Wake up call

I haven't written a blog entry in over a year! I'm truly devastated!
I guess that's what happens to everyone once the excitement wears off. Things just don't seem good enough to write about anymore, even though they are. Everything is, but we forget sometimes.
I've enjoyed reading over my old entries though. Everything's become so normal now, it's good to be confronted with one's own initial sense of wonder. And the thing is, I want it back. Basically, one year of blog entries is enough in terms of novelty. Things have inevitably settled into a rhythm and all the little events and rituals that seemed so enchanting to me at first have become commonplace. Everything's repeated itself in a yearly cycle. When people ask me what I found strange about Japan when I first arrived, I can't answer them. The only things that come to mind are the things that I found strange about my own culture when visiting. In Japan, everything's just normal. Going to work, coming home - because that's what it is now - and engaging in activities that might seem mind-boggling to new arrivals, but to me are just life. It's a frightening reality to wake up to - finding that you've changed so much without noticing - and with no documentation to remind you of how and when it happened.

The thing is though, I have decided to leave in August. I had my reasons and I still believe in them enough not to pull out of my decision, but I have also realized how much I am going to miss this place and I'm desperately trying to retrieve the memories that I have made during these two years when I was feeling too jaded to notice my own progress. Now that I am leaving, I feel that I haven't given this place and all the wonderful people living in it enough credit. So in my last four months in Japan I will try and make this blog a little monument to them - please call me up on it!