Season’s Greetings

A big Christmas tree stands in Piccadilly gardens, a huge Santa Clause sits on the town hall and the Christmas markets open; Christmas is just around the corner in Manchester. Some of my friends have already gone back to their home countries so I have been thinking of Japan a lot recently. Since I came here, I haven’t been back to Japan even once because I decided not to go back to Japan for two years unless something exceptional occurs. There are two main reasons; the first one is that I am supposed to be back in Japan in the future so I would prefer to visit other European countries during my stay in England and the second reason is if I went back to Japan, I would miss it even more. After one and a half years, I am more comfortable living here than before, I’m more flexible now, for instance:
Last Tuesday without any notice water stopped coming out of taps, I was shocked because this kind of problem has never occurred in Japan however this is the second time at my place in Manchester. The first time, I panicked and I didn’t know what to do but this time I already knew the place I could ring to ask for help. I also knew I could use the toilet at the nearby station and I had bottles of water to drink so after making a phone call I calmly waited and water came back to the taps in about two hours. Many unavoidable troubles have happened here but I’ve learnt they can be solved if I would complain then wait.
When I came I didn’t have any friends here, I could speak with my friends at home on Skype but after hanging up the line, I felt very lonely. I had no friends for coffee, lunch or shopping, I sat in front of my PC for many hours each day and I didn’t feel like I was living in Manchester, but now I have friends to go out and speak to in person and I’m feeling alive. These facts made it a lot easier to live here, however still miss my family and friends in Japan. Luckily, my family are coming to see me from Osaka for the New Year holidays. I look forward to talking and catching up on all the stories, every day I listen to NHK radio news and read articles about Japan on line, the Internet brings me lots of general information however I know my family will bring many other interesting or local stories.
I’ll stay here another three years from now on, because I’m getting used to living in Manchester, it is much easier to stay here than moving to a new place to start from the beginning again. I have places I would like to visit in Europe so staying three years would give me more opportunity to travel and of course I’ll also try to visit Japan sometimes. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure whether I could come back to Manchester if I went back to Japan before, but now I’m ready for it.
I wish all my friends Merry Christmas!