Sorry sorry! I know I'm horrible about updating but after I got Brandi's comment I felt the need to tell you all about the return trip of my America Christmas Adventure. Because it was infinately better than the way TO the US.
First off I had to fly out of Chicago and BACK to Georgia, then on to Tokyo. Second my flight was at 6:05 in the morning. This meant we needed to leave the house at like 12 to get there by 3:00 am. It was awful, the worst car ride ever. We drove my sister's old SUV a chevy blazer & the heater is stuck on 'defrost' so it wouldn't change to vent or anything. I spent the entire ride there freezing to death. I seriously was so cold it was ridiculous. There was also like this huge snowstorm that night so of course here we are driving right through it. We saw not one but two semis that had slid off the rode into the median, one had flipped onto it's side which was not cool. I thought WE were going to go off the road but God was looking out for us because we made it to Chicago ok with just a few slides.
When we got my boarding pass (after arriving and realizing that chicago is like an hour behind us do to time zone changes and it was 4:00 am not 5:00) I was excited to find out that I had an aisle seat for the trip from Atlanta to Tokyo. I slept the whole way because I was so tired. Then I had to run & get on the shuttle/tram/thingy to take me to the international gate. But the cool thing was that I didn't have to recheck my baggage! Thank you God! Then I called and left a message on my parent's machine. However because I only had 45 min. between flights and because I stopped to call my parents on the way to the gate I missed the original boarding call.
This was awesome & fortunate! I got up there, gave the lady my ticket, she rang me in & just as I was about halfway down the ramp she comes running after me & tells me to wait! wait! Then she runs back out to the gate counter, so I follow her thinking 'oh crap am I getting a random security check or something?' but no my friends no for she came back to me and told me the most AWESOME thing ever: I had been upgraded to business class . Yes that is right! Because I showed up late & the plane was booked solid I got to take an empty seat in business class while some shmuck was stuck in my economy seat. I cried for joy. Dude, the get to eat on real plates, have much better food, I had people continually asking me if I wanted a drink or a snack, the chair was big, leather, and had LOTS of footroom. I could even lay that thing down, it had a footrest & everything. And there was a nice, quiet, older japanese man sitting next to me so no screaming kids!!! I got to sleep, eat, watch movies, and the BATHROOM is even better. It's like 2x's the size of economy bathrooms & cleaner. If I could afford it I would totally fly that way from now on.
When I got back to Narita airport I got to stand in the MUCH shorter line for people with registered alien cards instead of the long, crappy, tourist line. I showed them my passport, they made me stick my fingers on a machine & look at the camera, and I was done. Took like 1 extra minute & that was a lot less than when I first came into the country & stood in the other line. Hahaha. I decided that my luggage was WAY to heavy to try & take back on the plane to Sapporo. They would totally charge me extra for it so I decided to mail it back. It was about $20 and totally worth it because I wasn't having to drag about 60 lbs. worth of crap around with me to the other airport. I just transfered a couple days worth of clothes into the duffel I had brought as a precaution & I was good to go.
The ride back to Haneda airport was kind of crowded but that was ok too. I got to talk to a very nice woman who was an accountant for the army-run school on Okinawa. She was getting transfered back to the US to... Columbus? maybe?... and was on her way back there to finish packing up all her stuff. When I got to Haneda I was again in an aisle seat AND there was nobody sitting next to me which was awesome. Haha. The only sucky part about the return trip was the train because it was so late at night they didn't have any straight connections between New Chitose airport & Otaru so I had to take a reserved car seating ( I love those things!) back to Sapporo, then I had to run out of the station, but a ticket for Otaru & run back in to hop on a local train. Which sucked because at that point I was tired, hot, and cramped. But other than that everything was cool.
So all I can say is this: If bad things happen to you, good things are sure to follow. That's karma.
So if you want to come to Japan, don't worry about it, if you have a shitty flight you'll probably have a great vacation!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Christmas Day
Well I don't know yet how my friends at the dorm spent their christmas but mine was spent here with my family. I can honestly say that I've had fun while I've been here. Got up at about 9:00, everybody else was asleep still except my grandmother so I ate breakfast while she made pie, then I showered and helped her with the cooking a little bit. There was the usual scramble for the bathroom, and fights over stupid stuff. But that's ok, it's part of spending time with your family.
