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Published: June 13th 2017
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Geo: 41.8861, -87.6364
DAY TWENTY-FOUR (1/26/13) —Tokyo to Chicago on Japan Air (JAL), then American Airlines to St. Louis
Homeward Bound
We have a beautiful sunrise as we land in Japan … one of those colorful straight lines you are sometimes lucky enough to see from the air. We pass through Immigration and head to another Sakura Lounge. I occupy myself cleaning up my blog; Patrick is reading his seventh book of the trip.
We board our flight, scheduled to depart at 11 am. We settle in to our business class seats but struggle with getting our electronics to work. The adaptors we have used the last three weeks are delivering no power to my PC or his iPad. The flight attendance brings us JAL's adaptors and that solves the problem. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Lunch is an odd inspiration of the airline's chef. Mixed greens on raw fish is a first course. Very grisly hamburger, accompanied by a cold soft-boiled egg is the second. White chocolate mousse of some sort is a palatable third course. At least the rolls are good.
Although our flight west was a JAL flight, it was an American plane with American staff. This is a Japanese crew and a Japanese plane. The overnight sleeping arrangements are designed for folks fall shorter than my traveling companion. The space comes up short. Literally. His toes hit the wall under the chair in front, so he much choose to sleep at a sort rounded slant.
We have decided to take a 5-hour Ambien at midnight St. Louis time (3 pm Tokyo time) in our first effort to change back to a time zone that has been 13 hours from us for three weeks. I sleep until three hours then continue reading/working. I had two hours on the first segment, and three now, so that's all I need for the day. I want to watch "Untouchables" but it is French and the subtitles are in Japanese. I abandon it.
I settle for “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” whose title has absolutely no appeal to me but enough people have told me they enjoyed it, so I dig in. I should have paid attention to the title and my inner self; the whole thing is nonsense from my point of view.
The winter dawn is breathtaking – indigo skies with streaks of orange and black. It's good to know I am seeing it rise over the US of A.
We land, go through Customs where the agent is very chatty and wants to know all about SE Asia. I almost felt I should give him the link to my blog. We settled in for three hours in the JAL lounge, then hop the American flight to St. Louis. It's a puddle-jumper compared to some of the flights in the last few weeks. I am thrilled when it touches down in St. Louis.
I get out my iPhone and I can use its full range of services. I text my sister, my niece Allison (our airport pickup service and Liz, our dog sitter, to let them know we have arrived. Conor, my two-year-old nephew accompanies his mother to the airport, so I have a chat with him on the way home. He uses words like “helicopter” and I am amazed.
Soon I am ensconced on my sofa with all the things I missed most: my two Golden Retrievers and a Tab soda. We watch Stan Musial's funeral on TV. There is no place like home.
As the day progresses, and I tackle load after load of laundry, I begin to realize I really am not tired. I am certain I can make it until midnight before I go to bed. Maybe our plan for when to sleep has worked? Could I be back on Central Standard Time that easily? I doubt it. But I can hope.
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Barcy
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So glad you are back with amazing tales to tell. Can't wait to hear and see all you have collected.