Arise Therefore (Dont remember where I picked that one up)

So I made it back to Osaka and then Tokyo safely without major incidents.

I must say my flight to Osaka was a lot more pleasant than my flight from Osaka.

On my way into Seattle I was sandwiched between an overly talkative middle aged Japanese woman on one side and an American man who would not stop talking about plane crashes and radiation poisoning. How lovely. While on one hand I was able to practice some Japanese but it was rather frustrating trying to get to sleep when all she would do it tap me and show me origami and ask me to fold her some. The only one I know how to fold is a paper crane so I taught her how to do that. The American man was fleeing the country with no intentions of returning and was telling me that we were all going to get leukemia. He was from Nagoya which is (I think) roughly 600km away from the Daiichi plant. Needless to say I was happy to get off that plane.

On my way to Osaka I was pleasantly surprised with a seat in Economy Plus right beside the emergency exit, the bathrooms and a chatty but interesting British man who lives in Kyoto. He and I managed to talk for the entire eleven hour flight while getting slightly pissed. As luck would have it the flight attendant missed us with drinks during the first service and felt so bad she was smuggling in things from first class for us and giving us extra drinks. All in all... one of the better flights I've been on.

I arrived in Osaka and was able to get out of the airport very quickly... through customs, immigration and baggage claim in under an hour! I hopped on a bus headed towards my hotel and managed to find it without incident. After that I went out for dinner with one of my new Osaka buddies, we went to two restaurants - one was kushikatsu (like kushiage - meat and veggies on skewers) and the other was Okinawan food (a lot of goya and tofu) both were delicious! After that I was exhausted so I called it a night and went to my hotel and crashed.

The next day (Saturday) one of my Osaka buddies and I went to Kyoto because we plain old had nothing better to do. It was really great for me because I had never been there before and had a tour guide to show me his favourite places. We didn't end up staying too long as I wanted to get back to Tokyo that evening. I saw some temples and wandered around Gion where I was able to catch a glimpse of a couple geisha/maiko (I dont know which one they were) so I can cross that off my list of things to do in Japan.

I bought my shinkansen ticket and boarded the train only to find that I was on the really slow one when I had paid for the fastest train... how nice. I ended up transferring to a faster train half way and arrived about a half hour later than planned.

It was eerie arriving in Tokyo. I couldn't even tell we were approaching Tokyo because it was dark out and the majority of the lights in the city were out. As I walked through Tokyo station the atmosphere was subdued and cold. The heaters on the train seem to be out and almost half the lights in the stations and in the city are also out. It left me feeling pretty uneasy. That night I had a terrifying nightmare about trying to escape radiation by scrambling to find a fall out shelter where I live. It was a mass exodus of people trying to out run an invisible poison. Of all the dreams to remember...

I have started work again. My students and most of my coworkers are happy to see me. My one twat of a coworker is griping and moaning about how I left and what a martyr he is for having stayed.

In the end the trip home was really good for me. It made me realise I want to stay in Japan as long as possible. I guess while I was gone I had been glorifying Vancouver and how great it is. While it is great because my parents live there and the food and views are phenomenal, my home is Japan for now.