in America

I'm in the states! i left Daegu on Monday morning at 11:00 and arrived in seattle on monday morning at 9:00 (you do the math). I had a pleasant flight that had a 3.5 hour layover in Tokyo, Japan. While I was there I enjoyed some lovely sushi from a restaurant in the airport. I figured I needed to have the full Japanese experience, raw fish and all. While I was munching on my lunch, an elderly Japanese man approached me and asked me in Japanese if I had a watch. My initial response was, "sorry, I don't speak any Japanese." (sounds too familiar, eh?) He chuckled to himself and asked again in English. I didn't have a watch, but saw a clock hanging in the airport that read 2:30pm. He thanked me and then sat near me. I turned to ask him where he was heading and he sat up, cocked his head and leaned his ear closer to my mouth and said, "what?" I spoke louder and clearer and asked him again where he was headed and he replied, "to seattle. where are you going?" this prompted a whole conversation of why we were going to seattle, where we were coming from and what brought us overseas. I learned he was a former Harvard professor of environmental studies and ecology. He was at the ripe age of 80 and only retired for 4 years. We had a nice chat with each other exchanging little tidbits we knew about our home countries. I tried to learn some things about ecology and environmental studies, but he seemed more interested in talking about korean superstars and asking how much money peter makes per year. after 30 minutes of chatting, he got up to use the restroom and I also got up to peruse some of the shops since we still had 2 hours to spare before our plane boarded. when i returned he was sitting on the other side of the airport lounge. we made eye contact and he cheerfully waved with a smirk. I was glad to have met him.

Once we boarded the plane, I found my seat (an unfortunate middle seat for a 8+ hour flight), but was pleasantly surprised to find my 80 year old Japanese friend assigned the seat right next to me! He dozed in and out of sleep for the next 8.5 hours, as did I, but we had little moments of conversation when we had the energy. He sweetly asked if we could exchange phone numbers and asked if I would visit him at his home to see his garden. I hope I can.