Another Trip Back Home

I just returned from a trip back home yesterday. I arrived early in the morning yesterday, but the one thing that surprised me was how quickly I got through immigration. In the past, I have to wait in a ridiculously long line to get my re-entry permit sorted. This time however, there were probably only 2 other people ahead of me before I was sorted out. I get the feeling the guy who sorted out my re-entry permit was either drinking the night before, or dead inside - I really couldn't tell which. Likewise, getting through customs was pretty easy too - no questions about what I had in my suitcase. Previously they have asked me, and when I answer snacks - specifically chocolate and biscuits/cookies, they wave me through without even checking. Then again, this is the first time I arrived to Japan early in the morning, as previous times I arrived either at night, or in the afternoon.

So my trip back home is the same as previous times: Spend time with the family and catch up with friends. Ten days went by really quickly, and I wasn't able to catch up with everyone. I caught up with my usual circle of friends I've known since high school, but even now we usually catch up on a regular basis anyway. I also was able to catch up with one friend I've known since Primary school, and I'm pretty sure it's been about 3-4 years since I last saw him.
However, one thing I noticed a lot more this time compared to my other trips is how far my home country has really pushed to being a mostly cashless society. While I believe there will always be a need for cash in some capacity, people mostly pay by card. One of my friends has been doing it for years now, but since he has tied his card/account to his phone, he pays everything by phone. So I will admit, it did feel a little weird to be paying by cash, especially as cashiers were expecting a card payment when they got the card reader/eftpos machine prepared in anticipation, only to see me pull out money.
Speaking of money, I had a really strange experience during my stay. I'm not sure how recent, though I known it's only been since this year, but my country has introduced new versions of our paper money: 5s, 10s, 20s, 50s and 100s.  I have read that initially there were problems with these new bills as many vending machines/ticket machines were not able to read them, though I had thought that by the time I arrived, the problem was sorted. Apparently not, as we went out for lunch for my Dad's birthday, and we weren't able to pay for parking, as it wouldn't take the 20 dollar notes we had, which happened to be the new ones. Even stranger, the machine was very specific in that it wouldn't take anything higher than a 20 - no 50s or 100s allowed, and all I had were the old versions of the 50s on hand. We even tried paying by card, though it seems there was a problem with the card reader in that it wouldn't accept any of our cards. Fortunately, a staff member in charge of parking was kind enough to waive the fee and let us out with no problem. Still, I found that really inconvenient in they only accept certain types of bills, but not all.

In any case, I have one week left before I start the new semester. Nothing really planned, aside from gym, and perhaps practicing my drawing.