Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui returned to Earth on Friday after an about five-month mission at the International Space Station.

“Space is wonderful, but Earth is wonderful, too,” Yui said after his spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan.

It was around 7:12pm local time when the Russian spacecraft Soyuz touched down on a plain in the Central Asian nation. A blizzard had stopped by the time reporters waited for him to emerge from the craft.

Yui, 45, emerged at 7:50pm and shook hands with a female doctor of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The doctor was there to conduct a medical check.