August 1st, 2006

Its good to be home. We left Athens around 5:30 am on Monday and arrived in Izumo at 11:00 pm on Tuesday. Eek! However, that would translate to 5:30 am EST and 10:00 am EST...so not as horrible as it sounds I guess. All in all, we were travelling for about 24 hours (plus some sitting and waiting breaks as we waited for planes or trains). Needless to say, we were TIRED last night.

The plane trip was uneventful. Basically, it was just long. However, there are three fun things to note. First, the girl who was sitting next to me gets awesome points. Our row was full. However, the row behind us only had one person in it. So I asked if she thought it would alright is she moved to that row to give everyone more room. She just shrugged and said that it was fine. That was cool. That meant we could spread out a lot. It also meant we could get up and down without bothering someone. I got up a lot. It was great. It made the trip so much better to be able to get up whenever And have so much space. We could put our feet up and spread our bags around. That woman, she deserves much props for moving (even though she got to be more comfortable as well).

Second interesting thing. We mentioned (to some people) that when we flew over to America, we were on the plane with this large group of Middle School students. Well, we flew back with the same group. Weird! They had on the same shirts and I recognized several of the kids. Heh, thats why both our planes were full (although, this one had about 60 seats that weren't booked so people spread out a lot more than going to america where EVERY LAST SEAT was booked).

Third thing probably isn't interesting at all, but Chris and I got a great laugh from it. When we were taxing in to the airport, people kept trying to get up to get their stuff. Well, you aren't supposed to do that. So the pilot got on the PA to chastize people. "Well, we've landed at Narita, now we have to Taxi to the gate. I would like to point out that while we are in Japan, we are still subject to America's Flight Regulation thingy (well, he said the name but I forget now). They frown on our passengers being up while we are still taxiing. In fact, if they find out, we are going to have to fly all the way back to America and try it again. So please stay in your seats. Thank you." Heh. It was really funny because he said it completely straightfaced and seriously. When you have just flown for 14 hours, it made for a really funny joke. I think we were delirious though. Because repeating the joke, it seems less funny. However, after he said that, people sat back down like good little pasengers.

Oh well. The rest of the trip was just dull. We slept a good portion of it.

So thats that. We are back in Japan.

Surprisingly, the thing I missed the most about Japan...was my bed! My stupid floor/futon thing. Fluffy beds makes my back just aaaccchhheeee. Owie! But it already feels so much better just after one night. Nice!