Long Way Home

I'm back. The jet lag coming home is always harder than going to Japan. Our son's recovery from the time difference is the fastest, easiest and noisiest! He's in a constant motion, when he's not asleep, since we came home. Agh.

Yes, I have to say it again. It was HOT. According to everyone I talked to, it has been a record heat in Japan, and it was, at times, simply miserable. We tried to stay inside during the day, and that was all we could do.

But we did have fun, and saw things that were interesting and unusual.

Can you guess what they are? Yeah. They are watermelons, and they are real. Cubic and conic watermelons. We heard that they grow them that way, on purpose, but this is the first time we saw it in real, and I had to take a picture! For your information, the signs say that they are for display, not for sale.

Another thing that we don't have here was the cecadas. It was as if they all came out of the ground at the same time and sending off the mating calls, competing with each other. Must have been ten thousand just around my mom's house. It was deafning. If you go stand under a tree, you could actually spot them on the trunk and branches, while being showered by the screaching noise. Mitch actually got to tickle one of them with a blade of grass!

Before I arrived, I wanted to go on a several fiber-related shops. But then I found out that the spinning shop Perendale Kamakura was closed for the month of August, and then the heat and humidity melted off my desire for wool.

I bought several books though -- one on indigo and shibori, one on Japanese traditional fabric craft, and another on natural dyeing.

Yokohama is big. Every time I go back, I feel overwhelmed. Then when I was growing up, I thought it was a small town! This view is from our hotel window.

When we came back home, I stepped outside in the evening and saw the stars, filling the dark sky. Something I never saw growing up, and never saw on the visit. Made me think how far we flew from Japan.