Once you get past a decade, you stop counting.

I’m referring to the number of years one has spent living in a foreign land, a second home you have adopted as your own, and one which you are not intending to leave any time soon.

Every time I travel abroad, coming back to Japan is simply what it is: coming home. It’s my home now, even if I have to give my fingerprint data and have my photo taken each time I go through immigration. My residence card says that I am a permanent resident, and it means exactly what it says: I’m here for the long-haul, people! Permanent as in for as long as I shall live, which I hope to be a rather long one, given the high longevity of the people here.

But people still ask. I’m not just referring to co-workers or colleagues, friends and acquaintances. I’m referring to total strangers, like people delivering goods or repairing machines or whatever. As to whether they are simply curious by nature or erroneously trying to be polite by pointing out the obvious that I am not Japanese, I could not tell. When I lived in the UK, I don’t recall being asked this all the time. People just accepted that you’re different, and obviously you’re from somewhere else, and what really is the whole point in asking?

Where are you from, originally?

Originally? Why, my mother’s womb, where else?

After more than twenty years of being asked this question, it just gets plain tiring. The next question is, more often than not, this:

So how long have you been in Japan?

Really? Why do you care?

I try to sidestep this question with this answer:

Too long.

Of course, nothing would please me more if the real reason people are still asking me this question is that I still look like that dashing, young lass who looked equally bewildered and happy about being thrown into a strange, new world. Like I just stepped off the boat and landed yesterday.

If that were the case, by all means, ask. 🙂

Well, I’ve finally decided to go back to blogging. I’m doing this voluntarily, nobody had to twist my arm. 🙂

To start off, here’s a video clip of my daughter’s recent piano recital held last October 3, 2015 at Nova Hall. Enjoy the performance!

About 11 years ago, just before moving from Yamagata (I assure you, it’s in the map…look it up), I was able to contact a few Tsukuba-based Filipino students and researchers who were members of the Filipino Association of Students in Tsukuba, more commonly known as FAST. Coming from a place where there were no other Filipino students, I was overwhelmed by the warm response from the people I have yet to meet. One of them warmly welcomed me to the community, and proudly told me that FAST was one of the most active Filipino organizations in Japan. Finally! After three long years of being stuck in the mountains where my only interaction was with books, Japanese students and lifeless machines (not necessarily in that order), I could finally be part of a Filipino community…in Japan! I could weep in joy.

Continue reading PASSED →

It’s been more than a month since the devastating earthquake struck the Tohoku and Kanto region. Here in Tsukuba, things are mostly back to normal. Well, there’s the recurring aftershocks, which serve to remind us that things just are not the same as before. Indeed, it’s as if that the days leading to March 11 seem to belong to another lifetime…another era where we can just go about our daily lives without a concern, go about our business without necessarily worrying about the power consumption; even shrug our shoulders nonchalantly whenever we feel the earth move beneath our feet. Earthquakes are so commonplace that they hardly make us take a break from what we’re doing when it happens. Sadly, after March 11, no matter how much we want to get back to our normal lives and resume our day-to-day routines, somehow, things just don’t feel the same anymore. Life, as we know it, has been altered forever, no matter how revolting that idea may be.

When the earthquake happened, the earth didn’t just shake the foundations of our buildings, it jolted us out of our complacency. It brought home the message that no matter how far or how high we think we have achieved as human beings, we are really just frail beings at the mercy of the great forces of nature. Really, who can boast? On TV and the internet I watched video clips of houses and cars being washed away like toys. Japan, for all its “hightech-ness” and economic prosperity, endured the unthinkable: a triple crisis of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant.

The loss of human life is just too horrifying to describe. It could have been much worse, were it not for Japan’s preparedness when it comes to dealing with earthquakes.

On top of it all, the nuclear plant crisis seems to be nowhere near resolution. They say it would probably take months before the reactors can be safely brought under control. Yes, there’s radiation being spewed into the environment, and the radiation level is a little above “normal” nowadays, but as they say it is still not high enough to be of concern. Currently, the monitoring of the radiation levels continues in various places inside and outside the perimeter of the nuclear plants. The only prudent thing to do now is to remain calm and vigilant of the current situation.

It surely doesn’t help when I hear of people expressing their fears and paranoia, which, no matter how hard I try to shrug off by focusing on objective and rational thinking, somehow manages to grate and vex my spirit. I wish they would just shut up. If Japan is becoming such a frightfully unlivable place because of the supposed “high levels of radiation” then what’s keeping them here, I wonder? Surely they are not being forced to stay here and risk reducing their life expectancy by exposure to radiation? You would think that after more than a month they would at least calm down and stop spreading their fears and panic to other people. You would think that they would at least stop reacting to each and every aftershock like it’s going to be the end of the world. Or worse, overreacting to speculations by so-called “experts”? That’s all there is to it, speculations! What would counting the number of aftershocks add to your quality of life? Would worrying about the next aftershock make an iota of difference to its inevitable occurrence?

Worried about an infinitesimal increase in the amount of radioactivity in tap water? Because of the infinitesimally small chance that it might cause cancer? It just doesn’t make sense when you consider that the real devastation happened elsewhere, “up” there, where actual lives and properties are lost, and those who managed to make it out alive are now facing a bleak future.

I say, keep it in the proper perspective!

Went to the dentist for another round of root canal treatment today. I couldn’t help it, but isn’t this the eighth visit already? Okay, I get it that there are four teeth to be treated, but after eight visits, and still unfinished?

I really don’t get it why the clinics here in Japan will give you increment treatments and have you coming back over and over again OVER an extended period of time. A tidbit here, a tidbit there. Expect to come two, three times, even for simple treatments.

Take my case, for example. I am hoping to get all four teeth restored, which unfortunately has been taking a painstakingly long time since it started in September (yeah, it’s been two darn months!). I stay at the dentist’s office for say, 30 or 45 minutes at a time, then end up scheduling another appointment for the following week. Most of the time, there isn’t any available slot the following week, so I could only book for a slot two weeks after. There was a time when the dentist was on holiday, so there was no choice but to wait for another two weeks.

I know rct’s can take a long time, nevertheless, the norm here in Japan is for treatments to be spaced out and carried in stages. At one time I went to the dentist for cleaning, and they only cleaned my lower teeth during that visit. I had to come back at another time to get the upper teeth done. Why the heck didn’t they just do everything done in one visit, and send me on my way? What’s with this staggering method? Sure, they probably get to treat more people per day compared to when they perform everything to the finish for each patient. But for the patient’s side, it is highly inefficient and inconvenient. Just think of all the time consumed commuting, plus the fact that you have to pay for each visit! A money drain, believe me.

I shudder to think of how much more extrenuous dental treatments (like braces) would entail. Is that a possible reason why I see so many crooked teeth around?

At any rate, I better make sure I take care of the rest of my teeth, if only to avoid getting on another maddening series of treatments.

Been to the grocery stores lately? Then perhaps you have seen the poster above. The owl (the bird symbol of Tsukuba) is holding an eco-bag, and the announcement at the top says: レジ袋の無料配布が中止となります。 Starting from September 1, the free distribution of grocery bags will be stopped.

At the bottom part, it says: お買い物はマイバッグ持参で！Bring your own bag (My Bag) when shopping!

I think this is a welcome development. I myself have bought my own basket (strangely called "My Basket," which is actually redundant because I bought it and so it’s a given that its my…ahm, never mind!) so I won’t have to use the plastic grocery bags. Except for the part where I have to lug the big basket to my car whenever I go out for groceries, using it is quite convenient and useful actually.

Here’s why:

Continue reading Supermarkets Going Green in Tsukuba →