And so, we reached the final curtain call for this crazy, wonderful, amazing, jaw-dropping experience of a trip. Today was our last day in Japan, and man, it was a little tough saying goodbye.

We woke up kind of late, about 6:15am, and with an 11am flight that necessitates arriving at the airport 3 hours early at 8am, and a 35 minute train ride from our hotel to Haneda airport, that means that we had be out of the hotel at 7:25am the latest. A bit of a time crunch, but we’re no strangers to that. We readied ourselves, checked out,  grabbed some konbini food, and we were off. The train ride was painless, and we got to the airport at about 8:15am.

Checking in at the airport also went pretty smoothly thanks to our pre-flight check in online, even though I almost walked into the security check with my checked luggage still in hand! Pavel caught me luckily, and we sent in our checked luggage and passed through security without issue. After that, we just had to sit and wait an hour and a half until our flight was ready to board.

While we were waiting, an old Japanese man approached us out of the blue! Turns out he was from the Japan Tourism Bureau, and just asked us to fill out a survey about our time in Japan and how much we spent on what kinds of things. Afterwards, he gave us both an eraser shaped like a sushi. It was a bit awkward at first, but I was able to verify that the bureu did in fact exist, and it wasn’t a scam or anything like that.

Finally, we were able to board, and got onto our flight! It was a 12 hour flight back to JFK, and so we strapped in for the ride. The flight, surprisingly enough, went by really fast! I ended up doing some writing, and watched both Terminator: Dark Fate and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, which were very entertaining. Our in-flight meals were similar to the first time we flew, and I got a chicken teriyaki set again as well as some pancakes for our second meal/breakfast. I also played some more Octopath Traveler. Before I knew it, we were touching down in JFK!

Going through JFK was also pretty easy, which surprised me, as I thought there would be more hassle going through Customs and getting all my merchandise over. But in about 30 mins, Pavel and I were both through with our bags! My parents picked us up right as we left, and afterwards we were greeted almost instantly with a classic US welcome; The monorail we needed to take to get to our parking terminal broke the moment we stepped onto the platform, but no one was informed and the employees there didn’t even know what was really happening. We had to figure out that a shuttle bus would come to pick us up, and figure out where on our own. And even that took 20 minutes, by which time my dad was able to get a cab to the parking lot and come back with the car to pick us up. Compared to Japan, where everything was on time and worked consistently and conventiently, it was quite the welcome home shock. I don’t think there was any better contrast between Japan and the US than with this! 

About an hour car ride later, I arrived home and Pavel was picked up and headed home as well. And so, the most amazing trip I’ve ever taken comes to a close. I experienced so many new things, learned a lot about Japanese culture, saw local icons, played and made some really fun games, got to meet and get to know some truly amazing and awesome people, and have the experience of a lifetime. I’m truly grateful that I got the opportunity to go on this trip, and am already hoping to go back again sometime!

Until next time, Japan!