Who you callin' "foreign"?

A curious thing has been on my mind as I prepare to leave the country for the summer. I hadn't noticed it until I went to Japan last year, and going away again has caused this idea to resurface.

It's funny how when Americans talk about going abroad, we often refer to it as going to a "foreign country". "When you go to a foreign country...", "When you're in a foreign country...", etc.

Depending how you look at it, yeah, those places are foreign to us. But it's like it never occurs to us as Americans that if we're in someone else's country, we are the ones who are foreign. We would be the foreigners. And as foreigners, it would be on us to learn how to be gracious and respectful guests, no matter how uncomfortable we are.

Admittedly this is a sweeping generalization, but perhaps there's a certain arrogance that comes with being American. It seems we have a hard time seeing ourselves in situations where we're neither in control nor the most important people in the room. We're so attached to what we've claimed to be "our land" that we can't even embrace the idea of being foreign.

And that's a shame. Because depending on the situation, being a so-called "foreigner" can be a very humbling and rewarding experience.

ドラマ (Dorama) Time! 4

The following are dramas that I managed to get through during the school year that has just ended. The first is a sequel, the second is the first season of a show that I watched as part of my classes in Japan last summer, and the third I happened upon when I was bored and looking for something lighthearted back in January.

Legal High 2 (リーガルハイ 2) - Fuji TV/2013

The Mayuzumi-Komikado lawyer duo is back to their shenanigans, with the original cast also returning to pick up where season one left off. While Komikado-sensei's former employer and long-time nemesis makes a few appearances, his major opponent this season is the young, fresh-faced, somewhat westernized, idealistic lawyer  Hanyu Haruki. Rather than getting rich, defeating his enemies, and rubbing it in their faces like Komikado, Hanyu's objective for the cases he takes on is to create a better world where everyone can be happy. The two have an epic courtroom face-off at the end, where Komikado is the unexpected source of wisdom: In order to help people, in order to save them (if they can even be saved), you have to love humans as they are. Which means you have to love ugliness.

Just like last season, each episode takes up a hot topic or persisting issue in Japanese society. My personal favorite was the one that centered on a polyandrous arrangement involving three families. I didn't even know polyandry was a thing in Japan, and I was surprised to see it being talked about in such a matter-of-fact way. Another feature of 'Legal High 2' is the consistent thread through the entire season: the murder trial of an infamous seductress, Ando Kiwa. Mayuzumi and Komikado-sensei fight to reverse negative public opinion, spare her from the death penalty, and get her out of jail. All in all this season is not as gut-busting as season one, but I found the subject matter of its episodes to be much more interesting. The new characters and more daring storylines make for a solid season two.


 深夜食堂 (Shinya Shokudō) - TBS/MBS/2009

One of this show's major themes is how what happened in the past affects what  characters do in the present. They come to Shinya Shokudō, a secluded hole-in-the-wall diner that's open late from midnight to 7am, to be as social or antisocial as they please. The chef is an ex-yakuza affectionately called "Master"who knows everyone's stories and secrets, but passes no judgement and asks no unnecessary questions. He's a server but also a keen observer and guide, helping people to reconcile their problems and form connections with each other. Depending on your mood when you watch it, it's either a sad show with funny moments or a funny show with sad moments.

Rather than dealing lofty ideals and systemic issues like 'Legal High', 'Shinya Shokudō' is more concerned with human experiences and everyday (or even lifelong) struggles.  Each episode features a different character with his or her own stories, and often these are the kind of people or issues that are not talked about in public. The one about a male porn star's career and estrangement from his family really threw me for a loop. I was certainly not expecting the nudity and the insight into the Japanese porn industry that this episode presented. That being said, I found that episode to be one of the most enlightening of the whole season. So you've got comedy, you've got drama, and you've also got... cooking! Each episode is named after a certain Japanese dish that the featured character in that episode frequently orders. Each dish has a nostalgic or metaphoric meaning for this character, or functions as a device that brings people together in some way. At the end of each episode, that featured character shows the viewers how to make his/her dish.

There's so much going on here, but it never gets sloppy. My favorite thing about this show is its ability to fit compelling human stories into 25-minute episodes, without making them too heavy or confusing.

失恋ショコラティエ (Shitsuren Chocolatier/Heartbroken Chocolatier) - Fuji TV/2014

A twenty-something man named Souta is involved in complicated relationships with three different women. The most prominent of which is Saeko, a woman who loves chocolate and has been his unrequited love since junior high. Her rejection motivates Souta to move to Paris and become a world class chocolatier. He takes over his father's sweets shop upon his return and crafts creative and refined chocolates in hopes that they will make Saeko fall in love with him. After running from it for so long, Souta accepts the painful truth that no matter how much he loves Saeko, he can't have her. And as long as he still lives dreaming that he will, he will be living in a fantasy (that is, not really living at all). Even after Saeko runs away from her abusive husband and she and Souta carry on as lovers on the second floor of his chocolate shop, after some weeks they realize that what they really loved wasn't each other, but the illusion and escape that they represented for each other.

As it's a drama based on a manga, I figured, Ok. This'll probably be a little cutesy, corny at times, slightly illogical, maybe even ridiculous at some points. Whatever, I'll give it a shot. Little did I know that this manga-based drama is not innocent and is definitely NOT for kids. Mind you it's not R-rated or anything. But it's got this whole love, sex, and chocolate theme going on, and it's done in a way that pushes boundaries yet is still very subtle in some respects. And this is not just some goofy show. Sure, it's generally lighthearted, but this drama is actually kind of serious, with surprisingly good acting, and even more surprisingly profound moments. The show has another theme of pursuing your passion and pushing through the moments when you feel uninspired and want to give up, which I found compelling. Overall I was very much impressed with 'Shitsuren Chocolatier'.

