Oh FIlipinos....

Did I ever mention that my Aunt and I have a game that we play everytime I'm back in the Philippines? It entails counting all the DOMs we see. DOM stands for Dirty Old Men aka those over 40 white guys who walk around attached to some much younger Filipina.

It's really an entertaining game, though kind of gross when you think about it.

Something always has to go wrong

I left the Philippines again this morning, greeted by the still dark sky and streets that are only clear for those few hours while everyone is sleeping. It was a time to see all the people that fill the streets when they are otherwise unable to. There were cyclists and runners and a surprising amount of pedestrians, a different view of the city streets than I usually get. It was a good way to say goodbye to one of my favorite places, though having to say goodbye at all is definitely not ideal, especially when you're leaving 26 C weather for 8 C weather and a whole lot of wonderful relatives.

And as always, something had to go wrong as I left. Now, 4 out of the 5 times I've visited I've had something annoying happen and I've had to pay someone money. The first time probably only worked cause I was with my mom (the former Philippine national). This time, I had to pay up $56 because my bag was supposedly 4 kilos overweight (I looked it up on the website later, my bag was in fact only 1 kilo overweight, which they should have let slide). Regardless, I had to pay someone money for something silly. With all of my love for flying and the Philippines, something always goes wrong.

10 days in the Philippines was full of seeing relatives, partying, getting asked to dance by 2 guys in 1 night, seeing new houses (each with rooms for me!), and just enjoying the weather. I drank a lot of beer, watched a lot of tv, and helped move my Grandmother's aparador (like a cabinet that holds all your clothes). Once I move to the Philippines, it's going to be mine. And I leave now, with no intended date of return, possibly the saddest part of all.

Now I'm back in Japan for 3 days, to take some last pictures, see Jazmin for the last time in a long time, and do some last minute gift shopping. So far, I don't feel differently about the place, and I'm glad I'll be home soon, but it was definitely worth the trip. I'll be back stateside early on the 26th and want to see people before I head back to Oberlin for the last time.

Homecoming and fiesta time

The third week in January is one of big celebration. It is a fiesta to the Santo Niño de Cebu, the patron of the island, and so many people show up. This year, as the 30th anniversary of the festival, it was bigger and better than ever, with so many international travelers. I arrived last year for this same festival and it was grand then, and even more grand this year. For the final parade last year over 2 million people showed up to watch, but this year, there were 8 million! That should give you a sense of the amount of people pouring on to the island, and I had a lot of family members here as well, some which I haven't actually seen since the last time I was here in the Philippines. It's a little odd really, that I have family members in the US that I don't see, except for in the Philippines. But there were parties galore, lots of food to be eaten, and a lot of traffic.

But still, this festival is a celebration of the Cebuano people, the people I have come to love over my 5 trips here. They never cease to amaze me; in their religious devotion, walking 6 km in the rain; in their fearless attitude towards crowds of millions; in their love for food and guests, always finding anything and everything to feed me; in their friendliness, always smiling and dancing. These people are not ashamed of their poverty and it is very apparent when you visit, but it's ok, and I don't mind it, I only wish all the millions of dollars that I'm sure the city has made with millions of people enntering the city were used to do something about it, instead of keeping it in the hands of the powerful and the greedy.

I do love it here. And each time there's something to see. This visit has brought a trip to Bohol to see the world's smallest monkey. And of course, seeing all of my favorite family members, eating the most delicious fruits I've ever had, and continuously being called ma'am. I've also spent a considerable amount of time explaining to people the history of this festival (remember I wrote a 33 page paper on it), which has been tiring, but also nice.

In the last 5 days, I'll just visit family (as I now write on my immigration slip instead of checking tourism for my reason for entering) and get updated on what's been happening since I was last here. The best part of course, is that my parents finally returned to the Philippines after 15 years, and much to father's dismay, he has learned that I'm more famous here than he is. They have been introduced to people, who nod generally, but when told that these are the parents of Liz, they say, 'ohhhhhh.' I think I've started to solidify my place here, finally.

Soon it's back to Japan, and after being in this city, I'm sure the shock of it's cleanliness and quiet will hit me again and I'll yearn for home, wherever that may be, again.

One last Japan post for now

I'm sitting here, reflecting on my first 2 weeks and have mixed feelings. Though the initial shock of Tokyo has worn off a little, I'm still sticking to the fact that I could never really live here. I don't care about fashion or how I look or what people think of me, and though every place has their issues, and I've faced some difficult ones, never before had I felt so judged as I did in Tokyo. I know part of it is because I'm a foreigner, but I've experienced that more here than in other countries I've visited. I don't know if it's part of the weird history of the Japan and the US, but it's there. And then there's that part where I don't care about fashion, which is such a huge deal here, and you know, I dance while waiting for the train.

