My travels, according to interactions I would have with my parents.
Dear Dad,
I caught all of my connections just fine, though not without some running through the train terminal. I’m glad I only brought my small bag so it was easy to store on the train. The Narita airport was easy enough to navigate but I ran into a little glitch at customs. Even though I called in advance to ask about the visa policies, they said I didn’t have the right paperwork to re-enter the country. They ended up giving me a special re-entry permit so it’s fine. I boarded the 777 and sat in the exit aisle! You know, the one with no seats in front and right by the galley? At first I though I got ripped off because there was no personal TV or table tray, but I soon found them tucked away in my chair. It was really interesting to watch the galley workers and the huge elevator thing that comes out of the ceiling. We flew at 10 thousand meters the whole time, from Japan across Russian and then down through Eastern Europe to Istanbul. There was only a little bit of turbulence during “dinner” but nothing shocking. I loved watching the screen of progress as the little plane icon slowly made it’s way across the continent. The coolest part was when it showed where the sun was on the earth. We were basically chasing the sunset the entire way so I took a few pictures of the blazing sun underneath the wing of the plane. Upon landing in Istanbul we quickly emptied the plane and spilled into the airport. My new German friend and I looked for our connecting terminal together and parted ways. There were many interesting things in the mall area, including many upscale stores selling jewelry, watches, and clothes. One cigarette store had some interesting signage, check it out:
Dear Dad,
I caught all of my connections just fine, though not without some running through the train terminal. I’m glad I only brought my small bag so it was easy to store on the train. The Narita airport was easy enough to navigate but I ran into a little glitch at customs. Even though I called in advance to ask about the visa policies, they said I didn’t have the right paperwork to re-enter the country. They ended up giving me a special re-entry permit so it’s fine. I boarded the 777 and sat in the exit aisle! You know, the one with no seats in front and right by the galley? At first I though I got ripped off because there was no personal TV or table tray, but I soon found them tucked away in my chair. It was really interesting to watch the galley workers and the huge elevator thing that comes out of the ceiling. We flew at 10 thousand meters the whole time, from Japan across Russian and then down through Eastern Europe to Istanbul. There was only a little bit of turbulence during “dinner” but nothing shocking. I loved watching the screen of progress as the little plane icon slowly made it’s way across the continent. The coolest part was when it showed where the sun was on the earth. We were basically chasing the sunset the entire way so I took a few pictures of the blazing sun underneath the wing of the plane. Upon landing in Istanbul we quickly emptied the plane and spilled into the airport. My new German friend and I looked for our connecting terminal together and parted ways. There were many interesting things in the mall area, including many upscale stores selling jewelry, watches, and clothes. One cigarette store had some interesting signage, check it out:
I boarded a smaller jet for my 3 hr. flight to Zurich. I quickly bedded down into the empty seat next to me and took a little nap. Upon landing I met up with Alison and we grabbed our baggage before meeting the family. David and Marshall were dressed up to meet us! Marshall was a doctor with a clipboard that read: Patients: Alison and Susan. David was some special needs kid with a crooked ball cap and clothes all disheveled, a backpack with a huge teddy bear poking out of the zipper, and a page ripped out of a notebook that read: eyem w/ teh dokter. We headed home in the torrential rain and went straight to bed.
Dear Mom,
The trip to visit the Kummer family was not without it’s fun moments. I packed with the intention of using my red suitcase as a carry on so it was not very full and pretty light. Rachel and I made our way out of Funehiki to change trains in Koriyama. I thought we had 3 minutes to connect, but we only had 2! So we missed the first shinkansen and waited 20 minutes for the next one. I was a little worried because our connection in Ueno to the Skyliner was a new route for me and I heard it was tricky, knowing we had to exit the train station and walk to the Keisei line. Instead of an hour to make that connection, we arrived in Ueno with 22 minutes. We walked fast! Rachel forgot to take her ticket out of the turnstile after coming off the train, thinking the ticket was finished. Turns out she needed it to exit the station too, so she had to run back to the stile while I watched her bag. It must happen to a lot of people because there was a designated box where forgotten tickets fall into automatically. The worker manning the turnstile opened the box and dug through it until he found the one from Funehiki. She ran back to me and we exited the station. We followed the signs until the signs ran out…then I remembered watching a video on YouTube of “how to get to Keisei station” and followed my memory of the storefronts. We went down into a tunnel that connected the two stations and eventually made it out alright at the Skyliner. We quickly bought tickets and had 4 minutes to spare before the train departed! Of course we sat in some guy’s seat on accident because we couldn’t read our seat assignments printed on the ticket. Stopping only once at Nippori the train became full to capacity all the way to the airport. We went in together but soon split because we flew out of two separate wings of the terminal. That departures counter area is so crazy!
