Last Day in Tokyo

Today was my last day volunteering with New Start and also my last day in tokyo (for a while at least). I painted some Japanese wind chime things earlier:

And also worked in the cafe that new start has. We have a variety of drinks as well as curry - its a very relaxed cafe... In the morning I went shopping to get ingredients for the curry and we put it all together in the time between attending to customers. In the afternoon it was a bit slower.. we have a lot of time standing around as you can see from this video a friend of mine took:





My time at New Start has been really awesome. It's been crazy learning more about this organization and hikikomori by actually meeting and working alongside them. I feel like leaving just as I'm getting to get comfortable finding my way around!

Afterwards, I went downtown one last time tonight and met up with a friend of mine from UBC (my university in canada). We were about to go purikura but then saw this sign that said the area was blocked off to everyone except 'female and couples'.

Actually after seeing that sign we didn't want to go purikura anyways. Instead we went to a games centre and watched a horse race. Many people were betting on the winners but we just watched and it was fun enough for us.

... okay so maybe I got your guys hopes up with the horse race. We thought it was too funny how serious some of these guys were when they placed their bets though. There were 2 other horse race centres on the same floor.

Thinking about Hikikomori, I feel like a lot of the causation behind this issue has to do with the educational system and parenting that is shaped by society. While the easy answer would be to say that Japan needs to shift its thinking to be more like north america to alleviate the pressure and stress, I'm not sure that this would be best. I recently read a book called "do hard things" about how western society has set too low expectations for the youth growing up today and that youth have adapted to these expectations in a society with less of a regard for working hard. While its true that Japan has higher suicide and depression rates among youth, it's also true that the prevalency of crime and drug use is much lower. Todays question is what do you think about the differences between these two ways of thinking? What do you think needs to happen to help combat these issues? (again you don't need to talk about this to leave a comment.. its just to help you if you are having problems thinking about what to say so you can be entered into the draw =p )

And thats it for Tokyo (for now)! I'll be activating my Japan Rail pass tomorrow and going to Kyoto, where I'll meet up with Japanese and American students for our study tour to Hiroshima and Nagasaki (about 40 in all). I'm one of the 2 canadians on this trip so it's really special! Also its super super special because NHK world and Hiroshima will be doing a report on us, AND the american ambassador John Roos will be at the Hiroshima ceremony while UN secretary general Ban-Ki Moon will be at both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki ceremonies.

Also, next post will be the second drawing for the starbucks card (you can double your chances by commenting on this post as well as the last one!).

Thanks for reading guys! Below I have the answers to those of you who asked the hikikomori questions. Some of them were surprizingly hard so sorry if answers are sparse haha:

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@ TTYL (happiest memory/something they would like to do)

When I was talking with them about the happiest memory, a couple who answered talked about elementary school (so I'll answer that below) One hikikomori I talked with said that for something he wanted to do was to travel (actually specifically interested in Canada)

@ Rachel: (traits to describe self & outside world/where to travel)

Nobody I talked with could really clearly think of traits to describe themselves. I asked one hikikomori on his thoughts about Japan ('outside world' was a little hard for be to convey everything in japanese). He described it as "polite" and "industrious". Mentioned above, one really wanted to go to Canada. When I asked why, he said to learn english and to live there. I couldn't really understand much more than that of his reasoning. Another person I talked to really wanted to travel to Indonesia. when I asked why he said because he knew a couple people there and also there are many bugs (see more on this below).

@ taking photos: (what was elementary school like?)

One person I talked to said he remembers elemtary school as a happy time, because he had many friends. When I asked about his happiest memory, he said it was going on the class trips to temples and such. Another person said that his happiest memory was in elementary school during the breaks looking for bugs (I think this person is somewhat obsessed with bugs; he showed me his fan which was painted with blue cockroaches)

@ Matt (where do you see yourself in 5 years?)

This was a very diffucult question. The bug person thought for a short while then said he really had no idea (bug person is in the photo above, holding a wind chime next to me). I mentioned to him he should look into doing something with bugs. The interested-in-canada person said he sortof dreams that he would be in canada. When i asked doing what, he said maybe working for a travel agency. The people at New Start are at different stages of their withdraw-ness. Some people that I worked I honestly never heard their voice while others I talked with. My impression is that by the time someone is able to answer your question completely, they will no longer have a need to be at New Start.