At the end of July, I arrived safely back at my family home after thirty-nine hours of travel from Japan. (The plan was originally only twenty-eight hours, but that’s a story for another day.) I buckled into the back of my family’s minivan, rode down American roads in the righthand lane, and ate a completely rice-free dinner with a fork and spoon at my family’s dining table for the first time since last August. And in the weeks since, I have realized just how many things I had gotten used to on the other side of the globe that are not normal here. And how many normals in America have become suddenly quite foreign.
So in honor of the current month of life-flipping, I composed just a brief list of things I’ve done for the first time in the last two weeks since returning to the United States.
Shake someone’s hand
When I met my mother’s coworker for the first time last week, he thrust out his hand with some very direct and sustained eye contact and declared in a loud and confident Midwestern accent, “Hi, my name’s Carl.” And I just about ran away. I don’t think I expected him to give a standard Japanese head dip or speak quieter or anything, but I felt like an imposter when I mustered all my Americanness to shake his hand and provide my own name. Did I meet his eyes? I don’t even remember. I contemplated my existence for a while after that.
Wear shorts
Since all my pajama pants were in the wash, one time I made the mistake of changing into my pajama shorts at my Japanese host family’s apartment. My host mom took one look at my outfit and, with a confused and shocked smile, asked in utmost politeness, “Is that an American style?” I stayed under the covers for the whole night even though it was boiling hot and I never wore shorts again.
Buy strawberries (and then wash them in baking soda and vinegar)
I didn’t expect fruit to be so expensive in Japan—it’s like it’s an island or something—but that meant my cheap self didn’t buy anything but bananas for eleven months, though sometimes a generous dorm-mate would be kind enough to share hers. I also didn’t expect to come home to my friends telling me about numerous food recalls from nasty parasite contaminations, so we washed the living daylights out of those strawberries from Meijer. (Good thing is they were on sale, probably for the same reason.)
Read a nutrition label
Because I can read the national language in America! And many foods contain a lot more additives here that require avoiding. (Sad face.)
Use a toilet without checking under the seat for giant poisonous centipedes
Because I read that Japanese mukade have been known to hide there, and in beds and inside shoes. They’re one to two times the length of your hand from palm to fingertip and their bites can send people to the hospital. Like the murder hornet that sometimes casually stalked the courtyard at my Japanese university.
Use my driver’s license
Don’t tell anyone, but the first time I drove a car back in the US, I forgot to switch out the cards in my wallet and only had my train pass… not my driver’s license. I also forgot how to operate the cruise function on my car and was convinced that my brother had broken it while I was away.
Check a physical English book out from the local library
My friends and I once found a book shop in the deep center of Tokyo that sells only English books, but it was an exotic and rare find and I certainly was not about to buy a book I could take out from my library at home for free. I haven’t read a not-online English novel with actual paper pages in ages.
Sit in a backyard (as in, more than a ten-foot garden plot)
In a folding chair, listening to the mourning doves and the apple trees, overcome with an old, familiar sense of peace.
Emilyn Shortridge (’25) spent her Calvin years studying English linguistics, Asian studies, and ministry leadership, and intends to finish her Asian studies program in Chiba, Japan, in 2026. When at home in Plymouth, Michigan, she thrives anywhere near fantasy novels, houseplants, hot tea, or her calico cat, Genie, but she plans to live and learn in many cultures before deciding which corner of the world needs her most.
