{"id":89,"date":"2012-09-09T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T23:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/2012\/09\/09\/home-again\/"},"modified":"2012-09-09T19:22:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T23:22:00","slug":"home-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/2012\/09\/09\/home-again\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHome\u201d again"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Over-ripe Goya at Kanagawa’s new garden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
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J-mom looking at peppers in the garden<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/span>I arrived in Japan with no incident. In fact, the trip to my J-mom\u2019s house, about 3 hours from the airport, was so smooth it reminded me that Japan doesn\u2019t really count as a foreign adventure. Also, it went so smoothly that I arrive a little earlier than everyone expected so I had time to shower and relax before dinner. A feast of all my favorite foods was spread before me: chirashi-zushi and kouya-doufu among the most memorable; plus, my J-mom had a birthday cheesecake waiting for me so we could celebrate my birthday together. We chatted until late at night and exchanged pictures and stories. It was like we were old friends who had never been separated. I guess we are old friends now\u2026<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>
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So much has changed since I was in Kanagawa prefecture just five years ago. The station close to my old apartment has doubled in size, women have given up the ubiquitous flats that always looked so painful for platform wedges that look even more painful if not extremely awkward, and the prefectural government set aside a huge plot of land to establish a community garden. Other things, though, remain the same- – like that sensation that I\u2019ve got a bug on my nose or toilet paper hanging out of my pants because everyone keeps staring. And, after five years, I can still sit down with all of my friends as if no time has passed at all.  <\/span>I think that\u2019s the most important part of journeying to places past. Rekindling old friendships to last another few years is priceless.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Ending the night with Annin-doufu and Matcha<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Here, just after my 32nd<\/sup>birthday, I celebrate ten years since I first met many of these people I now call friends- people I met just shortly after my 22nd<\/sup> birthday. Fresh to Japan with no Japanese language skills, these are the people who made me feel at home and made sure I had the necessary items (like a washing machine and a microwave) to keep my life going even if they couldn\u2019t communicate with me in English. Specifically, I remember in week 1 after I moved to Japan, my soon-to-be Judo teacher came during an August typhoon to bring me a microwave that he had called around to see if anyone would donate. Lifesaver! Though my brain is tired tonight from keeping up with real-time conversations in Japanese (with slang), I feel revived knowing that I still really enjoy the company of all these people. Tonight I spent four hours at the izakaya with five of my former Judo friends. We stuffed our faces with delicious food, they drank beer and sake like crazy, and we laughed about silly things\u2014the most interesting being that my friend who travels often to Korea and stays in a dormitory for work is pretty convinced that Korean men confidently wear thong-style underwear. We caught up with each other, and then we caught up via rumor with those who couldn\u2019t make it. My Japanese might be rusty, but I had a great time and definitely appreciate the time they all took to meet me tonight. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/span>So I sit here, cozily tucked away in my J-mom\u2019s house. I\u2019m well fed, a little travel-weary, but ready for more adventures in my second home.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over-ripe Goya at Kanagawa’s new garden J-mom looking at peppers in the garden I arrived in Japan with no incident. In fact, the trip to my J-mom\u2019s house, about 3 hours from the airport, was so smooth it reminded me Continue reading \u201cHome\u201d again<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fs.wp.odu.edu\/efrydenl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}