Tokyo!: A Long Monday!

Yesterday (Monday) was about 36 hours long for me, and I spent 24 of it trying to get home!

Alan, Yuka, and Kent came to my hotel for the buffet breakfast and to help take my suitcase back to their apartment. We went back to Midtown Park one more time. They are still having the festival, and they had some ukuleles for people to try. Of course, Kent had to try one!

Around 2 pm, we all took the train to Tokyo Station where we said our goodbyes. The train ride to the airport is an express of 45 minutes. For the first 35-40 minutes it goes by dense housing with high-rise apartments. It's amazing how many people live in the area! The last few minutes go by rice paddies.

I had a couple of hours to spend in the American lounge and get a snack. When I got to the plane, I had the same seat that I had coming, and a flight attendant asked if I hadn't arrived with them a week ago! This time I was able to sleep for about 5 hours...in pieces...which is all the sleep I got in 36 hours.

Immigration and customs were so much better than last year in Chicago! I used the Mobile Passport phone app, which let me go through the short line for immigration. (I have applied for Global Entry, but it's been six weeks, and they haven't even yet reviewed my application.) I picked up my bag and no one looked at it before I got to the place to re-check it.

My connection to RDU was almost 5 hours, and there were a few earlier flights, but was told there were only standby seats, so I just waited. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed for over an hour, so I didn't get to RDU until after 1 am!