MatthewMeyer.net

Today marks just 3 weeks until I’ll be in Japan. It’s starting to feel… real I guess. I went to my last Conversation Club on Thursday, and I’m making dates to see my friends for the last time soon. Wow. I guess it still doesn’t feel quite real. More like surreal. Actually, it feels a lot like the movie “Paprika,” which I just watched (and very highly recommend, btw).

I guess that’s a pretty weird comparison, but I’m in one of those weird moods lately. I have one week of work left at a job that I love, and I’m leaving my high school friends plus a lot of really cool new friends and coworkers who I’ve only just started to get to know. I’m still not very good at Japanese, but after spending a year and a half practicing with Emiko as well as meeting a Japanese family in Collingswood, and all of the other Japanese people I’ve met through work — conversation club, various events, and Shinnyo-en — I feel a lot less shy about it than I used to. It’s like I’m leaving just as some really nice relationships are forming. (At the same time, I’m looking forward to re-visiting Kanazawa and Yasuko, my host parents, my friends who live in Tokyo but studied in Philly last year, and a family from Philly who I know through the JASGP who were just transferred to Fukui!)

My job for the past month has been training Kaori, our former intern and now part-time employee and replacement me, and Sam to take over my jobs. Preparing for that means that I’ve had to spend a lot of time reflecting on exactly what I do at the JASGP, and I’m really going to miss doing it. I had a lot of freedom, and I really enjoyed what I was doing; I felt like I was able to help a community out, even if it was really only a tiny bit. On top of that, this weekend was the annual meeting for the National Association of Japan America Societies, held in Philly this year. I actually didn’t have much to do for it, since I won’t be around after next week (I guess I’ve become a “lame duck” assistant…), but being there and meeting folks who do the same thing as we do in other cities really felt cool. Actually, it felt cool on one hand, but sad on the other, since I was really only watching from the sidelines rather than participating deeply. Even though I’m excited to go to Japan, I’m not excited to leave. I want to stay and help the JASGP, especially since lately we’ve been branching out so much more — planning brand new events like the PhilaCon, Autumn Leaf Viewing, Horror Film Fest, Beer Garden, and karaoke parties, as well as expanding the website even further (we just set jasgp.org/forum live). Sam asked me the other night about what I want to do in my future… and I always have trouble delivering a straight answer. I guess I’m one of those people who literally wants to do and to be everything. I have so many dreams that if I could split myself into ten Matts, each one of me would still be bursting with ambition. I can easily say though that one strong hope of mine is that when I return from Japan, I’ll be able to bring more energy and inspiration to the JASGP.

Damn I am corny.

Today marks my reverse one-month anniversary in the US. That is to say… exactly one month until I will be in Japan! My flight leaves early on July 13, so by this time in one month, I will have landed in Nagoya (and miraculously, it will be tomorrow instead of today, thanks to the international dateline).

I’m really excited… I’ve got my suits, today I went to the dentist to get a cleaning (only one small cavity), gonna get a final haircut soon… just about everything I do these days is the last time I will do it in the US for a long time… which really doesn’t have any special significance, of course, but it’s fun to say.

30 days… This is the last time I will get to write a blog post 30 days before I move to Fukui… ^_^v