Chotto matte!

This trip is drawing to a close. I have lost track of everything going on and have given up taking notes on things that happen through the course of the day because there is just too much going on. I've started relying on my photos to tell the story rather than anything I can say. In the next few weeks I'm sure I'll have better tales to tell but I've still not fully adjusted to the time difference and have been in a constant state of grumpy exhaustion.

Plus, the weather has been horrible. I've never seen a fully clear day, which in a way was fine with me because it meant I never missed a spectacular sunrise. I know that I'm on an island but I never saw any natural bodies of water until this afternoon out the window of the shinkansen. So much for the famous ocean-borne rising sun.

I'm so very ready to go home. Unfortunately, I've been ready to go home two days after I got here. The people in this country are wonderful and friendly and are my near-perfect ideal of politeness, dignity, and decorum but I feel no attachment to the land or this way of life. Despite this I've seen an amazing amount of unique, quality goods - so much that I have been moved to shopping. "Shopping" is a word I most often use with disdain so it amuses me that I've been doing it so voraciously here. I'm going home with significantly more stuff than I brought (though fortunately not enough to make customs raise any brows.)

Hopefully when I get back I'll settle quickly back into Ye Olde Life. I miss my home, my puppy, my bed, my car, my computer. Most of all I miss not waking up in the morning fearing another day of blank stares when I try to order a scone for breakfast! And then biting into it knowing fully what to expect: blueberry or cranberry-orange perhaps, but not potato salad or hot dog bits.

Modeling my new mittens... er, I mean muttons in Yoyogi Park. :D