Japan - Monday, September 21, 2015 - Tahara, Nagoya then Home

Well, our amazing journey was about to end. We check out of the Wind City Hotel and went to City Hall for one last good-bye with new friends. Some we would see in just less than two short weeks when they would come to Georgetown for the Festival of the Horse. Even in that last good-bye, we still met someone we had not met and loved having another person from Japan give us a picture of us with him that final morning when we saw them in Georgetown.

Our bus would make the 3 hour drive to Nagoya. These are final view from the bus window on the ride to the airport. The first is a sliver of the farm land and green houses on the Atsumi Peninsula. The others are further toward Nagoya.

Somewhere along the way we passed rice fields again. These three pictures are of a rice field from a distance, the edge of a rice field and rice drying on a fence.

This next picture is also a rice field with some wild flowers growing between the fields. This flower is red and one my mother grew along the side of our home in Shreveport, Louisiana. My mother called them Tiger Lilies. I always thought they were one of the prettiest lilies she grew. I came home telling Claude we need a concrete Japanese lantern, some Tiger Lilies and at least one of those big pine trees that looks and is pruned like the little bonsai trees. We'll see people, we'll see.

This netting was found in the cities over larger land areas. It is where they would play baseball or have a driving range. Maybe other things but those are the two I saw. In a country with limited land, this allowed all the things we enjoy to take place without risk of damage to other property. 

We did one pit stop on the way to the airport at a rest area. These two pictures were taken at the rest stop. The first was just a cute sign outside the ladies restroom. The second was a yellow license plate. They have three colors of license plates. The white is just a regular plate, the other two colored ones  denote a new driver and an older driver. I can't remember which color goes with which.

We made it through customs and to the concourse and gate where our plane would depart with some time to spare. We all went into the only restaurant we found and had hamburgers. Japanese put a fried egg on all their burgers but this place had one version with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise and NO egg. Claude and I ordered that. I roamed the  shops for a bit while Claude rested his foot and watched our things. I was trying to use some of the yen we still had. When I finished, Claude took the rest and turned it in to American dollars. 

This is the view from the airport in Nagoya, Japan.

Our pilot took off and told us over the speaker that he had instructions to put the pedal to the metal so some on the plane (us!) could make their connection in Detroit. The flight back was less that 13 hours. The is about an hour faster that going to Japan. Now, get this...We left Nagoya, Japan and arrived in Detroit, Michigan 30 minutes before we left Nagoya!!! Talk about messing with your body's inner clock!

We got through Detroit customs with no problem and all of everyone's luggage was there. Off to our gate for the flight to Lexington. We made the connection. A brief flight to Lexington. Everyone's luggage made it to Lexington. Then we all parted ways. 

Claude and I drove to the airport in Lexington in the Jeep and parked it in long-term parking. We drug our luggage to the Jeep and were so happy to see it. We were back at the time we were originally scheduled to be home. Claude threw the luggage into the back of the Jeep and then went around to unlock my door. I heard him say, "That's interesting. Sandi, you might want to look at this." I went to where he was standing by the left front tire. It was flat, I mean, really, really, really flat. Mind you, Claude put four new tires on the Jeep about a week before we left for Japan. This was a new tire with pitifully few miles on it. 

Claude took out his tire gauge and couldn't get any reading. Did I mention how flat this tire was? What to do? Call the roadside emergency people? Put the spare on that has been on the back of the Jeep as a decoration and never been on the grounds in the 12-13 years we've owned the Jeep? I started checking my cell phone for the closest gas station. Claude check the air pressure in the spare and said 10 pounds. Hmmmm...

Claude changed the flat tire with the spare and we drove ever so slowly and carefully to that gas station 2.7 miles away. Found an air pump and filled the tire. Then we took ourselves to Firehouse Subs for a nice American dinner before heading to Sadieville.

What an ending to our trip!!  It was great to visit Japan. To learn something of its history and find some of the places I read about before going to Japan. How nice to meet and be with the people. This was a different trip in so many ways for us and we totally enjoyed it.

Arigato (thank you) Japan. We did enjoy you!