September 24, 2015

Thursday - Cool but sunny

A good day.

I had a great flight over.  I was rather amazed.  Early on Wednesday, F drove me to the airport and saw me off.  The plane was quite crowded and left late because people were still checking in bags and clearing security at the flight time!  It was the last day of the national holiday week and people were returning home to Tokyo I assume!

Haneda Airport was extremely crowded and I was worried I wouldn't be able to meet up with the lady that I had planned to meet with.  Luckily she recognized me and we spent a nice few hours together.  We had Turkish Donair Wraps for lunch, very yummy, and after a stint in a museum where we got in trouble for talking too loudly (it was a MUSEUM, not a Library!) we went over to the International terminal for more tea and talk.  Finally around 4:30 she had to go home to prepare for work the next day.  I was on my own.

I did a little exploring, found the hotel that I'll be staying at on my return trip and made sure it was okay.  Looks nice!  I had a light dinner of chicken and avocado salad gohan at Mosburgers.  It was really nice.

I charged up my phone at a stall before going through security, and then decided to just do it.  I went through easily, found my gate almost immediately and decided to do a little Duty-Free shopping.  I got myself a lipstick at MAC and a couple of T-shirts for my niece and nephew at Uniqlo.  Souvenirs of Japan made in China.  Sigh.

I called my husband and then charged my phone again, and ended up chatting to an American on his way to Hawaii with his family.  Living in such a small town, I forget about things like chatting to a stranger...little pleasures in life.

My plane to Canada was a few minutes late in leaving but I was very surprised when they announced they had shut the cabin doors.  No one else was sitting in my row.  In fact, the back of the plane where I was had a lot of empty seats.  It was very comfortable.  I was tired, and I made the decision NOT to watch any movies until I woke up later.  I did watch some interesting shows about Niigata city and Murakami city, places that I have visited this year.  They were made in Japan about Japan, but rather informative and quite good.

Dinner on the plane was chicken, rice and soba noodles, plus miso soup and then ice cream for dessert. It was quite nice!

I managed to snooze a bit, so was happy about that.  Of course, it wasn't deep sleep, but I felt much better than usual when it was time to shake a leg and get off the plane.  I cleared customs and immigration fairly easily and then went through into the next security area.  I found my next gate and had a sandwich and tea.  I went back to my gate and then snoozed for a few minutes then decided I needed a Starbucks.  I had a chai latte, it was good, but I missed my Japanese teas that I like.

The flight to Edmonton was fine.  I had a seatmate who was chatty so she kept me awake the whole way chatting about ourselves and Japan.  It was lovely and friendly.

My sister met me at the airport, my suitcase was the FIRST off the plane, so we were out of there very quickly.  My brother in law and sister drove me to their home.  I wasn't in bad condition and even managed to stay awake until midnight yesterday!  That was a really long day!

Today, my sister and I did a workout.  I lasted about 10 minutes and then went back to my style of things.  However, I didn't stop moving and I didn't sit down, so bonus.  I think we were active for about 45 minutes or so.  Yay!

We made a quick grocery store run and I could have spent all my time walking down the aisles just looking at the amount of stuff.  It's so different from my little grocery store in Tsuruoka.  I got a few things I needed for my visit here, and a few things for me to eat.  I got pita bread, granola and some greek yogurt.  Yum.

I took a nap in the afternoon and then got up for dinner.  Van had made a lovely roast beef, and we had roasted veggies, and mashed potatoes with that.  I helped a bit with the clean up and ended up watching TV with my sister and her husband.  I did a little crochet too.

And really that's it.  My two days so far.  I have emailed F a few times, his phone isn't working at the moment so we haven't been able to video chat or anything.  Maybe later.  Tomorrow I may do a bit of shopping, it depends how things go.  If I have time, am able tomorrow night I'll fill you in on my day.  Come back later and find out what else is going on!  Until tomorrow....




2 comments:

Rosa said...

Sounds like you're having a lovely visit so far. And good on you for working out during your vacation!

Are you experiencing any of the dreaded reverse culture shock? That was always so weird to me, going back and forth from Japan to the US.

Helen said...

No, no reverse culture shock yet. Things are so easy here though. I can read everything, don't have to translate things in my head either!

The only thing might be the noise factor. It's hard to filter out all the English noises around me! People speaking and songs...I keep trying to hear/listen to everything!

My sister is a professional fitness instructor, so working out has always been important to her. I think she was happy that I tried to keep up for a while!