This year our fall trip to Japan is going to prove to be something a bit
different. Instead of going to all of the usual spots that we've been
to in all of our six other trips to this great country, we have chosen
to take a tour of the deep south - four days on the island of Okinawa.
First
though, it is always an arduous plane trip from Regina. Usually we
travel via Vancouver (and sometimes Calgary). This year was to be no
different but our travel plans were drastically changed at 5:00am on
Saturday morning. Air Canada's flight reservation system apparently
went down the night before, wreaking havoc on a number of flights
including ours out of Regina. The flight was canceled and we had to be
rerouted based on any available seats. Hana ended up traveling via
Calgary and Vancouver and I sacrificed myself by traveling through
Toronto.
I have never done this trip by going through Toronto
and I can honestly state that it is something that I will not be doing
for quite some time - unless, of course, I have the privilege of flying
first class. The flight via Toronto is approximately 15 hours in
length. This is just too much for my skinny butt to handle. I swear
that my tail bone was about to pierce the skin on my buttocks by about
hour 12. Never again....
To make matters worse at the start of
the trip was the fact that the plane that was supposed to take me from
Regina to Toronto was delayed by nearly two hours. I, and approximately
60 other passengers, sat on the tarmac in Regina after a couple of
passengers decided at the last minute that they did not want to go to
Toronto after all. They left the plane and, according to Transport
Canada rules, their luggage had to immediately be removed. This should
not have been a problem but the ground crew could not find one of their
bags, resulting in the nearly two hour delay that we had endured. This
huge delay was a cause for worry given that I only had around a 2 hour
lay-over in Toronto before I had to catch the only flight out to Tokyo.
Luckily for me, this flight was also delayed so I did not have to
overnight in Toronto.
Needless to say, we were very happy to see
each other in the entrance to the Narita airport. I have never before
traveled to Japan all by myself. I have always had someone with me that
can speak the language. There were absolutely no problems for me
though passing through Japanese immigration and customs. As always, the
personnel there were extremely friendly and professional. The greeting
of these people coupled with all of the other familiar sights and
smells made me realize that, despite the severe pain in the ass that I
had developed on Air Canada flight 1 from Toronto, it was truly great to
be on vacation and back in the land of the rising sun.
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