The morning started well, with La Serpiente arguing with our hosts’ boy about the merits of toast vs bread. “Toast is yucky. ” “Toast is not yucky” for half an hour straight.
Not long after that, the truck came to take us to the airport, and from there it was a slog through customs followed by a quick bite to eat and another beer in the bar across from our gate. I’m enjoying having beer at inappropriate hours of the day, whether that’s breakfast or when reading bedtime stories. The flights were bad though: 12 hours from Seattle to Tokyo and then 7 more to Singapore. Well I say bad; only if you don’t sleep, or if your blocked sinuses ache like there’s about to explode during the steep descent to Narita.
Narita, I think, is one of my least favourite airports to fly into. Firstly it’s soulless, in a way that’s very hard to describe – there’s little to entertain, save for the ice cream vending machine that only seems to be visible on random occasions. Travelling from there is a pain as it’s a loooong way from Narita to Tokyo (the trains help, but you’re still basically flying into the Japanese equivalent of London Birmingham Airport). Finally, it seems that planes come in to land at Narita at a horrendously steep angle, so the pressure changes in the campaign are exaggerated and if you’ve got blocked sinuses, the sensation is similar to having a dozen needles being pushed through your eyebrow from the inside out. I blew and I blew my nose, and still I was in blinding pain for a “good” five minutes.
Whatever, I can’t even see right now. I hope I’ll sleep when I get home.
One response to “Another descent”
When I arrived at Narita in January 2001, I was pleasantly shocked to try my first Nipponese toilet, and it was completely clean, had a heated seat and had buttons to press that provided soothing music and little jets of water. I then got a punctual, clean train to Machida in relative comfort and quiet, appropriately heated. They then dumped me off in a tiny flat, with an airplane-sized toilet/bathroom, with no heating. I awoke in the morning and there was literally ice on the floor, as the windows were so thin I may as well have been sleeping outside. I then had to go to work after 8 hours sleep, utterly jet-lagged and freezing, and had to navigate my way to a place called Fujisawa, and I had no idea where it was, or how to buy a ticket. And on it went … suffice to say, Mr Foreman, you’re never going to get any sympathy from me about petty problems, like the angle at which the plane landed at the airport, or that it it is somewhat soulless! 🙂