The main parts of the experience of my return trip should be no surprise for anyone who hasn’t been home for a while. There has been the pleasure of being able to communicate freely being quickly overwhelmed by the annoyance of not being able to concentrate on your book on the bus because you can’t stop yourself listening in to other people’s conversations. Then there’s the usual noticing everything that is new for the first two days and then feeling like nothing has changed by the time it’s time to leave. There have also been the things specific to the UK like enjoying the politeness and then slowly coming to the conclusion that that factor hasn’t just declined since “my day” but also since you were there six months before. The odd thing this time is that I haven’t actually been back in the UK, but instead back in Japan visiting the in-laws. The feeling, however, has been almost identical to being “really” back home. Nice to know that something about travelling can still surprise me…