Monday, October 13, 2008

Japanaventures 11: Day 7 - On to the Airport


We slept in the day after wedding. Check out time at the hotel being at a leisurely 11am. We met up with the newlyweds A and T and a friend of theirs in the lobby before shoe-horning ourselves into T’s sisters “big” car for the ride to his parent’s. “Big” meant that it could seat 6 or 7 people, as long as they had no cargo. We were 6 people with cargo, but somehow we made it work.

T’s parent’s was now a familiar site of chaos for us. We sat and enjoyed some breakfast while his father made his special curry, which we then ate immediately after breakfast. Japanese relatives swirled about us eventually gathering to sit around the large screen TV to watch a video of the wedding, that we’d all just been at the day before. In case anyone had forgotten what had happened.

Eventually Diana and I started poking and prodding to mobilize an effort to get us to the airport. After saying a round of good-byes and getting our suitcases out to the car, T’s family decided we needed to take a series of group family pictures in front of the house. With less than hour until our flight, we were still posing and saying “cheese!”

Finally we hit the road for a harrowing sprint to the airport in which we sprinted away from stoplights only to screech to a halt at the next one. Apparently such is the custom in Japan to go as fast as possible even over short distances. A little sea-sick, we arrived at the tiny tiny airport and with A’s help, checked our luggage and passed quickly through security. We didn’t even have to show I.D. We just walked through a metal detector and scanned the barcode on our tickets.

We were through security and waiting at our gate with half an hour to spare.

Wow. That’s Japanese efficiency for you.

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