Yay America (...?!)

I know I said my last post would be my final one, but I thought I'd write a quick note from the getting-used-to-America side of things again. I've been here for 6 days, and am busy noticing all the little things.
The big things are easily noticeable - being able to communicate with the guy at the verizon store to set up the details of my new cell phone plan (I was BEYOND ecstatic as it was all done in English). Also my first trip to the American supermarket. Regular sized green peppers. Provolone cheese. Entenmenns! My lord, I almost orgasmed in aisle 6.

But the subtler things are making quite an impact on me.
I still take my shoes off when I come into someone's house.
I am unfamiliar with getting such large napkins and placing them on my lap during a meal at a restaurant.
I want to ask for chopsticks at said restaurants.
I love having public garbage cans.
Two words: western toilets.
Everything is the right size again. No need to duck when walking through a doorway. Couches allow me to have right angles at my knees.
It's very odd looking UP at some people taller than me.
I have seen some BIG asses.
Short skirts, low-cut shirts. YAY cleavage!
American-sized portions. At a restaurant, I ordered an appetizer and that was bigger than any meal I had in Japan.
I'm wondering where my 8 thank yous have gone after eating at a restaurant or buying a bagel.
My first day driving, I accidentally made a left hand turn and ended up on the wrong side of the road. It was on a road in my home town - one I have driven thousands of times. I thought, wow, did they add a new right-hand turn lane over there? Why is everyone on the right? Whooops....
My body was not happy with American foods for a few days either. I've been eating healthy foods, but my stomach has still been asking, "What the hell is this shit you're giving me?"

Probably the biggest adjustment is to the strength of Americans. Not so much the physical strength, although we are far bigger and stronger. It's more of the personal strength people display. The volume of voice. Word choice. How they walk. During that same trip to the supermarket, as I was reveling in the fact that I could glance at all the bottles on the shelves and instantly know they were all shampoo, I heard someone yell, "*tsk*, UM, WHERE THE SOAP AT?... ANYONE KNOW WHERE THE SOAP AT??" I said to myself, "Man, I love America!" (a couple minutes later I heard, "OH, *tsk*, NEVER MIND. I FOUND IT.") People not being afraid to speak their mind to the world. Damn the torpedoes!

I'm just about over the jetlag. In successive days after coming back, I woke up at 3 AM, 5, 7, and then 4. Yesterday and today I feel pretty back to normal. So that's nice. But my mind is still wandering somewhere over the Pacific.

But I thought you'd like to know what you have in store for you if and when you make the leap back home...

Auld Lang Syne

Those of us from America recognize Auld Lang Syne as the New Year's song. It is sung once a year, every year, right after the stroke of midnight on January 1st. No other time is it appropriate, and no other time is it heard.
Yet for some unbeknownst reason, Auld Lang Syne is the Japanese national song to indicate a store is closing. Supermarkets, restaurants, 100-yen shops, electronic stores, clothing stores... you name it, they play it. It's the song to indicate "You had best hurry up and finish your shopping so that we can close at the zero-second mark of the designated closing minute."

So I've chosen that as the heading of my final post to my Life in Japan blog.

I am very excited to return to the States. I can't wait to be around English again - in stores, overhead announcements, menus, newspapers... I can't wait to ask a salesperson, "What's the difference between these two products?" and be able to comprehend the answer.
I'm looking forward to sitting on couches, chairs and toilets and walking through doors for which I am the appropriate size.

Of course I will miss the food, the people, the cleanliness, the politeness (however surface it may be), and being a mini-celebrity (Even after being in Japan for 11 months, still when I go to the local grocery store, I get the "OOOOHH!! Dei-bi-do!" excited calls from the cashiers).

But onto bigger and better. I will be a high school math teacher this fall in the Boston area. The exact details of my employment are not yet known - I have a couple face-to-face final interviews scheduled for next week and then I'll make my decision (I already have one job offer).
It's been great bringing you a glimpse - and that's all it really can be - of life in Japan. It's been at times bizarre, hilarious, confusing, frustrating, and loving, but it's been a load of fun and consistently entertaining. I hope you have enjoyed my stories and pictures, and want to remind you that should old acquaintances be forgot and never brought to mind, and should old acquaintances be forgot then auld lang syne.

Mount Fuji

Since I arrived in Japan, one of my goals has been to climb Mount Fuji. I did a lot of research on it, and picked the weekend of June 23-4 as when I would ascend the beast. The official climbing season starts on July 1, and given the Japanese way of doing things, I wanted to avoid the massive crowds which would gather at Fuji once the season officially opened.
Early in the week prior to my climb, I received an email from a friend of mine who was also - coincidentally - climbing Fuji the same weekend. He said that he'd heard that Fuji was under snow and the authorities were not letting anyone climb the mountain past the half-way point. Worried, but not convinced, I had my Japanese friends call the local authorities to get the real deal. They get back to me that the local authorities know nothing of this, and so I continue to plan the details of my trip. During such detail planning, the day before I was to go, I called (rather, I had a Japanese friend call) a hut on the mountain to get some more details about staying there for a few hours to get some food during our ascent. That's when the original news was verified - climbing Fuji was impossible due to a meter of snow on the mountain. No one is allowed to climb until July 10th. Real bummer, as I fly back on the 3rd.

Well, instead I plan to go to an area near Fuji so I can enjoy its visual splendor and sit in some onsen during my final weekend in Japan. Make reservations, and go.
I go with two people - one who is a sunny person and one who is most certainly not. To the uninitiated, that would come across as describing their demeanor. But that's not how the Japanese view it. A sunny person is someone who "creates" sunny weather when they go on vacation. Similarly, a rainy person brings down any good time. When I was first asked - back in October - if I was a sunny person, I said, "Sure I'm a happy guy, generally in a good mood." That comment was met with very confused looks. I have since learned that yes, I am a sunny person in the eyes of the Japanese.
So anyway, I went to Fuji with one sunny and one rainy person. Having finished work the night before, and having received a job offer in the States two nights before, I was very relaxed, and my sunny nature shined through. Even though this is officially the rainy season in Japan, we had some gorgeous sunny weather for the 4-hour drive northward to Fuji.
Yet this is when the rainy person took charge. The closer we got to Fuji, the cloudier it became. It was so bad that when we actually arrived at some of the classic spots for viewing the iconic mountain, all we saw were clouds. Not even a shadow of a mountain. Just fog and clouds.
And so it stayed for the entire weekend. Save a few hours when it actually did rain, it was foggy and cloudy the entire time, rendering the mountain completely unviewable. My friend Yumiko emailed me that "Fuji-san is a very handsome man, so he doesn't like to show his face...." She also pointed out it's incentive for me to return. She's right.

So while I had hoped to shower you all with gorgeous images of this outstanding geological splendor, all I have is a disappointing, and ultimately unsatisfying, story. So here it is, the magnificence of Mount Fuji.