Lately I've been thinking a fair bit about all the small things I will miss, as well as all the small things I miss now and am looking forward to having again when I go back home.
Things I miss (now):
- Libraries! Other than cleaning up my room (not to mention dealing with all the stuff I've left in various other parts of the house), I expect to spend a lot of my time after I get back reading! On average I think I've only been able to read one new book per month since moving to Japan!!
- Breakfast restaurants!! Every once in a while I get a craving for eggs benedict...
- Steak: Japan does have steak, but it's either too thin or too fatty (since Japanese people tend to like their beef marbled...)
- Interac: It still seems strange to me that a society as high tech as Japan is still a mostly cash-based society
- Canadian food labels: Canadian food labels really give a lot of information; plus I miss seeing labels in English and French! (Quite odd, actually, considering that I only really read the English...)
- Oven: Baking ~150 cookies every Christmas and Valentine's Day is ridiculously time consuming when all you've got is a toaster oven that can fit about 9 cookies at one time
- FoodTV: Good Eats, Unwrapped, Ace of Cakes, Iron Chef... Even though I can't cook for the life of me, I enjoy watching others who can!
- 680 News: I am so hopelessly clueless when it comes to what's going on (in Japan and the world) since I'm too lazy to check online news sites or to watch the news on TV
Things I will miss (back in Canada):
- Eneos: I love my local Eneos gas station. It's pretty much the only place I get gas in Towada, and I've done most of my car maintenance (various fluid changes, tire changes, shaken, etc.) there as well. After my car accident, some of the staff even asked about the change in car!
- Portion sizing: Japanese restaurant portion sizing is SO much more reasonable than in Canada (or America).
- Kit Kat: It's probably better for my teeth and weight, but I'm definitely going to miss trying out all the seasonal and regional Kit Kat flavours!
- Baskin Robbins: Again, I'm going to miss the new monthly flavours!
- Festivals: Toronto does have various festivals, but it's not the same as having local festivals where students from your school(s) perform and it seems like everyone in the nearby area comes out! And of course, I'll miss the takoyaki, yam fries, and other festival street food!
- Tsutaya: No more 100 yen and half price rentals that allow me to check out all sorts of Japanese movies. Actually, I'm going to miss easy access to Japanese movies and dramas period
- Used stores: It particularly sucks that I won't be able to pick up an entire series of manga in one large discounted set anymore. And I'll have to go back to ordering movies new from CDJapan and most likely getting hit with customs' taxes...
- All-inclusive prices: Having the tax included on the sticker price and not having to pay tips in restaurants!
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