Back home

I'm back in Australia for the first time in over a year. It certainly felt strange and it took me a couple of days to get used to everything again.

For example, looking out the window of the plane as we arrived at Sydney airport, I realised I was unconsciously looking for Mt Fuji. (Whenever I'm on a train and it's a clear day I look for Mt Fuji.) When I was near a train and the ground shook, I thought it was an earthquake. (Actually I felt a long earthquake while teaching on Saturday night. It went for a full minute.)

I walked off the plane, yawning, and a couple of techies in the overpass grinned at me and said "that bad, was it?" in the Aussie-est accent I'd heard all year. I felt weird in the airport too - suddenly I felt short, and I no longer felt slightly overweight. I thought Aussies seemed really tall and tanned and untidy - everyone was in such casual clothes, and people were randomly dumping suitcases on the floor, rifling through things, getting in each others' way. In Japan, everything and everyone is very orderly and neat and self-contained.

While waiting in line I exchanged a few words with the lady in front of me (we'd both been out the country for a while and we'd just heard the word 'g'day' from someone in the next line). I said only two sentences and she said 'you've got an American accent'. I think I've already mostly lost it again though.

I went to the bathroom and expected the toilet to flush itself (that's one thing I don't miss; auto-flushing toilets always irritate me). I went through Customs and one of the Customs guy was chatting cheerily to a customer; I overheard him say 'that's bloody sensational!' I overheard another Customs guy calling a customer 'mate'. I felt happy.

And when I went outside, I realised for the first time that Australia has a smell. A fresh, earthy smell; I'd never noticed it especially before. Even the air felt different from Japan.

I realised just how ocker and casual most Australians are. Even the clothes of people around me surprised me. Most Japanese people are so well-presented, I feel like most Aussies look like they're dressed for the beach. Even store keepers are more friendly and open. In Japan, store clerks are very courteous and polite, and there's this feeling that they are there to really serve the customer; the customer and clerk are not on an equal level.

But in Australia the status is the same, so people will more freely chat to store clerks, and staff will joke or say friendly things. I went into one store and the clerk was telling us how manic it was at Christmas and how they'd had some nasty customers that week; another store and they told us a particular product wasn't that great, another was exchanging banter with the customer she was serving. You'd never hear this level of casualness or realness from Japanese clerks. I had it it in my mind that Japan's customer service was much better than Adelaide's, and I guess it is faster and more efficient, but actually Adelaide's waiters and clerks are much friendlier than I remembered.

Aussie people, too, are really open and friendly. I notice it after Japan. Japanese people are lovely; I really like them immensely, but I do miss being able to speak English to people, and freely chat to or ask questions of anyone I see. And Japanese people do tend to be more reserved and contained; loads of people wearing business suits, walking in silence through train stations; people are very considerate but not usually gregarious like Aussies. Australians seem much more relaxed, human, themselves.

I also realised how much I miss Aussie food. Adelaide's food is really, really good. I realise again that I don't like Japanese food *that* much. Sure, I've grown used to it; I've found plenty of things I like, but often in Japan it's a case of 'hmm, this doesn't look *too* bad, I guess I can eat this'. It's not the same as going to any restaurant and having at least a dozen things on the menu that make you go 'oooh, I reaaaally want this!!'

In particular I miss Australian bread and rolls, I miss good Australian pasta, and Greek food, and pub/cafe meals (fish and chips, gourmet burgers, salt and pepper squid, etc).

I've been feeling lucky to be back but also kind of appraising things - do I want to return here, etc. The pace of life feels much slower and more relaxed here. The weather is amazing. I miss Australian weather too! And I felt so free, driving around. It's nice to feel like you can go anywhere, when you have a car; and the sky stretches across forever, and there's so much SPACE.

It's also been good seeing everyone again.

But I don't quite have the feeling of being home...