Finally got home today, feeling very strange about it all but also feeling very happy that I'm home.

Got to the airport ok, though it was interesting that my fare to Kamata last Friday cost me 3,000 and something Yen, and today it only cost me 1,560 Yen. How does that work? I still got the Express train, and went the same route, but the fare cost me twice as much last week? Answers on a postcard to....
Actually got to the airport a bit earlier than check in time was, so had a bit of hanging around to do. Only for about half an hour, and luckily the airport wasn't too crowded. Checked in ok and my suitcase was only 22.2kg!! Hurrah! I think that's the lightest it's been since I first came away four months ago!! Hahahahhaa! The limit for BA (I flew British Airways home, how apt!) is 23kg, so I didn't even need to pay extra! It would have been £25 for anything over 23kg and under 32kg, so I was hoping that I'd either be just on the 23kg limit, or over by a couple. My case did feel really heavy as I was lugging it to the station and so on, but I think I was also pretty tired and it was raining again too!

I'm also glad that I did do my pressie shopping yesterday as the shops at the airport were pretty rubbish! There were two little duty free shops there, but one of them mostly sold booze, cosmetics, and watches, and the other one had some nice things but quite a lot of tat. Yes, I know I'm a tat magnet, but some of their tat was pretty bad!! So, I may have spent a bit more Yen in the department store yesterday but at least I got decent pressies. No plastic chopsticks for my friends!

Flight was ok, though was just really long. Am so glad I didn't do it in one go straight from Australia! I think 11 hours in a plane is long enough for me! I was sitting next to a nice couple though, so at least it wasn't some big fat biffer!! Managed to watch four films - Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Transformers, Twister, and a new-ish film called Taken with Liam Neeson. It was ok - passed the time at least!
Had also found out that my veggie meal wasn't on my flight manifest, and I should have ordered it 24 hours before my flight to make sure of it!! I had asked my travel agent to fix that, but obviously it didn't work! I was a bit miffed thinking that I'd have nothing to eat but chocolate on the flight and so I'd be absolutely starving by the time I got off the plane! There was a nice pastry shop in the airport thankfully, but I didn't think I'd last for 11 hours on just a couple of pastries!!
Thankfully BA has obviously gotten better service wise, as they were able to get me a meal from Business Class and it was actually quite nice. They didn't look too helpful at first, but did actually come up with something in the end.

It did feel sad leaving Tokyo, as I did have a good time there. I think I'd like to go back at some point, but hopefully with friends so the experience isn't quite so daunting. It's always different going with other people too, as at least you have other people to go out with and other people to figure things out with!

The flight landed a bit early too, so I was out of the terminal even before my sister had arrived to pick me up! I didn't have to wait too long though, which was good. I did want chip shop chips for my dinner / lunch / whatever meal it was that I was having, but the blooming chippie was closed!! So I had to make do with Nando's in the end, which wasn't a bad thing. I'll get myself to the seaside at some point soon and have some chips on the pier :D

Feeling a bit spaced out about being at home, but am going to see if staying awake until bedtime here is going to make my jet lag less bad.
It is a nice feeling being home, and my own bed is such a lovely sight! Ahhhh, no having to check out of somewhere anymore, or having to pack my suitcase again!! I just have to unpack it now!! :D

Oh, and English money looks really weird now!!