It was all planned out-arrive early, no stress. When I got to the airport, the security check line was backed up all the way to the escalator. Great! I decided to go a whole new path and not panic. Focusing on not taking my phone out every 2 seconds to check the time helped with the no panic plan and I did make it on time.
The wildlife was across from the gate at ICT.
Sleepy time on the plane! My travel jacket provides a sleep hood, also a good way to avoid talking to anybody. Everything was on time and I got to explore the Minneapolis airport. Had a vegan breakfast there too!
MSP is pretty cool; there are mosaics on the bathroom walls and beer in any way, shape or form is to be had everywhere. Contrary to common belief, Minnesota is not located under a layer of permafrost and the sun does shine there--I saw it with my own eyes. Or maybe that was just fake news. Snow and wildlife seem to be a recurring theme, as one can see depicted in the ritualistic circles embedded in the walkways. No beer shown in those--guess nobody needs a magic protection circle from that!
The plane ride to Tokyo's Haneda airport was as these tend to be--long. We crossed the date line somewhere over the Pacific and all of a sudden it was Thursday. Not only does the time difference mess with your head, now it's a completely new date also!
Lynda was already waiting for me when I got out of immigration, having arrived herself only about half an hour before me. Next to her was a stack of baggage almost as tall as herself; and she had told me that she had downsized for this trip! But fret you not, there's also a secret backpack located somewhere in that stack to accommodate all of the not yet bought souvenirs. I'm taking bets on how high that stack will be by the end of our trip!
The good thing in Japan is that all you have to do is stand somewhere and look lost or stare at a map and someone will always come to the rescue. That worked for us and we even had a young man escort us from the subway station to the hotel. He told us he was a political science student at the nearby university.
We took total advantage of him and not only did he show us the way, the poor guy was also interviewed about every restaurant we passed. He took his job as guide for some jet-lagged gaijin serious and even went into the hotel with us to make sure the staff handled us from there on out. Lynda told me that was the custom--door to door delivery.
We had booked a business hotel room in an area that has 3 subway stations and is close to the university. The rooms are small, but efficient. We took a short break and met up a bit later to explore the surrounding and get something to eat. Lots of narrow side streets with tiny restaurants, often featuring just a counter and 2 or 3 tables. We decided to go to an itzakaya (Japanese pub) I had asked our student about; we love those, because they offer lots of small dishes and you can taste a variety of foods. After going down some stairs into a basement, we ended up in a bit of a dingy place, but I like that & it didn't disappoint. With the help of rudimentary language knowledge on both sides, an English menu and a translation app, we got the deed done. Interesting food and cold sake!
We were both pretty much dragging by that time and after walking around a bit, decided to call it a night. It wasn't even 7 yet, but we were done! First, however, we had to try this interesting pastry--it was filled with either sweet bean paste or custard. We tried one of each and it was delicious. So much food, so little time!
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