a challenging lifestyle

We went to hanami yesterday, and met with several families all with kids of the same age as Kenny. Mari received a surprise compliment.

One of the parents took time to talk to Mari at the mothers-only dinner that followed the hanami. She told Mari that while she'd seen other foreign parents at her daughter's day care that she was impressed with my coming to a social function and trying to get involved. She's only used to foreign spouses of Japanese parents letting the Japanese parent do all of the interacting, and that she's never encountered foreigners who attempted to deal with the huge differences in culture and language and get involved.

In fact she was quite moved by my approaching her and talking to her in my broken Japanese (I'd commented on the fact that out of the eleven children present, her child was the only girl). In a misty-eyed way, she praised Mari and me on making a go of living in the Japanese community.

For my part I just feel embarrassed that my Japanese is still as lousy as it is. And from time to time the sheer insanity of trying to get a business off the ground in a country where I can't read hits home. All the more so when I'm watching more and more foreign friends decide to move on to other shores—just yesterday I learned that another friend is leaving.

But I'll do as Mari's new friend praised, and keep at it.