So I’m writing this from AirCanada Flight 7992, on my way to Toronto, where I have my layover, then I’m off to Tokyo. I have a feeling this is going to be a long entry, but I guess that’s understandable for a first travel post. I appologize if I’m too verbose or wordy. Anyways I got up early today, and finished packing my stuff, gathering the last of my things. The drive to the Airport was relaxing, we listened to James Taylor on the way. We got to the Airport quite early, so we had plenty of time to have some breakfast togeather before I passed through security. Security went smoothly, and I got through to my gate. It was tough saying goodbye to my family, but really, with the huge upgrades in technology they have these days, I’m never more than a Skype call away from talking/seeing anyone, anywhere in the world.
When I got to the gate, I sat amongst several people, the lobby looked pretty crowded. Only then did I realize that I was so early, that was still the group waiting to board a plane for IAD in Washington (Dulles, I believe it’s spelled.) anyways, When that flight came in and everyone boarded, it was maybe 4-5 more minutes until my plane arrived. The plane was a tiny prop plane that was sputtering it’s way into the gate. The woman at the gate told me to watch to see how many people were on the previous plane. When the doors open and one person and a baby got off, I was relieved to know that no Canadians are flying into Detroit (really, who wants to come to Detroit?)
The Air Canada flight has been rather plesant so far, no turbulance, plesant staff which is willing to have a conversation, pretty roomy for a tiny prop plane, and prolly the most surprising, they not only gave me a free drink (no, not a beer) on the flight, but also peanuts and a second drink. This is on an hour flight. When Terry and I flew to Green Bay on an hour and a half flight, they didn’t provide anything, and offered us snacks and soda at 4 bucks a piece–and that was Northwest.
I guess Canadians really are the nicest people in the world.
So the end of the Detroit-Toronto flight was pretty eventful, I noticed as I was getting off the flight that there was an open pocket in my backpack. I couldn’t think what was inside, until I was already going through customs and I realized my cellphone was missing. I asked around as I was on my way, unfortunately my plane to Toronto was late, as a result, I couldn’t spare time to file paperwork, and I’ll have to do that when I get to Tokyo. The terminal that we landed at wasn’t connected to the main airport and as a result we had to ride a bus to get to the main terminal. I was apparently the only international connection, and had to wait a little longer to drive to yet another terminal. There weren’t any monitors that displayed the gates and flights, after asking around, I finally found a board… which was right infront of my gate. I got on the plane and I was seatted next to a woman with a child, most people’s worst nightmare, especially for a 12-13 hour flight. However, the child was one of the happiest, smilling, cooing babies I’ve ever seen, They were form New Jersey and were in Japan for work, however, shortly after take-off they switched seats with someone who didn’t speak English. So much for conversation.
Right now I’m trying to get over this intense hunger I have, I wonder if they have any food. Also, the flight attendants have been superhot this whole time. I’m begining to like Canada.
There currently is no one sitting in the middle seat of my set [+][ ][X] (I’m on the right) which means I have plenty of extra space, lots of leg room as well. Each seat has a touch-screen tv built in, a power jack, and a USB port. Man has technology gone places in the past 5 years. Better yet, the flight has XM radio, as well as an assortment of 50 CDs I can listen to, one of which, is my long lost “Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits II” album. Praise the country music gods.
We’re currently flying over Anchorage Alaska, I have the map of the trip open on the middle seat’s touch screen so at any time I can see where we are, and still do things. It’s 7:10pm EST/8:10am JST, quite the difference I’ll be heading to sleep here in a second. I guess I have like, six more hours on the flight, the over all flight is supposed to be 13 hours, 25 minutes. which would put us near half way.
As I said earlier, there is a power jack on the seat, so I’ve had my Laptop plugged in most of the time, but I went to switch it to my iPod, cause that was nearing the end of it’s life, what was sitting behind my ipod? My phone. Boy do I feel glad I didn’t proceed with having people search the previous plane. The movie selection here is good, although there aren’t a lot of movies I -want- to watch. I watched Angles & Demons, just cause I’d never seen it before, it was alrght. The other movies that aren’t total chickflicks are The Hangover, which I’ve seen; Star-Trek, which I’ve seen 3 times; X-men Origins, which I never bothered to see; and lastly, Terminator Salvation, which I would pay to not see.
Its 10:11pm EST / 11:11 JST right now. Yes, I did just make a wish. Anways, I got about 2 hours of sleep, which really eased the length of the flight (if only I could sleep on planes better…) Japan has actually showed up on the map, so the end of the flight is immenent. Well, there should be 3 hours or so left. Not bad. Right now we’re currently over a penninsula in Russia. We just crossed into ‘tomorrow’ about half an hour ago. I’ put my thumb on the ceiling of the plane and too my feet off the ground, but it took like 5 minutes to update the map, so I am just going to assume it was for the durration where we crossed the dateline.
Man, I need a shower. It’s gotten to the point where everyone is ready to be off the plane, people are getting ancy and as a result, kinda rude. The poor flight attendants are pretty overworked, it seems like an interesting job, I’m just not sure I could stand all the constant stress. Oh, we’re starting our decent! On the homestretch!. I can’t wait to have internet access! Oh it’ll be great, I can stop writing this entry in Wordpad.
Theres about an hour and a half left on the flight, It’s currently 12:37am EST / 1:37pm JST, we’re scheduled to land at 3:03pm. The in-flight stats is a fun thing to look at, we’re at 38000ft, going 446 MPH, it’s -55.8 degrees Farenhieght outside right now. and I’ve traveled 5978 miles, with 556 miles left to go. I am 6814 miles away from Columbus, OH. and 6687 miles from Detroit, MI. I need some booze, I’m rambling now.
So it’s 3:40am EST / 4:40pm JST, I’m on the limited express train to Shinjuku to meet up with my friend Masaya, the only person who I’m still in contact with from my last trip. When I jumped off the plane, and wound through the 30939349 miles of walkways and stairs, then through the surprisingly quick customs, I came right to B8 baggage claim, and for the third straight time, my suitcase was the first suitcase off the plane, I grabbed it, and I was on my way to try and find internet access. Sure enough there was a 100yen/10min computer, which I pumped 300 yen into. I sent an email to Akiko, and my parents, as well as logging into Facebook/AIM. Ofc, Akiko responded right away, as I figured she would, as she is always in her office. I also had a mail from Masaya asking where/when we were to meet up. After a few quick arrangements, I bought the limited express ticket for 2910 yen ($29) and was on my way. [For those who don't know, quick exchange rate is to just divide Yen by 100 to get the dollar amount.]
So now I’m actually at a wifi hotspot, after I got the email from Masaya to meet him at the East Entrance to Shinjuku station at 5:00pm. My train left Narita at 4:25, but didn’t get to Shinjuku until nearing 5:30. I stood around for a while but couldn’t find him. I then proceeded to wander around Tokyo for an hour looking for a wireless hotspot. Everyone kept directing me to McDonalds, however, when I finally got there, there was no hotspot to be found. FML.
Anyways, waiting for a response back from Masaya, now that I could email him.
Just got the response, and on my way out. Also, awesome bossa nova playing here. For Realz.
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