Even though 'Legal High 2' and 'Shinya Shokudō' give you more intellectual meat to chew on, I'm choosing 'Shitsuren' as my favorite this time around because it was so light, smart, and playfully sexy. It was the perfect way to end winter.

Outer Beauty

"Life is just waywaywaywayway too short to just, you know, obsess over outer beauty... Nobody will ever be perfect, so I take comfort in knowing that I'll never be perfect. And I'm reallyreallyreally okay with that." 

-bubzbeauty

BOOKS! (Small Island)

I read this book about two months ago during spring break for one of my classes this semester. I would've written about it here sooner, but it got to a point where I didn't even want to look at the thing for a while because I'd already had to write about it two or three times for said class. However, despite all the work I had to do I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel, so I didn't want to let too much time pass before I told y'all about it.

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Small Island is set in 1948, the year that the Empire Windrush brought hundreds of West Indian immigrants (then British citizens) to settle in the UK after WWII. The novel is told from the perspectives of four people who live in the same house in London: Gilbert (a Jamaican laborer who served the the Crown in Britain during World War II); Hortense (Gilbert’s wife, who received an English education in Jamaica and is a trained teacher); Queenie (Gilbert and Hortense’s English landlord, who exhibits a relatively open and progressive attitude toward non-white immigrants); and Bernard (Queenie’s husband, having served the Crown in India, who cannot overcome his racist and xenophobic attitude toward immigrants like Gilbert and Hortense).  Queenie, Gilbert, and Hortense get along awkwardly yet peaceably at first. However, this changes when  Bernard returns from abroad to find that "foreigners" have taken over his house. The situation becomes still more complicated when it is revealed that Queenie has had a couple of trysts with a Jamaican serviceman named Michael, who happens to be Hortense's long-lost cousin and first love. Their mixed raced infant son can be taken as a symbol of multicultural British society to come, whose characteristics and chances of success are uncertain.

That part is a major turning point that doesn't occur until the end of the novel, however. I would say that precedence is actually given to Gilbert and Hortense’s experiences. They face a great amount of pain, disappointment, and disillusionment as they find that they are not considered British (or even human) by most English people they encounter. The “Mother Country” that they and millions of other imperial subjects have been taught to love does not love them back.

Small Island is reminiscent of White Teeth in the way that it delicately handles similar issues of immigration/immigrant experiences, race and racism, social integration, and interracial relationships. Both take up multicultural Britain, but in different ways. While one deals with its beginnings and focuses on war and colonialism, the other deals with its manifestation in the 1980s-90s and focuses on  assimilation and generational differences. (Interestingly enough, both novels are also written by multiracial, second-generation British women who are the children of  Jamaican immigrant mothers).

I appreciate that Levy takes her time fleshing out the backgrounds and personal stories of each of the four major characters before bringing them together. This helps to demonstrate that the conversation about "whose country is England", "who belongs here", and "who is British" is a complex and enduring one. Furthermore, it involves many identities and voices that might not ever be fully reconciled. However, though people might feel forced to share space with others due to circumstances beyond their control, they  have the opportunity to change their own ways of thinking so that sharing space might one day lead to tolerance, then common understanding, and then perhaps even community. This novel is a long, challenging, yet engaging treat. Perfect for plane rides, inquisitive minds, and spaces of free time. 

Favorite quotes:

"Now, paper is harmless─we all know this─but sometimes what is written on it is explosive." (p. 139)

"You know what your trouble is man? [It's] Your white skin. You think it makes you better than me. You think it give you the right to lord it over a black man. But you know what it make you ? You wan' know what your white skin make you, man? It make you white. That is all, man. White. Not better, no worse than me-- just white." (p. 435) 

What Working Out has Taught Me about Life

You'd be surprised what you can do. But just do it, don't think about it. Because whatever it is, if you think about it too much, you won't do it.

#MayIBeginYoga (...again)

Confession: I haven't practiced yoga for the past three months. When I was going through that really dark time, I gave up on most of the things I cared about because I didn't believe that I deserved them. Yoga was one of those things.

I've been doing dance workout videos and pilates videos just to try something new and get me back in the habit of exercising regularly, but I was intimidated about getting back into yoga. I missed it, but I was ashamed of how much time had passed, and I didn't know how to overcome my pride so that I could start over again. Lo and behold, Instagram came to the rescue! There's a photo challenge going on called #mayibeginyoga, started by a popular yogi known as BeachYogaGirl. I'm not participating in the actual challenge, but with May 1st approaching I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to get back at it.

Hands together. This is as close as I can get them for now. 

 

 

So this evening I returned to Red Lotus and had a wonderful class, taught by an instructor named Kathy. I'd never had a class with her before, but she was really nice and had a number of inspirational things to say (as yoga instructors tend to). My favorites were:

"Yoga builds confidence. Just remember to breathe, move slowly, and smile."

"It's your practice. It's a yoga buffet. Pick and choose."

Thumbs tucked in, protecting the self.

Now I can say that I got over my pride and I'm back! I'm a little rusty but if tonight's class is any indication, it'll come back to me like riding a bicycle. I'm so happy that I'm restarting my yoga practice. I feel like I've gotten a part of myself back.

I made this today.

Oh, the things you can do with half a bagel and a toaster oven when #aintnofoodinthehouse