We ate about 12:30ish, had ham, turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, mashed potatos, sweet potato pie, broccoli casserole, deviled eggs, cole slaw, baked beans, and for dessert chocolate cake, chocolate pie, pecan pie, fudge, adn peanut butter balls. So we stuffed ourselves silly and then we cleaned up and then the fun began: GIFTS.
Mwahahaha. The kids looked great in the kimono that I bought them. They wanted info on all the different parts and then they couldn't get enough of those fans. Everybody seemed to like the gifts I bought them but I feel like I should've bought more of those fan stands for them. I liked what I got too, about $200 and the DS Lite that I had wanted since before I went to Japan. Amanda got me a luggage tag and gift card for Barnes & Noble for $20 which was sweet.
Then we played LIFE which Andrew had gotten for Christmas, and ate leftovers for dinner (I was soo not hungry). Then we wandered down to my aunt's to play singles for aggravation rummy. I got second place! Which isn't that cool unless you take into account that I was waaaay behind everybody else and then managed to get second by completely cutting them all out on the last hand. Mwhahahaha.
I'm going to be sad to leave here, but I'll be glad to get back to see everybody in MI too, and to drive my car again. I wonder what it'll be like in August when I get to come back again for good. I'll probably be so happy I'll cry. :) And then of course, while I'm looking forward to going back to Japan I'm totally not looking forward to going back on an evil plane ride again.
Tomorrow we'll be going to town because I need to exchange a robe (neon green so not me) for another one (or maybe some pj's) and I need to get a game or two for my DS. This'll be sweet on the airplane and also on the way back to MI day on Thurs. Well anyways I hope everybody had a good Christmas, and has a Happy New Year!
UPDATE: I didn't get the game for the DS, they were wiped out of all good non 4 year old games in Corbin, so I had to wait till I got back to MI. Also I bought some sweet silk pj's with snowflakes on them when I returned the robe. Thanks Aunt J! I thought they would cost more so I told the lady at the place that I would pay the extra (tag said $40) and guess how much I ended up paying? A penny. Yup. That's right they'd been discounted to $20 even and the robe was $19.99, so hilarous.
We ate about 12:30ish, had ham, turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, mashed potatos, sweet potato pie, broccoli casserole, deviled eggs, cole slaw, baked beans, and for dessert chocolate cake, chocolate pie, pecan pie, fudge, adn peanut butter balls. So we stuffed ourselves silly and then we cleaned up and then the fun began: GIFTS.
Mwahahaha. The kids looked great in the kimono that I bought them. They wanted info on all the different parts and then they couldn't get enough of those fans. Everybody seemed to like the gifts I bought them but I feel like I should've bought more of those fan stands for them. I liked what I got too, about $200 and the DS Lite that I had wanted since before I went to Japan. Amanda got me a luggage tag and gift card for Barnes & Noble for $20 which was sweet.
Then we played LIFE which Andrew had gotten for Christmas, and ate leftovers for dinner (I was soo not hungry). Then we wandered down to my aunt's to play singles for aggravation rummy. I got second place! Which isn't that cool unless you take into account that I was waaaay behind everybody else and then managed to get second by completely cutting them all out on the last hand. Mwhahahaha.
I'm going to be sad to leave here, but I'll be glad to get back to see everybody in MI too, and to drive my car again. I wonder what it'll be like in August when I get to come back again for good. I'll probably be so happy I'll cry. :) And then of course, while I'm looking forward to going back to Japan I'm totally not looking forward to going back on an evil plane ride again.
Tomorrow we'll be going to town because I need to exchange a robe (neon green so not me) for another one (or maybe some pj's) and I need to get a game or two for my DS. This'll be sweet on the airplane and also on the way back to MI day on Thurs. Well anyways I hope everybody had a good Christmas, and has a Happy New Year!
UPDATE: I didn't get the game for the DS, they were wiped out of all good non 4 year old games in Corbin, so I had to wait till I got back to MI. Also I bought some sweet silk pj's with snowflakes on them when I returned the robe. Thanks Aunt J! I thought they would cost more so I told the lady at the place that I would pay the extra (tag said $40) and guess how much I ended up paying? A penny. Yup. That's right they'd been discounted to $20 even and the robe was $19.99, so hilarous.
