DON’T BLINK: The 48-Hour “It-Seemed-Like-A-Good-Idea-At-The-Time” Itinerary

DON’T BLINK: The 48-Hour “It-Seemed-Like-A-Good-Idea-At-The-Time” Itinerary

MAY 14, 2012

“-Arrive O’Hare Airport: 10 am

-Depart O’Hare Airport:  12:36 pm, FLIGHT UA881”

-Itinerary Of Doom, Chapter One, Verse One

            I don’t remember much of May 14^th, but that’s probably because I only stayed in one hemisphere long enough to see around half of it. Rule one of Going East: They don’t just steal your money on airfare; they steal an actual, Gregorian calendar day of your life. Don’t worry, it just means you’ll get to live whatever day you return back West on twice. Hope it’s a good one.

            It takes around 12 hours of flight time to jump from O’Hare to Narita. We went the land route, crossing all the way over to Alaska and down the Aleutian Islands before hitting water. The flight was a double-decker, seating eleven across with five in the middle section. I had an isle seat by design: 38G. I like to be able to move around during long flights, and trying to step over people constantly makes me feel rude.

            I checked my backpack and took two carry-ons: a bag full of omiyage or gifts for the BOE Nicole works for, and an actual carry-on for my stuff. The flight itself was nice, thought the plane was older and the individual TVs I had come to expect on international flights weren’t there. 

Below:  On the left I decided to get four packages of Fanny May white-chocolate-covered pretzels for Nicole's direct superiors. On the right I decided to get Fanny May artisan petite fours for Nicole's two upper-level bosses.

*Note: I did NOT have to do this, since I am not doing direct business with these people. But since I will be going to Nicole's schools as a "show and tell" item, I brought gifts more to say "Thank you for letting me be a part of this," basically reinforcing that I understand I am an outsider, and that I am very grateful for this opportunity.  

Omiyage gifts: Gifts traditionally given during a business exchange or cultural exchange between parties. Food is best, and the closer to something uniquely found in your immediate home town the better. 

I sat next to a nice guy who was in the Navy Reserves for Intelligence. They were sending him to Singapore for piracy issues. We talked a bit about the type of writing we each did, and came to the conclusion that plagiarism standards suck. He told me that so much of what he’s expected to write has to be accurate and source-based that he feels like he’s basically plagiarizing the whole thing. He also knew a girl with a creative writing degree that he worked with, and the dry style of writing they had to do drove her crazy.

There were a lot of service men on the plane—at least 3 or four in uniform, then the guy sitting next to me. After we got off the plane, I got behind another guy who turned out to be a) sort of clueless about customs and b) Another Navy guy. We didn’t really discuss anything, but I learned he was heading to a base in southern Okinawa. He told me he knew at least five other guys who were all spread out down there, and I helped him find his bag when it didn’t come off the plane with all the rest.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to meet so many service men going to Japan—after all, Okinawa is about 40% American bases. But when you’re in the heartland of the Midwest, you never see soldiers getting their gear going OFF to active duty; it’s always someone coming home.