After leaving the hotel I took the long way around to
Hamamatsucho station because I knew I would have to contend with less stairs.
There are no escalators I can think of at that particular station. I boarded
the Yamanote Line for the last time on this trip and rode to Tokyo Station. My
flight being at 6:15pm and it only being 11:30am I was very early to head to
the airport. The ride on the Narita express is something like a half an hour to
40 minutes long so I would be there far too early. I wandered to the Yaesu
Central exit and went into the underground shopping area and just sort of
strolled for a little while until I hit an area of restaurants and found a
Yebisu Bar which was surprisingly kinyen (non-smoking). The idea of a Yebisu
beer appealed to me and I decided that was where I would eat. They had a lunch
menu after all. I got in and ordered a
Yebisu Hokaru (I think) and then a special hamburger meal. The beer was an
amber slightly hoppy flavor with a good bitter to it. The hamburger special consisted of a patty
with a side of spaghetti and egg salad and a dish of rice. The burger had a
brown sauce over it. I ate the mea l entirely with chopsticks as I had learned
how to break a burger up with them recently.
It was actually quite good food although obviously not as good as the
Kobe beef from the night before. Still I really enjoyed the beer and had a
second before I was done.
After lunch I took another more detailed trip through the
mall area until I was completely lost from where I started and eventually found
my way back to the Yaesu South Entrance from outside. I was even further south than the south Exit
I think. In any event this did a good
job of killing more time so I wasn’t too concerned on it. I found a JR ticket office and reserved a
ticket using my rail pass on the 2:03 train to Narita Airport Terminal 2. That gave me over an hour to find the
platform and wait for the specific train. The platform was of course on the
complete other side of the station from where I reserved my ticket so I am glad
I didn’t pick a time where I had to rush. Probably I should have picked the
1:30pm train instead but all the same I was able to find one of the few benches
in the train station and set up and write some portion of this before my train
arrived.
The train arrived on time. It comes in two parts of 6 cars
each and they connect together to make a 12 car train headed to the airport. I
assume they come from different directions and then join up. It was a big event
to watch for many of the passengers, seeing the trains join and the between car
walkway deploy. I suppose it was pretty neat but at the same point it was more
effort to get out the camera for the trick than I thought it was worth. I didn’t realize but even the Narita Express
trains have green cars so I was reserved a seat on that with my rail pass which was nice. There was only a
couple people in the car and it was quiet. I fell asleep for a bit. About 50
minutes later, it was longer than I thought and that without stops I arrived in
the airport. That made it about 3pm. I
found my way upstairs to the check-in and there was literally no line at all so
I just got to get checked in right away. It was strange that I got only one
ticket but apparently my flight is a continuous flight number and I even have
the same seat number somehow through both so I was only printed one
ticket. After checking in I walked
around the pre-security mall area for a few minutes before heading into the
security check which was quick and easy then on to immigration which was
technically easy except for this mixed couple and their kid who held up one of
2 lines for a very long time for some reason.
After getting through immigration it was time for the shops on the other
side and I did a little bit more digging around those before figuring out where
my gate was. It was still more than an hour and 45 minutes to go before
boarding time so I opted to hunt out some food before we took off. I knew I
would not be eating the airplane food as historically it has grossed me out so
I found The Asian Bowl and had a beef bowl and a large Kirin (mainly because
that was what I could afford if I wanted the big beer. I had finally spent down most all of my yen.
No sense in saving it with the dollar so crappy right now. From there I headed to the gate and had about
an hour left until boarding time so I wrote a bit more of this and then relaxed
to some music from my cell phone.
Boarding the flight they put me in group 4 which was
basically very last to get on the plane. I figured I was going to get screwed
for overhead room but apparently the flight was not full so I got lucky in that
I didn’t have to stuff anything under my seat. The plane was a 777 and as I said it was not full. Still it took longer to board than the domestic flights in Japan by far. The movies on the plane were the exact same as on the way to Japan which
of course was disappointing. At take off time I joined a showing of Thor
already in progress and then followed that by another viewing of the Avengers
already in progress which I slept through most of both. I again chose to not
eat the hot portion of the meals not even bothering to take the packet though I
took the rest of the tray and ate the sundries.
