Three little birds

Merci Japan Airlines for my two day holiday in Tokyo!

I dreaded my flight to France. In fact, I almost missed my flight to France, because I had to mail a few last minute things that wouldn't fit in my suitcase. If I had missed my flight that first had an over-night layover in Tokyo, that would have been ok. If only I could read the future.

I had arrived in the Narita airport and checked into my hotel. I was so excited, because I got to meet up with Hiro, a friend from university who was from Japan. He met me at the hotel and we went to an izakaya (Japanese style drinking place) and had many glasses of saké. My flight was to depart at 10h30. This probably wasn't the greatest idea, but I couldn't resist the moment.

The next morning was almost painful. The cheerful sun was doing nothing for my mood. My head hurt, my eyes were burning, and I had lost my sunglasses on a previous flight. Despite being extra "delicate" this day, I jumped out of bed and made my way to the airport. Hiro came with me to the airport and we bypassed the massive line. AirFRANCE. . . I figured I was able to just check in with the computers since my luggage had been already checked through to CDG.

FAIL. When Hiro asked the an AirFRANCE attendant where I was supposed to check in, I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying, but I could tell it wasn't good by the looks on their faces.

". . . strike. . ."

The giant line was for me. I went to the end, but I was still optimistic. The only word I decided to hear from Hiro's explanation was "strike." Of course AirFRANCE would go on strike! And of course this would happen to my plane. The people were in line for meal tickets. I wasn't particularly hungry, so I passed up the line of hundreds of people and went upstairs for a coffee. I had to wait in the airport to hear the news of what to do next. In this time, I realized that AirFRANCE wasn't on strike but that birds had striked the engine.

Crisis Averted?

After waiting for about 4+ hours, we were informed that we would not depart until the following morning for safety reasons.

Back to the hotel
I was so impatient, because I just wanted to stop traveling already. France seemed so far away. Then Hiro explained to me that this was sort a serendipity. True, although I was stuck in Tokyo, I was stuck in TOKYO! I actually meant to visit Japan, but I just never had the time, so it really was a blessing in disguise. Hiro took me to the city on his motorcycle. I finally had authentic sushi, found mustard yellow tights (I have been looking everywhere for these), and bought a gift for one of the English teachers from my school. It turned out to be a great day afterall! Tokyo was very impressive. It was so clean! My only complaint is how expensive taxis were there. . . actually how expensive EVERYTHING was there.

The next day, I left at 5 pm for Paris without any other problems. Finally!