Getting Home

One would think that getting home would be the easiest part. You've already been in Japan for a while now, you know the area (in my case, I had already been to Narita Airport 3 times), and your are leaving the new and foreign environment, not stepping into it full of anxiety. Should be a breeze going back to the known. Not so much for me.

It actually took me 48 hours to get home. 48 hours straight!! That's 2 days!! Figure in the time zone changes and I basically lost 3 days of my life. just like that.

First of all, I got a horrible stomach flu the day I was supposed to fly back home, but I couldn't stop throwing up so I decided riding on a plan for 11 hours plus travel to and from the airports was kinda ムリ. totally not gonna happen. So I rescheduled for the next day, but I still wasn't feeling all that great when I left the next morning. I was so out of it, that I got on the right line, but going the wrong way. haha. oops. So I got off, got going the right way and made it to the Airport about 2 minutes too late according to the lovely Japan Airlines lady checking me in.

$1,000 later, I find myself on the fastest route back to San Francisco Airport which happens to include a 12 hour layover in Honolulu Airport. ha. I think I must have used up all my good luck throughout the trip (finding cool matsuri, stumbling upon shrines, and the sort) because I had only bad luck on the way back except that I had just met wonderful new relatives that live 20 min away from the Honolulu Airport. yay! They were amazing. They picked me up from the airport, treated me to lunch, lent me a bed for 2 hours, treated me to dinner, and then sent me on my way to the Seattle Airport. How wonderful are they? (I think my dad was jealous that I got to meet our cousins again before he did.)

Then I had like 5 hours to kill at the Seattle Airport, so I bought a bagel and coffee and settled in at my gate. 40 min before my flight is supposed to leave finally for San Francisco I realize that no other passengers are at the gate. Apparently my gate had changed but no one had thought to tell me. They didn't change the sign at the gate I was at, they didn't announce it over the intercom, they didn't really do anything except expect me to make it through a maze of subways under the airport to the gate farthest away in 20 min or so. Thanks Seattle, thank you very much. But I made it, I was like the last passenger on, but I didn't have much carry-on so all was well as I collapsed into the seat.

Finally San Francisco and family!! Yay!! All over!!! NOT. The world felt the need to restore my luck to complete equilibrium. I was too lucky in Japan and needed more bad luck, apparently. We ran into the most horrendous traffic heading back home. Hit rush hour heading up 550 making what would have been a 2.5 hour trip a 4.5 hour trip. Fun stuff.

Then I got home, fell on my bed, and died. Too bad I had another flight to Indiana in less than 3 weeks...