Back in Chicago now.  Yesterday morning in Ochanomizu, I did finally manage to find some green tea leaves.  It was at a cramped little tea implements shop run by an older man who seemed thrilled to have a customer.   When I asked him to recommend a "fukamushi" style tea, he brewed a cup for me, and after I bought some he threw some tea-flavored candies into the bag along with it.

 I then headed over to Minowa in hopes of seeing the Higuchi Ichiyo Memorial Museum.  But it was closed, as they are setting up a new exhibit; you'd think perhaps they might mention this fact on their homepage....  But I enoyed walking around the neighborhood and getting a feel for what the setting of her classic 1895 story "Takekurabe" ("Comparing Heights" or "Child's Play") looks like in 2008. 

Then it was off to Narita airport.  Our flight was delayed for two hours by mechanical problems, and then when we reached Chicago, they announced that a big storm on the ground meant that we might have to divert to Detroit to refuel--exactly what happened to me on the way to Japan last week.  But we managed to land.

That was when the fun began.  Rush hour combined with a blizzard to produce the perfect storm:  not a taxi to be had.  I had two heavy suitcases, so the Blue Line train wasn't really an option.  I waited for an hour and finally managed to get into a cab with four other people, all headed for different parts of the city.  It took nearly three hours of crawling along the highways and city streets, but I made it back to Hyde Park a little after 9:00 last night, six hours behind schedule.

   Man, was I happy to be home.