Happy New Year!
I have just come back from the U.S. and I want to share my wonderful experiences I gained there with you! I have many things to tell you, so it will take long to complete my story. Thank you for your patience.
I flew to Washington D.C. via Tokyo/Narita, but first, I took a domestic airline from Osaka/Itami to Narita. I enjoyed the view from the airplane. I found Mt. Fuji whose top was beautifully covered with snow. I also enjoyed the scenery of the Boso Peninsula with rice fields and small towns when the airplane was approaching Narita.
I arrived at Washington D.C. Dulles Airport in the morning after a 12-hour flight from Narita. My BFF and her husband picked me up at the airport. I met them for the first time in 17 years! You could easily imagine how moving our reunion was! My BFF and I had been international students and ”roomies” in Austria in 1996. I had been to Washington D.C. and Virginia twice – in 1996-97 and in 2000 -, so it was my third visit.
First, they drove me to Tappahannock, Virginia. We ate lunch together at a restaurant called “NN Burger.” (NN refers to the Northern Neck, which is the northernmost of three peninsulas on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, where the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers meet.) After having yummy hamburgers, we went to the Rappahannock River to take some photos of a bridge. This is the place where Captain John Smith landed in 1608. (There was no bridge at that time, though.)
Then, we went to my BFF’s parents’ home on the York River near West Point. We met my BFF’s parents, her daughter in her early teens, her son in the 5th grade, and two dogs – a Labrador retriever and a cairn terrier. We had a nice teatime. I enjoyed delicious tea and the pecan cookies my BFF’s mom had baked. We shared our memories of the days during my last visits. I love their home. It has a warm atmosphere, and all the family, including the dogs, are warm-hearted. I always appreciate their kindness and hospitality.
We went outside and took a walk around the yard with the cairn terrier. The children played on tree swings and ropes. The view of the York River was fantastic. That was where Pocahontas had been around. I remember my BFF and me picking up some arrowheads on the beach 21 years ago, which native Americans had made and used a long time ago.
Every moment was so precious that I wanted to imprint them in my memory.
