Slept in - again. I was a bit distraught to find the weather perfect - my first nice day in Japan and I'm leaving. I spent the morning packing or reading then it was time to check out. I had the front desk call the airline and found that my flight was going to be an hour and a half late, but that might change so they were still suggesting I be there two hours earlier than the scheduled time. I decided two hours before the revised time would be plenty early. So I left my bags and went for my last chance at a real Japanese lunch - it was OK. Picked up my bags and caught the JR train to Niipori and transferred to the private Keisei line for the rest of the way to Narita Airport.
At the airport I quickly checked in - no lines! I found internet access and checked my email for the first time since leaving Thailand. Basically I amused myself by sending email to people telling them I'd be back in California seven hours ago - international date line magic at its best. The flight got delayed another half hour and it was more than two hours late by the time we left. The main excitement on the flight was that I scored an emergency row seat so I have plenty of leg room and one of the attendants took pity on me and smuggled me a nice bottle of Zinfandel from first class. I should have slept well...
November fifth, the second time:
I didn't get any sleep on the plane, so by the time we landed I was starting to drag. It took forever for the luggage to get offloaded, then I was dreading customs, but they went quite quickly - I didn't even get searched. Amy was waiting for me and we headed for the East Bay. We stopped for coffee then made it to her house for breakfast with her parents and one of her brothers. I spent the entire day struggling to stay awake so I could go to sleep at a normal time. We looked at photos (Amy's from Africa, and mine from Thailand and Cambodia) and talked.
