back home

I just got back home after spending two weeks in Taiwan and Japan. Lots of details to come, but for now, two quick travel notes:

Although we did no itinerary coordination whatsoever, I somehow ended up on the same flight from Tokyo to San Francisco as a friend who was returning from Seoul (connecting through Tokyo). Similarly, when I first arrived in Taipei from San Francisco, I ran into two friends at the baggage claim area, who had just gotten off a flight from Tokyo. It seems that I can't walk into an airport in Asia without bumping into someone I know, at least during the holiday season.

After arriving, I knew I was home after walking out of the airport terminal, when I looked for a garbage can, and found it two feet away. Looking down the street, I saw that there was a garbage can at every exit! Furthermore, throwing away my water bottle did not require deciphering the labels on a dizzying array of containers, to determine which was for "PET bottles", as opposed to "other bottles", "paper containers", "newspaper", "burnable trash", "other trash", etc. I felt a bit guilty that I was relieved to be back where it's considered virtuous just to sort recycling from trash.