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Published: December 18th 2013
As it's nearing the Christmas holidays and I am pretty sure only my family regularly reads this travel blog, I thought I would take just a little while to talk about Japan, life, and not seeing my family back home during this X-mas season. 😊
Life in Japan is both different and also just life - just living, day to day, and creating relationships and memories and enjoying every day. I am sad that I won't be able to see my family in America for Christmas, and I miss them dearly, but it was simply too expensive to go home again (with a ticket hitting nearly $1500). And since there is no current answer in sight for "when will you come home for good?" which is a question that I hear often but wish I didn't hear quite so much, even though I know it is well-meaning and done with love and from people who miss me, it was worth talking about a bit.
I am very thankful for my family, who love me enough to let me go and find myself, who care enough to keep in contact, and who are wonderful and send my Christmas gifts to me in the mail.
As I have now been in Japan for an official year and a half, I can safely say that I am well past the point where I would get homesick (I never really felt it or got hit with that) and that I have created a life here of my own: friends, career, social connections, and even just the feeling of stability and belonging in my city. I have already talked with my real estate agent about staying in my apartment past my 2-year contract, because my job has already offered me the full-time spot in April (and has expressed MUCH happiness about me staying with them). This puts my guaranteed time left in Japan at AT LEAST another year and a half, through May of 2015. At that point, I will have been here for 3 years.
I know that I am so, so lucky to be here, to be doing what I ADORE doing, to have this amazing and wonderful job that I LOVE, and to be surrounded by so many people who care about me and watch out for me an ocean away from where I started and left my life behind. Living in Japan is deceptively easy - it is not hard to be comfortable, to enjoy yourself, to get around, or to buy things. I work in Tokyo, so I am going into the metropolis nearly every day, but coming home to my quiet, green-filled suburb is very relaxing and nice. It's the best of both worlds with the ease of a phenomenal public transportation system and my own increasing Japanese skills (which help out a lot).
This country has welcomed me with open arms. I have never experienced what other foreigners have here - a hard time making friends, feeling lonely, feeling alienated by the natives. I owe a lot of that to my first job, which gave me a family of close friends right away, and my location, because I am surrounded by people who desire communicating and exchanging culture with foreigners. It seems that everyone I meet is hospitable, eager to learn and speak, and excited to share their culture and background with me. This is why I am here, and this is the part I really, truly love: the ability to meet people from different backgrounds, different lives, and different cultures.
Japan is full of wonderful, engaging, and welcoming people. While parts of the bureaucracy and legal system frustrate me, there are at least three things I love for every thing that I don't particularly like. My students are bright, curious, complex, and wonderful, and they make me smile every single day - I couldn't possibly have gotten luckier than this job I have now, doing EXACTLY what I wanted to do and loving every minute of it. I have a private student whose family has taken me in, cooked me food, and shared their life with me, allowing me to be a part of it. I have friends from both America and Japan who I feel close to, and who I love spending time with. I have met, honestly, some of the best friends that I have EVER had here in this country, and who have enriched my life SO MUCH that I can't possibly put it into words. I know eventually that life will lead us in separate directions, and I will cry buckets, but I am so thankful for the fact that I found them and that they are part of my journey.
My life here is, honestly, nothing like what I had imagined it would be when I first decided to follow my dreams and move to Japan - it's so, so much more. I NEVER could have imagined the life I have now. It's so much richer, more fulfilling, and more exciting than I had hoped for. Sometimes, even when tired and doing my train commute in the packed train cars in the morning, I have to stop and remind myself that this is my life: I'm really here. I worked so hard for this, and it's amazing, and I need to enjoy every day that I have been given here.
I don't know what is going to happen in the future, but I am excited for it. I trust my instincts, because they haven't been wrong yet - I followed them to the right grad school, the right first job, the right second job, the right apartment. I know they will keep pulling me along the path I'm meant to be walking. Sometimes when teaching my kids, I just think, "this is where I am supposed to be right now. This is what I am supposed to be doing. I'm making a difference in my students' lives that they will always remember."
So I miss my family this holiday season, and I miss spending Christmas with them - I miss the smells and the music and the laughter. But I know they are thinking of me and love me, just as I am thinking of them and love them. <3
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Jo Alleman
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Maybe a higher power is leading you in your life as it was mean\'t to be.......and you are letting it happen. Love you lots....