I found Turkish and went to get my boarding passes. No sooner had I entered the 5-person line (which took 20 minutes to get to the counter) than 50 people stacked up behind me. Nice timing.
I asked the lady for a window seat. (This is all in Japanese, mind you.) She said there were none. Seriously, I bought my ticket in August and you’re telling me I can’t have a window seat? Rude. So I asked for one closest to the front. She said I had a choice of an aisle or middle. I took the aisle.
The lady said my bag was too big and had to be checked. I guess I could have brought my contact lens solution and my tweezers after all. Quickly writing out a nametag, I sent the bag on the conveyor and went to find my gate.
After going through security I headed to customs. Remember when I renewed my passport and they didn’t put my visa in my new one? Well, I called the American embassy and they said to go to Japanese Immigration to have it transferred. Kawaai sensei called J-Immigration and they said the laws changed and I only have to show my alien registration card. So I walk up to immigration and the lady is like, “Are you coming back into the country?” “Yes.” “Fill out this form.” I get out of line, walk across a gigantic empty room to a tiny counter to fill it out.
I get back in line to a different lady.
“Where is your visa?”
“I have a registration card.”
“It says here on the computer you were issued a visa with unlimited re-entries up to 2014.”
“Yes.”
“Where is your visa? This is a new passport, I see.”
My, my, aren’t you observant. For all this information you possess, why don’t you let me go?!
“My visa is in my expired passport.”
“You need your visa to get back into Japan.”
“Well, I called J-Immigration and they said I only need this card.”
“You need your re-entry permit. Did you bring your old passport?”
“Why would I do that? It’s CANCELLED. It has a million holes in it. It’s invalid.”
“Well….where is your old passport?”
“It’s at my house in my sock drawer. Does it really matter where it is? I’m not getting it.”
“I’m going to have to issue you a special one-time re-entry permit. Only ONE time. Do you understand?”
“That’s all I need.”
“Go.”
So I found my gate and walked around until I absolutely had to board the plane. We left on time, but taxied around the airport for a full 20 minutes for no apparent reason. This made us a little late in takeoff but we got there on time.
I ended up being row 40, the exit row by the galley and sat next to this nice German girl. Endless foot room before us, I could get up when I pleased for a little stretch or look out the window. The tray table was a multi-folded number, a little weak for putting my computer on so I didn’t use it the whole flight. Turns out I like being by the galley…the trash, bathroom, and snacks were available the entire flight! I only napped for about an hour. I don’t sleep well on planes. The meals of chicken and vegetables were not too bad. We had “real” silverware. I ate all my veggies and chicken the first meal but was more picky with the meat the second. I ate the rest of my subway sandwich instead and took a rice ball from the snack bar. They gave us a nice amenity package consisting of standard blanket and pillow, slippers, zippered case containing an eye mask, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and lip balm.
We came into Istanbul at night and I was suddenly again in a world of white people. I kind of forgot that none of the people spoke Japanese so I could be found bowing and saying, “excuse me” in a language no one understood. I looked in some swanky shops and tourist-item stalls, admiring the mosaic patterns and colored glasswork. People there were very pushy and disorderly compared to Japan. There was no line to get onto the plane, and this grandma kept pushing me up the stairway even though there were others stopped in front of me.
I finally got my window seat and an empty one next door so I tried to sleep the whole way, ignoring the inflight meal. I met up with Alison at the baggage claim as we were right next to each other and we quickly found our brothers who had come dressed up to greet us. Time to jet lag!
