A Lonely Weekend Brings New Purpose

This weekend was pretty lonely. Saturday I had a very difficult track practice that left me sweaty and exhausted. Pretty awesome weather. I usually feel great during good weather but I couldn’t keep the sadness off. I tried my usual tricks. I went outside and had lunch. I wrote letters. I walked around a beautiful park. But as I was walking I saw a pickup soccer game. I really wanted to go join. I want someone to play with, someone to hang out with. I’ve been here 9 weeks and I’m still spending my weekends alone. I went to Urala and studied for a while, then home. I really like my house. I stay out as much as possible to keep it that way. I don’t want to get sick of it. I like coming home and unwinding. I sit on the couch and chat up my host mother as she cooks. Then I talk to my brothers and father when they come home. The first few weeks I stayed in my room and wrote letters or read but now I like being downstairs surrounded by people. My real mother sent me a package full of Halloween goodies. My brothers have now discovered the joys of Pez and window stickers. Neither my mother nor my brothers had heard of Pez before, but my father has. He said it brought back memories of his childhood. That was a fun evening.

I keep a small journal with me all the time that Becky sent me. I write down little observations I have throughout the day. That way I remember all the cool details that make this trip interesting. Saturday I noticed that the bugs here are freakin enormous and the mosquito bites swell up like no other. I’m not sure why because everything else is smaller. The spiders are huge as well, and everywhere. I also noticed how much of this place is forested. It’s quite amazing for an industrialized nation. If it’s not city or rice patty, the ground is most likely covered in trees. I read that 75% of Japan is forested. Dogs are everywhere here. That surprised me a little too, as no one has a back yard. But anytime I’m outside I see throngs of people walking their dogs. Interesting for such a small country. I read in a newspaper that there are more dogs than elementary schoolers, but I’m not sure how accurate that is. From what I’ve seen so far it fits.

Sunday I went to the English mass in Tsukuba. It was nice, there was a bazaar afterwards where I scored some super duper cheap English books. A buck each. Usually books run between 15 and 20 here, even for small paperbacks. The church is way different from Saint Nicks. First off the music sounds like it comes from hippies. They hum one part of the Our Father. It’s like being in Kindergarten. But I like singing and occasionally the play a song from home. The homily left me in shock. The gospel was about Jesus saying, “give to Cesar what belongs to Cesar and God what belongs to God.” So the priest gave his homily on what belongs to God. His answer: the Church tells us. He told us all to follow Church doctrine and to listen to the Church because the Church is the official interpreter of God. Not exactly what I was raised to believe but I’m pretty sure this is a more traditional interpretation.

After Mass I rode through Tsukuba. I stopped at the visitor’s center to get some information on stuff to do in Tsukuba. Then I walked down a bike path. I found a great library with tons of stuff in English. Tuskuba has a research center and two Universities so it has plenty more foreigners. I saw some cool parks and watched a robot challenge. Homemade robots raced against the clock down a 2 km stretch of sidewalk. It was fun to see all the different designs. I found a science museum and then headed over to the University campuses. I was hoping to find something to do with people. Being on my own is fine once in a while, but it gets boring rather quickly. I like doing things with people. I didn’t find anything at the university but next weekend is an open campus and I’m definitely going back. Open campus means events for people who want to visit. I just want someone to play with on the weekends.

Sunday left me with a sour taste. I was feeling pretty down most of Monday until track. During our run, I had an hour-long conversation with Nomura on my track team. This turned my day, my whole week, right around. The subject wandered all over the place. We talked about family, school, the weekend, track, and surprisingly, the global financial crisis. It’s the first time I’ve heard someone mention the crisis here. I’ve been following news through the papers but I haven’t talked about it with anyone. No one’s brought it up so it surprised me when Nomura did. It was the longest conversation I’ve had to date and gave me more evidence that what I need to enjoy myself is meet with people.

So I’ve formed a plan. I’m asking all sorts of people, my school counselor, my host mother, my priest, the other foreigners in my language class, about activities. I figure there has to be stuff to do in Tsuchiura. I’m going to see a Boy Scout meeting and at least one kendo practice. I wonder if there are pick-up games or morning tai chi somewhere. Meeting people is what interests me. The human aspect of the language is the most fun, the most rewarding part. I’m determined to find someone to hang out with this weekend. Someone to shoot hoops, play Frisbee, even just have lunch with. I know I can converse one-on-one. Group situations are a whole different animal but if I can go a whole hour without breaks in a conversation I’m definitely improving. The prospect of meeting new people doesn’t scare me anymore. It excites me because I know the more I meet the better chance of making good friends I’ll have. So I’m going to ask loads of people to hang out and I figure I can find one who’s willing to meet me at a park and toss a Frisbee for a few mintues. Or kick a soccer ball. I don’t care. I want to start having fun and I know that this is the way to do it. It feels a lot better to know what I have to do. Now I just have to go do it.