It had been a glorious full month visiting with my son Adam, his wife Megan and my three year old granddaughter Abigail. It was hard to believe that this was my last full day with them in Japan. It was a month of fun and fellowship, of exploring new places and having new experiences. I had been able to keep in touch back in the states with my family and friends through phone calls, Facebook and Skype. During online chat with my friend from school, Ralph, he had encouraged me to try backwards driving (driving on the left side of the road as opposed to the right side), notice the differences in society when I finally arrived back home after a month in Japan, and to try Tempura. He was very definite on this. Tempura. If he had no other advice for me, it was Tempura, Tempura, Tempura. And he was right. Ralph's advice meant a lot to me, and is one reason that I am documenting my time in Japan. I wanted to be sure that I remembered the experience and that I would continue to be aware of the differences.
When you arrive in Japan, you know that it will be different, so while it can be difficult dealing with the writing and realizing that suddenly you are totally illiterate, after you have been there for a while it achieves a sense of normalcy, so Ralph's advice "observe the differences when you return to the states" really hit home. While suddenly you can read the signs again and understand the language fluently, you begin to realize that life in the states is more hectic, more abrasive, more loud and just plain "more". The people I observed the day of my return demonstrated a sense of entitlement, e.g., "We were here first and we had reservations for 7:00!" "Maam, those folks had reservations for 7:00 also." "But we were here first!" You would never observe a public outburst like that in Japan. In the states on the day I arrived back, a young woman stuck her head out the door of a business and shouted "Katie is loud when she has sex!" Again, you would never see an outrageous public display like that in Japan. The examples go on and on.
Anyway, this was my last full day in Japan and we ran around doing last minute errands, picking up things for my trip home that I had forgotten and planning for the evening. We had dinner at a wonderful buffet in Fussa. We weren't sure what the restaurant was called, but it was awfully good. Burners to cook the food on were in the center of the tables, so you went around and collected the food that looked good to you (all of it), and then cooked it yourself at your table. My right hand was still giving me problems due to the Multiple Sclerosis that was affecting my right side, so I decided that if I wanted to eat I was going to have to learn to use chopsticks with my left hand. Adam has used chopsticks for years since he has been in the Pacific for a good portion of his life, but apparently was only able to use them with his right hand. Amazing, but I actually did pretty good. See what you can do when you have to? When we had entered the buffet they asked how old I was. I'm sure that I looked old enough to drink and I don't drink anyway, so I am not sure why they asked me that.
Upon leaving we finally passed a Costco. I could have replaced my defective camera! However they were closing for the night, I was going home tomorrow, and I'm not sure if they would have accepted my American membership card for entry.
I asked Adam about trying to drive his car. He said sure, but he dropped Abigail off at home first. I'm not sure if that was supposed to tell me anything or not. We made our way back out to the car. Now I had been trying to enter the wrong side of the car for a month as a passenger, and now I had to get in on that side as the driver! I was really, really cautious because it was a new car to me, everything seemed wrong, and I hadn't driven at all for a month. I backed out of the parking space...a little weird...and pulled onto the road on the left side...not too bad. The stop signs are triangular and look like a yield sign...still not too bad. Left turn on red...a little unnerving because I expected oncoming traffic coming from my immediate left...nope..."I" was the oncoming traffic. Right turn on a divided highway, really difficult since I had to be left of the divider and I wanted to be on the right. The other annoying thing was that everytime I signaled my intention the windshield wipers would come on! That's right! The turn signal indicator was on the wrong side of the steering wheel! I never did get the hang of that! I ended up just sitting on my left hand, but I still attempted to reach for the windshield wiper stick! Adam asked if I wanted to drive to the train station. No! It was late at night, but the streets were narrow and I was uncomfortable with everything being backwards, so we went back to the apartment and I packed for my return flight.
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