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| Flying into Vancouver .. So beautiful! |
I landed in Vancouver only to find out that my plane left without me because we were 3 hours late.
They re-routed me on another plane to Tokyo, Japan, then a connecting flight to Incheon.
Yup, Friday the 13th strikes again! I'm going to get to Korea 5-6 hours later than planned and that's only if the next two planes stay on schedule.
At the Vancouver airport, I had like an hour and a half layover so I grabbed some more Starbucks which drained the rest of my gift card. I also grabbed some A&W, probably going to be a long time before I eat A&W again. The burger sucked. The onion rings were burnt. Not really what I had in mind for my last Canadian meal..
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| Not my plane, this one was smaller |
After boarding the plane to Tokyo, I met Jillian, a girl living in Japan taking language at a university there. We talked for awhile until the seat belt sign came off, then we moved towards the back of the plane to get roomier seats for the long trip ahead. We were allowed to do this because the plane wasn't even close to being full.
She told me all about hiking in Japan, and the mountains as well as some Japanese theaters that she likes to go to. Japan sounds like a fun place, I can't wait to visit there!
Jillian was very nice to offer to help me find my connecting flight in Japan because she knows a little Japanese.
We're going to exchange contact information so I can meet up with her if I end up going to Japan. Maybe the delay in flights had a purpose so that I could make a new friend? Who knows?
This plane is so much higher than the last two.. My whole body feels so weird!!
I am absolutely loving the service from Air Canada. They brought me a meal of chicken and rice, white wine and a brownie with a bottle of water.
After my meal, I was talking to one of the flight attendants and she suggested I try the Merlot red wine with orange juice and apple juice on the rocks. She gave me a bottle of each to mix together... for free!
I was entertained for the next half hour by mixing drinks, I felt like a master chemist. Apparently I looked intense while doing so, because Jillian commented on me having fun mixing the drinks.
Mmhmm soo yummy! I'm not even a huge red wine fan but this is delicious!
There has been a lot of turbulence all throughout my voyage. Surprisingly, it doesn't really bother me that much, I'm not scared at all, it just feels weird.
I hope they don't lose my luggage that's about the only thing I'm stressed about right now. I will be so pissed if they lost all my clothes and deodorant!!!
I ate my brownie (which was delicious in it's chocolatey-goodness) and watched 'Real Steel' starring Hugh Jackman and that chick from lost. It was a pretty good movie, I'd watch it again.
The last two planes were pretty cold and I needed a sweater on at all times, but for whatever reason this one is soooo warm!
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| Beginning of the sunset. I took this picture as I was entering tomorrow's time zone... Isn't Time Travel Beautiful? |
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I just want to roll around in these clouds!
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| Somewhere's over the Pacific Ocean |
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| Sunset (3am back home) |
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| Big, fluffy, sheep-like clouds. |
After 20 hours of travelling and only one hour of sleep, I was regretting all the caffeine I consumed. I kept staring out the window at the sheep-clouds and kept hoping if I count enough of them that I would fall asleep.. nope didn't happen.
I feel bad for the guy behind me, I kept tossing and turning and moving my chair back and forth.. I'm a bad co-passenger!!
The pressure in the plane and the uncomfortable warmth made it hard to breathe on the plane. I like flying but after 20 hours of this, my body is screaming for some fresh air.
I managed to slip off into sand land for a couple hours then awoke to eat my second meal. We had beef and barley (the chicken and rice was better).
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| Narita Airport, Japan |
Finally arrived at the Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. Actually, it's not even in Tokyo, it's like 2 hours out of the city. I am sad to be losing Jillian at this point, having a travel companion and someone to talk to was fun.
I was told by the Air Canada people that someone would be waiting when we got off the plane to escort us to the next plane so there wouldn't be any mix-ups that would make us miss the Incheon plane. Unfortunately, the Japanese airport workers are useless.
Instead of rushing us onto the plane, they spent and hour shuffling around papers and looking terrified and confused. They had to order, no organization, not to mention they were completely ignoring the passengers and our questions. Arggg!! They re-booked us for a flight leaving in the morning and now I am staying overnight at the International Garden Hotel in Narita.
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| Outside Narita Airport |
I couldn't connect to wifi at the airport, so hopefully the hotel has some sort of internet so I can send a message to Hyper before he leaves on the train to pick me up at the airport. They were gracious enough to include a free dinner and breakfast at the hotel's restaurant and my flight to Korea leaves at 9:45 am.
