Almost There!
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2008
1
Trip End
Ongoing
Tokyo, Japan
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Total flying time so far - about 16 hours. I am so incredibly exhausted, it's ridiculous.
I'm in the Tokyo Narita airport waiting for my flight to Bangkok (which
I keep spelling as Bankok). I've been crying on the inside for the past 2 hours or so. I can't believe I'm in Japan, but in the
AIRPORT! I've wanted to come to Japan since I don't even know when, and here I am, but not. Just looking at the tiles on one wall that they put up to give a Japanese feel, I assume and the MasterCard advertisement with the sumo wrestler, ugh, I just wanted to die - or escape to the outside. Even worse is that looking out the window, the landscape is nothing special, just some trees. For all I know I could still be in San
Francisco with just one or 2 more Japanese people around. This place is crawling with Americans, so it wouldn't be that farfetched.
And the airport security people should get an award.
Nowhere have I ever found people so nice. When I held up the line because I couldn't get to my passport through all the excess crap in my backpack, the man just laughed, a nice little laughed and said it was ok. When I got to the scanner, the security agent smiled and said hello and helped me put my things on the belt and asked politely if I had anything in my pockets and when I realized I was still wearing my bangles and started to take them off, she says, "Yes that would be much better." No barking or pushing or annoyance. Only thing is, I didn't understand one of the questions she asked me.
I felt really bad too, because till now, I still have no clue what she asked me. Right after I took out my laptop and put it into the little bin she asked me if I had any _______. Sounded like leakage or rickets. I know all about the r and l switching, so I tried to quickly try to figure out what she may have been saying based on that, but no.
There were no r's or l's in the eakage/ickets part. I
figured that to be safe I should just say no.
So I did, and she repeated the question, seeming a little surprised. I didn't want to ask her to repeat it again, so I said no again. I'm usually very good with accents, so I'm surprised by this encounter. I wonder if she knew I didn't know what she was talking about. So I don't know what the hell she thinks I had in that bag or what I may have ruined going through the x-ray machine. I'm not in police custody, so it couldn't have been that bad.
I just had some airport sushi at the something something express. I had Saba of course, because that's the only raw fish I eat.
I sat there, fretting over the exchange rate which I still don't really know. I had 5 pieces of Saba, a small
Asahi and a miso soup. The Saba was good and the ginger, extra gingery. The miso soup was not so great. It seemed like it was missing something, but then again, I've only had Japanese American, possibly bastardized miso soup. Or maybe, this was the bastardized one. It was a restaurant in an airport, probably part of a chain. The quality of food is often compromised in these situations. I felt so foreign in that little restaurant. Sitting by myself at a window seat with a barrel wrapped in a straw-like material and decorated with illustrations and Japanese script, peeking through the space between them at the area below busy with parked planes, and men in vehicles pulling large and small carts. I didn't think before leaving to check out the exchange rate between the yen and us dollar because I didn't think I'd be doing much here.
So, as I sat looking at the prices on the menu, in Yen of course, I
lamented by stupidity and lack of foresight.
There was no currency exchange place in this terminal, so I was forced to throw caution to the wind and hope that I wasn't going to be faced with a $100 debit in my bank account because of this place. I left about 30 minutes ago, and so you all know, I still don't know the exchange rate, but I spent about $20. I'll have to do the math later, since I can barely keep my eyes open and can't do simple math under normal circumstances. 6 more hours to go and
I'll be there. God, I'm so tired.
