In Which Yours Truly Returned to the States, or, I WAS TOTALLY HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!

How I missed you all!

I bought the tickets for a ridiculously high price in September. And waited. And waited. I drove the teachers around me crazy by counting down the days, and ended every phone conversation with my parents with, “Only X more days!” I was psyched. I didn’t expect when I left for Japan to return home at all in the 2.5 years I am teaching here. But the opportunity came and I grabbed it with both hands and ran.

I arrived home on December 23^rd. I flew from Kumamoto to Nagoya, Nagoya to Detroit, Detroit to Minneapolis, and Minneapolis to Omaha. Total travel time added up to a full 24 hours. I cannot tell you how excited I was when I landed back in the States. The first thing I saw when I got off the plane was a young man my age, built like an NBA star, and beaming at everyone who got off the flight. He saw me and went, “Hey! How was the flight?” American hospitality. I knew I was home.

Traveling between Omaha and Japan is no joke. In fact, it is incredibly exhausting. I got through with the mantra, “Okay what’s next. Strategize your next step.” But when I saw Omaha through the windows of the plane it was all worth it. I teared up and the man next to me asked if I was going home. When I said yes he asked if it had been a long time. “Over a year,” I replied. He hustled me off the plane as fast as he could.

I think that airport security frowns on people running in the airport, but honestly they weren’t going to catch me before they figured out where I was going so I didn’t care. I saw my dad first and took off, backpack swinging. I didn’t let go of my mom all the way to the car. I felt like I was a child again instead of a twenty-five-year-old woman. But then, maybe most twenty-five-year-old women in my situation would react similarly.

We got home and greeting me were our two dogs, Jesse and Frank. Frank got so excited he peed everywhere. There was Dad’s famous brisket for dinner and Anna’s boyfriend Josh kept reminding me that no, it wasn’t a dream, I was still in America. I met Claire’s boyfriend Josh (yes, in fact, both of my sisters are dating men named Josh) for the first time that night. Little did I know he would become my future brother-in-law before the week was out. That’s right ladies and gentleman! My darling, little sister is now engaged! See photographic evidence below! I was so very happy that I was able to be there to see it. It’s one of the biggest struggles about being here in Japan. I feel like I miss so much. Luckily, they both have informed me that they will wait to hold the wedding until I return home.

Claire and Josh

Sparkly!

The next day, Christmas Eve, I cooked with my mom in the morning before crashing in the early afternoon with jet lag. I napped for a few hours (read, slept like the dead) and then it was off to church. My dear Luther Memorial readers, you have no idea how happy I was to see you all and be back at my second home in Omaha. I was so touched by all the greetings and hugs I received.

How jet lagged am I?

We sat in the very back and Anna kept whispering at me throughout the service and making me laugh. It was like everything just melted away and the world was set right again. How many times have I sat next to Anna or Claire on Christmas Eve and our excited whispers were turned into guilty giggles? Tears of happiness were pricking at the corners of my eyes until Anna elbowed me and warned me not to dare start or she would start, and then I’d be in trouble. This led to more giggling.

We had our Keenan Family Christmas that night at my aunt’s house and I was so very content to be surrounded once again by my family. Unfortunately, the Hamann Family Christmas was a week before I arrived home. No matter. I’ll be back again for the Hamann Christmas in two short years. We headed home and it was time for bed.

The next morning we were all greeted by Claire and her Josh bearing grande sized Starbucks! Claire has clearly not been reading my blog as she brought mochas for everyone except for me. She didn’t know that mochas have become my life blood since living in Japan. However, the chai tea latte she brought was so warm and lovely that it hardly mattered! We all opened gifts and had wonderful egg casserole and coffee cake. Afterwards I got to see both sets of grandparents and my aunts, Kippy and Jennifer, who all came to have Christmas dinner with us.

Grandpa testing the space for the picture. But mostly being goofy!

So happy to be with these people! And Jesse and Frank of course.

And so, Christmas was over and I had eight days left at home. I enjoyed spending the rest of the week with my sisters and their guys, complete with the lovely proposal scene! The following days after my sisters left were quite busy. I was meeting friends, shopping for clothes (specifically pants as I certainly can’t get those in Japan), and getting my hair done. I got highlights! Whoot! I spent New Year’s Eve with one of my besties, Miss Alicia VanWesten, and we watched movies at home with Chinese food. American Chinese food. I have been craving that for a year and now my mouth is watering just thinking about it. You can’t get broccoli beef in Japan. At least not that I know of.

