It’s been more than luck that my travels have allowed me to call several places home.
Of course, with twinions and a surfer dude husband, home right now is here – beautiful, sunny (although not this week) suburbia Sydney.
Some of you may know, one place very dear to my heart is Japan. It’s a country that I just kinda fell into a situation with.
Struggling to figure out what I wanted to study in uni, my ultimate decision to study Japanese was like throwing spaghetti on a wall.
“Let’s see if this sticks. If it doesn’t, meh”
And like a stubborn spaghetti stain, my love for the land that invented the genius karaoke machine, never dissipated. (Nor has my penchant for the karaoke mic).
A scholarship studying in Kyoto (think Memoirs of a Geisha but with real Japanese people) led to teaching English in a rural town buried in snow 6 months of the year. Eventually I landed in turbo charged Tokyo.
Ah, Tokyo…Have you seen “Lost in Translation”? It’s every bit that movie. Except for the weird whisperings between Bill Murray and ScarJo at the end.
Learning Japanese is a bit like learning Mathematical equations. There is a set phrase for just about every occasion.
Before eating a meal equals the phrase “Itadakimasu” (Literal translation, “ I humbly accept this food”).
At uni, we would make up our own English idioms to try and remember our Japanese phrases. Itadakimasu turned into “I’ll eat a duck if I must”
Dou Itashimashite meaning “Your welcome”, transformed to “Don’t touch my moustache”
The Japanese for “Excuse me” or “Pardon me” is “Shitsurei shimasu”.
No doubt you can guess its derogatory version.
I have two favourite phrases.
When you come home – whether from school, or work or wherever you’ve been away for ever how long – the first thing you say when you walk through the door is, “Tadaima”
Whoever is home, greets you back with “O-kaerinasai” (Welcome home).
When our lecturer first taught it to us I thought just a tad OTT. Who cares when you get home? I just want to dump my stuff, get into my pyjamas and actually not talk to anyone while I sit in front of the TV and veg out.
Having spent almost a decade in Japan and meeting some of the most big-hearted, generous people I will ever be blessed to know and call life long friends, those two phrases taught me well.
The last time I visited my little snow town was almost 7 years ago. I took Surfer boyfriend there for a holiday. Having travelled a few hours on the bullet train from Tokyo, we arrived late in the evening, looking disheveled.
But the moment I walked through my host mum’s front door, there she was wearing her familiar, warm smile.
Immediately enveloped by the comfort of arriving “home” out of habit I said, “Tadaima”
Japanese people don’t really hug. Doesn’t matter how long it’s been since you last saw them. If they do, it’s that awkward scarecrow stance. But not my host mum. Hers are squishy, jiggle you around a bit bear hugs.
“Gu-reeeeesu!!! O-kaerinasai!!!”
We’re off to visit Japan in December. The twinions will go nuts over the trains in Tokyo station. They will be in bullet train heaven.
I’m hoping to teach them how to snow board on the very same bunny slopes I started on.
Most of all, I just can’t wait to go back to my other home.
Do you have more than one place you call home? Have you seen “Lost in Translation”? What did Bill whisper to ScarJo?
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How exciting!
Great phrases. I like that welcome home thing.
Yes, my other home is Northampton Pennsylvania. I spent 6 months there when I left Uni. I too am taking my family and we’re spending Christmas at my other home.
Leanne @ Deep Fried Fruit recently posted..Day 2179 – Sweet Sixteen
I’ve had quite a few homes but all in various parts of Sydney. I like the “welcome home” custom- it’s lovely!
Amy @ HandbagMafia recently posted..Who Would Your Kids Be Online?
Thanks for the lesson in Japanese! Have a great holiday! My friend just got back from Japan and she loved it too 🙂
Haidee@Maybe Baby Brothers recently posted..The Weekly Sum Up (#5)
How wonderful!! I really want to visit Japan. My In-Laws are there right now. One day.
JodY At Six Little Hearts recently posted..Piyo Piyo Review – Accessories for Early Childhood and a Giveaway! #SLHFeaturedThursdays
My three girls all study Japanese and love it. They are hoping to travel there when they finish school. We’ve moved 22 times, so I’m not really sure, apart from where I find myself in the present, that anywhere else feels like home, having moved so often.
Raych aka Mystery Case recently posted..TPFF 2015 Designer Runway 2 | On a night like this…
You are so lucky to have a home away from home over in Japan Grace! Loved reading this post. Might take me a while to get those phrases down pat! haha How exciting that you’re going over in December! 🙂
Min@WriteoftheMiddle recently posted..Mindful Colouring & the Perfectionist
All my high school Japanese just came screaming back! I stayed with a host family in France in 1999, but only for a few weeks. Love the family but it’s not really another home. What a fabulous experience you’ve had. x Emiri
EmIly recently posted..Interview with a preschooler (the dad edition)
I love Japan Grace – I’m sure the boys will have a wonderful time and it will be so good to give them the deep cultural experience. Living there almost ten years it must really feel like another home for you.
Kathy recently posted..Angry yoga to get rid of the grumps
Oh gosh I love Japan. Can’t believe you spent 10 years there. I wish I’d learned those greetings while I was there, Grace-san. (I think that’s right). I love to bust out my thank you’s when I’m picking up my takeaway sushi here. I’d love to go back to Japan with Dave. When we went there together back in 2004 we were still part of the cult so it was all about missionary work. Not fun. And there is clearly so much fun to be had. I did go to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo on my trips there. I learned that Japanese women call themselves Christmas cake if they are over 25 and not married.
