Teaching with Tim

Kyoto Locals

Whenever I read about other people’s experiences abroad, they always seem to be defined by two opposite poles: excitement and alienation.  Broadly speaking, I guess the two extremes look something like this:

Excitement: I’m far away from home!   Everything’s different!  I can’t read anything! 

Alienation: I’m far away from home.  Everything’s different.  I can’t read anything.

So far, I’ve managed to keep the exclamation points in my Japan experience.  I’ve pushed myself to meet new people, explore new places, and learn the language, usually managing to resist the temptation of retreat into a cocoon of American DVDs and pizza.  However, this apparent display of self-control has mostly been enabled by the fact that I still don’t have the internet at my apartment.  The story of why I don’t have the internet is painfully boring—suffice it to say that language and culture barriers have played a role.  So I can either sit on my bed and feel sorry for myself, or I can go outside and do something.  The latter is just the more attractive option. 

My most recent expedition was a weekend spent in Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara—I saw so much so fast that it was almost overwhelming.  A few times in Kyoto the sense of other-worldliness was so strong that I actually felt disoriented—Where am I?  Is this place real? Geisha still walk around in the streets?  Stone footpaths between buildings that look old enough to be stuffed with samurai?  I guess I didn’t really believe that such a place could still exist. 

I put together some pictures and video clips from my first month in Japan in this quick slideshow.

I made myself a promise when I came to Japan that my number one goal was to Be Alive.  I’m prone to getting stuck in my head—to letting experience number two and experience number three slip by while I’m still trying to figure out what experience number one meant.  Japan has been such a flood of new experiences and growth that the very idea of picking through it all and pulling out something notable to analyze is totally overwhelming at the moment.   But Meito just had its school festival—three days of food, performances, and competitions that the students prepare for all year—and I thought I’d at least share a few pictures.  I had some technical problems with the editing at the end, but this slideshow (which includes the goofy festival theme song in the background) gives you a taste.