Day 11: part 2 - Shizuoka with a friend

Before planning this trip, I had reached out to many of my friends who were Japan, and asked if they were free to meet for lunch, or dinner, or a drink, or something. One friend, however, invited me to stay in his home for one night. I felt very welcomed by this invitation, but a was hestitant because I knew that he was very busy with work, and that he had a family with three children. I did not want to be a burden on him and his family. He did seem to insist, however, and so I felt obliged to drop in on my way from Osaka to Yokohama.

He picked me up from the station, and before going to his home, we stopped by the market to get food for a barbeque. Granted, I have not been in Japan very much, but I had never seen so much meat in one place. Although the store had a lot, it was a bit claustrophobic, not because the store was small, but because the aisles that they designed made it seem small. I found it curious that it was basically one long aisle designed like a queue at an amusement park. Everyone had to follow this one path that curved and turned and cornered a round the store, making sure that everyone got a chance to see what they had to offer.

On the way to his home, my friend explained to me the layout of the city. It was certainly a small city in comparison with Tokyo or Osaka, and only had around 80 thousand residents. I looked around to see where these 80 thousand people might be because there were so many rice paddies, tea fields, and other farms that I did not see many people or homes in this quaint town. He informed me that the town was widespread, and so the population density was small. I liked it. He had just built his home last year, and before that the land had never been built upon. His neighborhood seemed very new and quiet with relatively few homes. Right across the street from him was a large hill, so he could be sure that no one would build there. It was a nice, out of the way home.

When we went inside, I met his beautiful family with three children, two older girls, and a boy. The girls were 5 and 4, and the boy was about 18 months. I had a lot of fun playing with them, and enjoyed hearing about their lives since I saw them last in 2007. Having me two friends on this trip (one here in Japan, and one in Los Angeles), it seems that when you buy a house, you become a handiman, perhaps moreso in Japan since new homes are built when you move in. That means that my friend, while he hired a construction firm to build the house, had to build the deck, paint the walls, build a fence, and driveway, and he has hopes to really expand, too. Between seeing the big house on a hillside, happy family (that I am sure has its rough patches), and kids running around, it made me reconsider some of my own choices regarding family and a more sedentary home life.

After the barbeque, my friend took me to a local Japanese izakaya, which is basically a pub. He is clearly an entrenched member of the community, and as he entered, he greeted everyone, and when people came in later, people greeted him. Some of the patrons tried to make whatever conversation they could with me, discussing Japanese literature, or history, or just the neighborhood in general. My friend informed me that since he has been here for more than twelve years, he feels like Japan is home more so than America, where he was raised. Afterall, he has a career, family, and a home here. He told me many things that he liked about being in Japan, such as the fact that people are so much more polite here than in America. Another thing that he appreciated is that new people he meets are generally shy at first, and then open up as they get to know him; he said that he is like this himself. A funny thing he told me is that when he meets people from work outside in the real world, they will generally exchange the minimum amount of pleasantries. However, after a drink or two, people will really open up, and become your best friend. Then when you see them again later, when they are sober, they maintain their reservedness.