A few weeks ago I got a call earlyish on Sunday (okay, so sue me, 11am is early on a Sunday). What was strange was that it was my landline. I rarely received calls on my land line. It was even more startling when I picked up and got an english voice asking me what was up. It was intensely familiar, but it wasn’t one of the local ALTs.

It was my brother! Seems his girlfriend found airplane tickets to Japan for half price, so my parents were going to fly out during my mum’s spring.

Hurrk. What?!

It was all fine and good, ultimately, provided they understood I didn’t have any paid leave to spare and would have to work through the week. And that was that.

A few days later the shock set in. My PARENTS are visiting me in JAPAN?! I can’t take time off! How will they navigate, how will they survive, what will they do? They can’t speak the language, they won’t wanna drive on the left side of the road, they can’t hike up kilometer-tall mountains. Hell, I don’t even own coffee-making stuff, where will they get their coffee, the coffee that grants them sentience and bipedalism?!

My stomach was churning while I waited at the airport on a Friday night, waiting for them to fly in. I was really looking forward to seeing them, to having people to come home from work to, but I was so worried about them. My old man had never even left the North American continent before! The most foreign place he had ever been was CANADA!

But, fortunately, now that their week has come and gone, I can see they had a rather enjoyable time, and I had little to worry about. When I was free I showed them around, taking them to the cool local places I had shown my brother. The weekends had pretty good weather, though the evenings all week after work were a bit more miserable. They amused themselves by walking around and observing the local neighborhood, the stores, the houses, and the surrounding area.

I have about 4000 photographs to sift through that mum took, I’ll be posting some of them. I have to say the most unique event was the Pony Races at a local equestrian park. Little ponies raced around a track, often losing control or tossing their small riders before taking off in a random direction. At intermission a huge group of kids played taiko drums, and we swatted at horrific-looking but harmless black flying ant-bugs.

They certainly enjoyed the food. They were delighted with tempura, the fact that there was fried stuff all day, all the time, wherever you went. And a couple of nights they cooked for me, resulting in feasts I hadn’t known in months.

It came and went rather quick. They replaced the weight of food and gifts for me with food and gifts for people back home, and returned safely to Chicago yesterday, thoroughly satisfied and satiated with their visit. My apartment is completely empty again, and pretty depressing, but the weather improves with every passing day so I’m sure I’ll get over it soon.

Thanks for coming out, guys! I’m glad you saw somewhere really really exotic, probably not a place you ever expected your child would draw you to! Myliu!