The flight from Okinawa to Kansai Airport was very smooth and I even asked for and got a window seat. Got some neat photos as we departed Naha Kuko. Then fell asleep the rest of the way into Kansai. It was dark when we landed at 5:45. And warm. There really wasn’t much difference between the outside air and the temperature inside the terminal building. More sweating!
After 4 hours, I headed for the departure gate and this time I was not impressed with Japanese efficiency. Good thing I got a head start on the rest of the group because there were only 2 immigration agents to screen everyone leaving the South terminal. Then, although I knew where I was going, I still had to navigate a maze to find my gate. Once there, there weren’t enough seats in the immediate vicinity of the gate so we were strung out everywhere.
Then what really blew my mind was they boarded everyone at once, instead of by rows! It was a free for all and any semblance of organized Japanese behavior went out the window. I finally elbowed my way to my seat, which was so far back in the tail of the 747 I thought I was walking to the next plane in line, and found 3 women trying to jam their carryons into the overhead compartment. My compartment! So I pushed their stuff aside, placed my bag up there, and then helped then get their stuff organized. A mother/daughter team sat next to me so that eliminated any hopes of stretching out for the nearly 8-hour flight back to Honolulu.
The flight was full of tour groups and I was surrounded by excited middle-age women on vacation. They proceeded to do what excited middle-age women have done since the dawn of civil aviation…chatter with one another for the entire flight. While I was trying to sleep. Well, the flight being so packed and all, I settled into my window seat and managed to attain a state of semi-hibernation. It wasn’t easy because the tail section of a plane bounces like crazy at the least bit of air turbulence and that was a constant during this trip. And I was getting a stiff neck, which fortunately didn’t last too long. I slept through meal service. Who wants dinner at midnight in the ambiance of a full flight anyway? Heck I had better things to do than stay up for spaghetti.
Once back on land, it was a circus finding my bag. It’s madness when several 747s land together. First you gotta find the right carousel. Then, while you’re on one side of it, baggage handlers are pulling bags off the other side and paranoia hits you as you have visions of your bag joining a tour group’s bags and heading for parts unknown. Trust me, I have had the experience of losing a men’s 3-suiter between San Francisco and Honolulu. It never was found.
So anyway, here I am. Once again trying to reset my body clock…and failing miserably. Oh well, it was worth it. I’m going back to Okinawa in April!