Goodnight Tokyo

I am at the Haneda airport in Tokyo getting ready to catch my flight back to the United States and thought I would try to kill some time. I was only here a month ago and it is funny to see the same crew that checked me onto my flight last month is here again this evening. It is probably pretty sad that I recognize them. I don't even recognize the gate agents in Salt Lake nor Oakland and I fly there almost every week.

This has been a tough trip for me. I have been waking up at 5am each morning so I could work with people back in the States before starting a full day at the office in Tokyo. At about 8pm, I am ready to crawl into bed and have been asleep before 9pm each night. Right now it is close to 11pm and I am dying. All I want to do is get on the plane so I can fall asleep.

While here in the airport I have been talking with an older gentleman who makes an annual pilgrimage to Tokyo where he was born. He then spends 2 weeks hiking around one of the Japanese islands. This evening we have been comparing notes about mobile phone coverage. As mentioned earlier this week, I have kept my personal phone on airplane mode and so it hasn't been used. My work phone is with AT&T. My new friend has a phone with Verizon and he has remarked that coverage this year was not nearly as good as last year. As I have spent most of my time in Tokyo, coverage has been great and I can't complain.

There is always the option of renting a phone when you visit a different country. It is generally less expensive than trying to use your own phone as long as you are using it for data and local in-country phone calls. If you travel internationally frequently, you may want to consider adding an international plan to your phone. Either that or do like I do with my personal phone and turn it off for the trip. You might just enjoy the silence.