From Typhoon to Mansoon

Sunday, July 15, 2007

The day began with a typhoon and ended with a monsoon. It’s definitely the rainy season!

This morning I awoke to the solid downpour of the edge of Typhoon Man-yi. Hotel Skycourt Narita, where I was staying, had a great breakfast buffet. There was everything from toast and eggs (scrambled, poached in sauce, or raw) to fried rice, dumplings, soup, and any variety of things I have no name for.

When I got on the shuttle to head out to the airport there was a couple (Malcolm and Nancy) from Calgary on my bus, heading to the same flight to Vietnam. He is a high school history teacher and she is a librarian. We chatted some on the bus, stood in the long line together, and decided to walk through several of the stores. I wanted to find a bookstore and see if I could find a Japanese copy of the first Harry Potter book for my collection.

We first went to a small magazine and book kiosk. I asked if they had it and the clerk indicated “no,” but then pointed us down the hall to a larger bookstore. This looked promising so I asked one of the clerks. She walked me over to the English book section. I told her that I wanted it in Japanese, so she took me over to the Japanese/English dictionary section. I told her, “No, I want Harry Potter” and pointed to a magazine cover with Harry Potter (from the new movie) on the cover. Then she took me to the magazine section. I could tell this was going nowhere, so I thanked her and went to look by myself. Meanwhile, Malcolm and Nancy were also looking, but it’s not easy to even find the section when you can’t read the covers or know what the cover looks like.

Just as I was about ready to call it a day, I decided to ask another younger woman by the other cash register. She immediately had a look of recognition in her eyes and walked me over to the area we had established was the kids section. She looked around for a few moments and then said, “No Harry Potter.” We thanked her and went to the doorway. We were realizing that they had some of the Harry Potter books in English, which bodes well for my option of getting book #7 on my return trip. As we were standing there, the same clerk came out with 3 wrapped Harry Potter books (#1-3). I chose book #1 and she asked, “Gift?” I said no, it wasn’t a gift and asked how much it was. She said, “Gift” and pushed it toward me. At that moment there was the realization that she was GIVING me the book as a gift. I told her, “Thank you, thank you.” I asked Malcolm to take a picture of me by the front of the store holding the book and he suggested taking it with the clerk. She was a bit shy, but willing. What a fun moment!! I spent the rest of the morning really enjoying that moment.

We took off in our typhoon and within 15 minutes were above the clouds. Not too rough of a flight considering what we were flying out of. We flew over much of Japan and some of China and I landed in Hanoi. Sandy met me at the airport, we rode to her house in a taxi, and went for a dinner of Pho (a noodle soup). On the way home, Sandy stopped to buy some flowers—we got them all. Some of her summer team was here (including 2 girls who lived in the Simple Way community house in PA that burned down a month or so ago) and we talked about community living. Currently, Sandy and I are sitting at her dining room table, catching up on life, and it has started the POURING rain. The streets that we walked down for dinner are now flooded, the person who was coming over won’t be (because once it starts raining, you’re excused from all obligations), and I’m getting ready for bed.