Back in Nippon and boy am I jet lagged. My trip to the U.S. was a success business wise and personal. Here are my mindless thoughts of the trip in somewhat chronological order.
Flight to the U.S. was awesome. I got really lucky and was able to fly international on Business and domestically on first class. My 12 hour flight from Tokyo to D.C. on business was a pleasure. The chair was able to lie all the way down. It also had a massage function which I basically utilize throughout the whole flight. The movie selection was abundant. I ended up watching Paranormal Activity (Not as scary as I thought it would be..then again I was watching it on the plane) and Ballad (a Japanese movie, with one of the SMAP guys. This movie was horrible, but I ended up sticking it through). I have always had bad experience with food on my flights, but when I saw that they offered Fillet Mignon, I just had to try it. To my surprise, the steak was really good. I was actually blown away that they could have cooked it this well on the plane. The rest of the time on the plane, I slept while listening to my ipod. My connecting flight from D.C. to Boston was painless.
I arrived to Boston during the middle of the Packers/Cardinals game. I had an hour to kill while waiting for my co-workers to arrive to the airport so I just hung out and watch the packers come back only to lose at the end. I didn't have a mobile phone on me, so I was a bit nervous if I could find my co-workers which I haven't seen in person in a couple of years. Luckily, one of my coworkers did not change at all so I was able to spot him relatively easily. We waited for another team member before heading out. Feeling the cold Boston air was painful. The coldest it ever was in Tokyo was like 4 degrees Celsius, so to experience temps down in the single digit Fahrenheit, I was struggling. We checked into our hotel rooms and headed out to dinner. This was the start of my eating rampage throughout my trip. We went to a nearby pub and I had the angus burger and sweet potato fries. Man.. it was so good. I paired the meal with a couple of Stellas. I was in heaven. The whole trip, I was so busy with work that I didn't do any sightseeing. I only saw the work office, nearby restaurants, hotel and airport. So the only highlights of my Boston segment was the eating part. None of us knew Boston well, so we just ate at random places recommended by the hotel staff. Other than that, my impressions of Boston was that it was very cold, had really friendly people, everything especially parking was really expensive, and did I mention that it was really cold?
I arrived to D.C./Virginia from Boston on Friday. I did so much in Virginia that I can't type out everything I did but I can list some of the highlights.
Friends and family -
I was lucky enough that I was able to meet almost everyone I wanted to meet in VA. It was great seeing and hanging out with all my friends. Not able to see them more consistently is one of the drawbacks of living abroad, but catching up and making new memories was one of the best experiences I had on the trip.
Food -
As I mentioned, I was on an eating rampage during my whole trip. I actually made a list of foods that I wanted to eat on this trip. Sure it killed my diet and months of gym training, but man it felt good. I have to admit though, some of the places like Potbelly's and Chipotle, I feel have gone down in quality from what I last remembered. I wasn't impressed on the food and service when I went there. Everything else, like more hamburgers, steaks, different style of pizzas, hot wings and of course Vietnamese Pho were all great. I now have to be on a diet to just be back to normal.
Work -
Working out of the D.C. area again was great. The commute has not changed, it is still heavy and nasty. I had to renew my license and also my sense of driving on thr right side of the road again. The office is now at Reston Town Center and it was cool working out there again. There were so many new restaurants and shops in the town center since I last been there and it was awesome for me to experience it all during my lunch breaks and happy hours. I was able to meet all my old coworkers who still are with the company and those who work elsewhere during my trip. It really was fun working there again.
VA area in general -
The area has changed a lot. Like Reston town center, there were so many shops and new constructions that made some of the places I remembered unrecognizable. Having said that, the overall feeling of the place where I grew up remained the same. It also felt good to use English for EVERYTHING. I had to do a lot of errands including renewing my driver's license and it was really convenient for me not to struggle with the language. As for the weather, it did not snow the whole year in Tokyo and mother nature treated me to 6 inches of snow the day before I had to go back to Japan. I thought it would effect my flight but thankfully it didn't.
My flight back was unfortunately less pleasurable. I wasn't in business but the flight was not full and I was lucky enough to be sitting next to an empty seat. The service was pretty bad. One of the cabin attendant who was in charge of my area had an attitude problem. The food was also came back to what I remembered it to be. I ended up not eating anything. The movies were not on demand like in business and they were displayed on a community screen. I ended up just watching the movies on my ipod the whole trip. I couldn't sleep much on the flight and am currently paying for it now. When I arrived back to Tokyo, I found it snowing and cold. I was actually expecting it to be sunny and warmer than what I was used to in the states as I was told that it hardly rained and was sunny since I came back. I guess my reputation as "Precipitation man" still holds true.
I currently have major jet lag and expect to be battling it for the next couple of days and possibly the next week. Work is thankfully slow at the moment so hopefully I could sign out early and catch up on some more sleep. Anyways, that is my trip update. Signing out for now.