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| Notice the driver on the LEFT s |
I had to take a shuttle bus to the hotel, that I had to find on my own by asking questions and trying to figure out signs. It's weird driving on the wrong side of the road. Especially with a driver that obviously doesn't know how to drive. Are there no driving rules in Japan? Seriously, I almost died several times on this bus.
I made it to the hotel, and the receptionist spoke very little English but enough to check me in and give me my meal cards.
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| Evil keyboard!! |
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| Chains and locks aren't even necessary |
The hotel didn't offer WiFi and the free computers in the computer area were from the stone age. It wouldn't even load Facebook on Internet explorer because it was so outdated. To even be able to contact anyone, I had to do a little upgrading. I downloaded the newest Google Chrome and deleted some useless stuff they had on the desktop. It worked a lot better after that.
Lol, you are welcome Japanese hotel! (So much for Japanese people being all tech-savvy.. pfftt!!). The keyboard was all strange and caps lock kept getting stuck. What really made me laugh, was that they had the whole fail computer system pad locked so nobody would steal it.
Thank God I finally got in touch with Hyper, unfortunately it was only as he was arriving at the Incheon Airport to pick me up that he got my message.
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| Lobby at the International Garden Hotel |
The hotel was surprisingly normal. It would be considered a dive in Canada but the bed was comfy and they had complimentary shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes,etc available. They even had kimonos in the room.
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| I usually watch this in English |
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| Took a hot shower, tried on the Kimono and drank some tea |
The TV was all in Japanese, of course, so I watched a little bit of Chuck in Japanese, that was hilarious. CNN was the only English channel so I settled for some Japan MTV. Japanese music videos are so strange!
The room was pretty interesting, there was a slot to put your key card in that made the electricity turn on in the room. No key= no electricity. You probably shouldn't lose your key in this hotel. Another cool feature was the bedside tables. They had a built-in clock and wake-up alarm. The tables were even equipped with a do not disturb button that changes a light outside the door red instead of green. I wish I had remembered to take more pictures of the room for the blog! *face palm*
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| Breakfast Bar at hotel |
Because of the fail computer situation, I didn't make it to the restaurant in time for the Dinner serving, but I was up in time for Breakfast.
If you look to the picture on the right you can see what looks to be an espresso machine on the counter. It's not an espresso machine, it's a toast-belt. You put the bread on it and it goes in the machine on a belt and loops out the other side. I call it the lazy toaster.
Breakfast was terrible. The toast was only toasted on one side, the bacon was raw, and who eats pickled fish and rice for breakfast? Lol I think this foreign food thing is going to be harder than I thought!
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| Sitting in the lobby, waiting for the shuttle bus to bring me back to the airport. |
I am starting to get the strange looks I think it's cause I'm a white person and I'm wearing a tank top. People here are all cold and wearing big fluffy jackets even though it's like 3 degrees Celsius.
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| Sayounara Japan! |
The Narita Airport was sooo confusing. Thankfully, after asking many Japanese people, I found my way. The airport personnel told me to fill out a form before immigration, but when I read the form it was for re-entry of Japan residents. Fail Japan fail. There was a cute old British couple that were filling out the wrong form as well so I told them not to bother. They were very thankful and we conversed for a bit while waiting in immigration line. I think that on every flight you should have a guide to walk around the airport and help foreign people find their way. It would be so easy to get lost and miss your flight in big airports like this. Japan felt so different, it's like the color was drained from the country. I never noticed how colorful Canada was until I seen a country that looked like someone edited it with a sepia button.
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| Japan |
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| No Color! |
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| See? |
The Lunch on the plane from Japan to Incheon was yummy, I even used chop sticks.. Like a boss! I tried the roe and seafood noodles.. Tammy would be proud of me. It was gross but at least I tried it right?
See the picture to the right to see if you can identify in the picture above what I was eating!
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| Flying above the Sea of Japan |
This is a short video I took of the flight.. it's lame and not long but I'm FLYING!!!
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| Phone! |
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| Atari remote! |
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| Coast line of South Korea |
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| Korea |
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| Korea |
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| Lots of mountains |
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| Korea |
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| Korea |
One thing about Asia traveling that I found interesting is that upon entering the country, you have to scan your index fingers and do a retina scan. I had to do it in Japan as well as Korea.
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| Starting the decent into Incheon, Korea! YAY I'm finally here! |
Hyper met me at the airport, my luggage was there waiting there for me. It all went very smoothly.. for once! We took an underground train from the airport to the apartment. That was pretty cool. It's so strange not being able to read any of the signs or understand anything that's being said around you. I'm sure it's something I'll get used to. Wish me luck!!
