It’s been two months, but I think now I’ve finally wrapped my brain around exactly what happened to me the night of July 16, 2025. Both times I experienced it.<\/p>\n
Allow me to explain.<\/p>\n
The morning of July 16, 2025, I left my hotel in Kyoto, Japan, headed for the airport in Kansai, about an hour and a half away. Interestingly enough, during my cab ride I was listening to a baseball game occurring in the United States. On July 15. Live.<\/p>\n
It was the MLB All-Star game, actually, which ended with a home run swing-off.<\/p>\n
All of those details were totally normal compared with what was about to occur.<\/p>\n
We arrived at the airport several hours before our flight from Kansai to San Francisco.<\/p>\n
(Kansai International Airport, by the way, sits on a man-made island in Osaka Bay. Another uninteresting detail unrelated to the story.)<\/p>\n
Our flight was set to depart at 4:55 p.m. local time. It did. And we arrived in San Francisco about 11 in the morning.\u00a0That<\/em> morning. Like, earlier in the day from when we left. This was still July 16. From our perspective it was a red-eye flight, but in actuality it was a reverse red-eye, landing\u00a0earlier<\/em> in same day.<\/p>\n And here’s where it gets weird.<\/p>\n Our flight from San Francisco to D.C. was your standard leave at 1:00 or so and arrive at 9:00 or so. It’s really not as long as you think because you’re crossing a few time zones. Five hours in the air, three-hour time difference: eight hours total.<\/p>\n Except our “1:00” flight out of San Francisco was delayed. And delayed. And delayed by every excuse airline personnel could conjure.<\/p>\n “Bad weather.” Runway congestion. Overworked unionized flight crews.<\/p>\n Food delivery running late. Food delivery arrives but is the wrong temperature.<\/p>\n Idiot pilot scrapes the plane against the jet bridge while backing up.<\/p>\n Yeah, that one actually happened and we had to get a whole new plane.<\/p>\n Finally we’re set to leave, and now it’s late in the evening.<\/p>\n Still on July 16, by the way.<\/p>\n Except now it’s a red-eye flight, for real this time, as we won’t land in D.C. until the morning of July 17.<\/p>\n And that’s how I took a red-eye flight two nights in a row.<\/p>\n Two nights in a row… that actually were… the\u00a0same<\/em> night, twice in a row.<\/p>\n And nothing else ever seemed strange to me for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s been two months, but I think now I’ve finally wrapped my brain around exactly what happened to me the night of July 16, 2025. Both times I experienced it. Allow me to explain. The morning of July 16, 2025, … Continue reading