Somebody remind me to never travel from Sapporo to New York without an overnight stay at a hotel again.
Yes, I have finally returned to the States, and I can definitely say that it's nice to be home. It was great to see my parents and sister along with my grandmother, and I look forward to meeting up with more family and friends soon. But, the trip home was horrendous...I'll get to that later.
First, I will run through a list of immediate things that I miss from Japan:
Alright, enough America bashing. Here's a list of things that I'm happy to embrace coming back to America:
A-1. People
A-4. English
That's all I have on that topic for now. I'm sure that more differences will start to hit me as my brain starts to wake up from the brutal jet lag that I am enduring right now.
Speaking of jet lag, allow me to recount my trip back home.
I was supposed to arrive in Newark Airport on August 2, 2006 at 11:59 PM. I was to fly from Sapporo to Tokyo, Tokyo to San Francisco, San Francisco to Chicago, and Chicago to Newark. I left my house in Kutchan on August 2, 2006 at around 8:30 AM (at this time, it was August 1, 2006 at around 7:30 PM on the East Coast in America), so that means that my total travel time should have been about one minute less than 28.5 hours. And that wouldn't be including my drive from Newark to my grandma's house on the Jersey Shore.
Oh, how sweet 28.5 hours would have been.
The following will be a step-by-step account of my return trip, and I will provide times in two ways (where appropriate): local time and Kutchan time. The J-Clock will give you a feeling of what time my body thought it was.
Host Family Minivan
Transit time: approximately 2 hours
Clock: 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM, August 2
Total travel time: 2 hours
CTS, Chitose, Japan to Tokyo International Airport (HND), Tokyo, Japan
JAL Flight 104
Transit time: approximately 1 hour 30 minutes
Clock: 12:25 PM to 1:55 PM, August 2
Total travel time: 5 hours 25 minutes
Charter Bus
Transit time: approximately 1 hour
Clock: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, August 2
Total travel time: 7 hours 30 minutes
UA Flight 838
Transit time: approximately 9.5 hours
Clock: 6:00 PM (Japan) to 11:30 AM, August 2 (Pacific)
J-Clock: 6:00 PM, August 2 to 3:30 AM, August 3
Total travel time: 19 hours
UA Flight 870
Transit time: approximately 8.5 hours
Clock: 2:05 PM (Pacific), August 2 to 12:30 AM (Central), August 3
J-Clock: 6:05 AM, August 3 to 2:30 PM, August 3
Total travel time: 30 hours
UA Flight 634
Transit time: approximately 2 hours 10 minutes
Clock: 6:35 AM (Central), August 3 to 9:45 AM (Eastern), August 3
J-Clock: 8:35 PM, August 3 to 10:45, August 3
Total travel time: 38 hours 10 minutes
Oof, I'm tired after writing that long article. The simple math doing those time conversions are making my tired head hurt, so I'm gonna call it a day today. This may be my last post, maybe not. See you.