" - Winnie the Pooh
Getting here
The trip here was quite an adventure. We started on Saturday, October 16, by flying to Phoenix for the weekend. On Monday, it was a short jaunt to San Francisco where we waited in the Japan Airlines lounge for 4 hours or so. Then, the 10 hour trip to Tokyo's Narita airport. We arrived around 4pm local time and went to our hotel.
We settled in, had a quick dinner, and passed out by 7 or 8. Chrys and I awoke the next morning around 2am, along with our daughter. We wandered the hotel, trying to find a pay phone. We had no luck and ended up making an international call from the hotel room - to the tune of about ¥4000 - YIKES! Oh well, it got us a hotel in Nagasaki and a rental car and it was the company's nickel so we tried not to panic about it.
Once the sun started coming up, we saw the area around the hotel and it was just breathtaking. Lush green trees, mountains, rainy sky (that would be our nemesis later)...we just took it all in.
Around 6:30am, we got on the bus to Haneda airport hoping to catch our flight to Nagasaki. Well, upon arriving, we found out our 10:10am flight was cancelled due to the typhoon. At the bequest of the check-in lady, we waited in the lobby for the 12:45 flight...and waited...and that flight was cancelled. *sigh*
At that point, the 2:40 flight showed up on the screen as full. FULL?!?! Did that mean we weren't on it? (Did I mention that they didn't do English announcements at Haneda?) We asked another attendant and she said we had not been rebooked and needed to wait in line to get that done.
The line...that was HUGE...so we found the end and started waiting. At some point, they called for Nagasaki and I explained to the woman that "Nihongo ga wakarimasen." She almost smirked and told me to go up to the desk. At that point, they gave us a stand-by ticket on the 2:40 flight... This wasn't going to work. There were 17 people ahead of us and we needed 4 (honestly 5, since they weren't business class) seats. Chrys started talking and we ended up being booked on 4 flights - the 5:45pm, 7:10pm, and two the next day.
We waited some more. Poor Ryanne wasn't liking this. We were all hungry. We had managed to find some little cookies stuffed with chocolate or orange for breakfast (did I mention they were each packaged with their own dessicant...hmmm), but those had long since worn off. Owl (my younger brother) and I had managed to find some dumplings for lunch...only to be told after paying that they needed to be steamed or microwaved prior to eating. We searched for lunch and it seemed everything we bought was chestnut paste. It was ok the first time, but after a couple of things - blech! Chrys found some grape flavored rice flour candies that were ok, but my stomach wasn't in the mood for sweet stuffs. At that point, it was time to go watch for our flight.
We got down there and waited...at 5:30, they announced something about Nagasaki and the crowd went running. I managed to tag someone and he told us to go to #12 and check in. We did and after hurrying through baggage check in and security, were on the plane. YAY!!! We slept the whole way.
Once in Nagasaki, we found the rental car counter closed. They didn't have our reservation. Luckily, we were able to get a car and, after a few wrong turns and streets FAR too tiny for our minivan we got to the Holiday Inn Nagasaki. We promptly passed out, forgetting our rumbling tummies and horrible day, hoping for a better start to the next one.
We settled in, had a quick dinner, and passed out by 7 or 8. Chrys and I awoke the next morning around 2am, along with our daughter. We wandered the hotel, trying to find a pay phone. We had no luck and ended up making an international call from the hotel room - to the tune of about ¥4000 - YIKES! Oh well, it got us a hotel in Nagasaki and a rental car and it was the company's nickel so we tried not to panic about it.
Once the sun started coming up, we saw the area around the hotel and it was just breathtaking. Lush green trees, mountains, rainy sky (that would be our nemesis later)...we just took it all in.
Around 6:30am, we got on the bus to Haneda airport hoping to catch our flight to Nagasaki. Well, upon arriving, we found out our 10:10am flight was cancelled due to the typhoon. At the bequest of the check-in lady, we waited in the lobby for the 12:45 flight...and waited...and that flight was cancelled. *sigh*
At that point, the 2:40 flight showed up on the screen as full. FULL?!?! Did that mean we weren't on it? (Did I mention that they didn't do English announcements at Haneda?) We asked another attendant and she said we had not been rebooked and needed to wait in line to get that done.
The line...that was HUGE...so we found the end and started waiting. At some point, they called for Nagasaki and I explained to the woman that "Nihongo ga wakarimasen." She almost smirked and told me to go up to the desk. At that point, they gave us a stand-by ticket on the 2:40 flight... This wasn't going to work. There were 17 people ahead of us and we needed 4 (honestly 5, since they weren't business class) seats. Chrys started talking and we ended up being booked on 4 flights - the 5:45pm, 7:10pm, and two the next day.
We waited some more. Poor Ryanne wasn't liking this. We were all hungry. We had managed to find some little cookies stuffed with chocolate or orange for breakfast (did I mention they were each packaged with their own dessicant...hmmm), but those had long since worn off. Owl (my younger brother) and I had managed to find some dumplings for lunch...only to be told after paying that they needed to be steamed or microwaved prior to eating. We searched for lunch and it seemed everything we bought was chestnut paste. It was ok the first time, but after a couple of things - blech! Chrys found some grape flavored rice flour candies that were ok, but my stomach wasn't in the mood for sweet stuffs. At that point, it was time to go watch for our flight.
We got down there and waited...at 5:30, they announced something about Nagasaki and the crowd went running. I managed to tag someone and he told us to go to #12 and check in. We did and after hurrying through baggage check in and security, were on the plane. YAY!!! We slept the whole way.
Once in Nagasaki, we found the rental car counter closed. They didn't have our reservation. Luckily, we were able to get a car and, after a few wrong turns and streets FAR too tiny for our minivan we got to the Holiday Inn Nagasaki. We promptly passed out, forgetting our rumbling tummies and horrible day, hoping for a better start to the next one.
posted by Wynnie | 04:03
0 Comments:
コメントを投稿
<< Home