Made it Alive
Barely. Seriously it was the trip from hell to get back to the US for christmas. First off I stayed the night at Saori's place in Sapporo (nice apartment btw). So that I wouldn't have to wake up like extra early at 4:00ish and take a 2 hour train ride to New Chitose airport. Instead I got up at 5:30ish and we left for the 6:48 train to the airport. I got a U-ticket which is a 'reserved' seat ticket on the train. You get to sit in a special car with extra foot room & a place to store your luggage & it costs only $3 more than a normal ticket & you have an assigned seat. You can get them in Sapporo on a special machine, I think in Otaru you have to buy them from the station attendent guy, I'm not too sure about that yet.
In any event I made it onto the train and I was sitting there, with this sleepy business guy (not to shabby looking either) in the aisle seat and we're going along and BAM about halfway there at kita-hiroshima station we get stopped. I mean, I was sooo pissed. The train can't just stop. I've got to get to the airport here! They were like 'blah blah 8:33 blah blah' which basically meant the train wouldn't be moving for an hour. And I had to get to the airport by 8:45 to get on the 9:05 plane. So I called Saori and she's like 'yeah get off the train, get your fare adjusted and come back to sapporo, we'll take a bus'. I went and got into line but between then and when I got to the counter Saori called me back and told me that my FLIGHT had been canceled that morning due to weather conditions. She'd rebooked me on the 10:10 and I should get back on the train.
So I dragged all my luggage back down there, got back on, had the sleepy guy wake up and move again and then set back down. 8:33 comes and goes, loudspeaker is now like 'blah blah 9:00 blah blah' which has me panicking because I'm going to be late AGAIN if this train doesn't start moving soon. So I had Saori call the airport back and she's like 'yeah if you miss this you're gonna have to take the 12:10' which would have completely screwed up my bus trip to Haneda and then I might miss my flight from Narita. 'You have to be at the desk by 9:55 or you can't board the plane.' Great.... so the train FINALLY leaves at like 9:15, I'm sitting there, jiggling my leg going 'come on come ON...' and we stopped at like every freakin' stop between there and the airport. And all these giggly high school girls hopped into our car and were standing in it. I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to do that but whatever.
The train arrives at the airport at like 9:45, I have 10 minutes to find this thing. I run over to the escalator, go upstairs, run down the concourse to find the counter only to be told that it is on the second floor & I have to run to the totally other end of the building if I want to get to another escalator. I arrive at the counter on the 2nd floor at 9:53, and I have to WAIT IN LINE. Gyah! Thankfully this nice lady from the ANA side of the counter came over and got my stuff processed and then while the guy was giving me my boarding pass she drug my suitcase over to security & then helped me to get it checked.
I ran to security, and ended up setting it off. I thought it was the belt buckle and it was, but it was also the fact that I still had my cell phone, and my MP3 player in my pocket. I finally got on the plane and it left 5 minutes later. But this was not the end of my troubles.
So I had no problems going from Haneda to Narita on the limo bus. That was actually pretty easy, basically I had vouchers from Hiro for the bus but you can buy the tickets for 3000 yen on the spot no problem. I just took my voucher, turned it in for a ticket, and went right outside the doors & got on the bus. It drops you off right at the terminal that you need to be at too. So I got to Narita and had time to get my ticket, recheck my bag, and get some Ramen to eat before my flight left. The flight to the US sucked so much.
First off I had a window seat, which wouldn't have been so bad except that there were 2 guys on the other side which meant every time I needed to go to the bathroom 2 other people had to move. It's almost as bad as being stuck in the middle of a row. Secondly there were 2 small kids and their asian mother sitting in the row behind me, and the stupid kid was either kicking or punching the back of the seat for about 6 hours. I couldn't get more than an hour and a half of sleep because of this kid. When he finally dropped off I was wide awake and couldn't sleep (believe me I tried) plus the food as all airline food does, sucked sooo much.
So I arrived in Atlanta (hate that place) hot, tired, and hungry and had to go through customs. Seriously that sucked. I mean I think I didn't get pulled for the random customs inspection JUST because I looked like the walking dead. I know I felt like a zombie. Then when I went to find my new ticket gate I discovered that my flight had been delayed, pushing my 4 hour layover into a 5 hour one. Great. At this point I hadn't slept in like 24 hours. I hated everyone and everything and I felt horrible. I tried to sleep but you really can't sleep in the airport so I ended up walking around a lot and drinking coffee. And then the stupid flight ended up being delayed another 30 minutes because they had to refuel it (it arrived RIGHT at 7:55). And I got stuck on the window side again squished in there by a big fat guy. Lovely.
