Previously In Raisha’s World:
Raisha feels lost in translation at the start of her new
adventure in Tokyo Japan. The language barrier between home and self, that is. Can
she recover with the soothing sounds of Cotton Jones?
So I’m sitting in Yoyogi Park eating a potato. That is the
moment I concurred this most recent burst of ‘my periodical existentialism’ (I’ve
now accepted it as this). A Potato that arrived to my hosts door this morning.
In one of two boxes of potatoes that she ordered from her friends market. My hosts
name is Mikki. She’s born in Japan, recently spent 3 months travelling the world
and channels her passion for life and culture into hosting people on couch
surfing. She is so wise and natural in her personality it’s an absolute
pleasure to have met her.
The boxes came as we were finishing breakfast. Mikki answered
the door quickly and sat in the middle of the floor with these two cardboard
boxes. They weren’t really large boxes but compared to the size of the kitchen and
her excitement, it seemed like a big deal! I said ouuu what did you get. She
stopped mid tape cut and exclaimed “Potatoes!”. This literally made my day.
Last night Mikki invited a couple, from France, over for
dinner and made traditional Japanese food. Honestly I can’t remember how to
pronounce any of the dishes. We had: sliced Carrots with a nice Homemade Dressing. Tofu, Fermented Soy Beans, Fried Tofu, Potatoes, Rice cakes and Grilled Beans. It was delicious and Japanese table settings are so precious.By the way I capitalised the foods to make up for not know the proper names. They really deserve some sort of recognition.
We had basically a mini porcelain buffet! Three beautiful
trays in the middle of the table, at each person’s setting there was two
small and cute dishes. Almost like a saucer. And a small bowl. Chopsticks are rested in front on a custom chopstick rester. Then you just put a few mouth fulls at
a time on your dishes. If I had to describe Japan so far in four words I’d say:
cute (so many tiny things!!), fashionable,
mannered and clean (the streets and public transport are spotless).
THE FASHION IS AMAZING. Everyone is so uniquely put
together. The colours, the fabrics, the range of styles and accessories. I
spent most of my day today just people watching. Shamlessly. I even got people watched. In Yoyogi Park when I was just sitting two people asked to take a photo of me. Which
was cool and because I hadn’t been
asking anyone I just do it. Actually I want to add candid to the list. In the
park especially, everyone is just having a great time. Dancing, freestyle
rapping, bicycling, musicing , even blowing obnoxiously large bubbles.
Okay I’m also adding community to the list. Yesterday after
dinner we went to a public bath. Let me just say bathing with people is one the
most relaxing and liberating experiences. The most civil experience I’ve had
given those three characteristics. Something about being naked with
strangers/people I just met and just doing a common day activity. It was definitely
a refresh.
Odly though when I woke up this morning I felt a bit blah. I looked like
I hadn’t slept in 10,00 years.. which is weird because I felt like I slept 25,000 years after that bath.. I also think I gained 10lbs in the last 72 hrs. I was
picking at my pimples. My tummy pudge is kind of cute, the double chin I’m
still getting used to. I think traveler’s constipation is a thing. I’m not
sure. You probably didn’t need to know but it’s slightly relevant to this tangent
of blahness. Anyways...
This moment of blah was just before Mikki called me for
breakfast. Then she got the potatoes. Then I got ready to go to Shibuya and
while I was getting all fashion week in Tokyo. I remembered last night when we
were on our way to the baths, this girl stopped to take a photo of someone’s
doorway with umbrellas and a cute note and she said “ugh I feel like such a
tourist”. I hate the word/being “tourist”. That being said I am shamelessly a
tourist. Sometimes shame fully. I said to her “you can see 10,000 shrines or monuments,
stay in lavish hotels but at the end you’re going to remember these little
things”.
Here I am in TOKYO JAPAN. I have food, good people, enough
money. And I’m worried about the signs on my skin that are but my own monuments
of life. Woah is me. These little things get in the way. Of moments like Mikki’s
pure ecstasy over a box of potatoes. Being naked in a common room with foreign
people. Eating cake. Traditional foods. More cakes! So today I told myself to
be a lifeist. (isn’t that sooo fucking clever!!)
One of the first wisdoms Mikki spoke unto my
post-existential crisis ear was “I wake up every day and I do what I love”
I think I spent one year running away from home, making the
world my home and forgetting I need to be at home in myself.
Okay I promise to be less existential the next two posts to
give you a break.
<3 sushi and love <3
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