August 12 - Going Home   12:40pm Texas-time

I could have written this entry several times over already, but I kept putting it off.  I don’t really want to write it, even now.  I don’t want my trip to end.   

Breakfast was at 7:30am this morning; we left at 8:00am in case it was crowded – the streets, that is.  It wasn’t today so we got to the station a half hour early.  Makiko, Ryoko and Mrs. Ono were already there (Mr. Ono had moved to Aomori a few days before and will be living there for the next two years for work). Yohei was supposed to drive in from Yamagata and pick up the Onos, but he overslept.  Mrs. Ono had brought back some omiyage from Aomori (where she had spent a couple of days helping her husband settle in), which she gave us at the station.  She had some for Dan and me and some for my parents.   

Around 9:00am or a little before, we all trooped on to the Shinkansen platform (everyone had purchased a cheap ticket that would allow them into the train platform section of the station) and started saying our goodbyes.  As soon as it was time for Dan and I to get on the Shinkansen (our bags were already on near our seats), I started crying.  Even Mrs. Ono started tearing up badly.  The door closed as we were standing there (I couldn’t stand to walk to my seat while everyone was still there, saving goodbye for the last possible moment) and the Shinkansen pulled out.  Dan looked out of the door’s window and saw that the group was walking with the train down the platform.  He told me that Mrs. Ono walked the farthest.  I cried. 

The rest was as to be expected.  I tried to distract myself from leaving by taking pictures and reading.  I tried not to think about what I was leaving behind.  We got to Tokyo, we got on the Narita Express (after some slight confusion arising from Tokyo station being the location that two separate Narita Express trains joined up to complete the trip to Narita Airport joined together), we got to the airport, got on the plane and are an estimated one hour and 44 minutes from landing and making our way through immigrations and customs where we will most likely be stopped because we check on our immigration forms that we are carrying food. 

Right now it is 12:45pm in Texas, 1:45pm in Atlanta (our current destination), and 10:45pm on the night of the 12^th in Japan.  When we land in Dallas/Fort Worth at 6-something tonight, it will be 4-something on the morning of the 13^th in Japan. We will have traveled about 19 hours.   

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I don’t want to go back to Texas; already Japan seems like a dream.  I look forward to seeing the kitties, but that is about it.  Already I am anxious to develop my 8 rolls of film.  Seeing the pictures I took in Japan will really be the only proof I’ll have that this all happened.

On to Dan's Journal Entry

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