My days bumping around on the pick up trucks of Cambodia, skating the bright streets of Hong Kong, diving into a salty, soupy Indian Ocean at lunch after chipping pearl shell all day, and seeing any and all things with my naked eye have turned into my days teaching little Okinawan kids in two elementary schools in the middle of the old Koza city, one bustling urban and one chill quiet, driving in the spring rains my new car that my friend who moved back to Osaka hooked up, reading Raymond Carver and Charles Webb, eating really good yakiniku at my girlfriend's house, and still seeing all and any things with my naked eye.
My experience makes me feel blessed everyday, though I did wish I was able to be back in my home country for the inauguration earlier this year. But I'm seeing things from a different perspective- the fourth graders at Moromi were chanting "Yes we can, yes we can" in class like it was the first English phrase that was driven into their brains...
The closest I get to the US these days is Gatorade bought at the store on the Marine Air Base or the Chili's we had on-base the other day. Damn that was some good steak! Anyway, I hope if you 're ever bored enough to read this you'd understand the meaning of my juxtaposition of red Gatorade with the city of Ginowan: I was real thuuursty and came out of my apt door to a beauty of a sunset the other day. I dunno, I wasn't really like, playing sports or nothing, but the Gatorade was pretty good, yafeel?
I also added a middle name to my full name as well: Weston. This whole thing started like two years ago when my dad was driving me to the airport. Merging from the 405 north to the 105, he said he wanted to change his name to Johnny. I was like, "Yeeah man!" I was about to make an American name in 7th grade, but was too lazy/clueless to get to the courthouse to change my name. So then we got to talking, and last month we were both like, okay let's do it. So now I'm Aki Weston Murai, and my father is Johnny Yoshiro Murai. And that's that.
I'm still Aki. Weston is secondary. Aki knows you and that will never change. Shit feels weird, writing in third person. That last sentence sounded like a facebook status message... aahhh, the wonders of coming back online...
Peace, I'll be putting up them alphabet drawings in my classroom tomorrow. laaaterr
2 comments:
I feel you Winston (U know I am hooked on cigarettes), ma town just looks like yours except for the gatorade which ruined the view but added some meaning to u, a feel of reminiscence of the third world. Peace man we miss u here in the city of angels.
congratulations on the new name mang! i dig it... and the power of red "Gatorade with the city of Ginowan" is not lost on me. that's an amazing shot. peace -b
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