January 16, 2013

The only thing constant is change


I just realized that I haven't posted this week and even though my professor hasn't asked for our blog addresses yet, I am sure I will get retroactive points for the posts he hasn't seen yet.

As I reflect on this photo I can't believe how much life has changed.  This is April 2003.  Will had just turned two years old and we were living in Tokyo Japan.  I really loved living there.  I love it more now that I am home, than I ever did while I was there.  Why can't we appreciate things when they are happening?  We did not have a car when we lived there.  We took the subway or a taxi everywhere we went.  If we bought more than a few bags of groceries, we had the items delivered to our home.  We went to church right next door to the Tokyo temple.  We had a lovely apartment down the street from the Tokyo tower.  We visited Singapore and China and saw the surrounding sites.  I tried real Chinese ramen and the best gyoza's on the planet and ate the best vegetable tempura.  I loved our visit to Nagano and Will's first experience with snow.  I have mixed feelings about the Onsen's (public bath houses).  I fell in love with Shabu-shabu and Korean BBQ.   I learned a new money system and did not learn any of the language.  But the two things that I cherish the most from our time in Japan is the respect and love I gained for the Japanese people and their culture and the relationships I built that will last through this life and into the eternities.
I love the land of the rising sun.