Heading home

I'm still alive! If you were expecting regular updates, I apologize. Since the last post, blogging soon was shoved aside. I still would like to share more stories and photos, but that's going to have to wait until sometime after I get back to the states.

Which isn't much longer.

Right now I am packed and sitting amongst our baggage, unable to grasp the fact that I have a home elsewhere that is even more familiar to me. These last five weeks Japan has become home. I realized that earlier this week as I ran out the front door for a few seconds and halfway across the lawn realized I had my flip flops on and I didn't even have time to think about it. You might laugh. I was always the barefoot girl. Outside and in. Shopping, mountain climbing, you name it. But here you just don't go in the house with shoes on. Ever. Even if you're taking two steps in to turn off a light you missed. Even churches and some businesses have you take off your shoes when you come in. Pretty much the floors and your feet are considered about as clean as everything else. In fact, we were asked how Americans keep their floors clean if they don't have customs like that! 

Early tomorrow morning we leave Kiryu-shi, the town we've called home, and head to the airport. Our plane takes off at 3:50pm. We have a layover in Twin Cities, MN for 6.5 hours, before we land in Detroit. It is going to be the longest day of my life. Literally. We land in MN at 1pm. Yes, almost four hours earlier the same day we leave Tokyo! I'm excited to have the chance to relive a few hours of my life, though they will probably be some nasty ones to relive, considering I am already tired. But hey! Stories like this don't happen every day for me! There will just be more memories in the making through it all. :)

There. A longer post than I had planned on, but now you know I really am coming back to America. Prepare for culture shock, and jet lag. And I dunno. I guess I'm as prepared as I ever will be!

Now to head downstairs for a movie with the fam!