hello japan

the trip to japan was really quite uneventful. that is a good thing. my flights were on time and mostly smooth. it was windy in boston so the takeoff was a little bumpy, but that was all.

the flight to tokyo was long of course. i had a window seat. two men shared the row. the older man on the aisle slept for most of the flight and i thought i would never get to go to the bathroom. finally middle seat man got up and so did i. middle seat man was nice, (but he had bad breath) he showed me how to work the remote for the tv and got my attention whenever the nice flight attendants wanted to give me food or beverage. casey had said all nippon was superior to other airlines. i have to say, the flight attendants were very attentive, they were constantly coming around with hot drinks, cold drinks, snacks. i don't think they sat down during the entire flight and they were always smiling and pleasant. i had ordered vegetarian meals and they were delicous, really delicous. i had veggie lasagna with salad, bread, some green beans and tofu. maybe there was something else, but i forget. the second smaller meal was noodles with veggies and a roll along with some sliced fruit, applesauce. again, very tasty. this in addition to snacks. i got to choose which movies i wanted to watch, or play video games ( i didn't). i watched edward scissorhands, when harry met sally, the lake house and the coco chanel story. i read some, did some sudoku and tried to sleep some. i did doze for short stretches.

i had no problems with customs or immigration, i didn't think i would... but man, my suticases were heavy. i was sweating like a madman trying to hoist them onto a cart, the big suitcase weighed 68 pounds. i have no idea how much the smaller bag weighed, plus the 2 carry ons. whew...

i had checked on the website to see how much overweight bags were, to decide if i should bring another bag or mail some stuff. it said it would be $25.00 for overweight bags and i figured that was my cheapest option. at the ticket counter in boston, one of the checkers told me that it was going to be $150 for the bag. i said oh, i thought it was only $25. she said "to japan?" like i was out of my mind. the guy who was originally helping me punched it into the computer and said "narita?, she's right.. $25.00." yay... of course i had no choice, i would have had to pay the $150, but i liked the $25 much better.

i spent my 4 hours in tokyo drinking milk tea, people watching, listening to podcasts on my laptop and dozing. more reading and sudoku and it was off to komatsu where casey was waiting on the other side of the glass watching me, once again stuggling to get those heavy bags onto the cart. unless i do some crazy shopping here, i will be able to fit my second bag and one carry on into the big suitcase and not be nearly at the weight limit, ( even with a baby in it). no i am just kidding, i will put him in the carry on.

i am spending lots of time staring at and holding ray. he is a dolly. i forgot my camera.