At Narita, Emily got excited about all the planes again. I think the Japanese passengers around us were impressed that she used their word, hikoki. The formalities were soon done with (it was quite good to be able to waltz up to the 're-entry visa' line rather than join the long 'foreign passports' queue). After her recent immunisations, I had worried that they would stop Emily at the heat-sensitive camera but we breezed through. The efficient baggage handlers soon sent our gear through and we were on our way, eagerly scanning the faces in the arrivals hall for Nick. Emily did her usual thing on clocking him, burying her face in my shoulder as though she was shy of a stranger. She soon relented and offered him monkey, a sure sign of favour. Before long she was chattering away to us and the babbling continued all the way back into town on the Narita Express. Nick was amazed at the change in her in just two weeks.
As expected it was very hot and humid in Tokyo, so with all that luggage to manage we didn't need to deliberate much about whether we should run to a taxi just this once. Ten minutes later we were at the apartment block. We had wondered if she would remember our home, but she recognised it right from the entrance to the building, and even went into the mailbox alcove as she always does. Upstairs she ran straight indoors and started reacquainting herself with all her toys.
After an hour we gave her a snack then put her to bed. We woke her up after an hour and a half as we wanted her to keep her long sleep for the evening to try to align her to Japan time quickly. I felt really wiped out by then, like a bad hangover, as I had been up nearly 30 hours. Nick took her to play in the park while I had an hour's nap. I almost wished I hadn't as I felt so awful, but don't think I could have made it through until 9pm as I'd hoped. Emily was very upset by bathtime. She was falling asleep as Nick brushed her teeth, and was in bed by 8.30. We sat on the balcony with a glass of wine for a while before turning in around 10.
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