Home, Sweet, Home

For your information: If you ever have to chose between flying JAL or Northwest between Japan and the US, by all means, fly JAL. It's not that Northwest is bad, it's that JAL is so much better.

My twelve hour flight home was non-eventful. That is, it was downright boring. Eight hours into the flight I had already finished my book and magazine and watched all three of the inflight movies. What do you do with four hours of time on an airplane when you aren't allowing yourself to sleep?

So now I am back in the US. People here are bigger, less polite, more to the point, and nosier. The land is flat and there are no mountains to be seen. Cars drive on the right side of the road.

My mother took me out to lunch.
-I forgot that such a thing as taking your leftovers home existed.
-I forgot that tipping is necessary.
-I tried to take the bill to the register on the way out, which is how it is in most restaurants in Japan, but my mother gave me a strange look and paid the waitress at our table.

This country is going to take some getting used to.