(Day 1) First Class

My fifth trip to Japan was a reward – a reward for finally finishing school, which has been a goal seven-and-a-half years in the making. Two weeks after my last exam, I was at YVR, anxiously anticipating the adventures that were on the cusp of occurrence. That, and I missed my little sister who I left in Japan in September. I’m coming home baby!







And at YVR is where the adventure began. Waiting for the plane all patiently and whatever, the boarding time came…and went. We soon got the announcement that the plane currently stationed at the gate had some mechanical issue and they needed to bring a different plane in. Great. Cue me signing onto Facebook and ranting and raving about how awful Air Canada is and how they are always delayed, etc. (I’m sorry Air Canada – I did issue a retraction later…)



About half an hour later, we switched gates and shortly thereafter, boarding commenced. When it came my turn in the queue, the lady scanned my boarding pass and…DENIED. She tried again. DENIED. She pointed me over to join the crowd at the desk. I start to sweat. I proceed to have awful visions of the plane being overbooked and I won’t make it to Japan. But I have concert tickets for tomorrow!! I sweat some more. The ladies at the desk are chatting on the phones regarding some issue or another and the other passengers around the desk look nervous. Eventually they start working with the passengers and they call my name over the intercom. I nearly shout that I’m here and she looks at me and says that my boarding pass isn’t valid (!!!!! dead) but then hands me a piece of paper and says I’ve been moved to Executive First Class. Did I mention this is a 10.5 hour journey over the Pacific? First Class. I grab it and nearly sprint over to the ticket lady who this time, successfully scans me in. I scurry onto the plane and am immediately offered orange juice or champagne. I kind of sob a little to myself.

The next little bit reads like a dab of airplane luxury – I get a menu to peruse for dinner. I get Sennheiser earphones for my listening pleasure. I get a little refreshment kit with brand name lip balm, hand lotion, face wipes, socks, eye mask, etc. Free bottled water. A tablecloth at dinner time. Wine from Italy. Three-course dinner. A BED.




This is me, chillaxing in my pod.




Watching ‘Salt’ with my pre-dinner champagne and salted nuts.


I thought this was my dinner. Silly me – I’m so uncultured. This was only the first course.


It comes on a real ceramic plate! I love First Class.

After trying to sleep and watching ‘The Other Guys’, we neared closer to Tokyo.



Then breakfast (!?!) arrived. Best breakfast of life.



When it came time to de-plane, I was almost sad to say goodbye to my little pod. I felt refreshed and like I never wanted to see an economy seat again for as long as I lived.



So, I arrived! Yes, this blog IS about Japan, so now that we’ve arrived, let’s get to it. I went through the usual paces of immigration, baggage, and the purchase of my train ticket and I found myself, once again, boarding my beloved Narita Express.



Ah, but this ride was not without its own drama. It never fails – as soon as I think I’m all pro at something (like boarding a train or something…), I do something really stupid that shows I’m so NOT a pro. Lame. This time it was me locking my suitcase in the baggage rack without setting a code. So…I couldn’t get it out. HAH! I laugh now, but I was crazy frantic at the time. After reefing on the cord attached securely to my bags for about 15 seconds and taking note of the sign that said if you lock your bags and can’t get them out you have to wait until the terminal station (which was about an hour past MY stop), I ran to the door and summoned a poor little old man over who had just finished cleaning the train. I stammered through some Japanese about how I locked my bags and was acting the whole thing out with wild arm movements and such and then he told me to wait while he scurried over to the conductor man in the last car. He then came over and I continued my pantomime of the whole incident and I was sweating up a storm and whatever. He told me to sit my ass down (in the most polite manner) and him and the little jii-chan left. What does this mean? The train started moving. No one came over. The train arrived at the next airport stop and bunch of people got on and they all walked past and stared at my sweaty, crumpled self, eyes darting about for a conductor man coming to my aid. Once we got moving again, he came and set my bags free. FREEDOM! Blissful freedom. I “sumimasen/arigatou gozaimasu” ‘ed him into oblivion. I stashed my newly free bags behind my seat and tried to focus on the moments slipping by on my last trip (for a while) into Tokyo.





I did the transferring trains thing and finally found myself walking up the road to our little inn where Janelle would be waiting in the lobby. YAYAYAYAY! Sisters alive!

Dropping my bags in our miniscule room, we headed out for sustenance. Oh delicious CoCo Ichi. Never change.




!!!

Did you notice my mention of a concert tomorrow back when I was raving about my delayed flight? Well, Janelle received my ticket in the mail and handed it over to me. Damn this thing was pricey, but it’s my birthday tomorrow so…yeah. The seller even sent along a picture of the group.


Oh Johnnys. I’m excited.

Our bellies full of curry, we headed over to our old haunt, the Maruetsu Petit in Akasaka – a little grocery store which a cute little jii-chan (grandpa) who is the security guard (hee hee) and Janelle has some guy she likes who she never talks to. (Wow – that was an awful sentence.) This being Christmastime, there were gorgeous illuminations everywhere to see on the walk over.









Tomorrow’s my b-day…and the start of a long journey into exploring nightlife as I haven’t in almost 10 years. 28? It’s going to seem more like 18… ha ha. Also, I get to attend my ridiculously expensive concert and start grazing my way through Tokyo. It’s going to be epic! Come along!

*** Due to the…level of detail and somewhat personal nature of my nightclub experiences, I won’t be posting the remaining blogs of this trip on Facebook. If you’d like to keep updated, you are going to have check this blog only. Cool? Cheers.