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.