The Day my Travels Began

7/14/09 12:08 pm.

I am waiting at Gate 9 at the International Terminal to board NWA Flight 27, boarding at 12:45 for 1:34 takeoff. According to the boards we might be taking off earlier at 1:15. Bay Porter picked me up with a grouchy driver. Only made one stop to pick up another passenger at DoubleTree at the Marina. Pleasant chap returning to Philadelphia from a meeting in Berkeley. No problem traffic wise and we reached the airport early. Going thru security was easier than expected. Didn’t feel rushed. Happy I decided at last minute to change to slip on shoes rather than laces. This truly makes the security check easier, especially when you have to remove the computer and put it in its own bin while juggling showing your plastic bag of 3.5 oz or less of liquids. I’m proud of myself. Each passenger is permitted a luggage weight of 50 lbs. My bag weighed only 30, although I still know I over packed. Travel tip: Buy Hefty 2.5 gallon Ziploc bags (hard to find, but I found them at target 3 years ago and keep reusing them.) Put each outfit you intend to wear in a separate bag, put bag on hard chair or bench. Sit on to squeeze air out of and zip it. It is compressed, stays un-creased, and easy to just pull out a bag to wear rather than trying to decide what to wear while traveling.
Boarded plane on time. Sat in seat 34C, which is the one of the aisles on four seats across. Very lucky. There wasn’t anyone sitting in the two center seats and thus, I was able to spread out. Watched 3 movies, Duplicity, Taken, and Gran Torino on this 12-hour flight landing in Tokyo and then continuing on to Shanghai. All was fine until we landed at 4:30 in the afternoon and were told that our flight continuing onto Shanghai was cancelled and we would have to spend the night in Tokyo. Northwest service was lousy with directing and/or explaining what happened. A group of 5 (yours truly included, naturally) protested and refused to enter Japan customs. We insisted that a NWA representative meet us and get us on another airline flight to Shanghai. After arguing for a better part of the hour, and all other flights to Shanghais were booked, we had to accede to staying in Tokyo overnight. NWA put us up at the Narati Nikko hotel and gave us a food voucher for its restaurant. By this time I was exhausted. Upon arriving at the hotel, I took a shower and went down for a lousy meal. I hardly ate and came back up to the hotel room, which I have to admit is lovely. It is now 8:15 Local Time and the flight leaves at 6:15 tomorrow to arrive in Shanghai at 8:15. I have a wake up call for 4 AM as the bus for the airport leaves at 4:40. I have to say I am very disappointed in NWA. They only told us that the plane wasn’t continuing to Shanghai and it was landing and they had no representative to meet the passengers and direct and explain what happened. Their attitude was too cavalier for my tastes. I guess that story will have to go on another blog.
The Hotel has a bidet, slippers and robe laid out with many other conveniences. Now, I hope my luggage isn’t lost.