I thought I would make this post now because it's rather related to this recent xkcd comic (which is neat and you should check out anyway). One of the issues I've noticed moving from the Eastern timezone to Japan is that I'm offset by about half a day from most of the people I know.
This means that when I log into gmail, nobody is online or if they are I'm aware that it's late (or early) where they are and I'm reluctant to bother them. It also means that when I check facebook, the things I reply to are typically at least 8 hours old. Or that when it was my birthday, most of the well-wishes arrived the day after my birthday here because that's when it was my birthday there (on a similar note, I might be sending birthday wishes half a day early to people back home).
On one hand, it's awesome that I can keep tabs on friends back home and I know that some of them are reading my blog and keeping up with me in a sense (a lot of my visitors are from Canada and I'm going to assume it's not just random people). It's also not something that would have been possible for most of human history (e.g. even 20 years ago, it would have barely been possible) so I appreciate that I'm fortunate that I don't have to make a series of long distance phone calls (or wait weeks for letters back and forth) to even see what's happening with everyone.
It's still not the same as going to the pub to get a drink and catching up or even the same as instant messaging.
I am having fun here and enjoy getting to hang out with new people too, I just also miss you guys back home too.
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