Tokyo Vacation May 2018 Departure

In March 2016 my friends Scott & Justin went to Tokyo for the first time, bringing me along on my ninth, I think, trip. From the outset Scott intended his trip to be his first of many such trips, but due to his personal and family circumstances, Justin anticipated the trip being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, he enjoyed the adventure so much that even during our trip back to the States, he was already anticipating a second visit.

Upon realization that the future costs of visiting Japan would only increase since the country would host the World Cup in 2019 and the Olympics in 2020, the three of us decided to plan a return trip for late May 2018. After extensive research and planning, we mutually agreed upon the least expensive travel option as a concession to Justin and me. Since booking a flight directly from Tampa, Florida, to Tokyo would cost at least $1,500, we spent just under $1,100 to book a Southwest flight from Tampa to Los Angeles, then a separate flight from LA to Haneda International.

Prior to our departure, I purchased a pair of wheeled plastic totes providing, hopefully, more than enough storage space for all of my purchases. My intention on this trip was, as always, to search for vintage Dirty Pair merchandise, anything else that caught my eye, and also, unique to this trip, bargain priced figures, toys, and other items that I could bring home to resell at local small conventions. Justin’s intention was to prioritize the handful of 8” Bandai vinyl Godzilla figures his collection was missing, and select higher end monster toys and model kits. Scott’s area of interest lay in Masterpiece Transformers figures, provocative bishoujo figures, and higher end items at affordable prices that he could resell at home.

I arrived at Justin’s house on Wednesday, May 23, at 3:30pm. Justin was finishing his arrangements while our mutual friend Naomi waited to drive us to the airport. Fortunately, I was struck by a bolt of foresight and had Justin research and write down the address of the Nishi Shinjuku Hilton Hotel that we’d be staying at, so we could easily include the information on our immigration custom declaration. Justin nearly forgot to grab his printed list of “need” Godzilla toys. Then, outdoors, he remembered to rush back into the house to secure his traditional green highlighter pen used to cross off new additions to his collection on the printed list.

After wrestling our way through particularly dense rush hour traffic on US-275, Naomi dropped off Justin & me at the Southwest terminal of Tampa International Airport. Being the particularly generous friend that she is, she donated a $5 bill to each of us as a gratuity to the attendants handling curbside baggage check-in. So after dropping off our luggage and riding the escalator up to the next floor, we took the short monorail across to the “C” concourse. Upon stepping out of the monorail, both of us were shocked to see the length of the line awaiting security inspection, as the curbside and check-in desks had been relatively sparsely populated. Unexpectedly, or perhaps because by now most air travelers know what to expect and anticipate the security check procedure, the line moved quickly. Both of us passed through security easily and located Gate 30, where our flight would board. After a restroom break, Justin expressed a desire for a fountain soda. So we wandered up and down the concourse, eventually stopping at a burger joint counter. During the interim, Scott sent Justin a text message. After Justin got his fountain Diet Coke, we stopped again, and I purchased a plastic bottle of Cherry Coke Zero. Then Justin & I returned to Gate 30, immediately spotting Scott reclining at the end of an aisle of seats.

Scott & Justin discussed Pokemon Go for a few minutes before the airline announced the beginning of the boarding process. Scott had opted for premium pre-boarding, so he took Justin with him and entered the plane. The prior evening I’d lost track of time and completed online check-in five minutes later than my earliest opportunity. Despite checking-in only five minutes after check-in opened, I was assigned boarding number “C1,” entirely missing the “A” and “B” boarding groups. So fortunately Scott & Justin boarded initially and held the seat between them for me.

The initial two-and-a-half-hour flight from Tampa to the Dallas Love Field airport went smoothly. As we landed with an hour to spare, we patronized the Whataburger restaurant in the food court. Justin & I both ordered the double burger meal while Scott ordered the barbeque chicken strips burger meal.

After our early dinner but before boarding our next flight, Scott especially faced some anxiety when he tried to look up our reservation for the LA to Tokyo flight, and the web form returned no matching results. I decided to refrain from worry until we actually tried to check-in. If we encountered trouble then, I’d worry then.

Since my boarding position for the three-hour flight from Dallas to Los Angeles was better, Scott and Justin pre-boarded the plane, opting for the first left-side row in the coach section. I followed into the plane rather shortly later. Scott realized quickly that although the economy first row offered greater forward leg-room, the solid-sided seat dividers allowed precious little room for Scott to settle comfortably. The premonition predicated the flight. The plane seemed stuffy, as its air vents felt under-powered. Shortly after lift-off, the flight captain used the intercom to encourage passengers to be considerate with the volume of their personal devices. Later during the flight an attendant requested that a passenger behind us lower the volume of his personal device to avoid disturbing other sleeping passengers. An infant to our right periodically went on loud crying jags which the parent seemed to do nothing to calm or muffle. And the pre-adolescent boy seated directly behind Justin spent most of the flight kicking Justin’s seat. Furthermore, despite the flight being three hours long, the attendants offered passengers drinks immediately after take-off but never again. Then the plane landed and taxied for a full 30 minutes before reaching its gate and allowing passengers to disembark.

Although we landed in Los Angeles just after 11pm, our flight to Tokyo wasn’t scheduled to depart until 10:25am the following day. Initially we’d expected to grind the long wait in the airport concourse. However, a few days prior Scott decided to book a room at the LA Airport Hilton hotel. After a somewhat long wait, we claimed our baggage then learned that we should take a shuttle bus to the international terminal. We approached, and I began to climb aboard an internal airport shuttle bus, but the driver stopped me, announcing that the bus was out of service. But then she asked where we were going. Scott stepped forward to explain that our flight was JAL operated by American, so we weren’t certain whether we should approach the JAL counter or the American counter. The bus driver invited us to board and dropped us off at the international terminal. Since we couldn’t find a JAL check-in counter, we asked for directions and were directed to walk down the sidewalk to the next building, to terminal 4. So we hiked down the sidewalk until we spotted the American Airlines counter. An attendant observing the self-service check-in kiosks successfully keyed our flight reservation and printed our boarding passes. However, we couldn’t check in our baggage until 3am, three hours away.

So we headed outdoors again, underneath the covered drive, and navigated to the hotel shuttle bus pick-up area. Eventually a short bus with a “Hilton” destination sign arrived, so we boarded then disembarked at the hotel right around 1am. The three of us relaxed, intending to pass time while staying awake in hopes of being able to sleep later on the interminably lengthy flight to Tokyo.