Back in Edmonton

Ho hum, the trip is over and it's back to real life. The grass was 8 feet tall and the house has tumbleweeds of cat hair floating around. I still don't fully know what timezone my body exists in right now (waking up at 4:30am today was better than 2am yesterday) - you'd think that a decade of shift work would prepare me for this a bit better.

I missed my routine. I missed my breakfasts. I missed my animals. I missed my house. I missed my friends. It's good to be home.

I miss Japan a ton though. I miss the food. I miss the people. I miss the transit. I miss the culture.

I'm not one to have done a lot of traveling in my life, and certainly never like this kind of trip, so I've never experienced this kind of own-culture shock. I am feeling a bit of post-travel melancholy; I can honestly say Japan and the Japanese culture very much resonated with me.

Michelle explained wa to me, and this is what Wikipedia says:

Wa (和) is a Japanese cultural concept usually translated into English as "harmony". It implies a peaceful unity and conformity within a social group in which members prefer the continuation of a harmonious community over their personal interests

Coming back to North America, I see the rampant individualism that is the basis for literally everything here, and there is a not-small part of me that kind of died a little bit.

Now excuse me while I become a hypocrite and drive my personal automobile to the coffee shop and sit in the drive thru line up waiting for someone ahead of me to order a highly modified version of their breakfast sandwich.

'Berta. *truck noises*