Things I Miss…

Of course, there are so many things that I miss while studying in Japan. Of course I miss people; that doesn’t need to be gone too in depth on. Basically, if you’re reading this, I probably miss you to some extent. But beyond that, there are many things that I miss from America that I can’t wait to have when I get back.

Starting with food. There are so many home cooked American meals that I miss. I miss our homemade pizza, I miss tater tot hotdish, I miss grilled chicken (yes mom, I miss grilled chicken!!!! I bet that’s a surprise.) I miss these things when I’m at Notre Dame too, but I can usually replace them with something that tides me over until the next time I’m home. But if I want grilled chicken here, I honestly can’t say I know of a place to get it. Not to mention tater tot hotdish. My friends at school don’t even know what that is.

I miss lots of restaurants too. Not the general genre of food, their specific food. I will pay $100 (¥10,000) for a Chipotle burrito right now. Barbacoa please. Right up there with Chipotle is Buffalo Wild Wings. I also miss Domino’s, but that’s kind of my fault because they actually have them in Nagoya. There’s even an “American Favorite” which is just a pepperoni pizza. They know me so well. I guess I’ll have to try that one soon. Unfortunately, they don’t deliver to my house.

I definitely miss Notre Dame sometimes. I’m very lucky that the basketball games are often well timed for me to follow on my train ride to school. I often wonder if anyone else in the whole country is doing the same thing as me in those moments. I think I might be the only one. I was also sad about not being on campus after the death of Father Hesburgh. It would have been a neat experience to be there for the events celebrating his life, especially after having met him last year. I made up for it by teaching my host mom all about him, in Japanese.

Sometimes I miss English, but I speak it with my friends which somewhat alleviates that. I miss being able to understand every single thing on the TV. I went to American Sniper a few weeks ago and it was in English subtitled in Japanese. The entire theater was full and I’m pretty sure I was the only one who didn’t have to read the entire movie.

This post makes me sound extremely homesick, which I’m not. I just thought maybe some of you would be interested in seeing the things that I find myself craving or thinking about the most! The Chipotle offer stands.