Going to Japan

Friday, Lord willing, I am jumping on a plane to go visit Aaron in Japan. I can hardly wait. He has been there since April 1st and is getting very acclimated to a VERY foreign country. He's traveled a lot and he says this is BY FAR the most foreign place he's ever been. He is treated like a rock star at the schools where he works -- the ONLY non-Japanese face on TWO entire campuses! It seems so odd to him that Japanese people can go all day long and never see anyone that doesn't look and think exactly like themselves -- quite amazing to a young American -- and Aaron is American/Texan through and through. His size alone makes him stick out. He's a large framed, broad chested six feet and WAS 190 pounds, pretty normal for Arlington, Texas. But he towers over most people he works with. At his schools he is seen and noticed and looked at by everyone. If you placed Aaron's Japanese co-workers in the halls at Arlington High School -- nobody would even see them. At AHS every third person is of some completely different ethnic extraction, and that's how Aaron grew up. The Japanese have a work ethic that is mind-blowing. He's been working his head off. He's had two breaks. Once, he went to an Asian Missions conference in the Philippines with his church friends, and then this past weekend he climbed Mt. Fuji. But he hasn't had much time to tour the country of Japan -- see the shrines and antiquities. It's hard for the young people to take off work and it's extremely expensive to travel in Japan, so I'm going to accompany him on a Japanese 5-city tour for a week. We are going to ride the bullet train (Shinkansen) and see the sights -- Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Mt. Fuji, Nikko, etc. We DO have a Japanese bi-lingual travel agent. My agent works for a Japanese ONLY travel agency in Manhattan. She is extremely concerned about me and Aaron tooling around Japan. My Texas accent must have alarmed her. She has it set up to where they are practically leading us by the hand, so hopefully, we won't get lost in Japan, though that is quite a famous thing to do in Japan!! Her reps are going to come INSIDE our hotel in Tokyo and lead us out to the proper conveyance to begin our tours. They, then, hand us off to LICENSED English-speaking tour guides, who, in turn check us into our next hotel, etc. It's completely hilarious! I'm laughing my head off at all this. This agent is leaving NOTHING to chance. Aaron has said these are VERY precise people. Aaron rides a bike everywhere. That's another odd thing for a VERY American young man!! He has lost 20 pounds since he got there. I was frantic when I heard that. I said "Diggs, are you not eating!?" He said, "Sure, Mom I'm eating like a horse (he LOVES the food) but I'm on that bike at least 45 minutes every day. I'm all muscle!" He changes clothes four times every day because of his commute and the humidity. Sounds pretty daunting to me, but he thinks it is all awesome. He's absolutely unsinkable!!