The beginning of the end

So finals are over, and we had the closing ceremony for the study abroad program two days ago. That was followed by a party at Nanzan's student union before heading out for karaoke with a bunch of people from class. It still hasn't fully hit me that I'm leaving in two weeks, but the ceremony made it slightly more real for me. It was rather boring, as ceremonies are, with everyone saying almost the same thing in their speeches. Thanking the host families, the dorm management, the teachers, etc...and urging us to not forget Nanzan, but use the international mindset we theoretically gained while here and use it in the rest of our lives. The president of Nanzan is German (at least I'm 90% certain of that) and despite having lived in Japan for who knows how many years, still isn't all that great (and I'm being polite with that statement) at giving a speech in Japanese. Despite knowing this, I was still floored my how much he was outdone my the student representative's speech (a classmate of mine). Not only the delivery of the speech, but the speech's content and structure was about ten times better than the president's. Somebody had better was job... Anyway, after having a good laugh with everyone about our classmate taking the president's job, we handed over a present to our teachers. Just a nice picture of everyone with messages everyone had written around it. Then we got a little momento of IJ700 that a few of our classmates worked rather diligently on. There are even rather humorous comics that one of our artistically talented classmates drew. The party at the student union was crowded, but a good chance to see the teachers one last time along with the other students outside IJ700. Then a bunch of us went to karaoke afterwards, cramming 11 or so people into an 8 person room. It was stuffy and sweaty, but a ton of fun. I had almost the entire group singing with me on Sorafune by Tokio, but the more humorous selection I chose was Young Man by a comedian by the name Razor Ramon, who has a character named Hard Gay, which is indeed as hilarious as it sounds. The costume consists of a vaguely more S&M-esque version of the biker guy from the village people (assuming there was indeed a biker guy...I could be making this all up). Anyway the song is a cover of YMCA and the music video is hilarious (or slightly disturbing) depending on your understanding of Japanese culture/appreciation for batshit crazy things. We sang some more somber songs of parting as well. Luckily, though, a large number of us will be meeting again in Tokyo (all there for different reasons), so we'll have one more chance to say goodbye. After karaoke, we headed to 'The don' which is a chain donburi/udon restaurant. Nothing terribly delicious, but it provided a place to goof around with everyone. Apparently some of the others find some of my facial expressions rather humorous, and Pao took it upon herself to try and mimic me. So there ended up being some interesting photos and some "hilarious to us, but painfully stupid to everyone else" 5 second videos of her and I trying to pull off the expressions simultaneously.

My host mom helped organize a bazaar for Yugo's pre-school and it was yesterday, so I helped out with that, running one of the kid games and helping out with the raffle. I met a strange old lady that day, however, who looks 100% Japanese (and may very well be) but she is American, and was born in Brooklyn. She moved over here for her husband over 50 years ago, and she was telling me about all the trouble she has since everyone assumes she is a native speaker and can read kanji perfectly. She has apparently had a pretty hard time living over here, so we commisserated (spelling?) a bit about Japan's less than finer points. The society's rigidness, the country's crampedness, etc... I realized just how much some of their customs have become ingrained my head later when I was eating my lunch. She said she was going to be leaving and just wanted to say goodbye. I instinctively started to get up from my seat (a custom when saying hello or farewell, especially to someone older than you) , and she immediately gave me an 'oh sit down!' There are other facets of the society, other parts of the culture, that have practically become hardwired in my head...the incessant bowing, the constant apologizing. I will look forward to apologizing when I have done something wrong or messed up, not when someone else has messed up. Sometimes the level of sacchrine kindness just gets to me. It can all seem so fake at times. Oh well, you've got to be keeping up appearances. Ah...now there's a good British comedy, Keeping Up Appearances. If you haven't seen it, you ought to. Sorry, off track. Back to the old lady story. I ended up getting up from my seat anyway to say goodbye to her husband. After I talked to him a brief bit and they were going to leave for real, she just says all of a sudden 'Okay, I know this isn't 'allowed' in Japan, but I want to hug you. Of course I hugged her, but was a bit surprised at first. Then I thought about it, raised in America and then move to Japan for 50 years, where kids (at least once they hit 7 or so) don't even hug their parents. She must have just been desperate for someone to hug. For all of it's supposed conciousness of those around oneself, Japan can be rather cold society at times. I guess I'm going to get stared at when I jump clothesline/hug both the Bushas when they arrive in Tokyo tomorrow. Now don't get me wrong, Japan is not a horrible place, far from it! But...there are certain things about it that can get to you (I can only imagine what 50 years would do.) Which is why I am so appreciative of my host family, who at times can be rather un-Japanese in how they do things. Although my host dad does not even, and I quote 'touch his parents.' (...let alone hug them) But I, myself, will most certainly be hugging my family, and probably a majority of my friends when I get back. Only 2 weeks left...craziness!