I can relate to the confused feelings about which country is my home. Particularly, at this time of year and specifically because of the daylight thing.

I don’t long for home often, because more times than not I feel that I am at home here in Japan, but at this time of year, when the sun is setting at just after six, I really miss the longer days and tend to think about how much of my youth I spent outdoors and well into the evening during late spring and summer months.

I’m younger than you and have been living abroad as long as you, so I wonder what my experience will be in the future. It seems that ex-pats tend to follow similar lines of development. Much like children become like their parents, I can sense my own timeline and experiences many of the people I know who came to Japan before me.

I never thought that this would happen, because I wanted to believe that I could do something about it, but here I am fourteen years later saying and thinking things that were once said to me by other, older, more experienced ex-pats.

Life is funny, isn’t it.