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It's so good to be back home.

Thursday, January 31st was the longest day of my life...literally. I got up early, prepared what was left to do so I could leave, ate breakfast and got ready to go. My host parents both drove me to the bus station and I even got hugs from both of them, which is a first. Although, it might have had to do with me getting dumped, too. But anyway, my host mom waited with me until the bus came and we parted ways. The bus left Sagamiono station at 10:00 AM and I arrived at Narita Airport at about 12:15 PM. Unfortunately I get slightly carsick, and my stomach hadn't fully recovered from the sickness I'd had two days before. Fortunately I didn't toss my cookies, which I am always grateful for.

Anyway, I got to the airport and checked in my bags, got my boarding pass and sat around the airport, since my flight wasn't supposed to depart until 5:50 PM. I guess security had gotten a bit suspicious of me because two uniformed men came over and asked to see my passport in halting English. Then they saw my alien registration card and asked me if I could speak Japanese. And so they thought they had gotten a break and proceeded to pepper me with questions about where I was going to school and how I liked Japan and how long I was going to be there and so on. Finally they left me alone and I decided to go ahead and go through security and customs. By the way, you cannot take beef jerky out of Japan, just so you know.

And then I sat around some more waiting for my plane to arrive. I actually ran into one of my Japanese classmates. My flight was to LA and his was to San Francisco I think. Anyway, I did not get an aisle seat this time, unfortunately. And I wasn't on a double-decker plane, either. There were three seats on the right side of the plane, an aisle, five seats, another aisle, and three more seats, I think. I was next to the aisle seat in the group of five. The guy who had the misfortune to be in the exact middle was a very talkative, Russian-born hippie. It was quite interesting. My plane ride TO Japan had been very boring and nobody talked to me. On THIS particular trip I talked to both of the people sitting next to me. The person on the aisle was this really nice Japanese lady who was curious about what I thought of Japan, of course. But her English was really exceptional. She had no accent whatsoever. It was rather difficult to believe that she'd grown up in Japan.

And I didn't get a chance to sleep too much, either. The economy seats are so narrow and kind of uncomfortable. My hippie neighbor told me that every time he woke up I was in a different position. So I cat-napped for about an hour before they started serving breakfast.

So, my plane departed from Narita Airport at 5:50 PM on Thursday, January 31st and it arrived in L.A. at 10:35 AM on Thursday, January 31st. Ugh.

So I went through customs at LAX. That place is kind of a maze. Okay, it isn't kind of a maze, it IS a maze. And the first guy I had to talk to told me that I lived in Japan. Then the second guy I had to talk to said I lived in the U.S. Ugh. Make up your minds!

And so I had to sit and hang out until my plane was scheduled to depart for DFW at 2:30. Unfortunately high head winds in Dallas delayed us for about an hour. We finally took off and I arrived in Dallas sometime, I can't remember now. My parents picked me up and we went home where I proceeded to hand out gifts. And then I couldn't get to sleep. Figures, huh? I'd been up for over 35 hours before I finally forced myself to just lay in bed until I fell asleep. And I didn't wake up until 1:30 the next afternoon! That was a first for me...I'd never slept past 11 before.

And I went down to Austin to look for an apartment with one of my future roommates. That was pretty fun. I didn't realize how hard it was to find a decent apartment. The first one we went to turned out to be section 8 housing. And the second one turned out to have income restrictions. It was rather frustrating.

But I'll be leaving for Japan again on the 21st of this month. Sorry for the lack of updating. It's amazing how much time I have not had to relax since I got home. Oh! And it turns out that I've lost 5 pounds since being in Japan! I can wear smalls now, which is rather nice because it means my waist has slimmed down. Everybody I met with seemed to think that I had gotten skinny. But I think I've definitely been able to come to terms with being dumped, which is great. In a way, my ex had impeccable timing. A change in scenery was exactly what I needed. ^^