I probably slept for about two thirds of the flight and also watched The
Pirates: Band of Misfits again for good measure when I woke up for a spell. I think for the most part I had the
GPS map going and would occasionally wake and see where we are and go back to
sleep. The flight wasn’t really bumpy
and this time the captain did actually turn off the seatbelt sign. Overall it
was an easy if long flight (though well over an hour shorter than the flight
there).
Arriving in Chicago I was getting prepared for my least
favorite airport. This was my first chance to use my new Global Entry access
and I think if it wasn’t for that this would have been the typical miserable
O’Hare experience. The lines for
passport control were incredibly long and it was clear a lot of international
flights had all landed at relatively the same time. I however got to walk
around the big line to use one of the completely unused row of kiosks to get
into the country. The process is easy. Scan your passport bar code and let it
take a picture of you. Scan your fingerprints.
Check a series of checkboxes and you are done. It prints you a receipt with
your picture on it and you take that to customs. No form to fill out or anything. So I was the first person from my flight to
the checked baggage area and also the first out. Only a couple other people
were through by the time I got my bag and I am sure they had some reason for
special access or Global Entry too. So
from there it was stuff some bottles into the suitcase as best I could and then
hand the receipt to the customs officer who let me pass through no issue.
Of course this is where O’Hare becomes O’Hare. The gate for my next flight was in terminal 3
and I was in 5 and I had to swap over by a tram. That wasn’t too bad but of
course my flights are always out on the furthest point of any gate arm you can
possibly get. I went to a security line and was told to use another because it was
less crowded. The first security person said the single boarding pass I got was
not going to work and I had to go back and get the appropriate one for Chicago.
I knew that was going to bite me in the butt but the Japanese lady in Narita
didn’t understand me well enough. So back out of that line which was really
fortunately not a line at all (Thanks so much to the girl who sent me to the
other) and on to the check-in counter where I fortunately only had a couple
minutes wait before I got a boarding pass that would work then back on to the
security line and through. All in all it
probably wasted me about 10 minutes. By the time I got to my gate boarding was
going to happen in 15 minutes. I cannot see how I could have made it to my
plane with the passport control lines being their size unless it was at the
very final boarding call to be on time.
I know I saved a minimum of 20 minutes of line there even if I waited
about 5 for my suitcase. The flight that was before us on our carousel was
barely trickling through to get their bags which had all been taken off and put
aside by the time the Narita bags were coming through. I am not sure how many
people were trying to make the connection and if they made it to the plane or
not. Because I did have a few minutes to
spare I walked back to a McDonald’s and got a quarter pounder with cheese meal
and wolfed that down before they started to board.
Boarding I was again group 4 which was last to get on. This
time it made no sense as I was in the very back of the plane. I would have
expected to be near the front if I was going to board last. The line after
ticket check was all the way up the ramp and it was a fair mess getting in.
Still I was fortunate on 2 counts. The seat next to me was empty. I had aisle as usual. And there was still
enough overhead for my backpack when I got there though they were making people
behind me check their roller luggage because of limited space. Even if there wasn’t I could have used the
empty seat’s foot space so I was good. This plane was a 737 as I expected. I think it took longer for boarding than even the 777 from Narita did. I
nodded off for the first bit of the flight till they came around for drinks
then used the opportunity to dig out the laptop and write up a bit more of
this. The flight was mostly uneventful with a couple bumpy spots but nothing at all interesting. We landed on time and being at the back of the plane it took forever to get off. My bag however was very early in the carousel and it was on to waiting for the Flightline van which they said was going to take about 20 minutes but really took 10. I was the lucky one going in a different direction than all the rest and so was swapped over to a different van at Dascomb Road and then on to home. I made it there about 10:30 or so and was pretty much fully exhausted and ready for a night's sleep in my own bed. The unpacking could wait until morning.
The pictures from today are located here.
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