Hard Times and Fun in Fuchu

It’s Wednesday night, July 31st, at 8 here in Japan. That means the day’s just getting started back in our home city of Columbia. It’s been my first opportunity to post, and it comes at the heels of a full, enjoyable day.

Our trip started off on the rough side. Our plane out of CoMo was delayed. Amy frantically drove our crew of three to the Kansas City airport, where we just had time to board a plane for Dallas. That leg of the trip was then fairly easy. All was well until we descended into Tokyo. Motion sickness then hit Melia hard. The line through immigration and customs wasn’t pretty. I’ll leave it at that. In addition, the time change is rough on adult humans. Jet lag can put the best of us on our backs. My dear Melia had a rough time. For that reason, we were homebound for our first day, Tuesday. Poor Melia didn’t feel well at all.

Today, however, she woke up with a smile. Early, for sure, as did I, but we both woke up feeling better and ready to go out into the city. The Groves (the family we’re staying with currently) and the Glossons (both families we’ve sent out from Karis) live in Fuchu. It’s a beautiful part of Tokyo that’s just west of the heart of the city. Fuchu has a gorgeous, shady main street. It has really everything shopping and entertainment-wise you might look for. I can see why our friends chose to live here.

Melia and I hopped out of bed and spent our early morning hanging in coffee shops and viewing the area’s temple. We then headed over to the Glosson home. We spent some time with Megumi for a while and then left with Drew and their two sons, Takumi and Nobuki, for a bike ride down to the Tama River. It was a great time. It did our bodies well. If it weren’t 96 degrees (and according to the Dark Sky app, feeling more like 113!), it would have been perfect.

We then came home, rested for awhile, and all went out for a meal together. We went to a Yaki Niku restaurant, which is quite amazing. You have a grill in the table in front of you. They bring you as much meat (and some other sides) that you can grill in 90 minutes. Man, I wish they had these places in the states.

Melia and I will go to bed early tonight. As camp starts up next week, we’ll probably take the next couple of days, with Timothy and whoever else wants to go, to venture into the city for some sightseeing and shopping. I’m thankful Melia is back on her feet. I’m excited for the rest of the trip.

For My Fountain Pen Followers

I’ve popped into a few stationery stores, but have elected not to buy much at this point. The Maruzen store near the Fuchu station had a decent selection of pens and inks. You could actually try out all the various nib sizes on both Sailor and Pilot pens there. I may grab some Pilot Iroshizuku ink (it’s much cheaper in Japan) from there before I go home, as it’s close. Tomorrow, as I said, we’ll head deeper into the city. I’ll definitely hit up a store or two and share some details tomorrow night.