The flight to Japan
So the point of short blog posts was to make them frequent in easy to digests bits of goodness (or badness I guess). I think I would have been able to achieve that if it hadn’t been for an unfortunate accident. At the beginning of last week, I sat down in my chair and it broke. I believe there were two reasons for this terrible accident.
- The chair was small and crappy.
- I’m pretty damn heavy.
It took about a week for me to get a new chair, and then I went away for the weekend, so now during the last few minutes of my lunch break, I’m writing a post about airplanes.
The trip to Japan from Boston generally goes through Chicago and then flies up through Alaska down into Japan. Pictures can be seen of this on my Facebook photo album from my last trip to Japan. It takes about 14 hours and generally for a big guy like me, it sucks a lot.
With this in mind, I didn’t sleep the night before and was prepared to hunker down next to a window and listen to music for 14 hours. Not the worst way to spend my time by any means. This time however, that was not to be.
It turns out I was seated next to a Thai mother and daughter and that the daughter took it upon herself to make a new friend. Thus in the interest of not being rude, I spent the time watching 5 movies and conversing with my neighbors. She had a DS and liked anime, so she was pretty cool. On the other hand, she was in HS and posited several times that cutting herself was something she should do to show her distaste for something. I like talking to new people after I get warmed up so I’m not complaining.
In this last paragraph, I’m going to mention that ANA is much better than United for international flights. Specifically, I had my own monitor which featured on demand movies and some basic video games (arkanoid!!). These might seem like standard features on international flights, but not if you’re on certain United aircraft. I guess it remains true that foreign service tends to be better. (Although, I can’t complain about American, and people tell me Delta and Continental are also legit.)
Yeah, my flight to Virginia in February was very uncomfortable and it was only in 1.5 hour increments. Big guys are not well-favored in the airline bizz. I think 12 year old skinny girls make the best fit.
As far as fellow travelers are concerned, I used to play the part of the annoying passenger trying to make a new friend but now I keep to myself. I am not sure whether the my fellow passengers appreciate or not. Probably so.
Told David, a fellow Bible study participant, that you were working with Square Enix and he was all over that! He is 20ish and a big gamer. Thank you for having such an interesting job this summer–it will be my new party patter–“My nephew, the one that goes to MIT, he is is Japan working for that Square Enix company” (grin
The Lord is real, true and not easily ignored. Love, D.
Comment by darrel — July 4, 2008 @ 5:00 pm
Thought of something else! Reread the first part of your blog and realized you were talking about your chair in the room! Obvious, but not to me (grin) You are Gulliver in the land of Lilliput, stomp lightly upon the delicate nation of Japan.
Going to shoot fireworks at Carolyn’s-Over and out, D.
Comment by darrel — July 4, 2008 @ 5:05 pm