Birthday-ness

I have had great birthdays, but in so many ways, this one is pretty up there. This morning I got to talk to Bryan for over two hours on the phone. It’s great to know that we still have that much to say to each other, but I feel like I just brushed the surface. Sometimes we are so excited to talk to someone that we forget to mention the important stuff. I think that next time I set up an appointment to talk to him, I’ll tell him about my research paper in women’s studies and about Japanese and about all the things I have cooked for myself. Gosh, but even those things are a handful of thousands of things I want to share with him. Not so much because I need him to know or anything, but because I know that he loves seeing me grow and I also because I want to show him that the “learn something every day” policy is still in effect. I think that today I will start placing a “New thing learned” section on my posts so that anyone reading can maybe learn something new too. For me, these things learned aren’t always huge, nor do they always have a social impact, but something simple, like how to cook something or “what happens if…” Consciously trying to learn something new every day keeps me constantly searching for that thing to learn. It builds my curiosity and makes me more attentive to what is going on around me.

After my phone call, I headed out shopping for groceries and for supplies. I had a mission for the day, and I decided that rather than waiting for someone to decide to come along, that I would just give it a try. I got a little lost, but mostly the trip was a success. One thing I did notice is that people were much more likely to comment on me as being a gaijin with me alone than they were when I was in a larger group. Although, it may just be that usually I am engrossed in conversation, whereas today I could hear everything going on around me. I bought eggs and fish, because those are my cooking goals for the week. I also bought sweet potatoes and green beans, as an added bonus. I also bought a huge pack of sushi. I decided that I had been in Japan for too long without having eaten any yet! Next, I headed to buy laundry detergent and some other cleaning products.

Now, I would like to diverge from the details to explain that it’s really difficult to learn how to cook and clean in a foreign country. I imagine that I did know some of the skills necessary to survive at home, but here, you really have to know a lot about what you’re looking for since very few labels have any information on them in English. Cooking is tough because some of the packaging is kind of ambiguous, and if you’re looking for vegetable oil, you have to know exactly what you’re looking for or else you might get canola or peanut oil. I guess the difference isn’t that huge, but it’s still something that can be a problem every time you go to the store. Plus, if you do buy something that is prepackaged but uncooked (i.e. dumplings), you have to learn to cook it without knowing what the instructions on the package say. I ran into this same problem trying to figure out what products to buy for cleaning purposes. I finally figured out what was detergent, and was reassured that it would work on my clothes because I saw on the back where it had brightly colored clothing garments and had the English word: “colors.” I was very grateful for that. Trying to find fabric softener was done by looking for people snuggling against their laundry on the package. And the household cleaning products were just as tough. I was looking for Febreeze and an all-purpose cleaning spray. I finally found the one by reading the word “febreeze” in katakana and then found the cleaning spray because of the label that showed a microwave, kitchen sink, a table, and an entertainment unit, all sparkling. Now that I know, shopping should be easier, but these first few times have left me slightly puzzled at times.

I came home and put in a little elbow-elbow grease to scrub down the shelf unit that I had found abandoned behind one of the dorms here. It had some moss growing on it, so it was tough going at times, but I managed to get it clean after about three scrub downs, and installed it in my room. My room looks so much cleaner now that I can get the big box of stuff that my mom sent out of the way. Plus, I have a place to prepare food other than the floor. I also rearranged my room so that I have more of a desk area and table for eating. Matt and Rachel gave me some extra linens and two extra pillows, so now I have a “bed” on the tatami mat and a “study area” on the futon bed. Before I hadn’t had any other pillows, so my butt always hurt. Plus, I bought a chair that sits on the floor that has a folding back so that I can use it to read and eat in. I felt like I had really accomplished something with my morning.

I studied and read for a while, and then got word that I was to get up and get ready for dinner. Some of the people had gotten together and prepared a meal for me, in fact, I got two meals! I had a great vegetarian pasta dish that had carrots, mushrooms, etc. and then Shenea had made salmon, knowing that it is my favorite food. She also made me broccoli and a sweet potato. I couldn’t believe how wonderful everyone had been. Everyone brought wine to celebrate (the drinking age in Japan is 20, and 20 is also considered a coming of age). We sat around having a hearty meal and great conversation. I got to blow out candles on two cakes, and in Japanese tradition, give a speech.

My speech was along the lines that it is amazing to come into a community and be here for a few weeks and then have people show their affection for you in such an amazing way as they did for my birthday. My birthday last year was great, but the people I celebrated with had a little more time to get to know me. This birthday was so cool because it showed me that the people that make up the community here are really giving amazing people.

After my party, we stayed up for a few hours playing this crazy sticky note game. Pretty much, someone put a name on a sticky note on your forehead and then you had to try to guess it asking only yes or no questions that everyone else would try to answer. People would write things like Tron, Jesus, his own nose, Mr. Rodgers, Grendel, the lead singer from Metallica, etc. It was hilarious when people would get so frustrated trying to guess even though they were so close to what it was, as in the case of it being their own nose. After the game, I went to bed really happy about how great my birthday had been. And it was.

Music equivalent of the day: the FW rendition of “Happy Birthday”
Food: the vegetarian noodle dish and Shenea’s salmon!
Major purchase: folding floor chair and sumi-e paper
Meditation/ inspiration/ thought of the day: Language barriers.
What I learned: the ginger that comes in sushi here is WAY better. Seriously, though, I found out today in my readings that the Ainu Kyokai, a group petitioning for equality for and assimilation of the Ainu (a minority group in Japan) was started as an extension of, and funded by the same government that denies their existence. In front of the Human Rights Committee of the UN, the Japanese government claimed “…minorities of the kind mentioned in the Covenant do not exist in Japan” (Weiner, 40).
Priority: getting work done before Monday