Nihon ni Yokuso!

Okay, so now I am here. And I have suffered the prerequisite Jetlag, and all is-in theory- well.

Moriya is a lovely little town about 40 km out of Tokyo, but really what that means is that you can actually see the moon at night and you might actually see a star or two...

Okay, so I exagerate slightly, you might see 3 or 4 stars and Jupiter on a clear night.

Anyway, I'll get back to Moriya a little later, for now I shall recap my journey over here.

I left Houston at 9:50 on a Continental Boeing 757 bound for Los Angeles. On the journey there, I was seated at the next to the last row on the window seat. What this meant was that when the plane tipped up to take off, it looked like I was going to slide along the runway. That was pretty cool.

What wasn't cool was that the fella next to me was bigger than I was (And I'm not a small man). However, he was really nice and very aware of our uncomfortable situation, and he and I played "Tetris" the entire 3 and a half hour flight to LAX; switching whose arms were in front, and whose got to rest on the armrests.

His name was Larry, and he was on his way home from Africa. He was a consultant for a company out there, and he spent a lot of time looking over paperwork.

He never went on safari, though, he chuckled. He was a nice fella.

On the outside row was a lady named Debbie, and she was Canadian... and a real talker, Larry listened politely as she went on ad nausium about her children, the reason for go to LA (Tourist), and that her husband once went elk hunting in Colorado Springs (I didn't know people flew in to do that).

Of course, I put the cube on, and listened to music the entire way... leaving poor Larry to Debbie...

Larry was a nice fella.

To be fair, I thought for sure she'd run out of things to talk about before we got out of Texas...

Boy, I was wrong...

Anyway, I arrived at LAX at just after 11:30AM (California time) and pulled into the gate, getting this rather classic picture of the airport out the 757's window.




This was the last nice thing I can say about LAX... I got out of the gate to find out that I needed to transfer to my Singapore Air flight which was in a different building... completely. Outside of Security and everything.

Well, I guess this isn't all bad, so I get going I have and hour and a half to get to my Singapore Air terminal, right?

Wrong. The Singapore Air flight is leaving early (Because they have a headwind, and they want to arrive at exactly 5:28PM in Tokyo... Woah), and it's a good 10 minute walk over to the international terminal (Not to mention a good 20 minutes through the terminal to security. I get there and I hear the following announcement:

"Would Singapore Air passengers Yoko Tanaka, Hiroi Sagashi, Guy Davis, Kyoko Takahashi and Ichiro Sawa please report to the nearest passenger telephone?"

Well, at least I don't stand out...

I go to the counter and they say that the plane is already boarding from gate 113, and I needed to go now.

I still hadn't gone through security...

Which I had to take my shoes and my belt off (There is enough metal in my belt to set off the scanners...), as well as pull my laptop out of my satchel...

I get to gate 113 to find a whole bunch of folks in a neat little line waiting for...

busses.

Busses? Were they watertight?

It turns out that the 747 was parked somewhere on the other side of the airport at a little island loading facility on the runway... So, in my first experience with being packed like sardines, we all pile into the busses and start driving across the runways of LAX...

Somewhere along the line a 747 stopped and waited for us to pass... I guess we had the right-of-way... but you never feel as small as you do when looking down the maw of four General Electric turbines all spinning at flight speed...

We are toodling along, dodging 737's and various other aircraft, some trying to broadside us, others playing chicken (I think this was a final salute for the Japanese nationals to remind them of LA traffic and it was very well done, we were all scared for our lives... exactly like we'd be on the Santa Monica Freeway...), when we get to a series of little buildings sitting in the middle of a runway. And, here, among what I would expect would be a bunch of crushed busses that failed this gauntlet (Obviously LA cleans the wreckage away... which is very much out of character for LA), I find one gleaming Singapore Air 747-300 (With Winglets! They are sooo cool :D)

So we offload from the bus (Quickly, knowing at any minute that bus may be sucked into an intake), and travel up the little building stairs to the jetway and then get on the plane.

I was sitting in a cluster of Chinese-American students from UNC on spring break, headed for Tokyo, but no one was in the middle seat :D

I had the perfect seat on the `47, a window seat just behind the wing. Ah, this was the life! I could watch flaps and stuff, and still see cool cloud formations from here.

So the plane then backs up from the jetway and you'd think it would be just moments until we are airborne.

But, apparently LA wanted to salute us from the terminal that we just left via bus... so we drove all over the LA airport, touring the area, and using up precious fuel... But that's normal for LA as well.

We finally take off, and now we are headed for Japan!

I took all kinds of pictures from the plane of California leaving and the ocean just being... um... blue. Maybe I'll post them later.

As soon as we get airborne, the very nice steward staff brings around hot, towels... This is just awesome, we got to wipe our faces and hands and arms... it was just wonderful. I love the Asian culture.

Then I discover the TV in the headrest in front of me

Oh... oh my...

It's a Tivo, with 99 channels, on demand, nintendo and brain games. As well as news and all kinds of real-time data, for instance:

What this reads (In Japanese... it alternated Japanese and English) is:
Distance from Departure City: 798Km
Local Time in Arrival City: 2:38
Altitude: 11,000Meters
Outside Temperature: -60C
Distance Remaining: 107Km








Then it put up a map:

This was just so cool. I watched Rent, and the new Zorro (All with Chinese subtitles... I don't know why it wasn't in Japanese... I guess that was because it was a Singapore flight...).

Then came lunch. The lady asked me if I wanted the Japanese lunch or the International lunch. I selected the International because the chicken looked good.

And here's a shocker; it was.

And it was huge. Bread, a salad, shrimp a plate of fruits, and a cup of Haagen Das (Chocolate)... It was amazingly good. Domestic flights don't hold a candle to international ones... this was an awesome flight.

Finally, after 11 hours of wandering the 747, watching movies, eating ice cream, chatting with UNC students, reading my book, sleeping a little and listening to all kinds of music, I see the first part of land near Narita Airport.

And thus, I am here.
Next time: Narita, Moriya and the tale of lost luggage.

---Me.

Familiarity....

I have spent the last 5 weeks running around a city that has changed much, but in the same way, changed little.

While driving to the FedEx dropoff, I passed Ward Electric Supply, where my Grandfather and I would go when he needed parts for a job (He was an electrician). Ward Electric is in the same building, with pretty much the same folks running it.

I observed that I have spent the last five weeks driving my father's 1985 Nissan Pickup... the same exact truck I learned to drive on in 1989 (And the clutch hasn't gotten any more forgiving in the interveining years).

I just spent a few hours in a house that is the exact floorplan as my grandparents house (Because my Godmother had built the house using my grandparents' houseplans 50 years ago... and thus both houses are exactly the same).

As Conroe heads into a psudo-spring, the place is starting to smell like the city I have known over the last 33 years. Which is making me recall, with vivid detail, my childhood and seeking refuge in the air-conditioned living rooms of my grandparents (It has also been 80 degrees here).

I guess it is appropriate that I would spend these last few weeks in a place that is so familiar, I'm about to travel to a place that is very unfamiliar.

But Colorado was my home... but no one place was home, it was in my familiarity with my friends that was most comfortable. It was the people that I called home.

Here in Conroe, the people are going (I can count my remaining family on one hand), but the places are familiar.

In Japan, the culture is familiar... but I've never been there before...

Well, I have to shut the computer down and disconnect it... It's time to change homes again...

More later, from the other side of the ocean.

*FWOO FWOO* Is this thing on?

....And one of the more difficult things I have ever done...

Well, good. The test to see if I can add pictures (an Important feature if you folks want to keep up with me...) is completed and successful! Woo Hoo!