Hi,
Yes, we've returned from Japan, having arrived at O'Hare Airport this past Wednesday morning. We teachers brought our 26 students back and sent them into the arms of their welcoming parents. It all went very well. Interesting to visit far northern Japan, with a very different landscape and climate from the one I knew in Yokohama. Akita Prefecture includes the UNESCO Heritage Shirakami Sanchi mountains, and also forests, with bears!
I talked with Australians, Poles, Nigerians, Russians, Chinese, and Koreans (as well as Japanese, of course) while I was away, some of them at the Tokyo Central Hostel where we stayed while in the capitol. They're all quite worried about us Americans, a sentiment which they conveyed in a kindly way. I felt that they wished us well...so nice of them.
Happy Fourth!
