*queue Star Wars music*
Episode 1 - the Airbourne Menace
*duhn duhn duhn.....*
I started my day, bright and early at 5am, by lugging my TWO 70 lbs suitcases (and the 30 lbs carry on, and my 20 lbs laptop case) down the three flights of steps from Mike's apartment to the taxi in the Atlanta summer heat. So, naturally, by the time I got to the airport, where we were meeting at 6, I was completely drenched in sweat in the most uncool (geddit? :D) fashion possible. BUT THAT WAS OK because everyone else was still rubbing the sleep from their eyes. (By the way, they charge you through the nose for overweight bags. But I told you that already.)
So, this being a government sponsored venture and all, we were naturally told to show up much too early. "Much" being three and a half hours.
Let me say that again.
They made us wait at the airport for THREE AND A $#%&ING HALF HOURS.
So what did we do in the meantime? I popped out some magic tricks for the crowd (duh) and bonded with my bros Lenny and Nolan (more in Episode 2) while the officials triple-checked to make sure everyone was on the flight. Breakfast was sauntered in there (because it was neither a rush nor squeeze) somewhere, and we all hopped on the flight to Houston at 9:30. Which left half an hour late. Which meant we held up the Houston-Narita flight by half an hour because apparently the Japanese Consulate had never considered that American commuter flights could be LATE.
So then we were rushed halfway across the Houston terminal onto our flight, only to have to wait another half hour for various other checks because something malfunctioned. Since it was a thirteen hour flight, and all I did was sleep, eat, and watch Echoes of the Rainbow again (super highly recommended), I'll use the following space to introduce some of the Atlanta JETs.
Mah bros Nolan and Lenny, Rachel and Alicia (the Tar Heel)
Our beautiful neighbors (at the hotel): Katie, Jeannie and Scot (Actually it was Alicia. But
Scot can be beautiful too ;D)
Willie bein' all business on the monorail, and Leslie, Diane, Amber,and Ginny somehow manag-
ing to smile after being rushed through the Houston terminal.
As for the flight itself.... I was sandwiched between Leslie and Amber (who stole my window seat. grrrr.) but since it was mostly sleep + movies and we were all really dehydrated anyways from the Atlanta flight I didn't actually have to get up that much. During the flight, Amber was rocking on her DS, and since Leslie likes Enya almost as much as I do, I was playing her my entire new age collection from my laptop. At some point I also chilled at the back of the cabin with Mary-Beth, who is stuck on the same island as Leslie somewhere waaaaay south of the rest of Japan. That's when I met Wayne.
Also, note to Cathay Pacific: Serve more ice cream on your flights. That gets brownie points from me.
Amber excited to be taking off from Texas, and Leslie with her dinner. While watching Echoes of the Rainbow (I made her watch it :D)
And finally arrival. Where we found out that half our bags didn't make it to Houston, much less Tokyo. It wasn't exactly surprising since we flew a small commuter flight into Houston, and everyone had TWO 50+ lbs bags. And let's not forget that our -15 minute layover meant that poor luggage transporter guy was slamming the pedal to the metal to get everything on the Narita flight in time. Another half an hour was spent sorting that mess out, and then we were promptly greeted at arrivals by an ARMY of JETs. I wish I had pictures, but by then I was so jetlagged and overwhelmed I just let myself be dragged around, shoved on a bus, and carted to our hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
*roll credits*
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