japan 2015

yikes!! it's been a year since i posted!! 

obviously the only part of my life that i feel is worth sharing...

my trips to japan

so here we go...

i left the u.s. on august 11th.. my flight was scheduled for 6 a.m.   ray and patty had been visiting since the saturday before and offered to bring me to the airport, (thank you)... we figured we'd leave the house at 2 a.m.  ... well 2:45 still got us to boston in plenty of time... you wouldn't think the airport would be all that crowded at 4 in the morning, but you'd be wrong!!

american airlines has a different bag drop system than the ones i'd used before, (i had printed my boarding pass the day before) you print out your own luggage tags at the kiosk.. i got all the way to the counter and had to start over, only some of the kiosks were working properly so that was a little frustrating..

once we were boarded we were told that there was weather in new york so we couldn't take off.. we sat for about an hour, i had a 2 hour layover so it was going to be fine..but once we got there, we couldn't land... when we finally landed about 1/2 hour later, my next flight was at another terminal...i was near the back of the plane, i walked as fast as i could, i had to wait for the train... i missed my flight.... by 5 minutes... the woman at the counter said.. "we were paging you".. i said "my flight was delayed".. "2 people from your flight got here"...well i'm sorry, they must have been closer to the front and had longer legs and run and made the previous train... anyway, they put me on the next flight to tokyo, taking off 3 or 4 hours later, so my next layover was in the u.s. instead of in japan so that was okay.. it still left me enough time to get through customs or immigration or whatever it is, get my luggage and get to the domestic terminal in tokyo and make my flight to komatsu... guess what?!  the flight from jfk to tokyo was delayed as well... i figured i'd be spending the night at the airport...but i had a whole hour once we landed.. 

while i was waiting for my luggage, a japan airlines employee came along with a sign with my name on it... she was there to show me the way to the bus that would take me to the domestic terminal.. arranged by the woman at jfk.. it saved me some time, i would have had to find the information booth, at the very least, to find out where to go.. so i got to there with enough time to sit and enjoy my favorite royal milk tea... my ritual while waiting for my flight to komatsu.. i usually have hours to spare... and believe or not.. my flight to komatsu was also delayed!!  we boarded on time, but again, had to wait to take off... i fell asleep, when i woke up and saw we were on the ground, i wasn't sure if we had just landed or what... we were still in tokyo, getting ready to take off.. i went back to sleep..

my boy and grandboys were waiting for me, as usual, on the other side of the glass, when i arrived.. it was a long day, but always worth it