Sister Time Is The Best Time

This is my first trip back to the US where I've gotten to act like a tourist instead of just visiting my family. Tomorrow I'm flying up to Chicago to visit a friend and then we'll be heading to Boston together for another friend's wedding. By this time next week I'll be on a plane back to Tokyo. It's hard to believe my trip is coming to an end since there is still so much planned, but I will be glad to be back.

As much as I've missed John, and our apartment, and Tokyo I've been having such a great time with my sister. We've eaten way too much delicious food, gone on picnics, boat rides, and spent time at the beach. There's also been plenty of time just sitting around laughing and playing card games and hanging around the house.

We stopped at a roadside farm stand

And tried pumpkin spice lattes for the first time 

Beaufort is adorable

And boating is the best

Seriously, the best

The beach is pretty great too

Gone to Carolina

It's hard to believe I've been back in the US for more than two weeks. By now John is already back in Tokyo, and my trip is more than halfway over. I've really been enjoying my time in North Carolina. I didn't appreciate it at all when I was a kid. But wow, what a beautiful place to grow up. At the height of summer it is just so green and wonderful.

After some time with John's family and a lovely wedding I went out east to my mom's and now I'm hanging out with my sister. Over the weekend we went down to the beach and we'll be going again this weekend. Man am I lucky!

We're not in Tokyo anymore

That's right, NC has mountains and beaches

Wild horses on Carrot Island

My beautiful family

Ellie teaching me how to be cool

Thoughts on Being Back in The United States

I kept thinking that it would be so weird to be back in North Carolina, but the truth is it's not. In the past year I felt a lot more out of touch with US fashion and music and slang, and I wondered if I would feel like a stranger when I cam back. But now that I'm here it feels like just effortlessly slipping back into something I never forgot. I guess that rather than just becoming like a different culture I've been learning how to operate fairly easily within two different cultures.

Now that I've been back for a little bit here are some observations:

Central heating feels amazing. Unheated toilet seats do not.

There are clothes and shoes that fit me here!

I have gotten about a million compliments on my Issey Miyaki Bao Bao bag!

Having a car is so convenient, but I'd forgotten how inconvenient it is to walk places. There aren't many sidewalks and even just walking from one store to another in a big parking lot can be weirdly complicated.

At our apartment in Tokyo John and I (and all of our guests) always take off our shoes as soon as we get inside. I never really thought much about it, other than assuming it was probably cleaner, but now I am suddenly realizing how amazing that is. And by amazing, I mean cleaning my floors is SO much easier! (Observed after sweeping and mopping my mother's house.)

It's been amazing to be be back and I am SO excited that John gets in tonight, that my mom gets married tomorrow, and soon we will be in the mountains! 

North Carolina Adventure

I'm writing this from North Carolina, and I'm going to be here for almost the next month! The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of getting ready to leave and doing all the fun pre-Christmasy things I wanted to do. I've still got a few Tokyo things I need to blog about, but while I'm here I plan to blog a little about what it's like to be back after so long. I know I was back in April for my grandmother's funeral, but that was a trip with no preparation and mostly a blur of family events.

When I was making plans with my sister and some friends about what to do while I'm back a lot of people were asking what I missed and absolutely had to do/eat/see/etc. And the answer sort of surprised me. There are days when being in Tokyo just feels achingly in my bones alien, but to be honest I've stopped missing most things. Of course there are foods I'm looking forward to eating (Hello, fruits and salads and turkey sandwiches and Mexican!), and shopping I want to do, but the urgency I felt a year ago is gone and in some cases even the desire is too.

I've got a lot of fun plans coming up in the next month, but what I'm most looking forward to is seeing people.