For me my 2nd home is Vancouver, Canada. I hope you have a wonderful time showing your sons the Japanese ways …
peachy Keen Mumma recently posted..Who I Appear To Be (Life with Chronic Illness)
I’ve always wanted to go to Japan! Your host mum sounds like such a beautiful lady! What an amazing experience you must have had!
Lucy @ Bake Play Smile recently posted..Fabulous Foodie Fridays #70
Even though I’ve spent very little time there, Vancouver felt like home the very second I touched down. Possibly because it was so familiar because so many TV shows I like were made there. Or maybe I was delirious from the flight…I’d love to go back and spend more time there.
Vanessa recently posted..Stop Apologising For How Your Food Looks
I’ve always wanted to go to Japan and especially since I’ve been teaching Japanese students, they are just the loveliest people. I guess, London is my second home although I just choose not to live there! I love those welcome home phrases, just the best! There’s so much to look forward to!
Sammie @ The Annoyed Thyroid recently posted..She’s So Inspiring – Krystal Barter
Reading your post Grace took me back to high school where Japanese was the other language we had to choose from to learn. We had an exchange student visit from Japan and I recall so many beautiful occasions: being treated to a traditional Japanese dinner one of these. I still to this day have an oval-shaped bookmark with her written words on the back in her perfect handwriting, with it’s picturesque photography on the front. My years of high school were spent learning French and I can’t wait to visit ♥
Leanda Michelle recently posted..A New Experience
I’d love to go to Japan it sounds beautiful :).
Mumma McD recently posted..Play Centre Purgatory
I’d LOVE to take my boys to Japan – mostly due to the train thing 🙂 Those phrases are lovely and I think at least one of them must be what they shout (in quite a friendly way!) at our local sushi train as soon as someone takes a seat.
Japan is definitely a place I’d love to visit. I had a beautiful pen pal from there growing up. I LOVED Lost In Translation. PS. Is that Maroubra Beach? 🙂
Kaz @ Melting Moments recently posted..WWU – When it Rains
Wow so that must mean you are fluent in Japanese. Nice story.
I think my other home is France. I’m just not sure which part, I love it all so very much
Carolyn
Desire Empire recently posted..How to Make Easy French Toast
How exciting to be able to show your boys someplace so special to you. I love your method of memorising the Japanese phrases. Japan is definitely high on my Wishlist of travel locations.
Ingrid @ fabulous and fun life recently posted..Marie Claire The Parcel – Special Anniversary Edition – Beauty Subscription Box Review
What a beautiful post. You are giving your boys such a wonderful gift taking them to a place that is so familiar and loving in your memory. Have a great time. Not so long now, is it? Denyse x
Denyse Whelan recently posted..25 September Birthdays. 267/365.
Oh thanks for sharing Grace. My childhood bestie did some sort of intensive Japanese course after she was already teaching (as a primary teacher) and started teaching Japanese in schools and was then selected to go to Japan for a year on an exchange thing. I used to love hearing her tales of what it was iike – though I was overseas myself at the time!
Love the pics!
Deborah recently posted..Book review: The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
That is so exciting Grace! I bet the boys will absolutely remember this trip for the rest of their lives. You’re very lucky to have made some amazing lifelong connections with people all over the world. My second home is my Mum’s and my in-laws place really. But if I had to pick a place that wasn’t where my family actually lived it would be Windang, down near Wollongong. I spent pretty much every school holidays there from the ages of 6 to 16, either staying at my Grandparent’s caravan or at the council caravan park in one of their bungalows. I absolutely love it down there because it was such a huge part of my childhood. I took Dave there for a holiday just before I fell pregnant with Punky in 2011 and we are planning on taking the girls down there very soon.
Kylie Purtell – A Study in Contradictions recently posted..Floriade 2015 {In Pictures} | Places to See
I loved Japan when I went over 13 years ago. My parents leave today to go to Tokyo for a 10 day trip. I can’t wait to take my girls there. You are going to have an amazing time in December Grace. Such a lovely post to read. xx
Bec Senyard recently posted..Kids First Aid Review PLUS Giveaway – I Know How to Save a Child’s Life
Japan has always seemed like such a strange, foreign place to me! The only thing I remember from learning Japanese in high school is that you say “moshi moshi” when you pick up the phone ha!
Wooohooooooo! That is so exciting. I’m more than a little bit jelly. How amazing to take your boys to meet your host family xxx
How wonderful that you have such warm memories of your time there, and even more amazing is that you get to pass on everything you know to your kids. It will be such fun! I”m a little jealous and have the skeleton of a plan to go to Japan next year!
Malinda @mybrownpaperpackages recently posted..My Friday Favourite: Not Quite Nigella
Wow! What an exciting trip for the family and how lovely to show the kids your “old haunts”. I often think about this when it comes to London but it certainly won’t be a time we can recapture again but a great place to have a pint in summer
Caroline raj @ MAMMA RAJ SAS recently posted..Vanish and the Anti-Domestic Goddess #ReviewRoundUp {Giveaway}
When we visited London for some reason it really felt like home {although probably because we have family there}. I don’t know that I could live there though, its too cold and dark, I need the sunshine and real beaches.
Toni @ Finding Myself Young recently posted..Kids First Aid Australa – first aid courses for parents
You’re lucky to have spent such a long period of time in Japan and to be so familiar with the culture. I once spent 6 weeks there and it is still one of my favourite countries, even after travelling to so many places since. I hope to take my kids back there soon as well. Enjoy your time there in December!
Lisa wielgosz recently posted..Top Tips for Road Trips With Kids
It’s lovely you have a home away from home. Some traditions and customs don’t make sense but I think sometimes we realise how lovely they are later. I love ‘Welcome home’…so much better than a ‘Hey’ 🙂
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