Up, up and away!

Aug. 15, 2011

After spending almost 6 weeks either on the road or squatting with family members, it was time for our much awaited flight to Okinawa. Bill was also leaving from Bush Intercontinental that morning for business, and so we caught a ride to the airport with him. After unloading both kids and all the luggage (8 pieces to check, two carseats to check, and 4 carryon bags), we made it smoothly through the check-in process and had plenty of time to grab breakfast and convert some of our American dollars into Yen.

We really lucked out by getting a commercial flight over. It was the best flying experience I think I've ever had (aside from me spilling melted ice cream in my lap, and Chris spilling a soda in his). The food on the plane was a lot better than I've had on other longer flights, and Chris signed the kids up for special "child friendly" meals, which were huge. There was TONS of "on demand" programming for the kids, which helped as well. Probably the most exciting thing that happened on the trip to Tokyo was that when we were getting pretty close to landing, there was a page for any doctor on board to notify the staff or their location. Well...Chris did his duty and along came one of the Japanese flight attendants, who had apparently been bitten pretty badly by a spider while in the storage area above the seats. Chris gave her some advice (she was going to be OK but see a doc if it started looking worse), and the remainder of the flight we were treated like royalty. Ok, not really royalty...but she was so grateful for the 90 seconds of Chris's time that she brought us extra drinks to have during the layover, and thanked us about 10 times. I'm not sure how much she realized how much we appreciated her kindness as well.

We had a 5 hour layover in Tokyo. I was expecting to see something memorable there, but really it wasn't much different than any stateside airport. It was our first time seeing a commode that was flush against the floor. Interesting...and confusing. The only other "exciting" thing in Tokyo that happened was we made it all the way through customs before realizing we had to pick up our baggage and take it to our connecting flight. Our "expert" who helped us in Houston said all our bags were checked all the way to Okinawa, so we didn't bother to look for them when we got off the plane.  Thank goodness for the Japanese airport workers who knew better, and for the 5 hour layover. The only other thing worth mentioning about the Tokyo airport was how quiet it was. Middle of the day.... hustle and bustle....you could hear a pen drop.

We took a much smaller plane to Okinawa with several other people who appeared to be Americans. I have to say that the plane wasn't that nice, but the service was amazing. Japan Airlines have not forgotten the meaning of customer service. When we were called to pre-board with our two little ones and all our carryon's, the ladies at the check in counter and the flight attendants helped us ALL THE WAY to our seats. They brought us extra pillows, and toys to distract poor Claire who had had ENOUGH traveling the last 20 minutes of the flight. By this time it's Aug. 16, almost the 17th. We've lost about 13 hours while traveling.