And yet, a place with a good train system and individually friendly people is always nice. On my way to the airport via train I had to drag my suitcase up and down several flights of stairs and on one of my ways up, a nice young woman grabbed one of the handles on my suitcase and helped me carry it the rest of the way up. So things weren't are all bad and it was really nice to see Daniel and Jazmin, so I think it was worth it.

I'm on day two in the Philippines now and loving it, like always. Coming here always feels right, like I'm coming home in a way. More on that will come later. Big parties going on tonight and this weekend for the sinulog, that festival I wrote my capstone on. So there probably won't be another update til after the weekend and maybe not til after my parents leave on Tuesday.

fast forward to one of my last nights in Tokyo.....

As Daniel, Jazmin, and I were out for the night (Jan 10), we got to discover first hand the craziness that is Tokyo. It was a pretty uneventful night for the first part of the evening. We had dinner at a burger place, which was tasty, but unfortunately not quite filling enough. We spent the better part of 10 minutes arguing over whether to get more food at a café before hookah or to get a little buzz because drinks at the hookah place would probably be pricey. We end up at a café and I got a soy latte accidentally instead of a chai latte and Jazmin was unsatisfied with her soup, so then we go to hit up the conbini (convenient store) get some snacks and double cans of beer (for Daniel and Jazmin). They proceed to sketchily drink their beers in less than 5 minutes in a hidden place in an alley while I eat my plum flavored gummies. We then walk down, take some pictures and eat pocky sticks without our hands, before entering the hookah place. We order a hookah, and drinks (a requirement for the place) and proceed to tell stories about our lives or others before one after the other going to the gambling place next door to use the restroom. Now for the fun part.

Right before Daniel leaves to go to the restroom, we decide that Jazmin and I will finish off our first hookah and order another one. As Daniel is out, Jazmin and I are happily finishing off our apple hookah when some guy who presumably, at first, didn’t feel like walking up a second flight of stairs yet, sits down next to me. He asks if he can sit, and Jazmin says yes. Then his friend from upstairs comes down and they say something and laugh (I of course will be oblivious to just about anything that gets said for the rest of the night). Daniel comes back at this point and introductions ensue, however I don’t catch their names, though maybe someone did. There’s lots of talking of where we are all from, how we know each other, etc. Turns out these two guys have known each for some time and are also friends with our waiter (Eddie!) who is half Japanese and moved to Japan from Britain. The rest of the night is somewhat of a blur, these two guys ordered ‘champagne’ which was actually sparkling wine (I know, I’m a snob) and we all drink (kampai)!

At this point, it’s become clear that the guy who originally sat down next to me is flirting with me. He keeps trying to speak with me, though is too intoxicated to remember that I don’t speak any Japanese, and so I continue to give him rather blank stares. They continue to talk and Daniel’s Japanese gets better as he drinks. Another bottle of sparkling wine appears (I check the bottle, it’s from Germany) and I end up with 3 glasses of wine in total plus the additional Tom Collins we had to start and I’m pretty decently tipsy. Somewhere in the course of the night, I remember someone saying that Daniel and I were a couple, attempts to get this one guy to stop flirting with me, and then later someone said the three of us (Daniel, Jazmin, and I) were a couple. Either way, it didn’t stop him. I went to put my hair up at one point, and Jazmin stopped me, but unfortunately too late. Apparently, this is considered a ‘sexy thing’ and I only made matters worse for myself with this guy playing with my hair soon afterward. Through all of this popcorn also appears on the table and beef jerky with Japanese mayo. It gets to the time when Daniel and I need to be heading home, so that we won’t miss the last train and so we say bye and head downstairs to pay. Eddie basically convinces us that these guys are rich and will pay for our bill, and after attempts at refusing, we give in and head out, leaving a 2600 yen bill.

We left the hookah place in complete shock. What had just happened? Of course we’re all a little tipsy and slightly loud about this and in efforts to continue talking, I take the longer route home to stay on the same train. The best part, Daniel and Jazmin think this guy is queer! It’s strange really, I already don’t do well with men obviously flirting with me in my own language, I apparently am even worse with men obviously flirting with me in a situation where we can’t communicate. It’s difficult trying to get across to someone that you’re not interested when you can’t just say it. And hey, at the end of the day, I saved myself like 9 dollars for putting up with it for like 45 minutes, and realistically, while the four of them all chatted away, I was perfectly content listening to the English radio station and dancing in my place.

