After my meeting in Osaka on Friday, we caught the bullet train from Osaka to my sweet home, 40mins away from Tokyo Station.

Mum and Pap agree to my stay in Australia as long as I see them every three months, something that is not easy to fulfill since I started working as company employee after graduation. Mum always told me that “if you can not take time off from the work to see Mum and Pap every three months, better quit the company and come home”.

So this is my three monthly routine visit in exchange for freedom.

We reached home close to midnight, but Mum, Pap and Rantarou (my Japanese dog) picked us up from the station and prepared for us yummy udon soup with home grown eggplant tempura.

Many Japanese expats in Melbourne say they love living in Australia because of the abundance of space and nature. For me, this is not the case. My family backyard extends all the way to bullet train train track, which you can see from picture above if you try squinting a little. It takes about 10 minute walk to reach the edge of my backyard. In Australia, I live in a tiny 2 bedroom apartment in area with a high crime-rate.

I love living in the countryside of Japan. All dinner and breakfast ingredients are fresh from our backyard, the eggs and chickens from our next door neighbour’s. When Pap was a kid, he had a goat as his pet, that supplied his daily milk every morning before he goes to school.  Now pap drink Yakult every morning before he catches the bullet train to work in Tokyo.

This is Rantarou. He joined us at our house last Christmas. Previously, he was surviving on rubbish from the bins at our City Council building. Mum works as an Ikebana teacher and flower arranger at the City Council. On his first day at our home, Rantarou tried to eat mum’s Christmas arrangement of orchids. So that’s how he got his name, Rantarou (Orchid boy). Now he is a fully-integrated member of Matsumoto, no more a homeless dog. Rantarou sleeps together with Pap and Mum.

This is Pap’s new 2009 Harley. Japan has very strict sound restriction for motorbikes. So here in Japan, even Harleys sound like scooters. On my last visit home, I got Pap an authentic Harley muffler from Australia to change it a real noisy Harley. Pap loves cars and motorbikes and they both go on tours together on the weekends.

I seem to have inherited my dad’s hobbies in cars and motorbike but I can not afford to buy my own Harley in Australia yet. So I can only get to ride on his bike when in Japan.

The car on the right is mine when in Japan. Pap bought that for me last October so I can go out with my friends during my visits home. How sweet. I used to drive a black Jeep Cherokee in Japan more than 10 years ago, which was my 20th birthday present. Now you know how old I am. When I am at my parents place, I can be so spoilt, not the serious Japanese business man image I think I have here.

Pap seems very tired today…

On the weekend, Justin wanted to have a relaxing time at an onsen, so we drove to Ikaho and stayed at Kokuya Ryokan for one night where Pap, Mum, Justin and I all had facials and a restful night.

You look super cute!!

On Sunday, I visited my grand mum and grand pap in the cemetery. As Japanese, we hold high respect for our ancestors very much, and we visit their graves everyday. You can always see fresh flowers at the graves.

I can not wait to see my pap and Mum in January for my birthday. I wish I can move my whole town to Australia, then I will be super happy.