April 28 2012, the Longest Day!

Today was the day we made the journey from Kyoto to Seattle. Because the trip involved crossing the international date line I am now sitting in our hotel in Seattle 35 minutes away from midnight on April 28 - that's 40 hours after midnight on April 27 in Japan!

We started with a couple of hours on the bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo, then about 50 minutes on the Narita Express out to the airport, where we arrived at about 2pm. Our flight to Vancouver left Narita at 6pm and lasted for 9 hours, but when we arrived in Vancouver it was 11am on the same day. Mmmm...feeling a bit tired now!

What made things a little less comfortable than they could have been was the fact that the business class section in Japan Airlines is nowhere near as good as it was on Qantas earlier in the trip. There wasn't a huge amount of leg room and the seats didn't fold flat, so it was difficult to get any kip. Anyway, it was a very smooth flight and the staff were good.

On arrival at Vancouver, Kim was waiting for us, together with her husband Steve, who we hadn't met before. We took a taxi out to Ruaidri and Nina's apartment (Ruaidri is one of Kim and Steve's sons) where we were able to kick back and relax before taking a walk down to a local restaurant for lunch. I fully intended to take a group photo, but I think the jet-lag was starting to kick in and I completely forgot - sorry!

After lunch we went back to the apartment for a while and then Ruaidri kindly drove us to the railway station for our Amtrak service to Seattle. It's not really that far, but the train took about four-and-a-half hours, because it just trundles along at what seems around 30 miles an hour. Still, it was comfortable and the staff were friendly and helpful. There was a stop at the US border for the formalities (even though we had gone through passport control at Vancouver Central Station) and we rolled into Seattle just after 10pm.

The Pan Pacific Hotel here is very comfortable, so we are (we hope) going to get some decent sleep.

Jenny's bit: The longest day of my life. Jx