"We didn't loose your luggage. We sent it to Canada."

After getting up at 4am, a 2.5 hour flight from Charlotte to Dallas, a 3 hour layover, and a long 14 hour flight 6,420 miles from Dallas to Tokyo, this is what I was told. As if having turbulence for the last 3 hours of the flight and Ricky not showing up for the plane until it had actually started boarding was not enough. American Airlines had sent my luggage to Canada instead of Japan.

Oh well, it would be here in a couple days and for once I had taken my mom's advice and packed a change of clothes in my carry-on bag just in case the airline lost my luggage. Thanks Mom. We bought our rail passes and found the train from the airport to Tokyo. We survived Tokyo station during rush hour, and then we found our train to Kyoto. Things were running smoothly..... until in Kyoto I realized I had left my $550 rail pass and passport on the train that just left.

So we filed a lost and found report and found our hotel two subway trains later. Our hotel is almost a traditional Japanese hotel or Ryoken. We have mattresses on the floor, the paper walls, tatame mats, and slippers we wear into our room leaving our shoes at the door. We also have separate slippers we wear into the bathroom and again a different set of slippers we wear into the toilet. The shower is a traditional Japanese shower with separate places to wash and bathe.

Ricky and I got settled in and worked on calling home and getting help finding my passport. Thankfully I have been getting tutored in Japanese the last month and my tutor had offered to help if needed. He was needed without a doubt. I gave him the numbers for the lost and found and he and the hotel staff worked on finding my passport. Ricky and I bought snacks next door at the Circle K, watched some Japanese TV (there is a typhoon coming through), and went to bed. What a day!!