To the land of the free

• Woke up at 6:15am, packed final things and got downstairs at 7:15.
• The lobby staff told me to wait out front for the bus, which came right at 7:30
• Went by the Shinagawa Gods Hotel, but there was nobody to pick up. Then we were on our way to Narita
• Made it around 8:30
• Finally saw AA kiosks in English for the first time since I left DFW, so I was able to skip the check-in line.
• The bag drop line was half as long, but somehow moved more slowly (some people had a lot of bags or weird things like skis). I probably didn't actually save much time.
• No line for security or immigration!
• Made it to my gate at 9:15
• A couple minutes after sitting down, a man with the Japanese Tourism Agency came and asked me some questions about my trip. The questions weren't too personal so I had no problem answering for him (how was your stay, would you like to come back, did you do a lot of shopping...etc).
• Wrote bullets up until here while waiting.
• Boarding started a little before 10:40 (11:30 departure). We left the runway around 11:40.
• ALL THE ANNOUNCEMENTS WERE IN ENGLISH. I'm home.
• The couple next to me seem to only speak Japanese, and only oneof the flight attendants is bilingual (the rest just kept repeating the same thing in English slower and louder). I know how that feels, and tried offering to use Google Translate and charades to help translate a couple times, but the flight attendant waved me off.
• This ride had some major turbulence in it. Usually when turbulence gets bad I tell myself to look at my drink to prove to myself that we're steady. This ride failed the litmus test and my cup toppled over during one of the shakes, which wasn't a little unnerving.
• My plan had been to sleep during Dallas' night time, but I was hardly able to get a wink between the violent shakes and seatbelt warnings. The longest we went without one of those episodes was maybe an hour.
• Instead of sleeping, I spent most of the flight sitting with my eyes closed, but also managed to watch Arrival, La La Land, and Moana.
• We were served 3 times (the timing seemed more in-line with Tokyo-time, but I wasn't going to say no to food). Dinner was beef + rice with a roll and some salmon and corn/tofu/mayo salad thing, the 'snack' at 2am Dallas time was a turkey sandwich with a kitkat and 3 grapes, and breakfast around 6am Dallas time was an omlette with a grape tomato, 3 potato wedges, and a fruit salad with a grape, a slice of grapefruit, a slice of pineapple, and a slice of honeydew.
• I was surprised that other than the breakfast there weren't any vegetarian options. One of the things I heard the flight attendant keep repeating to a Japanese man was " you can just eat the grapes and the Kit Kat." Some meal!
• Touched down right at 7:50am Dallas time.
• Passport control for all passengers (foreign and nationals) was automated, which was kinda cool. Customs took awhile though, because for some reason they only had 2 officers working and all the nationals and foreigners were in a single line (I had been jealous about how nationals in other countries could so easily walk through their reserved queues).
• Walked out and met Mom, Dad, Amanda, and Granny Lou
• Went to The Original Pancake House for (second) breakfast and got ham & eggs and buttermilk pancakes. <3
• Business as usual...need to pack up for moving to Seattle! Somehow I'm able to resist sleeping until around 9pm