the journey home.

random snapshots from the trip home:

- 7-11's in japan are amazing. they are clean, the people are super friendly and they have really good food. you can also do a lot of other things like send faxes, make copies, ship packages, buy cell phones, buy ipods...it's very cool. and the rice balls my mom got for the bus ride to the airport were fantastic.

- the newest copy of rolling stone was sitting on the table at home and i was reading it just before leaving for the airport. i skimmed through it and read some random articles, one of which was about this new artist named cassie. apparently she was just signed to p diddy's label and has a popular single out right now. anyway, when we got to the airport, we were checking in and right next to me were a group of 5 or so people that you could just tell were players in the music business. one guy had a video camera and was documenting and the others were busy getting their luggage together. the girl next to me turned around and i immediately recognized her face. it was cassie from the rolling stone article i had just read an hour earlier. how did i know for sure that it was her? well, the big hoop earrings with the name "cassie" spelled out were pretty much a dead giveaway. pretty random sighting, pretty crazy encounter given the circumstances...

- enjoyed a nice 10 minute massage at the airport for 200 yen. they have these big leather massage chairs set up all around and trent gave one a try. after seeing him do it, i decided to give it a shot. i figured it might be nice to loosen up before the 10 hour flight home. it was pretty intense, lots of buttons to push, but i enjoyed it.

- lots of shopping options at the airport. restrained myself for the most part but did pick up a few things here and there. i guess the shopping just never stops...

- despite being cold for most of the 10 hours home, the flight was good. slept for a few hours, watched akeelah and the bee (skipped ice age, the shaggy dog and a beautiful mind)...speaking of which, didn't a beautiful mind come out like 10 years ago? i know, it wasn't that long, but aren't the movies on planes supposed to be somewhat recent?

- cleared immigration and customs without a problem and the bags came out quickly thanks to the attached little "priority" tags. love those things.

- home now, glad and sad. thankful for a wonderful trip, hopeful for another in the near future...

- one last thing: jetlag rules.

...sayonara.