From Pennies To Yennies

It’s nice to be caught up with my blog! I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my time back in the States. I’ve been back in Tokyo for almost 3 weeks now and so far it’s been wonderful. Well, besides my flight home.

I flew Seattle to Vancouver BC, then Vancouver to Tokyo. Once I checked in for my Seattle flight, I learned my flight was delayed about a half hour. The plane arrived and we boarded and 40 minutes later I was in Vancouver BC.

I only had an hour layover, so with the half hour delay I had 30 minutes to deplane, go through customs, find my next gate and get on the plane. Vancouver is a very spread out airport and I got in a good amount of power walking! There was a line at customs which ate up a bit more time, then I found my next gate, hopped on the plane and we took off!

Vancouver to Tokyo is an 11 hour flight. I’m used to the flight only being about 10 hours since I leave from Portland or Seattle, so I wasn’t thrilled to add an hour of travel. But I had a nice flight of napping, reading the second Hunger Games book, and watching some movies. It was finally time to land, but there was a storm in Tokyo and we were stuck in a hold patten for an hour! An hour of flying in circles in terrible turbulence so strong my rear kept lifting off my seat! People all around me were getting sick. It was a nightmare!

After 12 hours and 20 minutes of flying we landed at Narita Airport and I then got to learn that even though I barely made it to the plane in time, my bags did not 🙁 No bags! They were still all packed up in Vancouver. I filled out some paperwork and they assured me they’d be delivered in the next week. The only upside was that I had 2 large heavy suit cases, and at least this way I didn’t have to lug them on the 3 trains it takes me to get home!

Dan was waiting for me and it was wonderful to see him again. We trained home and chatted about what we had been up to. We made it home in under two hours and it was great to see our kitty Penny and give her hugs. We talked for a bit longer, then I went to bed super early! It’s great to be home!