Maybe I Shouldn’t Fly, Japan Chapter

Per usual, I went back to America for my summer break. This was needed for a lot of reasons. I’m officially living on my own, without any “support” company or aided funding, or whatever. That, surprisingly, came with quite a few stresses. Also, new schools, diet/exercise hiccups, personal issues (of which my own mind had concocted), and an oppressive heat wave meant I needed a break. Also, I was in dire need of new clothes (I like my deity to be Holy, not my undershirts), and I had a *few* entertainment items to get a hold of^^

Anyway, I was going home. The day of my flight, I woke up at a decent hour, got my stuff together, and headed out. It was a smooth trip to the airport, and wasn’t even that hot! I checked my bags, went through security and customs without a hitch, and got on the plane. The captain said we were going to be a little early coming in to San Francisco, and I was all set to make my way to the land of various beers, and delicious pizza.

Twenty minutes into the flight, I hear a loud BOOM from the right side of the plane, and said plane drops a few hundred feet. We didn’t crash, so I figured it was just crazy turbulence…right? Nope. A little while later, the captain comes on again and says, in so many words, the right side engine blew up, and we’re going back to Narita for safety reasons. I immediately knew this meant two things: I wasn’t going anywhere for at least another day, and I was going to sit around doing NOTHING for a LONG time tonight. They had to dump the fuel, because the plane was too heavy to land, which took another twenty minutes. We eventually land, and have to wait on the plane for two reasons. One, Emergency Services had to make sure everybody was OK, and engineering teams had to see what was wrong with the plane. Two, we were techincally not allowed into the country, so we couldn’t step off the plane without immigration’s OK. And was immigration readily available? NOOOOO!!! They were all ready to go home, since the last flight of the day had already taken off.

The captain eventually tells us that they found out what happened. A turbine had broken loose and ripped through the engine, causing the explosion, and utterly destroying the thing in the process. While we could have flown all the way to San Francisco like that, they wouldn’t, for safety reasons. *sigh*

Eventually, they let us off the plane, but we couldn’t leave the gate area until they gave us our immigration papers, to show to an immigration officer they managed to locate. The airline then said they would comp us a hotel room and breakfast at said hotel. There was a massive line, and I decided to just sit and relax while waiting for the line to die down. During that time I made a few fellow-disaster-experiencing buddies. Eventually the line died down, and I went to the counter to pick up my papers.

“Hi. My name is Kevin Louis.”

“Right! Mr. Louis….um, how do you spell that?”

Raising an eyebrow, “L-O-U-I-S.”

“Right, right, right! Louis, Louis…um…I’m sorry Mr. Louis, but we can’t find your immigration papers. Could you please wait a few more minutes while we try to locate them?”

“*sigh*”

Eventually they tell me, after everybody else had up and gone already, that they couldn’t find my papers, and would walk me through immigration personally to tell the officers that I was in fact NOT a terrorist.

Once past immigration, I go to claim my bag, and met up with the two guys I befriended. We found out more information about the hotel we’d be staying in. It was a $250 a night hotel…in Shinagawa. That would be equivalent to being at San Francisco Int’l Airport, and the hotel they found was in Sacramento, at LEAST a 90 minute drive away. They claimed that was the closest one they could find. Whatever. We’d get there, I’d get some food, then sleep.

Heading towards the bus, we befriended two girls who were on their way back to America after a trip to Thailand. I got on the bus, which was a tour bus with those TVs in the front, and promptly smacked my head on the TV. Thankfully it was heavily cushioned, so it didn’t hurt. During the bus ride, I talked with one of the guys, a Japanese kid, a lot, and found out we shared a love of heavy metal! That helped pass the time.

We arrive at the hotel, and I get up to get off the bus. However, I forgot that the bus was built for Japanese people, and as I stand, I put my head through the overhead light. I sat down holding my head, laughing, because it was a pretty funny thing to see happen, I thought. Everybody around me also laughed a good laugh. I move my hand from my head…and see it covered in blood. Great. I get some tissues from one of the girls, and we go check into the hotel.

It was actually a really nice hotel!

I just wanted to get some food, and get to sleep. The two girls, however, thought we were all gonna go live it up. We met up, and they had changed into their clubbing best. *sigh* Not only was it the wrong time to do this (in terms of events, not hour), but we were in the wrong part of the city to do anything. Shinagawa is the business district! However, they wanted to do SOMETHING Japanese. The Japanese guy and I decided to take them to Denny’s.

To be fair, Denny’s in Japan is different, which the girls did end up loving. After I had food in me, I was ready to crash. But they wanted to do more…we took them to 7-11, which, again, is different in Japan! However, they took 90 minutes deciding on what stuff they wanted to buy and take back with them. NINETY MINUTES?! REALLY??!?!!!? I decided to have a beer, which sent them in a flurry, because you could openly drink in public in Japan.

Eventually, we make it back to the hotel…at 4AM. I jump into bed, and my phone goes off. A friend back in America, who I had told about my plane troubles, mailed me back. I replied quickly, then went back to sleep. About thirty minutes later, my phone goes off again. This time it was my mom. Again, quick reply, and back to sleep…only to get ANOTHER mail about thirty minutes later. I turned my phone off. I got about an hour of sleep, then my hotel phone goes off. Really?!

It was one of the guys I met, wanting to get breakfast. I take a shower, and we get breakfast, collect our baggage, and head to the bus that would take us back to the airport. We would arrive at the airport at 11:30 and they would try to fit us onto whatever flight they could to get us to our destination. During the bus ride, I decided to play on my DS…only to find that the right shoulder button was broken. Great. I put it in the seat pocket in front of me, and close my eyes for the remainder of the trip.

When we got to the airport, we had to wait in this massive line for getting put on stand-by for any flight out of Japan. After about 6 hours, the airline had only found seats for half of the original passengers, and offered a hotel for the remaining people. Most took it, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to wait until the last flight left. Good thing I did, cuz I was able to grab a flight through Honolulu to San Francisco. So after ten hours, I found a flight home.

But this story isn’t over…

Advertisement