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:

J-1. People

First of all, I miss my host family and my Japanese friends. They were all so kind and I'll always remember the experiences I had with them.

J-2. Weather

Okay, enough with the sappy stuff. Now, let's get to the real differences between America and Japan. The first thing I felt getting off the plane in Newark was the humidity. Good God! I read about the country-wide American heat wave on the internet in Japan, but I guess I had to feel it to believe it. I'd say the average temperature in Kutchan during my stay was probably around 75-80 degrees, with some days higher or lower than that. Also, no humidity. None. I guess I was spoiled; I talked with some of my YFU friends on the various planes home, and the ones living in southern Japan had some horror stories to tell about the weather.

J-3. Food

I never thought that I would crave raw octopus in my entire life. Well, right now my body just isn't used to American meat-heavy carb-packin' cooking. I haven't really eaten that much since I've arrived yet, but right now I'm really craving some sashimi or temakizushi. Even a super-sour umeboushi would be welcomed! I have a feeling that I'm going to become an enthsiastic Japanese-food cook in the near future.

J-4. Service workers

I never really thought about the difference between Japanese politeness and the American tell-it-to-ya-straight mentality while I was in Japan. Well, after I got a bit of an angry "Alright, let's go!" admonishment from a San Francisco Airport staff member, it was my reminder that I had indeed arrived back home. Also, my mind has started to subliminally expect an "arigato gozaimasu!" after every conversation with a public worker...not the case in America, obviously.

J-5. Scenery

Waking up to a huge green volcano every morning was quite a treat. Though roads in the Northeast (US) are a lot more efficient than Hokkaido's because they don't have to take huge mountains into consideration, the foothills of the Adirondacks are nothing compared to the volcanic mountain ranges of Shiribeshi.

J-6. Japanese language

Nothing is better than full-immersion for learning a foreign language, so obviously my Japanese received a big boost from spending six weeks being surrounded by the language everywhere. By the end, I was proficient enough to have decent conversations with Japanese YFU exchange students that were coming to America. Also, my brain still has to get used to quelling the urge to blurt out Japanese expressions at given moments. Hopefully I'll be able to retain what I learned in Japan and bring it back to my Japanese class in school.

Alright, enough America bashing. Here's a list of things that I'm happy to embrace coming back to America:

A-1. People

This one's a given: of course I'm happy to see my family, and I'm looking forward to seeing my friends soon.

A-2. TV

I know a lot of my YFU friends found that they really enjoyed Japanese TV, but I didn't think it was all that special. The talk shows were fun, and I did have a few favorite cooking shows and dramas. Yet, I thought that the Japanese text popping up on the bottom of the screen every two seconds was kind of annoying, and after a while all of the talk shows seemed the same (especially since I couldn't really understand what they were talking about). I don't really watch that much TV in America anyway, but the coverage of what I do watch (BASEBALL) really is a lot better in America than it is in Japan. ESPN, I'm back.

A-3. Bedding

I'll say it right now: my bed in Japan was not very comfortable. No matress, a thin futon sheet separating my body from the hard wooden-board frame, and one weak pillow pretty much sealed my fate of having bad nights of sleep in Kutchan. I know they're not very space efficient or cost-effective, but let's face it: matresses are awesome.

A-4. English

As much fun as it was to be immersed in a foreign culture, it's been nice to completely understand what people are saying and what signs mean now after coming back to the US.

A-4. Service workers

You may be confused why I'm including this subject on the list, considering that I just put American service workers earlier. However, something has to be said for the way that I could joke around with the American Customs officer at my passport picture. Also, the airplane pilots and flight attendants were all very personable, even if some of them were a little crabby or mean. I guess it's just the difference between Japanese and American cultures: Japanese tend to be very polite but distant, and Americans the complete opposite.

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.

Kutchan, Japan to New Chitose Airport (CTS), Chitose, Japan
Host Family Minivan
Transit time: approximately 2 hours
Clock: 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM, August 2
Total travel time: 2 hours

I drove to the airport with my host parents, two host brothers, my older host brother's best friend and Takuya's little cousin. The drive was beautiful, and the weather was actually a little chilly. I had a quick lunch at the airport, and then said my sad goodbye to my family.

