Home again, home again jiggety jog...

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I said Narita (where the airport is), but technically I'm over the Pacific! 😊 We just crossed the Int'l Date Line. So, on my flight today, I have left Narita at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16th and I will land in Seattle at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16th. It's doing something funky to my brain.

Rachel & slept in a bit today. Check out was officially at 11 a.m., but you could buy extra time at 1000/hour...so we did! We thought about pushing to do one last thing, but decided against it. Instead, we cruised through the mall that our hotel is attached to (such a great feature!), went shopping in an actual grocery store (No photos, please.) the last thing on Rachel's to-do list, and stopped at the local post office for the last few stamps we needed.

We grabbed our luggage and opted to walk through Ikebukuro one last time (rather than take a cab). It was gorgeous and I again experienced that moment of...I don't want to leave! What's the worst that will happen if I don't get on the plane? Do you guys ever have that moment? I don't think I'm crazy for it, but I do wonder about myself a bit.... 😊

We met up w/Samia & Alice at the train station and made it to Narita with no problems and plenty of time to spare. I experimented w/taking rapid fire photos...my camera does so many things! Can I just say, that is one big ol' airport! We ended up getting separated (turning in cell phones, bathrooms, etc), but I found Rachel again in the checkout line. We finished up & made it through security/customs. She still had some yen burning a hole in her pocket (& I made it to the airport with 1000 yen! That's $10! Yay, me!). We found a little shop inbetween our two gates to browse in. We found the cutest sumo mugs ever and both bought one.

10/04/08 EDIT: Hmm. Apparently I didn't finish/publish this post. Which is funny, b/c I didn't sleep on the flight back. Seriously, 8+ hours in the air & I got about 20 minutes of sleep after breakfast. Prolly part of why it took me so long to recover. No major jet lag going, but it took two week to recover coming back! (Maybe the excitement of going aided recovery while the reality of coming back to my "life" stunted it?)

I had an absolutely fabulous trip. I saw more than I thought we could in our limited time. I can't wait to go back and experience more of the country. It might be the best vacation I've had, ever! 😊

I'm keeping this site & will blog the next trip as well. Well, maybe not the next one, b/c that's Canada with mom & dad...then again, if we do interesting stuff, I'll put it up here...why not?!?

If you want to check out all my pics (I don't actually recommend it, but feel free) you can find them here:


Stay tuned for my Top Ten List - Japan. It'll be my last Japan post. *sob*
Rae

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Photos

Money, Money, Money...MONEY!
Beginning of the trip, but still. I was loaded! :)