Saturday, May 24, 2003
Land of the setting sun
Hey Nagoya, I'm outtie! I've had such a blast that it'll probably take the entire plane ride home to write up how cool it was, how much I appreciate the new friends I've made and how grateful I am to my parents for making this happen.
I wonder when I'll be back again? My friend
Larry Drolet wrote me that he'd like to visit and maybe even work in Japan, even though he's never visited. I totally feel you on that one, Lar; I had a similar hunch before I came here that was confirmed by this trip, much like I feel about working in NYC. Michelle's friend Martha wrote me too and she said she had a great time during the three years she worked here. This place is inspiring and I can see loving working here. Something about the blend of old world eastern art, high-powered modern technology and asian culture makes me daydream about how interesting life here would be. And I met more Turkish people here randomly in the street than I have in the last few years in San Diego! There's like 8,000 of them here. The duo I met last night from
the clubbing magazine, Don & Tami, have been here for 1.5 and 3 years respectively and seem to be having a pretty good time of it in Japan. They met at a club here, just by virtue of being foreigners and that really interested me: rather than making me think that I would be treated like a total outsider, which I would have guessed to be my first instinct, I had this feeling of belonging in a fun club where you recognize all the members instantly. I noticed this throughout the trip, most especially last night because it's when I saw the most ex-pats and tourists. It's the same way my roommate Alex once described seeing black people at UCSD. Since there's so damn few of them, he always nods hello to his fellow chocolate people. I know what he means - I'm not quite cocoa myself, nor am I milk, but I'm at least a mocha latte Frappuccino® and notice other brown people wherever I go.
Daydreams about future paths and worlds to experience, while the accoustic guitar and soothing voice of a Sheryl Crow ripoff flows through the internet cafe. It's actually time to check out and head out of the hotel! No deep parting words are coming to me - just a whole lot of gratitude and curiousity about when the next few weeks will bring. Aimee is in LA already, we have some Disneyland geek-out time scheduled, then Saturday it's off to San Fran for two (maybe three!) super cool exciting work conferences, then it's time to see what crazy stuff happens at work once all this time off and studying percolates into something tangible. Oh yeah, also a big-ass job search in July, a Manchester United match in LA to see David Beckham in person for the first time ever, continuing our AIGA Experience Design club, a few non-commercial web/art/video/music/documentary projects that have are coming together for a while, and...and... that's all that comes to mind for now! Oh yes, blessed with a busy summer I am. And like Yoda I speak, from time to time.
California, here I come!