Japan: Day 1

Toronto to Tokyo

[6.55pm EST]

So here we are - my parents and I waiting in the Air Canada Airbus A340 at Pearson International Airport for our take off to Japan. It must be a timely one as well, seeing as how the time between our landing in Tokyo, and our leaving for Nagoya is only an hour and a half.

We sit calmly as we hear that the navigation systems have become unexpectedly problematic. Not to worry, so assures our captain. "It's not unlike your computer at home. Sometimes you just need to reboot it to get things working."

Well that gives me a burst of confidence, let me tell you! The fact that this multi-millon dollar aircraft is similar to my error-prone Windows desktop at home that I got on sale for $1.95 provides all the comfort I need to know that hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL on our jumbo jet we will not only take off safely, but let us arrive alive with all of our limbs intact. I am now fairly certain that there is little chance of the GPS system conking out in mid-flight and directing us into the path of a large mountain face. In Kazakhstan.

Anyway, the power shuts off for about five minutes, then turns back on. About 10 minutes later our captain comes on the air again, indicating that - as expected - the reboot worked. Another problem has developed however in the engine! Super. "A valve in one of the engines is frozen shut - all it takes is to move it back and forth a few times, and we should be good to go. Sorry for the delay folks - we just have to wait for the ground crew to help us out."

So just a valve is it? Good thing the problem lies in one of the engines and not something important. Like the navigation system.

After another hour or so of waiting, we end up running into traffic. On the runway. No, we're not taxiing yet - we're apparently on the wrong side of the runway, and need to wait 20 minutes for the runway to clear so that we can cross it and make our way to the de-icing area. As we eventually cross the runway, and sit in a line up for about a week we are finally promoted to the status of "de-ice-able". This means that the airport services guys in the earmuffs outside run the expensive machinery which blasts alcohol and ethelyne glycol (anti-freeze) on the wings and fuselage of the plane, so that nothing gets frozen stuck during take off (or in mid-flight).

We end up leaving the runway 3 hours late. Needless to say we will not be meeting our connecting flight on time. This sounds like an episode of the Amazing Race already. How typically Canadian. At least we have a good selection of in-flight entertainment to maintain our sanity: Ocean's 13, Chicago - or "our classic movie" as the steward referred to it, or some Harry Potter flick. I'm glad I have my technology to keep me company.

Dinner provided us with an option of seafood tempura, or "the chicken". Though I chose the latter in the interest of nutritional value - assuming both options would have some Japanese flare to them - it was obvious from the man beside me that I picked the wrong one. After some time he likely assumed I was attempting to come onto him by the number of times I looked over and drooled. Oh well. The sake was a great hit though, so if anything is calming my nerves on this flight, it's the booze.

On to read another chapter of The Art of Intrusion, and we'll pick this up later on.

Over and out.

...

We arrive at Tokyo's Narita Airport, and the pilot announces that All Nippon Airlines (ANA) - along with Air Canada in the Star Alliance group of airlines - will have people available to help with rebooking various flights for those who were relatively stranded due to the Toronto weather delay. We all know it was an Air Canada stupidity delay more than anything else, but I'll leave that alone for now.

After disembarkation, ANA have setup a booth immediately outside the gangplank. You think our Canadian counterparts would have done that? I think not - it always seems like mass chaos at Pearson whenever there are flight delays and cancellations. The girls from ANA - even with their limited English skills - were great at assisting us. Unfortunately the flight we had missed that evening would not run again until tomorrow evening, so they indicated we could alternatively take the Shinkanzen - the Japanese bullet train - and that would be leaving around 10 AM the next morning.

A woman from Toronto who was likely going to miss her 8:30 am tour bus in Nagoya the next day was obviously upset since neither of the options would help her get there on time. Since there were some frustration and some language barrier issues, a really nice Japanese kid - who was also part of the flight delay mess - helped out the ANA girls with some more advanced English translation. I can't remember his name now for the life of me but he was a great help. Ultimately ANA would have a shuttle bus to take us to a hotel tonight, a boxed dinner, then a shuttle in the morning so we could connect with the inter-city train that would take us to the Shinkanzen.

Passport control was about a 20 minute wait in line, after which we had to have both index fingers printed and our picture taken - courtesy of an all-in-one job by NEC. After emerging from the security check, we grabbed our checked bags, went through a very brisk customs check, and headed for the ANA counter where we would receive our boxed dinners and await the shuttle bus. We ate our surprisingly good boxed dinner at the airport with him before the bus arrived to take us to the X Wave hotel.

The shuttle drove us approximately 60km away from the airport, and eventually turned down a typically-narrow Japanese road, stopped at the dead end, backed the behemoth up in a tight parking lot entrance and stopped outside what looked like a Thai rub-n-tug parlour. Are we seriously staying overnight in the Tokyo ghetto? Nobody said we were bound for the Marriot, but we weren't expecting the X Wave to be this dire. Then again, by Canadian standards even a Japanese dive is pretty nice in comparison to what ours would be.

As it turned out we weren't staying at the adjacent building. The hotel was actually back up the street, across the main road, at the end of the street. The bus couldn't have turned around there so of course the larger woman of the tourists on our bus complained that walking more than 30 feet was required. Let's go fattie - if you wanna sleep you better hop to it.

The hotel was adequate - definitely not catering to the luxury starved but nice for a change. We were each given our own individual rooms and settled in for the night after having some beer, Cup Noodle and tea from the ubiquitous vending machines - both inside the building and scattered around the street corners.

We watched some TV programs we couldn't understand until about 1:00 AM Japanese time, then settled in for the night since we had a bus to catch at 7:00 AM the next day.