Waiting in Osaka Airport

I’m sitting in the Osaka Airport - one of them, at least. It’s about 4 or 5 AM back west, and I’m in a bit of a daze.

As we flew into Osaka, the city lights just kept on coming, and coming, and coming...heck, folks, this is one big city. But then, as I got off the plane and felt the instant moist heat of this foreign land, I said to myself, with a satisfied grin plastered on my face, “I’m home.” For this next year, this is my home. God has shipped me across a country, an ocean, and now across yet another country - and I took a little jump over Alaska along the way. I’m living back where the salt of the ocean can find its way back into my blood, culture like nothing I’ve ever known or imagined, is talking, and walking, and moving all around me. Yes, this is where I am to be.

I don’t know when my pick-up person will get here, but I figure they can’t really miss me - I’m the only white kid here. :)