Flying to Japan

Posted on 2005/11/20 12:48:42 (November 2005).

[Friday 18th November]
After almost three weeks I flew back from Seattle to Tokyo today. As always when flying between different time zone it is hard to know where one day starts and another stops, particularly when crossing the International Date Line!

Checked out of the hotel at 9, and drove with my colleague to Sea-Tac airport. We ended up quite early - the flight was not until 12:30 and it didn't take long to check-in. So we waited in the business class lounge for a good while - almost two hours. Although business class lounges are not quite the oasis of luxury I had imagined them to be, they do at least manage to reduce the feeling of being in an airport somewhat. For someone that hates flying as much as I do this is quite appreciated.

The flight wasn't that bad I suppose. Pretty bumpy in places but I'd kind of been expecting that (something to do with the Pacific and the time of year apparently). Somehow the seats in business class seemed a little more comfortable than on the way out - perhaps I had just got the hang of the controls better. I almost managed to get to sleep (this would be a world's first for me) but not quite. Planes are still just that little bit too unpleasant, even in business class, for me to feel relaxed enough to drop off.

The food was a bit of a disappointment - particularly my second meal, loosely described as breakfast, although in reality given the timing it was lunch number 2. All the non-vegetarian meals looked reasonably interesting, some thought and effort (and money) had clearly been put into them. Mine on the other hand was just plain crap. The main dish in mine was a kind of risotto rice, but with cinammon on (!) and a raspberry sauce... I later wondered if they had attempted to make some kind of rice pudding, but the rice really wasn't like that. was as though they'd decided to make a risotto and just grabbed whatever leftovers they had in a failed attempt to give it some flavour. Rice pudding aside, sweet rice really isn't my thing, especially as the main dish in a meal. Unusually I made a point of telling one of the stewardesses how bad it was, and apparently she will send a report to the catering people about it. It'll probably just get ignored, but at least there is a chance that my protest might help to improve the generally terrible quality of vegetarian inflight meals.

Watched three films during the flight. First The Wedding Crashers, which was very funny for the first half, but then seemed to run out of steam a bit after that. Next I watched Monsters Inc, which was pretty good - I think I enjoyed the standard Pixar "out takes" at the end more than the actual film. Finally I watched My Date with Drew, which surprisingly was probably the best of the bunch. I hadn't even heard of it before, but found it remarkably endearing. The concept of a "feel good movie" is a bit of an unfortunate cliche, and I doubt many film makers would relish it as a descriptive of their work... but this was exactly what it was, a movie that made me feel good.

Yes, they will take note of your comments, but perhaps not answer you direct.

In France, they always put cinnamon in their rice puds. I preer a nice thick skin and just a touch of nutmeg.

Posted by Mum - with ex-airline hat on at 2005/11/20 10:52:25.

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