Megane

At the airport. Wireless. ANA Flight 007. SFO to Narita.

At the boarding gate, super-sized Americans in shorts and sandals sit reading brand new Lonely Planet travel guides. A Joel Silver clone bangs on a laptop, pissing and moaning to some poor IT guy on his cell phone. A terrifying otaku teenage girl in a shirt reading “Meat Girl” plays with her PSP while her parents doze nearby. They all look looks desperate for the sun, like they think the plane is going to Hawaii. Man with a purple turban talks on the pay phone. Long pauses. No crying babies in the event horizon…yet. Britney Spears make-up at Duty Free for Junko and Maki. Airport chocolates for most others. My stomach full of Ass Ramen. It was either that or the Hamburger Special at the place next door. Time to get on the big bird. 11 hours of Xanax and Ohtaki Eiichi WAV files ahead of me. Dreading the desperate struggle out of Narita Immigration, the stumbling and tripping with suitcases until the Limousine bus (decidedly NOT a Limousine in shape or comfort), and the final crawl to the hotel to see if they got my reservation.

Luck.

Comments

[Daniel Zelter]

Plz let me know if Japan is anything like Little Tokyo. I sure hope it is...

[Carl Horn]

The last time I left SFO for Narita, in Nov. of 2001, there was a guy with an M-16 eyeing the crowd as we struggled back into our shoes. A little of that YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY frisson.

I think you are probably wise to self-medicate on these trips, yet I find it difficult for me to do so. I think I'm afraid that above 20,000 my soul will fly free if I do that shit without a shaman.

I remember my bitter disappointment the first time I realized that the Limousine Bus wasn't really like a limousine, and that I wouldn't get to cross my legs in the back of it like Liam Gallagher does in the video for "Supersonic."

That last bit is unlikely, because it was 1987 (ANA's inflight program featured Bob Seger's "Shakedown" from BEVERLY HILLS COP II. Shakedown, breakdown, takedown, you're busted.)

[Daniel Zelter]

Never posted that.

[Limousine Hire]

How big are the limousines in Japan.