Almost Done

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I know that this experience here in Japan is a once in a lifetime chance, but I can't help but look forward to when I can go home, exactly a week from now. I've loved being here with my host family, learning from them, traveling with them, and sharing our cultures with one another has been the best part of the entire experience here in Japan.

Yet there are some things I'm starting to miss about home, things that I've taken for granted as normal. Like a bed. I've been sleeping on a futon here, and every day I feel older and older, because my body is creaking and aching. I've never gotten into the habit of taking anything out of the refrigerator here; the only things I've taken from the fridge is water and soda, which were enumerated from day one as something I should get for myself. I also feel like I have to ask to use the shower and washing machine. It's a little confining, being used to living in my own apartment, with full freedom to the bathroom, kitchen, and washing facilities. It's been several years since I have lived with my whole family in a normal family setting, probably not since before high school, or even middle school, have we eaten dinner together as a family on a regular basis. However, its not all confinement. I've learned to grow reattached to the family unit feeling, to looking forward to dinner as a family, and I feel a little empty knowing that I won't get it again at home, except on a very rare occasion. I think I'll try my best to keep my family together, when I finally have kids, and keep the family as a close, happy unit as long as I can, before everyone starts breaking off into their own worlds. It's a lonely feeling, thinking of my parents right now, now that both me and my younger brother have moved out for good.

On a slightly more sinister note, Japan appears not to welcome me very warmly. I'm not talking about the people, they've been wonderful. I'm referring to the disease climate here. I've spent many sleepless nights here, coughing and wheezing, reactions to a series of allergens that I did not know I would react to. Just the last couple of days, it turned into a case of bronchitis, and adult onset asthma, perhaps from all the allergens attacking my immune system. Just one more week.

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