My mama probably remembers very well our late night outings for cream puffs. Sometimes a girl just needs a puff and my mother knows that I need them more than most girls. In this regard (and many others for that matter) Japan was for me. Japan offers me cream puffs just about as much as I take her picture.We arrived in Japan early in the afternoon. The airport always tells you a bit about a new place but it is really when you emerge from the comfort of it that you learn the truth about a place. We all boarded our bus and headed off towards Kyoto. As much as I wished to enjoy the scenery I promptly fell asleep and did not awake until we were in the city. This was no problem though because I get to commute two hours from Osaka to Kyoto everyday and this provides plenty of “viewing time”.
We are presently students at the “Kyoto School of Art and Design”. On a daily basis I am reminded of how much I miss art school. Sometimes I immensely regret my choice of education because of this and I have to remind myself that if it was not for UPS I would not even have the chance to regret it. If it was not for UPS I would not have the best host family in the world. I would not have my own bike to ride around Osaka. I would not live within walking distance of 3 bike shops. I would not be learning Japanese in a comfortable exciting setting, eating wonderful home-cooked food that I cannot pronounce, spending time learning about the tea ceremony from my host mother (she used to practice) or all about making shoji doors (my host father owns his own shoji door company), and I would definitely not be eating the best cream puffs of my life in tiny shops with stacks of books. Japan is everything I expected and nothing I expected all at the same time. It is brilliant. It is historical and modern. It is clean and organized but also busy and mysterious. I enjoy my little 3rd floor bedroom with three walls of shoji screens that let the light in early in the morning. Stephanie and I share the top floor and spend our time conversing as best we can with our host family and going to museums and parks. We play a version of charades that always results in laughter. Japan is laughter. Japan is polite and bright with smiles. I am learning new phrases everyday and using them incorrectly as much as correctly. I enjoy the two trains and the bus that Stephanie and I take to our school everyday. We eat bread before we leave and two hours later we eat bread before school… and I eat cream puffs every chance I get.
1 comment:
I have been reprimanded for long posts, so this will be short. Great to read of your adventures and the activity between your ears and on the paper. In one of your posts you put something like, "wonder why I did not come sooner..." I have had this very same exact experience many times when walking with belongings in the mountains, fishing in streams and lakes, looking down a pass and around a corner anticipating what is ahead. Nearly always the thought comes, "can't believe I did not come here sooner." Sounds like a very great time there in Asia (that is the chosen name my neice adopted). Say hi to your parents in Vietnam.
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