\n
<\/p>\n
In German, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fernweh\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>(lit: far away pain). It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the sense of wanting to be anywhere but where you actually are. Think of it as inverted homesickness. Though the ragged poverty of the English language prevents us from expressing this emotion, we have all certainly experienced it. That slight sinking feeling; knots in the stomach \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a stinging\u00c2\u00a0shpilke\u00c2\u00a0in the\u00c2\u00a0gederem. As many of us prepare to leave JET in the coming month, we find ourselves wading into a pool of mixed emotions about where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re headed. Joy in knowing you will soon be reunited with family, friends, pets, (and burritos), washed over by bitter pangs of sadness from the banal uncertainty that accompanies leaving. Will I find a job? (Eventually) Will I crave sushi everyday? (Naturally) Will I ever see the people I met here again? (Hopefully) What if\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6? It’s all part of the macabre reality of being an expat \u00e2\u20ac\u201c repatriating. After all, you are literally trading in your current reality for a previous one, as if it were a Toyota. This is when you start to think that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather be anywhere but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153home.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Eventually, everyone has to go back. The nomads, the wanderers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they can truly never lay claim to some ethereal yurt in the sky; calling the entire planet Earth \u00e2\u20ac\u0153home.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The human constructs of citizenship and national identity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ironically \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sometimes limit to our sense of belonging. Your time in Japan has undoubtedly shaped you in many ways \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some noticeable, some not. As you return home, you may feel uncertain about your sense of belonging. Now, you are not fully American, Canadian, Australian, so on. Yet, you are not fully Japanese. So what are you? You become suspended somewhere in-between and this is a totally terrifying space. If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one thing worse than being too many things, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the feeling of being nothing. So, this space and time where you must figure yourself out, resuming where you pressed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pause,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d might give you a severe case of the blues. Experts often label this as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reverse culture shock\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but I think \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fernweh\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/i>is apropos. In those moments when no one is relatable and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the faintest tinge that everything, yet absolutely nothing, feels right, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll wish you could be anywhere<\/b> but where you are.<\/p>\n
You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be fine, though. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure, somewhere, someone has crafted a beautiful 12-step program to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Repatriation Blues\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably sold nine copies), but the real true remedy to that intense sense of dis-belonging is just pure patience (and a few<\/span> bottles of wine). Your family and friends will, more than likely, be unable to relate to your experience. Sure, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll sit a spell for a few of your musings, but when you truly feel overwhelmed, reach out to your fellow JET returnees. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going through the same thing. Don’t let anyone fool you with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fine.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (We spent years trying to banish this from our Japanese classrooms!) Contact your local JETAA chapter, pick up a new hobby, and also talk with your friends and family \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they may not be able to understand your experience, but you can help them better understand that something like JET has changed you in many ways. For someone who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had the privilege of international exchange, the idea that you become uncertain of your cultural identity, and may even resent home may be a foreign concept. They may not understand that you want to take all the good stuff of both cultures and blend it together. That feeling of wanting the best of both cultures is a great opportunity, though.<\/p>\n Now that you are armed with your JET experience, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to craft yourself into a human pastiche of all things Japan and your home culture. Take a bento and chopsticks to your future board meetings, change your entire wardrobe on a specific day irrespective of the weather, tell your employees, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sorry for leaving early,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d even when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s midnight. Eat more fish, consume more tea (the health benefits are immense!), and learn to cope with a bad situation with an audible and disruptive \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e3\u0081\u2014\u00e3\u201a\u2021\u00e3\u0081\u2020\u00e3\u0081\u0152\u00e3\u0081\u00aa\u00e3\u0081\u201e!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d followed by a demure \u00e2\u20ac\u0153excuse me!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Fernweh, like our experience, is only temporary. However, your memories are not. Now, go forth, tack into the wind, and internationalize the $#!t out of the world (and yourself).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Louie Bertenshaw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In German, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fernweh\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0(lit: far away pain). It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the sense of wanting to be anywhere but where you actually are. Think of it as inverted homesickness. Though the ragged poverty of the English language prevents us from expressing this emotion, we have all certainly experienced it. That slight sinking feeling; knots in the stomach…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":5117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[425,48,107],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/HT_picture.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}