5 Things I Miss, and 5 Things I Will Miss

It's dawned on me recently that I really don't have all that much time left in Japan. I don't have an exact date in mind yet, but I'll be returning home at the end of June or the beginning of July. That's only about three and a half months. I've been here six and a half months already, but it really doesn't feel like it's been that long. This got me thinking about the things I appreciate or even take for granted in Japan, which we don't have in the UK, and that I imagine I'll miss once I've left. Whilst considering these I started thinking about the things I miss back home, and because it's been a while since I last blogged, I thought I'd turn this into a post.

Things I Miss

1. People

I suppose this is an obvious one, but I really do miss lots of people back home; my parents, friends and relatives. I also miss my dogs a lot, too! I know that they'll all be there when I get back though, so I don't really get down about it. Thank goodness for Skype, though! And going back at Christmas to see everyone really did work a tonic.

2. Yorkshire Grub

Oh dear. Whilst Japan's culinary peculiarities are varied and delicious, there are times when I could positively murder some roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding. However, I think giving up the diet of northern stodge for that of the Japanese is a big reason for me having lost so much weight since coming here, so I'll have to be careful not to indulge too much when I'm back home!

3. Being Able to Understand Everyone

Don't get me wrong; my Japanese has definitely improved a lot since coming to Japan, and I'm perfectly capable of holding down a conversation, but it's just not the same as a mother tongue. I've had to make a fair few phone calls in Japan, for things such as post redelivery or sorting out my (sometimes astronomically high) mobile bills. The fast-paced, high-level honorific language used by the people on the other end of the line makes such calls virtually impossible for anyone who's not Japanese. These calls are naturally much easier in the UK, even if everyone I speak to seems to be from Belfast, Newcastle or Mumbai.

4. Cheap Drinks

£2 doubles, £1 bottles, £2.30 pints, £15 cases. Oh Japan, why is 500 yen a cheap pint?!

5. Not Being Racially Profiled by the Police

Just because I am riding a bike does not mean I stole it.

Things I Will Miss

1. Konbinis

Ah, anything you would ever need right outside your front door. They're sort of like Spar, One Stop, or the shops you get attached to petrol stations back home - only much better. In the UK I'm a fan of shopping locally at independent shops, but I certainly wouldn't mind the odd konbini knocking around for emergencies.

2. Trains That Run on Time

To the minute. Except when someone's decided to throw themselves in front of one of them.

3. People (again)

I've made many, many friends at ICU and in Tokyo generally, from all corners of the world, and I'm dealing with the fact that it's extremely likely that I won't see the vast majority of them ever again after this year's up. Come to the UK, yeah?

4. Clean Streets

I hadn't thought that the streets of the UK were particularly bad until I came back to Leeds over Christmas; all I could see were thousands of pieces of gum, fag ends and dropped litter...come on, England!! In Japan every street seems to be spotless, despite the fact that there are hardly any litter bins anywhere. Japanese people take pride in the appearance of their country and cities, something which we're sorely lacking in back home; it's quite depressing.

5. Just Living in Tokyo

I will miss being here full stop. Tokyo is the most amazing, interesting and unique city I have ever been to. I'll miss all the different places you can go to, the things you can see and the people you can meet. It has an amazing vibe which is totally different to anything I've experienced before, and I'll really miss it. I can't see myself living here in the future, but I look forward to coming back as often as I can afford.

James

Tomorrow I Leave For Japan

Yes, it's come.  It's been a few years in the making, but the time has finally come.  Early tomorrow morning, my parents and Ayu will take me to Manchester Airport to meet Ash, and then the two of us will fly on to Tokyo.

My bag is (nearly!) packed, the goodbyes have been said, I've been out for a last drink at The Junction with Mum, Dad and Ayu.  All that is left to do now is have The Last Supper.  I requested a full roast, with chicken, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, cabbage and gravy.  As usual, Mum has delivered and I can smell it now; it smells delicious.

