Liminality

Missing Singapore is just one symptom of a more general feeling of liminality or psychological jet-lag that I experience when I return home from travelling. Physically I'm in Glasgow but psychologically, a large part of me is still in Asia. There is nothing much to be gained from travelling that does not lead to a repositioning and new understanding of self, but bringing that learning back and coping with its consequences in a context that feels simultaneously familiar and foreign is always difficult. The negotiation of that space is only just beginning, as I try to decide which parts of prior-to-travel Rebecca to revert to, which parts of having-travelled Rebecca to retain, and the speed with which to make those adjustments ...

Missing Singapore already!

I'll post more on my experience of Singapore over the next couple of weeks, but here are my first impressions of being back in Glasgow.

I arrived back last night near midnight, following a 3.5 hour wait at Heathrow's domestic flights section of Terminal 1 (this is relevant because it's the only terminal I've ever been to where there's less to do than at Glasgow Prestwick: one WHSmith, one Boots and two Costas). It's funny how the 12.5 hour flight from Singapore was fine, but that what irritated me was waiting at the airport in London. Not least because there were 3 flights leaving for Glasgow before mine, and I couldn't change because my baggage was checked through from Singapore. This may well be the last time that I let the travel agent do my booking!

So, I'm feeling rather sleepy in a relaxed and detached kind of way, and already missing Singapore. Most of all, I'm missing the people from LSL (Learning Sciences Laboratory), or at least feeling sad because I know that over the next few weeks and months I will miss them in a way that email can't eliminate. And whilst I'm sure I'll see some of them again in the future, it's hard to know when or where or in what circumstances. I've spent time with some fantastic people over the last couple of weeks ... and I hope that they will remain in my life.

I'm also missing fresh juice, especially watermelon. I'm missing eating out and the variety of food options. I'm missing being warm, and spending time outside in the evenings and not needing to worry about coats or being cold. I'm even missing MSG. Not in an explicit way but just through cravings for cheese, which is about as close as I can get. In fact, cheese was about the only thing in the supermarket that appealed when I was there earlier, along with a few high-quality yoghurts. I was yearning for real food, not overly-packaged plastic pseudo-food.

Even partial re-adjusting is going to take a long time. But then again, if complete re-adjustment was possible, then I wouldn't have learnt anything lasting from the trip ...

5 Japanese characters

We discovered last night that I know at least 5 Japanese characters: yen, the three that make up entrance and exit, 6, and another that I currently can't remember, but could the other evening. I know the word for chicken and various other random vocabulary, but still get confused with thank you (there seem to be multiple versions), and have no idea how to say sorry, or ask where the toilets are!!

Yesterday we went "skiing" in Japan. Il a fait entre 15 et 20 degres, et a vrai dire, il n'y avait pas franchement de neige. Style, beaucoup de pistes fermees, dont la seule noire de la station. Mais les vues etaient tres belles, et on s'est quand meme bien amuses. Mac, suite au marathon de Tokyo il y a deux semaines, n'a pas pu skier a cause de son genou pete ... mais a bien profite du spa et d'un massage!

J'ai appris pourquoi j'ai mais propres chaussures de ski, aussi, et que les japonais ont des "pieds de hobbit" (c'est une mi-japonaise qui me l'a explique comme ca) ... donc on m'a propose des chaussures trop courte dans lesquelles j'aurais pu enfiler mon pied deux fois, l'une sur l'autre. Aucun controle sur la piste, evidemment. Les skis n'etaient pas mieux: des sortes de pre-carving datant de je ne sais pas quand et qui tournaient bizarrement, et qui devenaient tout "flappy" (pour citer Robin - donc completement souples) a vitesse ... disons ... moyenne. La station elle-meme etait assez rustique, avec des telesieges sans barriere de protection, et evidemment pas de repose-pieds, et un seul debrayable. Mais c'etait bien drole quand meme ... et ca valait la peine pour les vues!!

In anachronistic contrast to the rustic nature of the skiing, the Japanese do trains in what appears to a naive British audience as rather futuristic. Yesterday, for example, we went on a double-decker bullet train! OK, so double decker trains are perhaps nothing to write home about - after all, they have them in Paris, too - but this one was rather faster than those Paris "trains de banlieue". Sooooo much leg room ... which is interesting for a population on average about half my height!! And you could turn the seats around in the one we took home again to have people sitting in a four, or two rows of two.

Hmm, France scores well on futuristic ski resorts and trains ... I wonder what that tells us about them?

Unfortunately, although Japanese trains are super-smart, they don't prevent human error, as we discovered on finding ourselves at the wrong end of the underground line on our way home, having taken it in the wrong direction at the connection point! But eventually we arrived at our destination and went to an Izakaya (I hope that's right) for sort of Japanese-style tapas. Although the computer to order from was fun with its touch screen, two of the items we had chosen weren't available, and although it could provide us with that information, couldn't tell us which ones ... oh, I love software developers!! The food was great, though, and it was fun to chat with Mac and his friends.

As with the previous evening, I crashed completely on arriving back at Mac's place.

Today we're going to visit more of Tokyo. So far, I've seen the view of Tokyo from the Municipal Building, the area around Shinjuku (a Japanese Soho), the Meiji Shrine and gardens (shrines just somehow feel more open than churches and other places of religion that I have been to), eaten vegan food and sung karaoke with Miki in Shibuya (the latter I've done twice actually), been to Ginza (a sort of Champs-Elysees) and eaten fantastic sushi in a restaurant with an extremely lively atmosphere in Ski-somewhere-or-another! And whilst that last paragraph was clearly absolutely meaningless to anyone who's not been here, it's there really to remind me what I did on day 2 when I re-read this later.

Right, off to have a shower, because the sun's out and I want to make the most of it!!!

I'm in Tokyo!!

I am in Tokyo ... and about to go and start exploring. Yesterday evening's events included Japanese fast food in the form of beef and rice for about 1 pound 60, Japanese beer in a club that resembled a students' union, and an hour of karaoke ... where Mac demonstrated the fastest talking (rap) I've ever heard (you can speed the tracks up because you pay by the hour) and a song in Japanese ; )

Was supposed to be meeting Mac's friend Miki for lunch today, but apparently she can't make it, so I guess I'm off to visit towers and shrines and all things Tokyo ... shame I can't speak the lingo!!