Lissette Lorenz

いよいよ、3年ぶりに日本に帰ってきた。心がホッとした。今回は友達の結婚式への出席と、お遍路という巡礼をするのが目的だった。人生がけっこう変になっていて、巡礼に呼ばれているような気がしたんだ。ちょうど今月は自分の誕生日でもあるし、人生の節目として行くことにした。今回は11ヶ所のお札所を巡ることができた。きっと、来年また続きを歩むつもりだ。

There’s another reason to name this post “Hisashiburi,” which means “it’s been a while.” Last time I checked in, I was in a frenzy to finally cross that PhD finish line.

Needless to say, I did not graduate in December 2024, like I had hoped. I did not send that pointed letter to the Grad School admins that I wrote two blog posts ago. I went on a leave of absence instead. Like tired lovers, that means me and Cornell are “taking a break.” Time to Eat, Pray, Love this piece.

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Speaking of breaks, I finally have the breathing room to address the break in the blog narrative (ブブブ、いっぱいのブが聞こえる). You’ve probably noticed there’s a nearly decade-long gap between my July 18, 2014 post about lecturing on Katy Perry (is she even still relevant these days) and the one following it. How did I go from living and teaching in Tokyo to whatever it was I thought I was doing in Ithaca, New York? (And wow, look how long my hair grew!)

And who even reads blogs anymore, anyway? Based on my website’s analytics, this place is a ghost town. I haunt it like I haunt the S&TS Department. (What would one expect when one studies ghosts?)

It’s funny. I’ve been turning this whole “I owe my readers a proper explanation as to what is even going on at LissetteLorenz.com” blog post over and over and over in my mind for…well, for over a decade now. It took me so long to craft this entry that I made it back to where and why I even started this thing in the first place: recounting my tales of adulting in Japan. I had just graduated from college and was about to start teaching English in Tokyo as my first official “Job” in society with a capital “J.” (I want to somehow invoke the Book of Job here, but am failing to come up with anything besides the image of Will Arnett sauntering around in a cape as G.O.B., the failing magician in Arrested Development. And I guess Gob and Bible Job and my Job with a capital “J” all kind of smell like failure, like sweaty socks and mildewy pillowcases and sulphur.)

I guess I’m adulting in Japan again, just not as I had expected. I’m basically 居候 -ing it like Saotome Ranma, my favorite manga character from middle and high school. I can hear train sounds from outside the window of this 1K  Airbnb. If I climb out this window to hang out my laundry, I should probably wear pants, because everyone on the platform of Higashimatsuba Station can see me, and it’s ok for them to see me hang up my underwear, but it’s not ok for them to see me hanging up my underwear while only wearing underwear.

I’m not doing anything in particular. Waiting for my laundry to dry. Waiting for my Shansi friend to get married in Tokyo at the end of the month. Waiting to see what else retirement from the Social Game has in store for me.

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So what have I been up to? I finished my English teaching fellowship in 2014. Reluctantly returned to the States to try to build a grown-up life with someone. Stayed in the education sector. Taught general education from preschool to college, skipping grades 6-8 because humans at that age scare me. Got envious of my students, decided to become a student again myself. Went to graduate school. That someone came with me. Stayed in grad school. That someone did not stay. His ghost now haunts 高円寺, where I posted many, many stickers.

もうええ、あの人生。