It's been a strange day.  I've felt a mixture of excitement, nerves, and sadness.  Ayu came over at about 9 this morning, and we've been out to shop for some last bits and bobs, had my passport photos taken, as required by ICU, put some money in my account, had my hair cut, packed most of my bag, and printed off some photos of us to take.  

After dinner we'll hopefully have a relaxing evening after such a hectic day, as well as pack the last few things into my suitcase.  

This will be my last post in England, so the next time you hear from me on here will be from Tokyo!  I look forward to seeing some of you in Japan, but most of you next year...have a good one!  I'll be on Facebook (most of the time, as ever) so I look forward to being able to keep in touch with the people who are important to me!

For now, goodbye; speak to you from Tokyo!

James

Things I'll Miss

It's getting really close to my departure now, and a sad trip to say good bye to my grandparents today has prompted me to write this blog post.

I drove over to see them at their house in Wilberfoss, near York, with Ayu this morning.  After arriving, I got my laptop out and showed them some photos from China last year (I have seen them since then, but the photos just never came out!).  We sat, chatted, and had a bit of a catch up, before going out for a pub lunch.  I had steak & ale pie with chips and peas. Yum.  Speaking of things I'll miss, pub food will definitely be one of them!  Not that I have it often(...), but I'm guessing steak & ale pie hasn't really caught on in Japan!  That said, there is a British Pub in Kichijoji, near to my Guesthouse, which Miles writes about in his blog here.  I'd really like to have a look at that when I'm there.  Obviously I don't want to be one of those Britons who just hangs out in the western-style places when they're abroad, but I'd like to have a look at their take on our culture.  I'll probably blog about it too, heh. 

Anyways, back to my grandparents.  After we returned from the pub, we had a snooze before my drive home, because I haven't been sleeping well recently, like not getting to sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning (at least it'll make the jet lag more bearable!), and on top of that, the heavy pie just put me to sleep.  After we woke up, we had a little photoshoot in the garden, (believe it or not, the one here was the best of the bunch), and my grandma gave me this beautiful gold crucifix to keep me safe in Japan.

She's had it since she was around 20, and my dad remembers her wearing it when he was a kid, so it's got a lot of family sentimental value - I'd better take good care of it!

So aside from just missing my grandparents (and pub grub), today made me think about all the things I'm going to miss during my year abroad.

One of the hardest things will be saying good bye to my girlfriend, Ayu.  After meeting at school when she joined the sixth form in 2009 and being together since the start of 2010 (January 18th!), we've spoken to each other literally every day, in some form or another, whether it be a text or two, emailing, speaking on the phone, Skype, or spending the whole day together. 

We naturally intend to keep this track record up whilst I'm in Japan, but the relationship will obviously much harder.  It really gets me down sometimes, thinking about how long we'll spend apart.  A lot of the time at the moment, I'm really split in my mind about going to Japan.  Half of me really looks forward to it, and just wants to get on the next plane out and go and experience everything, but the other half of me is hesistant about going at all, and counting down the days I have left with Ayu.  It's currently three, and writing this is killing me inside.  I keep thinking forward and imagining Friday afternoon; us both knowing that this is going to be the last real time we'll spend together for such a long time, and I get upset every time I do think about it.  I know I shouldn't dwell, but it's so hard not to.  

As I went to Leeds University from last September, we stopped being able to see each other every day, as we had done when we were at school together, but we still saw each other every weekend, and the odd week day, too.  You'd have thought that that would make preparing for a year in Japan easier, but it really hasn't, especially considering that I've again got used to seeing her every day over the Summer.  I can't say how I'll feel once I'm in Japan; it hasn't really hit me fully that we'll be apart for a whole year, but I don't think I'll do too well.  We'll have to see. 

I know that this opportunity to go to Japan to study and live only really comes once in a lifetime, so I should fully embrace it.  I'm sure that once I get there I'll settle in and it won't be too bad.  Ayu and I will be Skyping every week, and emailing every day, even if they're just short emails, so that should take the edge of it and make it more bearable.  As she's going to Imperial College London to read Maths from October, she'll have a lot on her plate too, so it's going to be a very exciting time for both of us, even if we aren't together.

