こんにちはEigemannです。
(English below)
この時期になると、夏休みは日本に帰国してパートタイムの仕事をするのが恒例になっていた。主な目的は小遣い稼ぎだったが、アメリカで過ごす時間が長くなり、日本の状況が少しわからなくなってきていたため、それを探る意味もあった。時期的には就職氷河期の真っ只中で、日本の経済が悪化し続けていたが、アメリカに滞在している限り、その影響はあまり強く感じなかった。来年に卒業を控えていたので、日本に帰国した場合にどのような選択肢があるのか、知っておきたいと考えていた。
しかし、帰国後はサーフィンにハマってしまい、しばらくは地元のサーフィンショップからボードを借りて波に乗る日々が続いた。地元の福岡の波は夏場は大したことがなかったので、宮崎までサーフトリップに参加することもあった。スケートボードも続けていたが、ボード系のスポーツは一通り試してみたかった。結局、サーフィンは卒業後もしばらく続けていたものの、最終的にはスケートボード一本に絞ることになった。
パートタイムの仕事については、3ヶ月という短期間では肉体労働しか選べず、倉庫作業をしていた。よく「普段は何をしているのか」と聞かれ、「アメリカに留学している」と答えると、「すごい」「頭いいんだね」と言われるが、彼らに自分がアメリカでどれだけ苦労しているかを話しても、理解されることはないだろうと思い、詳しくは語らなかった。
東京で留学生向けの就職セミナーが開催されることを知り、参加することにした。複数の企業と面談し、さまざまなアドバイスをもらった。大学では主にプログラミングを学んでいたが、将来はシステムエンジニアやコンサルタントを目指すと良いのでは、という意見が多かった。当時はそれらの職業が具体的に何をする仕事か理解していなかったが、結局卒業後はプログラマーではなく、システムエンジニアとして働くことになった。
そんな忙しい日々の中で、自分がアメリカでの生活や考え方に触れることで、以前とはかなり違う人間になっていることに気づき始めていた。そんな自分が日本の生活にすぐに馴染めるかどうかを深く考える余裕はなかったが、3ヶ月という短期間ではそこまでの影響はなかった。いずれにせよ、再びアメリカに戻ることが決まっていたからだ。しかし、この時点で、10年後の自分がどうなるか、もっと真剣に考えておくべきだった。
ある日、父が「ちょっと手伝ってほしいことがある」と言い、ついて来るように言った。父は当時現役の警察官で、交通事故の処理を担当していた。英語ができる人が必要だからお前がやってくれと言われ、公務を外部の人間が手伝っていいのか疑問に思ったが、父は説明不足な性格なので、特に気にせず従った。向かった先は病院で、ある病室には白人女性が骨折した足を吊り上げて休んでいた。彼女の調書を英語で作成してほしいとの依頼だった。加害者は警察がやらないといけないが、被害者は外部の人にも委託していいらしい。
彼女はオハイオ州出身で、ロケットエンジンの研究で日本に来ていた。数日前、海を見に行っていると、地元のバイク乗りが一緒に乗らないかと誘い、バイクに乗ったが、そのバイク乗りが無茶な運転をしたせいで事故に遭い、彼女は振り落とされて骨折したという話だった。無茶をしたバイカーに呆れたが、とりあえず話を文章にまとめた。彼女と何度かやり取りし、誤認識がないか確認して、父にも確認してもらい、最終稿が完成するまでかなりの時間がかかった。
最も悩んだのは、彼女がバイカーに対する処罰をどう表現するかだった。日本語で「厳罰を望む（severe punishment）」と書こうと思ったが、彼女にとってはそれが強すぎる表現だったようで、「適切な処罰（appropriate punishment）」に変更したいと言われた。最終的にそれで良いと納得し、調書が完成した。長時間の問答で彼女も疲れていただろうし、自分たちも挨拶して病室を後にした。彼女は後日迎えにくる両親と帰国する予定で、もうバイカーの誘いにはのらないようにと冗談交じりに伝えると、恥ずかしそうに笑っていた。
こうして慌ただしい3ヶ月が過ぎ、再びアメリカに戻る時期になった。日本が卒業後に住むべき場所かどうかを考える暇もなく、今はただIUに戻り、卒業に集中しようとしていた。
(続く
------------------
As summer approached, it had become a tradition to return to Japan during the break and take on a part-time job. While the main goal was to earn some spending money, another reason was that after spending so much time in the U.S., I had started to lose touch with what was happening in Japan, and I wanted to get a sense of things back home. It was the height of Japan's "employment ice age," and the economy was continuing to worsen, but as long as I was in the U.S., I didn't really feel the impact. With graduation coming up next year, I also wanted to explore my options if I returned to Japan after finishing school.
