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streetlevel
09
Oct. 2001, Xene #24
Times when I felt like going home...
Graduate Student, Korea
It's not often that I really feel like packing
up and going home, but when I do it's usually
when I'm having problems communicating: when
a presentation I make at a seminar doesn't go
down too well or when I can't express myself
fully in Japanese. Then when I get depressed
and I realise none of my closest friends or
confidants are around, I start to wish I were
back home.
M.V., France
I'm really settled with a Japanese wife and
family so "going home" would not be
as simple as just packing my bags and leaving.
Every now and again we think about it, but the
only time I've ever had a really strong craving
to be back home is when France won the World
Cup on July 12, 1998. There's usually a great
buzz in Paris on Bastille Day (July 14), but
that day was like all the Bastille Days, Christmases
and New Year celebrations rolled into one. I'm
not particularly nationalistic, but I remember
watching it on television and almost crying
because I couldn't be part of it.
E.R., now home in England
I look back on my five years in Kyoto as one
of the best parts of my life, so leaving was
difficult. But I went home to England for Christmas
one year and everything was so natural. No-one
stared in the street or tried to hide if I walked
into a shop. I wasn't asked the same questions
several times a day and schoolchildren didn't
giggle at me. It was then I realised that even
though I had thought of the place I lived in
as my own, even if I had lived there all my
life I would never have really fitted in.
D.H., Australia
I was once reprimanded for buying another car
after I wrecked one when I overturned it in
a ditch. It seemed that some people expected
me to commute to work by public transport for
several months as a way of expressing my guilt.
When I was told I should reflect on my actions
for the whole year, I really felt like packing
up and going home to Australia, where people
tend not to dwell on the past and look positively
to the future, and where people would realize
that I felt guilty about the accident regardless
of how I chose to commute afterwards. The only
thing that stopped me was talking with Japanese
friends and realizing not everyone thinks the
same way here.
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