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

The flight was supposed to leave at 12:10 PM, but it got delayed by about 15 minutes. I hoped that this would be the only delay in my trip. The flight was glorious: nobody else was sitting in my entire row, so I got to stretch my legs out and take a nice 1.5 hour nap. No baggage was lost and when I arrived in Haneda I met with one of my good YFU friends and shared stories...overall a very good trip so far.

HND, Tokyo, Japan to Narita International Airport (NRT), Chiba, Japan
Charter Bus
Transit time: approximately 1 hour
Clock: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, August 2
Total travel time: 7 hours 30 minutes

I met up with more American YFU exchange student friends on the bus, and we had a nice smooth trip over to Narita. In Narita we met about 40 Japanese exchange studnets who were about to set off to America, and we found out that we'd be flying to San Francisco together! Security and bag check took a long time, but we all made it on to the plane without a delay.

NRT, Chiba, Japan to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
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

The flight from Narita to SF seemed a lot faster than the one from SF to Narita in June, probably because we all couldn't wait to get to Japan six weeks ago. The YFU student whom I sat next to had a lot of interesting stories to tell, so it was nice to share our experiences with each other. I also made two more Japanese friends--exchange studnets who would be staying in Indiana and Texas. We all talked a lot together and I don't remember sleeping at all (even though my body was telling me that I should). We had about a 2.5 hour layover in the airport, where I had my first Burger King hamburger in over six weeks. I said goodbye to two of my better YFU American friends who would be going on a different flight home, and boarded the plane headed to Chicago.

SFO, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. to O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
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

After reading that little info box, you may be thinking, "There is no way it takes 8.5 hours to fly from San Francisco to Chicago." Well, you'd be right. The plane left SFO on time, and we were flying smoothly until we were around the middle of Iowa. Then, the pilot told us that O'Hare Airport had temporarily shut down due to bad weather and that we'd have to stop in Minneapolis to refuel. I had to explain to the Japanese YFU girl sitting next to me what was happening, but she didn't seemed to dazed and slept most of the way through. I couldn't sleep though. We refueled, and we definitely stayed parked in Minneapolis' airport for at least one hour before heading off for Chicago. However, when we got back into the air the pilot said that the weather got worse in Chicago again and that we'd have to circle around in the air before going in for landing. The on-flight TV screens showed the flight path that our plane had taken, and although I didn't manage to grab a picture of the final flight path into O'Hare I will provide the following hand-drawn rendition (note: this is NOT an exaggeration, I swear):

When we got off the plane, it was about 12:30 AM local time. We were immediately greeted by YFU staffers who said that all of us (American and Japanese YFU exchange students) would have to either stay in the airport until the morning flights started or stay in a nearby hotel. Hence, all of our connecting flights had been cancelled. Luckily, my uncle, who had been keeping tabs on my flight with my parents, noticed that I would miss my connection and booked me a seat on the first flight to Newark in the morning. His genius move saved me from having to stay in O'Hare Airport until about four in the afternoon.

At this point, I was really, really tired, as were all of my friends who had come all the way from Japan, but none of us could sleep. Because all of the shuttles going to the hotel had shut down, we had no choice but to wait in the airport. We had various adventures trying to book new tickets and wandering trying to find the legendary "open restaurant!" in an adjacent terminal, and I made even more Japanese friends. Imagine the experience that must have been for them...their first memory of America being one of waiting in O'Hare for six hours or more. I was one of the first to get out in the morning, and I haven't contacted any of my friends yet to see how the remainder of their trip had gone. In total I spent about 6 hours in the airport, but there were American YFU students who had arrived in Chicago earlier who had been there for almost double that amount.

ORD, Chicago, U.S.A. to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJ, U.S.A.
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

I finally got home. It was great to see my mom and dad. At that point I couldn't really think, because I had only slept for around two hours at most throughout the whole trip home. The trip from the airport to my uncle's, and then from my uncle's to my grandma's house was a complete blur. And that blur is just starting to wear off now.

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.