8:00AM (Philippine Time) - Northwest Airlines Flight No. 20 takes off for Tokyo-Narita International Airport. We're served breakfast onboard. I'm eat trade my beef for my brothers' scrambled eggs because they're allergic to the stuff. For the most part, airplane egg concoction isn't something that excites me but the NWA scrambled eggs were actually delicious. After breakfast we all succumbed to sleep.
1:30PM (Tokyo Time) - Arrival at Tokyo-Narita International Airport. We get off the plane and I get to be astounded by the incredible warmth and hospitality of the Japanese (or at least the Japanese airport personnel). Talo pa nila ang Thais, who have dominated the ranks of most warm and hospitable people in my opinion. It's another 2.5 hours wait for our connecting flight. I convinced my Mom to give me the US$100 so I can buy postcards and this japanese fan. For some weird reason, she didn't want to use it at first because she didn't want smaller bills. I won her over by telling her she'd spend sooner or later and smaller bills were a certainty in our future.
4:00PM (Tokyo Time) - Northwest Airlines Flight No. 28 departs for San Francisco. Mom, Inang, Mik and Omar and seated close to each other but I'm separated from the pack for some weird reason. A ticketing problem says my Mom. I got a little bummed by the fact that I didn't get a window or aisle seat but this soon became a non-issue when my seatmate turned out to be the cute Chinese guy I was eyeing in the baording area. We connected despite the fact that I spoke no Mandarin (I assume it was Mandarin hehe) and he spoke no English. By the end of an hour, he was kissing me. The "guy" was around two feet tall and communication with him consisted mostly of baby talk and hand signals. Picture below. When the little tyke had to go to sleep, I turned to my personal entertainment center. I'll say this of Northwest: way more leg room, a personal entertainment center, at least twenty movies you can choose from, great service and way cheaper ticket rates - all these puts NW ahead of PAL on my preferred carriers. Sorry, it's not a nationalism issue. It's a service issue.
7:05AM (San Francisco Time) - Arrival at the San Francisco International Airport. Slight hitch at immigration but we got over it. Mom was too stunned to speak when the immigration officer asked us about the issue so I'm glad thank you God for the presence of mind to answer in her place. Thank you din Lord for smoothing out that particular wrinkle, for keeping us safe, for early arrival times, for no lost baggage, no food spoilage and for keeping us all sane and able to bear with each other during the journey. It got tough at times and there were raw nerves but thanks for helping us put that aside to work as a team and enjoy the journey. Since I'm the official photographer, I'm not included in the picture of the family upon arrival in Gravina Place, Pleasanton.
Right now - We're just a couple of 2 cousins short of a full house of the 2nd generation but we're having fun already. Tomorrow we're off to San Francisco and I'm guessing I need to wear at least three shirts under the jacket. My goodness, it is freezing here: 7 degrees Celsius! My brothers are hardier than me. They're used to Baguio climate so that ups their cold tolerance a bit. Sunday, we "kids" are going unsupervised by any parent to Los Angeles. Haha, can anyone say uninhibited?
Okay time to hit the sheets.
More pictures to follow. I tried to get them on now but there seems to be a problem with the system.
2 comments:
wow, is that omar already? grabe.
Yup. Sorry for the typos. I was so sleepy that all I wanted to do was pass out.
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