It was the opportune time to go. Tamiko’s mom was planning to go back to her homeland the summer of 2001. Going when she was there meant having a free interpreter.
Kent had earned enough frequent flier miles to trade in for round-trip airline tickets to Tokyo for all four of us!
For the most part we could stay at Aunt Kyoko’s home in Tokyo. As it turned out, whenever we traveled with the aunts, our way was paid.
So for less than it cost us to host our pen pal from Palestine to a trip to Disney World, we were able to travel to Japan!
Japan has always been a dream destination for us, and we were so excited to actually be making the trip!
Wednesday, June 6, 2001
Tamiko and Brynne had to renew their passports. Yuriko bought JapanRail Pass vouchers for the four of us. We bought Travelers’ Cheques and had our airline tickets.
We were packed and ready to go when the alarm clock went off at 5:30 am on Wednesday, June 6th! A quick drive to the airport, where we were surprised to see long lines of people waiting to check in. The lines were long, both at the curbside check-in and at the ticket counter.
We decided to carry on our luggage, and checked in at the gate. Our luggage included three wheeled carry-on bags, a Gap backpack, a duffel bag filled with gifts, and an ergonomic purse.
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| Brynne and Kent with all our luggage at the Jacksonville Airport |
We grabbed a breakfast of Cinnabon cinnamon sticks and an orange juice, and ate after boarding the plane.
We took off a few minutes after the scheduled 7:15 am time. The flight to Charlotte had only beverage service.
We arrived in Charlotte at 8:30 am, used restrooms, and boarded the 9:30 am flight to Minneapolis.
On this flight we were given a snack of yogurt, a cheese Danish, a Twists breakfast bar, and an apple.
We arrived in Minneapolis at 11:45 am local time. We found the gate for the Japan flight and had lunch at Chili’s Too.
We exchanged $200 for Y21,000. We also registered the cameras with U.S. Customs, since one camera was brand new and made in Japan!
Security Check Snafu
In Minneapolis, we found we had to exit to the ticket counters to check in for the flight to Japan.
That meant we had to go through airport security again with all our luggage. Tamiko’s purse was put through a second time for scrutiny. A security officer came to ask what was made of metal in the purse.
Digging through the purse, we came up with keys, and a container of tampons. The purse went through x-ray again, and the mystery item was still there. We could not think what it was, and we did not come up with anything digging down into the soft bag.
The guard then described the shape of the item, which really meant nothing to us! One of the security officers then asked if we had a musical instrument.
Aha! The mystery item was Brynne’s trombone mouthpiece, wrapped up in bubble wrap, and tucked in the bottom fold of the purse. Of course, Brynne could not bring her entire trombone, but she could legitimately practice using only the mouthpiece.
We had forgotten all about it!
Here We Go!
We boarded the flight to Japan at 2:15 pm. Passengers from a delayed flight to Japan were transferred to our flight in order to insure connections were made. Confusion reigned, while the catering people were still loading the plane. The flight attendants were ignored while trying to direct people away from the food delivery carts.
We sat for a long time while a certain passenger was paged. Apparently he never showed up. But his checked baggage had been stowed. Since the airline will not fly with unaccompanied baggage, we had to wait while they searched for and unloaded this person’s bags.
Finally, an hour after the scheduled 3:10 pm departure time, we took off!
Sidebar:
Some of our favorite things:
- Sushi on a conveyor belt!
- Monorail ride!
- Bullet trains!
- Himeji Castle
- Nightingale floors!
- Ryokan meals!
- Pillar with hole!
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