So last I left you, we were checked into the USO in the Seattle airport awaiting our AMC flight to Misawa, Japan.
We were originally planning to stay in the USO, since they had beds and showers. But the sleeping room was full. They had huge leather couches, so we cuddled up on the couch and tried to get some rest before our flight. Except that Jeff had been fighting a headache all day, and it just kept getting worse. And although almost everyone in the USO was asleep, there was so much noise that neither of us could get to sleep. We finally gave up at 2am. We got all our luggage (which was a lot! We each had 2 suitcases and a carry on, which equals a pain in the ass to carry anywhere), went down and tried to find a taxi to a nearby hotel. We got to the hotel and crashed. It wasn't much sleep, but it was sound.
Although we were both exhausted the next morning, we packed up all our stuff again and made our way back to the USO to check all our luggage back in. We then trekked downtown to get a glimpse of Seattle. We shared the train with a bunch of Seahawks fan on their way to the game. We wandered around, enjoyed some local coffee, had a surprisingly delicious lunch, and got some decent exercise on all those hills!
It was a lot of fun, but we'd both like to go back to Seattle again when we're more awake, more energetic, and on a looser time schedule. Anyways, we got back to the airport and impatiently waited for 10pm so we could check into the flight. We got checked in and made our way to the gate. The flight was set to board at 3am, so we settled in to wait. We enjoyed an episode of Burn Notice while we were waiting at least.
About 12:30am, they announced that the flight was delayed and they'd be giving out hotel vouchers. Awesome. They gave no reason for the delay, but it was delayed until 11am or something. So we waited in line forever to get the voucher, then waited in line forever to take the shuttle to the hotel, then waited an extra long time at the hotel while the overwhelmed desk clerk tried to check us all into rooms. We didn't get into our room until 2:30am or so. We crashed again, then got back up and back to the airport at 8:00am.
We had our boarding passes and our luggage was still on the plane, so getting back to the gate was really simple. We settled down again to wait for the plane to board. We got on the plane and the entire plane breathed a sigh of relief that we were finally taking off.
That's when the real trouble started. Somehow, the plane was over the weight limit. By 300kilos. They had to solve that problem, then fill out new paperwork and wait for the military to approve the new paperwork, since this was a military flight. I don't even remember all the details, but it was a three hour delay. We were all sitting on the plane for three hours just waiting for it to take off.
Fiiinally, we get off the ground and are on our way. They serve breakfast, they play a movie, we all relax Then the pilot starts talking. "Folks, I don't know how to tell you this...but... we're going to have to turn the plane around". Seriously. There was a leak in the cockpit. Although it wasn't dangerous, it was making communication with the ground nearly impossible. So they decided the safest route was to turn back to Seattle. We were almost to Anchorage, Alaska, about 2 1/2 hours into the flight. After dealing with some of the rudest comments and rudest behavior I've seen in a group of supposed "adults", we landed in Seattle again and they handed out hotel vouchers. Again.
This time we thankfully got to the hotel around 7pm. We ate a pretty decent dinner at the hotel restaurant with the meal voucher from the flight, and got some sleep. We were up at 2:30am the next morning to get back to the airport, since the flight was boarding at 5am. We had to wait in line to get new boarding passes, but because they kept our luggage again (which made showering and dressing fun! Thank goodness Jeff and I packed just enough clothes), the ticket counter line went smoothly. We were at the airport so early only one security line, one Starbucks, and one little convenience store were open. The lines were all military, so we got back to the gate pretty quickly again. We loaded up on coffee and food, and waited even more impatiently for our flight.
I'm sure our wing of the airport was a lovely sight. A plane-sized group of military impatiently waiting to get to Japan and Korea after more than 24 hours of delays, hotel vouchers, and planes turning back. We were all a little crabby. I was a lot disgusted with how rude and disrespectful some of these people were acting. Since most of the plane was Army going to Korea, I kept joking that I couldn't wait to get off the plane in Misawa and happily let them board the plane again and never see them again.
Luckily, third time's a charm.
We boarded the flight with no problems, took off on time, and had a smooth flight into Japan. We landed in Misawa at around 9am on Tuesday, January 11th. We were exhausted, but hung in there to get checked into the hotel and start checking-in. Jeff's sponsor met us at the airport and helped us get all our luggage to the room, then took off to start showing Jeff around. We somehow hung in there until around 7pm, then crashed hard.
It's safe to say that this was the most frustrating and tiring traveling I've ever done. I couldn't have been happier to land and start filling out customs forms. Now that we're here, I'm glad we're stationed here for 3 years and I don't have to see another plane for quite some time. Well, I'll see a ton of planes since I'm on an air base, but I don't have to see the inside of a plane!
So.
That's the exciting, exhausting, and exasperating tale of our journey to Japan!
I hope our travels within Japan are much more exciting and much less exasperating ;)
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