departure day @DWT

As I sit at the corner of DWT, I finally started to feel nervous as the reality sets in. It reminds me of how I felt when I left Japan to move to the US almost 14 years ago. Not knowing what to expect in the new environment is such a scary thing. The ironic part of is that I'm going back to my home country where I was born and grown up. I should be more excited than being nervous and scared, especially since it's is my own decision unlike when I moved to the US.

People are surprised when I tell them that I feel more comfortable moving to a new city in the US than moving back to Japan. However, the reality is that I was just a kid when I left home and the longest I stayed there was only 3 weeks. Also I know how to live my own in the US, but not in Japan. In the recent years, I haven't been speaking Japanese on the regular base neither since I work and live with English natives. So my Japanese are getting rusty.

Knowing that I didn't speak English at all nor liked studying it, it's somewhat funny to me that now I have easier time with English than my native language. The time is such a powerful thing. As matter of the fact, this past Thanksgiving I caught myself talking to my father in English when I was a half sleep when I was taking a nap at their house. I wonder how my father felt about his daughter speaking English instead of Japanese at the subconscious level.

I guess it will be an interesting how things will be in Japan since I'm a Japanese, but not really... too Americanized. I'm expecting many reversed cultural shocks..