wandering again

So I haven't posted any goodbye Japan entries or any hello Nanjing entries.

Well.

I miss Japan. I miss the place, but I mostly miss the people. As I continue living this kind of life, I'm finding more and more the place really becomes the people who make up the experiences I had there. Especially my last six or seven months in Nagoya, I made a lot of great memories thanks to - of course- the husband, and the amazing group of people I spent time with there. So thanks to my friends there and know you have a room and bed and adventure waiting for you in Nanjing any time.

But it's hard that after a matter of four hours on a plane, there's a strange wall of time and space between all of you and I that cuts me off completely from being part of my old life with you. Thursday afternoon I had lunch with you and Thursday night I ate dinner alone in a different country. It's sad, and I was the only idiot crying on the Meitetsu to the airport, and in check-in line, and going through security, and in the souvenir shop, but.... it's exciting too. It's weird to be suddenly ripped out of your context and thrown into a new one.

I spent my last month in Nagoya trying to come to terms with leaving by eating as much sashimi as I could (which turns out to be a lot, I think I can eat more salmon than a bear), riding my banana-yellow bike through Osu Kannon, Atsuta Shrine, Sakae, and all the places I spent my time. It was hard to say goodbye to all the little things that made up my Japan life: biking to work, late-night conbini runs, biking to freebell cause we were two of the few people we knew who didn't live there, sitting in Tsuruma(i) Park, late night supermarket dinner discounts, one-cup sake, (not) separating trash.... The things you find yourself wanting to do one more time are strange.

I don't feel so far from that life, even though every aspect (including Brett) hasn't been part of my current life the past seventeen days.

Living this kind of life reminds me I have three lives and communities: in China, in Japan and in the States. I have people and experiences and love and struggles and happiness and successes and mistakes hanging back in each place. And now I'm here to make some more.

I apologize for my rambling. I promise more pictures and less sap next entry.

じゃあまた｡