Jill spent the morning doing the last packing, while I took the girls to the playground. Ru was having such a good time at the playground that she peed her pants and still didn’t want to leave. Nice to have a soiled set of clothes just before we left, but Jill was prepared and had several pairs of pants and undies handy.
We left the apartment just after 11:30 and for some reason the trains were super busy, so there was only room for the kids to sit on the Seibu-Shinjuku line from Kumegawa to Takadanobaba, and I had to push the crowd in to make it on to the Yamanote from Takadanobaba to Shinjuku, fortunately only 2 stops on that line. After that, we took the Narita Express to the Airport and had reserved seats, so no problem there.
We met Nancy and Tomoko-Obachan as we checked in and dropped off our bags. We then went for lunch and wandered around the airport shops, buying a few more things for fun.
By the time we took out everything that had to be displayed for security, we ended using 9 baskets. This included jackets, computers, tablets, shoes, carry-ons, toiletries etc.
We ended up on the same airplane in the same seats, thanks to our travel agent. The girls slept for about 6 hours, Jill for 3 and me for none.
The exit from YVR was the same jet lagged, zombie march it always is. Touchdown was at 11:32, and we were in the car at 12:47, so not too bad at all, really. Of course, we had to stop at Fujiya and pick up groceries for home and bento for the ferry.
I can’t remember much, being as I was half asleep (Jill claims I was right out for 20 minutes on the ferry, but I don’t remember that), until Ru-chan peed her pants and I had to get up and deal with it.
As we pulled back onto the highway in the pouring rain after fueling up in Nanoose, something let go in the windshield wipers and they came to a stop. I was able to see well enough to make it to Parksville where we got some Rain-X that made the rest of the drive do-able. I guess I know what my next job is!
The trip home is always weird because we usually land in YVR just before we leave wherever we are staying in Japan. On this trip we left at 11:30 on March 23 and arrived in YVR at 11:30 March 23, 16 hours later. Overall trip time (arriving home at 8pm, March 23) was 24.5 hours, and I was awake for 30.5 to 31, depending on if I was actually asleep on the first part of the ferry trip or not. No wonder we all slept for 11 hours after that!
