Back in Japan, Again

The twelve days I spent at home over the holidays did me wonders.  There’s really no place like home – my warm, insulated parent’s house complete with a fireplace and my mother’s cooking.  I got to New York to see my brother’s new place, Philly for New Year’s, ate buffalo wings, a cheesesteak, some good pizza, and tons of Christmas cookies.  A friend of mine who has been in Japan for over ten years goes home every Christmas as a matter of course.  I think it’s important to get out to decompress, to get back to a place where things make sense for a while.

But now it’s back to work, back to strained communication and Hoka Hoka bento boxes, back to screaming kids and Sukiya beef bowls, back to incomprehension and bewilderment, back to driving on the left hand side of the road and being stared at, back to things that are gradually starting to make a modicum of sense.

Happy New Year!