Leaving Asia

Wow. Eleven months exactly, and suddenly -- well not so suddenly, as it took 30-some hours to get to the US -- I was flip-flopped to the other side of the world. I spent my last day in Thailand with elephants, but I spent my last night at a drag show, an equally suitable farewell to Thailand.

Between wats and massages and elephants and ladyboys I visited Tip twice a
day almost every day for the best smoothies I've had all year.

After all of that I went back to Kuala Lumpur to regroup and repack. For the most part this meant lounging around Marta's house, doing some last-minute souvenir shopping, and going out to eat. However, on Friday I got to do something special. Marta has been volunteering as an English teacher for Afghan refugees, and on Friday she took me and her son to meet two of the families she has been helping. They were inspiring people to meet, and I also learned a lot about refugees and resettlement and what different countries offer the refugees they receive (easy since I knew pretty much nothing about this before). Both families have suffered almost unimaginable difficulties, but it was interesting to see how one family seemed to wear their struggles, while the other exuded energy and hope. I wish for the best for both of them, but it is much easier to foresee the latter family thriving when they are finally resettled in Australia. That evening Marta and her family took me out to a farewell dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Believe it or not this was a welcome and missed cuisine, and I got to play expert and recommend dishes for everyone.

The next day I began my long journey back to the United States. Seven hours took me from Malaysia to Japan, and then I had a nine-hour layover in Narita. With so much time on my hands, I decided to leave the airport and have a day trip in Japan. It was still early in the day, and few things were open when I got off the subway, but I figured I would wander around anyway. I was starving, and I stopped in one of the few open places for what claimed to be a salmon and cream cheese sandwich that ended up having slivers of salmon slathered in mayonnaise.

Getting comfortable on the plane

Welcome to Narita

sights around town

Fortunately, the rest of my visit went better. I walked to Narita's main attraction: Narita-san Shinsho-ji, a Shingon Buddhist temple founded in 940 that was expanded to a massive complex starting in the 1600s. The temple grounds were certainly large and impressive, but I was having a hard time appreciating them, possibly because I had no information about them and also probably in part because of my heavy backpack. However, as I wandered the grounds, leaving the temple areas and entering the scenic garden areas, I made an exciting discovery. Dismembered Japanese rhinoceros beetles were strewn along the path and were being voraciously consumed by ants. They were an exciting and unusual sighting for me, but internet research shows that they are popular pets in Asia, even being sold in vending machines. After that I also found some beautiful yellow and green spiders spinning webs between mossy rocks surrounding a waterfall.

Rhinoceros beetle carapace

feasting

For lunch I stopped at a place that had caught my attention earlier because a man was sitting at the entrance deftly slicing and cleaning live eels. Some of my favorite Japanese dishes feature eel, and so I was excited to see that almost every restaurant on the walk to the temple had an eel special. I went back to the place with the public butchering, which seemed to be one of the most popular restaurants within my price range. The restaurant was bustling, and I was entertained to hear people saying 'domo arigato', not followed by 'Mr. Roboto.'

Expert eel slicer

nom nom nom nom

Along the way to the temple I had spotted some shops where I thought I might be able to unload any unspent Yen I'd have left. Luckily, I did not do that before lunch, because after paying for my food I had little more than return subway fare left. Before leaving Japan I made two more notable sightings: a Mexican restaurant and a fancy-pants(less) Japanese toilet.
 

Enlarge to see the many options the toilet buttons offer

With that, it was a 10-hour flight into the US and another layover and flight until I reached my final destination. Now I am adjusting to eating American food (though I went out for Japanese noodle soup already), gorging on cheese, marveling at high-speed internet, and having days filled with little moments of contrast that remind me just how different a life I led for the last year. The blog may be over, but the adventure continues. Thank you for being a part of it.

"To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted." – Bill Bryson