Back in black (and white)

And with that, a month at home passes in about as long as it takes your eyes to move from the last post of 2010 to the first of 2011. Welcome back, I suppose, although I don't really feel qualified to be a host at the moment. We've been back in Japan for a week now trying to recalibrate the instruments, mostly shambling around Osaka and Kobe as we used to. The faces, places and bases haven't changed but it doesn't feel entirely natural again yet; I think we've spent enough time in Australia and Japan respectively to defamiliarise us with both. Our first trip to the supermarket was particularly strange - a mundane task in a fantastical world, like taking Gandalf's robe to the drycleaner. There be magic here, just not as you imagined.

The trip home is one of those weird folds in time - seemingly only a few days until you actually think about all the things that happened and it expands to its proper size. The problem with going home at Christmas time is twofold; first, you have to pack a case full of presents for people and second, time accelerates exponentially through the holiday period and you're suddenly back wondering what just happened. Let me try and unfold things a little. I remember heaving a 945kg suitcase down the stairs, past a lot of frowning people and into Kobe. I remember having McDonald's for breakfast then running for a bus, a brief noodle break in Hong Kong and then being shaken from my stupor by the eucalyptusy smell of Perth and the nasal twang of the lady on the PA system. It's the other senses that get you I think - the unfamiliar smells and sounds that you had previously forgotten or been used to. Aside from that, everything was almost exactly as we left it. We met a sea of smiling faces at the airport, heaved our bags into the cars and went home (although there was some confusion as to which "home" was which).

I don't think it's really possible to regret leaving Japan for Christmas - they do their best but it really just doesn't compare. This is coming from someone who doesn't particularly enjoy Christmas as well - I imagine Lisa would just wink out of existence if she didn't have her family gathering. I spent most of the days in the leadup to it unpacking and helping get everything organised - we got about 3 carloads of food and it still managed to get eaten (over the course of several weeks). It was really nice to spend time with the respective families laughing at terrible cracker jokes and firing party popper streamers all over the food.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their Japan-sourced presents - particularly the t-shirt folder; we seem to have a backlog of requests for them and I have a feeling 2011 Christmas will require an extra case to carry them all. I got, among other things, a tomato sauce gun which made repeated appearances over the next few days, particularly for our New Year BBQ where it claimed the lives (and white shirts) of several good men and women.

God rest their souls. At some point after ringing in the New Year with sausage rolls and gales of laughter, we hit the shops for the sales and finally got around to the jewelers to look for an engagement ring. After a few false starts, we found the right one and decided to jump in head-first, announcing our engagement with time to celebrate it before the trip back.

After a nice dinner with the two families, my cousin Rachel arrived from the UK with her boyfriend which gave us an excuse to be shameless tourists and take photos of all the obvious bits of Perth to show people here. No more scrabbling around ancient photo albums to find blurry pictures of Cottesloe Beach for me - just my smiling mug spoiling otherwise pristine landscapes.

And just like that, it was all over. We had one final semi-lucid farewell party to mark the moment and then we had 2 days left. Rachel left on the next leg of her trip and then we were the travellers, having to think about ours. Right down to the mailbox overflowing with bills, Kobe is as we left it; whether we're as Kobe left us is up for discussion. In any case, it was a wonderfully relaxing and peaceful trip home and I'd like to thank everyone there for making it so. As for those colossal breakfasts and beautiful coffees...

That we will.