January 6, 2009: Back Home...in Japan!

The return home went very smoothly for the most part. We had a layover in Singapore, where I napped in the hallway and Sarah worked on the computer. We knew that JD and Cara would be on the same flight back to Japan with us, but we hadn’t found them yet. They were returning back from their trip to New Zealand. Eventually, though, we found each other at the gate check-in point. We shared a few travel stories and then finally boarded the plane.

Once on the near empty plane, the flight attendant was so gracious as to allow Sarah and me to move to the very nice exit row seats as we had done on our original flight from Japan. It was so comfortable being able to stretch out our legs, that it made going to sleep a breeze.

We woke up in time for breakfast as it was being served. At this point, a wave of nausea came over Sarah and she thought she would be sick. In just a short while, our plane was on the ground and she was a little better. We gathered our luggage and walked outside to the cool, Japanese winter weather, which we had not been missed. Sarah napped on my shoulder as we waited for our bus.

On the bus ride home, we took in our surroundings once more. We had wondered what the return to Japan would feel like to us after Australia. Would we be excited to be “home’? Or would we be depressed to be back in this foreign land since, after all, we had again become accustomed to English speaking, food, and other familiarities? The answer, it appeared, was somewhere in the middle. We were indeed happy to be home, but we did miss some of the comforts of Australia as well.

After the bus, we took a short cab ride the rest of the way. And finally, we were home. Technically, it was still fairly early in the morning. But we spent nearly the entire day sleeping, and then slept the entire night as well. Our fantastic voyage had zapped our energy. And we knew we must be well rested in order to get back to the reality of work...work in Japan. Which got us to thinking…coming back to Japan was not finishing an adventure. Rather, it was returning to one!