Returning to America

I like to tell people that everyone needs a good hard drive failure several times in their life.

When I was in college, I had my first one the night before some big homework assignment was due. I lost all my homework, previous written reports, pictures, music, saved bookmarks, etc. It took me a couple of hours to get everything re-installed and back to normal, only this time, without any data. I remember almost crying because I was so frustrated.

Why do I think this is a good thing to happen to a person? Because all of that data really isn't important. It's just a bunch of stuff that you get attached to over time.

I took a trip to America for the first time in 2.5 years to spend Christmas and New Years with my family and friends, and as I sat on my flight back to Tokyo and reflected on everything, I couldn't help but make an analogy that returning to America was like a good hard drive failure for me.

In Okinawa, I have my work and friends and all the drama that goes along with that. But detaching myself from all that for the past 2.5 weeks and getting to spend time with people i have known my entire life, I feel refreshed. I wish I could have stayed longer, but now as I sit at my desk at work, I am a little glad to be back.

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One highlight of the trip was I had a elementary school friend whom I haven't seen in 13 years fly down from Boston to visit me during the New Years weekend. We had an awesome time.

Another highlight was that I had two teachers that I work with, Kazuyo and Aya, come home-stay with me for a week. The first day, I took them to Hooters for lunch. It was one of my buddy's ideas because he said he wanted to show them 'American geisha'. I explained to them that 'hooter' has two different meanings, with the first being the sound of an owl. About halfway through lunch, Kazuyo leans over and says, 'I think I know what the second meaning is...'.

The next day we drove down to Gainesville so I could show them UF. We got to walk on the football field and see a lot of the campus. Then we met up with my old Japanese teacher for lunch.

On Tuesday, we went to St. Augustine and visited the beach, the Alligator farm, and walked down St. George's Street. I was a little bit disappointed at our St. George's walk, because when I usually go with my family, I feel like we are there for hours going into all the different kinds of shops. With the two teachers, we just walked straight to the end, with the only store they took an interest to was the fudge shop. They could have cared less about all the stores selling 'crap'.

By the next day, I was exhausted and we were suppose to go to Cape Canaveral, but Kazuo really wanted to go to Disney World. So my sister chaperoned that trip and I stayed home.

My mom entertained them on New Year's Eve, but on New Year's Day, we were all together and had a party. My mom invited a lot of people of her friends and I invited mine. The teachers offered to make sushi, and that turned into the biggest hit of the party. They started by making only a few rolls, but when everybody started scarfing them down and they realized how much everybody liked it, they were really happy and ended up working in the kitchen the entire time. Since they don't speak English, I felt they were happy to work and avoid the conversations.

A slight hickup in the party was when my sister's friend had a seizure. It was in the kitchen and I heard a bowl break. I look over and see him bent over in his chair, and it looked like he was trying to pick up the bowl he had dropped. But then he collapsed over and knocked his head on the brick hearth. My sister called an ambulance and they stayed with him until he came to. He had a nasty red welt on the side of his face, but he is okay now.

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No return trip is complete without a comparison of how I live in Okinawa versus how I live in America. There are the obvious differences such as in America, we can wear shoes in the house, the food portions (and some people) are gigantic, we suck at recycling, and some people come off as lazy/rude even when they are on the job (i.e., retail people). But I didn't really have any 'reverse cultural shock' on any of those points. What surprised me the most was how much my friends have changed. In 2.5 years, lots of people are now married, engaged, or dating new people. Also, certain people are no longer talking to others based on this or that. I had been told that even though I am living in Japan, that doesn't mean life stops for my friends in Florida. And I knew that...but it was still a little weird.