A Half Month of Sundays

Tomorrow, our last day in Japan, will be Sunday. So will the next day, when our flight to Hawaii takes us over that damn date line. I suppose -- now that I have had some time to do the math -- the whole thing makes a lot of sense. Quite ingenious, actually.

I am going to try to spend most of my two consecutive Sundays in true Sabbath style as days of ambien induced rest. I have kept my hands out of the illicit prescription cookie jar for the entire ten days here, sacrificing sleep in a bed so I won`t build up any immunities and have to stay awake for one moment on an airplane. That is until the nice flight attendant with the flower in her hair on Hawaiian Airlines gently shakes my shoulder so she can hand me my mai tai. And my macadamia nut short bread. Some Americans are not ugly at all!

The small town appeal of Himeji is a bit less appealing after two days in a Tokyo hotel with free Internet in the lobby and more than an inch of space in which to move around the bed. And plenty of Starbucks that open well before eight in the morning. I have to admit that as I sit here in the cramped Internet booth that reeks of smoke -- and that wasn`t even available at four thirty when I first ventured down because there was no Internet connection (wretched, just wretched) -- I am feeling a bit nostalgic for the insanity of Tokyo. And a bit wistful that when I leave this nasty little hotel tomorrow it means I will be leaving Japan -- and my son -- for who knows how long.

But there`s good news. I finally had sushi. Not the kind that`s safely wrapped up in seaweed and camouflaged by avocado and cucumber and wasabi, but the real kind. Maybe it`s sashimi. You know, the humongous slab of fish flopped down on a tiny and relatively useless (for the squeamish among us) bed of rice. Good shit, for raw fish.

Nothing much to tell today -- certainly nothing worth paying extra yen for in this wretched booth -- so off I go to press my nose against the window of Starbucks and wait for them to open. Back Sunday (hey, I have two chances, so odds are good).