Return

Finally. Last week was a rare opportunity to live completely responsibility free, remain just barely in control, and eat and drink way past my limit, just like I did when I was "studying" here at IES Tokyo 2 years ago. It's no surprise then, that what prompted this backslide into youthful indiscretion was the return of one Ari Dybnis to Japan. I think it's a rule that any time more than 2 of the original A Team get together, chaos and destruction will follow. Me, Ari, and Anthony provided plenty of that last week. Could Japan even survive a full reunion?

So I managed to eventually meet up with Ari after I wrote that last blog post while riding the Joban line. I completely forgot how much taller he is than me, and I relished the opportunity to relinquish my circus sideshow like ability to stand out in Japan. A random waitress even stopped him to ask how tall he was, in English! She had some brass ones lemme tell ya. We met up with Anthony and Blanchard in Chiba, went to perhaps the cheapest nomihoudai ever, and then all night karaoke. I tried to help Brian as he sang/yelled at everyone walking by our room. Unfortunately apparently all that we succeeded in doing was getting some creepy Japanese guy to come over and put crappy music on our machine. That is definitely all I remember that guy doing.

Once the trains started running again we slept at Anthony's for a bit and then went to a Montgomery Flea Market conveniently being held at the Makuhari Messe. At least that's what I think it was called. I spent most of my time looking for a mascot from the 2005 Aichi Expo, but all they had was the same crap over and over, mostly women's clothing and disney stuffed animals. Oh and I seriously considered buying a Land Rover. After an amazing omurice lunch we toured all the arcades of Makuhari, and I got a bit better at the new Initial D game. Met up with Shin san that night, and how awesome is IES when they have a guy like that working there. He's gonna help me out with planning stuff for Ibaraki JETs to do next year. We had a chill time at an izakaya, and it was good to relive memories. Oh plus my phone went off and Shin san recognized the ringer.

After crashing at Anthony's again, I realized that I had left my house 2 days ago with exactly no extra clothes, toiletries, etc. So I had to buy an entire new wardrobe at a 7-11. Ha. And I got a bizarre phone call from one of my JTEs while changing in the bathroom of a Kappa Zushi warning me not to buy a new bike anytime soon. oooooookay.

Monday night? It was what I was waiting for for 2 long years. To finally Return to Y's. More than anything else, going back to that place brought back all the euphoric invincible feelings I had when I was here before. I couldn't stop smiling as soon as I walked in the door. I was also really happy to get to introduce Y's to Jay and Angela, 2 of my best friends here in Ibaraki. It was tough to describe what made Y's so special. Of course 2500 yen for all you can eat and all you can drink for almost 5 friggin hours is awesome. But so much more is tied up into that place for me. I guess Y's just epitomizes what Fall '04 was all about, not caring about anything, least of all how much you've had to drink already. Yeah, so I went a bit overboard last Monday. Ha, I had to. It wouldn't have been a proper return any other way.

. . .

I think I knew as soon as I got back to NU after IES that there were certain things that I had lost forever. I had an amazing time not studying at Kanda Gaigo, but all that awaited me were the exponentially tougher classes at Northwestern. I fell hard for a girl that I had an amazingly shallow relationship with in Japan, and then ended up in an incredibly complex relationship with a girl that fell hard for me back home. Study abroad, at least at IES, was nothing close to real life. College already is nothing close to real life, and study abroad doesn't even approach the level of maturity required to graduate from NU. Heh, that's why Shin san will always have a job holding the hands of clueless American "kids" aged 19-22. Given that, getting back to NU, having to actually pay attention and work hard for classes, all to graduate and start looking for an actual job, was a little more than I could handle. I started wanting to go back to Japan almost immediately. That resistance to maturing and entering the real world only brought about negative consequences. I barely passed my remaining courses at NU, graduating but with a demolished GPA, I hurt someone very important to me repeatedly and seriously, and all I had to show for myself after 6 months of looking for a career was a retail job at a store that was going to close after a month.

When I applied for JET, I knew the experience wasn't going to be the same as the last time I was in Japan. I know at least part of me wanted it to be, and still does. That's why I enjoyed myself so much last week. Hell, I'd be willing to put up with an entire year of being bored and isolated in Takahagi for another week like last week in Tokyo. But I have also changed myself, at least in that I can see my life now for what it is. An intermediate step, closer to real life and real responsibilities, but not all the way there yet. Thus my goals from here are twofold: enjoy this almost real life in Japan to its fullest extent, and make sure I am ready to enter the real world back home come the fall of 2008. That will be my next return.