A place close to home

I’ve never been very good with written words… but after March 11th, 2011…
it was literally, like someone turned “the faucet” off… I tried so many times to write about what I was feeling or thinking or seeing, but I couldn’t, words were not my friends.
There was so much I wanted to say… I was feeling so profoundly sad and moved by everything what had just happened.
Now, after closing our house in Japan and having officially moved to Germany …as days go by, it suddendly starts to sink in: that’s it… we are not going back…
I have to say, that if I had to summarize how I feel about Japan in one word, it would be: GRATITUDE…. IMMENSE GRATITUDE… to be more precise, but I guess I would be cheating, since that’s two words!

I moved to Japan three years ago wanting to support my husband in fulfulling a long time dream of living there…more than anything else.   I arrived in Japan with two little kids (2.5 years and 5 months) . That was my first time to set foot on this wonderful country.

Simply put: I was overwhelmed. I think I lost three kilos the first three weeks… I just didn’t see ANYTHING I could eat at the store… in retrospect, that was kind of good, since I still had some of the “baby fat” to get rid off.
After a few weeks, I started realizing that things were like anywhere else. Potatoes are potatoes, tomatoes, bananas and such… and could be found everywhere and were all the same (how did I manage NOT to see them before??)… plus quite a few more interesting ingredients yet to be tested.

And life started becoming a routine. Going to Kindergarden, meeting moms, spending time at the park… I remember my first japanese word was: kawaii (cute), as most japanese moms used to refer to my smily baby.

Making new friends, learning new ways, enjoying the sun, hating the mosquitoes, learning to drive on the left, picking up a new sport, visiting incredible sites… Meeting special friends who have encouraged me to follow dreams long forgotten…

I am grateful for every single memory I have from Japan.
I am grateful for the kindness that people have given me and my family, for they have given us  the opportunity to live in their country and shared their lives with us.
I am grateful for the friends I made.
I am grateful for the love my kids have to Japan and their friends.
I am grateful for kids singing Twinkle Twinkle in Japanese and cute Bento Boxes.
I am grateful for seeing my kids grow in a safe place.
I am grateful for a new point of view.
But most of all, I am grateful for experiencing the love for Japan that I never thought possible, when I first set foot in Narita, with more worries than expectations…

I hope to have learned something from Japans’ people: their kindness, their humbleness, their pride of doing something well, their respect for others, their willingness to serve always with a smile.

Life takes us on to a new adventure… or … who are we kidding!! maybe it is just us… setting up a new adventure for ourselves… one thing is for sure… as our Journey continues… we are NOT the same we were before… for now…

JAPAN HAS BECOME… PART OF WHO WE ARE…