A month in :)

So it's been about a month since I arrived in Japan, and so far it has been an experience and a half. There are so many incredible things about Japan that wouldn't happen anywhere else in the world. A week or so ago I left my phone in my bike basket outside of a supermarket and half an hour later, low and behold, it was still there. Completely untouched. Unmasked and unsecure and yet it hadn't crossed anyone's mind to take it. What an amazing sense of trust there is everywhere in Kurume. I've left bags of shopping in my bike and no one has even ventured forth to look, let alone take anything. I am sure it is different depending on which part of Japan you go to but, still. Quite incredible.

People here have also been so very kind; my supervisor is almost like a second mother, she worries as much, but she's also good fun when i'm team teaching with her, and the rest of the English department are just as nice. If I need help reading Kanji or school newsletters they are always happy to help.

There are so many things that I like about Japan. Even though it has been raining for the past few days, it still pretty fun cycling through it as its not that cold. Conbinis are absolute Godsends. The trains run on time, deliveries are efficient, people in shops are so polite and helpful. The children at school are so lovely and polite, and when one of them writes 'I am so happy you said hello to me' on an essay, it genuinely makes my day.

However, there is just something sadly nostalgic about things that remind me of home. It's not so much that I'm in Stage 2 yet (JETs will know, but for those who don't, stage 2 of culture shock); I still enjoy living in Japan, the liberation of cycling safely and freely, not bothered by the rain, the trust, the efficiency, all of it. It's just little things that remind me that I do actually love my home town. I miss the bustle of London, the lights, the sounds, the 1am trains. The ease of finding exactly the right teabag in the supermarket and the stereotypical British rendering of tea. The cramped underground, the litter, how every single public building has an amalgam of people smoking outside. The lack of any cultural or ethnic homogeny. All of it.

I miss the people too. Being able to hug someone unreservedly; my mum, my best friend, my whole family. Even my little dog.

How could you not love such a face?

It's just little pangs that get me at the worst times, little things that Japan doesn't do quite 'like England' because, of course, they wouldn't. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Japan. But I know whenever I go home, be it in a year or in two, London is the first place I am going back to.