Good Memories are for The Emotionless

This is a challenging theme for me: blame it on the depression, but it is extremely hard for me to remember a “good memory”. Personally, I believe a good memory is a memory that doesn’t stir up anything but good feelings. However, when I recall heart-warming and endearing memories it almost always tainted by the feeling of yearning for things to be like that for just a second longer or for those times to happen again… So instead of focusing on “good memories”, I will recall nostalgic memories.

My most recent nostalgic memory for me right now is my time in Japan. The thing is, I feel as though anything that relates to anime makes that thing very special, I guess that may be because of how influential anime was for me. Growing up on anime, it has really shaped my world views; in a lot of ways, it has raised me and gave me the moral codes and beliefs I have. So being able to visit Japan, the place where anime started, created a very surreal experience for me. At first while I was in Japan, I really treasured the bigger things I did such as being able to visit many of the attractions in Tokyo while I was there. But upon coming back to America, I have grown to become very nostalgic over the little things I did that occurred mostly outside of the Tokyo city. For example, I miss taking the metro. The Japanese metro system can be very overwhelming. There are so many train lines and colored lines that you have to know to wait in that can make taking the metro very stressful and intimidating at first. However, upon becoming acquainted with the system, you seemingly develop a special relationship with the system as it saw you at your worst as you hopped onto the wrong trains and waited in wrong lines. And it patiently worked with you as you figured it and became a pro. Another aspect about visiting Japan that brings me nostalgia is the hot night and days. I didn’t realize just how hot Japan was: the heat was inescapable between the high temperatures (in one area I was at for the week, the temperature was over 100 F everyday) and the lack of AC’s made everyday a constant challenge of trying to find things that would cool you down. I remember my first week, I would just keep my windows open. My second week, my host sister and I would find weird museums and pet stores to visit to escape the heat. During third week, my host sister and I would eat kakigori and visit the beach as often as possible. And on my last week, my friends and I would go and get ice cream with our students and come to school early to open all the windows. I remember realizing that I could now relate to many of the anime characters in the typical summer day episodes as I now for once experienced inescapable heat (in Ga, I always had an AC and in Ma, the heat was never too much to me). This made those summer days there very unique and special to me. Another nostalgic memory I have of Japan were just simple walks. Be it going to or from school, taking an aimless walk around town, getting lost trying to find little gems, or taking a walk after dinner: these walks have for sure become one of my most prized memory of Japan. Perhaps my favorite walk was with these two group leaders one night. We were in our most country area of our trip and we had just come back from classes and took naps. Surprisingly, we woke up at the same time and gathered in one of the group leader’s room as we ate ramen cups, but upon doing so we felt like bums as we didn’t really do much after school and decided to take a walk around the area to make up for the laziness. Walking around, we found a river that many of the streets/sidewalks followed and decided to just follow that indefinitely, turning left and right depending on which side the river was on. As we walked along, we saw cute ducks and fat koi fish. We talked about serious and frivolous stuff as well as played music and screamed at huge cicadas and beetles that flew at us. It was well into the night before we decided to head back to our hotels, stopping by a 7-eleven to pick up some ice-cream once we became familiar with the area again and knew for sure how to make it back to our hotels. Rounding the corner onto the main street where our hotel was, there was a group of people playing traditional music which transformed the experience from any ole summer night walk into a Japanese summer night walk for me. That experience, I just knew I could only ever experience in Japan.

Okay, I won’t go on and elaborate on the numerous other nostalgic memories that I have of Japan such as the many stops to the 7-Eleven, the summer festival nights, the ramen visits, and so much more. Hopefully though, I will be able to go to Japan again in due time; in the mean time, I will remain nostalgic.

I am emo because I have no pics of those nostalgic moments (this is the closest pic I have T-T): I wish that I had captured those moments, but I didn't realize that those little moments were going to mean so much to me later on as well as was just simply enjoying the moment

Alrighty heauxs, stay spicy. I will leave you guys with some pics from this week :)

A pic my niece drew for me before I dropped her off at my father's in Tennessee

My nieces overlooking the Tennessee River

Heheh, our fav bubble tea cafe had this ad on their window and I thought it was funny

Got to chill with my fav after so long <3

Okieeee, ttyl!