Reverse Culture Shock after Two Years

Our trip to Japan enabled me to look at my transition back into US life from a bit of a distance - 5,000 air miles - more or less!

Some things that I could only experience but not see for the first year and a half at least:

1. Everything English flew into my head!  My ears and eyes were constantly being stimulated - over stimulated!  I couldn't ignore what they were talking about at the table next to us at Denny's.  I couldn't NOT read the bill boards on the freeway.  EVERYTHING was in ENGLISH!
2. But that's not exactly true.  Not EVERYTHING was in English.  We did a lot of DIY (Do It Yourself - is this a Japanese English term?) in the house we rented and this house we have purchased.  A LOT!  Everything we bought had directions in English, Spanish and French.  The only thing that stopped that from driving me crazy (turning the box around and around trying to find the English writing) was remembering how HAPPY I'd be in Japan to find some directions for something in English - even...creative English.
3. Paying with an ATM card.  In Japan we used Automatic Pay (or whatever it is called there) to pay our bills.  I did use a Credit Card to rack up airline miles for other shopping, but...I just handed the clerk my card and..of COURSE my point card for that store, and it was a done deal.  In the US - they expect you to do it YOURSELF!  Though now I do it without thinking, the first year I was always extremely stressed that I didn't know how to run my card through the machine.  Each store's machine seemed to be different.  I didn't know which button to push. Didn't KNOW!  My analysis is this:  As I was hyper-sensitive to all that was going on around me in the US, I felt that all that I was doing was also on display.  Obviously nobody cared if I could work their debit/credit card machines.  But I felt like they DID!

That's all for today!  DIY in the bathroom is waiting.  It's been functional for a year.  This weekend it will become beautiful!  I hope! We have a friend visiting from Japan this next week.  He came last year in the midst of our remodel - I hope he's pleasantly surprised!

BLACK Friday - Never Again!

Well, I looked up "Black Friday" for a student. All of you probably knew what it meant all the time, but... It means that retailers will go from "aka ji" - being in the red financially, to being in the black - making a profit.

We were not able to help them out much.

We went to the mall. I am serious. I haven't even BEEN to a mall in well over 2 1/2 years, and even then, I don't think I went to this one.

Now, talk about Culture Shock! Or Reverse Culture Shock! I used to love to take the bus down to the mall with a friend when I was in Jr. High. I used to love to go to the mall with a friend when I was in college. I used to love to go to the mall by mySELF when I worked at a college in the mid-west. But, to be fair, those days weren't Black Fridays. Did they even HAVE Black Friday back then?

My advice for those who want to acquaint themselves with this US custom, is to go through the following steps. Preferably - one step per year, unless you go to the mall often.

1. Drive by the mall
2. Find a parking space at the mall
3. Find the entrance to the mall near a department store you want to visit. Do not Enter!
4. Try to come up with tricks to remember where you parked the car. Do NOT leave the car this year!
5. Enter the door of the department store you want to visit. Try to find the escalators, elevators, restrooms, other exits to the outside and...if you aren't too exhausted - the exit to the REST OF THE MALL. DO NOT leave the department store this year.
6. Enter the same department store and try to find the section of the store that has clothes that FIT YOU! HAHAHAHAH! Good luck!
7. Now you are well on your way to passing the Department Store test! It is time to venture beyond the Department Store entrance to the REST OF THE MALL! Do NOT enter any stores, just try to find the Food Court. Priorities!
8. OK, you can park, get in and out of a Dept. Store, change floors, find a restroom when needed, walk through the REST OF THE MALL and even find nutritious? sustenance. You are ready to explore the rest of the STORES! First, go into every single store along the right side of the MALL ENTRANCE. If you always keep to your right you will eventually find your way out of any maze. It said so in a book. Walk in and out and TRY to remember if there is anything in said store you ever want to see again. Of course, said store will either move or close before next year, but...this is a trial run. Practice is EVERYTHING!
9. Now you are ready to visit the MALL on a weekend! HURRAY!
10. Well, it is finally Black Friday Year. You have taken 9 long years to prepare for this day. Don't expect too much from yourself. Don't let your kid get a glimpse of the man in the red suit and hat who, "Even if Santa is just pretend, Mama, will he come to OUR house?" "Why is he not pretend in Japan and pretend in AmerEEEEka?" And ... BUY SOMETHING!

As for me, I am going to the mall during the most expensive boring season when NO ONE is around. Maybe a Tuesday morning. And I will keep my hand on the right hand side wall. And tie a ribbon to the car!

Thankful: Well, that we got home and that the hose that had broken in the laundry room was in the shop, so the shop with lots of holes in the floor and walls is what flooded all over and...I'm trying to find a reason to be thankful that it was hot water that gushed all night! ARGH!

Shopping with Jun and Horses

Today you get a double header! Can hardly wait, huh?

Today we went shopping like we have NOT been shopping since we got here. At least never to these shops. And never with Mrs. Clause!