Dear Mom,
The trip to visit the Kummer family was not without it’s fun moments. I packed with the intention of using my red suitcase as a carry on so it was not very full and pretty light. Rachel and I made our way out of Funehiki to change trains in Koriyama. I thought we had 3 minutes to connect, but we only had 2! So we missed the first shinkansen and waited 20 minutes for the next one. I was a little worried because our connection in Ueno to the Skyliner was a new route for me and I heard it was tricky, knowing we had to exit the train station and walk to the Keisei line. Instead of an hour to make that connection, we arrived in Ueno with 22 minutes. We walked fast! Rachel forgot to take her ticket out of the turnstile after coming off the train, thinking the ticket was finished. Turns out she needed it to exit the station too, so she had to run back to the stile while I watched her bag. It must happen to a lot of people because there was a designated box where forgotten tickets fall into automatically. The worker manning the turnstile opened the box and dug through it until he found the one from Funehiki. She ran back to me and we exited the station. We followed the signs until the signs ran out…then I remembered watching a video on YouTube of “how to get to Keisei station” and followed my memory of the storefronts. We went down into a tunnel that connected the two stations and eventually made it out alright at the Skyliner. We quickly bought tickets and had 4 minutes to spare before the train departed! Of course we sat in some guy’s seat on accident because we couldn’t read our seat assignments printed on the ticket. Stopping only once at Nippori the train became full to capacity all the way to the airport. We went in together but soon split because we flew out of two separate wings of the terminal. That departures counter area is so crazy!
I found Turkish and went to get my boarding passes. No sooner had I entered the 5-person line (which took 20 minutes to get to the counter) than 50 people stacked up behind me. Nice timing.
I asked the lady for a window seat. (This is all in Japanese, mind you.) She said there were none. Seriously, I bought my ticket in August and you’re telling me I can’t have a window seat? Rude. So I asked for one closest to the front. She said I had a choice of an aisle or middle. I took the aisle.
The lady said my bag was too big and had to be checked. I guess I could have brought my contact lens solution and my tweezers after all. Quickly writing out a nametag, I sent the bag on the conveyor and went to find my gate.
After going through security I headed to customs. Remember when I renewed my passport and they didn’t put my visa in my new one? Well, I called the American embassy and they said to go to Japanese Immigration to have it transferred. Kawaai sensei called J-Immigration and they said the laws changed and I only have to show my alien registration card. So I walk up to immigration and the lady is like, “Are you coming back into the country?” “Yes.” “Fill out this form.” I get out of line, walk across a gigantic empty room to a tiny counter to fill it out.
I get back in line to a different lady.
“Where is your visa?”
“I have a registration card.”
“It says here on the computer you were issued a visa with unlimited re-entries up to 2014.”
“Yes.”
“Where is your visa? This is a new passport, I see.”
My, my, aren’t you observant. For all this information you possess, why don’t you let me go?!
“My visa is in my expired passport.”
“You need your visa to get back into Japan.”
“Well, I called J-Immigration and they said I only need this card.”
“You need your re-entry permit. Did you bring your old passport?”
“Why would I do that? It’s CANCELLED. It has a million holes in it. It’s invalid.”
“Well….where is your old passport?”
“It’s at my house in my sock drawer. Does it really matter where it is? I’m not getting it.”
“I’m going to have to issue you a special one-time re-entry permit. Only ONE time. Do you understand?”
“That’s all I need.”
“Go.”
So I found my gate and walked around until I absolutely had to board the plane. We left on time, but taxied around the airport for a full 20 minutes for no apparent reason. This made us a little late in takeoff but we got there on time.
I ended up being row 40, the exit row by the galley and sat next to this nice German girl. Endless foot room before us, I could get up when I pleased for a little stretch or look out the window. The tray table was a multi-folded number, a little weak for putting my computer on so I didn’t use it the whole flight. Turns out I like being by the galley…the trash, bathroom, and snacks were available the entire flight! I only napped for about an hour. I don’t sleep well on planes. The meals of chicken and vegetables were not too bad. We had “real” silverware. I ate all my veggies and chicken the first meal but was more picky with the meat the second. I ate the rest of my subway sandwich instead and took a rice ball from the snack bar. They gave us a nice amenity package consisting of standard blanket and pillow, slippers, zippered case containing an eye mask, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and lip balm.
We came into Istanbul at night and I was suddenly again in a world of white people. I kind of forgot that none of the people spoke Japanese so I could be found bowing and saying, “excuse me” in a language no one understood. I looked in some swanky shops and tourist-item stalls, admiring the mosaic patterns and colored glasswork. People there were very pushy and disorderly compared to Japan. There was no line to get onto the plane, and this grandma kept pushing me up the stairway even though there were others stopped in front of me.
I finally got my window seat and an empty one next door so I tried to sleep the whole way, ignoring the inflight meal. I met up with Alison at the baggage claim as we were right next to each other and we quickly found our brothers who had come dressed up to greet us. Time to jet lag!
RSS Feed