Zero Day

Here I am already in Fukuoka, Japan. I'm going to be attending the Japanese Language and Culture School called GenkiJacs. But i want to start this with going over my travel day because it was 'special'.

LAX will never fail to amaze me with it's employees. When i first arrived in the Tom Bradley terminal, I started my own line in front of the ANA booth, if thats what you call it. The gentleman working there was very nice and told me I had an hour to wait before they opened. Cool, no problem. Thanks for my sister for dropping me off, i was set. While I was waiting, I had two TSA employees that looked like wanna be security guards tell me, separately, that I was in the wrong line. I even showed them my printout that I was taking ANA. I didn't want to argue so I humored them and did a circle of the area that brought me back to the area the ANA employee told me to go. Anyway, when the time came around, I checked in to my flight and loaded my bags through security x-ray machine. While I was walking to the gate, one of the security guards from before said,

"See that was easier right?"

What!? Anyway, I just smiled and walked away. Now another funny incident...

As you go through the checkpoint where they scan your carry-on and you yourself, there was an employee blabbering with no-one really listening. It's like he was making a speech to his own followers. Not one of us was paying attention. I loaded my bag and shoes on the belt to be x-rayed. After it went through, it stopped. The employee blabbering asked me 2 to 3 times in an incoherent manner if I had certain electronics in my bag. I told him my lap top, camera, and camcorder. Then he said in a rude way, (sic)

"you're my first one, but you won't be my last."

What?!

I asked what that meant. He said that no one pays attention to him and they slow down the line because of it. I looked behind me and there were three people still untying their shoes. Okay...So I said he needs to speak clearer and no one understands him while I was taking out my laptop to be scanned separately. This is the funny part.

He yells out, "Who didn't hear what I said about laptops?!"

All three who were untying their shoes raised their hands. Hahaha. Then they all had to stop and take their own laptops and then put them separately. Needless to say, he shut the F up and let us all through.

fast forward to the plane.

ANA is the best airline I had experience with. First off, all the stewardesses where beautiful. Ha. Notice I said stewardesses and not flight attendants. All female staff. But thats not the end of it. Their customer service shames all of ours. I had one 'A. Nakamura' (?), who kept checking on me cause I had a headache and she gave me aspirin. All 12 hours, she asked me numerous times. Did that sound right? anyway, they went around right after take off if we wanted slippers, headsets, and masks for the flight. Slippers? Yup. I took a mask and a headset. Even though I took some airborne before, I wanted to be safe. Besides, almost everyone took one and we all looked like doctors. I looked at the movies they were having and found "Bourne Ultimatum", "Stardust", "Perfect Stranger", and two flicks in Cantonese that I watched for the flight. Nice huh? I also watched music videos from Japan. Funny to see Yuki on there.

Okay, now the food. 2 hours into the flight they served lunch after a drink and snack. The two choices were Cream Crouquet Chicken or Grilled Eel over rice. Nice! I took the eel and it tasted just like the bento boxes you get at the market. Yummy. then for dessert they had Haagen Daas vanilla ice cream. I had to laugh because i remember SouthWest giving me, well, nothing for dessert. then for the next couple of hours, they constantly walked around checking up on everyone and they opened up their center 'bar' for anyone to go to if you didn't want to sit around and wait to be served. nice touch especially since most people didn't want to be sitting for 12 hours straight.

Finally, two hours before reaching Narita, they served another late lunch. This time we had no choice, but it was still very good. It was soba noodles with a side salad with a strawberry yogurt from Dannon. I was happy to eat because the next stop and connecting flight was hectic.

After being spoiled on that trip, I literally hit the ground running in Narita. Our flight in LAX was delayed due to congestion. (Thanks LAX). So that gave me 45 minutes to go through immigration (picture, fingerprints, and custom declarations), baggage claim, and sprint to the next flight. Thanks to me and 3 others, we delayed the next flight. I felt sorry for the girl helping me, she literally sprinted with me to pull me out of line, fast check me through the x-ray, then sprint to the gate. Man, could she run in heels. Really. I was sweating like a dog. I hated it. The connecting flight to Fukuoka was uneventful, both good nor bad. Did I mention all the ANA stewardesses are hot. The one doing the dog and pony show with the belts looked like Ayumi Hamasaki. Literally.

Upon landing, I have to give big kudos to Fukuoka and to GenkiJACS. They sent me directions to my accommodations that were spot on. If you couldn't follow the directions, then you should not bother leaving your house. I mean the detail was perfect, down to the left and rights on the street since I walked a lot of the way. In addition, the sign posts for each subway stop were labelled in romaji, kanji, kana, and a colored picture. I'll try to include a picture. And while you're on the subway, the announcements for each stop is in Japanese and English with a chime. That chime was important. I was about 20 hours running on fumes.

Now i have to mention this since I'm a male pig, that the women here were all beautiful. The subway and walkways were packed. I guess because it was a saturday and everyone wanted to get home. But there were lots and lots of pretty girls. If I had to put a ratio to it, it seemed like 8 to 1. Really. I didn't want to leave the mini mall that I had to cross through to get to my next subway. but the subway was full too. Woo Hoo!!

Finally, after a good 20 minutes walk with all my dumb luggage, i reached the apartment. I was greeted by one of my roommates, Takayuki, very nice guy. He gave me keys and the GenkiJACS packet, showed me my 6 tatami room (picture later) and even made me tea. We talked a little bit, but I was tired and he had to work next day very early. Get this. I shouldn't complain. He works as a social worker for older people and he was going to be out for 24 hours. What a work day! 24 hours. He said as if in passing, I'll see you Monday. Monday! I have employees who complain of an hour OT. Jeez! Well, Let me close this one so I can get on with Day 1.