I woke myself today for my big adventure home. The only problem is on the plane ride I realized that as soon as I get home, that’s it. There will be no and whats about being home. I have been in a care free, grade free, fun country. Now I am going back to my regular life where everything I do affects my remaining years in high school and possibly the rest of my life directly.
The hardest part of waking up was knowing it was going to be my last. I put away my futon and took a shower, like usual. I then went into the family room to find my host father waiting there to say his final goodbye. And then with a handshake and a take care he left for work. To possibly never been seen again by me. Next to leave way my brother Fuga. Without a goodbye. It just made me laugh though because that was exactly the type of relationship we had. No talking, no interacting, and all will be well.
The last to go was my brother Ryu. He said goodbye and then headed out the door. It was also represented our relationship of little words but never bad. He has always been polite but quite to me. He was a very neutral character to have in the family for me.
After a while my host sister came down and we watched some TV before it was time to load the car with my heavy suitcases and head out. She was acting normal for me, dazed expression with no desire to interact with anyone.
Once my host mother came down, it was pretty much time to head out. We loaded the car and headed out. The ride to the station was not terribly memorable until we got to the station itself. I was trying to avoid all the goodbyes until later because I did not want to sound like a broken record. As we edged up to it and unloaded from the car, I was beginning to real feel the pain of leaving such a beautiful country with wonderful people.
Inside I found my area rep and her grandmother. At this point the day had just flown by and I was really setting into the fact I was leaving in less then thirty minutes. Then out of nowhere I see my teacher coming from a different entrance and then my entire homeroom class followed behind. It was a huge surprise to see all of these people just to see one person head home. After them was my host mothers sister and mother. Everyone (except my host family because we had done it the night before) handed me gifts and little snacks for the ride home. My host mothers family gave me 1 Pepsi NEX (because they know I love it), 1 Green Tea (I don’t know why but it was great), 1 box of tea snacks (because at their house I ate almost an entire box (they are so delicious)), and a metal wind chime (it is a simple but beautiful design with the bell itself in a shape that reminds me of a turtle shell). It was very thoughtful and nice of them to come all the way out here to say goodbye to me. Well actually it was extremely thoughtful of everyone to come out here and say their goodbyes. I was just blown away that my homeroom class even came.
They gave me a present with a one fold book exactly like what I got for my birthday but these one housed pictures of my class and everyone had written me messages in Japanese so I will probably never be able to read it, but that’s okay (its in Kanji and I can’t look up Kanji). They also gave me a puzzle, a tatami mouse pad, a folding fan, and a pouch of green tea bags. Though I still liked the booklet they made me most of all.
There was a lot of thanking everyone for coming (including my host brother (so for the remainder of the time my little sister perched on top of his shoulders and I did not get to talk to again. In all the commotion it was hard to get to my host mother and thank her individually so I hope I did her justice back at the house and the car ride here. When it was about ten minutes before the train left I checked in and everyone followed me because they had visitor tickets or something so they could get threw security. It was really funny to be the only one with a huge posy out of the three or four other passengers that were getting on at that station. When the train came I quickly loaded on because the trains do not stay there for long before they head out. I made a loud announcement thanking everyone and then the doors shut. As the train took off some of the guys tried to run down the platform with the train but it quickly passed them and I was back to viewing beautiful rice fields wising by. It was not until they had all disappeared from sight that I realized I did not see my host mother as I was getting on because so many of the students were clouding in front of her. This was when I got sad, but did not cry (:D). I took my time getting to my seat and then relaxed for a while while the train whizzed by.
Three or four stops down four other YFU kids got on at the Sendai stop. Some of them were crying which almost made me cry but it was okay once the train got started again. We all talked about our awesome experiences and just had a good time sharing funny stories. Some of them opened their lunches because they were hungry. One of them had a weird circular container on the bottom that they said was a heater or something. They had already eaten most of their lunch so they let me see it. I pulled the little string and it instantly began to release really hot steam from the opening the string made. We all were freaking out at this point because it was starting to burn my fingers and none of us knew what to do so we put it under her lunchbox where it was before and it steamed less but was still pretty scary. It is really interesting how it worked though, instant hot lunch wherever you go. Pretty awesome right?
I really don’t want to explain every action we made so I am just going to give the basic details. We arrived at the Tokyo station (underground) and proceeded down three of four flights of escalators. Eventually we found a tunnel (or series of tunnels because I don’t know where else they go) where we loaded onto a train with lots of other YFU kids and in about an hour arrived at the Narita Airport (the train surfaced after we got out of Tokyo but it went back underground in the Narita airport where we unloaded and checked out of the train part of the airport). In the check in line for the airplane I got my itinerary back from the YFU people and then got my tickets, checked my bags, and went threw security. Though right before I was going to go threw security my friend John’s host family’s sister that lived in Tokyo was there with two bags of gifts for him but he had checked in before she was able to find him so I gladly helped her out and took them threw security with me and gave them to John at the gate. In the time in the check in area I got a JAPAN t-shirt for my mother because that’s what she really wanted but it was a good thing I had 2000 Yen on me because it was a lot more then the 1000 I had expected. Anyways we got on the plain and headed to America. The flight was 9 hours but seemed like a lot less because of the people there. Time flies when your having fun right?
Once we landed we went threw customers (if you really want to know about it ask me but I don’t feel like typing all the steps). After that you had to recheck your bags and then go threw security again. I knew I was back in America when I went threw security because everyone was extremely rude. The woman at the metal detector told me (in an angry voice) to take off my shoes but I did not hear her so I started walking and she then yelled at me to take off my shoes. I mean come on, I went threw security for an international flight and I did not have to take off my shoes but in America, all shoes are bombs so they must be taken off. At least she did not notice I was wearing a big belt loop that had a lot of metal on it because she would have probably yelled at me for that one too. Eventually we caught our connecting flight to Chicago (myself and a few other YFU kids (though it was sad to say goodbye to one or two at a time as they went to catch their flights)). That flight was longer (seemingly) but that was mostly because we had been up for a long time by the time we got on the plane. When we got to Chicago we pretty much had to immediately split up except for one person that was in the gate next to mine but had a longer layover. She dropped me at my gate after waited in line with me until I was about to enter the gateway to the plane. The flight home from there was very fast and all I could think about was getting home to my family.
I got out of the gate and went to the waiting area where I found my mother, father, and older brother waiting for me. It was unfortunate that my brother Reid could not make it because he was on the church mission trip but I will see him later tomorrow so it is alright (I am writing this on the 25th because I have not had a chance to write it yet).
I skipped over the plain rides pretty quickly but there was nothing terribly notable. I talked to a lot of different people about how my stay was and listen to some of their stories. It was just a lot of back and forth information giving, which was nice because I wanted to know what other parts of Japan were like. The funniest part though was we were all replying to short questions in Japanese on accident. Especially when it came to words like excuse me and sorry. I am mostly out of that now but I had to teach my brain to think completely English again which is a little difficult to do.
Anyways at the baggage claim I had no luggage to pick up because apparently when you connect from a flight that the previous one was international, they run your bags threw extra checks for security or something. Because of that, my bags missed my flight and where delivered to me the next day (before I woke up actually, which was nice). The ride home was typical. I got all the stupid questions about Japan and it was not that great because my family had all already read my blog so they knew exactly what had happened the entire time. I don’t leave a lot out on my blog posts so they were pretty much caught up. Now I am heading to bed. You are all pretty much off the hook of reading this ever again! Congratulations and thanks for bearing with me.
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