Countdown

Less than a month to go now, and the final countdown is well and truly underway.

The last few weeks have been a flurry of catching up with people, touring all of our favourite eateries one last time, and packing up the house. Meanwhile I am still trying to maintain a semblance of working like a good breadwinner.

It’s a funny feeling, preparing to leave after so long. I’m so used to living here and am feeling quite sad about it all. I’m going to miss so many things, not just the cafes and restaurants, the clothes, and the quiet country life on the coast amongst the islands, but also the countless little things like our nice deep Japanese bath, the way you can leave things in the car without having to worry about them getting stolen, and ordering things from Amazon Japan and having them arrive the next day.

Yes, the summers are evil and the schools are atrocious, but all in all Japan has been a wonderful place to spend the last two years. There have been times when I’ve been fed up and just wanted to run off back home–but of course that could have happened anywhere (including Australia, in which case there would be nowhere to run back to). Faced with the imminent prospect of turning my back on the life to which I have become so accustomed, I realise that I’m quite fond of this place. I felt it quite strongly when I was up north last month; perhaps it was the sight of so many people being so selfless, a whole new side of Japan that I hadn’t seen before.

In any case, the wheels are in motion and we’re now firmly in “last time” territory: Eleni’s last drumming performance was on Saturday, the kids and I had our last PJO brass band performance on Sunday, we’re starting to say our last goodbyes to people we’ll quite probably never see again. Ruby finishes school on Friday, Felix next Wednesday.

Next Thursday we’re off on the Last Great Family Trip, this time all the way to Tokyo (a longstanding promise to the kids) with a side trip to Nagano for a spot of skiing. We get back just in time for the New Year and our last ever dose of local culture, which includes climbing the mountain at daybreak to watch the sun rise then eating the ancient traditional cultural New Year thingies on January 1.

The final week will be spent cleaning up the house, which promises to be no small task. And then we hop on the train to the airport at 3:05 pm on Tuesday 10 January and… that’ll be that.

Kind of sad really.