There and back again

We survived the journey back to the US and to Japan once again. We had heard that the trip east was easier than west and, now, we have to agree. We barely suffered from jet lag and it only took us about 2 days to be completely adjusted to the time change in the states. Headed west, though, we're headed into day 5 of being home and we're still screwy.

Our New Year's Celebration was uneventful. Somewhere during our journey, one of the flight attendants turned off the screen she had been watching across the aisle from me and said "Happy New Year" after explaining that we had just crossed the International Date Line. No ball dropping, no big celebration. Just the anticipation of more sleep.

We brought a few more comforts from home with us this time. More toiletries since we'd used up some of our stash. Mom got me some spices. Chrys brought Code Red and Wolf chili - hopefully I can muster up some decent tasting tortillas and something close enough to cheddar cheese to satisfy his Chilito craving. (Trivia tidbit for those Taco Bell lovers - You can't get a Chili Cheese Burrito in the state of Arizona, or at least the city of Phoenix.) We also snagged a few medications we figured we might want - NyQuil, DayQuil, Robitussin. Hopefully we won't have to put them to use, but at least we've got them if we need them again.

Oh...and Owl got his visa. There was some initial panic on our part since we didn't understand what all of the dates meant, but he's cleared to live here for a year. He had to spend some time getting processed by immigration when we landed in Tokyo, but we were assured it wasn't a big deal and they didn't send him home so we won't worry.