The flight to Minneapolis was uneventful for which, in retrospective, I would be very thankful. The subsequent flight from there to Japan started off simply enough, but then a few hours into the 13 hour journey I arose to go to the bathroom and discovered that my seatbelt had come off completely. It wasn't just that it had become undone but the fact that it had separated from the rest of seat on both ends entirely... I got the attention of a stewardess (or whatever they're calling them these days) and 15 mins later she and the other 2 that she had called to for assistance came to the conclusion that the seatbelt was irrevocably damaged.
Free first class upgrade!!! Fantastic!
The rest of the flight passed by in bouts of reading, movie-watching, and sleeping... both alternating and all-at-once.
We finally arrived in Japan, albeit a bit jumpy after an hour or so of violent turbulence. The entire cabin breathed a sigh of relief when the airplane finally hit the ground at Narita. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm was short-lived when the Captain came on to inform us that we would be under quarantine from the Japan government and would not be allowed to leave the plane until they had done a thorough job of examining every passenger on the plane.
Damn Swine flu!!!
At this point, I was just worried about missing my connecting flight to Bangkok since I had such a short time between transfers this time around. Regardless, the flight crew reminded us that no-one would be allowed to leave the plane under any circumstances until the inspection was complete.
Thus, our plane was invaded by THEM...
I have never felt more diseased in my life.
They came on with their questionnaires, thermal imagers (to check for high body temperatures), and thermometers.
They inspected each and everyone of us, which took long enough, but someone must have not been doing their job well enough because 2 people were unaccounted for by the end of the horrible process. Therefore, after 40 minutes of the first round, we had to be submitted to another round so that they could identify the missing persons.
When we were sufficiently examined they sent us on our away with face masks that are so porous that they would do little, if anything, to prevent the stupid swine flu if we so encountered it in the first place!
Needless to say, I missed my connecting flight but was lucky enough to get put onto a flight on Continental leaving soon thereafter.
All in all, a crazy trip. But I'm here. I'm home.
