That's when the floodgates will open.
Taken at Nonomiya Shrine in Kyoto
We are now almost three weeks into the new year and I have only just found the time to sit down, be quiet and do nothing.
After showing Joe and Jeff around Tokyo, then spending one week in Hokkaido with E and a Japanese family, followed by three days exploring Kyoto with Jo, and helping E with his farewell concert, shipping boxes of things home, packing our suitcases, scrubbing our house clean and tieing up all the loose ends, I know I should be doing something more exciting on my last night in Japan, but all I want to do is to stay home and stay warm.
I am not a fan of winter; the air-con is cranked up to 25 degrees but my hands and feet are still icy-cold and I have my purple coat on. If E has to hear me whine once more about how deathly cold I am, I think he might start bleeding from his ears. I tell myself it is just one more day to the sweltering humidity of Singapore and I can soon walk around in t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops and no make-up on.
I am really doing this. I am really leaving Japan. I am trying not to be too emotional (given my predilection for drama), but I am apprehensive about how I will fit back in to Singapore. Reverse culture shock, they call it.
Tomorrow Mel, Mamo, Jo and Nao-chan are going to see us off at the airport. The moment I wave them off at the Departure gate, that's when the floodgates will open.