Jan 15 thru 17, 2006

Sunday morning was the big day. Tried to wake up early to make it on time for my 11:30 am flight to Japan to see Reggie. Donna's getting upset with Dan dragging his feet burning CD's for Reg. Anyway, we finally leave at around 8:30 about half an hour later than I'd want but we still make it in good time at the 105 with everyone zipping at 80 mph. The baggage x-ray line was pretty long but there was this lady who told some of us to go to another 'empty' baggage x-ray station. It turned out the line I was on was quicker than the one we were told to go to. After my baggages got x-rayed I proceeded to the check in counter. Of course, there was a huge line and by now I'm a little over an hour to flight time so the stress level is rising up. Lo and behold once I got to the counter, I saw this sign saying the flight from Narita got delayed for 2 hours! The 11:30 flight is now scheduled for 1:30. All this worrying for being late was all in vain! The lady at the counter said next time, baggages should weigh no more than 70 lbs but she'll let it slide this time because the flight was delayed and she gave me a $10.00 food coupon to sweeten the deal. It turned out everyone in flight 61 is getting a coupon. We went up to the food court to have lunch since I figured they probably won't be serving lunch till way after lunch time. The Japanese food Donna got wasn't too bad. After lunch I went to the bathroom and when I came out Donna said she seems to have heard it on the PA system saying our flight was boarding. We quickly wrapped everything up and I went to x-ray station for the gates. They were rushing everyone through the lines. I had to take my laptop out of my carry on luggage and a guy was yelling at me why I went out of line because people will be passing me. All this time on another x-ray a lady security was yelling at this elderly oriental guy, "You'll have to step back, Sir!!" who's trying to explain his situation in some foreign language. I finally went through the x-ray with the bell buzzing, went back took out a bunch of quarters from my pocket, did it again, another buzz, went back and took off my belt and finally I cleared. Whew!!!

Rushed to gate 104, there was no one there so I figured Donna must have misheard the announcement. I sat down and tried to go on line and heard the gate changed to 105, I moved and after several games of Spider Solitaire, fell asleep and then it's time to board. My 2 ton carry on luggage was a bear to lift up and cram into the overhead compartment!

The flight was pretty uneventful except for a little turbulence. The first meal was a choice between beef or shrimp and of course I chose the latter which consists of a bento box 2/3 full of rice and 1/3 of vegetables, gravy and 4 shrimps. The 2nd meal was pasta with about 6 or so of small scallops. Suffice it to say I got hungry and the 2 empanadas Donna had me take were a lifesaver. I watched Madagascar, most of Four Brothers, the ending of Gladiator and a portion of Skeleton Key which sucked cause I didn't get to see the end.

I got through immigration and customs without any glitches and Reggie and Naomi were already waiting when I got out. We put the Balikbayan box in storage and left for Yokosuka. When we got here, we dropped off the luggage at Reggie's place and picked up the kerosene containers for his heater, filled them up then had dinner, took a shower and now I'm ready to go to sleep since it's 3:48 am here. I'll give Naomi her birthday card tomorrow sometime along with her family's goodies.