Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Japan-a-go-go

We depart on our next adventure on a new airline for both of us; Singapore Airlines. Barb sweet talks the guy at check in into giving us a group of 3 seats so we are not packed in like sardines for this ten and a half hour flight. Unfortunately, that puts us in the middle section towards the back of the plane. We get through security and find our gate. Now we wait for a couple of hours until our flight boards. We head off to find ourselves something to do in the meantime.

I love international terminals. They just seem a bit more high class than domestic ones. The decor seems nicer. The seats are nicer. We post up at a wine bar and drink away our time. Of course this isn't a good idea right before getting on a long flight. The wine is just going to dehydrate us. But, we don't really care. We are on our way to Japan!

Our flight is filled with, what we can only presume is, a teen religious group on their way to do mission work or some such thing. There are about 40 late teens all dressed very nicely waiting to board the plane. Too nicely for a long international flight. Suits, dresses, ties, heels. After boarding the plane, we find ourselves right in the middle of the group. They all take turns in the on board restrooms and change into pajamas and comfortable flying attire. There is a profound lack of profanity and some small groups of singing during the flight. At least there are no crying infants around us. The Vonn Trapp family isn't that bad. The flight goes very well. If you have a chance to fly Singapore Airlines; Jump on it. In seat entertainment, WiFi, charging station...just great!

After landing, we find our tour group quickly and painlessly. We are numbers 3 and 4 out of 21 coming off the plane. Not sure how that works as we were some of the last people off the plane. ::shrug:: We find a couple seats and hang out while we wait. Barbara checks out the local restroom situation while I exchange our cash into Yen. It seems that two of the people that are in our group are missing. Like never got off the plane kind of missing. After two hours and several phone calls, we leave the airport without them. Maybe they missed their flight. I still don't know what happened to them. Nor do I really care. They are burning my vacation time.

On the way to the hotel, the Hotel Okura, we find that we have been bumped from that hotel into The New Otani (which was my preferred hotel). The other hotel had a somewhat surprise visitor; President Obama. He just happened to be in town at the same time as us. Our guide talks to us on our long trip from the airport to the hotel. It seems that most everyone on the bus are asleep however. Our bodies believe that it's around 4am. We get checked into the hotel and are asleep faster than you can say Rip Van...snore.

2 comments:

  1. What a great flight experience. Did you re-hydrate or keep the dehydration going?

    I don't blame you for being irritated at losing 2 hrs due to the missing travelers. I'd have been fuming.

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  2. We had a couple more glasses of wine with our meals on the flight. I arrived with a slight headache as I apparently wasn't keeping a good water to wine ratio.

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