Beginning of Bill, Ted, and Andrew's Awesome Adventure

I'm in a dream state. That's the only way I can describe it. My mind is still dealing with the fact that just 24 hours ago I was in a plane from Dulles to Tokyo. My mind is greeted by a stampede of memories and emotions with each station I enter, each train I ride, and each store I see.

I am very glad to be back in Japan. yet it will take time for me to find my home here. Scents once familiar to me are now just as alien as they were two years ago. I remember the scent well but it sticks out significantly in my mind each time I smell it. I'm reminded of the first few weeks in Tokyo when I was in college. I'm reminded of the over priced cereal, the ugly brown floor of my room, the "not quite milk" I always drank from the Lawson 100 Yen store, and the many nights spent with my friend Katie watching movies on our laptops.

Some memories are not as welcomed, of course. As I feared, memories of Chihiro have come flooding back and I am unsettled. I know I will have to go to her home at some point to thank her family and present my thank you gifts, but I am fearful of the repercussions should she be there as well when I visit. Maybe it is a good thing I snapped over Chihiro earlier this spring. It feels like I got the worst of it out of my system. To have had to deal with those strong emotions here might have been near impossible for me.

On a lighter note...TOKYO IS FUCKING HOT! I have never sweat so much in my life just from walking. Seriously walking outside in Tokyo during this time of year is like taking a bath each time you walk out the door. Unfortunately it's a really hot bath that makes you quickly seek shelter in an air conditioned room or store. I need to get used to this weather again. You guys think Southern Virginia or DC is bad...you have not lived in Tokyo.

My first meal was Gyu-don (A beef rice bowl) I couldn't get it at all in America and desperately needed it last night as I walked through Akiba in hopes of finding a prepaid cell phone (the quest failed, btw). To sit down in a quiet "fast food" joint and enjoy a bowl of delicious, precooked rice and beef was amazing and made me so happy. It reminded me of all the nights I spent walking to Matsuya for dinner because I didn't feel like cooking and always ordering Gyu-don (there curry is too spicy for me).

As it stands. Right now I am in a dream state. I still can't believe I'm here again. Hopefully I will not fall from this cloud too hard as I journey to Sendai on the 25th, then to Nagoya on the 29th, and then back up to Akita in August.

My new life has just begun, and I couldn't be more sedated....curse you jet lag!