It’s amazing that the things that most changed my life in Japan I can’t really write about here. Or at least, I feel like I shouldn’t.

Like losing my fear of standing naked in front of people. Onsen (hot springs) taught me that associating shame with nudity is irrational and downright stupid. My physical self is what it is, and others are what they are. Exposing our physical selves to each other isn’t going to lead to wanton sex, nor is it perverted. It is natural. It is the way we are born.

Or losing my fear of physical contact with others. I can touch my friend on the shoulder. If I meet a girl I truly feel some connection with, I can touch her. Physical touch is a way of expressing closeness, and if you can’t feel comfortable with touching someone you have no way of expressing affection or passion or friendship. These are basic human emotions, and I want to be in touch with them. We have this phrase in English, to be “in touch” with someone. Affection, passion, friendship, kinship, family, love; if we are “in touch,” then we are close, and we can express these associations. If not, it’s a cold, distant, sterile world.

I often wonder why I was raised this way, why our culture has to be like this. And why does nobody notice? I think it’s because we’ve learned to tolerate it so well. If you’re in a room that’s ten degrees below room temperature, you get used to it, and don’t even notice until someone points out that the hairs on your arm are standing on end.

I feel cold.

I just returned from The Fat Greek, a local restaurant on Park and University. The same guy has owned the store for a couple years now, and he seems to do great business. So much so that he’s moving downstairs into a bigger store and hiring some new staff.

Anyway, my usual routine is to walk in around 2pm on Wednesday or Friday, order a gyro, and sit next to the wall toward the back, facing the exit. It tends to be pretty empty around then, seeing as everyone has already finished their lunch break. On this particular Friday though, I noticed a girl in a green tank top teaching her friend how to do some sort of dance to the music playing in the background, while the guy they were with watched. I don’t know much about dance, but it looked pretty complicated. So I sat and watched them dance while I ate my lunch. It was absolutely fascinating, but a bit surreal.

Apparently the girl teaching the dance is Greek, and she learned this particular dance from the local Greek community (I had no idea Tucson even had a Greek community). Furthermore, all three of them are in Pride of Arizona (the U of A marching band) so we started up a random conversation for a few minutes.

I just love random events like this. They make life refreshing.

RIP Hunkabutta, the site which originally inspired me to take photos in Japan. Hope you and your family enjoy Canada.

Meanwhile, for those of you still looking to get away from dreary boring reality, check out the Fresh Views column on the right. Sushicam is still good!