The kids

It’s probably fair to say that the kids are not particularly enthused about this Japan thing. We’ve been talking about it for at least a couple of years now so they’ve had plenty of time to get used to the idea but it’s still too hard to comprehend.

And it’s fair to say that the kids are thoroughly fed up with hearing some or all of the following from our friends and family:

• You’re so lucky!

• You’re going to have so much fun

• It’ll be such a good experience/It’ll be so good for your education

• You’ll be so fluent at Japanese

• You’ll thank your parents when you’re older

To which they are no doubt thinking:

• What about all my friends/my toys/my things?

• I don’t like Japanese food

• Do we have to?

and quite possibly:

• Are we there yet?

And I can see their point. Ruby in particular has built up a close circle of friends during her last year at primary school and she’s not too happy to be leaving them all. And it will be pretty tough at first, getting up to speed with the language. And it is a wrench, that’s for sure. Even I’m scared, and I’ve lived there for five years.

But think of all the positives: endless supplies of sushi; cute mobile phones with Kitty dolls hanging off them; vastly superior stationery materials (better even than Smiggle); new friends; guarantees of extra MSN and Facebook time to make up for the loss of old friends; and last but not least, more time together as a family (!!).

For that they’ll surely thank us when they’re older.