Had to wake up at 6a to meet our pre-arranged taxi (1100NT) for the airport. our flight was 9:35a, but figured we should get to the airport at least 2 hrs ahead. In hindsight, what a mistake... it felt like we were at the airport for quite awhile plus the subsequent on tarmac delay to be described in more detail in a minute. But we got to eat a final meal in taiwan. I got some veg noodle soup and a pork bun, amanda got a kiwi smoothie thing, i spent the last 120ish NT we had plus they took the balance in USD. After we boarded the plane, it was a series of weirdnesses that kept us on the ground. First there was some mechanical thing - pilot used the term "idiot light" in describing that some indicator went off that they had to attend to. That took about an hour for them to settle, and I slept a little. then the pilot came back on and told us they'd need to refuel just to ensure a standard level of fuel was in the tank (b/c at least they kept the engines on so the AC stayed on). And I think they said it'd be like 20 mins before we were ready to take off. A half hour or so, the pilot came back on the PA and told us that a mother had reported to a flight attendant that she needed to give her baby some medicine for his fever, which the flight attendant then had to report to airport authorities, which in turn led to their removal from the plane and their baggage was being offloaded. My fever had been gone for several days btw, but I still had a bit of a cough. He was like ok another 20 mins or so and we should be set to go. Then about 30 mins later, he was like, ok we are waiting on some satellite balance report to go through and then we're off.
We finally took off a bit after noon. sheesh. That really killed our plan to leave the airport in search of sushi in Chiba (Cho-shi-maru was recommended to me by Hiroumi - at the end of Narita 2 line - and I think it's a little conveyer belt sushi place) and a temple to visit in Narita. I took comfort in knowing that at least we hadn't done too much work to plan the excursion away from the airport, b/c if we had I think I would've been really sad to miss out.
When we arrived at Tokyo Narita it was like 4:15 or so, maybe 4:30. Their airport is pretty cool - lots of shops, good art, an origami museum/store. We went and had sushi at Sushi Kyotatsu in our terminal (T1), which was the best airport sushi i've ever had. I got some sashimi plus spicy tuna plus I had them concoct a spicy yellowtail handroll. Bonus was that they accepted USD and miscounted and gave me $10 extra in change. Then we stopped by McDs to pick up some fries and a sundae. And we got ready to board our plane home, which ended up being delayed. By maybe 45mins? I can't remember. At this point, I was tired but not sleepy, and ready to be home but not really ready for a 12hr flight. trying to formulate a plan of attack for my sleep/awake schedule but never really committing to one.
I occupied myself w/ movies and reading. I played some zuma. read (but didn't finish) youth in revolt. Watched 4 movies (17 again (bad but at least entertaining), he's just not that into you (stupid), sunshine cleaners (ok), taken (pretty simple but enjoyable to watch liam neeson kick a bunch of ass)). slept very little so I felt like a zombie when we finally arrived in ATL. I think customs and bag re-claim took about an hour. Dylan came to get us. I think we got home around 9:30 or 10, but it was all sort of blurry.
Summary: an awesome trip. go take a look at my pics (picasaweb.google.com/angela71 - there should be an album per day). Thanks everybody for reading and keeping up with my adventures. I hope it was entertaining and didn't make you too hungry.
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