About

This is a chronicle of one person making Osaka a new home.

I left Japan during formative years, and I am returning after having lived abroad for two-thirds of my life.

I am in the shoes of Scarlet Johansson in Lost in Translation, or Sylvie Testud in Fear and Trembling (Stupeur et Tremblements, based on a novel by Amélie Nothomb), except I am “from here”.

At the time of landing, I have never had to pay a single utility bill in Japan under my name. I am part Urashima Taro: so much has changed, but so many things feel familiar.

My Japanese sensibilities are stuck where and when I left it.

Nostalgia is not the reason you should go back to your home country – a friend told me.

So, or is it But, here. I. am.