The End

It's long past time for me to put in my final thoughts and say that I won't write in this blog anymore. Our time in Japan is through. It has been for some time. At this point, the next year long assignment has gone to someone else and didn't fall at a convenient time for us, anyway. We are well into the throes of re-establishing our lives in America and it would be very difficult to uproot again.

I miss Japan. I miss many aspects of it. I miss how child friendly it was. I miss lunches at Orange Spice (egg salad with edamame followed by iced coffee and chocolate cake). I miss playgroups at the Mom clinic. I miss the flower arranging class I had just found. I miss learning a new language, however slowly. I miss the toys. I miss Amazon.jp. I miss the vegetables and fruits (Roo misses nashi). I (will) miss the bidet.

I don't miss the smoking. I don't miss the tiny roads. I don't miss not getting what I wanted or expected at a restaurant. I don't miss taking hours to get 5 things at the grocery store. I don't miss not being able to read things. I don't miss having salesmen come to my door all the time. I don't miss our (relatively) crappy apartment. I don't miss sleeping on a futon. I don't miss Roo hating the bidet. I don't miss not being close to anything that felt 'big city'.

I had to work a lot harder to get a substantial "don't miss" list. I wax nostalgic most of the time. It was a lot rosier now that I'm not there dealing with things day-to-day. It was a lot easier after the 12th month that it was in that first month. I would love to, and vow to, go back someday and visit. I want to see how it's changed. I want to stumble around in Japanese again. I want to enjoy the food and see if anyone I knew is still around.

I don't know if I won't post when I get nostalgic, or if I'll remember things and want to write them down because I didn't the first time. For now, though, this chapter is ended.