First day back...

Getting back to where this adventure all started took 23 hours.

Two planes, one Skyliner train, one shink ride, one local train ride to Gohyakugawa Station, capped with a taxi ride with a familiar face. (I gave my friendly taxi driver, "Smokes-A-Cigarette-When-Possible-San," a small Canadian pin).

It was a long journey. I looked and felt gross. The nine-year-old girl sitting beside me on the planed had asked, "Are you tired? You looked tired." She also asked if I was in high school. (Go, Asian genes. I look soooo youthful. Ha.)

I'll write more about my time back home in a future blog. It was filled with my family, food, friends and more food.

But right now, I wanted to jot down that it's nice to see the comforting parts of Motomiya. I drove past my fave baseball boys, surprisingly dressed in their civvies, riding their bikes around the neighbourhood this morning. (I thought it was interesting how S-kun was wearing a hot pink plaid shirt, and pulls is off. In Canada, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't see dudes in that colour scheme, haha). The snack bar near my house now has a big lantern glowing in the front yard. The Pooh corner in the dollar store has moved. R., one of my fashion-forward fifth-graders, was once again dressed to the nines at the grocery store. These are all little things that only I can appreciate!

Ah, the first day back...