Pepi in Wonderland: Everyone is so Alien

Yup, another chapter of Pepi in Wonderland. Today is all about aliens. When I came back from Europe, I just felt that everyone is so alien. I first landed in Vienna, Austria. It’s not that you find all strange people in Austria, it was only that I wasn’t used to seeing so many foreigners like me anymore. Okay, you might say, but you did come back home during vacations, didn’t you? Yes, I did. But it was always for a very short time. What do you think it happens when you go over the short period of time? Your brains enter into the panic zone.

Try to think about it. You’ve been eight years of your life in an environment where the majority are Japanese, and the minority are foreigners. From those foreigners, most of them are there during their vacations. And the few that are left are foreigners who live in Japan, just like you. You create a weird bond with them. You learn how to distinguish someone who is just passing by from someone who is living there like you. And, above all, you have superpowers. That’s right, you are a superhero, and you know it. Whatever you do, people are going to be amazed because you’re different from the Japanese majority. And you get used to it.

Then you come back. The first to notice that your superpowers are gone is your brain that puts you in a state of continuous danger stress. You don’t know it yet, and so, you’re left in perplexity because of the behavior of “those aliens over there who completely ignore you.” Well, that was putting it mildly.

You want to run, to go back to paradise. You don’t understand what’s going on. And while all this happens, your brain keeps you under stress. “You see those over there? Those are dangerous!” Until one day, you wake up and realize that you are not special anymore just because you were a foreigner in Japan. You have no fairy dust anymore. The one you had it’s gone. Now, you have to work for having friends again. Can you imagine to enter a room, just wave your hand and have some friends? That was Japan. Now, you’re back on a land without magic. Very much like Once Upon a Time.

Then you realize that you’re one of them. Damn! Then you remember where you came from in the first place. Damn again! And then, after a long while, you’re able to breath again. Why? Because, after a long time, you can go incognito around. It’s not like you couldn’t do that in Japan, it’s that your brain didn’t make you feel like that. [It’s funny how these things work.]

That’s part of the reversal culture shock. It’s pretty funny how it works. You get used to some patterns, and when your brain can’t find them in a certain period, it panics. And when it happens, stress kicks in. In cases like this, the best thing is to realize that this is happening, and then, use “the dude way.” Sit back, and relax. Everything is okay.

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