Homesick
I have been really homesick for Japan lately. I really want to go back. Things keep coming up that I really miss. I miss the onsen and the sento, I miss the food. I miss the humid and wet rainy season, and the muggy hot summer that follows it. I want to be dancing Awa Odori every day, and I want to be back doing jujutsu. I miss my friends from Japan (who have all left anyways) and I miss getting to speak Japanese every day. I want to go back.I know it had its problems, I know that I don't really want to live there for the rest of my life, but I don't want Japan to disappear from my life either. I miss Kamikatsu. I miss the culture and the lifestyle. I miss my home in Japan.
Where is this homesickness coming from? Am I hitting the five month wall of culture shock with my move to Vancouver? That's very possible. My problem is that I make everywhere I live into home. Winnipeg is home. Kamikatsu is home. And now, Vancouver is home. Everywhere I live is my home, but from another perspective, I have no home at all. "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head." I understand how that feels, a bit.
posted by Fletcher @ 9:28 a.m.
5 Comments:
You know what I miss? You, sir!! A blog now and then is good too, though...
Sounds like you need a career involving a lot of travel to Japan... and Winnipeg. Otherwise, you may forever be in this state. Are there a lot of graphic design jobs that involve that?
I understand totally. I miss so many things from Japan, but mostly the people - some of whom are in Japan, many who are spread around the world. I definitely miss my students, and the lifestyle, the travelling, the culture and the fun. I hope to get back soon, but it's not in the forseeable future, which makes it even harder.
Well, it's hard to find the time to write a blog these days. Take the next nine days as an example. I'm at work and just unusually slow, and the other designers have unusually little to do either, so they have no work to throw my way. There are a couple of things I could be doing, but I can finally justify a little typing for pleasure. I work at Starbucks tomorrow, and then Monday through Friday nights from six or seven until midnight every night. I will also be working at IBC every day next week from 8:45 to 5:00 or 6:00. On the weekend I'm headed down to Bellingham to hang out with Julie. Then the following week I'll presumably work full time at the one job and part time at the other. This all means sorely little time for blogging and other unimportant things like buying food and washing laundry. And the really crazy thing is that i keep meeting people who work as many hours as me but have longer commutes. So I really cannot complain. Life is good.
Wow...
I tried to append another thought, but I'm pretty much stuck with 'wow'
Well first time to navigate a Blog Site. I can't believe that it is almost 1 year that Jen and I have been at home and very few days go by where I don't think about Japan, even though I'm really busy at work - we have a sister city relationship with setagaiya shi - so our mayor and CEO the mayors secretary all visited Japan and I was really excited for them. We even have an old Japanese couple who come and do the ikebana in the Council Foyer so I am reminded almost all the time of Japan. I have taught most of my colleagues Japanese greetings and use them quite often.
However, I still really really miss Japan, our roads are so straight and our bath so shallow, no oldies on bikes and I miss our friends.
Colin
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