Here's my weekly pic from the apt. window. ^_^

The other day I caught Justin Timberlake on one of the wacky Japanese morning talk shows and it was sooo entertaining! His personality was way more subdued than usual and he had this vague uneasiness about him. You can’t blame him, they were speaking 90% Japanese and he had NO IDEA what was going on! Just by looking at him, I knew exactly how he was feeling! *lol* And because he was unsure of himself and couldn’t just fall back into his typical Hollywood personality, he just seemed way more like a normal guy.

It reminded me a little of ‘Lost in Translation’. Which, by the way, is way more accurate than I realized. Now that I’ve spent time in Japan I really think it’s a great movie. It captures perfectly how you feel when you’re suddenly thrust into Tokyo and don’t really know the people or the language and you’re disconnected from everyone.

Its not like it’s all bad, everything is very interesting and new, but there’s so much to deal with. For one, the jet lag is terrible and it throws you off your schedule so that you’re always a bit tired and off-kilter. Remember in the movie that Bill Murray and Scarlet Johanson could never sleep because of the time difference? (Well, I slept, but it was only because I was exhausted.) Also, I’m considered pretty short in the States, but in Japan I’m tall! (Believe it not!) And people who actually are tall by Western standards would definitely feel like Bill in so many of the scenes. Especially the shower- I think one of the taller JETs had to hunch over in the shower or just sit down because it was so small in the hotel in Nara.

Of course, I can especially relate to Scarlet’s character because she was separated from her husband most of the time (remember Steve arrived 3 weeks after I did), and it can be quite an emotional upheaval to be in this totally new, different environment where you have all kinds of expectations of how you should be feeling and you want so badly to share it with your spouse, but they aren’t around.

I don’t think the movie is negative, though, and I don’t feel like my time in Tokyo when I first arrived was negative, I was just emotionally raw so everything hit me harder. Its one thing to have this ‘idea’ of Japan in your head, but when you’re actually here, you’re in reality, not your romantic vision. Scarlet visits temples and you know she’s trying to see the traditional side of Japan, but she says she doesn’t ‘feel’ anything from it, which is true- you can’t expect to have this instant connection with the world around you when its so new. You can be intrigued, but I think you need a little bit of familiarity before you can feel you’re a part of something, so that even if something moves you, you may not feel like you really belong to it. Of course, there are romantic times- like the shrine festival Steve and I went to for the full moon- but the initial displacement of coming to Japan (Tokyo specifically) is just really, really well done in this film.

So, it’s not a negative portrayal of Japan, its just un-romanticized. Its reality- it is what it is. Not bad, not good, just there.
Oh, and the TV shows here REALLY are that crazy. Seriously! *lol*