Travel

Stephanie and I were awakened at 4:30 am to the sound of my alarm clock.
Knowing this was our last morning together for a while we held each other
till the last minute. I quickly showered and dressed, threw my luggage in
Stephanie's truck and eating the last of the bananas we headed off to the
airport.

Portland International Airport was a very busy place that morning. I got in
line for the Alaska counter, but was behind an entire high school marching
band. I was a little worried I'd arrived too late. By the time I got to the
security check point I was even more worried. The line was very long.
Fortunately as I waited, the TSA opened all the screening lanes and the line
began to move. I arrived at my gate just in time and boarded the plane. I
was headed to San Francisco to make a connecting flight to Narita in Tokyo.

Once in San Fran, I had nearly a three hour layover. I found some breakfast
and tried to get on the internet to kill some time. I paid about $6.00 to
use the airports internet connection thru T-mobile, but of course as luck
would have it, my computer overheated and all I was able to do was update my
facebook status. By the time my comp cooled enough, I just didn't feel like
setting it up again; my laptop is a power hungry monster so running it on
batteries is really never an option.

Eventually it was time to board my United Airlines flight to Tokyo. As luck
would have it, the flight was nearly full, so getting that extra leg room
was not going to happen. On this flight everyone had a little monitor in
front of them inset to the seatbacks. My luck was not so good. I got the
only seat that had a broken television. There was about 5 movies passengers
could choose from, I didn't get any choice at all, just a black screen in
front of me for around 11 hours. The stewardess offered me a free drink for
the inconvenience, but I thought free drinks for the whole flight would have
been nicer. I managed to read 'Searching for the Sound' by Phil Lesh, cover
to cover on that flight. I had been trying to get that book read ever since
Phil autographed it for me. Well at last it is read and I enjoyed it very
much. Any one who loves the Grateful Dead should read it.

My ass was never so happy as to arrive in Tokyo, that was a long time
sitting and my butt was happy as a clam to stand and walk around for a
while. As I headed to customs I was met by a woman holding a sign with my
name on it. She was an agent there to assist me through customs and get me
on the next flight to Hiroshima. I waited with her, while she found the
other AB that was also arriving on the same flight. Travis was the other AB,
I recognized him as a passenger on my flight, but of course I had no way of
knowing he was the other person heading to the ship with me. The Japanese
woman that met us expedited our way though customs and helped us obtain our
tickets for our next flight.

She was very helpful especially considering how good my Japanese is.

After a couple more hours, Travis and I were on an ANA flight to Hiroshima.
We did not know if the ship was even in Japan yet; as far as we knew we
could be heading to a hotel to wait for the ship. We landed in Hiroshima
about an hour and forty five minutes later and we were met by another agent.
This man loaded our bags in his car and drove us for what seemed like an
hour. By now the time was difficult to keep track of. Both Travis and I had
been awake and traveling for over 24 hours. I was in the front seat doing
the whiplash thing with my head. I would doze, and then snap my head up over
and over again. Eventually we arrive at a dock and the driver takes our bags
out and directs us towards a small ally way. We head down and there waiting
for us is a small boat ready to take us to the Advantage.