Sorry for the wait. The past two weeks have been a little busy.
The penultimate week of August my dad came to visit. He’s been in Canada (Alberta, to be more specific) most of the summer for his new job. Together we completed a monumental task that my brother Phillip and I began earlier this summer (Phillip and I undertake a number of monumental tasks every summer, about 12% of which, by liberal estimate, are ever completed; this summer’s projects left incomplete include a webcomic, graphic novel, black-and-white horror film, and music album), that of re-siding our old garage. Of all of the projects I began with Phillip this summer, I am definitely glad this is the one that was finished. (You may be surprised to learn it is the only project that was not our idea.) Anyway, I am absolutely certain there is no other way my dad would have rather spent his week-long break from work than measuring, trimming, and tacking in great long pieces of vinyl siding with me. It is simply the best bonding activity there is. (The part that Phillip and I did without our dad’s help involved stripping off the old siding, pulling a gallon ice cream bucket’s worth of nails, and caulking the holes in the wood underneath.) This paragraph really could have used a few more parenthetical asides.
So anyway, because my dad was only visiting home for the week, I drove him to the airport that weekend and said goodbye. Not until then did it really hit me that, once I leave for Japan, I will not see my family members again for a whole year at the least. I’ve been away from my family for pretty long periods of time, but this will definitely be the longest. I don’t think I experience homesickness, or at least I haven’t experienced it yet, but it’s still a bummer to know you won’t be seeing such awesome people for such a long time. Thankfully Skype exists.
My last week I spent packing, and finishing the other project that I finished this summer—a short film which is, unusually, a collaborative effort involving all of my siblings (and the family dog). The extraordinary, moving results can and should be viewed here.
Packing sure seemed to be going along smoothly. I was for a time totally convinced that I would get away with one checked bag and one carry-on, and thus avoid having to pay extra to have bags shipped from the Tokyo airport to my final destination, as per some JET policy business that you probably don’t want me to explain in detail. Everything seemed to fit in my two suitcases just fine. Then I weighed them. Both were considerably overweight.
The trouble is that I like to read. Books are really the only items I am bringing that aren’t strictly necessary. I thought I had been fairly conservative in packing them, too, but apparently they still amounted to about eight extra pounds. I was so far above the fifty pound limit, though, that not even removing all of my books would have brought me within regulation. So I decided to buckle down and check a garment bag as well. This helped me even out the weight distribution and enabled me to keep all of my books. What is puzzling to me is that my large suitcase is some twenty inches short of the maximum dimensions for a checked bag. How could someone possibly fill a bag much larger than mine without going overweight? My bag is maybe three-quarters full, and still I’m just barely within the weight restrictions.
Oh, I nearly forgot—the Great Clothing Crisis has been more or less resolved, thanks to American Eagle’s online store and Nordstrom Rack. While American Eagle doesn’t have much in the way of shirts, the fact that you can order 32×36 slims from their website, and they aren’t preposterously expensive, is pretty neat. Having received the pants in the mail and tried them on, I am definitely more like a 31×37, but I’m never going to find that size so I’ll make do. Nordstrom Rack is, my mom and I discovered yesterday, a cool place to find shirts. They’ve got a lot of variety, and everything is discounted. We even managed to find one shirt, probably the only one in the store, with a 15 ½ inch neck and sleeves long enough to fit me, AND with a trim body. But enough of this fascinating topic.
I am currently at my aunt and uncle’s house in New Hope, a suburb of the Twin Cities. (This is the same uncle who assisted me way back when I was trying to get apostilles.) I was dropped off by my family last night after we visited, and I said goodbye to, some other relatives in the area. It was a lot of goodbyes for one night. I’m spending tonight here in the Cities so that I only have to wake up at four o’clock tomorrow morning. My uncle is once again graciously offering his assistance as a driver.
Tomorrow I fly out of Minneapolis at 6:48 AM and arrive in Chicago at 8:09. My thirteen-hour nonstop flight to Tokyo leaves at 11:10 AM and arrives, through time zone tomfoolery, at 2:15 PM the following day (it will feel like midnight to me). I will spend the the night at Narita Tobu Hotel, and at 7:55 the following morning will take a bus to the other major airport in Tokyo, from which I will depart for Kochi (the capital of the province where Tosashimizu is located) at 10:35. I will arrive at 11:55 and someone will meet me there to take me the rest of the way. Two full days of travel.
And I’ve rambled long enough. Eight hours until I wake up tomorrow morning and the adventure begins.
My Poorly Titled Japan Blog 