When you fly great distances, of course, you sometimes experience jet lag. And in some cases you also might experience calendar lag. Which is what we had when we flew from Tokyo to Los Angeles, living through the same day twice in two different countries. And each end of the journey was bookended with some friends we’ve known for years.

Japan the 1st March 6th

In Japan, our very gracious hosts that we’d spent the past 10 days with, Yukari, Toshihide and Ayaka, insisted on driving us to the airport, even though it was a couple of hours away, and we could have taken a train. And as they had done when we departed 17 years earlier, they stood and watched us as long as possible, going through check-in, through security, and waving at us one last time before we had to disappear around a corner.

And that process wasn’t exactly a smooth and quick one. Japan, or at least the airline we were flying on, was quite a stickler about weight limits on bags. (It was Zipair, a new low-cost subsidiary of Japan Air, with a fleet of THREE planes at the time.) Some of ours were a little over the limit, so we had to do a lot of unpacking and reshuffling and repacking to get things right.

Then, once we got checked in and got to the security checkpoint, the baggage screeners found something that they didn’t like at the bottom of one of our bags. It was only a round plastic container of dish soap (in hardened paste form, not liquid), but they wanted to inspect it. So we had to unpack that bag again to satisfy their curiosity, then repack it once again.

The flight itself, however, went seamlessly, and we even managed to get a little sleep on the overnight voyage back to the U.S.

Reliving March 6th in Los Angeles

The next morning, which according to the calendar was still the same day, we touched down at LAX, and it was the first time we’d set foot on American soil in 15 months. Well, technically, there was no soil inside the airport, but you know what we mean.

Rare Snow in the Los Angeles Hills

Things went quickly enough as we proceeded through baggage claim and immigration. The fellow who checked our passports was intrigued to hear about our 15-month global volunteering jaunt, and asked if we were back to stay. Nope, we told him, we were just here a few months and then we’d be heading out to do it all again. He seemed envious. And perhaps grateful for hearing such an interesting story after hours of asking the same questions and getting the same answers.

In the lobby of the airport, we came upon a couple of representatives from some government agency handing out free COVID tests to anyone who was willing to answer a couple of questions about their own experience with vaccines. So we did, and were thus prepared for any situation in which such a test might be needed.

From LAX we caught a shuttle to the Van Nuys airport, a ride of about 45 minutes, and waited to be picked up by our old friend Robin. No, no, Robin, you’re not that old — we just mean we’ve known you a long time. Some 25 years in fact.

We met her after we’d spent our first 3 years touring the nation with our theatre business, and decided to take a break for a couple of years, doing only minimal touring while hanging our hats in L.A., tapping the market for performing at the many schools and libraries in Southern California, and working in the film business. Our son Zephyr had been home schooled (or road schooled) so we decided to hook up with a homeschool group in the Valley, as we had done when we lived in San Francisco.

The kids played together in a park in Burbank, took classes together at an arts center, and indulged in other projects and activities. Robin has a son and a daughter, and Zephyr loved playing with them. The wonderful youngsters we watched playing in that park have grown up to be wonderful adults. (Later, by the way, one of the kids in this group would include future pop superstar Billie Eilish.)

Robin and her husband Ed had invited us to spend a couple of nights at their place. But she was rather concerned about the possibility of our carrying COVID with all the international travel — and her system had been compromised by another illness. Well…. it just happened that we had a couple of COVID tests with us. So we were able to confirm that we were clean, and we all (literally) breathed easier.

She asked us if there was some place we’d like to stop on the way home, and we had a ready and enthusiastic response: Trader Joe’s, Trader Joe’s, Trader Joe’s. Our favorite supermarket chain was the one thing we’d missed most in our time abroad. Sure, it’s great to buy most of your food from local produce marketplaces and vendors on the street. But sometimes you really crave blueberry jam, or a variety of affordable nuts, or maple syrup, or nutritional yeast. Going back into a TJ was like going to Disneyland for us. And it felt rather odd to hear everyone around us speaking English.

After we’d stocked up on a bunch of items that had felt abandoned by our long absence, we went to our home for the next couple of days: our own little cottage that Robin and Ed owned next door to their own home. And after we’d unpacked, we went to bed and slept for nearly 3 hours. When we woke up, the sun was still shining on this very long day. That evening, we all went to dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant.

The next day, when our very long day was finally over, we went to lunch at a Chinese/ Vietnamese place, where we were joined by another longtime friend and former fellow home school mom Marsha, and her former home school daughter Skyler, and her baby daughter.

In Japan, we’d seen little Ayaka all grown up. In California, we were seeing little Skyler all grown up and with kids of her own. We may have lived the same day twice, but the years certainly have not waited on us.

3/6/2023