Delaware "Omiyage"

On Wednesday I woke up at 2:45 am to a dark youth hostel room in the center of Washington DC. Climbing out of bed was like trying to get out of a jar of tar. I tore myself from the top bunk, put my effects together and took the rickety elevator to the lobby. Yukie and Goto were already there waiting with similar forced-out-of-bed-faces for our 3am shuttle bus to the airport.

The roads were open and quiet. It's that hour of night that, if you're up, you feel the whole world belongs to you. I think that DC herself must have been awake (or talking in her sleep) because she softly implored me to come back. I whispered my own good-bye with no promises, but with a hope.

Travel from DC to San Francisco, from San Francisco to Narita, and Narita to Sendai went on without event. Mostly the three of us slept. I watched one movie, "Elizabethtown," where the main character learns that what the world calls "success" isn't the end all of life, but rather our relationships with people who see beyond "success" and "failure" is what truly matters. I pulled out my journal and wrote for a while.

When we arrived in Sendai we said goodbye to Goto who was continuing on to his hometown. Yukie and I waited outside of Sendai Station for Joel to come and pick us up. A couple of years ago, Yukie and I had a conversation about what it means to be a man. Standing there in front of the station, Yukie said that she had long remembered that conversation and continued to think about it. "On this trip, I realized two important things that make a man a true man," she said. "One is the ability to honestly share what he is feeling. And the other is the ability to admit his mistakes." A few moments later Joel appeared and we packed our things into the van.

Finally, Thursday the 9th, I was back in sweet home Yagiyama. It felt good. In my room I spread out all my clothes, books and souvenirs on my bed. Now, I do the same with my memories: pulling them out and spreading these past eleven days before me. Yukie shared one of her "omiyage" thoughts with me. "Omiyage" is any souvenir (usually food) that a Japanese person brings back to give their friends and family that couldn't go on the trip with them. God brought us back safely from our adventure in America. It was an incredibly challenging and blessed project ... And there is a lot of "omiyage" to share! Jetlag has still got the best of me, so see you tomorrow for more Delaware Omiyage.