First Snow

Today is the first snow of the year in my new city. It's interesting to be this far north and have the seasons change a month ahead of what you are used to. It's dropped 20 degrees this morning and there are little flakes that melt as soon as they hit the ground. Winds are high coming in from the east, the snow flakes are blowing in sideways. A miserable day by all accounts, yet I'm pretty happy. It's still quite odd not to have anything to do. I obviously have things to do, but I mean no homework. I can loll the evenings and weekends away doing absolutely nothing. My favorite past time.

Work is work and I don't anticipate that changing. Working for the man is not fulfilling but it pays the bills. I'm in a reminiscing mood. Last night I went out with my fellow alums from my program that I went to Japan with. It was a fun trip down memory lane. It made me homesick for my students, the food, my apartment there, my hilarious downstairs neighbor who spoke the local dialect so fast I could barely keep up - who looked out for me, who wouldn't let me win the "gift war" whose granddaughter I often wonder about. I miss my crappy little car, the Pagan mobile. I miss my convenience store across the street. I miss riding my bike around the rice paddies, the vending machines that you could buy anything from steaming hot tea or coffee to eggs to huge bags of rice from. Most of all I miss the food. I miss the little local itzakayas that made you whatever was caught fresh or killed that day. I miss the seasonality of food. Being so excited for the various seasons because you only got the massive so-dark they were almost black grapes with huge seeds that everyone took great pleasure in spitting out once a year. Each winter looking forward to eating satsumas and persimmons. Melons in the summer - fresh from the farm at the random "on your honor" food stand where they had somehow rigged a refrigerator out in the middle of nowhere so you could take a half a cold melon. I loved the eggplant, how tiny and cute they were - so cute they were given a nickname. I miss my ramen noodle shop that knew as soon as I walked in the door what I wanted and served it not less than 5 minutes after I arrived. I miss the fair food, squid on a stick, the amazing corn on a cob smothered in soy sauce mixed with sugar. I miss the slabs of grilled pork on a stick. The syrupy soda that came in a bottle with a fun marble at the top that jingled as you drank it staring up at the sky to watch the fireworks. I miss the festivals that celebrate every season, every food and every tradition imaginable.

I am truly homesick after meeting all those that just returned from their stints in Japan. Every one's situation so different yet so the same. You can never go home again but I would like to go back.