THE TRIP....(GULP)

I’m home.

It was an eventful trip, from the landing in Tokyo after the 15 hour flight from Chicago:

Me to my DIL: What did the pilot just say, Yoshiko?
Yoshiko: There is a storm. We can’t land right away. We are going to circle....
Me: (gulp)

30 minutes later:
Me: Now what did he say, Yo?
Yoshiko: We are going to attempt to land now.
Me: ATTEMPT??? Whadaya mean attempt?? I don’t like that word ‘attempt’!!!

It was a rough landing, even for a seasoned traveler. For someone like me, the famous non-flyer, it came very close to being a sh*tty (literally) landing. But we made it. I’m sure my fingerprints are still on the armrests.

Then there was the earthquake in Osaka. A 6.2 – the biggest they have had there since 1963, according to my DIL. It happened around 5:30 AM, and our room was on the 10th floor of the hotel. Have you ever experienced swaying from that height?
Fortunately, my insomnia was in full force. I had only fallen to sleep at 2:30 AM and I was still quite groggy when the rumble woke me, then the movement, then the warning blare of the sirens:

Me: What’s that?
My son: Shit – the Koreans launched their missile!
Yoshiko: Earthquake.
The noise got louder, the sirens blasted, and the building began to sway.

Me: Wow!
My son: What should we do?
Yoshiko: It’s a big one!!
Me: (gulp!)
Then it stopped. Our floor was intact, and Yo assured us it was over. I grabbed my camera and from a sitting position n bed snapped a picture of the city through the window beside me.

“Aftershocks?” I asked my DIL

“No. Not so bad.” She answered.

“OK. We’re good.” I turned over and drifted back to sleep in spite of the excited, but muted, chatter of my son and his wife.

Then there was the chairlift ride to visit Mount Fuji and the bus driver’s race up the narrow, winding mountain roads – all cumulating in our arrival...and delay...in Chicago.

A trip I’ll not soon forget.But I remember it with a SMILE.

(To be continued)

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.