Back in the USSR

I am back in Japan. I got here about 3 hours ago. We got to O'Hare pretty early and the lines went fast (the security people decided to xray my bags twice and then still wanted to look through them so I kind of created a delay) and the flight left on time. We got to Japan about 20 minutes early, but it was so windy that the first (early) time the airplane tried to land it was shaking back and forth so much that they decided to not land and try again from a slightly different direction. You could see the next two planes after us also go to land and then come back up... which is why we ended up landing 25 minutes late. It was really bumpy, more than any airplane I've ever been on, and the guy sitting next to me said that it was the worse he had ever felt and he flies at least once a month. It wasn't really scary like we were going to crash but I kept getting really hot and feeling dizzy and eventually (like a lot of other people the failed landing attempt) I threw up. I guess I do get airsick. But I felt much better after that and my stomach didn't hurt at all the time we actually landed. Our getting in late must have thrown the baggage removal people, because I got through customs in about 2 minutes (I had to get a special reentry permit, which let me go in the line with the Japanese people, where there were only four people in front of me) and I had to wait for a while for my suitcase. The customs guy asked for my passport and then asked if I had anything to declare and didn't look at my stuff. I got a little bit of tourist information about Hokkaido and Kyoto at the airport (it was probably all they had in English on those destinations because they are far away from here). I had to wait half an hour for the train to leave again (the airport is the end of the line and only one train an hour stops where I have to get off). On the walk from the train to the dorm I saw two of the Chinese girls in my Japanese class and talked to them a little bit and they helped me carry my suitcases up the stairs, since they live in this building too. There were some dead bugs on the floor by the door, but no alive ones so far. I unpacked my little suitcase and am eating rice I made in my rice cooker. I opened the big one and the contents seem to have survived, but I dont know what to do with them exactly so I just zipped it back shut. I debated going to the grocery store to get something to eat with the rice, but I couldn't think of anything I actually wanted so I'm going to go in the morning. Now I'm going to go take a shower and go to sleep.

And I only got five pieces of junk mail over the three weeks I was gone! I