My Love Letter to Japan...

Where do I start? How can I put it all into words? Japan, you are so beautiful, kind, giving, respectful, clean, hard-working and overall pretty darn magical. I remember the day the kids and I arrived, like it was yesterday. Steve had already been there for four months, but was leaving on deployment three days after we arrived. There was so much to learn, process and try to understand. I had to learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road, take the written driving test, navigate my way from base to the house, and figure out the train system, google maps and the toll ways. The list goes on. Having never lived in a foreign country before, I was a bit nervous. The fact that we couldn’t speak your language provided an additional challenge, but we quickly learned to communicate with a lot of hand gestures and head nods. I also have come to master the look of being confused and not understanding, during our time with you.

Days went on and feelings of loneliness and missing friends and family began to seep into the cracks, but we continued to fall more and more in love with you and those cracks began to fill with the joy of embracing our present. Over the past two and a half years, we have been gifted with so many incredible experiences and adventures: jumping off cliffs and waterfalls, visiting snow monkeys, climbing Mt Fuji, walking through thousands of Torii gates, visiting a variety of shrines and temples, going to a Japanese baseball game, watching sumo wrestling, visiting a trick art museum, packing our own ramen noodles, visiting an owl and falcon cafe, seeing the winter illuminations, riding four world record-breaking roller coasters, trying cow tongue, rock-climbing in Izu, sleeping on futons, feeding the holy deer of Nara, jumping in the lake from a rope swing, swimming with a whale shark, visiting the WWII Japanese underground headquarters and visiting the Peace Memorial museum (just to name a few!). You also allowed us to explore so many fascinating sister countries: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia and India.

I never dreamt that I would one day live in Japan and now I am forever grateful for the opportunity. Japan, you will always have a special place in my heart. I’m not sure when I will see you again, but I know that one day it will happen. Until then, I will relish in the awesome memories you have left me with. Thank you for being you and being so lovely. Until the next time…

xox,
Deb