Our Flight from Kyoto to Ohio

As I mentioned in my previous post, Anthony and I just arrived at my folks' place in Ohio for the summer. Besides just visiting family, it's good for his English. Fumie has things to attend to in Kyoto during the summer, but felt it's important enough for his English that she'll part with us for a month. One thing that makes it easier is that it's essentially free for us to call between Japan and America, thanks to the most excellent magic of our Vonage American phone number in Kyoto.

Anthony was very well behaved on the flights (Kansai to Cleveland, with a change of planes in San Francisco), which made things much easier on me. The flight to San Francisco was a zippy nine and a half hours, of which Anthony slept perhaps three hours, and I slept not at all.

An Hour or So After Takeoff -- Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos
An Hour or So After Takeoff

One thing that made the flight much better was that we got bumped up to United Airline's Economy Plus, which I hadn't known about but quickly learned to appreciate. My knees are normally so cramped that I have to take out the in-flight magazine and other stuff from the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me just to get an extra measure of uncramp. On this flight, though, I had plenty of space... it was positively dreamy.

90% of the economy section (which was 100% full) was comprised of two groups of high schoolers, one group of Americans and another of Japanese. I had braced myself for the worst, but both groups were very, very well behaved.

All in all, it was as good as a 9.5 hour flight without sleep can be.

An Hour or So Before Landing -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 20mm — 1/4 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
An Hour or So Before Landing

I became a walking zombie by the time the flight for Cleveland left San Francisco, but Anthony was wide awake and in good spirits. That kid just does not need sleep.

My folks picked us up, and Anthony remained in good spirits until we noticed he was asleep during the ride home. I was in bed by 10pm, and surprisingly, we both slept pretty well. Jet lag is normally crushing for me when I travel this direction (such as when we came here last year when it was the worst I can remember), but this time it's not been downright “not bad.” I get tired in the afternoon, but fix that with a short nap.

All in all, travel-wise, it's been much better than expected.


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