Stoat - Where?

At least I think it’s the 27th. Being served breakfast at the equivalent of midnight is a bit weird, and even though the apartment clock says about 2pm, I’d swear it was 5 in the morning. One thing I am sure of is I’m never ever flying through the US again. I might fly to there because it might be worth the short tempers and treatment bordering on harassment by immigration and customs officials, but for a connecting flight, never. From the immigration officers that didn’t believe I was meeting people and repeatedly asked me why I had four currencies in my wallet, to being fingerprinted and photographed and herded with everyone else like cattle, to having to pick up luggage and have it screened again just to go back on another conveyor belt, to having to take my shoes off (which highlights just how reactive their security policy is, instead of being proactive), to the loud, angry, bored and just plain rude people who are supposed to be welcoming you to their country. It didn’t even make me feel safe. It’s not an experience I ever want to go through again and I think I was comparatively lucky, having read some terrible stories.
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So this is my first entry for 2 months. This is partly due to laziness, but mostly due to the fact that I moved house and lost the internet again. I’ll probably write about that a bit more when I get a chance. The good news is that now I have a lovely fiber optic cable delivering the world to me at a lovely 100Mbps. And it’s back just in time for me to mention that I’m leaving. Not permanently, that is, but on vacation, to Vancouver for 10 days. I’m assured by everybody I’ve met that it’s one of the best cities in the world, so what better place to go to leave Japan for the first time since I arrived? It’s going to be interesting to see just how accustomed to the Japanese way of life I’ve become.
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