あきやすみ １

Aki yasumi pt. 1 (Autumn Vacation part 1)

09:15 on 24-Oct was our official departure for this year's trip to Japan. We had a limousine waiting for us outside our condo and we loaded up and moved out pretty quickly and smoothly. This happened easily because we had everything prepared and ready to go the previous night (first time that's ever happened!).

After leaving home at 09:15, our flight was leaving its O'Hare Airport runway at 12:50, arriving at Narita Airport at 15:55 local time (or 00:55 Chicago-time). After clearing immigration, picking up our luggage and then clearing customs, we needed to take care of some business at the airport, like picking up our rented mobile phone and depositing money in our local bank account. At 18:30 we set off for Tokyo (東京) on the Skyliner Airport Express train which arrived in Ueno (上野) at about 19:15. In Ueno we took just a few minutes to sit down and relax and reflect on the fact that we were once again back in the greatest city in the world with an exciting few weeks ahead of us.

The next leg of the long journey took place on the Tohoku Shinkansen ("bullet train") which picked us up from Ueno at around 20:15 to take us north to Rinko's home-city, Sendai. The next and final stretch happened after we arrived in Sendai Station at 22:15-ish when Endo-san picked the two of us up in his car and drove us home where we finally were able to rest and have a good meal at nearly 23:00!

So in all, Rinko and I were traveling for 19 hours! By the time we got home, we were thoroughly exhausted. It was so nice to sit down to a delicious home-cooked meal, have a glass of beer, and melt into a nice, hot bath.