[whiteperil] Sean: Raise the pressure

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Posted by Sean:
Raise the pressure
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1206963424.shtml


   On Saturday, I flew into Tokyo as a resident of Japan for the last
   time. Sometime in the next few weeks, I'll step out onto my balcony
   and see this view of the skyline for the last time. Then I'm moving
   back to New York.

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   If you're a Westerner living in Asia, you have, at any time, at least
   a half-dozen friends who are trying to decide whether they want to
   leave or stay. It's just a topic that comes up a lot. Therefore, I was
   able to draw on a lot of advice, not all of it solicited. Most of the
   people whose opinions I valued echoed my Belgian architect friend
   (whose advice I did solicit, since he has a lot more experience with
   these things than I have): If you have experience working in Asia, you
   can always find a way to come back; but the longer you're away from
   home, the harder it is to find a way to return.
   So I'm moving back. Taking a bit of a rest, staying with my old
   roommate in Murray Hill for a while, then getting a new job.
   "Aren't you afraid it'll be hard to adjust?" I've been asked (and
   asked and asked). Yeah, sure. I've been in Japan my whole adult life.
   (I don't consider college and grad school adulthood--not when you're
   being funded by Mom and Dad or the Japan Foundation.) But people move
   to new places all the time. And New York is somewhere I've lived
   before anyway.
   And yet...it's been a long time since I've lived in the States. When I
   last lived in America, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was still nothing more
   than a rather bad movie with Kristy Swanson. When the television show
   debuted and friends started raving about it, we saw it in Japan the
   way you saw American shows back then: friends sent videotapes.
   I bought a few new CDs on their day of release a week or two after
   arriving in Japan: Bilingual by the Pet Shop Boys and Nine Objects of
   Desire by Suzanne Vega.
   I don't remember which movies I first saw in the theater after coming
   to Tokyo. I do remember watching Alien Resurrection here when it was
   released. Japanese audiences are very quiet, so when the Winona Ryder
   character reappeared after being shot, my spontaneous cry of, "YOU'RE
   SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD AND OUT OF THE PICTURE, YOU ANNOYING B..." could
   be heard echoing through the theater until my then-boyfriend clapped a
   hand over my mouth.
   That's how long I've been away. Yes, I see my friends back home at
   least once a year, and I'm in constant e-mail contact. But it isn't
   the same.
   I'm not focusing on pop culture stuff because I'm unaware that there
   are more important things in life. It just, when you live far from
   home and contact friends to find out what's going on there, they
   assume you're watching the news. If someone brings up what Obama just
   said at a rally the other night, it's because they want to discuss it,
   not because they think they're informing you about something happening
   at home that you couldn't have heard about.
   It's the new movies and music and restaurants and things they tell you
   about to help you feel caught up. (Books, too, but despite being
   someone who reads all the time, I generally have a hard time getting
   into contemporary fiction, so my friends have learned to stop
   recommending new novels to me.) Even if you find soap-opera-ish dramas
   tiresome, knowing that a lot of the people you know are watching Ally
   McBeal or (now) Grey's Anatomy and gabbing about it at brunch on
   weekends becomes meaningful. You're not participating in one another's
   daily lives, but you can at least feel secure in the knowledge that
   you're not becoming strangers.
   So. Three weeks to settle things here. Then however long it takes to
   get settled back in at home. I'm looking forward to the culture shock
   in a way. It would be a bummer if America and New York and I weren't
   different after twelve years. And now that Japan seems to be cool
   again, maybe I can parlay my experience here into a hip, cosmopolitan
   demeanor that gets the men flocking to me.
   Or maybe I'll just seem out of it.
   We'll find out soon enough.