The End (nearly)

So here we are at the end of the Japan odyssey and I must say, the end has taken me by surprise. It has always seemed like a matter of months, but now all of a sudden it’s less than a week. Today I looked at the weather forecast and saw what the temperature will be on the day we arrive home in Melbourne (a very reasonable 21 degrees, if you’re interested). Which is kind of spooky after so much buildup.

And lo, a great sadness descended upon the Sushi on a Stick household. Felix came back a few days ago from playing with his best-friend-up-the-road Ryota and promptly burst into tears. I don’t want to go home, he wailed, and I can see why: over the past two years he’s built up a wonderful team of friends who live locally, who he can just zoom off and visit on his bike at any time because it’s a country town where the kids play in the streets (and you don’t have to wear a helmet either). How could you give all this up? Plus Ryota has a Wii which is handy because ours broke last year.

Even Ruby was sad on her last day of school, although in a spectacularly Orwellian rewriting of history she refuses to admit as much, despite having released details about her tearfull farewell into the public domain via her blog. Still, her parents know better. Meanwhile Eleni has shed a few tears of her own and there are sure to be more to come as we go through the roster of painful goodbyes.

As for me, our two years in Japan have been a rollercoaster ride, mainly due to the initial disappointment of Ruby’s experience at school. But as she began to make friends outside school, and then eventually at school too, life in Japan got rather nice and cosy and as a result I felt altogether better about being here. So Japan and I part on good terms, although I’m still very annoyed about the summers.

Just like when we left Italy in 2004, I feel sad about what we’re leaving behind and even ambivalent about our return. But we have to draw the line somewhere, and two years seems as good a time as any. The longer you stay, the harder it gets to wrench yourselves away. And while Felix would love to spend another year with all his mates at Sunami primary, I can’t quite stomach the thought of Ruby doing third year junior high, where they ramp up the studying even further in preparation for the dreaded entrance examinations into senior high school.

Anyway, the kids are making the most of their last couple of weeks in Japan with a full schedule of play dates. Ruby is out with a different set of friends for six days in a row, culminating with a sleepover with Bestest Friend Rio from soccer tomorrow night. Felix, not to be outdone, is already on his second sleepover and is in fact joining Ruby tomorrow on a sort of double-date because he gets on well with Rio’s younger brother Reo (yes, it’s a disturbingly similar name; there are four kids in the family and apparently their names all start with R. Must be a fashion thing).

So the last week has been a steady process of sorting and packing. You realise how easy it is to furnish a house and add bits and pieces over the course of a year or so than it is to get rid of it all at the end. It seems such a waste to let all our stuff go but you can’t take it all (although we probably pushed the boundaries in this respect; two days ago we sent off a ridiculous 28 boxes to go on a ship to Australia. As if we don’t have enough junk at home already.) We’ve sold off the air-conditioners and various other saleable items, and now it’s just a matter of divesting ourselves of the remaining detritus of two years worth of accumulated family flotsam and jetsam. On Sunday we’re having an open house where we’ve invited people to come around and literally make off with whatever isn’t bolted down. For the final two days, Mrs Yoshida (mother of one of Felix’s friends from school and fellow drummer in Eleni’s troupe) is very kindly putting up the entire family at her place so we can attend to the small matter of cleaning the house out ready for the inspection on Tuesday.

And then, barring any last-minute emergency ambulance incidents (apparently I’m due for one) or nasty earthquakes or other unforeseen events, we’ll be gone. Just like that. Kind of weird really.