Rebecca & Iain's Excellent Adventure Home

Final breakfast

We started the day with another wonderful breakfast at home.  We've tried a lot of things that we wouldn't have tried without this trip.  Some of it is great and some is too unfamiliar to enjoy.  It's like when someone tries Vegemite when they didn't grow up with it.  I ate as much as I felt like eating since there was no run or race coming up.  The persimmons (柿) are my favourite food this trip.  We had plenty of time to finish packing and visiting a little since we didn't need to be at the town hall until 8:30.  When I started packing, I got nervous about fitting everything and having the right bag weights.  It was going to take a long time to organize too, but it all worked out.  What could go wrong when travelling with Rebecca?  Nothing.

Town hall for goodbyes

It's always so sad to be leaving.  We have such an incredible time and the people are all so good to us.  Some very close bonds are always made every time we come.  After the speeches, we had time to just visit with people.  Eddie came to see us off and we were able to give him some gifts.  Everyone stands near the bus waving until we are completely out of site.  It wouldn't surprise me if they were still there now.  We cried a little as we waved.  Everyone on the bus was telling the driver to get the bus moving.

I had a Japanese Book of Mormon with me that I've used to practice reading Hiragana.  We had such a close connection with Nori that we decided to give it to him.  He opened it and looked at the introduction page and asked about Joseph Smith being our first prophet.  He had learned a lot about the church from Kent Perkins who was the race director of STG from the beginning and retired last year so that he could go on a mission with his wife.  Kent was hosted by Nori's family in the past.  He was excited to have the book and read a bit on the way to the airport with us.  He carried it around and was waving it high as we were waving goodbye after we got through security.

Shopping in the airport

We were at the airport quite early, so had some more fun time shopping.  The best part was the samples of foods.  There were some crackers with various flavors on.  We found a great sweet one that Rebecca bought.  I had to get the ginger ones.  They were very strong and tasted great.  The number of bags we had now compared with on the way here was quite comical.  We felt like we had been on a spending spree in Monaco.  I also found a great restaurant where I got a French Toast Gelato.  Hot French toast with cold gelato (cookie flavor).

One more goodbye

We were the last two people to go through security.  As we walked through, we looked back and waved.  Everyone that accompanied us to the airport jumped up and waved to us.  We walked about 60m further looking back and waving.  When we were about to turn the corner, we waved 5 last times with them jumping up and down.  It amazed us as we thought of how much they enjoyed all of us and how they care about us.  We felt tears coming again and finally went around the corner.

When drinks came by on the flight from Nagoya to Tokyo, we got kiwi juice, water, and beef soup.  The flight attendants were so professional, happy, pleasant, and kind.

Delays

We got a picture outside the plane in Tokyo.  That's the last time we got to stand on the ground in Japan (until the next once in a lifetime opportunity)!

Our flight from Denver to Tokyo got delayed by 90 minutes.  That meant we would have 1:22 to get through customs and passport control in Denver.  We ended up at the "Additional Services" counter.  The lady there was so helpful and worked on getting us a flight to San Francisco, then to SLC, but when she called to set it up, she was told that wouldn't work unless there was less than a 60 minute layover.  So, we just hoped for the best.  

With 4 hours to go to Denver, I looked at the United app and the Denver flight was still on time, but our flight was further delayed and we were down to 62 minutes.  With 2 hours to go, we learned our Denver flight had been delayed and we should have about 2 hours in Denver, which would work out fine.

We slept on and off mostly in positions where I would get uncomfortable and woke up a lot, then tried something else.  The meals were okay.  Fortunately, we ate a rice bowl each in Tokyo.  I had ginger pork and Rebecca had Teriyaki chicken.  I finished "Dispicable Me 3" and Rebecca started "Keeping Up with the Joneses".  We talked a lot after waking up for good and she never did finish the movie.  It was just so much fun to be talking about the people and experiences we'd had.

When breakfast arrived, we asked for one of each.  The eggs looked terrible.  The noodles were okay, but we mostly ate the grapefruit we had brought from Japan and our own snacks.  We each asked for 2 orange juices because drinks sounded much more desirable than food.

After landing in Denver,we made it through the automated part of passport control.  We laughed at how I couldn't watch the camera at the same time as tapping the photo button and my picture ended up not showing the lower part of my head.  I tapped it for Rebecca while she looked at the camera, so her's looked perfect.

After that, we waited for our luggage.  Only 3 of our 4 bags came.  We waited until the everyone else on the flight was done getting their bags.  I was getting nervous about making our next flight, so we left without the last one.  We had to go through security again.  There was a long line.  I told a worker that we had a flight soon and asked to get help moving ahead.  He didn't seem worried about it.  I asked someone else who was very helpful and brought all six of us up to the front.  My bag got randomly selected for the explosive testing.  There was a wait for that.  I spoke to the man that would do my bag once there wasn't a line anymore.  He wasn't rude or friendly, but didn't seem concerned about our worry.  He asked if we arrived 2 hours before our flight like the email says.  We told him our flight from Tokyo was delayed by 90 minutes and we came through as fast as we could.  When he unloaded my backpack, he took out a box of Glukos bars and one-by-one he wiped them for testing.  He was not in any hurry at all.

As soon as we were cleared, Rebecca and I started running.  It was a shuttle ride followed by a long run (nearly half a mile on moving walkways) to the gate.  As we ran up to the gate, the door was swinging shut.  The flight was supposed to leave in 7 minutes.  I called out, "Hold on!  We're here!".  The agent told us that was just the last person deplaning.  They hadn't even started boarding yet.  It turned out the flight got delayed even longer.  We laughed and thought about our motto "What could possibly go wrong!" when Iain and Rebecca are traveling together.  Nikki and Kyle missed their flight to Boise, but got on a later one that evening.  The St George group ended up having a cancelled flight and didn't go home until the day after.

We chatted the rest of the way home and reminisced on the joy of the trip.  Grandpa picked us up and we made it home safely.  I had a great time giving out the gifts we bought for my family.  I have three more saved for Christmas though.

We learned not to smuggle or our lives would be terminated!