The Asian Minority

At one point, on the river, Ju and I realized that we hadn't seen Fangbai for a while. We decided to wait for her, since we didn't know what she might have gotten into. So we found a quiet part of the river and stopped paddling, just drifted and ate some more of our lunch. A long time went by and we started to think that maybe we had been mistaken, and that Fangbai had been ahead of us. At this point some other people, not from our group, were going past.

Ju: "Why don't we just ask them if Fangbai is behind us?"

Me: "But they don't know who she is?"

Ju: "Excuse me! Are there three Asian people in a boat behind us?"

Guy: "Yeah."

Ju: "See? Was that so hard?"

Haha. No, not really. But believe it or not I think I felt the effect of having been to Japan. On a river in Mid-Missouri, yes, it makes sense that an Asian canoeist would be unusual enough that someone would remember seeing them and know who we were talking about with just the one adjective. I might have come more quickly to that conclusion a year ago.

But my trip to Japan seems to have changed things a bit. I no longer take it for granted that Caucasians form the majority. In some ways, that's a good thing. But then again, this situation demonstrates the usefulness of categories, and yes, even 'stereotypes' in a sense, for efficient communication.

Nativity

I'm out on the highway, feeling the engine roar as I accelerate, soaring past miles and miles of my Missouri - grasses green and golden and all the late-summer wildflowers, cresting gentle hills, passing through shadows the setting sun casts through the pines, and I feel free... ordinary... native.

It is a strange and wonderful feeling.

Japan - Raw Experiences

I know I keep saying, "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" about Japan. But the truth is that it was so different, so fascinating, that I don't know where to begin. I'm trying to unravel my memories and the things I brought back with me. Some days I cling to the material objects I brought home as souvenirs, because the rest of it seems too ephemeral, too far away.

The whole thing lacks cohesiveness. It exists as a whole, don't misunderstand. If I sat down now I could talk and talk and talk and show pictures and videos and cards and candies and fireworks and paper fans and prattle off words and, after a month, I could tell you about Japan. But it's tangled in my mind, and untangling it is not something that can be rushed through. I can't tell you the ten best parts, nor show you the ten best photos. It is all tied together, one giant mass of raw experiences.

That doesn't mean I'm not working with it at all. Today I thought about the video I plan to make, combining video clips I took while in Japan. I gathered those clips today, strung them all together on Windows Movie Maker, and watched. When all was said and done, I took 36 minutes of video in Japan, mostly in the form of five to ten second clips.

- Traffic
- The funicular rising to Mt. Koya
- The water flowing in and out of the Koya Dofu, like a sponge
- Crabs scuttling around Miyajima at low tide
- Flowers blowing in the wind
- Passing sunlit forests by bus
- Mists climbing Mt. Misen
- The reflection of the Golden Pavilion
- Tokyo's most crowded alley
- Waterfalls
- Windchimes in Kanazawa
- The tide coming in around Miyajima's floating shrine
- Clouds enveloping an island in the inland sea
- Miniature rivers in Kenrokuen
- Crowds in the Tokyo subway
- A tame deer attacking in search of food
- The turbulent waters under the Shogun Bridge in Nikko
- Crowds leaving Tokyo Disney Sea as it closes
- A firework festival
- Crows in a graveyard in Kyoto
- The waves on the shores of the lake of the dead
- Bubbling, sulfurous pools of Mount Fear
- Summer fireworks with Mayumi and Mitsuki
- The world's busiest intersection
- A white moth, fluttering in circles over the red earth
- Rainwater hitting the roof of shrines
- The steaming source of the hot mineral waters of Yumoto Onsen
- The Japanese bath in Sanboin
- Karaoke Boats
- The Illuminated Earth in Yokohama
- A giant mechanical spider
- Ginza from the Sky Bus
- A duck feeding in the marshes on Yumoto
- Matsuri Gion procession
- Rushing past houses and rivers and dams on the train
- City bells and strong winds in Mutsu
- The top of the waterfall in Takayama
- The Japanese river Styx
- Lavender Fields
- Looking over Yokohama from the Ferris Wheel


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"The novel looked ragged and unfinished, like the hull of a ship rotting on the beach."
- Turning Japanese, David Mura

A white moth, fluttering in circles over the red earth.