Ok enough of the bitching, I'm here in the US and safe. That's all that really matters, although it would be nice to get an aisle seat with a quiet old person behind me on the way home. Lol.
In any event I made it onto the train and I was sitting there, with this sleepy business guy (not to shabby looking either) in the aisle seat and we're going along and BAM about halfway there at kita-hiroshima station we get stopped. I mean, I was sooo pissed. The train can't just stop. I've got to get to the airport here! They were like 'blah blah 8:33 blah blah' which basically meant the train wouldn't be moving for an hour. And I had to get to the airport by 8:45 to get on the 9:05 plane. So I called Saori and she's like 'yeah get off the train, get your fare adjusted and come back to sapporo, we'll take a bus'. I went and got into line but between then and when I got to the counter Saori called me back and told me that my FLIGHT had been canceled that morning due to weather conditions. She'd rebooked me on the 10:10 and I should get back on the train.
So I dragged all my luggage back down there, got back on, had the sleepy guy wake up and move again and then set back down. 8:33 comes and goes, loudspeaker is now like 'blah blah 9:00 blah blah' which has me panicking because I'm going to be late AGAIN if this train doesn't start moving soon. So I had Saori call the airport back and she's like 'yeah if you miss this you're gonna have to take the 12:10' which would have completely screwed up my bus trip to Haneda and then I might miss my flight from Narita. 'You have to be at the desk by 9:55 or you can't board the plane.' Great.... so the train FINALLY leaves at like 9:15, I'm sitting there, jiggling my leg going 'come on come ON...' and we stopped at like every freakin' stop between there and the airport. And all these giggly high school girls hopped into our car and were standing in it. I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to do that but whatever.
The train arrives at the airport at like 9:45, I have 10 minutes to find this thing. I run over to the escalator, go upstairs, run down the concourse to find the counter only to be told that it is on the second floor & I have to run to the totally other end of the building if I want to get to another escalator. I arrive at the counter on the 2nd floor at 9:53, and I have to WAIT IN LINE. Gyah! Thankfully this nice lady from the ANA side of the counter came over and got my stuff processed and then while the guy was giving me my boarding pass she drug my suitcase over to security & then helped me to get it checked.
I ran to security, and ended up setting it off. I thought it was the belt buckle and it was, but it was also the fact that I still had my cell phone, and my MP3 player in my pocket. I finally got on the plane and it left 5 minutes later. But this was not the end of my troubles.
So I had no problems going from Haneda to Narita on the limo bus. That was actually pretty easy, basically I had vouchers from Hiro for the bus but you can buy the tickets for 3000 yen on the spot no problem. I just took my voucher, turned it in for a ticket, and went right outside the doors & got on the bus. It drops you off right at the terminal that you need to be at too. So I got to Narita and had time to get my ticket, recheck my bag, and get some Ramen to eat before my flight left. The flight to the US sucked so much.
First off I had a window seat, which wouldn't have been so bad except that there were 2 guys on the other side which meant every time I needed to go to the bathroom 2 other people had to move. It's almost as bad as being stuck in the middle of a row. Secondly there were 2 small kids and their asian mother sitting in the row behind me, and the stupid kid was either kicking or punching the back of the seat for about 6 hours. I couldn't get more than an hour and a half of sleep because of this kid. When he finally dropped off I was wide awake and couldn't sleep (believe me I tried) plus the food as all airline food does, sucked sooo much.
So I arrived in Atlanta (hate that place) hot, tired, and hungry and had to go through customs. Seriously that sucked. I mean I think I didn't get pulled for the random customs inspection JUST because I looked like the walking dead. I know I felt like a zombie. Then when I went to find my new ticket gate I discovered that my flight had been delayed, pushing my 4 hour layover into a 5 hour one. Great. At this point I hadn't slept in like 24 hours. I hated everyone and everything and I felt horrible. I tried to sleep but you really can't sleep in the airport so I ended up walking around a lot and drinking coffee. And then the stupid flight ended up being delayed another 30 minutes because they had to refuel it (it arrived RIGHT at 7:55). And I got stuck on the window side again squished in there by a big fat guy. Lovely.
Ok enough of the bitching, I'm here in the US and safe. That's all that really matters, although it would be nice to get an aisle seat with a quiet old person behind me on the way home. Lol.
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