DAY ONE AGAIN!!
I'm back - up early due to the fact that I'm running 8 hours ahead - still on Japan time.
I had the most amazing, wonderful - life changing really - time in Japan. Going back "home" after seven years was a really difficult thing to do and involved a LOT of tears. It was wierd to see that things had moved on and somehow life went ahead without me!!! My old house has been knocked down and my former students are now all grown up, married with kids and moved away.
Managed to get in some snowboarding in my old ski resort and took gaijinboy to a proper old onsen resort - this one:
http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia26/en/feature/feature05.html
The cherry blossoms were just at their peak in Kyoto and as it was the first week in spring we also got to see the maiko (apprentice geisha) dance and go inside the Kyoto imperial palace - both of these things happen very rarely so we were lucky.
It was great practice for my Japanese and seeing old friends was amazing. The teaching was fantastic and made me realise how much I miss working with those kinds of students.
I was afraid that I would go and it would make me regret some of the decisions I made 7 year ago - ie not marrying my Japanese boyfriend and moving away. These are things I've been struggling with for a long time - but actually it confirmed to me that at least the first part of that dilemma I dealt with correctly and reminded me how lucky I am with gaijinboy who really is the light of my life. But it did make me wish I still lived in Japan - so I guess I'll just have to make do with trips back. At least now I know that with the help of some pretty full on drugs I can make it there and back.
Weight wise - I weighed myself right through and it remained constant - but about 5 days ago I tried again on a friends scales and it seemed a couple of kilos higher - the day before on another set it was the same as all the others had been - I know it could just be the scales but I also feel really porky - my clothes are no tighter but I really don't feel good in myself - I'm pretty sure that my face is bigger and there's an extra roll around my stomach.
Anyway, from today I'm back on my LL packs to try and lose just a little more - so it's going to be a tough few days whilst I break through the hunger barrier back into ketosis!!! I'll give tomorrow's meeting a miss as I now have a very short time to write a very long essay as well as apply for jobs, sort out my garden which has gone beserk in my absence and generally get life back on track.....
Obviously I don't know what I weigh at the moment on my counsellors scales but will start a new tracker at 12 stone as I reckon if I've gotten away with just 4lbs gain I'll have been very lucky!!