Ok. So Christmas has come and gone with New Year’s just around the corner. And although I dislike quite a few things politically back home, over here, and just in general. I’ve been ‘re blued’ or have become a patriot again. My reasoning for this is simple. Because we’re overseas not everyone gets mail on time, from everyone, etc.. So they’ll provide cards for us from varied sources. I pick a card out of the box addressed to ‘our hero’. Sure heartwarming sappy, whatever….But the card itself. The card itself brought me to tears.
It was just a generic card though Santa with a tree, the printed lettering saying ‘Merry Christmas’, but thee text written inside it is what brought me to tears. So there I am on a chilly December day in Tokyo opening a Christmas card from god knows who in the door way of a chow hall. And what I see written is the last thing I expect. In simple black pen in young, yet not childishly messy handwriting I see the lone sentence. “Thank you for our Freedom.” I broke down right then and there. It made me realize that I’m not serving to defend my country, the politicians, the overly fattened political system that we have, no. I was fighting for that. The innocent naiveté that is present in all of us at some point. I’m here serving not my country, but hope. I serve to defend that hope in some kid’s heart, hope that will be destroyed if we fail as a country.
That said, yes, we need to change our ways or that innocent little line will be for nothing and there won’t be any more American heroes to thank for freedom, there won’t be any Americans as we recognize them today. All there will be are members of a country that none of us alive today can fathom. It’s that hope, that one innocent line that has renewed my faith that making the choice I did was the right one. Some may question the morality of serving at all such as certain radical churches in Kansas, but seeing such innocence displayed in that way leaves no doubt in my mind that service to defend hope, to provide people with the freedom to be thankful for such an intangible thing is what it’s all about. On paper and in voice as follows:
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
But in my heart and my soul, I serve the hope of all those thinking that we are doing the right thing.
Anyway enough of my proselyting and time for an actual blog entry…how about that hmm?
Well a few days ago while cycling to PT in the cold December rain I misjudged the amount of water on the road, went off of the road and straight into some train tracks. While I sustained only minor personal injuries ( a few scrapes and bruises), I still got checked out to make sure I was fine. Something that is smart to do whenever severe pain is felt in the chest. Believe me, landing on hardened steel handlebars hurts like a sonovagun. Anyway I was reporting into my superiors every step of the way, and the doctor seeing me gave me the ‘likely’ injuries from where I sustained impacts. I caught hell for that later as word of my potential injuries trickled up to my Commanding Officer. Mind you, when I reported in I made sure to use the words ‘possible, might, and could be’ in the same places the doctor had used them before broken, cracked, internal damage respectively. They wound up calling me good and prescribing me antibacterial cream for my wounds. Yet I still caught hell for reporting in as I was given information. I didn’t inform them I’d be riding my damaged bicycle over to the base hospital, and the people I informed rightly assumed I’d be doing so, but well. Let’s just say that I learned a lesson about disseminating information that should be obvious. Anyway I’m done complaining as it’s not my style, I learned a lesson about information dissemination, so I’m fine now.
Moving on…
Christmas was decent. Had Christmas dinner at the house of one of my superiors, it wasn’t what I expected in that there were no fresh vegetables on the table, just mayo and sugar covered salad and green bean casserole. I tend to like peas, corn, carrots and other vegetables not out of a can, cooked into other things, or covered in goop, my definition of fresh is, simple plain vegetables either raw, or lightly cooked. Everything tasted good and the bosses’ wife makes an amazing pumpkin pie, so it was overall a decent meal.
As I’m going to a new shift soon I’ll need to alter my sleeping habits and I have that planned out already, it involves another All-nighter, or a set of them in Roppongi. I’ll stay away from the main drag with all of the strip clubs and actually go to someplace where I want to. I likely won’t drink much, but I think that new years at Roppongi could be a very cool thing to do, provided I actually go in a mood to have fun, which of all things is my biggest fault. I tend to take things quite seriously, value meaningful conversation and intelligence and have my sun issue from that. Mingling with a group of strangers is new for me especially for long lengths of time. Then again…if I can strike up a conversation with a German woman in McDonald’s at 3 AM I can mingle at a club for 8 hours right?
Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
One month in Japan
Well I've been in Japan for one month to the day and I must say it has so far been a wonderful experience. If you've read my blog so far you'll know numerous things that have happened that I won't recount here.