I will miss my parents, too.  All the little things from when I'm living at home that I don't appreciate fully.  Like waking up every morning to find a cup of tea next to my bed (usually cold, but that's because me and waking up don't get along very well), the little gifts my dad buys for me from Covent Garden or Camden Town when he goes down to London for business, and just having them always there for me to talk to.

In the case of my grandparents, Ayu, my parents, and everyone else I'll be missing, I have to remember that they'll all still be here for me when I get back, and that a year really isn't a long time.  I just have to remain positive!  I'm taking plenty of little momentos from home to Japan, which will help me keep connected a little bit more (or horrendously homesick, I don't know yet).  

I feel bad for writing so much more about missing Ayu than my parents and grandparents, but the majority of what I wrote about missing Ayu is completely applicable to my parents and grandparents, too, especially imagining the last day I'll spend with my parents, and the drive to the airport, and  leaving everyone behind; going through the barrier at Manchester Airport and realising that I won't see them again for so long. It's true for all my family and friends whom I saw at the weekend, for my leaving party, too.  Everyone will be missed.

Today I also bid a last good bye to Punty, my faithful Fiat Punto in (British racing) green.

I got him (yes him, not it) for Christmas back in 2009 and, despite the brake down-y strops he occasionally throws, I will miss him massively.  My insurance runs out tomorrow morning, so tonight was the last time I will ever drive him, when I took Ayu home from my house.  He probably won't last the year when I'm in Japan, because I'm the only one who uses him and when I wasn't driving him during my exams and study leave, for just a few months, his condition deteriorated a bit, so we might as well sell him to someone who'll use him regularly, because he works really well when being driven every day, it's just a problem once he's been sat outside my house at the mercy of the elements for weeks at a time.  But because of this, Punty is the one thing that won't be here waiting for me when I get back from Japan :(

Ah, tea.  In Japan you will be sorely missed.  Green tea is all well and good, but you really can't beat a good cup of Yorkshire Tea with milk and one sugar.  I'm going to take 100 teabags with me, and Mum's promised to send me more throughout the year!  I just really hope you can actually get milk in Japan, unlike China, where I took a load of teabags with me only to find that all I could have milk-wise was UHT; it's just not the same!  So if I do get milk, I obviously won't be missing tea!  But without milk, it will be a very painful withdrawal indeed!

I'll also miss my nice big comfy sofa, also pictured to the right (a bit of it, anyway).  I'll miss all the nice furnishings in my house, as well as the house itself!  I'll miss the garden, with the never ending supply of green beans it keeps producing.  I'll miss my pond, with Bert and Alf (the two terrapins), and the gold fish. 

I'll miss my two dogs, Nobby and Mabel too, but what I'll miss most of all is arriving back home after being somewhere and simply being at home.  Everything is familiar, everything is, well, home.  

Nobby

Mabel

But all of the above is not to say I'm not looking forward to Japan.  I really, really, really am.  Preparation is moving swiftly, as it has been doing all week.  This evening I drove up to Leeds Bradford Airport to collect my Yen.  

That's a lot of money!  I'm sure I'll burn through it in the first few days of being there, though.  An interesting observation of how Travelex regard their money was the bag in which the yen came, before the woman took them out to count and give to me.  They were in a transparent polythene bag with some white boxes on to write in, a bit like the Sainsbury's freezer bag in my last post.  One of the boxes was titled 'Currency', and underneath someone had scribbled "Jap Cash".  Surely just "Yen" would have done, Travelex?

Anyways, I think that's quite enough writing for now.  Off into Leeds tomorrow for some last bits of shopping (yes, the 'last pre-Japan trip into Leeds' I talked about in my other blog post turned out not to be the last one).  Well done if you managed to get to the end of this, incidentally, I know it's a long one!

James