KONNICHIWHAT!?: January 2013

I was back in America and it was an awesome feeling. It was actually quite surreal being back and seeing pretty much everything in my native language. I was a bit out of it due to all of the travel and really just wanted to lay down. My stepdad picked me up at the airport and took me to surprise my mom at home. I'm pretty sure I mentioned already that she was unaware of my arrival. The surprise went as well as was expected. She was there watching TV when I casually walked in as if it were just another day. She was shocked, and most importantly happy, so this mission was a success. That night, Christmas eve, it snowed, which was awesome timing, having a white Christmas and all. Christmas day, another surprise was looming for my mom as my brother would be flying in from LA and she had no idea about this as well. Sure enough, her reaction to his arrival was about the same as with me; shock and happiness. Solid. It was probably the first time in years that all of us had been together, so that alone made it worth the cost and exhaustion of flying back.

Back in Colorado, I was able so see a lot of old haunts, see a good friend and eat some foods I haven't had in over a year. My body had no idea what was going on after going nuts with all that American junk food. It was worth it though, believe me. Do you know how much it sucks not having Mexican food? I didn't do much on vacation aside from laying around like a bum, but that's pretty much all I wanted to do. Just kick back with the family and watch TV. It's weird, I didn't really do anything "special", but everything felt new to me. I'd like to go on record saying that I missed American grocery stores. The selection is ridiculous in the best way. We got it good Americans. I had a really good time being home and it definitely reminded me of what I missed and that it was where I wanted to be. Still have some business to settle up here in Japan, but I know where I wanna be.

After my very short nine days wrapped up back in the States, I was back on the plane at the all-too-early hour of 5am. First flight was Denver to Dallas, followed by Dallas to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Fukuoka. After arriving in Fukuoka, I'd still have a 2-hour train ride to Oita. Needless to say, I wasn't excited. The travel time on the way back was much longer. The direct flight from Dallas to Tokyo was 13 hours. No one should have to sit on a plane for that long, especially when you can't sleep, which is my problem. I watched pretty much all the in-flight movies again and tried to maintain my sanity by walking around and chatting with my neighbor. By the way, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", is a solid film. When I got back to Japan, I still had a day or so before I had to get back to work (planned it that way), so I wasn't totally stressed. I was able to recoup a bit before getting thrown back into the fire with my long-commute school. Also, January and February are parent observation months, so you have to get your A-game back quickly. Truth be told, I'd been transitioning smoothly into life back in Japan, until the night of the 23rd when a certain virus decided to hit me...

See what I did there with the post title? Anyway, so yeah, I'm back in Japan now after having spent my winter vacation traveling back to the States to be with my family. I couldn't really mention that before because it was a surprise visit and I couldn't let the cat out of the bag. I'll start from the beginning and give you all a rundown of how my traveling panned out. Flying to Denver is not a short trip when you're coming from Japan. I know that's incredibly obvious, but without having a direct flight there, it's hard to really imagine how long you're going to be in the air and how much flying you're going to be doing. My adventure began on December 23rd. I took the 2 hour train to Fukuoka from Oita, because I was staying overnight in a hotel so that when I woke up on the 24th, I would only have a short taxi ride to the Fukuoka airport. I woke up Christmas Eve morning to snowfall and thought, "Gee, I hope this doesn't make for an uncomfortable flight." See, that's where my mind goes because I highly dislike flying. My lady friend was with me at the hotel and airport. I was filled with anxiety, as it had been a year since I had flown, and I really had no appetite. I said my goodbyes and boarded the flight to Narita. Luckily, I had an aisle seat with the seat in the middle being empty and an elderly Japanese man at the window. Having an empty seat next to you is pretty awesome, as most of you know, but I was also happy to have been sitting next to this older guy (whose name I never did get), because he was very friendly and talkative. Normally, I don't want some stranger chatting at me, but I welcomed the distraction from being in a steel tube in the sky. This dude was in his 60's, a retired university professor living in Canada, who had been living there for over 30 years. His English was basically fluent level. Turns out he was in Japan visiting his mother, who had just turned 101! I was blown out by that. He said that Japan has the highest number of centurions in the world. I'm inclined to believe him because I see old people everywhere I look.

After landing in Tokyo, I didn't really have much time to look around. I had to hurry up and get through security and check in my luggage to be sent to the States. One good thing about having a residency card here in Japan is that the line for someone in my position was super short. Score. Got my bag checked in, bought some snacks and water for the flight and it was already time to board. I was seating in the very last row (for passengers, as the actual last row is the flight attendants row), on the aisle of the middle section. The three seats in the middle were empty, (again, score!), and then there was a lady in the left aisle sleep. This put me at ease having all this extra room. I could stretch out and have easier access to the junk in my bag. Also, the captain let us know that the flight would be shorter than previously announced (at around 8 hours 35 minutes, as opposed to 9 hours 30 minutes), so things were looking good. And they remained good, as the flight went fairly smooth. Whenever we had turbulence, the captain was quick to get on the intercom to let everyone know that he was adjusting the flight to avoid it, and I thought, "this dude is on his shit." I watched, "The Bourne Legacy", and thought was pretty good. I also saw the new, "Total Recall", and thought that wasn't so good. The best part about those international flights is getting access to brand new movies right away. As usual, I couldn't really sleep, but for whatever reason, I wasn't that tired and the time moved faster than expected

Landing in LA, I was a bit taken aback at the crudeness of the workers in the airport and reminded at how American security and immigration tolerate zero bullshit. I can respect that...the hardcore security part. I was also reminded at how dumpy LAX is. Oi vey. I took a shuttle to my American Eagle terminal (flying on an airline that sounds like a clothing store), and my flight was schedule for 10:25 to Denver. Got to the terminal, dude gets on the intercom and says that the flight is being delayed due to maintenance issues. Something you always want to hear before flying right? He gives an estimated time of departure as 11:30, as they now have to wait for another plane coming in from San Diego. I saw on the ground watching the old 1979 Gundam anime movie on my laptop. Final departure time ended up being 11:50, and they had been offering $500 vouchers to people willing to take later flights. I wasn't having it because at this point, I was done flying. I got on the super sketchy, celebrity killer plane and was seating in the aisle in the very last two seats, right next to the shitter. Awesome. I thought, "how many trips to the toilet could people possible make on a less-than-two-hour flight? Turns out, a lot. On the brighter side, the flight attendant was super awesome and seated next to me. We chatted about my life in Japan and her life in Chicago. She gave me gossip magazines to, "keep me up to date on the nonsense in America", and even gave me an extra can of orange juice when our flight landed. All in all, some better than average flying experiences for a guy trapped in economy. Landing in Denver was a great feeling. I had my feet on solid ground for longer than an hour and heck, it was Christmas Eve and I was back in America!