We just returned (at 2:20 am on Monday morning...) from two wonderful weeks in Japan. My intent was to blog during the trip but when I first tried to sign onto my blog while in Japan, everything on the sign in screen was in Japanese and I just couldn't make it happen. So settled for writing an email to my mom each day and now I'm going to go back and post in the blog...
-Traveling- (Monday 8/22 thru Wednesday 8/24. Tuesday kinda got lost in the shuffle...)
We left Grand Rapids at about 12:30 pm on the Megabus to Chicago. The Megabus is a bus that leaves from a street corner in downtown GR. You buy your tickets in advance online, and the earlier you buy them, the cheaper they are. We paid $5 (yep, $5) each for our tickets. Plus $1 seat reservation fee each and $1 ticket fee each. So for a grand total of $14 we both got to downtown Chicago. Not a bad deal. Reserved seats put us "upstairs" where we could look down on the semis and other cars. Steve felt the ride was bumpy up there, I didn't really notice too much in that regard. There was wi-fi and there was a bathroom. That was enough for me...
Got to Chicago and we were, again, dropped off on a street corner. We knew which one, and had directions to get to the CTA station nearby. We had thoughts (ok, -I- had thoughts) of going to Millenium Park which was only about a mile away, but was already feeling the weight of my carry on, and we had been running a bit behind, so decided to head on out to the airport. Short walk to the CTA station, where we were panhandled at least three times in two blocks. Hello, Chicago! Got to the station, bought our tickets, and soon were on the CTA Blue line, headed for O'Hare. First time on the CTA for me, Steve was a former regular customer from back in his intern days at Sears.
Got to O'Hare, needed to get from the station there out to the International Terminal (5.) Had to hike through a parking lot without a lot of direction but finally managed to figure it out, then got to where we needed to go. Passed through security without having to go to the Asiana counter (our airline) since I'd checked us in at home and printed our boarding passes. Got to go through the whole routine of putting stuff on the scanner belt, getting scanned, and picking it all back up. Apparently braids are suspect these days because the female TSA agent felt mine up pretty good.
Then the wait, since it was oh, maybe around 5 pm by now and our flight didn't leave until 11:55 pm. We found our gate, then decided to walk around for a while. We were not impressed with Terminal 5 as there didn't seem to be a lot of entertainment and dining options out there. There was a noodle place that normally would have been my choice but since we were flying an Asian airline thought I'd get enough of that later. Ended up at a Mexican place that was confusing with their take out and seating lines. We ordered take out - they were "out" of what I ordered so I settled for nachos. We then were going to take a seat in the seating area but that was just for ordering from the menu. I asked if they had the menu item that the take out had said they were out of. Yep, they did. So I ordered it off the menu so we could sit in the seating area. Weird but it worked. Go figure. Then spent a while after dinner walking and looking at planes. Watched several different international flights come and go from our gate, which was actually two gates. Finally, our flight was called.
Steve had brought his cane on this trip, with more of a possibility of actually using it this time around since he's had some ankle issues lately. That worked to our advantage since we got to board early because of his cane use...which ensured we would be able to have room for our luggage by our seats. We had an aisle and a middle seat, so that Steve would have the possibility of a bit more leg room to stretch out on. Being in the middle was not so fun, but it was what it was. Blanket, pillow, slippers, and headsets at our seats. Very pleasant flight attendants, bowed as we came aboard. Kind of disconcerting to hear everything in Korean first, then accented English. Made us feel sort of like Chris Farley in that SNL sketch about him being on a Japanese game show...
Soon we were off and not too long after were served our first meal. We could choose the western option, which Steve did, or the Korean option, which I did. Steve's was some unremarkable mystery meat. Mine was Bibimbap, which was Korean vegetables and beef with rice. Only disappointment was no chopsticks...needed that practice! Also noted that the portions were adequate for me but Steve felt they were small. We finally wised up and I ordered coffee as well so that Steve could have a "full" cup. After the meal things settled down for the night. Shades were all closed (nobody was given a choice here) and lights were down low. I broke out my J-pillow, my portable footrest, and my eye shades. Between the three, I was able to manage a fair amount of sleep, though not the greatest.
A few hours before reaching Incheon Airport in Seoul, the lights were turned back up, and we were served another meal. No choice this time, we were all served fish and rice. Not half bad I guess.
Arrived at Incheon about 4 am local time on Wednesday. Tuesday sorta got lost in the shuffle. After going through a security, we stayed in the transit area of the airport and went to a lounge area that had wonderful lounges where we could stretch out and use wifi. We also walked around for a while, and Steve wanted something to eat. We found a restaurant where we could still use USD and Steve got a bacon cheeseburger meal. I had a drink since we had just had a meal on the plane a few hours earlier. Much of the transit area amenities were not yet open as it was too early in the day. Also considered whether or not to attempt to get at least one of the geocaches just outside the terminal. Opted against it because it was so early in the day.
Headed to our gate with several hours to spare. Scored seats near the charging station so I was a happy camper until our flight to Tokyo was called. We also had a pretty good view of the planes so Steve was a relatively happy camper as well. Flight to Tokyo left without any difficulties. We were in a window and aisle seat for this flight, and were served another meal enroute. Again everyone received the same, a boxed meal which was rice and beef bulgogi. Tasted good to me.
Soon we were landing in Tokyo and that's where our fun began. Well, not. Jet-lagged, we got through security and immigration and began to figure out the money and train situations. First fun. Our bank card was rejected. No yen for you...We were just getting into wifi contact with the boys at the same time and were a bit panicked at what might be happening. To make a long story short, we figure part of the problem at this point was that we were asking for more yen than our bank wanted to part with at one transaction. Anyway, we changed $200 USD into yen so we had some spending money, and then went to buy the Narita Express and Shinkansen tickets to get us up to Hachinohe where Scott, Eric, and Trina were to pick us up. Got the tickets and were advised that the Narita Express was leaving soon so we should get right down to the platform. In all the confusion we lost our wifi signal and weren't able to let the boys know we were on our way and would be on the 3:20 Shinkansen.
Tokyo had just gone through heavy rain the last few days. We sort of knew that, but it didn't really register until our Narita "Express" stopped on the tracks not too far from the airport and was delayed for about an hour because of the heavy rain. Then it finally started again, only to stop about 10 minutes later because of a wiring issue. In all, our 45 minute trip took over two hours to get to Tokyo Station. We missed our Shinkansen because of it. Dealing with this while jet lagged and hearing announcements in Japanese without much English explanation was pretty intense, especially knowing the boys didn't really know what our status was. Tried to get wifi on the express but everything was in Japanese and wanted passwords, couldn't figure that out.
Once we were at Tokyo station, more confusion. Finally found a place where we were able to exchange our Shinkansen tickets for the next available train, which was at 5:20 pm. Got to the right track after some additional struggle, and finally made it onto the train. Let's just say we were exhausted by then. Good thing the man next to us didn't appear to understand English very well. We had very briefly been able to log onto wifi, enough to let the boys know that we would be on the 5:20.
Finally - Hachinohe Station at about 8:30 pm local time. Thankfully, Scott was there waiting for us. They had figured we would probably be on the train we should have been on, and were on their way to the station when they got our message that we would be on the 5:20. So Scott took Eric and Trina back to his place, then came down to get us when the time was right. Never so happy to see my eldest son in my life!
Drove back to his place in Misawa. Pretty weird to be on the left side of the road, and Scott driving on the right side of the car. Made it back, had some pizza, and soon went to bed.
Traveling to Japan was very long........
No comments:
Post a Comment