Live from Japan!

As I turned to the next page in the calendar this month, I had a bit of a realization. February is an important milestone. It marks the beginning of our last six months in Japan.

While we haven’t officially signed the paperwork saying that we aren’t recontracting (we have to do that within the next few days), it is 99% certain that we won’t be. It seems as though the changes we will be going through personally (uh…baby) and the changes that the JET program is going through (all high school ALTs in Gifu will be assigned to two schools instead of just one), means that it is a pretty good time for us to leave.

While I am almost certain that we are making the right decision, I am still a bit hesitant. After all, the economy in the U.S. is sucking it up and it doesn’t seem like it is going to be getting all that much better soon. In this regard, I think we are prepared. We are ready to think a bit creatively and work outside the box a bit to find a solution that works for us and our family.

Secondly, I have loved living in Japan. We have had so many adventures and travels over the past 18 months and I will be sad to see it go. Also, I love a lot of the life that we have created here. We have been able to live a bit more minimalistically, we haven’t owned a car, we have both been eating a lot healthier and feeling better because of it. We worry that it will be easy, too easy, for us to slip back into our ways and habits from before we came. I think that would be a shame for us to quickly forget all the lessons we’ve learned. So, it is going to be a struggle for us to again find a way of life that makes us happy, keeps us fulfilled, and is always challenging us in new ways.

Third, while we have been able to see a lot of Japan, there is of course more that we want to do here. With only six months left, four of those months will have a baby in tow, we are running out of time. I had a bit of a breakdown last week when Aaron and I discussed our trip next week, I was crying about how it will be our LAST chance to travel alone, just the two of us. Aaron, calmly, reminded me that there are no last chances. While the coming six months will be the last six months that we live in Japan while on the JET program, it doesn’t have to be the last time we visit or live in Japan (not to mention any number of other interesting locations). Even though we are becoming parents, we are moving back to America for awhile, we don’t have to let our life become stale and boring. Our life will continue to be what we make of it.

So yes, here we are with six months left. We have been discussing our transition back home more seriously and we are starting to make plans (plan A, B, and C) about where we will live and what we will do there. I still have no idea what our life will look like in August, but I am sure it will reveal itself shortly. I am trying not to stress too much about what our life will be in six months, as I am sure it will work out. Instead, I am going to try to relax and embrace what our life is like now, right here. I want to make sure that we both get the most out of our last six months in Japan (this time) and that we get on a plane sometime in August without any regrets!