We are still in that transition period with our move to Tokyo. And I have to emphasize that I am really tired of this part of the whole experience. One month ago we left for Tokyo… My husband’s new employer was anxious for him to get there and get started, even though we really didn’t have all the details of the actual move taken care of. He needed to get to Tokyo to participate in some important meetings and business trips that were scheduled for the month of January. So, even though we weren’t finished with all the preparations for the move, and our transition to living in a foreign country, we agreed to go anyway… With the stipulation that we would have to come back to our home in the US a month later, to finish up with the packing and moving out of our home here.
And here we are… back in our hometown, in our house for a couple more days finalizing all the details. And it is hard. Really. Surprisingly. Hard. See… the thing I never really counted on here is the feelings of homesickness that I have experienced. I don’t want to belabor it, but that is essentially what it has been. I (we) have felt homesick for our life here, and we never really thought about feeling like that. It’s ok… it is certainly manageable, and we will get through it. Come Saturday morning, it will be all done, and we will be on that plane headed back to Tokyo… And I (still) look forward to it.
It isn’t that I regret our decision to go to Tokyo for two years, it is just I never really thought about the hard parts. Never really thought about how much I would miss my house… my kitchen… my yard… my car… my neighborhood, etc. All those silly things that are essentially just stuff. But they are — or have been — the “stuff” of my life, and now I am leaving it all behind… at least for awhile.
On the positive side, though… In that month that we were gone, our daughter, who was trying to find a job here and move back from out-of-state, got a job offer. And… as was hoped in the beginning of all this, she will be moving into our house for the next two years while we are gone… Our house-sitter! It certainly makes things less complicated, and it is nice to know that we will have family living here in the house instead of strangers.
Anyway… I am sorry to be so whiny. The transition is almost done. It will be so nice to get back to some form of normal life, with a normal schedule, and hopefully a normal SLEEP schedule. I know that part of the problem for us has been this constant state of jet-lag that we have been in from all the traveling around the past month. I feel like I haven’t had a normal sleep in weeks. We both feel almost zombie-like.
This too shall pass… I know it… And I will have better things to blog about once we get back to Tokyo to our little apartment.