I am.. Peter MacWhinnie.

The last day of our trip was spent traveling from Japan back to Maine. What a long day it was. We had incredible layovers, and the weather did not help..

We had to get up early on Monday, our flight out of Aomori was at 8:30. We got up just like we did any other day. However, we had to quickly get ready for the long day ahead of us and finish up any small amount of packing we had left. One of the first things I did was drink one of the cans of coffee Steven and Mio had picked up for me the night before.

We left Steven’s apartment in Namioka around (I think) 7:30. We had to drive to the airport. We got to the airport on time. Actually, we were more then on time, we were early. Once there we gave them our checked luggage and proceeded to have a quick breakfast. The breakfast we had was westernish. We all had coffee and some sort of bread product. It wasn’t the best breakfast but it served the need.

After eating breakfast we said goodbye to Steven and Mio, which was sort of sad. I can’t say I really wanted to leave, but we were only there for a week.

We went through airport security, which didn’t take that long. Airport security is very relaxed in Japan, so it only took a few minutes. Once we got through security we waited a few minutes. The plane we were taking out seemed to be the only flight from Aomori down to the Tokyo area, so there were a large number of people who were on it. There was an entire class going down to Tokyo to go to the Disneyland and Disneysea (an aquarium). We boarded the plane on time and took off.

On the plane we had tea. The stewardesses spoke perfect english, and even gave us a Japanese newspaper that was in english. It was interesting to read the paper, it covered many local things that were interesting to read. The flight was only an hour, and we soon landed in Haneda.

Once we landed, we picked up our checked luggage and bought tickets for the limousine bus to Narita. It seems worth noting that we both went to the bathroom while we were there.

The bus came about 10 minutes after we bought our tickets and we were off. The ride was a bit over an hour and was enjoyable. The area we were in was very green and there were cherry blossoms along the way. When we got to Narita, before entering the airport security came on the bus and asked to see our passports before they would let us in. That was sort of entertaining, as it was the first time that day we’d been asked for our passports. There was no issue there, so the bus went in no problem.

Once we were inside we had to wait for our stop. We tried to get off at the wrong place, and someone was nice enough to point that out. Once we actually got off at the right place we proceeded to walk around the airport shopping center.

We had lunch at the airport. Mum had spaghetti and I had tacos. They were the most expensive tacos I’ve ever had, they were 950 yen (about $9.50). They were good, though, and I was happy to have been able to eat food I was used to. After having lunch we walked around a bit more. We went up to the next floor of the airport and sat down for a little while.

After we had finished resting, we came back to the main area and checked in. The line was long, incredibly long. We met a nice couple who were missionaries in line. His mother had died, and they were flying back to the states to take care of things. Once we got to the actual check in area, things went quickly. We checked our luggage and got our boarding passes and proceeded to security and customs.

Both security and customs were quick. Security was still fairly relaxed, although they were a bit more through than they were for our flight from Aomori to Haneda. Going through customs only took 5 minutes, there was practically no line and the process was quick.

After going through customs we proceeded to wait. We had quite a long layover. Mum took a nap and I played games on my iPod touch for a while. After she woke up, we went to the Doutor in the airport and had a bit of coffee and a cinnamon roll. While we were having coffee we were approached by two english speaking people who wanted to know where the smoking area was. It was sort of amusing, they didn’t think we spoke english at first.

After having coffee we walked around that part of the airport for a little while, and I bought one final gift at the duty-free shop. After walking around and using the bathroom one last time, we proceeded to go back to our gate where we waited for about 20 minutes. Boarding was quick, and we were off.

The plane ride between Japan and the United States was long, long, incredibly long. Unlike the trip to Japan, there was a person sitting next to us on the plane. It wasn’t that big of a deal, he was pleasant enough and he slept almost the whole way. I tried to sleep a bit on the plane, but it was difficult. It was daytime and I was used to the time in Japan by that point. While on the plane I watched a couple of movies, napped, and came down with a cold.

Once we landed in the states (at Newark, NJ), we had to go through customs. The lines were long, but actually going through customs only required showing our passport and answering a couple of quick questions. Once we were through customs, we proceeded to pick up our luggage, and prepare for the long layover that was ahead of us.

We got coffee and a quick snack at the Dunkin Donuts at the airport. It was sort of interesting to note that the airport in the states was really much dirtier and less organized then the airport(s) in Japan. After finishing, we walked around the airport a bit and looked in the shops. Nothing that interesting happened.

After shopping around a bit, we went back to our gate and proceeded to wait. I had a nice nap at the airport, as I was exhausted and slowly coming down with a dreadful cold. It was raining, raining, raining at Newark. There was a storm passing through with thunder and lightening. Our flight was delayed, but we were lucky. A lot of flights were canceled because of the weather and we managed to get through.

The flight between Newark and Portland was turbulent. People were not even allowed to use the bathroom, and the stewardesses only got out of their seats once during the flight to make sure the luggage compartments were still closed.

It was such a relief when we finally landed in Portland. We had been traveling for 29 hours, and were absolutely exhausted. We picked up our checked luggage and headed home. Once home we made sure the things we had brought back were still in one piece, and had a shower.