Tags
Trip type: Personal
Airline: Delta
Route: NRT-MSP
Home again, home again, jiggity jig…
Offering at one of the many shrines we visited
Although the flight back was not quite as long as the flight taking us to Japan, it still felt like a small lifetime. And it wasn’t without some anxiety (naturally).
Turbulence
I used to be a lot more scared of turbulence before I started flying a lot. En route from Geneva to Cannes I was pretty sure I was going to have to actually use the emergency door at my right. Spring break 2005 on the way to Miami I was convinced I’d be in some ‘Spring Break Tragedy’ news special. At any rate, I’m much calmer now.
An amazing, larger-than-life Buddha statue
Usually. The flight home from Tokyo was crazy turbulent. E didn’t think it was so bad but whenever they make the flight attendants sit down and forbid you from getting up for 90 minutes as you’re rolling around somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, I don’t care what anyone says: it is so bad. All I kept thinking was that it was all my fault for scoffing during the flight safety video where the redheaded Delta spokeswoman tells you where the emergency rafts are in case of an unlikely water landing. Sigh. As you can tell, however, we did end up surviving. And I was finally allowed to use the bathroom.
Tuberculosis
As evidenced by this blog, I love to travel. I really do. That said, I loathe trying to sleep on international flights. There’s nothing like that anxiety of knowing you’re going to arrive, either at your destination or back home, and be a hot mess of a jet lagged zombie. I get myself all worked up about trying to sleep–or at least rest–and am usually unable to get more than a solid hour of sleep. Considering I catnap through every take-off, it’s astounding to me that I can’t will myself to sleep.
On our flight home, I was very tired. So tired that I thought I might actually con myself into some sleep. Alas, this was thwarted by the gentleman behind me who I swear had tuberculosis. He was hacking and wheezing like nobody’s business and was doing it at just the right interval where you would have lulled yourself into thinking he was going to finally shut up only for him to start the nasal chainsaw all over again.
Needless to say, there was no rest for the weary.
Tokyo Tower – strongly resembles my favorite tourist attraction!
Time-travel
My favorite part about international travel is that I feel like I’ve found a rip in the space/time continuum. It makes me absolutely giddy to think that we left at 3pm Tokyo time and landed in Minneapolis at 11am on the SAME DAY. It seriously never gets old. Science!
Sorry for the delay on this post; I know you’ve been dying for the wrap-up of this trip. I’m actually typing this last bit from the Delta lounge in Concourse C of the MSP airport (which seems oddly appropriate)…figured I had to finish this before we take off again–in 75 minutes!
Hope you’ve all had wonderful holidays–more travel nightmares to come in 2013! (And maybe even 2012 depending on how this morning goes.)
A Life in Plastic Baggies 