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Personal Travel Narrative
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig
A Toronto Homecoming
I’m crossing the Pacific in the blue belly of an Air Canada Boeing Dreamliner. The row of luggage compartments swaying overhead resembles the backbone of a fish. Mood lighting ripples across the curved ceiling.
Thirty thousand feet up, and I feel like I’m underwater.
We’re arriving just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving. 2026 has brought strange weather everywhere. In Tokyo, that’s meant an unusually rainy summer and early autumn. In Toronto, on the other hand, friends and family tell me to expect mostly unseasonably balmy weather, with maybe just a dreary day or two thrown in.
Once upon a time, along with my birthday and Christmas, Thanksgiving was one of the most important reasons for Ma to cook a special meal. Turkey. Stuffing (not for me, blech). Brussels sprouts (yum). Mashed potatoes. Homemade chocolate cream pie.
You know: a chance for this starving student to catch up on protein, essential vitamins, and minerals.
I don’t remember the last time we had Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe thirty years ago now? Half a lifetime. It’s been that long since my increasingly ambitious peripatetic adventures finally took me across the ocean to Japan, redefining what I…
