Arriving at Haneda Airport

Sorry to be gone so long but we packed a lot of memories into three days and we will be returning to our normally sedate, not very interesting lifestyle.  We have had Takumi and Julieta's visit on our calendar since early this year and have been looking forward to a fun time before winter sets in.  We didn't quite expect the weather situation but all went well.

And yes, we did manage to get through the horrendous typhoon that landed in Japan on Saturday and the damage was light in our area but was terrible in other parts of Japan not even so far away.  It is always a rather thin margin as to which homes are going to be affected by the storms that hit and this time around the city was on high alert, (the highest I've ever known) but in our immediate neighborhood we were comparatively untouched.

But for today I want to tell about Takumi and Julieta's visit.

Takumi and Julieta were only scheduled to be in Nikko for three days, and thus Tetsu thought that we should go and pick them up at the airport.  But they were arriving at Haneda Airport which is on the other side of Tokyo.  I had been wanting give Julieta-san the experience of staying at a Japanese hot spring and Tetsu made us reservations for the evening that Takumi and Julieta arrived.  The plan was for us to get to Haneda by 2:30, Takumi and Julieta would hopefully be through customs and immigration by 3:30, and we could all drive home and get to the onsen by 7:00.  HAH!

Problem one.  The typhoon was approaching Japan.  This meant that a lot of people were trying to move around before the typhoon struck.

Problem two.  It was a three day weekend.  Monday was also a holiday so many people probably had been planning trips during the holiday (though of course much was having to be cancelled because of the typhoon).

Problem three.  We would be headed back through one of the world's busiest metropolises on a Friday evening...  Traffic jams!

But even before all that...

Tetsu and I left home around 10:00 am.  Cat-sitters had been arranged, John had gone to the vets the night before.  The drive TO Haneda wasn't too bad (got lost only once... even with the GPS).

 Haneda International Airport is celebrating Halloween.

I found this cute stand for taking timer photos with your Smartphone.  The little rectangle on top allows for the Smartphone to be slipped in and held steady.  No need for a tripod.

 And here we are getting our picture taken with the Smartphone stand...

 But the main purpose was to wait for Takumi and Julieta and we did.

And waited and waited and waited.

There were delays on the side of the airlines, customs AND because Takumi lost his wallet!

But here they are!  3:30.

The wallet situation was a headache as they couldn't figure out WHERE it had been lost.  At LAX?  In the airplane?  Takumi had gone back to the plane before going through immigration to look but of course he wasn't let back on the plane and the cabin attendant who checked said there was no wallet.  Between leaving the plane and meeting us Takumi and Julieta had already contacted their bank to cancel their credit cards and ask for a driver's license replacement.

Julieta:  "It will be okay.  Don't worry about it Takumi.  Everything has been cancelled, we can't let the loss ruin our whole trip.  Forget it."

Actually it didn't seem like Takumi was too upset about the loss though I could imagine me sobbing into my backpack if it had happened to me.  Tetsu said to me,

"Takumi better hang onto Julieta!  What a great attitude she has!"

We weren't ready to leave Haneda yet as the two of them had to get Wi-fi for at least one phone and then get their Japan National Railway passes which allows them to travel for a week anywhere in Japan for a set fee.

The Wi-fi was easy but picking up the travel passes took some time.  The reservations to pick up the tickets at Haneda had been made from Los Angeles but what a line of foreigners were at the office, all waiting to pick up their passes.  We were still waiting an hour later.  4:30.

Finally the passes were in hand and we headed to the parking tower, got backpacks loaded, buckled our seatbelts when Takumi says,

"Where's my SmartPhone?"

No phone.  Pull things out of the backpacks.  Maybe he'd left it at the Japan Railway counter?  Off he went to check.  Julieta was a bit surprised because she said usually Takumi's the one to keep track of things.  Losing his wallet and now his phone?  While we waited for Takumi to come back Julieta's phone rings and it's the airlines saying they've found his wallet in the airplane!  As we'd been so held up at the railway, they managed to catch us still in the airport and Julieta said she'd go back to the airlines to get the wallet.  Partway out of the car, Takumi came back to report no phone at the railway counter.

"But your wallet was found and is at the airlines counter!  Let's go!"  Off Takumi and Julieta went.

Tetsu and I continued to search the backpacks (of course calling Takumi's phone hoping it would vibrate or that someone would pick up.)  No phone.... BUT!!!!  A glint of metal from under the car seat?  YES!!!!  Takumi's phone!!!!!  It must have fallen from his pocket when he got in the car.  (Later Julieta says, "Takumi!  Get rid of those pants that let things fall out of the pockets!  Go back to wearing your jeans!)  Tetsu now went off to the airline's counter to tell Julieta and Takumi that we had Takumi's phone now too.  Everything was good again!

So by the time we got out of the Haneda Airport it was after 5:00.

The next obstacle was getting through Tokyo and back to our prefecture and to the onsen which we already knew wasn't going to happen by 7:00.  Tetsu had called the onsen once from the airport saying we were running late.  He called again on route as the traffic was packed solid.  We FINALLY arrived at the onsen at nearly 10:00 at night!

But we were all still game for a late night hot bath so off we went in our cotton kimonos to the baths.  We will either sleep well this night because we were exhausted (Tetsu with all the day's driving) or not so great because of jet lag.  (Takumi and Julieta.)

It was about then that the rain started...  How much more excitement do we need?

More tomorrow?