Five Years

Five years I've been in Tokyo.
Five years I've been teaching English.
Five years I've been missing my friends back home.
Five years and seven days since I left London.
Five years, five months and some odd days since I started the blog.
Friends have got married. Had kids. Had more kids. Moved in with partners. Got divorced. Got new jobs. New lives. Moved to different countries. Five years. A long time. A life time ago.
London. BBC. England. English. The NHS. Long daylight hours. Short summers. Understanding. Being understood. Shoe shops. Clothes Shops. Boots and Superdrug. Weekend newspapers. Pubs. Beer gardens. Europe. Cheap flights.
Five years. A long time.
I'd never been to Asia before moving to Japan. Unless Israel counts. Now I've visited Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India. India for the second time this coming winter.
But enough is enough.
Friends have come and gone. Some haven't come. Europe is calling me. England isn't. Weekends in England are, but England isn't home. Japan isn't home either. Not really sure where home is. But I'm making preparations for where might be home. Researching. Language studying. CV prepping. Europe beckons. Access to friends. Access to friends' kids. Access to London shops. To budget airlines. To friends all over West Europe. To Europeans. To a different way of life. To a different mentality.
There are many things I like about Tokyo. There are many things I've loved about my time here. But it's all too predictable.
That's why the blog slipped.
I had nothing to blog about.
I've been likening life here to a marriage recently. The first year or so was the honeymoon period. It was all new and fresh and unpredictable and exciting and wonderful.
And then the routine set in. It became increasingly more comfortable and predictable.
And more comfortable and predictable.
And more comfortable and predictable.
And, whilst glasses didn't get thrown around, boredom started setting in.
And in.
And in.
And in.
And as the comfortableness and the predictability grew, I knew it was time to make a break.
Spring 2009. That was when I planned to leave.
But the diploma came along.
And now it's like waiting for a divorce to come through.
And the diploma is ending too fast.
And too much of the year has been spent stressed.
And sick.
I've never had so many health problems in my life as I have this year.
Now it's a tooth infection.
Before that it was something else. And something else and something else.
And with the studying and with the tiredness and with the stress there hasn't been the time or energy to do anything this year.
But the bigger picture. That's what counts. The money I'm saving. The holiday I'm planning. The diploma I'm going to get. The experiences I've got. The knowledge that this isn't forever. And the day of packing up will come quickly. And new adventures will start. And things will again become unpredictable. And I can reconnect with friends who lived in Tokyo but moved to or moved back to Europe. To friends in England. That I'll be able to stop my stagnation.
That maybe I'll find home.