Flight to Japan from the states

Trip to Misawa.

  Trip to here was pretty crazy and at the same time pretty awful. We started out trip from spokane,WA where we spent 2 weeks vacation at husband's parents house. our flight was from spokane to salt lake city then LA. military got us ticket from LA since our station was Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. So we were all the way back to LA to get on the air plane to Japan. we got the ticket at Delta. Usually trip by delta airline goes by pretty smooth. this time was difference. It went by super rough. I had air plane sick feeling whole time while I was on the air plane. that was just start of the long trip. Anyway, We got to LA finally and head to the Travelodge the motel that we booked already. the hotel around the airport was expensive. the travelodge, only 1 or 2 star motel was $70 something, with tax and everything it ends up charged us almost $90. military only paid partially so we thought one night won't matter too much. we found the one night matters a lot before a day of long trip.

Travelodge near LAX - Pros
1. Only 1 mile away from the airport - taxi fee saver
2. Easy to reach to the places, restaurant/subway(sandwich)/ starbucks / gas station
3. Free shuttle bus to the airport next morning

Cons
1. No soundproof at all - hear everything from next door, even can hear every steps the upper stair makes
2. Bathroom fan hardly working
3. ambulance or police car siren all night long

  We didn't expect much about traveledge but hope the next day comes quick. then the next day, we went to starbucks, since there is Boeing right around, in the morning starbucks got very very crowded. the taste of coffee was awful but tolerable. after starbucks we went to subway to get sandwich. everyone knows that they can't expect much about the food in the flight much. moreover, the flight to Japan in San fransisco was at 7pm. we got a foot long sandwich and came back to travelodge to head to LAX. We got on the air plane to LAX to head SFO.

  At the air port, we had hard time to get a ticket because the name on my passport has not changed to husband's las name but in the order, my name was husband's last name. we had helped a lot about name thing, we showed every docs and made the airline crew understand the circumstances about me. and we finally could got the air ticket. As a military person who is PCSing, we needed to go to priority section for ticketing which saved lots of time on the customs which saves lots of times on the line. we were on the official trip to Japan.

  We know it will be pretty chaotic at SFO, but we had about 3 hours lay over there. we got to the SFO, and went to Japanese airline (JAL) and got the ticket. of course I had hard time getting ticket there because of my name. after an hour talking to American airline, JAL finally figure out how to solve the problem. the aircrew was on her training  have no idea how to handle the situation. she went back and forward to get the hold of manage several times which gave us more waiting time at the ticket booth. we were getting nervous about getting on the airplane after all of the time to go through customs and everything. luckily they found out having us hour and half of waiting time at the gate. we really hope to get a coffee before get on the board to airplane. but the hope was totally crushes and we were back to the airplane to Japan (Haneda. aka tokyo)

SFO  to Haneda,Japan
  In the airplane, the seat was much smaller than american airline or Korean airline. my knee reached to front seat and very uncomfortable to be in that position for 12 hours. flight attendant served hot towel, then drinks, and then boom! dinner time! there was 2 options. 1. Alfredo chicken something on the side of raw tuna,  bread, salad (ceasers dressing), a coffee cup, and cold noodle. 2. seafood curry with same side of No.1 The food was pretty good.  we got hargendaz strawberry ice cream at desert. Sweet!  my husband and I watched "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters", "Warm Bodied", partial of "les miserables" together, I watched "silver linings playbook" while my husband watched "django" JAL also had "oz the great and powerful" and "wreck it ralph". After watching all of the movies, breakfast time came. there was only one menu which is ginger chicken rice soup on the side of strawberry yogurt (too sweet for me) and more. If you have a same menu, never stir the soup. the ginger flavor will blast in your mouth! I even bit once and it was horrible.

 Finally we are in Japan! we were pretty excited to get to Japan. almost 12 hours was pretty terrible in the sitting position. i couldn't sleep at all. anyways, we were out of the airplane, wait on the baggage check, and wait, more wait, WE MISSED ONE BAGGAGE! We had such a hard time making the air crew understood details about the baggage. I can understand every Japanese and speak it too so I got my japanese ability out and explained. the work flew much smoother than when we spoke in English. but still frustrating because we LOST BAGGAGE. since we got to haneda at 9pm, the next flight to misawa was at 7am next morning, we decided to stay at the domestic airport where we need to be in the morning. we got on the free shuttle bus to the domestic terminal 2 and just laying down on the chair at the lobby. little while, security came and said there is cabin in airport. cabin? that sounded great to us.

  that cabin was totally bee hive looking little tiny room without having any door. (only curtain) we stay there a night. my room was pretty quiet until snoring lady came. my husband's room was crazy snoring man whole time on the right next door where my husband stayed. since they don't allow woman and man to share room, we needed to get each other's room separately. (mine was 5900 yen, husband's was 4900 yen) we paid with our Americam Visa card. GTC wasn't working there.

  The next day morning, we headed to second floor, and got the ticket. We went to JAL desk but they said the ticket to misawa can be issued only all the way down to the airport (number 10 something to 50 something) so we walk all the way down and finally could get the ticket. after getting ticket, we went up to the customs and went through the process again. In japan, I didn't have to take off shoes. boots needed to be taken off. They put their beverage on the small basket, but didn't see if they allow those to the gate or not.   we moved to the gate, totally exhausted, and waited again with watching japan TV. and we were on board again. and finally WE ARE IN MISAWA!!!