Originally...

I'm back in Jacksonville, Alabama for the weekend. I get to watch a great football of JSU Gamecocks, and it's wonderful weather.

Sometimes when I meet new people and ask where they are from, some answer "I'm originally from..." Mostly they moved from somewhere distant.

While I was in Jacksonville (Alabama), where I spent five years for my undergrad, I didn't really consider using this phrase. I'm from Tokyo, Japan... period.

(Speaking of "I'm from Tokyo," I don't often say "I'm from Japan." Most of time, they ask again, "Which part of Japan?" Tokyo is a well-known city, but where else do you know? Maybe Yokosuka and Okinawa for the American military bases. But I had a friend from a city near Nagoya, struggling to explain where it is every time he was asked.

And when I'm back home, mainly at my home church, church members asks where in the U.S. I study, and I say Alabama, and to response of question about where Alabama is, I have hard time explain where it is. I usually say west of Georgia, where Atlanta is. They don't know Atlanta, I say "You know Florida Penisula right? The north neighbor of Florida is Georgia and Georgia's neighbor to west is Alabama...)

Anyway, now I live in Birmingham, Alabama (Why do the both of the American cities I've lived have confusing names? Jacksonville can be confused with one in Florida and Birmingham can be with one in England), but Jacksonville is like my second hometown. I have many friends in Jacksonville (even more when school is in session). I even come back to this town for some weekends, like this weekend. I cannot cut tie with this wonderful place.

After ABLAZE, UAB BCM's worship service on Thursdays, I was talking with a friend I met there. I was going back to Jacksonville on the next day, and she knew I was from Japan. But at the end of conversation, she told me to be careful going back home. It struck me. Um, I'm going home. That sounds really nice. Of course it's also nice when I go home in Tokyo for a break, for a couple of weeks. But it's a different "nice" to go back to Jacksonville.

I wasn't really good at making many friends when I was in Tokyo before coming to the U.S. Now I have a lot more friends here than I have made in Tokyo. Tokyo is certainly good place to live, but I'm so blessed to be in this small town of Alabama.

Many asks me how I ended up in Alabama But I'm so thankful friends and especially God who always leads me.

JSU plays Eastern Illinois today. And I get to be at the game! Go Gamecocks!