The Log Dog Blog

Monday, April 17, 2017

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 11

Monday, April 17

Our flight left at 10:20 am from Tokyo Haneda Airport on Monday, April 17 and we landed at JFK at 9:35 am on Monday, April 17. That seems SO weird! We had a perfectly smooth flight – the seatbelt sign was only on for the first ten minutes and last fifteen minutes of the flight. That's it!

ANA turned out to be a really awesome airline and I would fly with them again in a heartbeat. Simply superior service. Frankly, the "big three" airlines in the U.S. need to take some cues because their service is typically mediocre at best. Instead of being treated like cattle by bored, rude flight attendants, which has definitely been our experience on some of the U.S. carriers, the ANA staff, from the people at the check-in counter to the flight attendants, were wonderful.

I did NOT sleep on this 12-hour-plus flight. So shocking to me! I didn't sleep much on the flight to Tokyo, and I didn't sleep at all on the return flight! What is wrong with me?!? I did watch Moana, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rogue One, and La La Land, and C and I watched a few episodes of Better Call Saul. We also got two meals, in addition to snacks and drinks, so all of that makes the pass time rather quickly.

When we got off the plane, the line for immigration/border control was absolutely crazy. There were a few hundred people in line and I'm sure the line took at least an hour to get through. However, we were able to circumvent the line and get through there in about three minutes because we participate in the Global Entry program. Piece of cake! We waited a short time for our luggage, took the AirTrain to the long-term parking lot, and were in our car driving away at 10:30!

The last portion of the journey was the most problematic…because of the holiday weekend, traffic was a nightmare and it took us six-and-a-half hours to drive home instead of the usual five. But now that we are home, the traffic was nothing more than an inconvenience!

A few final thoughts on Tokyo…

Highlights:

- It is an exceptionally clean city!

- Public transportation is amazing and easy to navigate to get pretty much anywhere in the city!

- People are friendly and helpful even if you don't speak Japanese!

- We felt incredibly safe everywhere we went!

- The cherry blossoms everywhere are gorgeous!

- There is so much to do and see!

There is only "lowlight," but it is a big one for us…it was SO difficult to find vegetarian food…even when we’d use Google Translate to state that we were vegetarians, most of what we were served had meat in it, including salads. This was true even at Tokyo Disneyland. We ended up eating a lot of snacks and pastries throughout the week. I was worried about this before the trip and it turned out to be a valid concern. I freely admit that even prior to visiting Japan, I was not a fan of Japanese food. I tried to be of the opinion that I had just never had good Japanese food, but these past ten days did nothing to alter my opinion. If you're not a vegetarian, you might not be able to understand why this was such an issue, but I've been a vegetarian for more than 20 years and it is a huge deal for me.

That being said, how fortunate are we to have spent this time in Japan?!? I count my lucky stars to be married to someone who wants to travel the world as much as I do! And speaking of that amazing man, I cannot even explain the hours and days and weeks and months of research and planning that he devoted to making this trip so perfect. I love him and I love seeing the world with him!

Last morning with this fantastic view!

A pretty quiet Monday morning!

Elevators to the International Departures level!

Checking our luggage!

Total number of miles we walked on this trip - no wonder we are tired!

Tinker Bell ready to head home!

Hope to see you again, Tokyo!

Sunrise over Winnipeg!

Ice crystals on the plane's window!

So tired, but so happy!

Read about the other days of our trip:

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 1

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 2

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 3

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 4

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 5

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 6

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 7

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 8

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 9

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 10

Happy Tails to you!

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Land of the Rising Sun: Day 10

Sunday, April 16

For our last day in Tokyo, we took the bullet train from Tokyo to Oyama, then transferred to another train to go to Tomita, which took about two hours in total. When we arrived at the Ashikaga Flower Park, it was clear that the travel time was well spent because it was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places we've ever been. In addition to the gorgeous flowers and grounds, classical music was played throughout and people walked around quietly and only spoke in hushed tones. So tranquil! And as you might imagine, it smelled heavenly! Paradise!

After spending several hours at the flower park, we made the return trip back to Tokyo. The nice thing about such a long train ride was being able to see more of Japan than just Tokyo. The more suburban and rural areas appeared just as lovely as the city.

Once back in Tokyo, we visited the National Art Center in the late afternoon before heading back to the hotel to pack for our trip home. While that is never fun, I have missed our three little gals so much! Last night, when we were visiting the Buddhist Temple, I finally worked up the courage to approach someone and ask (or gesture weirdly) if I could pet their dog. Obviously we've seen lots of dogs in Tokyo, but I hadn't made any attempts to pet any of them until last night. I was suffering from dog withdrawal pretty badly, and both the dog and her owner looked friendly, so I went for it. Probably looked a little foolish, as it was clear I did not speak Japanese and he did not speak English, but my smiling, pointing, and miming obviously worked and it was amazing to just pet that beautiful dog! I can't wait to get home to our three - they have no idea how much love smothering is in store for them!

Tomorrow is a day of travel - a long flight to NYC and then a short drive home!