How I Spent My Spring Vacation: Anime, Packing, Leaving

[ladynox25]

I must admit that I've become rather sad thinking about writing this entry and put it off for a while because I'd rather not think of things ending. However, the story has to conclude somewhere, although pictures are still forthcoming and will be published later.

Thursday, the day before we left, we went to a local museum that had opened in hoya99's neighborhood. Apparently there are quite a few anime studios in that area and they banded together to open this museum to showcase their works. It was pretty interesting, even if everything was in Japanese and hard for me to understand, about how anime is made. The other disappointment is that the anime series that were showcased focussed mainly on these studios and their works and excluded a lot of other stuff that I'm more familiar with. But they did have a nice library of DVDs and other material and I got to browse through The Art of Spirited Away which was nice.

After that, hoya99 and I wandered through a local shrine and had lunch at a local Nepalese curry place that he likes, and then went home to do laundry (this time under the auspices of his mom, who helped us with the machine!) and pack. Friday morning, I was up early and finished most of the packing that was left undone. All four of us were out the door early. hoya99's parents were catching a train down to the southern part of Honshu where they would be setting up an exhibit and doing some consulting for a few days, and hoya99 and myself, of course, off to the airport.

We said our farewells at the street corner as hoya99's dad hailed a cab, and then hoya99 and I went off to the bus station. And that bus was crowded. There were no seats left when we got on, with our bags (which included an extra backpack, as hoya99's parents were sending stuff back to the states for hoya99's brother by us), and between our stop and the station, we added so many people that I honestly don't think another person could have fit onto the bus.

At the station, we discovered that the Chuo line had broken down or was delayed for some reason. I'm still not sure why. The problem lies in the fact that the Sobu line and the Chuo line run together from Ogikubo (where we got on) and Shinjuku (where we got off). We were counting on the faster Chuo line to take most of the traffic in that direction, freeing up space on the slower Sobu line for us, but with the Chuo line out of service, *everyone* was crowding onto the Sobu line train. At each stop, the crush increased.

We got separated pretty quickly as hoya99 was forced down the car. I stuck my ground, planting my feet by our bags (which we'd put in a little space by the doors) and refusing to budge from there. Finally, I was so jammed in that I couldn't move. One very nice elderly lady looked over at me and said something in Japanese that I couldn't possibly understand, but I figured it was something like "Very crowded today". I smiled back and answered "So desu ne?" ("Yes, isn't it."), figuring that whatever it was she had said, I could definitely agree to it.

At Shinjuku, it seemed that everyone, *everyone* on the car was getting off, whether they wanted to or not. I had to fight to keep the bags from being pushed out in the crush because I was afraid of the wheels going between the car and the platform. Finally, hoya99 got to me, being pushed by the crush, and helped me get everything off intact. After that, the Green Car Express to Narita seemed like Heaven! All the same, it wouldn't have been so very bad, if it wasn't for the bags.

At Narita airport, they scanned everything through their X-ray machine except for the food (we had bought lunch at the department store near the station). I made a little joke about having to watch the wasabi but didn't dare mention explosives. Finally, it seemed, we were in and waiting for the plane. hoya99 and I ate, and he took pictures of the planes while we were waiting, and then we went to the gate and boarded.

The flight home was not nearly as long as the flight out (11 hours vs 14, due to the difference in flying against the jet stream vs flying with it) but I slept badly and when we landed in Detroit, I didn't want to stop moving because I felt like I might fall down if I did. Somehow I kept my feet, and with hoya99's help, managed to get through all the queues, lines, checks, and rechecks, in good shape, and without losing my temper. I mean, really. It's maybe ten feet from the incoming gate to the end of the security area, even counting the one flight of stairs. I imagine security cameras cover every inch of it. No one not coming in on a flight (or security personnel, obviously) can get to it. Do they *really* need to check my passport 6 times in that 10 feet? How can I change my identity with everyone watching? And is it *really* necessary to send my bags back through the X-ray machine? How can I put anything in there that wasn't already in there when I got off the plane in the first place? I mean, really.

After all that, we had just enough time to make our flight out and I had a few minutes somewhere in there to call my folks (the first time I'd spoken to them since hoya99 and I ended up at the apartment the first night) to let them know we'd landed in Detroit safely. Fortunately, I was able to sleep the entirety of the flight to Memphis and felt much more human after. We had enough of a layover in Memphis that hoya99 could treat me to another round of WorldClub pampering, and then a short flight to Shreveport, a shuttle service to the hotel, and falling into bed for a good night's sleep before heading back to my place (and the resumption of normal life) the next day.

Comments

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

I've never actually flown international into the new Detroit airport -- my last flight in from overseas was before the new terminal opened, so I have no idea what it's like. It sounds like it's not good.

Thank you very, very much for the stories. :-)