Sayonara

I had high falutin plans for the final post in this little adventure but in reality I have so many things on my mind at the moment that I feel like I am stuck in the middle of a very fast lazy susan and no one will let me off!

Enough of the whinging.

I have led a very charmed life for the past 18 months and although I once complained that I had to go out for lunch five days in a row I am sure that there might come a time when I am knee deep in nappies and will wistfully look back on such decadence. Somebody once said that if there was such a thing as reincarnation he would come back as a "Mazda wife", not such a bad choice I reckon.

Without wanting to sound cliched living in Japan has been a chance in a lifetime, we have had some wonderful experiences and made some great friends along the way too. Many people have said "oh but the language must be such a barrier" and while it is difficult it has never prevented us from doing anything. During our first week here we went to a restaurant with a menu entirely in kanji, unfazed by this we managed to ask the waitress to bring us as much food as our budget allowed. Fortunately we're not picky eaters and we dined like kings that night. I think the moral of the story is that if you think something will be a barrier then it will be.

When I have explained to some people that I do not have a 9-5 job here they have looked at me in horror and said "But what do you do all day? Aren't you bored? It must be a long wait for Martin to get home at the end of the day". The way I saw it was that there was a whole new country out there to explore. And explore we did. I spoke to a couple of Japanese ladies at lunch (I did go out for lunch a lot!) the other day and when they asked me where I went to in Japan they were surprised to hear that I had visited places they had not been too. When I wasn't going on off on adventures I took Japanese lessons, taught English, finished a course in Art History, worked for a translator and started a book group. None of these things were particularly demanding or stressful but I enjoyed them all, learnt lots of new things and met many new people because of them. I was certainly not bored and most definitely did not sit by the door waiting for Martin to get home at the end of the day.

Nevertheless, it was lovely to see Martin at the end of every day. For the first time in our nine year relationship/marriage I got to see my husband seven days a week. Most people take this for granted but before we got married it was a long distance relationship and when we got married Martin was working in Germany a great deal of the time so being able to spend so much time with each other was a big bonus in coming here. I know it sounds corny but spending so much time together has been one of the best things about this whole experience.

We have made some lovely friends here and it is even harder to say goodbye when you know that it will be such a long time, if ever, that you will see people again. On the plus side it will be lovely to see our friends at home who we have really missed since we've been away. Being away from them has made me appreciate them even more and I really treasured all the phonecalls and care packages of Green and Black's chocolate and the Sunday Times Style section!

Well that's the end of my blogging and the last of my tales from Hiroshima. If the next couple of years bring anywhere near the amount of tales, travels and tribulations as the last couple then I will be very lucky indeed.

Sayonara from Hiroshima, a great city to live in.