Home Sweet Home

After a 12-hour flight, on top of a 3-hour trip from my apartment to Narita Airport, I made it into Pearson International. I was hoping to make it through customs without any problems but I was sort of expecting it considering all the stuff I was bringing back. I marked down that I was bringing food into the country and the woman at customs asked me what sorts of food. “Chips, rice crackers, chocolate, these kinds of pastry things with red bean inside…” “Is that all?” “Oh, and these sausage type things.” With that last statement, she made an extra couple marks on my declaration paper. I figured that meant something bad. So I went down to claim my bag, which happened to be one of the last ones out, and headed off to the exit where we had to hand in the form. The guy checked my paper and told me to go down this corridor, which was not the regular exit. I knew it.

The customs guy that had to check my bag was a young-ish sort of guy, looked to be mid to late 20s. Sure enough, the thing he wanted to see was the sausages. “Can I see the sausages?” he said. I poked around my bag for a couple minutes to find them. I handed over a bundle of 6 individually wrapped sausages. He asked, “Why are you bringing in sausages?” “Because they are called Homo Sausages.” “What?” He pulled one out to read the packaging. “Homo Sausage,” I said again. He grinned and started to chuckle a bit. He had to open one up. He went on to explain that you can’t bring meats into the country because that’s how foot and mouth disease was brought over from England. I assume it’s just meats because he asked if I was sure it wasn’t fish. He asked if I could read Japanese to read the ingredients but I said I couldn’t. I had a feeling he was trying to find ways to let me keep them. I said it was probably meat and he said yea, it looked like a hot dog. He asked if I wanted to try it before he had to throw it out but I declined. I said, “Is it ok if I take a picture before you throw them out?” He replied, “I was just about to ask if you had a camera. Do you want me to take a picture of you with them?” “No, it’s ok, thanks.” I think we were both disappointed I wasn’t able to keep the Homo Sausages.

After getting home and cleaning up a bit, I went out for Pho with my family. One thing to cross off my list of things-to-eat-while-I’m-home.

Last night, I went out for bubble tea - another thing to cross off the list.

It doesn’t feel like I’d been away for almost 5 months. Pretty much everything is the way I remember it to be. But it’s so good to be home. It’s like a recharge to get me through the next 7 months.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!