The BFG in the land of Mushroom People

Greetings, Westerners. Yum. For those of you who may be interested: a brief (hopefully) synopsis of my life recently. Thursday morning: Got up, went to Church, traveled to Indy, ate lunch with Brother Dear and Sister Dear (not to mention the Parental Units) in BU's lovely cafeteria (White Olive Pizza! Oishii & Healthy nee!) Then went to Toledo OH. Spent the night at a convent. Wow. I highly recomend staying at a convent one night (few could tolerate more); It is difficult to describe: suffice to say it was amusing. That was dad's idea. Next morning, went to church again, then went to Detroit, ate lunch at delicious mom 'n' pop's restaurant: Dimitri's: Greek: Wundebar. Anywho... soon afterwords, went to airport, checked bags (piece of cake), sat and talked with parents, said goodbye, went through security (i was very nervous, but this was painless also), then sat around in the gate for three-ish hours (felt like one), listened to the Filipinos chatting, then boarded. I couldn't understand the illiterate-friendly seat enumeration, accidentally sat in the spot of the illustrious Estalita, a wonderful Filipino matron (and i mean that in the best possible way) whom i consequently met and with whom i fell deeply in love. Then, later, we took off. 'Lita gave me her shrimp when we got dinner. The flight was very good (no screaming babies) but i wanted to sleep. No sleep for me. *Moue* I can't sleep in buses, planes, classrooms, etc. Anyway, no good movies were shown, (warning: RV is a bad movie) and eventually, we landed. (side note: i think i saw Fuji Sama! It was sticking way up out of the "sea of clouds-unkai" Great stuff) After i got out, i said my sad goodbyes to Senora 'Lita and waited for my luggage. The wheels broke off my smaller, older trunk thingie. Zannendeshita nee? Then came japanese customs. Note: The japanese are very trusting people. I had a large bag of powder laundry detergent in my luggage and when they opened it, my claim "Soap" was plenty to convince them that i was not making the biggest dope movement since Delorean. (whatever that is supposed to mean.) (sometimes the stuff i pull out of the wazoo amazes even me.) When i was through customs, i met Kenji san, my contact man on the inside. He took me in hand, seeing that i got some okane (yen) (68000) cha-ching! and got me safely on the bus to Fujigaoka. it was fun to talk to him about language, and so on, and so forth. Kenji-san wa Iaido ga jouzu desu. Not quite as old as this one => though... After a one-hour bus ride across town, i arrived at the Fujigaoka busstop (btw, got the hollies' song) where we unloaded my luggage and dragged it to a taxi. Then Kenji and i parted ways: i to my (10 minute) taxi ride to IHouse and he to God only knows where. Finally i came home, like the Hebrews to the promised land: IH, how i love thee. Part two coming up.... stay tuned