1998.09.19 SAT

A few minutes ago I called Northwest to confirm my flight back to America. Yes, the strike's over, thank God, and my flight was changed so that I depart a day or two after the dorm has asked me to move out. I'll probably be rooming with James or someone for a day or two until my flight. Anyways, for anyone who actually gives a flip, here's my rescheduled itinerary:

TUE SEP 29 98  Northwest Airlines, Flight 70 (12hrs), Boeing 747-400
  3:25 pm JST  Depart: Kansai Int'l Airport, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
  2:25 pm EST  Arrive: Detroit Metro Airport, Michigan, USA
  
TUE SEP 29 98  Northwest Airlines, Flight 1726 (1hr 41min), DC-9 50
  5:05 pm EST  Depart: Detroit Metro Airport, Michigan, USA
  6:46 pm EST  Arrive: Raleigh-Durham Int'l Airport, North Carolina, USA
                       Terminal A

It's so odd, leaving Japan. I've been here just four months as of tomorrow night, but everything's become second nature to me. I speak English to people that understand it, and I usually don't even have to think about speaking Japanese to the rest any more if I have something to say... and I'm already leaving. It seems like I've been here a lot longer than four months, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like it's been long enough. I'm anxious to get back home and see all my friends and family again, but I'm kinda anxious about leaving all my friends here alone.

I guess the hardest part is hearing about all the stuff that's going to happen when I'm gone. L'Arc-en-Ciel, one of my favorite bands, has a concert next month in the Osaka Dome; one of the best festivals in Japan is going on in a few weeks... stuff like that's a bit out of my reach.

It was just starting to get interesting too. The dorm had a big sayonara party last night for the departing foreign students (ryuugakusei is SO much easier to say than 'foreign students') and we had all kinds of food. I forget what the kind of food is called where you just toss cabbage and meat into a pot of boiling water and just pull it out later when it's cooked - kinda like fondue except it's just water. Anyways, had that, and then we went to karaoke. The first time I went to karaoke, I tried singing Japanese songs I knew. The lyrics showed up on screen, but I couldn't read the parts that I didn't already know. Last night, though, songs I had never seen before had the lyrics printed onscreen too - and both me and James could read them.

You see, they were in English.

Seriously, though, for the Japanese songs: out of the kanji that didn't have the pronunciation-guide 'furigana' printed over them, we knew all but about a fifth of the kanji. Then again, those were simple kanji, but still, it's neat to be able to have a landmark for our reading ability every once in a while.

Anyways, I hope I get out of Japan before this epidemic strikes me, too. It seems that people's cameras seem to keep disappearing... first James lost his camera in Umeda, and last night Kaori lost her camera sometime after karaoke. So far, mine's still intact, and still kinda working, but I dunno... I have a feeling I'm gonna lose it soon too.

I kinda wish I'd brought my non-automatic camera, though - there's some awesome scenery here. I could probably use some photos in design projects later, even with the ones I had... and speaking of projects, my last one's almost finished. For the past two weeks I've been working on a paper for Hasegawa-sensei on the differences between American and Japanese design - I'll put it online and stuff once I translate it back into English. The weird part was that I wrote it in English first, then translated it into Japanese, and rewrote in English, then rewrote in Japanese... back and forth, back and forth it went for the days I spent writing it. It's more or less final now, I just have to expand a bit on my conclusion. This kind of composition would have been impossible for me to write a year ago...

As much as I know I'll miss Japan, though, I have to go back. There's still a giant gulf between how much I do and don't understand here, and I need to learn more. I intend to continue studying Japanese when I return to America, I've got lots of books to make sure that I have plenty of practice, and Hasegawa-sensei is encouraging me to write her often through e-mail as practice. I've made tons of friends here... but really, I've got to get back home.

I kinda want to go back, and I kinda don't, but I've always been indecisive. I just want to keep learning - learning WHAT doesn't really matter - and I'm sure that I'll be able to when I return. It seems that I've just started learning Japanese, and like I just got here, and I'm already leaving... but at the same time, I've gone so far. I'm on the other side of the world from where I spent the previous 21 years of my life. My horizons have been so broadened, opened so much - and when I get back to America, I hope I'll be able to NOTICE all the things that my eyes have been shut to when I lived there before. I want to do something with my newfound knowledge - I've got so many ideas and possibilities for what I can do, I just don't know where I'll start.

In any case, I'll find out when I get there. I've still got over a week before I leave, so I'll probably write another big mail again before I go; I'm sure I'll have plenty to say in a while. Again, sorry for laxing off in the emails, but things got REALLY busy these past few weeks.

( Oh, by the way - did anyone check out Northwest Airlines' home page during the strike? Their slogan was, and still is, 'Some People Just Know How to Fly.' Uhm... well... apparently, Northwest didn't, for those two or three weeks ;b )