We all went to bed last night thinking we would sleep all night and wake up feeling less jet lag. Like a lot of things so far with our gap year, we were taken by surprise. We are experiencing what AI called a ‘jet lag curveball’. Apparently, the second day of jet lag can be worse than the first. Dave, Alexis and I were all awake at 2:30am wandering around the condo like zombies, while Braxton slept all night. Jet lag is also harder to adjust to the older you are. Dave is definitely struggling the most. We crossed 14 time zones eastward, which is one of the toughest directions for you body to adjust to. It can take 4-7 days to adjust.
We’re doing all the tips like getting morning sunlight, eating on Japan’s schedule, and getting exercise. I did a standing yoga routine this morning. Our 2 bedroom condo is so small that when the sofa bed is made out, there’s almost no room to exercise. Plus, being on the 8th floor we want to respect the people below us, so any type of cardio is ruled out.
Walking Our Way to Normal
For everyone to get sunlight and some exercise we went for a walk again this morning. We decided to walk around the streets of the city and saw several places we want to visit. When we got back to our condo we were talking about how it’s hard not to feel out of place here. Things that come naturally to us at home are not the same here. They walk on the left side of the sidewalk. Making eye contact when passing can be seen as confrontational or overly intense. In Colorado, I would often greet a stranger on a walk with direct eye contact, a smile, and say good morning. My attempt to be friendly here needs to change. The Japanese have a quiet, reserved way about them that I think is amazing. Politeness here is often expressed through subtlety, not overt friendliness. We have so much to learn!
We decided to jump back into school this morning. The kids were up for it, so we decided to give it a try. Rather than doing everything in the morning, we’re doing a couple hours before lunch and a couple hours after lunch. This way we can enjoy the slightly cooler morning and evening hours and do school during the heat of the day.
Japanese Language is Hard
We have been attempting to learn some common Japanese phrases. Dave created a quiz in Quizlet for us to practice these and we have been trying out our pronunciation with Google Translate. We have had some hilarious mispronunciations. Some were even too offensive to share on a family blog. Here’s a couple funny ones. On the left is what Google Translate thought I was saying, on the right is what I wanted to say.
I have felt extremely intimidated to say anything in Japanese. It doesn’t help that I constantly have to stop myself from saying things in Spanish. I did successfully say ‘Thank You’ to our cashier at the convenience store last night. Or at least I hope that’s what I said!
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Thank you for sharing! We are finding your postings about country and culture fascinating!
Hahah those translations are hysterical. “It’s a toilet, Walco” is my favorite, I might be saying that in my head for a while!
So sorry about the jetlag, I can’t even imagine what that feels like! Hope you get some rest and start feeling like yourselves again soon!
Oh, and the quiet, subtle friendliness would be soooo difficult for me. I would have to constantly bite my tongue and check my face (as referenced by the dumb amout of exclaimation points in my first comment. Woof.) – good luck with that!
*as evidenced by (not referenced by) – I’m done. I’m embarassing myself at this point.
This is hilarious! I would have the hardest time not greeting people on the streets! But now this is making some sense because I have noticed a lot of Asian people ignore me when I greet them (to be fair, plenty of white people do too) so I’m wondering if some of that is customary. The google translations were hilarious 🙂