So, after packing, I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to complete all the things that I have meaning to do for the last three months, and headed out. (I don’t know exactly why it seems so necessary to finish all those things, but it becomes vital to the process of leaving town, even if I’m only going to be gone for a couple of days)
Todd drove me to the airport at 5am, which means that we had to be up at 4am to get ready (thanks honey!) I know how difficult that was!. The flight to San Francisco was uneventful. My layover in San Francisco was lovely. One of my students gave me two passes to the United Club. What a nice way to wait for your flight! Quiet and peaceful, nice comfortable sofas, free snacks and drinks. Definitely makes flying a nicer experience.
The flight to Japan (just over 11 hours) didn’t look promising to start. The plane was an older one, so no screens for each seat like the previous plane had. I was looking forward to the on demand movies, games, tv shows, even podcasts. I was lucky, though, to have Hideko for my seatmate.
She lives in Palm Springs and was traveling to Okinawa to visit her sister. We had a nice time chatting, getting up to walk around the plane so we could retain use of our lower extremities.
Once off the plane, out of customs and headed to the train, the first thing I see is a Starbucks! It was like someone said, “Danette, welcome to Japan!”
Getting through the train station at Monday evening rush hour and walking a few blocks to the hotel, in cold rainy weather with a suitcase, a large cardboard box of drums for the baby classes at the conference and my carry-on bag was a challenge. Luckily there’s no video of that to post… But nonetheless, I made it,
