Sunday, July 21

 I   t's an ungodly 6:37 in the morning and we are both wide awake. I fell asleep last night at around 7:30! Must have still been trashed from the trip.

I left the hotel yesterday morning and hopped the shuttle to the airport (about ten minutes) but not after recording the insane chorus of cicadas outside the hotel -- it really is an insect roar and if you've never heard it it would quite probably scare you into thinking the trees were screaming. I love it!

The Cicadas Make Their Voices heard
Then I hopped the bus for Nara. It was a fantastic day, not the 33-degree horror I was expecting.

On The Way To Nara

As soon as I was back in Japan, all my nerves melted away instantly and it was like coming home after being away a bit too long. Which it is. Everything is so . . . NORMAL here for me now . . . since the language is no barrier whatsoever -- I'm now practically a native speaker now -- there is nothing to worry about. So I interact with the people with the greatest of ease, having conversations, making jokes . . . just imagine how different the whole experience would be if just trying to ask a simple question was almost impossible.

People seem genuinely grateful that they don't have to trot out their two English phrases that they remember from high school. Even those who probably have a passing knowledge of English -- I met an airline pilot at the hotel yesterday and his English was serviceable, but he quickly fell back to Japanese when he realized the level of the conversation was too difficult for him.

I got to the hotel at noon and guess who was waiting there for me . . . he had gotten the answering machine message from the night before. He had come with his little rolly bag ready to stay with me for three days and needless to say, it was good to see him.

We left our luggage there because it wasn't check-in time, and went to our old haunt, Mellow Café, me for a coffee and he for an orange juice. They were freaked out to see us -- they hadn't forgotten us from last year.

We Chill at Mellow Café; Déja Vu All Over Again

Well, we're kind of difficult to forget, I must admit.

Then we went next door and had a hot dog -- Tai-chan's first since last year. He's such a mellow little boy, so kind and lovable. He grabbed my hand as we walked everywhere and occasionally said "I love you, Daddy." He must be so relieved to get away from his all-encompassing reality of family and small children.

He of course latched onto my iPad Mini and started downloading apps immediately.

We came back to the hotel to check in and cool down -- it's really a large room and the only thing wrong with it is that its wireless Internet is so slow. At the moment I'm trying to upload some movies to YouTube and it's taking forever.

Then we went out again and did the grocery shopping in a large grocery store near the station and came home yet again. At 6 or so we headed out to our favorite Italian place, Ponte Rosso, where of course they also remembered us -- even what we liked to eat. Then after stopping by the cake shop for take-home desserts which ended up having no utensils with which to eat them, we went home and ate them up. Then I fell asleep while Tai-chan played on the iPad.

Not sure what's on the agenda today but the sun is blasting and it looks like a hot one. There's a mini quad rotor helicopter that I bought Tai-chan but it's too insane to play with in this room so we have to go find a park somewhere.

Damn, I wish they had room service . . . we have to go out for coffee. No way to make it in this room.

Movies on the way as soon as they get on YouTube . . .