Back in Time

So, I have less than three weeks to go. Only 12 days of work, too, so I have been thinking about what it will be like when I get back home.

I've heard differing reports. Some people warn of doing too much to soon when I get back, trying to see everyone and do everything in as little time as possible. I can see why this might be a problem for me. I get bored very easily, and I already have so much planned for the first couple of months that I guess I could experience some reverse culture shock. Having said that, I never really suffered any culture shock when I got here, but that was because I was pre-prepared. I had been here before, and I knew that everything was going to be completely different.

I have never, however, returned after a year away to a place that, although undoubtedly familiar, will be utterly changed from both how I am living now and, to some extent, how it was before I left. I think it will be highly unusual.

Having said that, I also know people who went home and felt as though they had travelled back in time. I don't think I will let that happen. I have too much to get on with. It will be nice to re-do a certain amount of things that I can't out here, but ultimately I want to get home not so that I can hang around the house doing that. I want to get on with planning the next step, whatever it is. I hope I have a seemeless transition fron outskirts of small Japanese city, where my contact with foreigners is restricted to a tight-knit community, and seeing a new English-looking face still a novelty, to walking down the street, or riding the bus and being able to understand everything.