I am typing from Tokyo while waiting for my connecting flight to Chicago. I have not quite figured out the keyboard, however, since it is a bit different from American ones. I accidentally keep pushing some button that changes the letters to Japanese characters. I also cannot seem to find the apostrophe. Oh, well.

I slept most of the way from Jakarta to Tokyo since it was an evening flight. I left Jakarta after 10pm. The taxi ride to the airport was not bad at all since it was Sunday (less than an hour). I did have to pay extra for several tolls along the way, though. For anyone going to or leaving Indonesia, the airport exit tax has increased from last year. It is now Rp. 100.000. I did not have to pay the fiscal tax, thank goodness, since I was only in Indonesia about one month. That tax is really expensive, especially for students on a limited budget.

Saturday was my last focus group. It was supposed to be a mixed religion group, but only the Muslims showed up. We are not sure what happened to the three Christians who were supposed to come. We think it might have been the traffic or long distance to the discussion site. At least I know next time that it is probably better for me to go to them than vice-versa. The discussion was pretty lively and interesting, so all was not lost. I do think, however, that the more discussions I have, the more confused I get about what my core research questions and methods will be in the future.

I spent Sunday packing, but did spend some time at Plaza Indonesia. It is a huge mall complex with an upper-class air to it. It was a bit strange to see really high-end stores (in general and specifically in Indonesia), but it was fun to people watch.

Piece of advice to fellow travellers in case they do not already know: If you order vegetarian meals, ask to get different kinds of veggie meals at different segments of the flights. I ordered Asian Vegetarian the entire way and well, it gets pretty boring with the same thing each time. There is not a lot of variety, so it would have been better for me to get a regular veggie meal, an Asian veggie one, and something else if possible. Small thing, but adds up over the course of a day or more of travelling.

I will be back in the States in no time and in Ann Arbor later next week after my family reunion at the Ozarks.