Mom's Thailand Visit!

Japan Visit!

Here's the album of my Japan visit over the first full week of September.

Sasuga Japan

"Sasuga" is a Japanese word that's hard to translate--means something like "Wow," or "they've really measured up to our expectations" or "Good job" or "quintessentially..." something like that.

Several things have made me exclaim thus during my time here:

--Fancy toilet seats*, even in public restrooms
--Little sheets of plastic at the bottom of a bowl of store-bought salad so you can slide it onto a serving dish without turning it upside-down
--Conveyor-belt sushi eatery, complete with a "magic wand" that automatically counts all the plates and calculates your bill
--The 100-yen store (it's like the "everything's a dollar" store but the quality is MUCH better)
--Japanese ofuro (style of bath)
--Getting a hot, wet towel at every restaurant to refresh before the meal
--All of our favorite foods and snacks being as delicious as ever
--Trains and buses, including change machines on the bus so you can have exact fare

*If you've never seen/used one, you're missing out. You can play pleasant music or the sound of running water, have a warm seat, multiple types of "wash," and even a dryer for your behind... see photos at Wikipedia's Toilets in Japan, and there's lots to read there if you're curious.

I feel like Sidney Bristow

...with SIX different currencies in my CURRENT wallet!



Clockwise from top left: US Dollars, Japanese Yen, Qatari Riyals, Euros, British Pounds (OK, so it's only 2 cents, but it counts!), and Thai Baht.

Home

I though I had one more trip on the horizon -- a sort of internship in Media -- but not anymore. After 2 1/2 years of calling Chiang Mai "home," I'm headed back to my birthplace of Cincinnati, USA.

It's very strange, because I like and want to live overseas, and think I may again in the future. But for now, I'm quite excited to go back to my roots.

Several single friends who share my kind of lifestyle have also recently been given opportunities put down a few roots and connect with family. I think it's good.

I recently read a book about being older and single*, and how this makes "community" harder for us in some ways... so many options of where to live, what job to go for, the WORLD is available to us! And yet, that causes our friends (and us) to come and go like the wind, and "Saturday nights continue to roll around with daunting frequency." If we don't really plan ahead, and work hard to develop new local friendships, we can often end up spending a quiet evening alone, when we would prefer to be making a meaningful human connection.

One of this writer's friends says it's like "attempting to slake one’s relational thirst by sipping from a thousand little waxy Dixie cups. You don’t die of dehydration, but in your core, you increasingly long for a few deep wells."

I could relate to that. I've been quite thirsty for some time. I'm excited to be returning to the deep, familiar well that is my flesh and blood.


*Revelations of a Single Woman by Connally Gilliam