However, once I returned, I became engrossed in surfing. For a while, I would borrow boards from a local surf shop and head out to the waves. The summer waves in my hometown of Fukuoka weren't much to speak of, so I also joined surf trips to Miyazaki, where the conditions were better. I was still skateboarding as well, wanting to try out all board sports. Although I continued surfing for a while after graduation, I eventually focused solely on skateboarding.
As for part-time work, given that I was only available for three months, the only jobs I could find were manual labor, so I ended up doing warehouse work. People often asked me what I did, and when I told them I was studying in the U.S., they would respond with "That's amazing!" or "You must be really smart!" But I never went into detail about the struggles I had faced over there, as I figured they wouldn't understand.
I heard about a job seminar in Tokyo for international students and decided to attend. I had meetings with several companies and received a lot of advice. Although I had been studying programming in college, many people suggested that I should aim to become a systems engineer or consultant in the future. At the time, I didn't fully understand what those jobs entailed, but I eventually ended up working as a systems engineer after graduation, rather than a programmer.
During those busy days, I started to realize that my time in the U.S. and exposure to different lifestyles and ways of thinking had changed me significantly. I didn’t have much time to deeply consider whether I could easily readjust to life in Japan, but the short three-month period didn’t seem to have a lasting impact. After all, it was already decided that I would be returning to the U.S. soon. However, I should have thought more carefully about how I might feel 10 years down the line.
One day, my father asked me to help him with something and told me to come along. At the time, he was still working as a police officer, handling traffic accident investigations. He said he needed someone who could speak English, so he wanted me to do it. I wondered if it was okay for an outsider, even a police officer's son, to help with official duties, but my father was never one for explanations, so I didn't question it much. We arrived at a hospital, where a white woman with a broken leg was resting in bed. My father asked me to help prepare her statement in English. Apparently, while the police had to handle the perpetrator, it was okay to outsource the victim's side of things to external people.
The woman was from Ohio and had come to Japan for research on rocket engines. A few days earlier, she had been invited by a local biker to go for a ride while she was visiting the sea. The biker, perhaps eager to show off, rode recklessly, resulting in an accident where she was thrown off the bike and broke her leg. I was baffled by the biker's poor judgment but went ahead and compiled her account into a document. After going over it with her several times to make sure there were no misunderstandings, I had my father review it, and it took quite some time to complete the final version.
The most difficult part was how to phrase her desire for punishment for the biker. In Japanese, I thought "severe punishment" would be appropriate, but she felt that was too strong and wanted it changed to "appropriate punishment." Once she agreed to that, we finalized the document. It had been a long process, and I was exhausted, as I imagine she was, so we made our farewells and left. She mentioned that her parents were coming to Japan soon, and they would be taking her back home. I jokingly told her not to ride with any more bikers, and she laughed, though a bit embarrassed.
In the blink of an eye, the busy three months were over, and it was time to return to the U.S. I hadn't had much time to think about whether Japan would be the right place for me after graduation; my focus was entirely on returning to IU and finishing my degree.
To be continued.
