So long and thanks for all the fish

After I left Hamada I bounced around Japan for the better part of a month. I went to Lena's in Yakami, Janelle's in Yonago, Marie's in Matsue, back to Lena's, Leah's in Hamada (sans Leah), Maddy's in Matsue, Steph's and Setsuko's out on Oki, Karla's in Yakami, a wee hotel in Osaka, Damian and Kaori's in Choshi and lastly at the house of their lovely Obachan in Asahi. It was quite the trip. I got back to NZ thoroughly exhausted and spent a couple of days with the extended family in Auckland and then got down to Wellington and...

I've been back in New Zealand for over a week now but have yet to re-enter life here properly. I've spent a week holed up in my parents house being sick and doing absolutely nothing. This will end today, but before I start life here I'd just like to say how much I am missing Japan.

I am missing Japan, and I think I will keep missing Japan even once my time there starts seeming like a dream, or a movie I used to watch too often. Right now I am missing the food - Japanese food was good to me and I wish I had paid more attention when Setsuko cooked or when Yoshida guided me through tricky techniques or when Funada and I gossiped and made sweets. I am missing my wee house and knowing exactly how everything around me fits together (I am prepared to accept I went a little strange living by myself, but I am honestly finding this big house and its having other occupants rather odd). I am missing the community that I lived in, the guy at the bus stop who would shake his head sadly when I had missed the bus, the nice ladies at the supermarket who know I don't need bags. I am missing Nori. I am missing my bike and biking around all night and never feeling nervous in the dark. I am missing school and teaching. I miss my kids a lot, and I miss my office ladies (hmmm maybe I miss employment? nah). I don't miss being so noticeable but it does take some getting used to being so very ordinary. I feel invisible walking down the street here, being average height with normal proportions and normal coloured hair. So yeah. In my limbo state, before I launch myself back into life in NZ. I just wanted to say. I had an amazing time. And I miss Japan.

But more than that I am almost scared to start again here because as it is everywhere we go, whatever we are doing and for whatever reason, it is the people we meet who make life the ridiculous, rich, riotous experience that it is. And I don't want to forget all the wonderful people I have met over the past two years. I have met some pretty incredible people. On the island I met my ladies who kept me sane(ish) and well fed, and who taught me so much about being just where you are. On the mainland (both years) I met crazy gaijin friends who shared the strange and unusual trip that is Japan. And everywhere I went I met people who I danced with, drank with, laughed with, shared a moment on a train with, argued with, went crazy with... people who I will keep thinking about, people who I will lose touch with but whose memory will make me chuckle at inappropriate moments for years to come. Thanks guys.

Now to ditch the dressing gown and find a bus timetable...