Tokyo airport love
Published by jakeallen June 14th, 2006 in Hong Kong 2006, travel, Jake's Musings, Cultural CommentaryFriends
It is 16:29 here in Tokyo (3:31AM in Louisville), and I have explored the terminal. There was not much to see. I cannot see any part of the Tokyo skyline from the windows. Tokyo security was friendly and efficient.
The flight was longer and worse than expected. The crew in Louisville made me check my bag to Detroit, where I had to leave security to get my bag and return through security in DTW to get on the plane to Tokyo. I rushed through McDonald’s and onto the plane, where I got my first taste of being a minority on this trip. I am glad I made the effort for those chicken nuggets, because the food on the plane was not filling. I even ate a brownie!!!
I sat in the exit row, right behind the engines and right next to the main kitchen/restroom area (galley?). I did not get much sleep at all.
I sat next to a polite man who I thought was Japanese, because of his native language, but was actually a naturalized American who conducts for orchestras in Philadelphia and one in Virginia that I forget the name of. He is returning to work for a symphony in Japan for the summer, and said that this was his first trip to Japan without a Japanese passport. His English might have fooled you into thinking he was born in the USA. The woman on the other side of me did not speak to anyone during the thirteen hours.
I dislike the cabins of large Boeing aircraft (747-400, I think this time). At the risk of sounding un-American, Airbus planes (my European experiences anyway) are much nicer to fly in from a consumer’s standpoint.
On the descent into Tokyo/Narrita, I did not see any major city. In fact, the landscape was filled with farms (some sort of grass, not rice) and subdivisions. It was eerily familiar, and almost indistinguishable from an American airport-landscape. Except for the people in it (everyone is so thin!), the airport is easier and as familiar as an American airport. It is easier, I think, than the European airports. Please forgive the comparisons to America, but I really expected that things would be more different and more difficult. What was difficult was sitting in the gathering area of the plane and trying to sleep. The green tea was good, however, and the jumbo shrimp were HUGE and delicious, if not filling for a day’s worth of food. My appetite is very American.
Getting on the internet cost 500 yen, or about $4.35. All of the magazines open from the left, which is funny to look at when arranged in news-stands. News channels and an MTV-style channel is playing on flatscreens everywhere. It is funny to listen to the music, because every fifth song or so is a cover of an American or British pop song sung by a heavily-accented high-pitched female.
The people are freindly, and there are lots of familes roaming about. There are not any weirdos, like in most other airports, except me I guess.
Japan uses the same outlet, but different voltage, so I can’t recharge my laptop until Hong Kong.
I arrive in Hong Kong at about 22:00 tonight, so I probably won’t post on the website until tomorrow.
Cheers!!
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