Green 緑

 

Looking back through some of my posts, I am recognizing that I disproportionately concern myself with plants in Japan. Clearly I am more nature lover than night life. Since it is still summer here  I surprise myself with how much I do outdoors. Heat reaches a point that no amount of ice-packs or scenery can compensate for.... But the sweltering temperatures are showing signs of reprieve, at last, so I can finally enjoy walking again.

So in a salutation to summer, I want to write a ode to its beautiful green. The scenes below are from the beginning of the season in the same gardens that the plum blossom post featured.

http://linguadiscipuli.blogspot.jp/2016/03/plum-blossoms.html

The hesitant and testing tendril of spring

is gone,

replaced by the lush and verdant 

hollow logs which wade through living rivers of grass,

cascading down a hill.

Now that summer's almost done, I yearn for its demise,

but I forget the shock of green, the flourish and delight.

Don't Settle, Excel.

      One of my first posts was a description (stages) of how it felt to prepare to move to a new country. What I did not anticipate was how many stages of adjustment I would have to go through after I arrived. They say that moving to a new culture has three basic stages: Excitement when everything is still new and exotic, Frustration when homesickness and exhaustion set in, and Conformity when a person assimilates to the new culture and enjoys it for what it is. I think the lines between these three are blurred and, at least for me, can be split into many more, smaller stages.

      Before you read my list, especially if you have never lived abroad, I do not want this to discourage you from doing so. I am truly happy in my new home and would (and probably will) move to foreign country again because it is fun as well as challenging. It has made me a stronger person and I like who I have become as a result of it. However, do not let anyone lie to you, moving to another country has been the hardest thing I have ever done, harder than writing a thesis (in a very different way).

1. The Flood:

     Swept away by the emotions and experiences of jet-lag and moving, I was just trying to stay afloat. I was not concerned about faux pas, just the basic necessities. Literally, I just needed to stay alive.

2. Overwhelmed:

     By about two weeks into my move I was still more concerned with staying alive than fitting in, but this time I was also enjoying the adventure of it all. I started taking long walks just to explore. One trip to the grocery store down the street could turn into a day-trip full of unexpected occurrences. It was a sensory and information overload and it started to feel overwhelming at this point because I was beginning to realize just how hard this move and adjustment would be.

3 Going Under:

     This stage in the move did not feel so much like being overwhelmed as it just felt like I had no time. Looking back, I know that my constant stress level was through the roof and there were a million things to do and learn before survival became easier. It wasn't until after this stage that my friends said they say that they saw me smile - really smile - for the first time since moving.

4. Folly of False Confidence: 

      That little bit of confidence that allows you to try something new which results in utter and embarrassing failure? yeah.

5. Overwhelmed:

     Yup, again.

      Believe it or not, moving can make you feel overwhelmed a lot. This time when I felt overwhelmed I submitted to the feeling instead of distracting myself with things to do. When I felt the intense anxiety and confusion of culture shock (and confronting even mundane, daily tasks in a foreign language can bring that on ... including asking for help) I turned to isolation activities like Netflix and reading.

So I sequestered myself in my house. 

      Taking time away from culture shock can be good, and relaxing alone is necessary too. But the degree to which I did this was not good.

6. Recognition:

     This is the point when I finally realized that I was running and hiding from the outside world. Before then it was an unconscious response, not a intentional decision. This is the point when I went into a lot of deep reflection, thinking, journaling, talking it out with friends, and generally getting to know myself better. I put a name to my anxieties and fears, prayed about them, and was finally able to confront them. Step 5 was definitely worth taking for me because the depth of isolation led to recognition in a way that would have been impossible without it. God gives us depths so that He can show us how far He has brought us. This stage made me realize again how hard moving was (like 2 and 4), how great it is, and allowed me to reassess where I had been and where I am going. For me this stage first started around the 3 month mark.

7. Testing Tendril:

     The recognition stage gave me a new determination and motivation. It convinced me that the embarrassment and general discomfort of learning a new language and how to live in a foreign country is worth while for the new knowledge. Some anxiety is just part of life.

So here goes nothing... a little bit at a time.

8. Reinforcement:

     Because I am reaching out, I am growing. I do not always feel the growth at the time but I can look back and see the growth through hindsight. The joy of accomplishing something, getting something right, understanding a foreign conversation... that is a joy that I hope you have experienced and will experience again. I have grown a lot and, in some activities, I am now completely comfortable where I felt lost and helpless a year ago.

      Unfortunately, I cannot seem to stay in the confidence of step 8. Instead there seems to be an endless cycle of stages 5-8. Like the cycles of the mythical Wheel of Fortune, reaching the top means I will eventually fall down; striking bottom forces me to reach back up.  Each cycle varies in time and degree. Sometimes it is completed in a few days and sometimes it is weeks, but the cycle goes on.

     When I first arrived, I could not have described the stages this way. Life was too hectic and  I was still wading through the thick of it. However, looking back the peaks-and-troughs of emotional waves seem to break off into these distinct segments.

