Cherry blossoms in spring. Winters spent under the kotatsu. Staying the night at school during the school festival. The taste of the first yakisoba of summer. To me, these are things I have never before experienced. Even so, they are elements of Japanese culture that feel somehow familiar. Can you feel nostalgic about experiences you have never had? I have ten years of living proof that this is possible.
The journey I am currently taking transports me through the nooks and corners of my adopted country: Japan. It shows me that there is something new to learn every day. And as long as the learning never ends, my journey will continue. What is this journey, you ask? It is one that began with a seemingly unimportant event, but one that changed the course of my life by a 180 degrees.
Let's rewind to the beginning. It was the autumn of my sixth grade. My middle school life featured not much more than homework and television. And it was the latter of these mundane activities that led me to stumble upon my first big discovery. It was an uneventful evening, and this had me flicking through the channels. Facing the generic frustration of a girl with too much time on her hands, I landed on a channel that was airing something unfamiliar. I settled down to watch. The following half hour is one that I cannot bring myself to forget, even six years later. The show was called Detective Conan, and it gave me thirty solid minutes of excitement, intrigue, and mystery. I fell in love with it instantly. A routine soon fell into place. Every evening, at 7pm, I would be stationed in front of the TV, prepared to battle anyone for the remote control, and go down fighting. Nobody could take those thirty minutes away from me. Or so I thought.
Just as all good things aren't meant to last, apparently this wasn't, either. It was promptly taken off air, leaving me stinging from the betrayal. Whining to my father about it enough to bother him into finding a solution, I was finally pacified with the promise that he would download the show for me. And it was this promise that my father was forced into making, that set the wheels in motion. Sitting down to watch the first episode, I found I had overlooked one little fact: the origins of the show. For my middle school obsession came from the hub of animation: Japan. The audio that assaulted my ears was Japanese, not the Hindi dubbed version that I had grown so used to. Suddenly, my beloved Conan and the Shounen Tanteidan were speaking a foreign language! Luckily, my desperation to watch the show overcame any apprehensions I might have had about entertainment in a completely different language. I soon settled into the exciting rhythm of reading the accompanying English subtitles and following the onscreen action, all at once.
And the rest, as they say, is history. From then on, I never looked back. Without even realizing it, I hungrily picked up new Japanese words every day. Such was my devotion that I even made notes of my steadily increasing vocabulary. And so it was that the first words I happened to learn in Japanese were all along the likes of 'jiken' (case) and 'satsujin' (murder) and 'yuukai' (kidnapping). Odd, I know, but not unexpected, especially given that I had a detective show as my only frame of reference. And that was just the beginning.
Once I discovered there was an entire world of anime out there, and so much more Japanese to learn, I was unstoppable. The world of anime and J-pop rolled out the red carpet for their newest devotee, and it was a world I soon made my own. However, even though I was on such a rampage, it was only ninth grade before I enrolled in an official institute to study the language properly. It was there that I found what I had been searching for all along: friends to share my passion. For it is a simple truth that when you are atop a high mountain, admiring the scenery spread out in front of you, you need someone to do it with. So, I was introduced to the joy of sharing my enthusiasm. Discovering that I wasn't alone in my need to learn about this country only fuelled my desire to learn more. And the more you wish to learn, the more the world teaches you. I accepted teachings in any shape or form, be it anime, manga, or the Japanese songs that were quickly filling up my iPod. It must be said that 'habataitara, modorenai to iitte' and 'marutake ebisu ni oshioike' have a high educational value, despite opinions to the contrary.
Japanese legends began tripping off my tongue as easily as Indian mythology. Yuki Onna and the Hyakki Yakou and Momotarou became as familiar as old friends. Very soon, it was difficult to find any element of Japanese culture didn't instantly reel me in. Everywhere I went, I found something to connect with the country I had so dearly grown to love. My idea of fun became reciting Japanese verb conjugations and grammatical syntax in my head. I was a girl hooked. And I continue to swim in this ocean today, teeming with rich histories and unexplored territory. The fact that I can share the joy of discovering something that is really and truly yours, is all because of one trivial happenstance. And I hope it is this event that will someday lead to experiences I have only imagined, till now. Yes. Cherry blossoms in spring. Winters spent under the kotatsu heater. Staying the night at school during the school festival. The taste of the first yakisoba of summer. Someday.
