The Pilot

So here I am. Entering into the world of blogging, a little more worthwhile than the countless hours on Facebook, but not on the top of my list of high productive goals either. Well I'm hoping to let off a little steam and in the process have some entertaining and anecdotal value to the outside viewer.

I moved to Japan September 2010 and even though almost five months doesn't seem like a hell of a lot of time, it is! One Sunday night after having an hour long conversation with my brother (who had lived in Japan a few years ago), I decided "what the hay" apply to teach English in Japan and see what happens. Little did I know that the company I had signed up for sling shoots it's employees into Japan, so you have little time to think "Wait a minute is this a good idea?" Setting off on this exciting, unknown adventure seemed a great idea at the time -but not everything is as glamorous or thrilling as what my imagination initially creates a picture of. Things are always greener on the other side-is the hindsight quick to come to my mind after my arrival in Japan.

After my interview a few days after submission of my application, I was sent my arrival package and all the visa fixings to go along side. I read through articles, YouTube videos and heard stories about Japan and to be honest, I was scared. Japan is such a different world and no matter how many people tell you this, it doesn't fully click until you are in it. How am I ever going to survive in a place where individual expression is highly frowned upon, woman are treated far below there male counterparts and 44% of the population that claims to be Buddhist (according to the US Department of State website) has no idea what a vegetarian eats!? I knew I was in over my head, but that was the challenge that I had set off on to achieve. This would be a 180-degree turn from my North American mindset, a cultural earthquake that shakes the stable ground of my cultural upbringing.

Up to his point I had traveled to many countries, including, India, Europe, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, the Caribbean to name a few, but had only lived in my adult life in Canada, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and now Japan. I should mention too that I lived in Yemen as a child, which is a very different culture in itself, with many more extremities than Japan, men carrying guns like a casual handbag, woman covered head to toe in black cloth in plus 40 degree weather, or tensions of a war to breakout over what we (Westerners) perceive as something minuscule. This is what I had in mind, that if I had  lived a pretty happy existence as a child in Yemen, how hard could Japan really be...but I was wrong!

Japan has a very odd quality that it can be seen by not fully understood unless part of the very large Japanese clique. Of course my viewpoints are biased and skewed based on my experiences here and although my blog may heavily be weighed on the hardships and the oddity of the Japanese ways of life, I do feel a strong affinity towards Japan and all its quirkiness.