I didn't think I was there, in the bucket list phase. But here it is. Criss-crossed Europe for years like a loosely woven shawl, drove from Canada to Mexico and 3 or 4 times coast-to-coast, and always in the back of my mind: once more to Japan before I die.
Now we did it. Spent hours looking for the sembe-cookies I ate as a child, my 'madeleines':
Found them, gobbled them, cried. Then I noticed it -- check. My brain had checked something off a mental list.