Miss/Won't Miss #8

Things I'll Miss About Japan #8: No Interpersonal Drama/Being a Face in the Crowd

Perhaps this isn't something really focused on Japan, but it is nonetheless something I'll miss once I get back home.

Hawaii isn't a big place. My hometown of Honolulu feels like an over-sized small town in a sense that while it is very urban and modern, everyone knows everyone else. I doubt I'm more than three people away from anyone in Hawaii, and because of that I never really meet anyone new. Unless they're a lot younger or older than me I've most likely got some connection to them. Everyone my age, give or take five years, knows each other.

It's kind of nice to be surrounded by familiar faces, but I can never meet anyone new without having preconceived notions about them. The same thing goes for people who meet me. Oh, you're Carly? I heard this about you blah blah blah. Oh you're friends with so-and-so? That's *interesting*... and so forth.

It also relates back to yesterday's post. Find new guys on Mixi, no drama from the separation, and move on. It is impossible to do that in Hawaii. Hell, it is impossible for me to go without any sort of drama from anyone back home. People don't have anything else to do on our little rock in the Pacific other than get into other people's business and it is suffocating.

I went to Creighton for school and came to Japan in part to get away from all of that. I have really come to love being just another gaijin, no one knows me and I can be myself without worrying about how people might judge me based off what others have told them. I don't have to keep in touch with the people I don't like just because we have mutual friends. I get to insulate myself and be even more anti-social than I already am, YAY!

I should really work on being more friendly and sociable.

Meh.

Things I Won't Miss About Japan #8: Not Having Female Japanese Friends

Seems kind of weird that I'd wouldn't miss something I never had to begin with, but TOO BAD.

I know I'm not the only gaijin who's complained about not having many friends of the same sex. One of my male gaijin buddies complained that he sort of sounded like a chick when he spoke Japanese because he never hangs out with J-boys to hear manly nihongo. I apparently sound fairly masculine, most likely because I have a similar issue with not having same-sex friends to chat with.

A recent Saturday night in Shinjuku.

Carly and a bunch of j-salarymen!

I can't say I sound all that feminine in English, and I don't want to sound *cute* all the time. But it'd be nice to know *how* to sound cute if ever I don't want to pay for my own drink, you know?

They'd be able to teach me hair and make-up words, or other useful female things. Super cute j-boy that cut my hair asked me what sort of image I wanted to portray, and I was like, "I understand your question and do not have the vocabulary to appropriately answer. Sorry! Just make me pretty?"

But I have a month left and oh well.