La Quinta, California: A late morning at our Tokyo hotel Monday. A nine-day meet is a grind. It is exhausting, and not just for us. Of course the athletes are beat, but even our much-younger friends were anxious to Get Out of Dodge. I am 100% positive the staff of our hotel are ready for all the Track & Field people to just go away.
Nowhere to go and nothing to do until we left for the airport around 1p. We had coffee in the room. Dave worked out. We packed our bags and went to the Zen executive lounge for one last included-in-the-room-charge meal. This time, lunch - when usually we go for the free/included cocktails and appetizers before taking the shuttle bus to the stadium. I have not mentioned this before, but we have been able to catch a fleeting glimpse of Mt. Fuji three times on this trip - every time from the 11th floor executive lounge in the New Otani Hotel. It has just been too cloudy, stormy, rainy and just generally sauna-ish. The desk at the executive lounge also allows us to check-out without going to the main lobby, they mail our postcards (apply postage charges to our room) and can take care of any dinner reservations… if we weren’t already fully booked every night.
So… after telling everyone we know watching the meet on television around the world that we were easy to spot - sitting next to the yellow & green Jamaicans, many people finally spotted us on the last night of the meet and sent screenshots. Keely Hodgkinson's parents had come down to hang British flags from the railing in front of our seats. (Trust me, we have had SO MANY flags placed over that rail this week.) But apparently the camera crew zoomed-in to the British flags in front of us before the two Brits were starting the 800m final - and there we were! Nicky and John, to my left, also had friends send them the same shot. Okay, so not very flattering (Nicky was feeding us all cookies), but we are now International Television Celebrities. Red sent us this video:
Though our flight to Tokyo was completely packed, there were only 10 passengers in the Business Class section on the way home. The flight went by very quickly, but neither of us really had any sleep. I read, DT worked on crossword puzzles. Our flight was the first in line to immigration - dumb luck - and we didn't even need to show our passports. It was face recognition only! Big Brother is watching. Certainly is a quicker process. We didn't have anything to declare, so I'd say we were out of LAX within 20 minutes... only because I swear it is a mile from the gate to immigration.
With the huge time change, we left Tokyo at 5:30 Monday night and arrived in Los Angeles 11:30 Monday morning. However, I did not feel any younger.
Lenny fetched us. We spent the first night of Rosh Hashanah with the kids and stayed-overnight in their casita before driving back to the desert Tuesday morning. Now we are getting ourselves organized again and doing a lot of laundry. I picked up groceries from Kroger, went to Trader Joe's, and had a Whole Foods delivery, and have already made three quarts of chicken stock.
It certainly was a very busy 11 days in Tokyo, and we had so much fun and really enjoyed the competition, and it was so nice to see our pals again. The 2027 Championships will be in China and I am boycotting China, so will not attend.
Until my next update, I remain, your Shanah Tova correspondent.
And there you are on the KISS CAM!