Missed Opportunity

One year ago today, we were getting on a plane to Japan. Not for a short trip, but to live there for a six month stint. What a time. We were a huge bundle of emotions all rolled into one. You could not have prepared me for the hard parts, how much we would love it, or just how much we would miss it when we got home again. 

I'm thinking on it now and a few things come up, not as regrets, but just reflections. I know it's unlikely we will ever have the chance to do this again, but these are certainly things we might have done differently. 

My first one would have been to enrol into a kimono classes. I am fairly good at wearing kimono, but it would be nice to have a bit more in the way of "official training" to give me a bit more confidence. I did think about it before we left, but we were so busy organising everything else that it really got put on the back burner. By the time I thought about it in Japan, we only had two and a half months left in Tokyo, and seven weeks of that I was doing the teacher language course in Saitama. The shortest class was three months and would have been a stretch. Alas, missed opportunity. I'll have to look for some online classes I can do instead. 

When we were in Nagoya, strategically at the same time as the World Cosplay Summit, we got to see the final parade of Cosplayers down the main shopping street. That was really cool. We do wish we had also been organised enough to actually attend some of the other cosplay events that happened that weekend, and been able to participate in the cosplay parade itself. Logistically, packing a cosplay costume with everything else we were lugging around at that point, did not make sense, but in a perfect world, it would have been great to do. 

We knew we wouldn't be using a car much in Japan, but the travel around Shikoku really needed one. Steve had organised to have his International Driver's Licence before we left, but I opted not to. At the time, I figured I'd rather not drive and Steve would be able to do it all anyway. However when we were there, Steve ended up having to do all the driving with a broken hand. Not fun, especially through the mountain roads! On top of that, Japan has a zero alcohol limit, so if we drove out for dinner and Steve wanted to get a beer, he couldn't. I felt really silly that I hadn't sorted my licence too. Lesson learnt, better for me to have the licence even to be a support driver than to leave it all up to Steve. 

Our last reflection was that it would have been good to go to some Japanese conversation classes to help us all with our Japanese speaking. Steve especially felt that he could take in the language easily enough, but producing it was another matter. Of course, in the grand scheme of things it's fine, but it's another "would have been nice" moments when we look back. 

The girls ask us quite frequently now, when we will be going back to Japan. I'm so glad it has made such a positive impact on their lives and that they want to return! Hopefully next year we can squeeze in a visit.