MisoMoose

In case you can't quite see, this was my scrummy bowl of Miso soup that I had the other day... got my first care package from Japan, for which I was extremely grateful - miso, senbei, and a load of other Japanese goodies. So I'm feeling a bit less disconnected and have been reminiscing about lots of Japan stuff.

Then, the guys at work came back from a business trip to Japan and brought a load of stuff with them - sweets, umeshu (yeh baby!) and my boss, bless him, even brought me sushi, somehow, which I had for lunch and was awesome!!

And then this week I finally got around to writing to my two brilliant Japanese teachers at Gosh class who turned out week after week as volunteers for three years... and had the pleasure of telling them that the stuff they taught me enabled me to get not just a job, but a potential career (this week I found out I've been accepted onto Westiminster's translation diploma prep. course).

I haven't really thought yet, what I miss most about Japan, apart from the people. I guess I've been busy enjoying the British stuff that I had been missing (without really knowing it) for three years... I just find it really impossible to focus on more than one culture at a time!! There is something a little bit isolating - if also a little bit smug!! ;) - about having gotten used to expecting things to be different, but at least I now have a perfectly valid reason for feeling out of place, and basically, I feel really lucky for having had the chance to get so submerged of another way of life. I still feel like it's too early to pull out a coherent list of "things Japan taught me", but in an incoherent way I go about life with those lessons informing the things that I do. Although most of that is not particularly Japan-related, but simple life-stuff like learning to put one foot in front of the other.

I did get a bit natsukashii when I heard it was snowing in Aomori though, and seeing Luke's pictures of the mountain, but with any luck I'll be able to see it all again sooner than I thought...