Reunited

I flew back from London to Japan on another very comfortable Virgin Atlantic flight (maybe just without kids airplane flights are relatively easy?), and arrived back in Tokyo in just about 12 hours -- but I had a few hours more to travel, to Tokyo from the airport is an hour or more, then the train up to Niigata is another couple of hours. Plus I had to stop in Tokyo, at Yodobashi camera in Akihabara (on a Saturday!) and brave to crowds to buy a couple of things to fix my computer -- which died when I was in Warsaw. I was getting pretty tired on that last stretch of the train ride, after being up for about 24 hours at that point.

Yukari, her Mom, Luke, and Ian were all at the Echigo-Yuzawa train station to pick me up. I didn't know what Luke's reaction would be, having not seen me for about one month. As soon as he did see me coming toward the ticket gate, he ran over laughing. It really was a bit touching, and I can say without an ounce of hyperbole that I will never forget that moment for the rest of my life. What a dear sweet boy he is.