Japantown for some Japansickness

Today I went to Japantown, ostensibly to go grocery shopping. Of course I ended up spending the whole afternoon there, feeling very nostalgic. Also, Japanese keeps popping out of me at unexpected times. Today, as I was squatting down in the supermarket aisle looking at ochazuke seasoning, I had my little shopping basket on the ground in the middle of the aisle. A man coming down the aisle said excuse me as he passed the basket, and I moved it, saying "sumimasen" just like I would have in Japan! "Sumimasen, I mean, sorry!" is actually what I mumbled.

Yesterday, I went to dim sum in Chinatown. In response to the lady pushing the food cart, asking if I wanted something, I said "Hai, I mean yes, uhh...okay..." and then ending lamely in Mandarin. It's like the switch in my head that means "foreign" has been thrown over to "Japanese."

So I wandered around the supermarket today, feeling very excited about sesame salad dressing, Japanese roasted rice green tea (I paid a fortune! comparatively speaking), the aforementioned ochazuke seasoning, and gomoku rice mix. Ahhh...I wouldn't mind living in Japantown and going every few days. I saw the meats packed the way I was used to seeing it in Matsuyama--none of that Safeway frozen meat in big bags shit. I'd gotten so used to shopping every few days. I know that I complained about it at the time (have to go shopping again!!) but now I kind of wish I had the luxury to do that. Not to mention lived near enough to an affordable supermarket.

Then I wandered around Ichiban-kan. Earlier I was bemoaning the fact that there is not a Daiso in SF (closest one's in Daly City, and there's one right by my house). But Ichiban-kan in the peace plaza is a pretty close substitution. The selection is smaller but pretty similar, and the prices are variable but still in the $1-$4 range. Score! I got myself some random kitchen things, like a rice scoop with a suction cup holder which sticks to the side of your rice cooker ($1.25).

And there was an Andersen bakery inside, with the workers wearing pretty much the same uniform as they do in Japan. I'm convinced now that the Andersen bakery chain here is the same as the one in Japan, despite a complete lack of internet evidence to indicate that. It's just too eerily similar.

Yesterday, I tried to get into the DeYoung museum to see the Chihuly exhibit. At 2pm, the tickets were sold out. I was really disappointed, but since I was in the park already, I just wandered down the street next door to the Japanese Tea Garden. It was kind of nice, and much larger than I expected (larger, for example, than Hakone Gardens in Saratoga). Pretty little ponds, a few fish, bridges, trees, rock garden, and (the highlight) one of those really really steep and round bridges ("drum bridge" ?). Usually when I see those in Japan they are roped off and you can't actually walk on it, but I got to climb on this one :-D The story behind it was really sad, though. Apparently the architect sold his family rice fields to complete the bridge and the gate to the gardens, and then his son stayed in the U.S. nearly half a century, working and saving to repurchase the family rice fields! Cool as it was...I don't think it could have been worth that. There was also a little pagoda in there, and some painted gates and stuff.

It was lovely, nostalgia-inducing, but also I couldn't help but feel that everything was fake. The pathways were a convenient grey roadway tar, whereas in Japan they would have been shoe-killing gravel. The pagoda was ridiculously miniature...so small that you would have had to crawl into the first floor, if that were allowed. There were little garden statues of frogs and birds around (like, WTF?). And the tea pavilion was being served by young Asian women (most likely not Japanese) in badly worn touristy kimonos. :-/

All in all, I think I prefer the pilgrimage to the supermarket a bit more. If the Japanese tea garden were free, I think I'd go more often to get a little fix of Japanese park prettiness. But...yeah. Next time I will RESERVE TICKETS to get into the DeYoung.

the people are different...

also on the list of things to get used to:

Diversity. Hearing different languages on the street actually startled me the other day. Though, not just ethnic diversity but diversity of all sorts. Matsuyama was a pretty uniform kind of town, with the same sorts of people in it. Not too many stand-outs in the crowd.

Attitude. Need I say more? Americans got attitude. At least, some of them have a lot of it.

done?

Other thoughts:

Man, it is SO NICE to be able to communicate in English. Or really, to never have to worry about communication problems and wondering if I'll be able to do what I need to do. I can just call up ATT and order internet, or call up PGE and turn on gas, start a new bank account, clear up issues with online orders, or any number of things, in my native language, and it works! No worries! Wow. Always, though, at the back of my mind, I think, "This would be really hard if English weren't your native language. Gee, there must be some way to make this easier to understand for non-native speakers."

I was driving in SF the other day, moving stuff in. It was kind of not very easy, as I am used to driving in suburban San Jose. But it was still loads easier than driving in Matsuyama would be. I was struck by how wide the roads are, even in a biggish city like SF. The U.S. is biggggg....

I got thirsty and lamented the fact that there weren't vending machines conveniently everywhere, like in Japan. The landscape is just totally different.

I miss my Japanese phone.

Suddenly, I can afford to buy fruit again. And clothing. Japan is the world's second largest economy...but I still think the general quality of life here is better--there is more that is affordable and within reach for the average (or even not quite average) person. Starting with deliciously juicy white peaches...mmmmm.

I suppose now that I'm no longer living my year in Japan, I ought to bring this blog to a close. Or rename it, or something. Hmmmm...