Back in Grand Rapids

I’ve finally broken free of Calypsos’s grasp, and am home again.

I’ll put the most important part of this entry in the front while I know you’re still reading: I don’t have anybody’s contact info so send me an e-mail or call me or something. I know I say that every time I come back, but because I was never back permanently before I never saved any of those numbers from one trip to the next. So, sorry to be such a putz, but this is the last time I promise. I’m going to buy one of those little black address books and write everything down, and if you’ll just indulge me this one last time I’ll never bug you again.

So, onto the post...

I flew home yesterday. Shoko drove me to the airport in Fukuoka, I flew from there to Osaka, from there to Chicago, and from there back to Grand Rapids.

Even after moving two times, and thinning out my possessions, I still have a lot of junk, and I had to condense five years of accumulated stuff into two bags, and there was a lot of stuff I had to leave behind. Fortunately I could leave it at Shoko’s apartment, where I might make arrangements for some of it at a later date. (As opposed to those unfortunate people without Japanese girlfriends, who just have to throw everything out). Unfortunately I had to leave behind a lot of my Japanese study materials because the books and tapes were just to bulky. I left behind most of my Japanese music collection, because it was on mini-disc and I’ve been told MD players are hard to get in the US anyway. And I left behind my tapes of the new testament in Japanese, which were a great study resource but very big and bulky.

United Airlines allows two bags of 32 kg for international flights. Shoko and I did a lot of monkeying around with the scale in her room. I’d stand on the scale, we’d take my weight (90 kg, for those interested), then I’d hold a bag, we’d take the new weight, do the math, and adjust the bags accordingly.

But (and maybe you can see where this is going) when we get to the airport in Fukuoka it turns out that 32 kg is only for the international flight. The limit for the airplane from Fukuoka to Osaka is 20 kg. And those extra kilograms don’t come cheap. They charged me $3.50 for every kilogram I was over the limit. Son of a bitch!

Anyway, the flight back was really long and tiresome as always, but I made it back.

I’ve been home 4 times on holiday before now, all at times of intervals of a year or more. When you’ve been away for a long time, coming back into the US is always a weird feeling, as if everything is new to you and America, not Japan, is the foreign country.

This time however I was just back last January, so it didn’t feel so strange. The big difference though is that this time I’m back to stay.

As you may expect, I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. On one hand I’m really looking forward to being able to once again establish real relationships with my old friends (those of you who are still in the area, anyway) and family instead of just sending an e-mail every couple of weeks. I"m looking forward to being able to make small talk at work in my native language. I’m looking forward to being able to get new books without having to drive an hour, see new movies when they come out, and have food at the supermarket that I’m familiar with. In fact when I think about it all, it seems like a dream and I’ve been away too long.

On the other hand, to leave Japan where I’ve been having a lot of experiences and living independently for 5 years, and then to come back home and move into my old childhood bedroom, definitely has the feeling of moving backward in life not forward. Hopefully this will only be a springboard to other experiences, once I figure out exactly what I want to do.

Useless Wikipedia Fact
Borrowing from Mr. Guam, who brings to our attention this Wikipedia story of a cat named Wilberforce, the chief mouser at 10 Downing street which includes incidents of birdicide, being lost, and being turned out of the job because of Cherie Blair.

Link of the Day
Local Media Ignore or Underreport Visit by CIA Analyst Critical of Hoekstra