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This blog will mark the beginning of what has been a long standing intention to reflect on my time with words. I have a fascination with expression, in all its various forms. I believe life can never be boring, so long as it finds a way to express itself. For many years, I longed for an experience that was very different from what I had become so familiar with. You see, having spent time in England, Canada, America and New Zealand, the western influence was fully threaded throughout the fabric of these countries. I, through samples of eastern influence, hoped that one day I could pluck up the courage to immerse myself in a distinctive culture away from the west. Japan has therefore felt like somewhat of a destiny and has opened my eyes in ways that can barely contain the delightful differences of this place.

I was speaking to my brother in England recently and trying to explain my impressions. It was the little things that stood out to me. For example, my brother's outside impression is that everything is busy. It was through explaining my experience so far that I realised how I had linked 'busy' with 'chaos'. In England, when times were busy, it was loud, disorganised and frantic, with frustrations that could be felt all around. I just saw it as a natural consequence of there being many people collected. But here, having visited Tokyo and now residing in Sapporo, my first impression is that although there are many more people than I am used to, 'chaos' is the last word that springs to mind. The opposite rings true, there's a sense of calm. People walk, but are not loud, things happen all around, but there's no sense of things being disorganised. It doesn't feel frantic and frustrations don't appear to bubbling to the surface.

Now this may be the honeymoon period where I'm seeing things through rose tinted glasses, but so far, I feel more at ease around the roughly 2 million inhabitants of Sapporo, compared to the roughly 250,000 inhabitants of my hometown of Plymouth, England.

I have many other impressions of this wonderful place which I hope to share over the next coming blogs, so stay tuned and stay snowy Sapporo!

Matt (UK)

by chitchatcafe | 2015-12-08 15:16 | 英会話 個人 レッスン 札幌

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