back in the saddle

just tucking into my finally warm living room after another trip. spent 5 days on the east coast in tokyo, yokohama and kamakura on a mix of business and pleasure ventures. lots more to come on that, including way more than you probably care to hear or will bother to read about our night of molecular gastronomy at the mandarin oriental hotel.

faithful readers, remember the tokida family whom i lived with during my homestay? remember the letter i stressed and sweated over, telling them that i’m back in japan?
recall the run-in i had with my host-aunt at the family-run restaurant last time i was in nagoya?
well, i got this postcard in the mail a while back, but wasn’t really able to make too much sense of it as it’s hand-scribed and chocked full of the terribly tough kanji characters.

i finally fished it out of my bag one day at school recently and enlisted a couple of students to help me decode it. i was damn near moved to tears to discover that it’s a note from the family! they were sad to have missed me in nagoya [when they were vacationing in germany], were thrilled to hear that i was living in japan, were surprised to hear that my japanese skills have improved exponentially [obviously they are referring to conversation not reading ability], and were eager to meet again next time i am in their city. this is reason enough for me to go ahead and start planning my next trip.