One-Track Mind

edamame
Originally uploaded by sillyhapa.

Does't David look happy with his edamame? Hard to believe that yesterday was one of my most frustrating days in Japan to date.

I could pretend the problem was that they tried to pack too many activities into one day (oh, you don't think that visiting a grade school, picking potatoes and squash at one farm and edamame at another, going to an onsen, bowling with the local rotary club, and attending a speech-filled dinner was to much for one day? well i did), but mostly I'm just tired of Hokkaido.

I do enjoy my host family; they are amazingly interesting people and they seem to like me. Sometimes I even feel like myself around them. But this whole program is just a joke. They speak to us constantly in Japanese that I can't understand, they treat us like children, and they are obsessed with formalities.

In Japan, there is only one appropriate answer to the question, "Dou deshita ka?" (How was it?) No, scratch that, there are three answers. In the case of activities (for example, digging in the dirt) the answer is always "Tanoshikatta!" (it was fun!). In the case of food (smelly fish paste mixed with fermented glue, perhaps), the answer is always "Oishikatta!" (it was delicious!). And if you learn something (a toothless old man explains automobile servicing for two hours), the answer is alway "Omoshirokatta!"

At this point, I'm not even sure why they continue to ask me how I liked everything, because it's obvious what the answer is going to be. Gritting my teeth, barely concealing my sarcasm, I will always give the appropriate response. It's like when they catch me seeming slightly unhappy or tired, and they tell me, "Ganbatte Rori! Ganbatte!" The only meaning concealed in this pet phrase is, "I don't give a FUCK how you feel, SACK UP and act like you're ENJOYING yourself."

And I am, oh how I am. Omoshiroi, ne?