on the edge of

I like the title and subtitle I chose for this blog. I'll try and explain them...

I live in Aomori prefecture, in Aomori City (pop ~300,000), the capitol. That's really explanation enough, but let me clarify what that means a bit. Aomori is one of the poorest prefectures in Japan, as well as one of the most old fashioned. How old fashioned? Well, we have a local dialect here called tsugaru-ben, which is one of the hardest to understand dialects of Japanese. Most people can speak a fair deal of it, and the older folks can't speak anything but. "Wa" is tsugaru-ben for watashi (I). Wa, wa... is something like "as for me..."

Aomori city's greatest claim to fame is being the snowiest city of it's size in the whole world. And that's no jive. The city was simply buried under snow all winter, and even now, it's falling something fierce. As a consequence of the weather, and the poverty of the region, there's not so much going on. Most of the talented, young people skip town as soon as they get the chance.

But I'm here under contract. I'll be here under contract until August 2006. Now I'm not saying that I hate my life here. Thanks to good pay, and other benefits tangible and intangible, my life here is about as good as it's ever been.

But this place can be a drag. Anything approaching culture in the region is Toyko's leftovers. That's the case for a lot of Japan, but here moreso. We don't even get broadcasts from the two major private networks, Asahi and Fuji TV. We get weird half syndication that moves the most popular shows to different days (like trivia no izumi), or doesn't even broadcast them(like one piece). Amongst local young people, the choices are limited to hip-hop or disappearing into the workforce... or Tokyo. That's not to say that TV or fashion choices of youth are the most important things in my life, just the readily apparent symptoms of a broader malaise.

So I feel isolated from the Tokyo culture that I am in love with. Being a white guy in Japan is already an isolating experience (albeit one with more than enough fringe benefits), but in Aomori foreigners are beyond rare. As such, I think we get the full foreigner treatment. The only people around here who aren't afraid to talk to us are those who have somehow rejected Japan, and want to be international. This rejection usually amounts to wanting to have a fantasy world "real life" like in "titanic" or some other awful caricture, meaning that they're really poorly suited to actual conversation or friendship... kind of like michael jackson would be.

I feel like a salaryman despite having all the free time and disposable income I could ask for. Granted those last two benefits are nice, but I feel like I have them because there's nowhere to blow cash or time.

Thus the little influx of culture I get comes from the TV or the officeplace, just like everyone else around me. And just like everyone around me, I'm only sitting on the edge of japanese culture.