Travel Day

Well, today is travel day. We started at a brisk 4 am, hitting the first leg of our trip from DC to Dallas.

Helpful tip that I wish I had remembered: drinking a medium Dunkin' Donuts coffee before 5 am is only truly useful on Primary/Election Day. It certainly is not for taking a flight. It absolutely is not a good idea to finish it before the plane takes off. Especially when you are sitting in the window seat of the plane and it's an early morning flight when everyone is asleep. I'm amazed my bladder didn't go on strike.

Anyway... we then got on our last and final leg of today's trip - the 12 hour and 54 minute flight to Narita, Tokyo. This isn't my first rodeo. In fact, since there's nothing you can do about it, it's best to just abandon the natural tendency to want to resist and fight it but to just accept and surrender to it. I will spend most of my time on this airplane trying to attain such an enlightened state (see below). At least I don't have another flight on the other side of this, like I do when I go to the Philippines (Detroit to Nagoya to Manila). So that already is a plus in my book.

But this is not a race. It's like an endurance ride. I find that breaking up my flight, much like breaking up a 100 mile bike ride is similar and ideal. So. Let's do just that. Because, let's face it. I've got the luxury of time at the moment. And I'm going to just warn any readers here - this will be long. I have nearly 13 hours to kill, people. Feel free to take coffee or bathroom breaks. Read it in pieces, when you need to stop doing work for a few minutes. I assure you, I'll try to make it worthwhile. Because I care. And if you're actually reading this thing, I should try to impart something useful. Instead of the deterioration of my mind over 12 hours.


11:00 am EST: On the tarmac at DFW.
Getting ready to take off. I'm super glad I paid attention to changing my seat. I'm even more thankful this flight isn't full. I realized that sitting in the middle of the plane, in the five seater row is not ideal. But it is when there is no one on either side of you, in front of you, or behind you. Score! This is the MOST comfortable I've ever been flying from the US to Japan. And for the record, that means my record there is 1 out of 9. Not great odds. But hey, maybe when I'm actually flying to Japan instead of going through it, that could be the difference.


11:10 am EST: headed down the runway.
So we're moving. And there's this adorable little girl who happens to look exactly like the Japanese Dora sitting across the aisle from me with her mother. On her lap. Her mother is stretching the seatbelt across both of their laps. I'm amazed at how really good the little girl is being.

After all, two trips to Asia ago, this little girl in my row was having a temper tantrum. I'm totally serious. A full-on rolling on the ground, beating the floor, screaming tantrum. She couldn't have been more than 3 years old. Which happens to be the tender age that I took my first plane ride. To the Philippines. I guess mom wanted to just get that whole thing over with at once.

What makes that story hilarious (if it can be) is that my mother and I had noticed when we took off that the little girl had no toys, no stuffed animals - nothing - for what was a 14 hour trip. When they handed out the earphones and I noticed the little girl playing, I turned to my mom and said, "See? She's the type of kid that will play with anything."

To which my mother turned to me with a deadpan look. "Because she doesn't have any toys." Point taken.

Twenty minutes later, as the girl is in the beginning stages of the tantrum, my mother mutters, "Because her mother didn't bring her anything to keep her busy." Two hours later, as the little girls is turning blue, rolling around, I turn to my mother. "Was I like that the first time I flew?" My mom turns to the little girl, both of us smiling at her hopefully - we somehow thought this might calm her down if all of us were putting on nice, happy faces every time we'd look at her. My mom turned back around to me. "No. Because I would have killed you. And you knew it." And she turned back to smile at the little girl. Which would have been fine, except as I noticed, all the people smiling at the little girl were just doing so. Their eyes had a totally different meaning otherwise.

Funniest part of the story is that after going through customs in Nagoya, we are starting to take off for Manila and the little girl starts to wail. Before you know it, at least five other passengers along with my mother and I, are leaning forward to give the little girl stuffed animals, toys and games we all picked up at the airport. Because, as my mother knew - the girl had no toys. We weren't the only ones with this amazing epiphany. We all ran as fast as we could away from her once we landed.

Anyway, back to Japanese Dora. See? This is my experience on these long flights. I just sort of expect the kids to go nuts. But she's being incredibly well behaved.

At which point, a male airline attendant (I say this because I can't call him a stewardess, can I? Is he called a steward? I have seriously never had this train of thought before. Thank you, American Airlines and a long flight) comes down the aisle and stops in front of her. I have my headphones on, busy flipping through the movies to see what my options are for the flight.

What I can understand from the conversation (because I wasn't about to take off the headphones) is that the little girl isn't allowed to sit on her mother's lap when we take off. The mother is trying to explain to him. He's insistent. This is when I take off the headphones just in time to catch him saying, "I don't care if she's scared, she needs to sit in that seat for safety. Do you understand?" He then turns, exasperated to the young Japanese man sitting one seat from me in my row. "Can you explain it?"

