A rendezvous down at the lobby at 4:30, deserves a quick hop across the dead street to Starbucks. Opps it’s so early Starbucks is even closed. 4:00am is NOT a good hour to have set in your alarm clock. Well for me any hour before 8:00am is not a good hour to have set in your alarm clock. Are you listening Banner? 5:00am is NOT breakfast time!
A cab to the airport was ordered but we were not sure if the cab that showed up was our cab. We have 6 check-in pieces of luggage plus 3 carry-on items. The little Toyota Corolla was no where fit to handle the capacity necessary for our 45 minute (Remember this time it will be important soon) jaunt to the airport. Finally someone smart enough just decided to order a bigger cab. I guess after they loaded all of the luggage in the trunk (2 pieces) and the rest in the cab of the car, they realized there was no room for us three.
I’m not too sure what happened next, as it was a blurr. We left the hotel at 4:50AM. We arrived at the airport at 5:07AM. Someone please do the math. I felt like I was on the bullet train. We were riding in some sort of a mini-van type of Fed ex contraption. Most of our cab drivers were in their younger years 20’s and 30’s maybe. This guy was in his like 80’s and he is driving 140 – 150 Kilometers an hour. Please do not tell me exactly how fast that was. I do know the speed limit was 80 kilometers. But we did arrive with plenty of time to check in.
As our driver passed by Thai Airways (my friends were flying Thai, I changed from Cathay Pacific to Japan Airlines due to the non-stop convenience) we kindly stated there is Thai. He stated back that “oh that is domestic”. No it wasn’t. We were kindly dropped off at Japan Airlines, paid the pilot and journeyed inside to Japan Airlines.
"Yay" the ticket counter is empty was my thought. Until I walked up and noticed the ticket counter does not open until 5:45am. So I waited. I was the first one to the counter however I was actually #2 in line. Why, when I was the first one at the counter? There were 7 lines for Economy. Yes I flew economy on this trip as I switched to a nonstop and there were no first or business class seats available. Why again was I #2 in line when I was the first one at the counter?… Don’t’ ask please!
When It was my turn to obtain my boarding pass and check my luggage, the agent kindly informed me “we do not have a reservation for you Mr. Giesen.” Uhm now what do I do? Wait I didn’t think that. I though WTH, and stated “uhm I made the reservation through American Airlines Yesterday. I do not have my confirmation number and cannot access my email right now to get it.” She kindly escorted me to a new line, and a new agent to get things straightened out. I’m not going into the details of the next 15 minutes of frustration, however I did get my ticket. No I was on my med’s! I did NOT yell, cuss or swear at him. I simply started panicking that I was stuck in a country I so desperately wanted to get out of. Kind of.
Immigration control and security screening was a breeze and quickly was looking for the “Thai Airways First class Lounge” as that is where I was going to meet my friends. I followed the sign which lead me to the “F Concourse” Thai Airways Lounge. “This lounge is closed please proceed across the hall. I went to “F Concourse Thai Airways Lounge #2, which stated “Due to renovations please go to “E Concourse Thai Airways Lounge”. I made my trek to “E” and the kind people stated “Oh he is not here. He is in the East D Concourse Lounge”. I trekked another ½ mile and asked those kind souls who stated “Oh he is in the West D Concourse Lounge”. Now The D Concourse is quite large. It only has 8 gates but I’m serious this is like a 2 mile walk. So I ran! Running into the East Concourse lounge, they kindly informed me that Mr. Codd is located in the adjacent Thai Airways First class lounge. It is right through those doors (he pointed to the doors that were 5' from him) but you cannot go through there. You have to walk around.
Finally I arrived in great frustration, had breakfast, drank lot’s of coffee wishing I was already in Japan and waited a ½ hour before I trekked back to gate G5 (The furthest gate from this lounge) which did take me exactly 30 minutes to walk back to.
It was now 7:30AM and I had 10 minutes to poop, pee and walk around before our 5.5 hour flight. The walk onto the plane is another first. There are 58 rows on this plane. Row 1 starting at the head of the plane (first class). Row 58 is in the back of the plane, near the butt end, toilets, galley, tail, or whatever word you want to call it. Most rows have 9 seats across. Row 58 has 5. I should know. My seat number was seat 58A. This again seemed like quite a walk. This fat boy, had better come home skinnier with the amount of walking he is doing on this trip. My luck though I’m in the window seat of a 2 seat configuration rather than a 3 seat configuration. The amenities are satisfactory. But there is NO WAY I could cross the pacific in this seat for 14.5 hours.
My flight to Tokyo was probably one of the worst flights I have taken regarding many things but mostly the turbulence. I have flown hundreds and thousands of miles. I have witnessed turbulence. I flew to South Africa and back, I have witnessed turbulence. This turbulence was 5.5 hours of turbulence. I have a headache now!
