We're back in Tokyo

This morning it's a week since we landed back in Tokyo. The last week has been a bit of a blur, however. We came back very tired and my health hasn't been superb. But all that is improving as we settle back into life here. We're very happy to be back in our own little apartment and slipping back into routines. It was wonderful to be welcomed back to our church in Tokyo and feel like we'd come home. While time with family and friends in Australia has been good, there is a joy in being known here too, in our other home.

Yesterday I drove to my friend's house in a nearby city to pick up my 16 potted plants! My Japanese friend has quite a green thumb and she's done a great job of looking after them. It's challenging, though, to take care of plants in pots in the midst of a Tokyo summer. Extreme heat with lots of sunshine stresses most of them. Our apartment is very bright, which is wonderful in winter, but finding places to put plants in the summer is a bit challenging (our tiny balcony and bay window are on the south side, and very hot). My office is on the north side of the building and gets little direct sun at any time of the year, so I haven't usually put plants in here, but have four of them in with me just now...and I really like them!

I also got a haircut on my way home from my friend's house. The hairdresser was pretty nervous about cutting my hair so short. Not many Japanese women have their hair as short as mine, so getting a haircut can be a challenge. (I now have a video I show them of myself with freshly cut short hair that makes them much more comfortable.) This salon is so much cheaper than anything I could get in Australia (about AUD11) so I persevered and managed to get away without getting it cut through our whole time in Australia, but it was getting very shaggy and feels much better now it's been trimmed.

I've been working on our August newsletter. It's been a couple of months since we wrote to people and a lot has happened. Actually, when I started work on it on Saturday, I found reviewing what we'd done in Australia quite stressful! It's good to look back and debrief a bit, though, because we'll have to decide what to do next time we need to take a home assignment (which, if we keep doing this every two years, will come much faster than we want it to).

David's already back at school too, and loving it. He really does love his job and this school, which makes me happy too.

But now I must get back to other urgent matters that have been waiting...especially the Autumn issue of the magazine I'm the managing editor of—our busyness and then travel and post-arrival recovery time has slowed up the whole process.