Father's Day confusion

Last night I glanced at an Australian-made calendar in my son's room and realised today was Father's Day in Australia. How much we rely in outside reminders for things like this. There is little chance I would have forgotten if I'd been living in Australia - the kids would have brought home crafts from school, the shops would be full of promotions and our letter box would overflow with junk mail promoting the day. But Father's Day in Japan is on a different day all together. The only reminder was some tiny print on a calendar.

The truth is we get seasonal confusion. It is a tiny bit like jet lag, but much more prolonged. It is not our daily inner clock that is disturbed, it is our year-long internal calendar that is messed with. We were speaking to some American friends about this just today. Grab me at a bad moment and press me for the month and I'm likely to be wrong. Even after nearly 10 years of switching between hemispheres I still have trouble.

All the markers are wrong - special events like Christmas and Easter happen in the wrong season. Starting school in the American system happen in the right season, but the wrong time of year. Public holidays are different and then the school has a conglomeration of holidays - mixing both Japanese and American ones in. Australian ones are not even on the calendar. There are no chocolate Easter eggs and hot cross buns in the shop in March. No one stops to consider Anzac Day. Cricket is happening while we crouch in front of heaters.

It is all wrong and I haven't found a way to re-programme myself. But actually I don't really want to. I need to keep my head in both countries - or we lose contact with family and our home country. Which brings me back to Father's Day today.

Aside from the fact that we're still in transition and that I've just returned from overseas last night, the chances of forgetting something important like Father's Day was a high chance. I did get a phone call in, though. Thankfully my Dad wasn't upset. He was grateful for the call.