You know when you think you know the lyrics to a song, but they turn out to be something completely different? The Japanese have a word for it, because they’re pros at it.

Soramimi

Be sure to read the examples.

I’m back in the US.  I’ve been here since April 2nd, trying to relax.  My Japan adventures have come to an end but that doesn’t mean that gaijzilla is done with.  I have a lot more pictures to upload and a lot more tales to tell.  Keep checking back and I’ll get them all up here once my life gets a bit more sorted out.

I wish I could give you some simple, brilliant synopsis of my year in Japan, but it’s just not that easy.  My friends and I all stopped and asked each other what we’d learned, but very few of us had answers.  I guess I have a little more self confidence that I can get through difficult situations.  I now know my way around Tokyo better than I know my way around DC.

I went to Tokyo on the day right before I left for Japan.  I wanted to see the cherry blossoms in Ueno park and the thousands of hanami (cherry blossom viewing) revelers, who are a wonder in themselves, drinking themselves into joyful, loud blackouts under the falling petals.  It was a long, tedious train ride into Tokyo.  As we approached the metropolis, I causually looked up from my book and thought, “oh… we’re in Tokyo.”  A little more than I year ago, I would have lept up and shouted “Holy $#$@!$^&#@%$#!!!! I’m in TOKYO!!”  The very idea would have been almost unimaginable.  And now it was no more concern that “oh, we’re there.”

Ueno park looked just like it did when I first came to Japan.  Almost.  This time the cherry blossoms were  a little bit fuller than when I came last year.

I’m left wondering whether I ever should have left Japan.  Now I’m plunged back into a horrible economy with no job prospects and I’m missing the time when I had an actualy marketable skill. (I can speak English good.)