     If anyone has moved internationally - or even from one city to another - have you felt any of these stages? Which ones did you feel most strongly? How long did the stages take for you and which ones seemed longer for you?

Fukuroda Falls 滝

Fukuroda Waterfalls

This waterfall is the most famous in my region, and is advertised as being the perfect spot for a romantic outing. The park has even portioned off sections of the walk for couples to find their moment for a scenic kiss. The waterfall itself was smaller than I expected, but that is partially due to the season. In the summer the whole park was green and alive, but the waterfall was only a trickle compared to the spring. 

Near the entrance to the waterfall park there are several diners and omiyage shops hoping to catch your attention as you arrive and leave. Honestly, it is worth making time to look through some of these because the shops are very traditional and quaint and greatly add to the experience of visiting the falls. Even if you are not a window shopper (who isn't naturally a window shopper??) the shops feature climate control to warm you in the winter and cool you in the summer. Trust me, after a long walk around the falls, climate control is quite welcome .

Once you pass the shops you follow the river and pay the couple hundred yen for entrance to the falls. Then you walk through an underground tunnel, a cool, damp walk to hide from the heat in the summer... but I imagine it is unpleasantly icy in the winter. Every ten thirty meters or so there is a break in the tunnel for a glimpse of the outside world. In the end of the tunnel is a shrine and a veranda to view the bottom of the falls for your Kodak moment. However, for the best pictures you must take the elevator three stories up and climb a few stairs. There at the top is a giant cutout of the local mascot along with a billboard illustrating where you are in the province, in Japan, in the world, and - my personal favorite - in the milky way galaxy. This galaxy image is also used to demonstrate how the waterfalls were originally formed, but I enjoyed being told where I am in the grander scheme of things. Think big.

What you will see and what you can do varies drastically by season. The changing foliage in the fall fires up the woods with colors. In the winter you can climb the frozen water (as depicted fuzzily in the picture above). In the summer it is so alive and green. In the spring the water roars down in torrents. Once you visit the falls you can walk along an old rope bridge and through the woods to a little lunch shop tucked away in the trees before heading back to the entrance and the real world. 

Even if this trip was not exactly what I had imagined, it was well worth the experience. 

Snack Time! おやつ

Oyatsumi is a way of saying "I am a little hungry." It comes a time in Japanese history when it was customary to only have two meals a day so around three o'clock (yattsu) it was normal to be "a little hungry" and grab a snack. Now there are many different kinds of oyatsumi sold in convenience stores and grocery stores - most of them count as junk food: chips, candies, crackers, and little toys. 

Many of the sweets or crackers used to be sold in independent snack shops for cheep called dagoshi-ya when Japan had its economic boom after the war. Now these shops are reserved for tourists traps and nostalgia - like an old fashioned ice cream parlor in the US. Here is a documentary made in Japan about them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7YNLYqCuBM

If you are now thinking, "I've got to get me some of that" then here is a website that sells Japanese snacks and ships them worldwide. https://oyatsubox.com/ or https://oyatsucafe.com/

The Things You See on a Subway Wall

This will be another post like "signs and wonders" from several months ago. I just want to share some of the cute, bizarre, and noteworthy signage that I have seen around. (Sorry to disappoint if you were actually expecting things from the subway, since I think only one of them is from the subway station.) There are three signs to guess and then the rest are just for your enjoyment.

a.  b.c.

a. The first one is a "do not play Pokemon go here" sign. I hear that they are becoming popular all over the world...

b. The second one is a commercial for a ginger product (the image is a ginger root).

c. The third is a glassed off square for smoking in the middle of a non-smoking park. Japan has not caught on to the dangers of lung cancer yet...

Foxy City 狐

          This spring a carload of us went for a drive. The destination was the Wisteria flower park about three hours south of us, but there were a lot of detours and pit stops along the way, One of the detours was the azalea gardens mentioned in an earlier post. We also visited this foxy city. They chose the fox - as you can see on the bottom of the red flag in the photo - the fox was the mascot for the city market, was predominant in the local shrine, and the local festival featured taiko drummers dressed like foxes. 

Like many market streets in Japan, this street was lined with various shops, and not just any shops. These are the kinds of independent shops that could sell anything - so you have to take a thorough look around each one to make sure you are not missing anything. My favorite image is the fox figurines . They are adorable and I think foxes are my favorite animal because they are soooooo cute. 

In Japan, foxes (kitsune) are closely associated with the supernatural realm. Sometimes at shrines you will even see two foxes guarding the entrance instead of the traditional two lions. They are clever tricksters, just like in western lore, but with the addition powers of shape-shifting into human form (a power that every fox has according to lore) and serving as a messenger between the mortals and immortals. You can also gauge the age and degree of cunning of each fox by the number of tails it has, maxing out at nine. Pokemon anyone?

Below are some photos of the fox taiko drummers 

and 

above is the tree that we sat under to watch them.