Okay, well, since I’m sure you’re all (or at least 3 of you! haha) wondering exactly what happened on my trip, here goes…
Went down to the airport on the morning of the 25th. My flight was at 10:45, so I woke up at 6:00, so that I could leave by 7:30 and arrive with pleeenty of time to check in with leisure and calm. Yep, that’s me: calm. Haha. Hrm… No, really! When I'm by myself, that is... :)
So, we arrived at 8:05 and Joe-Bob gave me his phone number, as he was doubtful they’d allow me on with all my baggage (which I had nicely weighed at home on an inaccurate scale) and convinced I'd have to call him back to take some stuff away. I had 3 50-pound bags (check in) and a ton of “carry on” (1 small suitcase full of books, 1 “laptop bag”, 1 large empty purse inside the laptop bag in case they got sticky and said I had to separate articles, all electronics in the laptop bag [including a mouse and full-size keyboard], 1 bag with snacks and Panthie, 1 big pillow, 1 small blanket, 1 large coat). Yeah, I was more concerned about the carry on being an issue, heheh.
Got to the check in counter and discovered that one bag was 42 pounds, while the other two were 52 and 58 pounds. So the lady sent me to the side to repack them, saying I could shift them around. I pulled out a few things and put them in my "carry on" bag(s), including a second down coat, which went inside the lighter coat I was already carrying. When I went back to the counter, I had gotten two to 50 and one bag at 51. She said "1 extra pound is fine". She also said "wear your coat as you go in". I think she was trying to make it look like I had less, haha.
Well, I was pretty embarrassing. You'd be embarrassed if you were standing beside me, but at least I could drag all that stuff around. :D
So, since I had given myself so much time to begin with, I didn't have to hurry with the repacking, checked in fine, dragged everything through the scans, etc. They made us remove our shoes, of course, plus the laptops now have to come all the way out of the bag they're in, to be scanned, but they didn't do the liquid/gel check. Hrm...
Anyway, sat peacefully at the gate's waiting area, though already exhausted from the re-packing and lugging of carry on stuffs, heh.
Flight went fine. Not much room to lie in any way or direction -- so much for my pillow, which had been handy on previous trips, but at least I didn't have to leave it or try to pack it. :)
I missed a whole night, as we were going away from the night hours the whole flight, however that worked. The sound on my TV wasn't working, but the flight attendants weren't very helpful, so I didn't want to bother them. In consequence, I entertained myself with movies I hadn't seen before, that looked like they were understandable without sound (e.g. "Breakfast at Tiffany's"), heheh. Well, actually, I wasn't really tuning into that either, just dozing here and there.
The main eventufulness from that 14-hour flight was that they fed me 3 meals. Woohoo! Most people put down airplane food, but believe you me, when you're going that long without eating, airplane food will do quite nicely! Besides, when it's geared more toward Asians, I think they put a bit more into it and it's just more pleasant all around... :) The service was very abrupt and not super friendly, although it was better than some other American flights I've been on, in my lifetime.--And now that I get here, I've heard several accounts of bad treatment on American flights, with flight attendants telling people, "Go get your own water." Or "Can't you see I'm talking?!" when they rang the bell for the attendant. My flight wasn't that bad, they were just very abrupt and chop-chop, not very friendly, but at least they were efficient. :)
So, then I arrived in Tokyo... I had asked for my bags to be checked all the way through, as I didn't want to hassle with picking them up and checking them in again. Also, I had paid for one extra bag and I wasn't sure if they'd re-charge me in Japan, not only for that 1 bag, but charges for all the check-in, as my ticket warned that'd be the case and I hadn't been able to get ahold of a phone number for the Japanese airline, to find out what the deal was. That ended up working out fine, though I'm not sure if it's because it wasn't an issue to begin with or if the girl at information was too embarrassed to try to hassle me about it. :)
Anyway, after spending half an hour "freshening up" in the bathroom -- as I'm prone to do between connecting flights, if I have time, heh -- I hunted down the correct gate. For any of you catching connecting flights through Tokyo, the airport is huge! Well, my gate was at the opposite end (well, one of them :]) and then at the gate, they told me it was another gate halfway to the other end. Halfway to that gate, I asked information where it really was, and the girl got on the phone to confirm where it was, back at the first one, saying it had changed several times, but that should be final. :D So went all the way back, got my boarding pass, then waited patiently (and gratefully, as I was exhausted after missing that night of sleep and lugging around my delicate carry ons. :) Oh, yeah, when I was tumbling out of the American flight, a couple of the flight attendants looked at me in disgust and said, "They shouldn't have let you on with that!!!" Oh well... Jesus loves me!! Ladida!!! :D
(Memo to self: You're starting to get too old to travel so heavy-ly. Harhar.)
