Leaving Japan and Arriving in the States!

I have returned from America!  We had close to a three week trip and we had lots of wonderful times and a few trials, but we've made it home and I feel like I can finally relax!  Though I had said I wasn't going to take my computer along with me this trip, I ended up taking it but alas, only opened it up two or three times...  It just took up space in my carry on bag.  I took my bullet journal and a large pencil case and some colored pencils but they too just languised in my carry on bag the whole trip.  My good intentions were as for naught.  And I carried my camera along with me everywhere but would you believe, I maybe only took 5 pictures the whole three weeks!!!  

HOWEVER!  Tetsu made up for my lack of photography by taking nearly 3000 photos on HIS camera and that's not counting what got photographed on our iPhones, so I am not lacking for photos!!!

Okay....  So we had to get our travels started with a required PCR test 24 hours before leaving Japan (as opposed to 72 hours ahead for returning to Japan).  We made the error of booking a flight out on Monday which meant that there were only one or two options in the city and nearby cities for us to get a PCR test on Sunday morning.  (And at a fee of $250 per person!)  It was very easy however.  Park, someone came to the car and gave us a vial and instructions, we spit in our respective vials and sealed them up and handed them in and went on our way.  Three hours later we'd gotten our results back on our iPhones.  Easy!

Then it was home to pack (4 large bags and two carry ons) and tidy the house for our cat carer who would be coming in twice a day.  John got taken to the vet the day before.  

This was Tetsu's way of securing our dish cupboard to prevent it from opening in case of an earthquake while we were gone...  He boarded up the place!

We set off before noon and drove four hours for a 9 1/2 hour night flight to Los Angeles.  Narita airport was like a ghostown with hardly anyone there and no stores or services open.  A sad change from the exciting airport of past years...  Of course Japan is still only allowing Japanese citizens and permanent residents (me) and recently, foreign students and people on business are allowed into the country.  The country still isn't open to tourists and for pleasure traveling.  

When we left Japan it was raining...

...but it was sunny and dry in California!

Let me just say...  Although it was easy enough to get through customs and immigration at LAX, Los Angeles Airport is really not well equipped to handle the volume of people who pass through it daily.  We were shocked that after all our effort to get our PCR documents and vaccinations requirements in order for travel, no one at LAX checked any of them (they were thoroughly checked in Japan before leaving), we were just waved on through!

Alas, our final destination wasn't LAX however, it was Indianapolis, and for that flight we had a 6 hour wait at LAX.  Again, the airport didn't have any seating or waiting area and we couldn't go to our boarding gate because we'd arranged to have Takumi and Julieta come to the airport after work and pick up two of our suitcases!!!

This was an act of love because from their house to the airport it takes over two hours...  just to give us a welcome hug and collect two of our suitcases so that we could travel light to Indiana.  And so we waited...  Sitting on the floor like we were camping out!!!  Pretty soon our phones were running out of battery yet there was no place to recharge them.  I finally found an outlet in the ladies bathroom and stayed in there for 20 minutes and later found another outlet on the floor for vacumms and no one seemed to care that I sat hunched in a corner charging my phone...

We later moved to a Starbucks and finally many hours later...

Takumi and Julieta!  Bearing a pizza!!!

It was "Hello", "Good-bye" and then Tetsu and I were off to Indianapolis!