COLOMBO - Looking back now, while I sip a cup of sweet milk tea in my kitchen, the rather long summer vacation I had in July in Japan has been an exhilarating 'break'. How so, you might wonder. Well, it's mostly due to the warm attention I got from friends waiting for me in Tokyo, where I had lived for 22 years with my husband and daughter before taking up a job here in my native Sri Lanka.

When the appointment letter for a new job in Sri Lanka arrived via email last September, I knew a decision I had toyed with for almost a year --- whether to leave Japan、my home for almost three decades to return to the country of my birth—had finally arrived at a conclusion. The long chewing process on the prospect of going Home, had till then been an experience that swayed between been troubling and pleasant—the latter mostly for who could not but dream of the sandy beaches of a tropical island while squashed in the rush-hour in Tokyo trains.