Last month at work, my coworker who sits across from me in the teacher’s office asked if we have Gogatsu Byou in America, meaning ‘May sickness.’ I replied no, and that in fact, this time back home is quite exciting. May marks the end of the school year, graduations, and the start of summer. May in Japan means the opposite. Everyone is coming down from the high of Golden Week, a string of national holidays at the end of April and beginning of May. The holidays include Children’s Day, Greenery Day, Constitutional Day, and Showa Day (celebrating the birthday of the emperor in the Showa Period). It’s a particularly crowded yet energetic time to be out and about, with a surge in domestic travel perhaps only second to the New Year’s holidays. The first day back at work after Golden Week is when the fatigue starts to set in, with everyone sharply reminded that summer break doesn’t come for another two months. The end is certainly not in sight in May in Japan.
May is also when the weather starts to heat up. It begins with a slight dampness in the air, creating a palatable feeling of dreariness especially in the classroom in the afternoons. By mid to late May, the breeze coming in from the windows starts to not be enough to keep the muggy air moving. And yet, until the first week of June at the absolute earliest – in the very Japanese spirit of mottainai (not wanting to be wasteful) – everyone resists admitting things are a bit warm, and that maybe it’s time to turn on the AC in the teachers’ office. For a while, I was too – still braving the day in my long sleeve button downs. If we are to admit we’re hot in May, the next five months of the rainy season, followed by extreme heat, will feel even more miserable. Hence the infamous Gogatsu Byou.
When I first got to Japan in July 2023, I had a few email chains with old friends as a means of staying in touch. Emails have become one of my favorite forms of communication since moving far away from the close people in my life. They hold slightly more sentiment than a text thread and lend themselves to the reflection that springs out of a journal entry. If you ever want to be email (or even letter) pen pals let me know! In one of these email threads, I remember sharing details about my daily life with one friend, specifically on the topic of food, what I cook for myself at home, and what ingredients are most available to me in the Japanese supermarket. My friend asked about dining out, and whether or not I was eating the most delicious Japanese food for every meal. They also said something along the lines of ‘but I’d totally understand if you just want to have a bowl of cereal or something familiar for dinner every once in a while.’ I think about this often – the ‘just having a bowl of cereal’ versus the ‘eating out’ dynamic – with regards to not only food, but also how I approach structuring my life.
Something I’ve learned a lot about living abroad and living alone is the importance of this balance. Yes, I live in Japan, a place full of exciting things and delicious foods and new experiences, meaning I could keep my days jam packed, ‘eating out all the time.’ But after work it can often feel like by the time I run errands and do the things I need to do, it’s already time for bed! The most universal experience I am sure. With no major plans for April and May, I did my best to lean into the balance of my days. This has meant saying yes to invitations and experiencing as much as I can, while also working on sticking to my routines and taking a beat for rest when needed (although I battled a gnarly cold in late May, meaning maybe I should’ve taken that beat a bit sooner).
Some of the highlights of the month included a nice day trip with a friend to Awajishima, an island in Hyogo Prefecture which sits southwest between Osaka Bay and Shikoku Island. I’ve driven across the island lengthwise a handful of times on the way to Shikoku (a place I love and have written about on this blog), but I guess staying on the highway the entire time has entirely skewed my perception of the island’s size. In my memory it was small and mostly a means to get from one island to the next. Awajishima is actually not so small at all, and it is dotted with interesting and beautiful gems. The island has a particularly deep history and as recorded in the Kuniumi (birth of the country) story from the Kojiki, Japan’s oldest historical record, it was the first island in the archipelago created by deities Izanagi and Izanami. Related to this history are the Izanagi Shrine with a 900-year old camphor tree and Eshima, a small island thought to be the very first piece of land of the archipelago. Awajishima is now known in popular culture for its copious onion production. All sorts of silly onion-themed souvenirs can be bought there, from onion sponge cake to wigs shaped like an onion sprouting out of the soil.
In May, I also enjoyed a trip to Star Festival, a small music festival in the mountains of Kyoto Prefecture. I went last year with some friends, but this year plans changed and I ended up flying solo. When I showed up, I ran into lots of people I know from the going out/music scene in Osaka. ‘What?! You came alone?’ one of them remarked to me. I guess I had been a little nervous about going alone, but I have also grown to really cherish the sense of freedom that comes with it. And when you’re alone, you meet other people who are alone, too. On the train to the venue, I met a French girl living in Kobe and we’ve hung out a few times since then. These new friendships feel like little rewards for doing things that may initially be uncomfortable.
