I truly thought I was going to throw up. Not because I am afraid to travel by myself – I rather enjoy it – but because I had fifty pounds of crap on my back half of which was for Al’s benefit and for which I was sure he was totally ungrateful. And he had made the connections too close. And in general I don’t know why I married him or why I thought I wanted to go to Hong Kong with him. And because the USA Rugby team was on his plane, not mine. In other words, I was seriously pissed off and also bummed out. It really was going to be a drag – for both of us – to have to travel the distance alone. I almost felt worse for him. Almost.
I called Andy, who was on his way to the gym and asked him to come get me. Fortunately he was able to and my plan was to turn right around and go home. Then Patti got wind of this. This woman could sell ocean front property in Arizona. Wednesday’s not too late! Al’s been so excited you are coming! I’ll meet you at the airport! We’ll have a spa day and my friend will take us shopping and barter for jade! (say no more – my favorite rock…) All this while waiting at United Customer No Service to figure out how to get my luggage off the next plane to Hong Kong, which was a plane that would go through Haneda (I had no idea before today that Haneda is Tokyo International Airport), where it would sit for three hours and then go on to Hong Kong from there. I made a snap decision to – go.
I had about five hours so Andy scooped me up, took me to his place in Martinez, which God love him took an hour through heavy traffic while he listened to me rant and rave. At his house I unloaded some of the food, stretched my legs, ate a few homemade chocolate chip cookies, repacked everything so that it made sense for the new plan, took the BART back to the airport (boy, do I miss public transportation right to the airport doors. How ‘bout it, Orange County?) It was exactly what I needed and I don’t know if I could have continued in the same positive mind set had it not been for my wonderful son taking care of his mama.
So – the rest is pretty mundane. Slept well, my Nook didn’t work because for some reason it wanted me to enter my name and credit card. Barnes and Noble is skating on thin ice with me. Tokyo airport is amazing. Crazy clean, free luggage carts (hallelujah – I really honestly have no shoulders and neck left) and toilet stalls with bidets, front, back, dryer. Are you SERIOUS? In the airport toilet stall? Of course I used it after 12 hours in the air. The cart even fits in the stall. Japanese who work at the airport are insanely polite, in a passive aggressive kind of way. You might not understand what they are saying but you don’t need to – you do what they say – that accommodating smile from someone in power is rather scary.
As I was waiting I of course got online, and there on FB page was a friend who posted something, quite coincidentally, about Japanese Kit-Kats which come in flavors you’ve never heard of that are the best thing on the planet. I went back to the souvenir store to see if I could get “one” and there were Costco sized boxes of them stacked. I guess it’s a thing. I didn’t buy any and then a while later I decided the coincidence of it all meant I really should just go get some, what was one more thing stuffed into my carry on, and the store had closed (it was midnight in Tokyo). Oh well. Next time?
Now I am nearing Hong Kong. It will be 5:30 a.m. Wednesday (Tuesday evening in LA) when we land. Patti will be waiting for me at the airport to escort me back to the hotel, hassle free. All in all it wasn’t a bad trip. I had an open seat next to me for this part of the trip (four hours) and I managed to crunch myself up (yay for travelling with my bed pillow – you can call me crazy but I never regret it) and sleep for two hours. Ate some kind of weird Japanese airplane food and am ready to begin the fun. I think Al should arrange for me to have my picture taken with the rugby team or the star or something, don’t you?
We are scheduled to go on a hike over the Dragon’s Tail mountain today – I packed my trekking poles but they are in my checked luggage and hopefully it arrives. The nice lady at Haneda asked for my baggage claim and she claims it’s on the flight.
Well, the captain is telling us we’re getting close and I have to laugh, he has that same low key, drawn out, eeehhhhh, thing going on in Japanese as English speaking pilot has!
I am ready to hike, that’s for sure. Stay tuned…