The End is Near….

Everyone is familiar with the caricature…usually a bedraggled old guy, long beard, tattered clothes, holding a sign proclaiming, “the end is near.”

Lately, we’ve been feeling like that old guy. My assignment in Japan will end at the end of May… less than three months away. Plans are for my job to continue including work with Japan, but our time living here is…sadly…winding down. Although we look forward to returning back to the US in some ways, the realization that our time here coming to an end is discouraging.

We’ve also been discouraged about the political situation back home. Of course, our view from 6,000 miles away may be a bit skewed, as we look to Twitter and Facebook for most of our news. Still, the news is discouraging, and the idea of coming back to an acrimonious election campaign is not something we look forward to.

And now, our last days in Tokyo are being tainted by the threat of coronavirus. We watched as the virus first appeared in Wuhan, China. It has continued to spread, and Japan has become increasingly affected… as has the rest of the world. My company has cancelled or postponed international travel (my latest trip to UK was cancelled), and many other meetings and missions have been deferred. The Japanese government has taken Draconian measures in an effort to prevent spread of the virus. Schools are closed for the month of March, most museums and other attractions are closed, and workers are being encouraged to work from home. Locally, we see shortages of face masks, hand sanitizer, and even toilet paper (haven’t quite figured out that one yet).

So, frankly, we’ve been struggling a bit lately to stay positive and try to look forward to the coming months. It will, in many ways, be good to be “home.” But yet… we’ve been in Japan now for over four years, and Tokyo has become our home. We love our adopted city/country. Still, we look forward to going back to our house…our kitties…being closer to our family…and being in a place where we actually do speak and understand the language with some proficiency.

As the days continue to go by with alarming rapidity, we hope to make the most of each minute we have left in this wonderful place. We’ve been given a great gift to experience a different culture for this long. It truly has been the opportunity of a lifetime.