May, and now June, brought me many visitors from back home. My older sister, Hallie, was in Tokyo for work and luckily was able to come a week early to stay with me in Osaka. Because she was preparing for a conference in Tokyo, I knew she would be spending many hours in my apartment replying to emails and on business calls. This couldn’t have been more funnily timed, as my building is currently undergoing exterior renovations. There is scaffolding all around the building which creates the feeling of being in a treehouse, but on cloudy days it feels more like an underground bunker as the sunlight struggles to get through the mesh netting. What’s funnier is that the construction crew is often on my veranda working. While I was away at work, I would get texts from Hallie with pictures of the workers, right up close to the window to the point where some acknowledgement of the other was necessary. Just the other day, I stepped outside after work (in my underwear no less) without realizing there was a man on the scaffolding one level up. We made awkward eye contact, I said sumimasen (excuse me/sorry) in Japanese, and scurried back inside.
Having Hallie here meant I also got to see into her world, not only the other way around. She has a really cool, but undoubtedly challenging, job in the art world, and was in Tokyo to deliver a talk at the Tokyo Museum of Photography. I got to spend the weekend with her and met her team of curators working on the Seoul Mediacity Biennial which will open this August. It was part me showing them around Tokyo (thank god my recs for an izakaya and record bar wooed her boss), but also getting to tag along and meet their art world friends. Later on their trip when they were in Kyoto for a few days, I accompanied them as a ‘translator’ at Miho Museum of Art in Shiga Prefecture, which was a nice break from the day-to-day of teaching in Osaka.
I especially enjoyed my few days in Tokyo because I was able to see my host family from high school study abroad. I wasn’t sure how much free time I would have, so I hadn’t messaged anyone that I was going to be there. When I found out that Hallie had to attend a work dinner on Saturday night, I called my host mom and they excitedly invited me over. Within an hour, I had made my way from Ebisu to Setagaya and was marching through the door saying tadaima!, meaning ‘I’m home!!’ We enjoyed a lovely dinner together, eating fresh katsuo (skipjack tuna) sashimi, which is currently in season as the fish migrate from the cooler waters up north to the warmth of Okinawa in the south. Along with the sashimi, I got to help my host mother and sister prepare the okazu, all of the little side dishes that go along with the meal. Meals at their home are always full of laughs and banter and passing plates as we share the most delicious dishes the host mother graciously makes with so much love. I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I think about how I have this family in Tokyo at whose house I am always welcome. Almost a situation too miraculous and precious to be true.
When I was walking through Shibuya on my way back to Hallie’s hotel later that evening, I randomly passed one of my closest friends from high school in Tokyo out on the street. Chika and I met when I went on the school skiing trip to Nagano and we were assigned as roommates in the ryokan (Japanese inn). We quickly became a unit, taking the lift up the mountain together then ‘pizza sliding’ our way down. I remember being tired and groggy each morning during attendance call at the bottom of the slope after having stayed up late playing cards and talking about which ski instructor we thought was cutest, and what it would be like to live out in the mountains of Japan – usual ponderings for 15 year old Tokyo girls. On the street in Shibuya, we ran into each other’s arms with a big hug, both shocked by the odds of crossing paths in the biggest city in the world. A moment such as that could have been so easily missed if either Chika or I had been looking down at our phones. Tokyo is a place that continually nudges me to be attuned to the environment around me. The steady stream of energy and movement can feel like enough to turn me inward, seeking refuge in the music from my headphones. But something about Tokyo always reminds me of the importance of actively bearing witness to this life, being a part of it, and sometimes even getting lost in it. Active participation in the world around me lends itself to these special interactions with others, and even with friends from a past life.
I got back to Osaka with just a few days to readjust before more guests arrived. I showed the sights of Osaka to two childhood Austin friends and their mom three weekends ago, and last week my post-college roommate stayed with me for a week and a half. This year has brought me lots of visitors, particularly the ones who I now realize are just the kind of people I need visiting me. Somehow the universe allowed our plans to align. I sometimes find myself struggling to convey the nuanced challenges of my day-to-day life here. But having people see the intimate parts of my life, even where I sleep at night, is hugely helpful in feeling more understood by my friends and family back home. My friend who stayed with me reminded me that what I am doing is hard. We had many insightful conversations during long walks, and even though she left last Monday, I am still reflecting on the myriad things we talked about. This reflection comes at a seemingly opportune timing with my 25th birthday coming up at the end of this month.
Thank you, as always, for reading, and I will keep you all posted on the wisdom I learn as I enter my 25th year. Until next time!
Lastly… bento time!
Today’s bento is from one of my favorite lunch spots in Osaka. The set lunches, or teishoku, are so delicious. I usually get the genki teishoku, or the ‘energetic set.’ It comes with warm miso soup, white rice and a raw egg to be mixed and poured over the steaming rice, lots of yummy veggie sides that are different each time, a side salad, pickles, and lightly fried chicken with a sweet chili soy sauce (in the center). This spot is always a hit among my visitors.
This is the best! I love the insight into your days/thoughts/food. Proud of you!
Yay!!!!!!!