homesickness

Short of fleeing to the closest airport, whipping out your credit card and paying an enormous fee for airline ticket that would take you home RIGHT NOW, how do you handle the inevitable and sometimes unbearable feelings of homesickness?

Yes, we're going home next week but we probably won't be able to take a trip home next year due to the rising costs of the fuel surcharge and also just the fact that there is six of us! I know during the times of "no trip home in the near future" that homesickness will crash over me unbidden and then I will do what I always do. Buy a book. Yes, this is my ultimate cure for homesickness. Somehow buying a book, either a new one or a golden oldie that I love and want to pass onto my children, and sitting down to read it helps me create a little Canadian/American bubble that I can climb into and relax in for awhile. It never fails.

Also, I count my blessing. Life in Japan has gotten so much easier to live in the past seven years. There's Costco, FBC, Expat Express, Ikea, etc. We have internet access and cheap long distance rates. I created a blog and thereby made a lot of new friends who understand exactly what I'm going through. I've learned how to speak Japanese and I've made awesome Japanese friends. Well, the list goes on and on but stopping to take a moment to focus on the positives in my life make the negatives a little bit more bearable.

So, what is your "cure" for homesickness? I know a few ladies who are in the throes of homesickness and they might appreciate a few new ideas on how to dig themselves out!