Japan

20-June-2012
Boise, Idaho
Local time: 3:30

I wake up.

Local time: 4:00

Dad drives me to the airport.

Local time: 4:14

We see the famous wings on the airport.

Local time: 5:35

My name is called as a standby passenger to Minnesota, and I get on the flight.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I've been blessed with an exit-row seat with plenty of leg room.

(okay, I give up with the times... it gets confusing soon anyway)

I ended up sitting in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport for most of the day. We decided that I'd have a better chance getting on the flight to Tokyo from Detroit, so we added another leg and I ended up sitting around and/or trying to nap for most of the day.

While I was there, I made friends with another passenger who was flying standby. Never actually caught his name, but he was definitely a friendly drunk.
"A skeleton walks into a bar and says: 'I need a beer and a mop'"
I think it would have been funnier if I was drunk too. After we missed our second standby flight together, he turned to me and asked: "Well, do you drink beer?" I declined.

So, we finally get on the flight to Detroit. the flight from Detroit to Tokyo was delayed and re-scheduled to leave at 6:45 pm, and our plane landed at about 6:55. As soon as I turned my phone on, I had 3 messages from Anna telling me to RUN to the Tokyo flight. Of course, I didn't see those messages for several minutes because she was also calling me to tell me to run. So I did. All the way down the terminal. (It's a pretty long terminal.)

(No pictures... they would have been pretty blurry)

When I started getting close, I saw that there was still a crowd of people outside the gate and literally started praising the Lord that I made it. I checked in with my standby, and immediately was assigned a whole row, all to myself in Coach. Once I got to my row and had my bag in the overhead compartment, the lady who checked me in came and told me there was a change: I needed to move to a different seat.

I was pretty worried that I had to give up my full row, until I saw where my new seat was:

BUSINESS CLASS BABYEEEE!!!

So, I got to watch the new Sherlock Holmes movie while I had a 4-course Filet dinner (only after they gave me the warm towel for my hands and face). Then I slept for a few hours in my fully-reclining chair with massage capabilities, Using the 2 pillows, full-size comforter, the ear-plugs and face mask they gave me. Next I listened to Ingrid Michelson for a while before they brought me my snack. Then I watched Mission Impossible 4 until I fell asleep again. When we were about 2 hours out, they fed us a full breakfast, even though the local time was around 9:00 pm.

I had missed the last flight into Bangkok by about two hours because the flight into Tokyo was so late (Hallelujah!). So I got to spend the night in a hotel here in Narita. Not one of the little compartment hotels like I was hoping, but still pretty small.

 PJ's included.

And now I'm here, hoping that I'll get on the flight to Bangkok tonight.

Moral of the story: Don't by beer from a vending machine in Japan, you'll start telling stupid jokes.
Actually... Just don't drink beer, whether it's from a vending machine or not.