September 2018 Update

Assalamualaikum.

I just want to give the latest update. My family is no longer living in Tokyo.

Last year, on the first day of school when my kids had just started their new school year, we received the news from my husband’s company that we were supposed to return home by the end of the year.

To say we were shocked was an understatement. When my husband’s contract was renewed at the beginning of 2017, it was for a 2-year term. So, we were mentally not prepared to go home yet.

I had just spent weeks in August looking at furniture and curtains because our 2-year lease of furniture with Tokyo Lease was ending and we were renewing it for 18 more months. I even ordered a red Kenwood food processor for my kitchen.

I had also just arranged for a shipment of food packages from Malaysia. Of course, I would not be doing so, if I knew we would be leaving soon.

So, what souvenirs did I get for myself? Definitely not Noritake like many other Malaysian women. Not handbags either.

All I had was my stock of stationery. Even though I had mentioned in my earlier post that I wasn’t into expensive and branded stationery, by October I went to the Traveler’s Factory in Tokyo Station to get myself the limited edition Tokyo Station Traveler’s Notebook leather journal cover.

I also collected a lot of fallen ginkgo and maple leaves as souvenirs. I turned some of them into bookmarks.

We would miss the cherry blossoms in April 2018, so in December I was busy taking photos of fuyu zakura (winter cherry blossoms) whenever I saw them, even though nobody else cared about them.

One week before flying home, we moved out of the rented house in Yakumo and checked-in into New Otani Hotel in Akasaka-Mitsuke.

Then we had to deal with the shipment of goods to Malaysia, the return of furniture to Tokyo Lease, the termination of Internet and phone services and finally the house inspection and the return of the key.

The hardest part was dealing with disposal of waste. I had to plan it carefully around the days of disposal of recyclables and burnable/combustible and the volume that we could dispose off in one day.

I was lucky that the roses in the garden were still blooming even though it was already late December, so I could still take one last photo before we said sayonara.

Now, 9 months after coming home to Malaysia, I really could appreciate that this was actually the best plan Allah had laid out for us.

My son had the chance to sit for SPM even though he will be taking only 8 papers. I had also been involved with my eldest daughter preparation to further her studies in England.

In July 2015, we left her to study in Malaysia when the rest of the family moved to Tokyo. Now, just after turning 21, she left us in Malaysia to pursue her degree in Newcastle.

That is the circle of life.

Even though I haven’t blogged in a long time, I have been sharing my journals on instagram instead. My handle is @aijournals. 💕

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