On Turning Twenty Two in Japan

So I know I haven't posted things in awhile (forgive me!) but last week I finally got internet so I'll definitely be more on top of things now. Still, I wanted to post a little something since yesterday was my 22nd birthday and it felt important (and a little bit crazy). I wrote this yesterday while I was at the town hall (in between studying Japanese and planning lessons). I promise I'll go back to travel stuff soon but until then...

It’s definitely exciting being twenty two. I’ve now reached the point in my life where I’ve graduated college (and have some AWESOME student debt), moved to Japan and I bought a hamster. Every young adult’s dream.

 Yet it’s difficult to express how it feels to turn twenty two in Japan. I thought that no one would care, since no one really knows me that well yet. I had also heard through the grapevine that Japanese people don't really care that much about birthdays. I was looking forward to a disappointing day, to say the least.

How wrong I was! My friends in town made me cards, gave me gifts (like candied fruits and a sweet t-shirt) and the students in my classes sang for me in almost every period. I also went to dinner at my favorite restaurant with my other JET friends from the next town over, which was wonderful. I was worried that I would feel left out and homesick, but instead I felt very loved. I shouldn't be surprised, since I have only been treated with kindness since arriving to Kadogawa, but there's still a tiny homesick part of me that I think is still really scared of being all alone.

Lately I’m so busy living here and trying new things, the fact that I’m not in California anymore still hasn’t actually sunk in. I miss my friends and my family dearly, but overall, I've just been so enamoured with my new life that when I realised I'm actually living by myself I didn't know how to cope with it. I actually don’t think I’ve ever had a birthday where I didn’t have a little barbecue in the backyard of my parent’s home to celebrate. So I guess the biggest gift I received this year is INDEPENDENCE! 

Though I also bought myself a sweet Polaroid camera, and my mom sent me a package with a bunch of great stuff in it from the whole family (Thanks family! I love you!).

Since I graduated, everything has been such a blur. From the frantic shuffling to move away to my home country, to the psycho craziness that was Tokyo orientation, to actually arriving in Kadogawa and just figuring everything out, I haven’t had time to really stop and think about my life in quite awhile.

Of course, work keeps me really busy too. I work at the Kadogawa Town Hall, as well as four elementary schools, and two junior high schools, which each have their own teachers, dress codes, and expectations. It may sound like a lot, but somehow, it’s totally manageable so far. It helps that, like I said, everyone is insanely friendly and kind.

For instance, today I went to Kadogawa Junior High School where I was expected to deliver a short introduction speech to an assembly of around two hundred students. I was pacing around the teacher’s room all morning, nervously practicing a Japanese phrase I had prepared for my big day. 

Suddenly, one of the teachers I work with came over to me and asked, “Lauren, do you know Katy Perry?”

“Yes!” I responded. I tried to be cool, but it was difficult because I actually love Katy Perry. My friends back home make fun of me for this pretty regularly.

“Oh. Good,” she said, nodding as she walked away.

Twenty minutes later I was dancing through a gymnasium filled with Japanese junior high school students as Katy Perry’s “California Gurls ft. Snoop Dogg” blared over the loudspeaker.

It was surreal and hilarious. I’ll bet the kids think I’m taking crazy pills. They sang me happy birthday during school lunch though, so I assume that means they think I’m at least sort of neat.

All in all, I’m so grateful to be in Japan having this incredible experience, even if it is a bit lonely once in awhile. I’m the only foreigner in my town and there are some days where my brain just can’t translate one more word of Japanese. Those are the days where I have to remind myself that this is my first time living alone, my first time in Japan, my first time working full-time. This is my first time doing any of this stuff, and I’m doing a pretty okay job. 

Besides, those are the days when I can go home after work and watch lots of American romance movies. You’re never really alone if you have Joseph Gordon-Levitt.