Kicking and screaming

No doubt the worst bit about holidays is the horrendous comedown - the first few days of being back in the grind that really hits home how far from more holidays you are. I made my inglorious return to the workplace on Thursday and for the most part felt like a plump Christmas turkey dreading the sound of knives on sharpeners; I'm a captive audience for the next year and at some point I'm going to have to perform. It's reverse (reverse?) culture shock, I keep telling myself, but that isn't helping me feel any less hunted - my head is full of the faces of disappointed coworkers and empty blog posts. Time to do something about the latter, I think.

One of the first things we did when we got back to Japan was head to Spa World in Osaka, a giant bath-themed centre complete with swimming pools and shops. There are two zones - Europe and Asia - which rotate each month to give the guys and girls a turn at both. Having been in the European one last time, I was pleased to find out that it was my turn at the Asia section. What I probably should have done was gone in, plonked myself a series of baths and forgotten about everything for a while; what I actually did was a "quick workout" in the in-house gym, followed by a snap decision to get a haircut at the barber that had mysteriously appeared beside it. This left very little time to soak and I came out feeling slightly more harassed than when I had gone in. The parallels are apt - for the moment, I don't seem to be letting myself relax and enjoy Japan, or settle back into the old routines. The routines are everything - spontaneity gives me a rash.

That's not to say I've had much opportunity - my schedule's been turned almost inside out this year. For better or worse, I'm now a full-time bureaucrat. Being able to take holidays without worrying about whether classes are running is nice; being utterly in range of my superiors' tractor beams at all times is not. Last year, all but the most serious of tasks that I would have been given had evaporated by the time Friday came around but at the moment, I'm a lasso's throw away from every thought bubble that pops into someone's head. It's going to take some getting used to.

The weather, as well, has been a bit of a shock, going from this...

...to undershirt, shirt, jumper, jacket, coat, scarf and gloves. I wouldn't quite say it's been "snowing", but there have been light flurries of snowflakes swirling around a few days since we've been here; I wanted to shake my fist at them but my fingers were too numb. Getting up and walking across bathroom tiles at 7 in the morning under these conditions should be worth some kind of trophy. Again, this should be no surprise, but we seem to have short memories. I'm hoping after a couple of weeks, the ol' body and brain will be back in the swing of things and I'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Apart from that, we've found out that we won't need to move anything out of the apartment when we leave at the end of the year, which was like waving a red credit card at a bull (in a furniture shop?). We spent the weekend buying endless drawers, cabinets, racks and screwdrivers to put them all together; the word "storage" now sends a shiver of relish down my spine. As I said to Lisa, once we abandon the stainless steel bathroom rack we're currently using as a TV cabinet, we're in distinct danger of ending up with a civilised household. There's always the offchance that none of this will help and I'll find myself shivering in bed (between chests of drawers) wishing for the warmth and comforts of home, but I'm sure a little imagination will help me relax.

I feel better already.