The man in my row is trying to be helpful, murmuring to the mother in Japanese. She responds. It's clear the little girl doesn't want to move. The airline attendant then says, "Well then I'll just go talk to the Captain and have him turn the airplane around to get you both off the plane."

Um.

He then gets another stewardess, this one Japanese, to try to explain to the woman. The mother continues to explain to her. The stewardess turns to the attendant and he then says angrily to the mother, "Ok, fine. You'll be the reason we have to turn around. You're spending the night in Dallas, you're not going to travel. Do you understand?" The mother looks around helplessly to all of us.

At this point, I'm confused. Aren't children under a certain age allowed to sit on their parents' lap on an airplane? How long will this whole thing take? Why did he get so damn exasperated with her? The mother and folks around us are all trying to be supportive in some way or another. And then he comes back with a different stewardess who then undoes the seatbelt around the both of them. She then places it only around the mother's lap. She then says to the mother, "It's alright. Just hold her like this [she then demonstrates and wraps the mom's arms around her kid like a bear hug] and you'll be alright."

The stewardess walks away, content, if not somewhat annoyed. The attendant walks in the opposite direction shaking his head.

Now, I guess this is just what it is. Except every time the attendant walks by, he shakes his head slightly after he passes the mother in a, "can you believe this?" kind of way to the man next to me and me. Then another attendant (he is male, too), is going up the other aisle with the drink cart and is pointing out the mother and daughter to another stewardess and mouthing and gesticulating wildly while rolling his eyes.

Okay. Now it's just ridiculous. Yes, the mother should have insisted her daughter move to the seat next to her. Someone was scared. Can you blame her? That's what mothers do, for crying out loud. But more than that, what was with the treatment? I get the language barrier. But he handled it like a douche. And then to have other attendants doing the same thing, well, that was just unprofessional.

Keep it classy, American Airlines. I decide to put on "Dark Shadows" and proceed to watch it while drinking my coffee after take off. Apparently, I have not learned my lesson from the first leg.


13:15 pm EST: Flying somewhere over Billings, Montana.
I've finished "Dark Shadows". I've also finished off a bag of a sort of Asian Trail Mix (pretzels, rice crackers, almonds and sesame oat things) as well as a lunch of meatballs and rice, salad, crackers with cheese and sushi. And that was only some of what was on my plate. May I humbly remind anyone still reading that we have been on the plane for less than 3 hours and I've been served coffee, a snack, a full lunch and a soda? Pace yourself, folks. We got a long way to go. And I need to move around because I can feel my chin starting to drop after all that food in a small amount of time.

And the last time I was in Billings was June of 2008. I really like Montana. Even if I am the only person of color for miles. It's like Manifest Destiny. Backwards. I wouldn't have fallen for the beauty of the Big Sky if it wasn't for AFSCME. And Hillary Clinton. I'll have to come back.


13:24 pm EST: Flying over Idaho
Waving to Tippy. This is the closest I may get to Boise in a while, so, hi!

I am now flipping back through the movies. I decide on "Brave". I quickly realize that I'm burning through this media a little too quick. Only one other movie is a definite watch for me and then after that, we'll see. I turn it off to blog.

So I turn to the other nice Japanese man a seat away from me in the other aisle. (the rows from window to window are 2 seats, aisle, 5 seats, aisle, 2 seats. I am literally in the middle.) This man seems very nice. He also is an older gentleman who has spent the first leg of this flight just sitting and looking around. He will be bored unless he falls asleep soon. He turns on the TV and is watching it, silent. I realize he doesn't have headphones on. So I had him the extra ones on the seat between us. He is so thankful.


13:56 pm EST: I presume somewhere over Washington State.
The lights have been turned off and everyone in my row is passed out.

So on these long flights, they show the plane and a map and where we are on it. The minute any sort of wind or turbulence hits, I immediately turn to the map. Because I can see if we'll crash into mountains or water. It's a dark thought. But since the plane moves a total of 2 centimeters every forty minutes on this ridiculous map, what other train of thought can I possibly have other than wondering how fast we really are going? I suppose I could sit here naming my unborn children, but I used that trick up on the last flight from DC to Dallas in an effort not to pee my pants.

What I know is that right now, I'm still in the early stages of this flight. I will pay attention to the map until we get west of the continental US and we'll just be watching a plane on top of a background of blue for the next 8 hours. If I fall asleep now, I'll be asleep until we're an hour away. Or until they feed us again 30 mins from now. About three hours from now, I'll start getting a little anxious before realizing I've got another 7 hours. Four hours from now, I'll have that hopeful, yet sinking feeling that we're just a little over halfway there. Six hours from now I will lose hope, stop caring what time it is or how long we have until we land and truly surrender to the fact that we're just gonna be here until we land, so hang onto sanity with another Sudoku puzzle and start actually reading the book I've been trying to read for months on my Nook. Not long after that feeling (about 15 minutes), which I have been trying to attain for the entire 12 and a half hours I've been on the plane, we'll land and I'll scramble to fill out disembarkation and customs forms.

