journal features

back in Japan

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.12.10

So I'm back. Already, I notice that things have changed.

I no longer feel like a resident here. Being back in "the old country" has knocked me loose from what was 100% my identity here: a foreign resident of this magnificent city. Now I feel like a tourist.

I don't know if it's partially a defense mechanism, given that I'm barred from making a life here, but it's something I was feeling even two weeks after arriving in Toronto. Like it was "high time to go home". I certainly hadn't felt any strong draw to go back to Toronto of all places, but it seems that the right thing for me to do and the route of least struggle are one.

Also: coming here really drives home just how cold it is in Canada, where we don't even think much of it. In Toronto today, there was a high of -6C and a low of -12C. Here in Tokyo, the numbers were 18C higher!

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force