June 3rd: the day we say goodbye. After saying one last goodbye to the remaining students in Japan in the hotel lobby, Maddy and I braved the train system together with our heavy bags and heavier hearts. Luckily, our two head working together helped us get to the airport without too much struggle (ignoring how laborious lugging our bags around was). We were also able to get through immigration, security, and on our plane without any issues.

However, Maddy only had about an hour and a half layover, and I had about two, proving to be an issue when we got to immigration in the U.S. Thankfully, we had just enough time to get to our respective gates before boarding started, but the anxiety while waiting in the long, snake-like line was overwhelming. Now we know in case we ever travel outside of the country by plane ever again: if you have a layover in the United States, make sure it’s at least three hours long. Although we made it on our planes, we were both cutting it real close, and I would much rather have way too much time to spend in an airport than cut it that close ever again.

I made it back to Rochester with all of my bags, got picked up by my friend, took a pit stop at Chipotle, and then went home.

This was my last meal in Japan. I decided to get tempura on rice at the airport. It came with egg tempura, shrimp tempura, and various vegetable tempuras. It was super yummy! I kinda of scarfed it down to make sure Maddy would have enough time to eat before the flight, so it’s hard to say more than that, but I thought it was really good.

On the plane, I got some pasta with a piece of bread, red bean mochi, and vegetables. I really like the pasta. It was very flavorful, and I liked not being allergic to something that I eat on the plane. I could not eat the vegetables because there were peas included. The bread was bread. Bread is always solid; a safe choice. The red bean mochi was really good, but the texture made me feel nauseous since Iw as already feeling lightly nauseous because I get motion sickness, so I did not finish the mochi. However, I know if I were on solid lad, I would have greatly enjoyed it.

For a mid-flight snack, I was given a ham and cheese sandwich with some snacks. I pocketed the snacks for later, but the ham and cheese sandwich was… a ham and cheese sandwich. Not much to say about it. Just a plain ham and cheese sandwich. I would’ve preferred it with mayo, but I was thankful to be getting any food in the first place.

For breakfast, I was given an omelet with a sausage and a piece of potato. The omelet was okay. It was cold by the time they got to me, so it felt kind of gross to eat. The sausage was better tasting cold. The potato thing was worse. This was probably the sketchiest plane meal I had on this trip, but once again, I was just thankful to not be allergic to it at all.

That marks the end of the trip! It was honestly such an amazing experience, and I am very grateful to have been able to go. Now, I’ve been back in the U.S. for a few days, and the jet lag coming back to the U.S. is way worse than it was when going to Japan. Take that warning as you will.