Penny Hero (dot) Net

For some reason… (and I seriously cannot figure out why…) I am highly amused that Tomo’s dad just walked in the door (at 11:30pm) stumbled around for a while, found himself in the living room, looked at me sitting at the computer, produced this huge grin and giggled “I’m a little bit drunk”, turned off the lights in his fish tank and stumbled upstairs to bed. I can’t figure out what the hell I think is so funny… if it was the grown man acting like a 18 year old…? Or the pale business suit, crisp and clinging tightly to him as he stumbled around…? Or maybe it was because I suddenly have learned that Japanese businessmen are not over-worked, over-stressed, and essentially unhappy people.

Maybe it is because I am secretly relieved to discover that those stereotypes (holy shit… and I really believed it too) were… wrong. I mean, his actions fit every single part of the horrible picture America paints of Japanese business-life. He got up at the ungodly hour of … like 7 am, (he would have taken a train to work if he lived in Tokyo,) he was at work, presumably engaging in all kinds of Japanese business etiquette (some of which no doubt outlined in Japanese Business Etiquette, 2nd Ed, by Diana Rowland, recently read by .) then went out with co-workers to a karaoke bar, and came home extremely drunk… The thing that does not fit is that Seiji-san (Tomo’s dad) is a happy person. Like… I am not shitting you. He is funny. He loves his kids. He loves his mom. He makes intelligent bilingual jokes. …Ok so he got a little pissed off when we got lost near Kobe the other day, and he gets really irritated when people tease him about how he always talks about food. But… I dunno. It is like he has ripped apart all those stupid preconceived notions that I thought were legit and replaced them with this strange and controversial idea that the people here are just… normal people… and that we Americans (or British, or Canadian, or Kiwi, or whoever it is who reads this) made up those stereotypes, came to all those odd logical conclusions about high-stress and alcoholism and broken families held together with the latest electronic gadgets, in order to try to understand a thing that we are too lazy to be.

It is another cultural gap. It’s another illogical fear. It is another theory like “no warm welcome for emily because Tomoaki was the eldest son and I am not currently engaged to him.” Holy fucking shit… what was I thinking?

So anyway… This is Japan. This is Japanese modern culture. And exploring all these things, and realizing that I was totally and unbelievably wrong about them… is fucking great.

On a related note: I had quite possibly the most awesome day today. Nothing incredibly special… just the right events, the right chemicals, the right food. Euphoric. I went swimming. I went for a bike ride around town. I had lunch with Kayoko (Tomo’s sister). I went to the ATM. I bought some new shoes. I helped make dinner. I read. I watched some rented Ally Mcbeal. But I just had this awesome day. Like, where the chemicals are just in perfect balance and you can experience everything with so much clarity and optimism. There was a fifty/fifty chance I would get lost on my bike. I went anyway. I can’t read the signs on the pool that say who is allowed to swim in what lane, but I dove in anyway. I can’t remember the verb “to try on” but I asked the shoe lady permission via hand motions and “daijyoubu desu ka?” before I put on her merchandise anyway.

I am God.

My next mission: locate the news station Domo-kun represents… and take a picture.

Anyway… I know I promised stories of Himeji Castle… but I figured a spiritual epiphany was a little higher up on the “must post in livejournal” priority list.