Invisible

Yesterday I went to kibichuo cho with the two JETs there for a really nice thanksgiving dinner and general hanging out.

Kibichuo cho is beautiful and really quaint, though parts of it made me swear I was back in irvine and the lake forest area.  It made me do a double take ahaha.

Oh yeah, we had parfait too, earlier in the day, but it wasn't the huge one that I had been expecting. There were 14 of us so it was fiiiine and actually I was a little hungry afterwards since I hadn't eaten anything the whole day out of anticipation and forgetfulness.

After parfait though, one of my friends drove me back to kibichuo cho where we picked up her monk friend who doesn't really seem like a monk. He works and lives at the Buddhist temple... But he smokes, drinks, swears, and drives a Harley (and speaks really good English!). Cool, just not what you'd expect from a monk! He gave us a tour of his temple though and explained things about the inside.

It was wondrous. I geeked out so hard, since I had studied Chinese Buddhism in college. It was like oooohhh my gooood. Most of this stuff (he said) was the same as the Chinese version that had been imported so many ages ago. They had had some of the original sutras in a lacquered wooden box (is it redundant to say lacquered wooden?) and there were six that unfolded to reveal original Chinese script that was at least 700 years old.

700 years. Holy crap. That's really old. So it was kind of amazing, being able to see them. He also took us into the epitaph room, where they had the epitaphs of all the ancestors... Though he didn't mow ( or didn't say) how old they were. He said ancestors go in kind of forever and possibly these went to the beginning of time.

We also saw the calligraphy one of the calligraphy masters in china had written. They were really gorgeous. What else was there...

They had bodhisattva statues and the whole place smelled of incense. There were also small mukades crawling all over... That was kind of gross. But their slippers were amazing. They were the nicest slippers I've seen. They were green with gold patterns that were all swirly... and Chinese.

The tablet of the former ANA president was there too. He told us about how the president's house was in kibichuo and how he worked really hard at improving Chinese and japanese r elations after the war after an experience with his Chinese roommate. His Chinese roommate eventually went back to china hating Japan and Japanese because of how he was discriminated here in Japan. I can kinda understand a little.

But yeah. The temple was amazing. So amazing to go into and see.

After, we went to dinner after that at a really cute British themed place called the Bernese house. They made us thanksgiving dinner... And holy wow. It was amazing. We had a chowder soup, salad, walnut bread, and some of the best chicken I've had ever. Seriously, it was delicious. I'd take that over turkey any day. I think he tried to make it look a little like turkey; there was a piece of foil wrapped around a part that you could grab and pick up and eat like a savage haha.

The cook was ridiculously nice. Since he didn't know what a thanksgiving dinner was, he actually looked it up online and based the dinner around what he found (I guess, sadly, he found no mashed potatoes) :) He was from. Hokkaido. We had a fun talk about food afterwards. :)

Seriously though. Ridiculously good food.

Afterwards we went back and talked until eventually both of the guys left. Oh yeah, the monk also studied agriculture in salinas valley so he had been to places in California! But after they went back the really good talk started. Girl talk. We vented to each other hahaha. But we also talked about what it was like to be an Asian American and she talked about how it was hard to always be in the shadow of a fellow jet because their skin was white and they didn't look like Asian people. I don't get that too much - only when I hang out with some of my other friends. But the poor girl gets it all the time in the town, and sometimes people completely ignore her because they think she's Japanese or Chinese. I know how that feels, and to feel it all the time like that...

None of us (or well, most of us) come to Japan seeking attention, and it's not like we're saying we want lots of attention. It's not that. I actually prefer to not have much attention on me. But when you're standing next to someone with the same qualifications and everything else equal. (or maybe your Japanese isn't as good but you both still got hired, so nobody is 'better' than anyone else in that sense). The only difference is the color of your skin... not something you can so easily control. And they get showered in attention (some pr a lot of it unwanted) while you get mostly ignored because they make the assumption that you're Japanese or because you just don't look that foreign. I've been fortunate enough to where sometimes when I'm out with my friends and that happens sometimes I do get included... but sometimes I don't. And to have that happen all the time is taxing.

There are good aspects about being Asian too, don't get me wrong. My friends have all told me that it gets really annoying having people come up to you, or yell at you, or interrupt what you're doing to try and speak English, and I can understand that. I can understand that it's probably annoying to always be in the spotlight and stared at. But sometimes we get a little tired of being ignored and invisible. And yeah, I know the grass is always greener on the other side... But if it were you, would you rather be an invisible nobody, or a celebrity?

Hard call.