Soon after takeoff during our lightest turbulence time period, we were served Lunch. They handed us a menu showing the meal and had a description in multiple languages. The first item or option was Shrimp Curry (something or other). That is ok, all I had to hear or see were the words shrimp (an ocean dweller) and Curry (something I don’t like). So I quickly looked at the other option and “I READ” Tamale pasta”. I did not read any further as my mind was quickly made up by process of elimination. I also ordered a “BOTTLE” of wine. My meal quickly arrived. I was Impressed with the layout, as I am in Economy. However I realized quickly that my Tamale Pasta was Tilapia over pasta, with sushi…………
At this point I looked at my personal moving map and realized again I was over Vietnam. My thought to myself is thatI should not make a stink over the meal, and just down as much as I can. I don’t want an emergency landing in Vietnam, to be kicked off the plane. So I made the best of it.
Thank God for 3 things. First was the soy sauce. I drenched everything with the soy sauce. I had a bite of Tilapia. Yes I’ll eat Tilapia but I’m not a big fish eater and wasn’t going for any more bites. I ate the noodles. I tried the gummy beans, and I we didn’t get past bite #1. I did eat the salad and the bun, and the sponge cake thingy. Next came the sushi cup. It had 5 items in it that resembled well I’m not sure what they resembled but I did not want to eat them. However I made a rule that I would try as much as I could. Within reason. I’m not going to eat Squid!!!
I asked the nice lady next to me who is a flight attendant for Japan Airlines what each thing was. I’ll use her exact words to describe them;
1. Omelet
2. Chicken ball
3. Raw Salmon on Rice
4. Pickle (inside of rice wrapped in seaweed)
5. Uhm what you say, vegetable? I asked “a beet”? Yes beet. *inside of rice wrapped in seaweed).
For the sake of this blog I’m going to Lie big time here in exactly what I said. For those of you who are artistic, well you can make up my exact words in your own thoughts. I stated “oh Thank You. I’m so happy to have such a wonderful meal. I think I’m going to try everything on my plate at least once!” I think I broke out the chop sticks at this point.
So I bit into the “chicken ball”. Uhm I think it really was a chicken ball. Where is the sick sack? Time to filler up! Next it was the salmon riding on a rice clump. With enough soy sauce it went down with no problem. Then I was going to attack the “Pickle” (in rice wrapped in seaweed). I was quite amazed with myself that it tasted pretty good. Again with a load of soy sauce. Next was a bite of “Omelet”. Uhm it tasted like tofu dried egg particle board. Soy sauce could not help this one. Last I tried the “Beet” wrapped in rice wrapped in Seaweed. Again this one tasted pretty yummy. Again with soy sauce. Now a reminder I drank 1 glass of wine between each bite trying to numb my taste bud’s between each bite. I think the combination of wine and soy sauce helped make each item go down.
The 3rd thing on this plate the saved me was the toothpick! Oh how happy i was to see a toothpick!
With 2 hours of sleep I decided to lay my head down and see what I could produce as in sleep! I really didn’t think I slept much at all. I could hear the engines, and the whooshing sound, along with all of my fellow passengers chowing down on their Shrimp Curry or Sushi. But I awoke curled in a ball and 1.5 hours had magically disappeared. We were over Taiwan. The rest of the flight went as the first 2.5 hours did. Bumpy! Long! Cramped! And Uncomfortable. The only though going through my head at this point is “How am I going to survive eating in Japan?”
At this point I needed another drink. So I ordered a beer! Not exactly sure what kind this is but it worked. I’m definitely not on an airline that caters to Americans. Although everything is also in English it’s in very broken poor to understand English. Along with my beer they served “Rice Crackers” However the back ingredients state there is squid in them. Uhm, good thing I looked at this after I ate them because they were actually good! No I’m not going to start eating squid!
Customs and Immigration documents have been filled out. Right at this point I’m looking forward to the 2 hours left of my flight, the 1.5 hours of train service to our hotel, unpacking and just laying down and sleeping.
Arrival into Tokyo was quite amusing. We landed in a a bunch of farm fields.
A quick hop off the plane and a zipity quick through Immigrations and customs. Bought a NEX pass and stuff and hopped on the train to Shinigawa station! Nex is a train that goes from the airport to Tokyo and about.
The train ride into Tokyo was quite fascinating. We traveled through so many little towns, big cities, and farm lands. I feel like I’m at home and dyslexic. I cannot read a dayum thing. In Thailand most things were in both Thai and English. Here in Japan most items are just in Japanese. I don’t read nor do I speak Japanese.
We arrived at Shinigawa station made our way through the maze, attempting to read the information signs and attempting to communicate with people who do not speak English. It was HOT. 93 degree’s and very humid. Uhg. My poor white boy fat body just cannot take the heat. As we exit the station we find the hotel. Intercontinental! We are on the 28th floor with a fantastic view.
We woke up and LEFT our hotel before dawn. We traveled by Car, Plane, Train, foot, elevator, and escalator. We are all exhausted. We arrived at our hotel well after sun down. Basically it was 10 hours of traveling. This really sucks. We are so tired. Not much is going to happen tonight besides dinner and sleep!
Some Additional photo's for the day:
We decided to go to dinner. So off to the pub we went!