Then, all too soon, it was time to return to Kumamoto. I left Omaha Friday afternoon. I flew to Seattle and then to Tokyo where I had a seven hour layover and then down to Kumamoto. Leaving my parents the second time was even harder than the first. Everyone I have mentioned that too has nodded and told me it was because I now knew how hard it would be. Perhaps. All I know is that as soon as I got through security I headed straight for the ladies room and cried for several minutes. What I wanted was to have a full on bawl session, you know the kind, but I was in an airport bathroom, and wouldn’t be anywhere less public than that for many hours to come. So I kept as quiet as I could, and then pulled myself together. I went out, bought magazines and any candy I saw that I couldn’t get in Japan (all for an exurbanite price, but I was feeling the need for comfort), I sat and began to wait for boarding.

God was looking out though. He knew I needed someone to talk to so I wouldn’t sink further into self-pity. He placed a kind woman, my mom’s age, who was flying to Seattle and whose daughter teaches English in China, nearby. She struck up conversation (probably cause she’s a mom and she saw my red eyes and knew exactly what that meant) and we talked until boarding. Then on the plane, sitting next to me, was a very handsome young man (23, the flight attendant asked when he bought a beer), who was a Nebraskan, a Husker fan, and taught in Alaska. He was also a history major! We had much to discuss on the flight to Seattle. We parted ways and I had fifty minutes to get through Seattle’s airport and onto my flight for Tokyo. God got me there, without running, though it came close, and I was seated by a young Navy guy stationed in Okinawa. I had the window seat and I apologized in advance before explaining that I couldn’t sleep at all on planes and had to get up often to stretch my legs or I would go insane. I asked if, because of this he wanted to switch seats. Luckily, he can’t sleep on flights either and does the same thing. Of the three trans-Pacific flights I’ve done by now that was the most comfortable. I hardly had to ask to get out he got up so much!

Once I arrived in Haneda it was time to figure out where I would spend the night. It was 10:35 PM on Saturday when I landed and my flight for Kumamoto didn’t leave until 6:10 in the morning. I found a space near the one 24 hour café and the bathrooms and curled up on three seats for the night. Others were doing the same, and I could totally tell I was back in Japan because everyone had taken their shoes off and placed them neatly by their bags before curling up on the seats. I also knew I was back in Japan when people left their luggage unattended to go to the bathroom or whatever, and they, nor security, seemed to think it might be a problem.

I left for Kumamoto at 6:10 Sunday morning. There were only fifteen other people on my flight! The stewardess gave me my hot green tea with a sticker of Mt. Fuji on the lid and a message that read, “Happy New Yeah!” It made me smile. Japanese hospitality is a wonderful thing. And with that I was on the ground back home in Kumamoto. I took a bus and a cab, both with wonderfully cheerful people who were happy to help me with my ridiculously heavy duffel. On the bus I listened to the Funky Monkey Babies, my favorite Japanese band, to pep me up about being back. It worked as much as it could with someone as tired as I was. The Funky Monkey Babies are a very cheerful band. I stopped at the Family Mart across the street from my apartment upon arrival and bought a sandwich and some juice for breakfast, called home to say I had arrived, ate said sandwich, and didn’t get to the juice before crawling into bed.

I had every intention of getting up again. I set my alarm for two in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day and I had school later that week so I needed to trounce jet lag quickly. However, I underestimated how much sleep I would actually need. At that point I had been up for over 36 hours. I must have turned my alarm off in my sleep or something because the next thing I knew I was waking up and it was 11:36 PM. That made it 9:36 AM in Omaha. Add that to the fact that I had just slept for thirteen hours and I was WIDE AWAKE!

Homesickness has settled back in. I knew it would back in September when I bought the tickets. I planned well though. Two months from now my aunts, Jennifer and Kippy are coming to visit. Then four months from that I have my summer adventures in Korea planned. Four months after that my friends Jenn and Alicia come to visit, and then three more months and I am done. I can’t quite believe it really. But how fast this all has gone by is another blog entirely.

I am so happy that I got to see everyone, that I got to spend time with my family, that I had the opportunity to spend this Christmas at my home church. Writing this blog post has been tricky, because I get teary every time I think about my time at home. Which is probably why I wrote more about the journey and less about the time looking at it again! I just realized how often I talk about crying here in Japan. Happy tears, sad tears, oh-thanks-God-now-I-get-it tears… too many tears! Goodness I am such crier. But in this case I think I am justified.

I thank God that I got to go home and thank Him again for returning me to Kumamoto safely. I pray that these next fourteen months will be as adventurous as the first, and that, when all is finished, I will return home safely once again. Here’s to the next stage of my journey in Japan! 行きましょう！Let’s go!

Claire and her Josh; I call him Josh the Younger

 

Anna and her Josh; or Josh the Elder

 

Back together with the Keysers! So happy!

Why hello Keysers, welcome to my blog!

Out for breakfast with my girls, Jenn and Alicia

A walk at the lake; it was crazy warm that day too!

My amazing ham dinner. Picture taken for students who want to know what an "American" meal looks like.

Back with my puppies! The cute and the crazy.