I breezed through a half day at work (there were many
jealous co-workers!) then left around lunch time for the apartment. I collected
Lauren and luggage and we pushed off for Heathrow. It still hadn't quite sunk
in for the both of us that we were almost 12 hours out from stepping on
Japanese soil. Asia felt like a million miles away. We weren't really sure what to
expect.
Heathrow check in was pleasant. I bought a cheapo paperback –
some Michael Crichton rip-off about a scientist sent to a secret underwater lab
to investigate a purported Atlantis discovery. Lift off was delayed by 20
minutes for some unspecified reason.
The first leg of our journey was our Air France flight to
Paris, uneventful as one would expect and hour long flight to be. Upon landing
we faced a 2.5 hour layover. This meant plenty of time to wander the sleek,
mostly empty cavernous halls of Charles De Gaulle Airport. Lauren, coming off a
2 week hellish production design job, splurged on a 50 euro, much needed back massage.
We had moment of panic when Lauren lost her boarding card. After the customary amount
of anxiety/backpack searching had passed she went to the AF counter where she
was given her original boarding card. Someone had found it and turned it in.
Phew.
The flight from Paris to Tokyo was probably one the easiest
long haul flights I’ve ever had to endure. As soon as we boarded, Lauren and I
both swallowed 2 sleeping pills (or tablets as they’re called here) and passed right
out. The airline also gave us complimentary face masks which made slipping into
dream land even easier.
Before we knew it we could feel the plane begin to descend.
It was Friday night, Tokyo time and gazing out the pin-hole plane windows we
could begin to make out the Tokyo megalopolis below...
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