Westward, HO!

I have been busy planning my return to the United States. My parents will host me from the 15th May to May 24, and then I will go to Baltimore for a few days of meeting people and getting things done. I hope to meet as many people, both in Springfield and Baltimore, as I can. I am very excited to come back, but I wonder, will I have any culture shock? I have adjusted to Japan and its quirks pretty well, so will I be able to cope back home?

This is something I was wondering, as I have been walking around Osaka in the last week. Now that it is nice out, I have been roaming around this fair city a lot more, and I was adventurous enough to walk from my apartment to work the other day. I walked by a lot of stuff, and going across town really put things into perspective for me, about where things are, and how the neighborhoods all look. Despite the overal homogeneity, there is some change, in the types of stores one area has versus another, and you can tell each area has its own style. The change is most apparent when you go into predominantly Korean areas, yet even here there is still a Japaneseness to it. Not one time did I feel like it was unsafe, or unwelcome to be in. This is quite a departure from walking around Baltimore, where you cannot really walk the city without getting a bad vibe in one or another place. Springfield can be that way too. I will need to try and be more attuned when I visit each to find out why.