Just a few weeks before we came to Japan we bought the last Harry Potter book. Despite our eagerness, we didn’t open the book. We wanted to save it for Japan, to give us something to look forward to.
Our first few nights in Gifu, not knowing what else to do, we sat in our empty tatami rooms. Relaxing beneath the air conditioning, getting a break from the unrelenting heat, Aaron feverishly reading chapter upon chapter of Harry Potter aloud while I sat, quietly, knitting and listening.
Now, two years later, so much has changed yet so much has stayed the same.