I made it… eventually

Yes! I am writing from Daishoji, where the weather is slightly colder than I had thought it would be but still damn better than Toronto.

My flight here wasn’t bad. I had a newer plane which meant I got to pick the movies I wanted to watch (Beowolf and Gone Baby, Gone) and the food was only kind of nasty for one meal. (Meal two was sandwiches and I skipped whatever they were giving out at the end of the flight. It smelled nasty, though.)

Getting through customs was a breeze and the fingerprinting (to my semi-disappointment) was just pressing my two index fingers down on a computer pad. The customs agent teased me about travelling alone while my picture was taken. I’m sure it was horrible on his end, but I almost expected to be handed a print club sticker because of the jolly border on the side of the screen that I could see. That would have been kind of awesome. Customs print club stickers…

My trauma came when I got to the area where you caught connecting domestic flights. My (once a day) flight to Komatsu from the Narita airport was cancelled! I was a tad upset *cough* but the kind woman at ANA airlines took very good care of me. Probably because she thought I would collapse in a puddle of tears if she didn’t. :) I did tell her that I had just gotten off the flight from Canada and it was about four in the morning for me, and I was trying to stay calm… She was trying to get me to pick a flight for the next day but when I kept saying that I had to ask Amy first she went off and borrowed a co-worker’s cell phone and called her for me. That was a bit above and beyond, I though. I was turning around to look at the payphones when I was saying it, so all I really wanted was someone to show me how to use them…. Anyway, I eventually made my way to the airport shuttle where we drove for an hour to get to the Haneda Airport, which I was somewhat familiar with from my last trip. I got booked into the airport hotel and I was wondering how long it would take me to get there in the morning… but there’s a door leading from the hotel lobby into the airport. It took me about two minutes. :)

(BTW, there was incredible soundproofing on the room. I could see planes parked outside my window, but didn’t know they were also taking off close by until the next morning and saw one fly past. Cool.)

My flight to Komatsu was crowded but FAST and I was at Amy’s by 11:30. Finally!

Right now it’s 6am and we’re just getting ready for an overnight trip to Kyoto and Nara with dinner at a Goth restaurant in Osaka thrown in for good measure. I’m off to shower! I’ll report in about my trip whenever I can.

Later!