Also, if this blog post is less coherent than usual, you can blame lack of sleep. I am writing this in a hotel room in New York City, right after a 14 hour time zone change and approximately 24 hours without sleep. It has quite literally been the longest day ever.
So yes, my mom came to visit me in Hokkaido. Jessica had just gotten her brand new car and was excited to show us what it could do, so Andromeda, Jess and I all piled in to go to the airport to pick up my mother. We had decided to go a little early to get some shopping done at the outlet mall right next to the airport, so we drove and drove, getting closer and closer to Chitose. Once we'd gotten close enough, Jessica asked me where the mall was.
"I don't know," I replied. "I was taking us to the airport!"
"Well, could you take us to the mall?" Jessica countered.
"Umm, sure, what's it called?"
"I don't know"
"Well how am I supposed to plug it into my phone?"
"I don't know! Just get us there!"
"Uhh... okay, Jessica!"
After a lot of backtracking and failed attempts at typing hiragana on my phone, we finally managed to get to the outlet mall, but not before we drove down two roads that threatened to take us to the end of the world. Seriously. Scary. Anyway, once we got to the mall, we realized that it was closed, so we backtracked once more, all the way to the airport.
When we got to the airport, we amused ourselves in the arcade, by doing purikura for the first time (photos to come). For those of you who don't know, Purikura is a Japanese photobooth, designed for beauty shots, from what I can tell. It's a popular pastime with friends, because it makes your eyes giant and super "cute" and then afterwards you can draw on the photos and add backgrounds and stickers before you print them out. It was a little bit terrifying, but I think that's only because I'm super camera shy.
We also happened upon a crane game filled only with sausage, which Andromeda obviously had to try out.
Eventually, my mother's flight came in, and we managed to make it home without any major problems. The reunion was stunning. I'm pretty sure we smothered each other in hugs. I think the Japanese people were a little scared at the airport, what with their aversion to physical contact and everything.
When we finally got home, she unpacked the suitcase she had for me. It was like early Christmas! My winter clothes, vegetable bouillon cubes, kraft dinner, cinnamon toast crunch, peaches and cream instant oatmeal, infusium shampoo. All my comforts from back home were all of a sudden in my apartment again. It was heavenly!
I didn't plan for this blog post to be this long, but apparently that's what happens when you haven't posted for a while. I am going to stop here for now, but I promise I will write part two later.
Also on the list for me to write about:
- christmas traditions in Japan
- my work situation
- travel plans
If there is anything else you'd like to hear about, feel free to leave it in the comments! Until then, I'm going to go sleep away some of the jetlag.
Love, Jeri
Okay, in my defense, the Japanese people I had asked said that the mall was visible from the airport, and that I would see on while driving there!!! IT WAS NOT TRUE.
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