No thanks to me, I made it home. Last night the weird people next door were making noise throughout the night again, but I thought I had enough sleep. I’m not sure any more.

I got on the Narita Express from Tokyo to the airport with time to spare, but a guy politely told me I was in his seat. Well, it turned out I was in the correct seat, but on the WRONG DAY. I’d reserved a seat for tomorrow. Fortunately there were open seats and the conductor just laughed it off. I got to the airport about an hour early and I got stuck in a short line with two incredibly slow people. I was pretty cheesed off so I checked my bags and breezed through immigration, forgetting that most stores and restaurants are on the OUTSIDE of immigration.

Well, not only are there few stores inside but there are no mailboxes either. I was supposed to mail my rental cell phone back to the rental company. I asked immigration and they told me in their best passive-aggressive Japanese manner to ask the airline I’m flying with. The airline told me that immigration forbids them from carrying things “back to Japan” from the no-mans land of the airport. I was pretty cheesed off, but fortunately got to see Obama win the election and that was a nice distraction. In the end, it only cost $11.95 for priority mail from the US, but I have to pay overtime charges for getting the phone back late.

As soon as we got on the plane, I found out that I was seated directly behind a 1-year-old Korean baby boy who was screaming. The guy next to me who was flying from Korea back to the O.C. bet me that the kid would be crying the whole time. Fortunately he was wrong and the kid stopped crying as soon as we took off. The flight was fairly uneventful and it sure beat flying with my sister and all of the stuff she ends up buying. Last year I had checked in bags plus 2 carry-ons and it’s always tight when you have a bag at your feet. This year I only had one carry on in the overhead bin. Plus I got a seat close to the bathroom so I could see when it was free.

So I got back, waited 50 minutes for my sister to pick me up, had breakfast with her and unloaded a bunch of her loot (including 14 pens) and went home. I was unable to concentrate on much after I got home because I’d been up too long. It’s 10PM now, for example, and I woke up at 2PM yesterday if you look at the time difference. I had a 10 minute nap on the train and a 10 minute nap while I was doing laundry here but I’m trying to stay up to stave off jet lag. The only reason I left the house today is to mail the cell phone and to pick up the mail I had held which was bills, charities, and election propaganda. Other than that, I can’t remember what I’ve done today. I didn’t eat lunch and I had Bagel Bites from the freezer for dinner.

Well, I suppose it’s time for some sleep. I’ve been up for 32 hours so far and I’m just not built for this kind of thing.

Here’s a picture from the men’s section of a Japanese drug store:

I really have no idea what it is.