America. パート１

Saturday, November 17
We woke up Saturday morning with hardcore plans for shopping.

At Seishin JTB, we paid for (ouch) and picked up (yay) our tickets for Hawaii. It became official that we were going home for Thanksgiving. We left the car in the mall parking lot and caught the subway to Sannomiya for a day of gift buying.

After a lunch of cheeseburgers at Grinders, Chris followed me in my shopping for a bit. I eventually became frustrated with his “are-we-done-yet?” eye-rolling at Muji, and after depositing him at Junkudo (the bookstore), I leisurely made the necessary rounds at Uniqlo and Tokyu Hands for birthday presents. For dinner, we returned to Seishin and ate at ポムの樹, an オムライス (rice-stuffed omelet) shop. Rather than order the signature dish, however, we ate set meals which included unlimited rice, pickles, and miso soup. Yum.

Sunday, November 18
For lunch, we went to Jusco (department store), where we bought edible omiyage for our families.

I played 塊魂—a video game involving rolling items such as takoyaki, small children, and Godzilla into a large ball—for the majority of the day. Chris fiddled around the piles of books he intended to take home. A very productive Sunday.

Monday, November 19 (Japan Time)
I woke early and cleaned house. Like my mother, I hate returning from a vacation to a dirty home. I scrubbed the toilet/sinks, vacuumed, and dusted. I had just begun packing when Chris woke up.

Chris attempted to stuff fifty pounds (plus) of books and magazines into two suitcases. As we’ll be moving home next August, we wanted to take home all items we won't need until then. In reality, however, it's impossible to make the numerous transfers (up and down stairs) to the airport with armloads of heavy suitcases. I convinced Chris to ditch the large bags and fly home with only the bare essentials--a carry-on and small suitcase each.

We’re GOING HOME!

At Kansai International Airport, we checked in and relaxed. We had hot coffees at Starbucks then picked up rental phones from the DoCoMo booth. (Our current cell phones will not work in America, but on our next visit, we’ll have phones with international traveling capabilities.) Before departure, we ate at KYK (tonkatsu restaurant), which wound up being a stupid idea. We wound up running from the bathrooms to board the plane.

I enjoyed the flight, despite suffering from a sore stomach through the first half. We were served a late dinner, and I ate a beef with mashed potatoes dish. I watched three movies—The Simpsons Movie (I laughed aloud.), No Reservations (I yawned.), and Hairspray (I wanted to sing and dance along.)—and didn’t sleep at all. Being claustrophobic, I hate flying, but with the excitement of going home, it was none too bad.