One Year

I can hardly believe that it has been a year since we landed on Japanese soil. We have done and seen so many things that it feels like an entire lifetime has passed. On the other hand, it seems like just yesterday I was sitting on the porch of the mountain house basking in the glory of the Colorado sunshine. I can safely say that this is the most at home and comfortable I have yet felt. Perhaps this is caused by falling into a routine and adapting to the new culture. Maybe it's because I can almost have a conversation in Japanese (this language is ridiculously hard). It could be because we have adopted new amazing friends and find ourselves socializing with more and more people more often. Whatever the reason, and it really doesn't matter, I can officially say that I have never been happier with our spontaneous decision to leap the ocean.

I have learned so much about myself, about Rob, about Japan and Japanese life, and about the world as a whole. I have always been a proponent of world wide travel, and have enjoyed it for as long as I can remember (thanks mom), but actually residing in a foreign country has been a completely new experience, for obvious reasons. With a more in depth look at a country I have really started to understand the way things are, and become accustomed to that. I must admit, the more I get to know Japan, the more I love Japan. Granted there are still and will always be things that completely urk and confuse me about this country. There will always be certain places and faces that I miss about my home, and can't wait to see again, but the most important thing is to enjoy what I have when I have it, and right now I have Japan, and I love it.

Yeah, there's not much for good quality beer and pizza. There are gender roles that I will never be able to accept. My friends and family are so, so far away. And what I would give for a night of high quality music and dancing. But living in such a safe, beautiful, clean, kind, and interesting place full of juxtapositions certainly gets my blood flowing and my soul yearning for more. Good beer and pizza, I can painstakingly admit that I can live without, because I'm a gaijin I am excused from disobeying gender roles, and how did people ever communicate without Skype?

The number one thing I have learned through my travels now and previously, is that it is so easy to take things for granted. Once you are removed from a place or situation, once something is taken away from you, or you leave, you realize how great everything actually was and how little you appreciated it. I am doing my very best to not let that happen with my time here in Japan. I vow to appreciate and love what I have while I have it, and in case you haven't heard I love Japan.