Back to Japan

My flight out of Springfield was scheduled for a not-too-unreasonable 8:25 departure. Mom, Dad, and I set out right on time. We got to the airport, checked in, and checked my luggage without any weight problems. (Unlike back in August. With a little while to spare, we sat down for breakfast at the airport restaurant. I ordered the smallest-looking menu item I could find, and still ended up with a stack of buttermilk pancakes four inches tall. Knowing better than to stuff myself before going through all the drama of saying goodbye and being in transit for 20-some-odd hours, I only had a few bites.

I said goodbye, feeling bad for being in a hurry, but afraid of missing my flight. I got to the gate to find absolutely nothing going on, and immediately thought they'd already finished boarding. As it turned out, the flight was delayed until 9.

I was worried about making my connection in Dallas on time, but the Dallas-Narita flight was also delayed about an hour for de-icing. One of the last things I remember before passing out was seeing icicles hanging from the plane wings.

During the last few hours of the flight, I wondered what would happen once we landed: I had to take an hour-plus bus from Narita to Haneda, and the combined delays meant I'd have just about that much time before my Haneda-Fukuoka flight departed.

As we landed in Tokyo, though, JAL announced that anybody with connections should check in as soon as they got off the plane. I wasn't sure what they meant until I got to the end of the boarding breezeway thingy, when I saw desks set up with signs indicating connecting flight numbers. Finding mine, I was given a ticket for a new flight, this one from Narita to Fukuoka. Sweet!

I was standing in line at immigration, fishing my customs form out of my bag, when I heard my full name. My first thought was that someone had great English pronunciation, and then I realized I recognized the voice. I looked up to see Clark, a friend from high school. We hadn't seen each other since graduation, and I never knew he had any interest in Japanese. He'd been an ALT for a couple of years, and had stayed on in Japan after finishing the program. He was considering law school--in Japan--but hadn't decided yet. And he was standing in front of me in the immigration line at Tokyo Narita.

I made my Fukuoka connection with no problem, checked in at my hotel, and passed out.

The next day, I went back to Tsushima on the midmorning flight. I had to pay ¥4500 (≈$50) for exceeding the baggage weight allowance, which wasn't bad considering I was 27kg over.