Ghetto airline. That’s the flight I took to Japan. It’s interesting, because I’ve flown to Japan a number of ways before. Of course the ones that stand out the most are my most recent—Air Canada/ANA flights through Vancouver to Osaka. Fair food, if a little cramped, but nothing to really complain about. In the dim recesses of my memory, I recall taking JAL, the king (queen?) of the crop way back when. Great food, pretty stewardesses, a comfortable way to cross the Pacific.
Then there was my JET flight to Japan. Now, I seem to recall hearing somewhere that Northwest Airlines was once primarily a carrier for soldiers moving to and from duty stations, or on leave visiting their families. I guess they never really made the transition into serving paying customers.
Ok, so I didn’t pay for my ticket. The Fukuoka Prefectural Board of Education did though, and considering the cost associated with it ($2500 USD, compared to the almost $1000 less for the American Airlines flight), you figure that they’d treat you right. Apparently, that part of the training and operations manual got tossed out.
In Toronto, we managed to get to the taxi runway before being called back for being overloaded with baggage. How and why this was discovered at that point I will not know. I do know that this delayed our departure by an hour, and when we finally were in the air, it was for less time than we were waiting.
While Detroit airport was nice, we didn’t really have time to explore it. A few hours later we were being boarded for our long flight to Tokyo. The 747 was old and showing its age. I, being ever so lucky, was stuck in the middle seat of the left bank of seats, far to the rear of the plane. While this was uncomfortable, I had already mentally prepared myself for a long and tiring flight, so I wasn’t expecting too much out of it. In retrospect, knowing I had a cold, I should have just bought some cold medicine to knock myself out for the duration. At least then I could have been rested for Tokyo. However, at least I could look forward to knocking back a whiskey or two, right?
Guess again. While beer was being served, it was $5USD per can, and cans of Budweiser and Miller at that. While the juices and pops were free, half-way through the drink service they ran out of Ginger Ale, and the following morning they ran out of orange juice. For my first meal, I was offered chicken or beef. When I asked for chicken, the stewardess promptly informed me that they were out of chicken. Fan-fricken-tastic. I knew there was a reason why my BoE was paying so much for my flight.
At least the movie line up was not too bad. The first movie was the Antonio Banderas give hope to disadvantaged inner-city youth flick (filmed in Toronto). That was followed by Ice Age 2. Next up was the painfully hard to watch RV, with JoJo and Robin Williams. I cannot adequately describe the crappitude that this movie displayed, with it’s over-used clichés and formulaic narrative. It’s a testament to my boredom that I was able to watch it at all. Last was the Starbucks movie Akeelah and the Bee, which was surprisingly good.
By the time the last movie had ended, I was essentially used up in terms of my patience. My seat, which was broken, was always in a reclined position, which meant that for the times when the seats had to be in the upright position, I had to sit ramrod straight lest it being to slide back again. With a jet full of JETs headed off to new lives for the next year, everyone had generous amounts of carry-on luggage, so the space between my feet was occupied by my over-stuffed back-pack, preventing me from really being able to stretch out.
By the time I arrived in Tokyo, I was beaten and exhausted. My cold had managed to get worse by an order of magnitude, and I was still looking at an almost 2 hour ride into Shinjuku and the Keio Plaza Hotel. I had a seat bench to myself on the bus, which allowed me to simply shut down as we rode to the hotel. But as the buildings grew taller, and the streets more crowded, even I felt more and more excited.
Next stop: Keio Plaza Hotel and the Tokyo Post-Arrival Orientation...
(Also, I don't seem to be able to upload pics yet, so I'll do that when I get internet access at home.)
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