Final Post from Asia

So, this is written on a keyboard with 3 different language options, I’m going to be making a lot of type-os, but just had to post from Japan.

What a difference a day makes, that is about all I can say. Yesterday at this time I was being fleeced by a cab driver in Hanoi. Today my darling baby sleeps in an ultra clean baby room run by the airport, with a Japanese caregiver dressed like Shirley Temple.Yesterday I walked along the street while people threw fish heads and intestines in front of me for the garbage crew to collect sometime during the night, today I walk a step and some little Japanese person comes behind me sweeping up the micro dust. I had to put hand sanitizer on to enter the baby room, and will put more on when I go back after this post. Yesterday I was dripping (very literally dripping) with sweat in a non air conditioned airport, trying to set a good example and form a queue to get my bags packed. Today Iwas personally escorted by a Japanese airline employee through customs with HIM packing around my bags while I gingerly held Lucy, all the way from the plane to the waiting terminal. In all fairness the airline staff was very accommodating in Vietnam as well, but I was still an American boarding a red eye flight, end of story. Here I’ve been treated like the queen mother, all because of Lucy’s darling smile and loud cry! Maybe if adoption is in the cards again for our family I could put in a request with the man upstairs that our kiddo comes from ultra organized Japan. If my kitchen cupboards were half as organized as this baby room I’d never lose a thing, and all the drawers would shut all the time and I’d always be able to find the green spatula I love to use (o.k., my mom has been in charge of my house for the last 5 weeks, so I bet it is that organized by now. (Gotta love it when mom comes to stay!)

Anyway, we are more than half way through the dreaded eleven hour layover in Japan and I’m kind of wishing this whole last week had been laid over here, aside from teaching English classes of course, oh and shopping, oh and the kind hotel staff, oh and thesweet woman on the street who learned Lucy’s name and called out to her each day as we set out to walk. Well, on second thought, the last week was pretty o.k. as it was. I do like the ultra clean organized Japanese airport though...No doubt about that.

4 more hours to take off
10 hours in the air
7 hours on the ground
2 hours in the air
home at last!