Thursday, December 13th started at 3:30am. Mike and I were out of the house by 5am, rumbling down the small streets leading from our home to the train station. I was frantically going through the checklist in my mind… Had I forgotten something important like a gift or those awesome dark chocolate kit-kats that we picked up special for our trip?!? This is my least favorite part of any trip, because no matter how many times I travel, the “oh-damn-did-I-forget-the-_____” part always gets my blood pressure up. I’ve never seen the train station as lightly occupied as it was at 5:35am. Oh how I wish it always looked that way. We caught our 6:05 bus from Sagamiono to Narita. What is only about a 35 mile trip took us over 3 hours! Traffic is crazy here, but especially on a week day heading into Tokyo. Once we checked our bags at the airport we decided to kill some time and walk around some of the shops…. That’s when we came across this little gem:
We’re still kicking ourselves for not having purchased this for a grab gift! Before we knew it we were sitting (fairly) comfortably on the new, Bowing 787 Dreamliner, heading to Boston! Ooooo… scary…. Right?!? NO! It was totally AWESOME, and what was even better than the plane was the fact that it was a direct flight from Tokyo to Boston! Fires shmiers, I don’t give a hoot! It was a 12 hour flight, TOTAL! Do you have any idea how much better that is than flying 11 hours to Chicago, twiddling your thumbs for a 1.5 hour layover, and then flying another 2 hours to Boston?!? I don’t even want to think about how much total travel time that is! I digress… After a some playtime with the tinted windows controlled by a couple buttons and the video games on our personal monitors we were served lunch. We were given the choice of two traditional Japanese meals and we were happy with our selections, but then, things got even better!! My eyes lit up, like a child’s eyes on Christmas morning, when I noticed the flight attendant handing out Häagen-Dazs Cookies and Cream ice cream cups!! Cha-CHING! I just hit the jack-pot! OK, I realize that this may not sound like such a big deal to you, but you, apparently, are unaware of my love for ice cream. Needless to say, Mike and I were two very HAPPY people!
Fast forward a few hours to meal number two. I have three letters for you… K. F. C. Yup! We were served a make-it-yourself KFC sandwich meal and it was AWESOME! Seriously, that was, by far, the BEST airplane food I’ve ever consumed (Please note that I’ve never flown anything above “Economy Plus” class)!
Are you ready for this one? We left Tokyo at 11am on December 13th. We arrived in Boston at 10am on December 13th! I’ll give you a minute to comprehend that… OK, times up! 😉 We’re time travelers baby! A 12 hour plane ride to nearly the other side of the planet is pretty darn good if you ask me.
Once we gathered our luggage, Mike’s parents were the first to greet us upon landing in Boston. They were kind enough to take us to Haymarket Pizza, per Mike’s request, where you can get a huge cheese pizza for $7! After fattening ourselves up the Ferioli’s handed me off to my parents. My Mom, Dad and I stopped off at my grandparent’s house, surprising my Nana and Grampy who were not aware that I was coming home for Christmas. It was awesome! After spending some time there I went home for a much needed nap, after all, I had been awake for over 24 hours at this point (my short lived airplane naps don’t count). After sleeping for an hour I woke up for some dinner and to go scare, err… I mean surprise, my bestest bud, Meg! I spent the rest of the trip showing up at people’s houses, tip-toeing around, and waiting for the perfect opportunity to LEAP out and say, “HI!!!!” Ha ha! It was fun watching people’s reactions! If I had to pick, my Aunt Joanne had the best reaction of all!
Other than going around surprising people, I very much enjoyed the holiday parties we attended! Although this time of year can be quite busy, it’s a great time to come home because everyone is pretty much in the same place at the same time. I’m not sure how many other opportunities like that exist throughout the year. I was also able to get a little shopping in while I was home! Oh MAN do I miss shopping in a country where I can ask the sales person a question and understand his/her response and a country where I know what stores to find a specific item in! At one point I do recall telling Mike to avoid looking at the credit card bill… It was so exciting that it was all a blur! Eeek! Ha ha ha!
We had a fabulous trip home and we’re hoping to do it again next year (finger’s crossed)! A BIG thank you to our parents for accommodating us and helping to make this trip possible! You guys are the BEST!! For those of you we were able to see, thanks for making time for us! For those of you we weren’t able to see, our apologies and we hope to see you next year!
A few photos from the trip:
