Home Sweet Home
Finally, after a month of being away from home, we've made it back. I have to admit a feeling of relief swept over us as we jumped on our ANA international flight and were greeted by an all-Japanese staff. We knew our flight home from Chicago to Tokyo would be just a little more pleasant. As soon as we landed from our 13 hour flight, we were lucky enough to go through the special "with kids" line at Immigration. We ran down to baggage claim, and quickly all three checked-in items made it into our possession. We made it to the Yokosuka Base shuttle bus right on time. All was going smoothly. Despite it being 3:30PM, Tokyo traffic was moving fairly well. We all drifted to sleep dreaming of home, until we were awoken by sirens and a sudden stop. Our luck had run out! On the Yokohama Bay Bridge, a Shell gasoline truck had jackknifed on the road, blocking all but one lane on the bridge. There were probably about 20 different emergency vehicles pushing their way through the dead-stop traffic. Long story short, thanks to our bus driver's maneuvering, we were able to make it past the bottleneck and our commute only took... drum roll... 4 hours.
2 days after our arrival back home, I decided to take an easy 1 mile jog around the neighborhood. I thought easy but was quickly reminded that it had been a month since I last did any kind of physical activity. Here's how my body responded:
(Beginning) brain: "Ah, feels good to get some fresh air... I'm glad I decided to do this. Ok, wait... did my ankle just pop?"
(About a minute later) heart and lungs: "What fresh hell is this?!"
legs: "OK really, stop, just stop. It's not funny anymore."
brain: "Gotta think about something else besides feeling like I'm dying. What can I write on the blog?"
A mile later and currently immobile because of the pain, I have a chance to list off some highlights that will be covered in future posts:
1. Seeing all of our friends and family, and all of the new babies!
2. Being able to take a private West Wing tour
3. Being able to see the President arrive by chopper at the White House (and being able to see the VP and the President in the same 30 day period)
4. Spotting Mike and me in a photo hanging inside the West Wing....VERY COOL
5. Shopping
6. Restaurants
7. much much more
So, stay tuned. We have much to write about.
2 days after our arrival back home, I decided to take an easy 1 mile jog around the neighborhood. I thought easy but was quickly reminded that it had been a month since I last did any kind of physical activity. Here's how my body responded:
(Beginning) brain: "Ah, feels good to get some fresh air... I'm glad I decided to do this. Ok, wait... did my ankle just pop?"
(About a minute later) heart and lungs: "What fresh hell is this?!"
legs: "OK really, stop, just stop. It's not funny anymore."
brain: "Gotta think about something else besides feeling like I'm dying. What can I write on the blog?"
A mile later and currently immobile because of the pain, I have a chance to list off some highlights that will be covered in future posts:
1. Seeing all of our friends and family, and all of the new babies!
2. Being able to take a private West Wing tour
3. Being able to see the President arrive by chopper at the White House (and being able to see the VP and the President in the same 30 day period)
4. Spotting Mike and me in a photo hanging inside the West Wing....VERY COOL
5. Shopping
6. Restaurants
7. much much more
So, stay tuned. We have much to write about.
posted by Unknown | 9:24 AM
3 Comments:
OK, I'm English, I like America (except the president), I like Japan. But what was it that made it especially good to be back?
Glad you had a good trip, belated Happy Birthday to Mike!
Wembley
Cheers, Wembley! For me, getting back was an opportunity to enjoy food, people, and home. I love Japanese food, don't get me wrong. But one thing that I have found living here is that it's difficult to find good food from other/wester cultures. Mexican food is "Taco Bell" at best in Japan. Italian food made here seems to still lean on the Japanese side of Italian. But while I was home, I did find myself longing for a really well made gyoza, chahan, and ramen. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of a situation...
Also, I have a lot of close friends and family that I hadn't seen in years. Getting to see them and being able to play with their new children/babies was exciting. Being welcome into the new homes of old friends, meeting my friends' fiances and new girlfriends... those types of things.
The freedom to communicate in a language that I understand and a culture that I fully grasp was refreshing. Not fully grasping the Japanese language and culture is one of my biggest challenges of living here, because I am a natural face-to-face communicator and I am challenged here every day to get my point across. Guess that is more inspiration to dive in and learn the language/culture better.
That's just my 2 cents. Nicki probably could add with hers, too.
-Mike
Glad you made it back safe! I am sad we couldn't see you while you were home...but you were more than a little busy. We keep our fingers crossed that you will find your way back to San Diego. I miss you guys!!
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