Back to Japan

November 19, 2010

The day we've been dreading - we must rise early and catch a morning flight back to Japan. The sun rose over the city as we drove to the airport and returned our rental car. That car was a great investment since it gave us the freedom to do what we wanted to instead of being stuck in tour busses with strangers. We definitely took full advantage of its 4WD capabilities - driving through steep mountain passes and off-roading to the bottom of hiking trails. It was filthy inside and out because of the sand we tracked in from the beach. But we paid for insurance so they didn't charge us for it. Anyway, I think it adds character and shows that we had a lot of fun!

The check-in process took forever and we had to jump through some hurdles since we're military members and don't have a traditional Japanese visa. But it all worked out and we made it through customs and security with plenty of time to spare. We all bought some breakfast and/or coffee to help us wake up and spent some time looking around in the cool duty-free stores inside the terminal, collecting a few last-minute souvenirs.

We boarded the plane around 8:45 am and took off at 9:25. (That's 5:25 am Japan time, and we're not getting back until 10 pm tonight. Brutal!) We were able to get seats right next to Derick and Lisa, which is nice even if we don't end up talking much. The boys watched movies on the in-flight TV screens, Lisa slept a lot, and I've been working on updating my journal since I didn't have time yesterday. After I caught up, I also watched a couple of movies. Over all it was a pretty relaxing trip.

We landed early enough that - if we were lucky - we might just be able to catch an earlier train to Misawa. So as soon as we got off the plane we started scrambling through the crowds of Japanese people to get to customs before the line got too long. We were lucky indeed and made it on to the Narita Express just in time. We had a 50 minute train ride to rest before running through Tokyo Station to catch the next Shinkansen north. Turns out we were in time, but all they had left were standing-room only tickets so we ended up having to stand up in the small space between cars for about an hour until the train started to clear out. By that time I was so tired that I plopped down in the first empty seat we saw and fell asleep. The exchange in Hachinohe was also pretty close but thanks to some helpful guidance we made it back without a problem!

Lisa's co-worker Kim who was also dog-sitting for them picked us up at the train station around 9:30 and drove us home. We were definitely sorry to leave New Zealand, but the trip home was so long that it felt great walking through the front door and feeling right at home. Needless to say, we fell asleep pretty quickly after we got home and spent the weekend resting and recovering.

The jet lag was actually pretty difficult to get over. 4 hours is a big deal, especially when it gets dark so early here in Japan. Trying to make ourselves stay up late was really hard when the sun went down at 4:30 pm, and that felt like 8:30 pm. James was fine to go back to work on Monday since he was able to take advantage of the natural need to rise early. But I honestly think it took about a week and a half before I felt like I was back to normal. I'm sure staying up till 4 am to see the Harry Potter movie didn't help things either.

But now we're home and have gotten all kinds of compliments on our pictures and - hopefully - have inspired some more people to travel to New Zealand. I definitely plan on going back as soon as possible! Till then, we'll treasure the memories. =^)