Though I would have been perfectly content just spending the night with Daniel and Jazmin before I leave and Daniel leaves, the way the night turned out was totally ok, we had good times on our own, and really only would have smoked one more hookah in those last 45 minutes before paying and departing for the night. So all in all a good deal and a great story.

Really getting to know Japan

It's been a little difficult to find the time to be able to update lately. I no longer have free internet, so I seek refuge in cafes that have it, though it's hard to motivate myself to get out of the house before a certain point and thus I find I usually only have an hour or so before needing to meet people. Today though, I only have plans for dinner, and though all the smoke around me is making me nauseous, I need to write things down before I forget it all.

These past 2 weeks or so have been good. Tokyo is a really interesting city that is definitely not meant for everyone. I've had good times seeing the sights of the city, from a beautiful park to the busiest Starbucks in the world. The city at night is wonderful, with all of the lights and people, it's hard not to enjoy the splendor of it all. I've also met some great people through the lovely Oberlin student I stayed with and through Jazmin. Everyone has been super nice and polite and seemed to genuinely want to get to know me and why I was here visiting Japan.

Ready for those things I haven't loved. It's sort of ridiculous, and I'm sure people will disagree with me, and to each their own. First off, I'm broke, and though I knew Japan would be expensive, I didn't realize how much so. In basically 2 weeks I've spent close to $500 and that's with cheap housing and consciously thinking about what I ordered at meals. There is no weekly pass for the train and so on train fare alone I spend close to 10 dollars a day. What I would give for that $14 weekly pass on the LA Metro right now? The train is nice, and rather convenient, you can really get just about anywhere. And it's efficient, which is rather necessary in a city with so many people. It is a little creepy though, how people line up at almost the exact spot where the doors will stop, board the train and ride in almost complete silence. It's really not cool to answer your phone on the train, and no one shows any emotion. They all ride, either whispering quietly with a friend or lover (unless it's late and people are drunk and somewhat louder), reading, texting, or with earphones in. And though I'm totally content to listening to my earphones on the train, am I really the only one who wants to tap my foot to the beat or nod my head? Apparently I am, and believe me, people look at me so funny for it. I don't think I could really ever live in a place that doesn't dance, it's too essential for my being.

Public transportation is good though, and most people have bikes, which I didn't know anything about before I got here. Yet outside every home there is usually at least one bike and it's common to see masses of them outside train stations or outside restaurants. That was a really exciting thought, and really great to see people riding their bikes, until I realized that bikes have free reign of both the sidewalk and the street, which as a pedestrian can be somewhat infuriating when the sidewalks are already full of people (who can't decide if they want to walk on the left or right side of the street even when there's totally a line down the middle signifying a divide of some sort, whether it's coming and going, or bikes and pedestrians I'm really not sure). You also can't take your bike on the train or the bus, which is sad, but makes some sense. The trains here really do get quite packed, which I have experienced first hand, and so bringing a bike on the train would really be a nuissance for others and limit the amount of people they could shove on the train.

And in the end, though I personally have been fortunate not to have experienced it, as precise as they would love the trains to be, it's not uncommon for there to be delays due to "accidents" better known as suicides. On average, once a day someone will jump in front of the train to end their life for various reasons that can include providing for one's family. And though it's not as big of a deal here cause there isn't really a hell that people believe in, it's still unnerving that people are so numb to it. Can you imagine the poor train driver? or the clean up crew? Talk about therapy.

But I don't like ending things like that, so I'll briefly say a bit about the people I've had the plesure of staying with. The first 4 days I spent with the family of a current Oberlin student in the Conservatory. They were really nice, and took care of me, from making food I could eat to driving me to the train station, and once paying for my dinner. Their English wasn't bad and I really enjoyed staying with them. My days there mainly consisted of working on my paper, eating, and drinking lots of tea (perhaps my favorite part of life here). I also met the father's parents, who were some of the cutest old people I've ever met, though I did feel slightly awkward after finding out grandpa had served in the war, a war that my father's father fought in the pacific, and which claimed the lives of some family members of my mother's in the philippines. A less than ideal situation, but one that was handled as best as could have been. Again, those one on one interactions have really made my time here and I won't forget the lovely people I've met, but there's still more that I've come to understand as not for me and we'll leave those for another post.