Tuesday 24 February 2015

In which time runs away again.

Time always flies by and I forget to update my blog. Truthfully, I haven't done anything exciting, just the normal things. 

Since getting back in January, I have started playing futsal again, dancing once a week, and I haven't been surfing in 4 months :(((((( yikes! The drop-in futsal I go to now has two professional soccer players, making me look like a chump. But the guys seem to accept me, they randomly blurt out English, it's rather adorable. I also recently returned to play futsal with the high schoolers that are all graduating (see - time sure flies!), and I was warmly received by them again after a long absence. They were also quite adorable. Three of them insisted on walking me home after futsal, for safety reasons :) that's the most gentlemanly behaviour I've witnessed in Japan!

One thing that I genuinely miss here is care and courtesy for others. Certainly, Japanese hospitality is great, but it's not genuine. I think once you understand the language and the culture (language alone won't help), you begin to realize that the famous Japanese hospitality, or omotenashi (which was their campaign in the 2020 Tokyo bid for the Olympics, by the way), is just forced, in many cases the person doesn't want actually care about you as a person. They're just doing their job, and if they don't have enough omotenashi, they may get in trouble. So, natural, basic, human courtesy is absent from every day life. For example, people don't hold doors for others, people don't worry about others getting home safe, if someone falls, no one helps them, etc. Also, I miss the friendly and genuine chit chat between workers (like waitresses, cash register people, and other service positions) and customers.

That's not to say that all people are cold. Usually, if someone knows you, they will be caring and kind. Usually. So, when I witness the warmth of people genuinely caring for another invidividual that is not close to them, I get all melty. My heart warms and I often reminisce fondly about it. I'm still smiling about getting walked home by the boys, even though it happened two weeks ago.

In other news, I made chocolate chip cookies for Valentine's Day.


Then I made cream puffs for no reason. But, I gave them to my dancing buddies.


The root canal saga continues, the end is in sight. After one of my many dental appointments, I found the first Starbucks in Japan! 


I also reunited with the stage and performed with the teachers of this year's graduating class at Kasujo. I was in a dancing number called Dancing Samurai, and I was also in a singing number called Happiness. I was added at the last minute to the Happiness number, so I didn't know the words, I just pretended. The students, being excited and almost free, were super excited and didn't care about how bad we were. They were just happy we made fools of ourselves :)