Our day started out at Costco. Even though we went to Costco occasionally when we lived in Japan, it has been YEARS since we have been there. And, to go to a well stocked store (maybe they all are?) where the prices of things that we use daily were so CHEAP. Well, it was very overwhelming. Especially as our kitchen - which I planned to keep empty 7 months ago - is bursting at the seams - how did THAT happen? Add all of that great temptation and great prices to Mrs. Clause (0ur friend from Japan) who is used to Japan's Costo prices and who wants to bless the socks off of us...let's just say, the car had great traction on the way home. And, I AM finding room for EVERYTHING - if we don't eat it first. Jun complimented me on our great salad tonight and thanked me for getting it. Nope - not Mama - Mrs. Clause!!! Along with the already cooked whole chicken - how DO they season that? Brine? ALL the meat had flavor! WOW!

Jun started out this morning in a pair of Christmassy warm tights, a red turtleneck and a pink and purple stripped hooded t-shirt. I insisted that she put on pants or a skirt. She insisted that she was dressed. I won - kind of. The next time I saw her she had added shorts. Until we were shopping, I forgot that they were her "paint the house" shorts, but...oh well! Then she added a pink Princess light coat. When we left the house she also had shoes on! Yeah! Keep this paragraph in mind, please.

Suddenly, in the refrigerated section of Costco, I noticed Jun, sitting on the floor at my feet with her shorts OFF. The Princess coat wasn't going to be long enough to keep her decent, so I hurried to help her. I thought she wanted to take her tights off, as she did THAT at church on Sunday! So, after I got one shoe off, she said, that, no, the problem was that something in her tights was sticking into her leg. Well, I reached into those tights, drew out the offending plastic tag left-over and dressed my girl again.

Then, at the end of the Costco trip, Mrs. Clause went to the little girl's FANCY dress section. She has bought fancy dress up dresses for Jun before, and Jun wears them whenever she can. Jun found a blue short sleeved one. It is supposed to snow soon. I said no. Many times. I found a beautiful black and red long sleeved one. I suggested we leave it up to Eeenie Meanie. This is Jun's version:

Eeenie Meanie Miney Moe, Catch a spider by its toe, Eeenie, Meanie, Miney, MOE! Moe was the blue dress. I suggested 2 out of 3 and TRIED my BEST to get her to start with Eeenie on the OTHER dress. Nope. The blue dress got MOE'd twice, and one MUST go with whatever gets MOE'd! Finally there was one more dress that was available for consideration. I guess she started Eeenie on THAT one, because that's what we got! No pink. No purple. No butterflies. White and black. Go figure!

Then I lost Jun in the tiny deli we stopped at for lunch. I wish I remembered the name, it was so good! I finally saw her across the room, either watching the TV or talking to the folks over there. Not sure. The second time I lost her at the SAME DELI, it turns out she'd gone to the restroom with Daddy!

Later as we were eating I told her that they were playing American Football on TV. She said, "Are they just trying to push each other down?" Well...yes and no?

We stopped by a Christian book store on the way home that FINALLY had a play area for kiddos. Jun went into independent imaginary play in about 2 seconds...rather noisily. As happy as could be! Too cute! And I got to shop in peace. Any homeschooling Moms use Horizon's Math books? I picked one up to see if I like it.

Then we went to the clothing store across the street where Levi's were on sale for $34 from the original price of $48! As Daddy was shopping, Jun found a table with a little skirt over it to play under. Well, I THOUGHT that's what she was doing. The next thing I knew, she was handing me her tights wrong side out. OK. Then I made her put her shoes back on. Then, back under the table she went...to play I THOUGHT! Yep, I wasn't too sharp today! Comes back out and hands me her turtle neck. Keep in mind she had to take at least one other layer off by then to get it off and then get dressed again. How many times DID she change before we got home and she modeled her new Eeenie Meanie MOE dress and the new pink pants she got??!?! She is quite the clothes horse!

And, speaking of horses, here is the second part of the double header. I went out to our friends 'after dropping Ryu off with a full car - nice huh? I NEEDED to feed their dogs and have a bit of alone time. Things were going great until I got near their house. THEN I saw their HORSE standing in the front lawn eating rose bushes!

I am not a farm woman, nor a ranch woman, nor a horse woman. I am not afraid of them, but just haven't learned how they tick. So, with no cell phone to call anyone, I said a fervent pray for wisdom, jumped out of the pickup and called the horse to follow me. Well, I will cut the melodrama short. Two of the men who work on the farm arrived right about that time. I threw myself on their mercy, they caught the horse with a tiny string, led her to her corral, secured the gate that she probably got out of, and hopefully all is well! I gave them MANY thanks and GOD many thanks! YIKES! Last time I fed their dogs, I took one to the vet to get porcupine quills taken out of its nose. What could be next??

So, that's the double header!

Thankful: For Mrs. Clause's great generosity to us and for Jun's rapidly improving Japanese, and...for the horse catchers!