Alright. "Brave" it is.


17:05 pm EST: Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
I lied. I fell asleep since the last check-in. They haven't tried to feed us in the last three hours, so that's good. We have 7 hours and change to go.

And everyone's little window shade is down, making the cabin still dark. Except for little Japanese Dora's, who is alternating between looking out the window and playing under a blanket. Mostly quietly. I"m still impressed at how good she is.

I slept through the anxiety I predicted above and went straight to the realization since the map was in front of my face with the 7 hour mark. Maybe I should just give into sleep entirely. But I can't now. I'm really turning on "Brave".


19:02 pm EST: Somewhere over the blue blob - close to the Int'l Date Line.
"Brave" was pretty good. We are 2628 km to Narita. And it looks like about a half inch to the Int'l Date Line, according to the digital map.

We've been fed again, but a sandwich this time. I figure they'll probably try to feed us one more time before we land.

I have to say, having my own personal console and a mix of movies is really making a difference in this travel. I'm almost counting the hours so I can space out the movies I want to watch. That's a much different situation than usual where by this point, I'm a long way through a book, alternating between reading, sleeping and crossword puzzles. As much as I liked that, the time just eeked by. But this almost feels a little faster.

Having a ton of space and comfort with no one right next to me, in front of me, or behind me is also making this much more enjoyable.

Japanese Dora is now asleep, with the shade drawn down. I only mention her again because her mom was trying to turn on the video monitor, but not realizing it's a touch screen, so she was literally poking the bottom of the screen with no luck. I would have said something, but I'm too far away to be much help. I know. This is getting fairly boring. Apologies.

Now that my blood sugar is up, it looks like another movie for me. "Snow White and the Huntsman" this time. I did want to see that.


21:31 pm EST: an inch or so away from Narita. By map. Still over the blue blob.
Well that was a hardcore, trippy Snow White. Good thing the trampire had that Thor fella to save her from a cray-cray Charlize Theron. Nice appearance by Bob Hoskins as a dwarf, too.

Clearly, I've been on this plane too long. But y'all already knew that.

We are 1330 miles from Narita. And 2 hours and 39 minutes away.

I had the realization that I may actually not be getting other options for movies on the way home. It's time to stop watching them and do some reading or something more productive so I have something to watch for the ride home. Maybe some more sleep. There's games on this thing, that could come in handy. What I do know is that the closer we get, the more excited I'm getting. And ignoring the fact that the music choices they are offering are just repeating the same playlist over and over. Might be time for some iPod.

See? I've attained that surrender. This time, more than 2 hours before landing. Evolution. Or, technology. Either way.

23:04 pm EST: very slowly getting closer to Narita on the map.
As the map gets closer to Asia than Alaska and Hawaii, I suddenly am seeing Manila and the Philippine Islands on the map. And suddenly I'm a little home struck. This is the closest I've been to the homeland in two years and I'm not going to it. Not going to see it. Not going to see my grandmother, my uncle and his family, my grand uncles and aunts, my countless cousins. And that makes me sad I don't have the time - or the resources - to make it really happen. Sadface.

We have about an hour and a half to go. Time to tidy up. I considered taking a nap, but maybe I should just force myself to stay awake at this point. We will be 13 hours ahead and landing in the middle of the day over there.


23:44 pm EST: beginning descent into Tokyo
Yee! Konichiwa!

September 15th, 11:00 am EST: New Otani Hotel, Tokyo
So we have arrived. It is nice in this hotel, I particularly like the fact that you can play music in the bedroom, have it piped through in the bathroom where the's a great toilet that has one of those bidet things attached to it. Japanese toilets are awesome. I will post a pic of the one in the airport that has the sound of running water that you can run as well. Hip.

We went to a little French style restaurant not far from the hotel and I had my first taste of fish here with a Kirin beer and it was fantastic. And while the company and hosts were engaging and amazing, it's all we could do to not face plant on the table. We have been up and traveling for entirely too long.

I just finished packing my bags for tomorrow's trip to Iwate, the northern part of Japan that got hit by the earthquake and tsunami last year. That's right. We're traveling again.

I'm hoping to post this before we leave since the wi-fi is in the next building over, where I'm hoping to get up early enough to have breakfast in the am.

But for now, excuse me while I do the best I can to get a decent night's sleep. Trying to force us into this time difference is going to be brutal. I thought traveling back from the West Coast was bad...


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Location:On the plane