11 Things I Can't Wait to Go Home To

My list posts are back!

I'd be the last person in the world to say that I am homesick. Because I'm really not. It just isn't the word to describe what I feel being caught between 2 countries, 2 "homelands", neither of them exactly convincing to me.

Nevertheless, I am going back to Bangkok in 3 months, and after living here in Tokyo for 8 months, I am at this point where my focus is starting to shift towards the future. So I have started thinking about all the things that I am excited about having back in my life.

1. Affordable Tailoring

This is what happens when I try to hem my own pants here: I manage only one leg... the pants become unwearable altogether. This would never happen in BKK. (I can't even find an INaffordable seamstress in Tokyo.)

2. Baking (& Baking Parties)

Exhibit A:

Todd Ingram Brownies (Vegan Brownies, my fave)

Exhibit B:

Namwan's birthday party at my house, a party of 2.

3. "Uncle Chai's" Ba-mee Shop

People here are constantly asking me if I'm dying from Thai food deprivation. For the billionth time, I am fine thank you! I guess it's because I didn't grow up on an exclusively Thai diet. However, there is one meal I do long for, and that is "my usual" at a particular noodle place that has captured my heart since I was too little to finish 2 bowls of ba-mee. I think every Thai has that one local place they will always be biased to.

4. Driving

Despite the all-round benefits of being able to walk home from school within 10 minutes or taking the train EVERYWHERE here, I actually miss home being a 45-minute to an hour-and-a-half drive away. Selfishly, it was my 45-minute to hour-and-a-half moment of no-one-can-reach-me, each day. Times two of course for roundtrip. And as long as I had my music, not even the worst of Bangkok traffic could kill me.

5. My Drum Room

I will probably lock myself in there for a few days. I haven't touched a musical instrument in almost a year. (Disclaimer: I wrote this before I touched a shamisen this past Saturday.)

6. "Let's meet at Paragon"

I hate Paragon. There's absolutely nothing to do there, and it's just crowded.
But it was always the meeting spot, ね。

7. Martial Arts

This is really ironic, but getting into martial arts in Japan was too inconvenient. I can't wait to return to the community I belong to in Thailand and begin training again.

8. FREE FLOW OF... FRUITS!

Mangoes. Pineapples. Guava. Mangosteen. Lychee. Rambutan... Oh my God.

9. Dad's Record Player

Can't wait to listen to stuff I've acquired here!
Sample:

10. The People Who Made University Life In Bangkok Bearable

Can't, don't want to, and won't mention them all, but I will say this includes seniors as well as juniors and some of my classmates; Chula and extra-Chula; people I've taught and those who have taught me. In a nutshell, people who were encouraging and thoughtful towards me even if we weren't regular friends.

11. Parents

Yes, freedom has been awesome. But I haven't seen my two longest friends in the while, and it's time to catch up.