Christmas 2007 Trip:Happy Boxing Day from Tokyo, Japan

Hello, just arrived in Tokyo; here is the most current report.

Tijuana International Airport, Tijauna, Mexico (TIJ)

I had to show my passport as well as my Transit card on my way into the jetway. I did not have my immigration form as the officer had taken it, so the agent had to ensure that I had a departure stamp; after searching a bit and with my help, he found it. By the way, I have to find a place to get a shower in Tokyo as when I get to Singapore, I won’t really have enough time to do so.

3 AM58 25DEC TU Tijauna, Mexico (TIJ) toTokyoNarita, Japan (NRT) 777 1:25A 645A 26DEC N777AM

As we boarded the flight, the chief purser, a lady greeted us and again told us which aisle to take to our seats. The Business Class cabin was a lot fuller this time around, but still not completely full. We actually boarded through the first door as opposed to the second one this time.
I made my way back to my same seat as I had a through seat. There were lots of new faces on this leg of the trip. I think that most of the through passengers were sitting in the rear cabin.

I noticed that I had a new blanket; I am assuming a new pillow as well. Plus there was a bottle of water (similar o the one I got from McDonald’s in Mexico City) as well as an amenity kit which had toothpaste, a toothbrush, a pair of socks and a blindfold all in a see through plastic zippered case. A nice touch I thought.

The nice young couple soon joined me again and we greeted each other. We pushed back at 1:41a for this 12:10 journey to Tokyo’s Narita airport. The right engine was started as we commenced our pushback and so were the safety videos. The same drill as before, except this time, the Japanese one ran to completion before takeoff.

Takeoff was smooth and swift; I noted that the TV monitor said 514’ as the elevation; a drastic difference from the 7,348’ at which we started in Mexico City.

We are having a little chop as we head off the coast of Long Beach and toward Malibu at about 30,000’.

About ½ hour after takeoff an announcement came on about documentation for Japan that we will receive shortly.

The Captain came on at 2:47a and made an announcement as we continued to experience rough air as we made our way up the northern California coast line. He said that we had to leave 34,000’ then to 30,000’, then 29,000’ and finally 28,000’ as that is smoother. He said that we would fly to Anchorage, AK then to Petro (something) in Russia then to Sapporo, Japan before making our final descent into Narita.

We are expecting a delay of twenty minutes (arrival time is 6:24a) as we have a very strong headwind for most of the flight, he continued. Forecast for Tokyo at arrival is overcast skies with a temperate of 8C; local time in Narita is +15 hours from Mexico City and +13 hours from Tijuana. As he finished up his speech in English the turbulence ceased. Then the Japanese agent came on and translated what he said.

The flight attendants then came through with the immigration forms as well as a menu which highlighted a midnight service and breakfast.

Midnight service
So that you can rest during the flight, our flight attendants will offer you a Light Meal Service.
Later, if you wish, you may choose from a variety of refreshments available in the rear cabin.

Breakfast

Appetizer

Seasonal fruit plate

Main Course
Chicken enchiladas, dressed with Poblana sauce and cheese, offered with refried beans
Or
Rice omelet with tonkatsu sauce
Muffin

That chicken enchiladas really sounds great. The flight attendants then handed out a Tokio guide which was only available in Spanish.

The light snack turned out to be a cold 6” turkey and cheese sandwich with lettuce and a Nestle Crunch bar. The Airshow now predicts our arrival time to be 7:10a. That really cuts into my valuable ground time. Oh, the system is only Video on Demand as there is no way to interact with the audio at all.

Oh, I did talk with the guy who was next to me a bit and found out they are married for 6 months and this will be his first time to Tokyo, they would be staying for a week; this after many moments of silence and smiling a lot.

Movies started about 3:27a Tijuana time; we were just passing Cape Mendocino just north of San Francisco, CA with 10:33 to go at 32,000’. The system seemed to work properly this time as when I changed channels the movie was not playing, it only started once the channel was selected.

I fell asleep with about 10 or so hours to go and with 4:24 to go and at 9:20a TIJ time Dec. 25, we started to almost butt the Int’l dateline, so our day became Dec. 26; our arrival time was now estimated to be 6:45a, so this means that it is now 2:21a on Dec. 26 at the dateline. This is a bit confusing.

With 4:10 to go, the crew handed out hot towels; a much needed refreshment. I was already up and about having done the morning things when you wake up at 11:30a on Christmas Day in your time zone. Enchiladas are on their way; yeah!!!

The breakfast was great, but kind of odd since it was so early in the morning local Tokyo time and also local Tijuana and even Mexico City time. After breakfast, I finally watched Stardust, listened to some retro music; I then decided to watch Ratouille and fell asleep before it got finished.

I was awoken when we started our descent into Tokyo by the guy next to me as it was time to get the cabin ready for landing.

We landed smoothly and as soon as we did so, everyone was in a mad rush to put their jackets on and you could hear the seatbelts clicking throughout the cabin. I shook my head in dismay. As soon as we slowed down somewhat, people started getting up and opening the overhead bins. I motioned to the ones closest to me and they sat down. The flight attendants were also in the cabin trying to get everyone seated. One kid decided he would not listen so I shouted to him in English to sit down; he did and gave me a stare. I did not care really, as the last thing I wanted was for us to make a sudden stop and he comes crashing down on someone. I am not sure why there was such a rush to get off the plane. As it turns out, our taxi time was 16 minutes! As we stopped short of the gate, he got up and jumped about four rows only sitting down when the flight attendant made yet another announcement.