Quiet chaos

Why does the community in ‘The giver’ by Lois Lowry's book keep reminding me? It feels like visiting Japan, which is quite different from the place where I have traveled so far.

I took off my shoes and walked tired and barefoot on secluded roads with crows cawing. In a clear stream, ducks ride the rippling current roadsides where I can't see even a tiny piece of garbage. Buses, taxis, and private cars gleamed as if they had just been washed and shined. The houses are neat and tidy, as if the rain has swept away the dust.

Empty bottles are cleaned and sorted by color and non-color. After the garbage truck passes, an elderly neighborhood cleans up after. The pond is filled with silk carps, reminiscent of the brilliant colors of kimono. In the street, people dressed traditional costumes are as beautiful as silk carps. This is a country that has nothing to do with the common crimes of New York. My son's admiration for the fact that no one touches other people's things on the street.

It was a mistake that a small person like me was Japanese. They have hick hair like thick wooden bushes in the mountains. They look healthy and handsome figures that appear to be mixed with other races. Wives talk to each other in quiet way and wear colorless neat clothes or take their kids home on bicycles after school. I did not hear the car horn or the ambulance sirens.

Everything in the supermarket is shiny and clean. When I bought ice cream, 

The clerk asked me, “Do you want me to put it in dry ice?” My heart sinks at their kindness. I kept saying full of sumaseng (excuse me) and arigato gozaimas (thank you) as I bowed my head to their kindness.

The community in the book "The giver", which I have read before, is constantly reminiscent of the life of the Japanese, who are tranquil and clean in a restrained life. Jonas, the protagonist of the book, lives in a perfect community free of pain and sorrow, but eventually he escapes into a lonely and harsh world where pain and joy coexist.

As time went on, I felt like a rat in my head and wanted to return to the rough and tumble of New York City, just as Jonas escaped from the perfect community. Was it because I had become accustomed to the hustle and bustle of the city?