Korea, and Narita

Leave it to me to leave a country only to fly into a blizzard! The 'luck of Henrick' is still holding, and showing me that it is not as much a phase as it is a condition. I got on my flight on the 19th at around 1oish. It was only a two-hour flight. Then, hang out for an hour, and get on a plane slightly after one.

About forty-five minutes into the flight to Japan, the captain comes on and tells all of us that there is a storm in NY and we will be delaying our arrival in the States by approximately a day. Well, that suited me just fine. Mostly, because getting angry wouldn't achieve anything. Plus I could go to Tokyo, right? That would be cool.

As it turns out, Narita is about an hour to an hour and a half from Tokyo. That ruled out a little visit. So instead, I took the bus to Narita. I was underwhelmed. Outside of the Hiragana and Kitakana that all the neon was scripted with, there was no real way to tell where the hell you were. It could have been 'anywhere' in the first world. Funny thing, how the world really is getting globalized. I can't really say I think that this kind of homogenization is  pleasing. It was very 'cold' and suburban. Kinda disconcerting.

The airline in question, I must say, did completely 'hook it up'. We stayed in the local 'Holiday Inn'. It was a nice place. They had warm showers, internet and comfy beds, I was pleased.

At 7 o'clock in the morning we got our wake-up calls. I had been up for an hour already. Ran downstairs and got some breakfast, then checked out, returned my key and the ethernet cable (, they loaned me to surf in the hotel)and climbed aboard the shuttle back to the airport.

After another fairly pleasant 12 hours in the air, we touched down at Kennedy. Everywhere one could see, as one looked out the plane windows, was white-washed with snow. It was stil lightly blowing flakes around. We must have really just flew-in on the ass of that storm. Everything was stil not plowed. The snow blanketed everything in a homogeneous and even white.

I hung out longer than necessary at JFK. Getting back by LIRR was a long procedure. The trainds were running invredibly late. They had shut down a few lines to farther out on Island, due to track conditions and such.

When I finally got to the Lindenhurst, there was only one cabbie on duty. The roads were terrible, and lets just say that his car wasn't in optimum shape. He could get me as far as the end of my block. He couldn't go any farther in fear of getting the cab stuck. Anyhow, I hoofed it up the block to my Mom's house. First thing I did when I got home was to pet the dog, and dig the driveway and the car.

Welcome Home!