I am back!

Ego boost: returning to a place where everyone appreciates you. Word of my arrival spread like a flame on the dried stalks of rice after the harvest. The gaijin is back! I feel more like the village fool than a foreign celebrity (my already poor Japanese ability is even worse due to my lack of practice) but hey, it is good to be home. The older people of the village seemed genuinely happy to see. They greeted me with things like, “thank god you are back to take care of the place” “at last someone is going to clean up that yard” “it’s so good to see you, now the weeds will be cut”. I hadn’t been home 30 hours before my mother-in-law asked me to remove a stump. It feels so good to be needed. Honestly, there is a sense of community here that I’ve never felt anywhere else. Everyone knows us and while knowing that nothing in your life is private can be disconcerting, it is also comforting to be known.