We have been traveling east for 11 hours – not sure what part of the flight we will say this started, but nothing happened anyway until about 10 minutes before landing when the girl across the aisle from me vomited butdidn’t look for a sick bag and just did it in theaisle. So the stewardesses had to work to get it all cleaned up quickly and get themselves seated for landing. Luckily none splashed on me.
Kaoru came through immigration with me. It was our first international arrival at Haneda. We had landed there once before coming back from hokkaido with Michael and Leila. Immigration was busy and we were in line for a good half hour. On the plus side, by the time we were through our bags were ready and we left.
We caught the bus to Futako tamagawa – theusual location when we are starting at Mio’s.Then a taxi to her house, and arrived just after 7. Mio gave us some food and then i went for a lay down to get some sleep, about8.
I was surprised that the next thing i knew it was 10! I dozed for a while and dropped off again until a bit after 11. I had a shower to freshen up a bit and went downstairs. Everybody was there (Nakao’s, plus Yoichi was home) so I said hello and we moved to the kitchen table to start eating and drinking.When we booked this trip we realized we hadto do an overnighter. By coincidence the day we were staying was a public holiday! Which meant we got to see everybody.
We started with some champagne and a spread Mio put on, and then beer. At 1.00 two large trays of sushi arrived. We were a bit quieter than in the past, for several reasons. All a bit older and wiser, me being tired, Yoichi had been out the previous night…but it was as enjoyable as ever. Kaoru disappeared for a sleep which i could tell sheneeded from a long time earlier. I went and had a half hour “recharge”, and got up to say goodbye to Minami as she had to go to Jouku. I then stayed downstairs and had a few more drinks, more food, and a green tea, which got me going. Mio, Kenichi, Yukari, Arisa and i played some card games.
As much fun as i was having, i thought i really do need to leave. I checked the Narita express train times and found they stop running at 8.30. And the last bus was 8.50. Crap. Plans a and b were not going to work as i couldn’t get to either on time. So it wouldhave to be a local train instead. Kozue drove us to the train station and Kaoru and i got ona train to Skytree (she didn’t trust me to get there on my own). We rushed to the connecting platform, said goodbye and i wasoff. Kaoru caught the train back to Mio’s.
It took about 90 minutes to get to the airport,and then i caught the free hotel shuttle bus to Narita View Hotel and checked in. I actually had a decent sized room! I had a bath (cause that’s what you do in Japan) andwent to bed.