to japan - part 1 - the beginning

For my Japan trip photos, click here.

Tuesday, 23 March 2010.
OK, I was excited. I was going on a holiday, I was going to meet some friends and I was going to Japan!

Of course it wouldn’t be me if there weren’t any mishaps in my trip. And apparently, it didn’t take long for things to start going wrong.

The flight from Jakarta to Singapore was delayed for about fifteen minutes. The PA said it was because the flight from Singapore to Jakarta was delayed for fifteen minutes.

No biggie right?

Wrong. My connecting flight to Tokyo is scheduled to take off an hour right after my flight to Singapore and me, being not too fond of being in an airport and waiting thought I had cleverly booked a, sort of, back to back flight. After all, there’s an hour space for me to get out of the plane and move to the next one right?

Wrong again. Since my flight was delayed, when I arrived at Changi Airport, the customer service there was already shouting around asking for the people who should be boarding their next flight to Melbourne or Tokyo. And one of them is me.

So they had me and a Japanese guy hop on to one of those battery cars they have at Changi and took us to the gate where our flight was supposed to be boarding. This is when I heard more bad news.

‘I’m sorry, but since you arrived less than fourty five minutes before your next flight, we don’t have enough time to move your luggage into your flight to Tokyo, so when you arrive, talk to the customer service there and they’ll arrange for your luggage collection’.

I beg your pardon?

I tried to reconfirm and he said the same thing except he also added that if they could, they’d try to do it then but he didn’t want to give me any false hopes so I gave in..because I was quite tired too, it was an evening flight.

And so he drove and drove to almost the very end of the B gates of terminal 3 when he spoke to someone on his walkie talkie and found out that he drove us to the wrong gate. So we went back to the A gate (I think it was A10) and I managed to board my flight with my friend still waiting for me to come.

So we caught up for a bit since we haven’t seen each other for a while but on the flight, I was sleeping most of the time because I was tired and I know we’ve got a whole day ahead of us tomorrow morning. At this time, I haven’t even met my two other friends I’m supposed to meet from Melbourne.

And so we arrived at Narita airport. Hello Tokyo. Konnichiwa!

When I stepped out of the corridor, I thought we’d both wait for my two other friends so we'd check out together but guess what, I’ve already got my name written on the whiteboard just outside the corridor. Talk about your five-star welcome to Tokyo huh? So I walked over to the lady who’s apparently a Singapore Airlines customer service personnel. She explained (in English mind you) that my luggage couldn’t be brought along with this flight since my previous flight was late (way to go smartass) and that it would have to be delivered to where I was staying. And she added it could take a week.

SAY WHAT?

No big deal, I'd just walk around in Tokyo with the same piece of clothing everyday, right?

So I met my two friends, asked them to take my photo with the whiteboard with my name on it and proceeded to baggage claim area. I filled some forms there to get them to send my luggage to the ryokan I’m staying. I grabbed the simcard I had rented afterwards and was on my way to Tokyo.

Lesson: when you need to book two connecting flights, leave about a two-hour window in between. You'd have to wait longer but it guarantees that your luggage travels with you.

To be continued…