in Tokyo for JET training or orientation again. Or rather should I say, RE-contracting orientation! That’s right people, I have renewed my contract for another year to stay in Japan and teach English in Ogawa! Actually, I already renewed my contract and signed my John Hancock back in February. Why did I finally decide to say something? I don’t really know but I guess I’m just coming to term with it now after my training. It hasn’t been exactly one year yet but already knowing I’ll be here another year is somewhat exciting and also daunting at the same time. I guess I always knew I was staying on for at least two years when I first arrived in Japan since things were going so well on my own and I was having a lot of fun but my parents didn’t realize that. They were expecting me home after one year and continue with my academic/career plans. When my parents visited back in November, I was already hinting how much I liked Japan and how my situation in Japan was actually pretty good for a foreigner living on my own. I didn’t tell them directly but I think they had a pretty good idea what my intentions were. Before my parents returned to the States, my mom said to me, she’ll come visit me again in July. I asked her why and she said, “To help you carry your luggage back to L.A. of course.” I thought that was funny and said, “We’ll see!” I guess another reason why I’m reluctant to go back right now is because my Japanese is improving a lot…so I think. Everyday is a Japanese lesson and everyday i’m learning new words and phrases. I have so much inspirations in my daily life motivating me to learn Japanese and become “pera pera” (fluent speaker). Okay the REAL motivation is actually communicating with the opposite sex and it’s going well so far! haha..

I believe life follows the theory of “equilibrium.” In Japan, as much as there are ups in my life, there are also plenty of downs. It all balances out I guess. However, so far it’s been a pretty smooth and stress-free ride through life, a huge contrast to my college days. Nevertheless being the paranoid and worrisome person that I am, I can’t help to think from time to time what my life will be like or what will I do once JET is over and I will have to return to L.A. to face reality. I keep telling my friends here that I’m living in a dream and the hard part of my life is yet to come! The adjunct of another year to my life soon doesn’t help either.