I will say that hubris has gotten the better of me and smacked me down on one major occasion, the penance of such was a pie in the face literally and figuratively. I learned quite hard that not everybody is up for everything when not stated. There is generally such a thing as implied consent, however respect is another thing I also need to recognize in people. I've never blogged about work until now. For you all to understand this well we had some fun with our commander, the guy crammed into an Elf costume on Christmas because we paid to get him into it via a fundraiser. I thought I could do the same thing here, so i put some money on my commanding officer....bad idea. Didn't get paperwork, just told that 'I don't play that' and to remove the money. Of course I did so within the hour of being told to do so. Later that week I paid for it via a cherry pie. No this isn't a euphemism for anything, I got hit with a cherry pie, in the face.
Now I deserved it, I know it. If anything I thought I learned my lesson from that but well, a few days later I gave myself some more problems, I really need to learn to keep my big mouth shut. That would honestly be best for me in most if not all situations that don't require me to 'slackjaw'. Anyway enough about hubris for now It's something I need to deal with on my own.
Now so far this country has proven to be incredibly beautiful in most aspects of it. Walking down a cramped and oh so crowded side street in Harajuku feeling almost 'closed in' to some respects, yet perfectly comfortable in others. Nobody standing around and lingering everyone moving with a purpose and a drive that i rarely if ever got to see in the States. The amazing thing about it all none of it was what anyone from the US would consider 'loud' sure there were vendors and advertisers on the street trying to get people to 'go here or buy this' but despite the hustle and bustle that everybody was encased in, very quiet overall. While it may be a stereotype that the Japanese are incredibly polite, it seems to be one that is well founded, I've only encountered one or two rude people so far in my time here, and even then that was because I didn't know the custom relating eating a bowl of Ramen.
Living in another country has really been an eyeopening and life changing experience, I'm quite curious as to how I'll view the United states when i eventually return there after my tour here in Japan, or overseas in general is over. Truth be told of the camaraderie that I've experienced so far it has been better than anything I encountered back in Oklahoma or in Texas before that. Perhaps if I felt this close to my co-workers, roommate, or the other people on base, maybe my career would have started in a better place.
I made a promise to someone and I plan to keep it. That doesn't mean I won't experience the culture here though.
I will say that hubris has gotten the better of me and smacked me down on one major occasion, the penance of such was a pie in the face literally and figuratively. I learned quite hard that not everybody is up for everything when not stated. There is generally such a thing as implied consent, however respect is another thing I also need to recognize in people. I've never blogged about work until now. For you all to understand this well we had some fun with our commander, the guy crammed into an Elf costume on Christmas because we paid to get him into it via a fundraiser. I thought I could do the same thing here, so i put some money on my commanding officer....bad idea. Didn't get paperwork, just told that 'I don't play that' and to remove the money. Of course I did so within the hour of being told to do so. Later that week I paid for it via a cherry pie. No this isn't a euphemism for anything, I got hit with a cherry pie, in the face.
Now I deserved it, I know it. If anything I thought I learned my lesson from that but well, a few days later I gave myself some more problems, I really need to learn to keep my big mouth shut. That would honestly be best for me in most if not all situations that don't require me to 'slackjaw'. Anyway enough about hubris for now It's something I need to deal with on my own.
Now so far this country has proven to be incredibly beautiful in most aspects of it. Walking down a cramped and oh so crowded side street in Harajuku feeling almost 'closed in' to some respects, yet perfectly comfortable in others. Nobody standing around and lingering everyone moving with a purpose and a drive that i rarely if ever got to see in the States. The amazing thing about it all none of it was what anyone from the US would consider 'loud' sure there were vendors and advertisers on the street trying to get people to 'go here or buy this' but despite the hustle and bustle that everybody was encased in, very quiet overall. While it may be a stereotype that the Japanese are incredibly polite, it seems to be one that is well founded, I've only encountered one or two rude people so far in my time here, and even then that was because I didn't know the custom relating eating a bowl of Ramen.
Living in another country has really been an eyeopening and life changing experience, I'm quite curious as to how I'll view the United states when i eventually return there after my tour here in Japan, or overseas in general is over. Truth be told of the camaraderie that I've experienced so far it has been better than anything I encountered back in Oklahoma or in Texas before that. Perhaps if I felt this close to my co-workers, roommate, or the other people on base, maybe my career would have started in a better place.
I made a promise to someone and I plan to keep it. That doesn't mean I won't experience the culture here though.
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