Adjusting to my homeland

I have lived much of my adult life in Japan, a quarter of a century, much of that in and near Kyoto. This leaves me in a surreal state of mind as I move about in the land of my birth, U.S. of A.

To witness the startling diversity of physical stature, so many people larger, in so many ways, than what we are accustomed to in Asia... to adjust to the scale of space, so much square footage unused, between buildings, along roads, even within interior spaces... a mystifying gluttony of under utilized inches. In Japan all is consciously allocated to use, in the US so much is outside of anyone's concern, a no man's land of neglect and potential.

I am here with my son to discover, to gently uncover, our heritage. To make sense of an identity. To be an American on a road trip in 2011. Three generations, my dad at 89, myself at 60, and my son 19...