I was surrounded by Asians -- a very different affair. I didn't feel weird at all, which you'd think I would being in an environment like that. I noticed the staff at the airport was all very friendly and that the Chinese-speakers were very animated (I could actually tell the difference, as I had heard a few words previous to traveling, so could pick out the difference, which I never could before, maybe because I hadn't heard jabberings of either language [Japanese or Chinese] before). They joked a lot and I could almost get what the joke was about, just by watching -- I think I just got the sense of humor of whatever was going on around me. So, contentedly, I spaced out for about an hour, then boarded, hoping, again, that I wouldn't be flagged for my many luggages. People probably saw me with my huge pillow, blanket and coats and just felt sorry for the poor and weary traveler that I was, haha.
Something on my carry on bag (the only official one) broke, so I was having a hard time dragging it into the airplane. One of the Japanese flight attendants saw it and tried to help me, but it was the bag I had dumped all my books into, 38 pounds on its own and you should've seen the poor girl's face when she tried to lift it. The poor, tiny thing! I told her not to, but she insisted on helping.--And then when she tried to lift it into the overhead bin, I nearly died! I tried grabbing it from her, but she refused to let me do it alone (which I had actually practiced at home, so I knew I could -- plus, my boots made me taller, so easier to reach -- mind you).
So, immediately, you notice the difference in service... These ladies were all smiley and happy and chirpy. The attendant on my side kept laughing, as she went by offering pillows, then giggled, seeing and remembering my big one. And then the same thing when she went by with blankets, saying of course I didn't need one (yeah, I was so prepared, heh).
--And the food... sooo yummy!--And cute! :)
Okay, so, enough blabberings about all that.
All that to say I had a really good trip -- thank you sooo much for your prayers. It couldn't have gone better. I arrived fine and right on time, even though getting through immigrations took forever, due to the very long line of "non-citizens" entering. But the pick-up team had timed it just right so they wouldn't have to park and I made it through basically at the right time. Well, it was funny picking up my luggage, because I had a sneaky suspicion I was being observed as I tried to fit all those bags onto the one small trolley, but was too busy to notice and having too hard a time balancing it all to get distracted, heheh. When I had it nearly fitted on and finally looked up, the two luggage-helping-helper-guys were standing there with looks of alarm aimed in my direction, but then all shy about it when I saw them watching and doing nothing. Something on my face must've said "help!", even though I think I had it under control, because they ran over and tried to put a finishing touch on the pile, haha. Well, I made it through, all balanced just fine, all the way to the car. I was pretty embarrassed with that pile, but was told it wasn't too bad, considering I was moving my life to a brand new country. :)
Okay, so, on to a few illustrations...
Finally!! :D
Panthie enjoying a pleasant little break while in transit:
An interesting (for several reasons) I read:
The pretty Japanese meal:
And the cuuute tiny mushrooms, for size comparison -- sooo cuuute:
I think I have an idea re: how to interpret this deep statement... maybe an attempted play on words...
Rafa and Wa, you should try sipping your coffee from this tiny "spoon", heheh:
Smiley flight attendants (if you're able to see that far):
Some of the yummy snacks that were put in my room, when I first arrived, to help with odd-time munchies (along with some beer and wine, which I haven't touched, yet, although the snacks are all consumed, heheh):
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