Shock Treatment

One of the sessions today was about culture shock. That phrase gets thrown around a lot but everybody seems to have a different idea of what it is. According to my instructor culture shock is like being drugged up on a culture. You start with euphoria, everything is wonderful and look at this new thing and that new thing. When that wears off you start to come down. You become hostile or easily irritated and suffer from symptoms of depression. This is followed by a gradual adjustment to your surroundings.

I don't think I have ever suffered from culture shock, unless I'm still in the euphoria stage. I have, however, been shocked by the juxtaposition of American and Japanese culture. The juice is in the details.

A few days ago I reached for a pile of coins I had left on the counter. I looked down at my hand and noticed that one of the quarters had flowers on it. It was a hundred yen piece. Zap. Culture shock.

The day before yesterday I was walking in a crowd of people near the Mikasa shopping center. Everyone was dressed in the American style - jeans, tee-shirts, leggings and shirt dresses - except for one middle aged woman wearing a kimono. Zap.

At the mall, I walked into the bathroom and discovered a line of stalls with Japanese style toilets. I'll post a picture of one soon so you can see why that shock was particularly jarring.

When you live on base it's easy to forget where you are, until you flip the TV channel and end up watching a Japanese game show or glance across the bay and notice a Japanese flag flying over a monument.

I don't mind the occasional shocks. They help me live here, now. It's only in those moments that I understand the sheer awesomeness of what's happening to me. Twenty-odd years ago, who could have guessed where the little farm girl from Maine would end up? Not I.

Oh, and speaking of shocks. We had a different kind of shock today. At about 3:08 local time we were sitting in class when the world begin to shake. I heard the building rattle. The instructor stopped speaking. Reflexively, I dropped both feet flat on the floor as if this would ground me, but I felt the floor moving instead, like a train car when the wheels first jerk into motion. It lasted about a minute.

Evidently, that happens often here. No worries. The buildings are made for it. Japan can take a shock too.

I leave you today with a quote from the ridiculous masterpiece The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. "The ships hung in the sky in much the way that bricks don't."

Tomorrow ... field trip. Stay tuned for pictures.