White Rice Connecting Life in Japan and New Zealand — 2026/4/14 (Tue) After Returning Home

Kanon
April 14, 2026 11:50

I spent several restless days wondering if my return to Japan would be delayed due to the cyclone.
But in the end, I arrived at Narita as scheduled on March 13, and it was close to 11 p.m. by the time I reached my home in Shizuoka.

I didn’t even open my suitcase. I didn’t take a shower.
I simply collapsed into bed and fell asleep.

The relief of having made it home safely, the fatigue from travel, the quiet strain I had been carrying—
all of it unraveled at once that night.

This morning, I finally woke up and stood in the kitchen.
Just as my husband had said, there was nothing in the refrigerator.
Only plain rice (brown rice) he had cooked and left for me.

I ate it with some salted kelp, pickled shallots, and ginger that were still in the house,
along with an instant miso soup.

It was nothing luxurious at all,
yet the taste settled gently into my body.

At that moment, I suddenly remembered a scene from New Zealand.

My two grandchildren, ages seven and five, who live far away in
New Zealand.
When they get hungry, they take frozen rice, heat it in the microwave themselves,
and eat it with umeboshi, furikake, or nori.

Especially the five-year-old—natto is her favorite food.
On the way back from dropping us at the airport,
they stopped at an Asian market in
Queenstown to buy natto because they had run out.
As soon as they got home, she apparently ate it over rice.

Natto is something even many Japanese people dislike,
yet this five-year-old genuinely loves it.

As I remembered that scene while eating brown rice with salted kelp,
I suddenly thought, “Is this Japan?”

Even though the places are different,
the way of eating rice with a few simple accompaniments is the same.

It felt less like a matter of bloodline and more like proof that
the shape of everyday life, seen over and over, had quietly taken root in the children.

Perhaps we do not need as much as we think to live.

If there is rice, and something small to go with it,
that alone can bring a sense of calm.

Today, I finished most of the laundry, wiped down my suitcase and let it dry,
and began putting things away just a little.

My body still hasn’t fully recovered, so after my LINE video call with my mother at her care facility,
I plan to lie down again and rest.

On my first full day back home,
the simple bowl of rice on an otherwise empty table
quietly connected life in Japan and New Zealand.

⸻

Hashtags
#FirstDayBackHome
#WhiteRice
#ScenesOfEverydayLife
#LifeInNewZealand
#FamilyMemories
#JapaneseTable
#SimpleHappiness
#EndOfTheJourney